my journal 2

[Yamato]

more on nimrod

I've even called my father and for once he gave me good advice:

1) handle with care because he's immature
2) don't escalate all at once
3) always go to managers - don't take justice into your own hands (don't throw bag out of window)

So basically I've done all I had to do. I've talked to the managers, and luckily I haven't escalated anything yet (I am even too prudent regarding that - I usually do nothing). And I haven't done anything extreme.

 

[Yamato]

I won't print these books. It's 400 pages each. They were both written about 10 years ago.

Of these books, Quantitative Trading Strategies by Lars N. Kestner is more about the whole process of mechanical trading than just a list of strategies. It's all good, but the other book is more on target.

Anyway, I found some interesting reviews on the book by Kestner here:
http://www.amazon.com/Quantitative-...iewpoints=1&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

Wow, the reviews are almost all negative. Let's read the reviews for The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies:
http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-...ummary_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Hmm, this is the total opposite. Most reviews are in favor. Ok, they've convinced me: since I can't do everything, I will trash one book and keep this one, and maybe try to read all of it, while I build new systems with it.

Now first things first. Let's see who the authors are. Here's their web site:
http://www.scientific-consultants.com/trd-main.html

It looks very crappy, so this is a good sign. No bull**** or scams here.

More links:
http://alcon2009.astroleague.org/speakers.html#JeffreyKatz
http://www.lipulse.com/life-family/article/june-skies1/
http://www.crbtrader.com/trader/v10n01/v10n01a04.asp

Jeffrey Owen Katz, Ph.D., is a professional trader, instructor at the New York Institute of Finance, and consultant in Selden, NY, whose firm, Scientific Consultant Services Inc., specializes in trading instruction, custom research, as well as forecasting software and systems. Readers are welcome to contact him at [email protected] or (631) 696-3333.

Donna L. McCormick is vice president of Scientific Consultant Services, Inc., and has co-authored (with Katz) The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies and How to Start Day Trading Futures, Options, and Indexes.

Basically these guys seem to be two astronomers working here:
http://www.custerobservatory.org

Oh, I see... it's a married couple:
http://www.custerobservatory.org/docs/custercomment.pdf

This is just great. I am gonna read these guys... crazy ****ed up astronomers. Definitely not a scam. Genius at its best.

 

[Yamato]

ok, 387 pages ahead of me...

...after which I will be a better trader. And during which I will keep busy and away from Vito-obsessing.

In this book is the knowledge needed to become a more successful trader of commodities. As a comprehensive reference and system developer’s guide, the book explains many popular techniques and puts them to the test, and explores innovative ways to take profits out of the market and to gain an extra edge. As well, the book provides better methods for controlling risk, and gives insight into which
methods perform poorly and could devastate capital. Even the basics are covered: information on how to acquire and screen data, how to properly back-test systems using trading simulators, how to safely perform optimization, how to estimate and compensate for curve-fitting, and even how to assess the results using inferential statistics. This book demonstrates why the surest way to success in trading is through use of a good, mechanized trading system.

It sounds great. I am off to a good start, as I agree with everything I've read so far.

Wow, I read further, and this sounds exactly like what I had written (but now removed) on my profile:

For all but a few traders, system trading yields more profitable results than discretionary trading. Discretionary trading involves subjective decisions that frequently become emotional and lead to losses. Affect, uncertainty, greed, and fear easily displace reason and knowledge as the driving forces behind the trades. Moreover, it is hard to test and verify a discretionary trading model. System-based trading, in contrast, is objective. Emotions are out of the picture. Through programmed logic and assumptions, mechanized systems express the trader’s reason and knowledge. Best of all, such systems are easily tested: Bad systems can be rejected or modified, and good ones can be improved.

It's a pleasure reading this stuff, because it's as if I were being told by these geniuses that I am right. I like being told that I am right, especially by intelligent people. I am gonna save this for later. Now I'll watch a movie:
http://www.thatfilmwatchingsite.org/watch-1245-Zodiac

I need to start with small doses of this book or I'll quit reading it before I reach the end.

