Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hypostomus who wrote (14463)	10/14/2001 2:21:16 PM
From: OZ	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Count your blessings if Douglas makes no sense to you. I have to disagree with that one completely. Though I do believe that you can find some very precise and technical traders that only take a trade when every single thing in the world is in alignment that manage to eek out a living. These traders really feel they have to be right almost every time even if it is at the cost of missing out on so many other good trades and they probably could not make sense of this book. Though I do think that this kind or trading is valid too, if it is what they feel comfortable with and do not mind the limitation on making large sums of money. I think that ANY truly great trader that really trades hard, with frequency and/or size and that manages to really pull large sums out of the markets would totally see the book as making complete sense. I think that if someone is a full time trader, they can see where the valuable information is in the book and filter out the parts about "negative ions in tears" stuff. I pretty much choked when I read that and a few other parts too. The problem is that the golden concept in the book is so simple (therefore likely to be true) that the author was compelled to add too much to it to make it into a book. I think that someone that is not in this field full time and seeing the intraday movements in real time cannot appreciate the dangerous effects these have on the mind of a trader. I also think that for me, the book could have been 3 or 4 chapters long and I would still have been able to have integrated the whole thing since the main ideas were so simple and fit so well with what I have seen. Though I do see that there are those, based on individual experience levels and aptitude, that would need the whole thing and maybe even the other book and perhaps even more. His work is not directed at consistently successful traders, but at failing or erratic ones, or at wannabees becoming gonnabees I think the the warmest market for this book is for the really good traders wanting to become one of the great traders. Though any great trader would enjoy it. Oz

To: hypostomus who wrote (14463)	10/14/2001 8:26:09 PM
From: MKT_entropy	Respond to of 18137

Mike, as I posted a few minutes ago, after reading perhaps half of the book, I do find interesting and useful ideas in Douglas's book. It is just that I am very much put off by hocus-pocus and 'pathological science', which in my mind undermine otherwise interesting ideas. As I said before, how can somebody unfamiliar with the field separate the truth from the lie? I'll withhold further opinions about the book until I have read it to the end--and had a chance to think a bit about his ideas. I find his insistence on being emotionally detached from the market and its vagaries counterintuitive, but absolutely reasonable. This is not how I react, but I really see a need to assume such an approach. I'm not sure about his numerous claims that trying to gain more market knowledge is counterproductive--perhaps only over a certain level. Otherwise, it would be just a lottery--or did I get him wrong? I do not know any traders personally and do not know what really drives them or what psychological problems they may have, but in my case it's a long-term interest in the markets, economy, all things technical, quantitative--and my readiness to augment the value of my investments by assuming more risk. I also believe that once I have read his Zone book, I'll know his approach well enough not to bother with the first. As Thrii has said, it could be printed on 10 pages <VBG>. Thanks for your interesting posts; I cannot say I disagree with your points of view. <G> M_e