Metaphors for Trading

nine

nine

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I reckon that there is potential in good metaphors for trading. To me a good metaphor should help you clearly perceive something about trading, provide guidance or just be good fun. What about you?

Surfing? Do you just think of the markets as you see it or do you have metaphors for trading and the markets?
 
nine said:
I reckon that there is potential in good metaphors for trading. To me a good metaphor should help you clearly perceive something about trading, provide guidance or just be good fun. What about you?

Surfing? Do you just think of the markets as you see it or do you have metaphors for trading and the markets?
Click to expand...

I've been out of the country for such a long time that I have to, consciously, learn what some new words and expressions mean. Otherwise, I would lose my grip on the modern way of talking, which is changing all the time, in all aspects of life, not just trading.

I'm not 100% sure what surfing means so, please, excuse my ignorance, but I suppose it is buying the lows and selling the highs. A good word to use for that.

Split
 
Trading is like a Gin Martini.

You start of with inadequate ingredients and spend lots of time getting it wrong, not enjoying it and feeling terrible the day after.

You then realise the importance of the best ingredients (Bombay sapphire and Noilly Prat) and you enjoy the pleasures more and the following day is less painful.

You learn you must disregard all the books, websites and other 'educational' info / recipes, and the only way to truly learn to make the best is through experience and trial and error till it fits you.

After numerous attempts, changes and perfections, you have the perfect Gin Martini fitting your palate, you enjoy every drop, the day after leaves no bitter taste and you can relish in more and more........
 
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Movie Metaphor: 'The Matrix' - (The original one only!)

The Matrix is the 'market', Neo represents the trader as the protege and Morpheus is the mentor. The sentient machines and the agents represent the 'mob' , most trading books, seminars, systems, indicators, magic numbers and pretty coloured lines.
 
new_trader said:
Movie Metaphor: 'The Matrix' - (The original one only!)

The Matrix is the 'market', Neo represents the trader as the protege and Morpheus is the mentor. The sentient machines and the agents represent the 'mob' , most trading books, seminars, systems, indicators, magic numbers and pretty coloured lines.
Click to expand...

And you blame me for getting it wrong, sometimes! :)

Split
 
Trading is like making love to a beautiful woman...







Actually, when people ask about trading and say, "Isn't it just gambling?" I reply with the following:
I don't know anything about horses and so I go into a bookmakers and see which jockey has the nicest looking shirt (I like blue cars...) and which horse has the funniest name. Then I put my money on that horse. When trading is done well, it's like going into a bookmakers, seeing that there are 10 horses, 8 of which have 3 legs. So you put your money on one of the horses with 4 as there is a much better chance of it winning.

:cheesy:

Of course, that may not be the way to win with horses. Like I said, I know nothing about horses.
 
nine said:
I reckon that there is potential in good metaphors for trading. To me a good metaphor should help you clearly perceive something about trading, provide guidance or just be good fun. What about you?

Surfing? Do you just think of the markets as you see it or do you have metaphors for trading and the markets?
Click to expand...

I reckon the market is a woman. Billy Joel did a song about it - I think these are the lyrics:


It can kill with a gap
It can wound with its lies
It can ruin your faith with its casual lies
And it only reveals what it wants you to see
It hides like a child,
But it's always a market to me

It can lead you to love
It can take you or leave you
It can ask for the truth
But it'll never believe
And it'll take what you give it, as long as it's free
Yeah, it steals like a thief
But it's always a market to me

CHORUS:
Oh--it takes care of its self
It can wait if it wants
It's ahead of its time
Oh--and it never gives out
And it never gives in
It just changes its mind

And it'll promise you more
Than the Garden of Eden
Then it'll carelessly cut you
And laugh while you're bleedin'
But it'll bring out the best
And the worst you can be
Blame it all on yourself
Cause it's always a market to me
--Mhmm--

CHORUS:
Oh--it takes care of its self
It can wait if it wants
It's ahead of its time
Oh--and it never gives out
And it never gives in
It just changes its mind

It is frequently kind
And It's suddenly cruel
It can do as it pleases
It's nobody's fool
And it can't be convicted
It's earned its degree
And the most It will do
Is throw shadows at you
But It's always a market to me
 
shadowninja said:
Trading is like making love to a beautiful woman...