Wow, I went back to the book and I finished the Preface:

Finally, we would like to point out that this book is a continuation and elaboration of a series of articles we published as Contributing Writers to Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities from 1996, onward.

So they're referring to these articles here:
http://www.google.it/search?hl=en&r...e:www.traders.com&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Only 377 pages to go. I'll now watch a few more minutes of that movie, with that actor I hate, with the complex name... Jake Gyllenhaal... how dare you. Shorten your name. Simplify it.

INTRODUCTION, page 11:

There is one thing that most traders have in common...

What could he say?

1) they want money
2) they are individual thinkers
3) they want action

Let's see:

They have taken on the challenge of forecasting and trading the financial markets, of searching for those small islands of lucrative inefficiency in a vast sea of efficient market behavior.

Interesting, I never thought of it this way. Of course I agree, but I thought it was granted and didn't have to be stated. The non-obvious part is "small islands of lucrative inefficiency". I never thought of it this way. I thought it was not a small island, but 50% of chance in my favor. But maybe I was wrong. My unprofitability shows I was wrong. You have a 50% of being right, but your chance of being consistently right makes that island smaller and smaller.

Wow, this Katz...

While these signals were, at that time, about 80% accurate, Katz found himself second-guessing them.

I was doing it, too, but my signals were only 60% accurate.

Wow, so true:

Moreover, he had to rely on his own subjective determinations of such critical factors as what kind of order to use for entry, when to exit, and where to place stops. These determinations, the essence of discretionary trading, were often driven more by the emotions of fear and avarice than by reason and knowledge. As a result, he churned and vacillated, made bad decisions, and lost more often than won. For Katz, like for most traders, discretionary trading did not work.

He was manually executing a mechanical system, which we all agree is not the same thing. I've had a mechanical system for years, but only followed it religiously for the last 4 and a half months. So, I know what he's talking about. I've also lost money instead of making it.

If discretionary trading did not work, then what did? Perhaps system trading was the answer. Katz decided to develop a completely automated trading system in the form of a computer program that could generate buy, sell, stop, and other necessary orders without human judgment or intervention.

Yeah, it sounds like science fiction but that's just what I have done, too.

Yeah, still agree with everything being said, a bit lower:

Due to familiarity with the data series, valid tests could not be performed by eye. If Katz looked at a chart and “believed” a given formation signaled a good place to enter the market, he could not trust that belief because he had already seen what happened after the formation occurred. Moreover, if charts of previous years were examined to find other examples of the formation, attempts to identify the pattern by “eyeballing” would be biased. On the other hand, if the pattern to be tested could be formally defined and explicitly coded, the computer could then objectively do all the work...

Page 12, WHAT IS A COMPLETE, MECHANICAL TRADING SYSTEM?

 

[biffo]

Just a thought, What if Vito by some remote chance ---- happened to read this thread?

 

[Yamato]

Oh, vito is in italy, as I am, too. He doesn't speak English, doesn't know this web site, knows nothing about trading. He's not going to google all web sites with "vito" on the internet and check them all out. I am the only one with access to my computer at work and a keylogger to monitor all people using it. If he happened to read it, I would say: yes, vito, I have written a thread where I wish you death. That's how far you've pushed it. But the truth is that I don't have to justify anything to this animal. He's a worthless piece of ****, and I don't have to answer regarding anything to such an unfair person. It's not like I have a reputation to preserve with someone I regard as my enemy number one. It's not like I want to pretend with him that I like him or that I consider him my friend. If he finds out that I dislike him, so much the better.

 

[Yamato]

Page 12, WHAT IS A COMPLETE, MECHANICAL TRADING SYSTEM?

One of the problems witb Katz’s early trading was that his “system” only provided entry signals, leaving the determination of exits to subjective judgment; it was not, therefore, a complete, mechanical trading system.

Oh, that's great. At least now I am ahead of where this genius was in 1990.

Another factor that contributed to his lack of success was the inability to properly assess, in a rigorous and objective manner, the behavior of the trading regime over a sufficiently long period of historical data. He had been flying blind! Without having a complete system, that is, exits as well as entries, not to mention good system-testing software...

