The Secret Edge

[robster970]

When I was 2nd mate on a grain ship I kept the 12-4 watch. Would you believe that the ship's cat brought his bloody rats up onto the bridge for me to look at? It knew where there was someone awake to show them to.

I suppose that we all have a bit of that in us!

That's a fantastic analogy Split and so, so true.

 

[HowardCohodas]

When I was 2nd mate on a grain ship I kept the 12-4 watch. Would you believe that the ship's cat brought his bloody rats up onto the bridge for me to look at? It knew where there was someone awake to show them to.

I suppose that we all have a bit of that in us!

I resemble that remark.

 

[barjon]

Another potentially cracking thread ruined...Do any new threads ever get past circa 30 posts without being completely and utterly fookin de-railed?

Ageed mostly all gone now

Jon

 

[DionysusToast]

I do not think that the professions offer a sound base from which to practice market trading. In fact, they could be a drawback because of the illogicality of markets. Markets do not do what common sense, from a mathematical point of view, dictates. It is only when a trader shakes off his previous professional habits that he becomes adept at trading.

In fact, most of the mumbo-jumbo about Fibs and all the rest are only used to bring some order and understanding into the trading arena. Do you not see the effort and imagination brought about by mathematicians in their efforts to do this?

That is why, IMO, systems will never work for more than a handful of traders who know how to interpret them.

It does not matter what your academic qualifications are. It only matters that you are an intelligent person capable of approaching trading from another angle and, whatever that angle is, it will be difficult to teach to others. A few will grasp it but most will not.

If we become successful traders, we must be thankful for that. Very few will understand what we do. Perhaps, we should be thankful for that, too.

I agree with this. My IT skills certainly held me back in trading for quite a while. Not that they can't help - but anyone that tries to 'resolve' the markets using their engineering skills BEFORE they learn how to trade is actually working counter to the way they'd apply those skills in other domains. Or in IT terms, if you can't do it, you can't code it.

Saying this - I do have code I use every day to help me. It's just that none of it is used to make decisions for me.

Let's say you took fibs and tried to trade them. As you took each trade, you added it to your journal which you reviewed and made adjustments as necessary based on your observations.

Over time, I think you'd have a fair chance of success. This would not be because of the fibs though. At the point you were succesful, the fibs would be nothing more than the trading equivalent of a lucky rabbits foot.