.....
When trading is done well, it's like going into a bookmakers, seeing that there are 10 horses, 8 of which have 3 legs. So you put your money on one of the horses with 4 as there is a much better chance of it winning. ......
Click to expand...

and, if the jockey falls off or the horse turns out lame, you can always get most of your money back after the race has started. Beats betting on the gee-gees any day of the week.

"Of course, that may not be the way to win with horses. Like I said, I know nothing about horses."
 
Trading is like target practice, except that in trading, the target can shoot back.
 
Interesting.

I always used to favour non-military metaphors (surfing the waves of the market etc) but I have recently started building a military one. After all, no-one in the markets is your friend. Trust me - if I get the chance to take your dollar home, its coming with me :)

So I've started on a metaphor that's a little like Age of Empires and been trying it out to see how well it covers all the tactics and psychological issues of trading.

Think of a big battle field (ever been to hastings? well take that sort of land, make it misty so you can't always see clearly whats happening) with marauding armies, innocent strays, and little bands of mercenaries all fighting to win some ground.
 
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My little band of marauders is a bit ill disciplined at times. Damn their peasant souls.

We win by pillaging the armies, the innocents and any other mercenaries who we should be able to run in our direction (you get loot by pulling it off their backs as they run from you - they get it by stripping you if you are forced to run from them).

Trend is the slope of the field and south east england has become might volcanic, fields sloping one way at 11am and a different way by 1pm. Nothing is easy.
 
Continuing the military metaphor, you could liken our trading aims to those of the SAS which are are:

• Intelligence collection - data
• Battlespace preparation - charts
• Counter-terrorism operations - stops
• Counter Revolutionary Warfare – brokers / SB Cos.
• Protection of dignitaries and VIPs - money management

Of course, one should also have the "field marshal" personality (see http://www.trade2win.com/boards/psychology/8655-personality-types-one-you.html#post81787) ENTJ or INTJ.

Although the market maybe a fickle woman, she needs a military type to sort her out. (apologies to our lady readers but you know what I mean :) )
 
When I was talking about target practice, I was talking about pea-shooters, not guns! I'm a peace-loving hippy really.

I like the Hastings metaphor, but then when it got all volcanic, I couldn't visualise it anymore.
 
At the risk of ridicule from two certain members I will stress again my belief that how you think of something will directly affect the results you obtain from that something. So I would caution against making any metaphors that might cause you to suffer adverse results. There are not too many people in this world that can truly see themselves as successful soldiers. If you can't truly see yourself as a soldier shooting, killing, marauding and emerging victoriously covered in the blood of your enemies, then is a battle metaphor really right for you? Just a thought and to each their own.

Here's mine.....

Trading is like a vege garden.

Learn all there is about gardening. Use all the proper tools. Protect your garden from adverse weather, pests, thieves etc as best you can. Diligently and patiently tend to and care for your garden.

You then have food whenever you want it and are dependant upon no one for your survival.

Cheers,
PKFFW
 
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Its not me who's going to do it ... I quite like garden metaphors.

The thing is though, I think the age of marauders metaphor is closer to the actual market behaviour. Although I agree the volcanic plains of hastings is a push ... perhaps instead we'll go to a medieval explanation for the way the trend changes. The world is flat, damn it, and if you say otherwise you'll be burnt at the stake and your equity capital will flare, never to be seen again. Pushing back beyond the middle ages to pre Christian times and another continent, the world is sitting on the back of a giant tortoise. And when the tortoise moves (sometimes predictably, sometimes unpredictably the world tilts and the trend changes).

So, its a battlefield, in ancient times. The world is flat, supported by a capricious tortoise, and its easiest to fight downhill so we go with the trend. The tortoise has a few fleas so the trend sometimes changes at meal times but sometimes just because a flea bites.