I like how the authors are telling me about when things still didn't work.

Page 13, WHAT ARE GOOD ENTRIES AND EXITS?
Yeah, this is all granted for me.

Page 14, THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

...Books for traders often discuss “paper trading” or historical back-testing, or present results based on these techniques. However, this book is going to be more consistent and rigorous in its application of the scientific approach to the problem of how to successfully trade the markets. For instance, few books in which historical tests of trading systems appear offer statistical analyses to assess validity and to estimate the likelihood of future profits. In contrast, this book includes a detailed tutorial on the application of inferential statistics to the evaluation of trading system performance...

Page 16, TOOLS AND MATERIALS NEEDED FOR THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

In the investigations presented in this book, the statistical assessment techniques, out-of-sample tests, and such other aspects of the analyses as the focus on entire portfolios provide protection against the curve-fitting demon, regardless of the optimization method employed.

Finally I finished the INTRODUCTION as well. Everything is still making sense to me, which means I didn't learn anything yet. Here, too, I agree, but this is something I only learned recently: out-of-sample tests were taught to me by the investors. They really convinced me to use them, so that now I'd use them even if I were on my own.

 

[Yamato]

This is going to be good:
http://www.funmoviesite.com/watch-1246-Black-Snake-Moan

Ricci, amazing actress. Every time she's different.

The movie is going well for me. 20 minutes into it. While reading the book at the same time. Always intense all these movies with Ricci. She either makes them intense or she's good at choosing them intense.

 

[Yamato]

Page 18, Part 1, Tools of the Trade

Wow, this will take a while. It is even before chapter 1. Another 367 pages to go... 10 pages per day at the most. It will take me over a month.

It talks a little bit about inferential statistics (used to interpret all the data we get from Tradestation or similar trading simulators), in the introduction of part 1.

Page 20, CHAPTER 1

I am going to stop here for today.

 

[Yamato]

chapter 1, page 20

TYPES OF DATA​

Commodities pricing data is available for individual or continuous contracts.​

Individual contract data consists of quotations for individual commodities contracts.

Ok, so they're using the equivocal term "commodities" as a synonym for futures, including even currencies, because earlier, on page 16, they had said:

Since this book is focused on commodities trading, the market data used as the basis for our universe on an end-of-day time frame will be a subset of the diverse set of markets supplied by Pinnacle Data Corporation: these include the agriculturals, metals, energy resources, bonds, currencies, and market indices.

Speaking of Pinnacle Data Corporation, they don't seem expensive but it's not clear what timeframe they're selling data for:
https://www.pinnacledata.com/

Page 21:

Nonquantitative forms of sentiment data, such as news headlines, may also be acquired and quantified for use in systematic tests. Nothing should be ignored. Mining unusual data often uncovers interesting and profitable discoveries. It is often the case that the more esoteric or arcane the data, and the more difficult it is to obtain, the greater its value!

DATA TIME FRAMES

Data may be used in its natural time frame or may need to be processed into a different time frame. Depending on the time frame being traded and on the nature of the trading system, individual ticks, 5.minute bars, 20-minute bars, or daily, weekly, fortnightly (bimonthly), monthly, quarterly, or even yearly data may be necessary. A data source usually has a natural time frame. For example, when collecting intraday data, the natural time frame is the tick. The tick is an elastic time frame: Sometimes ticks come fast and furious, other times sporadically with long intervals between them. The day is...

Although going from longer to shorter time frames is impossible (resolution that is not there cannot be created), conversions from shorter to longer can be readily achieved with appropriate processing.

 

[Yamato]

What time frame is the best?

