Ray - I think I am one argument behind, having missed today's postings while trying to TRADE. Regarding your link to your previous post, let me make a few remarks. I was privileged once to hear Robert Deel speak. He began something like this: "Is anyone here a brain surgeon? A concert pianist? President of a Fortune 500 company?" Into the dead silence he said: "I thought not. Remember when you go into the markets that you are competing with people of that caliber, the geniuses of trading." To that let me add a 1934 quote from Richard Schabacker: "If one group of operators makes a living out of trading, then some other group must provide those profits."
My point is that when people like you and me choose to trade, we have nothing to blame but our own relative lack of skill when we lose. On those rare occasions when I make a great trade, I am incredulous that anyone anywhere was so stupid as to sell to me here, and buy from me there. On more numerous occasions, I stupidly hand THEM the money back. I believe that professional traders, were they to know me, would bear me no enmity and feel no contempt for me, any more than a wolf feels such for a sheep. On the personal level, trading is all about psychology. On the group level, trading is all about predators and prey. If we are the prey, we have no one to blame but ourselves for exposing ourselves to danger. On the other hand, to become predators, we need not become mean, hateful, and spiteful. Were we to achieve that happy state, we would be helping the sheep by improving the quality of their gene pool. - Mike |