We win by running our enemy before us (with the help of our current allies (who wear red or green patches) and as we run them we plunder them of treasure.

Fog blows across the field (perhaps its ancient Germany) so sometimes we see clearly, sometimes its just damned hard.

Wherever there has been a big battle the earth gets stirred up, trenches dug and trees upended. So when we see an area like that we know that enemy reinforcements could be waiting. Do we take our plunder and retreat to the pleasure palaces before that resistance or do we push on and try to break through for greater treasure?

Who waits in that zone ... the mist seems particularly thick.
 
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From reading all the literature about the Vietnam war that I could get, it seems that you get used to killing people pretty quickly, although of course you wake up screaming in the middle of the night for decades later.

But I guess it depends on your character. Maybe it doesn't affect some people.

When I listen to my friends talk about their allotments though, I do get the impression I could wake up screaming. ;)

Maybe the metaphor should be a battle taking place in a corn field, where you can't see anything, you can just hear it all. It gets louder and louder, and you stand there waiting to see whether it will swallow you, or whether you can win out.

Well I guess that's a pretty dire metaphor, but at least I can imagine the same adrenalin.
 
PKFFW said:
At the risk of ridicule from two certain members I will stress again my belief that how you think of something will directly affect the results you obtain from that something. So I would caution against making any metaphors that might cause you to suffer adverse results. There are not too many people in this world that can truly see themselves as successful soldiers. If you can't truly see yourself as a soldier shooting, killing, marauding and emerging victoriously covered in the blood of your enemies, then is a battle metaphor really right for you? Just a thought and to each their own.

Here's mine.....

Trading is like a vege garden.

Learn all there is about gardening. Use all the proper tools. Protect your garden from adverse weather, pests, thieves etc as best you can. Diligently and patiently tend to and care for your garden.

You then have food whenever you want it and are dependant upon no one for your survival.

Cheers,
PKFFW
Click to expand...

PK,
I take your point and although I used the military metaphor I certainly don't think of it as:
"If you can't truly see yourself as a soldier shooting, killing, marauding and emerging victoriously covered in the blood of your enemies, then is a battle metaphor really right for you? "


My thoughts are of forward planning, fall-back plans, thinking on one's feet, taking all envisaged possibilities into consideration and having a thorough review of the results after it's all over - essential military skills. These are all skills that have helped me in trading.

Regrettably but necessarily, the worst excesses of the military (just like the police) are the ones that get the publicity. There is no justification for the sort of behaviour you have quoted. Most people never get to hear the truth of what happens day to day. Although our lads & lassies in Iraq & Afghanistan are but pawns in a political circus, I take my hat off to them.

But you're right - the worst kind of military mind is not particularly nice.
 
Another analogy is a FPS shooter a la Battlefield 2.

You have the newbies who run around taking huge risks, get killed a lot and have a very low or negative score. They usually give up complaining that it's too hard, everyone's cheating or their equipment isn't up to scratch.

You have the hardcore gamers who learn to play, work out the best places to hide, the best times to attack, the best weapons to use and wade in, slaughter a handful of the enemy before being killed, run up ridiculously huge scores and keep their deaths to a minimum. It's a rush for them but they enjoy it and they win.

You also have those who prefer to wait for the enemy to come to them and take them out from a distance: the sniper. Their scores are relatively low but so are their deaths. Relatively boring but satisfying, nevertheless.
 
Just to clarify, I was not suggesting one should absolutely not use a militaristic metaphor for trading. I was merely urginig caution before doing so.

Many people, quite rightly, have a negative view of war. Such people often also have a negative view of military things in general. They can not even begin to comprehend a soldiers life or the things a soldier must be willing to do.

So I'm just suggesting that if this is the case for you(collective rather than personal you) then a militaristic metaphor may not be the way to go. Why use a metaphor that you have a negative connection to and brings up negative feelings when used? It is just adding one more hurdle you must overcome.

On the other hand if one can see it as just a metaphor and using it does not conjur any negativity then by all means use it. I totally agree that in many ways it is very apt.

Cheers,
PKFFW
 
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