What time frame is the best? It all depends on the trader. For those attracted to rapid feedback, plenty of action, tight stops, overnight security, and many small profits, a short, intraday time frame is an ideal choice. On an intraday time frame, many small trades can be taken during a typical day. The numeroous trades hasten the learning process. It will not take the day trader long to discover what works, and what does not, when trading on a short, intraday time frame. In addition, by closing out all positions at the end of the trading day, a day trader can completely sidestep overnight risk. Another desirable characteristic of a short time frame is that it often permits the use of tight stops, which can keep the losses small on losing trades.
Finally, the statistically inclined will be enamored by the fact that representative data samples containing hundreds of thousands of data points, and thousands of trades, are readily obtained when working with a short time frame. Large data samples lessen the dangers of curve-fitting, lead to more stable statistics, and increase the likelihood that predictive models will perform in the future as they have in the past.​

On the downside...


This is great, because there's no downside for me (all small issues). Very good points (see above).

The only advantages I found true, among those they list in favor of longer timeframes (no intraday), are:

Longer time frame trading has another desirable feature: the ability to capture large profits from strong, sustained trends: these are the profits that can take a $50,000 account to over a million in less than a year. Finally, the system developer working with longer time frames will find more exogenous variables with potential predictive utility to explore.

 

[Yamato]

page 28, DATA SOURCES AND VENDORS

Today there are a great many sources from which data may be acquired. Data may be purchased from value-added vendors, downloaded from any of several exchanges, and extracted from a wide variety of databases accessible over the Internet and on compact discs.
Value-added vendors, such as Tick Data and Pinnacle, whose data have been used extensively in this work...

So far so good. I mean, I am doing everything as they prescribe it, except I am not using Tick Data, because it is so expensive, that I would call it a "value-subtracted vendor".

Ok, here's where they basically tell me that Pinnacle does not sell intraday data (since they don't mention it):

Intraday historical data, which are needed for testing short time frame systems, may be purchased from Tick Data...

Ok, here's the last important point of chapter 1 (so far I haven't learned anything new, but they confirmed what I had thought):

In general, it is best to maintain data in a standard text-based (ASCII) format. Such a format has the virtue of being simple, portable across most operating systems and hardware platforms, and easily read by all types of software, from text editors to charting packages.

 

[Yamato]

page 30, Chapter 2, PROGRAMMING THE SIMULATOR

The need for programming of some kind should not be looked upon as a necessary evil. Programming can actually benefit the trader by encouraging an explicit and disciplined expression of trading ideas.

Good point.

page 32, SIMULATOR OUTPUT

out-of-sample tests are imperative for optimized systems

To the degree that history repeats itself, a clear image of the past seems like an excellent foundation from which to envision a likely future.

page 36, Trade-by-Trade Reports
nothing new

page 39, SIMULATOR PERFORMANCE
This is an important part, that I didn't know (I use "interpreted"):

The most significant determinant of simulation processing speed is the nature of the scripting or programming language used by the simulator, that is, whether the language is compiled or interpreted. Modern optimizing compilers for generic languages, such as Cf f, FORTRAN, and Pascal/Delphi, translate the userwritten source code into highly efficient machine code that the processor can execute directly at full bore; this makes simulator toolkits that use such languages and compilers remarkably fast. On the other hand, proprietary, interpreted languages, such as Microsoft’s Visual Basic for Applications and Omega’s Easy Language, must be translated and fed to the processor line by line. Simulators that employ interpreted languages can be quite sluggish, especially when executing complex or “loopy” source code. Just how much speed can be gained using a compiled language over an interpreted one? We have heard claims of systems running about 50 times faster since they were converted from proprietary languages to C+ + !

On the other hand, I never had any concerns for speed. Not with the timeframe I use (15 minutes) and today's computers. But even in 2002, with slower computers, I didn't have problems. So far, I am doing everything perfectly, even according to this book. All my choices are the most efficient ones.

Page 41-42, POWER

Visual Basic and Easy Language, although not as powerful as general-purpose, object-oriented languages like C++ or Object Pascal, have gentler learning curves and are still quite capable as languages go. Much less powerful, and not really adequate for the advanced system developer, are the macro-like languages embedded in popular charting packages, e.g., Bquis International’s MetaStock.

Interesting. It seems like they're saying Metastock sucks. So far I am still doing ok according to their suggestions, but not as good as if I were using C++ (since I am using tradestation).

Page 43, CHOOSING THE RIGHT SIMULATOR
Here's the part where I failed to do what they are suggesting:

If you are serious about developing sophisticated trading systems, need to work with large portfolios, or wish to perform tests using individual contracts or options, then buckle down, climb the learning curve, and go for an advanced simulator that employs a generic programming language such as the C++ or Object Pascal. Such a simulator will have...

Ok, done with chapter 2. Now I'll have to read 3: Optimizers and Optimization. I might continue tomorrow.

 

[Yamato]

This is good:
http://www.letmewatchthis.com/watch-1876-The-Holiday

Not a masterpiece, but good.

 

[Yamato]

The fall will probably kill ya!

http://www.subzin.com/s/the fall will probably kill you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck6vqsOt-Pc

http://www.letmewatchthis.com/watch-1189-Butch-Cassidy-and-the-Sundance-Kid

 

[Yamato]

chapter 3, page 45, WHAT OPTIMIZERS DO

It'd be nice to approach and solve my life's problems (e.g. vito) as an optimizer would and not in subjective terms. An optimizer would get me out of trouble at no cost probably and no consequences. I probably will end up killing the mother ****er, or find another unprofitable solution.

Anyway:

Optimizers exist to find the best possible solution to a problem. What is meant by the best possible solution to a problem? Before attempting to define that phrase, let us first consider what constitutes a solution. In trading, a solution is a particular set of trading rules and perhaps system parameters. All trading systems have at least two rules (an entry rule and an exit rule), and most have one or more parameters.

I must make sure that whenever I interact with Vito (every interaction is a trade), I do not waste my energies and only produce profitable outcomes. By profitable I mean any of these consequences:
1) less talking by him
2) less messing with my stuff

I do not care to humble him or offend him: that is not a profitable consequence for me. If it can cause any of the above it is a good thing, otherwise it is not.

In this sense, I do think that talking to the boss was a good thing, especially at a time when he took it too far (flipping my scanner and keyboard). It is not acceptable for an intern to do the things he's been doing. He's definitely out of line. Maybe he's testing his boundaries, like many have said. In his behaviour towards others he has shown that he has no idea of what the proper behaviour is.

All trading systems have at least two rules (an entry rule and an exit rule), and most have one or more parameters. Rules express the logic of the trading system, and generally appear as “if-then” clauses in whatever language the trading system has been written. Parameters determine the behavior of the logic expressed in the rules; they can include lengths of moving averages, connection weights in neural networks, thresholds used in comparisons, values that determine placements for stops and profit targets, and other similar items. The simple moving-average crossover system, used in the previous chapter to illustrate various trading simulators, had two rules: one for the buy order and one for the sell order. It also had a single parameter, the length of the moving average. Rules and parameters completely define a trading system and determine its performance. To obtain the best performance from a trading system, parameters may need to be adjusted and rules juggled.

Interesting. It seems that these guys are intending "rules" as synonyms for "actions" (entry and exit) and "parameters" as the normal meaning of parameters, the characteristics of the requirements that, if met, trigger the trades (the "rules"). This use of the term "rule" doesn't seem perfectly intuitive to me.

Ok, here's where I get lost for the first time: here and later, where they start talking about functions and neural networks and linear regression (all greek to me):

...The best possible solution to a problem can now be defined: It is that particular solution that has the greatest fitness or the least cost. Optimizers endeavor to find the best possible solution to a problem by maximizing fitness, as measured by a titness function, or minimizing cost, as computed by a cost function...

Anyway, I've gotten as far as the bottom of page 46:
HOW OPTIMIZERS ARE USED

Sometimes it seems as if the only limit on how optimizers may be employed is the user’s imagination, and therein lies a danger: It is easy to be seduced into “optimizer abuse” by the great and alluring power of this tool.

Page 47, TYPES OF OPTIMIZERS
Ok, enough work. I'll resume tomorrow.

 

[Yamato]

wow, more advice all agreeing

Everyone (aunt, dad, trader friend, Dan, someone else i forgot) agrees on the fact that I should do this about the colleague:

1) not get mad, not lose control, not retaliate, not get into arguments
2) ignore colleague as much as possible, because getting into arguments with an idiot is a loss, no matter what you say to him
3) talk to bosses and ask for him to be moved out

Summary: act normal, talk to bosses.

To him I will show nothing, to bosses I can ask for his death (same as asking that they move him out). The damage he can do to my stuff is all under control: i can deal with it.

It's pretty clear that I will not ever again offer him the gift of sincerity and tell him how much of an idiot I think he is. I will instead pretend everything is ok, while at the same time I will try to work of course.

In fact, realizing how much of an idiot he is, is what will make me stop arguing with him: there's no convincing him about any reasonable behaviour. Interacting with him would only make things worse.

I must be normal, boring, irreprehensible, unnoticeable. If he asks how I am I must not answer "upset, because you are here", but "fine, thanks". Which is the answer that will end our conversation the fastest.

 

[Yamato]

as i said, this is good

http://www.letmewatchthis.com/watch-1876-The-Holiday

Not a masterpiece, but a pleasant movie. Very peaceful and pleasant. It will not give you a heartache.

I've been watching it, on and off, all day long. It's hard to watch it all at once. Maybe because it's good. Maybe I want it to last longer.

 

[Yamato]

midas

Has anyone ever heard of this method? Midas.

I found a lot of material on the internet. My friend says it's good stuff.

http://www.stocksharepublishing.com/MIDAS/MIDAS_Lessons.htm

Does anyone want to study this stuff with me? I will have to do it because my friend keeps on telling me every other year to study this stuff because it works.

I will start from the 18th lesson:

The goal of technical analysis is to discern underlying patterns of orderliness in the apparent random walk of prices and to use such perceived structures as the basis for projections into the future of past price behavior. The ever-present danger in this endeavor is one of self-delusion: seeing patterns where none really exist and - worse yet - trying to use such patterns to predict the unpredictable.

From what my friend told me Midas is about finding support and resistance from volume and price behaviour. I have never found volume nor support and resistance neither useful nor easy to code. I've never been able to build profitable systems based on either one. This is why it's so hard for me to read this stuff.

It has also often been asked "Why are you disclosing these techniques for free; why not try and sell them in some form or other?"
I have always felt that if MIDAS has any practical value, ample rewards would come from the market itself (and
they have) far in excess of anything that could be made from such commercialization of the method. So long as MIDAS is not sufficiently widespread that it becomes self defeating as everyone is recognizing the same trading opportunities, there is no reason not to share the insights with the technical analysis community. It is my hope that the articles will stimulate research along these new lines and that the same spirit of openness will prevail in sharing the results.

From here:
http://technical-analysis-addins.com/midas-technical-analysis.php

XLMidas.xla gives you the tools you need to implement Dr. Paul Levine's amazing Market Interpretation/Data Analysis System. I've got say up right up front that MIDAS ranks as one of my favorite technical analysis techniques. I was extremely hesitant to share this tool but if I figure if Dr. Levine could do it then so should I. I wouldn't trade without MIDAS and you shouldn't either. It's that good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZKAkN-Kx5I


I think I should start my read from here:
http://technical-analysis-addins.com/def-MIDAS.php

Levine strongly believed that the dynamic interplay of support and resistance (S/R) and accumulation and distribution are the ultimate determinants of price behavior. After examining and rejecting all of the standard technical analysis techniques for determining support and resistance, he came up with a new approach...

While I patiently wait for the systems to make money, and for vito to die of a sudden violent death, I should read the Midas things (everything I can find) and the whole book by Katz and wife. This is my project for the coming weeks. After that, I'll build another 30 systems on what comes out of both studies. Make it 39, so i can bring the total to 100.

My reasoning is this. Paul Levine is dead and not famous like some trader selling his book and holding seminars. He was from the academic world and kept that approach. This guy hosting this web site is clearly an enthusiast and is not making a living from this .xla file he's selling... this can only mean that this system works. Now I'll have to read this stuff, also to not disappoint my friend. Maybe the reason this stuff could still work today and be precious is precisely that it's not user-friendly and it's not famous. Maybe this is why I have to get to the bottom of this thing, after he's been telling me to do it for the past 10 years and more.

 

[Yamato]

I am telling you, this movie has something pleasant about it.

It's as if... it's unpredictable:

http://www.letmewatchthis.com/watch-1876-The-Holiday

Never boring, but never too bold either. It's even, coherent, homogeneous, balanced, harmonious. Yeah. But on the other hand, think about it: Jack Black, Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet... these actors don't just move for anyone. Yet I am not saying it's a masterpiece. But definitely better than the masterpiece of **** with Julia Roberts which I saw a week ago: Eat, Pray, Love. By the way, James Franco is in both. His best movie? This one I think:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469913/

 

[Yamato]

vito update

It was basically a showdown that happened today.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/showdown
"An event, especially a confrontation, that forces an issue to a conclusion"

I forced everyone to take sides (with me or against me) by declaring to everyone the problem. In the weekend I told my boss and his boss (small-time bosses). They talked with each other and then she talked to him.

The "travis case" was born:
Travis is getting "harassed". It must not continue. Is travis an idiot, crazy or what? But, if travis is no idiot, and he says vito is an idiot, then what do we think of vito?

It did not go all my way, but since I am used to going against the current, the fact that it didn't all go against me was a pleasant surprise.

My boss and his boss took my complaint seriously and talked to him about it and to others (my boss told me he really wants this thing to stop), they made my problem a serious problem, they made it their problem, and they took me seriously.

No matter how obsessive-compulsive I may be (probably not much at all - it's just an act, I mean my order is necessary, it's not like I wash my hands 50 times a day or stuff like that) and fixated on orderliness, my hard work and seriousness has paid off (which is what got me in trouble with vito in the first place) and they took me seriously. Their reaction is like telling me "what you say matters to us". They could have said: you don't have a proof against vito, so we're not taking this any further. But they didn't: they called him up - even though they said it's unlikely that it's him, but he may know who it is (I know it's him, all alone) - and they told him "this must stop".

No big deal, but a small satisfaction for me.

Also Vito's reaction today was good - not that he's good because he's an idiot, but I got the right reaction, in my quest to shape the chimp's behaviour from clown to serious employee. He didn't speak to me, but he was quiet, respectful (shut the door after he left, asked for permission to open window, then later asked for permission to close it).

My point is "yes, I may be exaggerated in my orderliness but we're at the workplace and I demand respect and I demand that I am left alone and that people let me work in peace".

Anyway, my strengths throughout this ordeal are two:

1) I've trained several chimps I've met before at this office. Chimps who were treating me like crap at the start, and eventually were buying me chocolates as a sign of respect.

2) There is nothing these jerks here can do to me that hasn't been done to me in highschool, where I've had a lot more damage done to my property and where I've had to put up with a lot more ganging up. I mean I am ready to face a school where only 5% is on my side. Here it's more like: the bosses are on my side and at least half of the employees are on my side. And on top of it, I am supposed to work, so I am right. One more thing: no physical violence allowed, so I am not afraid of getting beaten up. Basically I cannot lose.

You see, I want to work hard and yes, that is unusual here. I help others. I don't bother anyone. I don't care how many people I have to fight and how much resistance I have to meet to get my right to work respected. I have the right to work at work. I have the right to not be bothered while I work. No one can mess with my stuff because they don't like my workaholic attitude and because I don't talk bull**** during the day. I can't lose this thing.

But the surprising thing will probably be, with vito as with other chimps in the past, that, even after I reported him to the management, since I am so right and so fair, he will still try to be my friend. And, as usual, I will accept, never forgetting what a chimp he is.

Like with building my systems, I will win because I don't give up. I start something rarely, but if I start is because I think I have the resources to bring it to the end and accomplish the task.

I am not quick, I am not strong, I am not violent... but I am persistent. And as a consequence I will not be turned into a clown by this clown, but I will turn this clown into a serious employee. Because I am right and because I am more persistent. And my nazi dictatorship will win over his anarchy.