Questions

(Quotes from Ed in Red)

Answers

Fri, 31 Dec 2004

Commitment

Hi Ed,

I review my proclamation last year, and I do not keep all of my commitments. Although I have an easier time facing the truth and I pay attention to what I feel, I do not eat healthy, I do not exercise, I date drama-filled girls to stir up my own dramas, and most importantly, my CPO is not open.

When I make a commitment, I realize how hard it is to keep one.

Now I have no excuse, and I cannot lie. I stop lying, I stop living a lie, and I show my true self. I am afraid of having a black mark on me: in a part of my life, I am in a situation where people judge me for what I do before, and not who I am now. In a way, when I live the right and true life, the right and true people show up. I accept that now, and it is a bitter pill to swallow.

During Breathwork, you call me on an unclear commitment, and you lower the
boom on me. You say, "You are done. You cannot come up with something that is clearly defined and measurable. You can hand out towels and drinks for everyone else while they do Breathwork." I feel this gloomy type of numb electric shock go through my whole body.

You then say, "Many are called, few are chosen." I feel like I am cut off, and my life is over. I sit there and say nothing, and I cannot think straight. I don't want to be cut, I don't want it to be over, and I don't want to hand out towels and water. I scramble, and I find something I am
clear with.

I make one commitment during Breathwork: I open up my CPO in January 31, 2005. I press my lawyer and CPA since then, and they also make a commitment with me to open my hedge fund in January. I am still nervous, and I still have issues with "bothering and inconveniencing" people. I keep on top of my lawyer and CPA anyway. I take these feelings into the hot seat.

I feel excited and nervous. Before, I never think I can make it, but it seems these days that I get what I want.

Fred seems to want you to get into the black mark.

You might try working this out directly, with your Tribe - rather than indirectly with your CPO.

A Big Black Mark

(at the end of the arrow)

The essential judgment

is judgment

about judgment.

Clip: http://schools.sd68.bc.ca/ruth/

Classes/mrtaylor/class20022003/

idioms/idioms2003/a%20black%20mark.jpg

Fri, 31 Dec 2004

TTP is, at first, not particularly natural or spontaneous - as it brings up uncomfortable feelings.

When we feel uncomfortable, people instinctively go for the fix. They tell us not to feel that way.  They try to change the situation to remove the "cause."

They do anything except receive us.

Receiving is encouraging others to feel what they are feeling - providing them with a space to experience freedom to be themselves.

You might be able to get the hang of receiving by attending some Tribe meetings - or by attending a Workshop.

Liberty

A good receiver, in her day

The pedestal carries a poem

by Emma Lazarus,

The New Colossus, 1883

Give me your tired,

your poor,
Your huddled masses

yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse

of your teeming shore.
Send these,

the homeless, tempest-tost to me.

The poem is about receiving; there is nothing in the poem about fixing anyone, or taking care of anyone or giving anything away, except freedom to those who yearn for it.

Clip: http://norman.walsh.name/

Fri, 31 Dec 2004

Accident

I have been a dedicated follower of FAQ for 8 months. I bemoaned the fact that there was no tribe nearby, that I didn't know anyone else who might become a member if I started my own, that I had no feasible meeting place, that I didn't really know how to conduct a meeting ... yada, yada.

Then 2 weeks ago I had a good week in the market, followed by an "Unlucky accident?" :

I lost $40 that afternoon on the ground in my travel between stores. This annoyed me so much, I sat down & wrote a firm plan on how I would start a tribe. There ARE NO "Unlucky accidents", this gotta stop!

I went to FAQ after Christmas for one final pass to bolster my resolve, and Dang! - someone had started a tribe 15 minutes down the road from me. (a "Lucky accident?")

I e-mailed the originator and he said he had been contacted by a visitor passing thru who had a year's tribe experience and would offer his attendance to help kick-start the local group. (another "Lucky accident?").

Anyways... it IS a weird world ... almost as though ... results = intentions, ya' know?

An accident is an un-intentional event. 

The accident-ness of an event has to do with your point of view.

When you take full responsibility, intention = result and accident= 0.

When You Take Responsibility

you stop having accidents

and start having intentionals.

Clip: http://pictures.clutter.net/CMU/

Forbes%20accident%20%231.JPG

Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004

Dilbert on the Markets

Ed, I found the following link entertaining.

http://www.bylo.org/dilbert7.html

The Scott Adam's stock market cartoons you cite help keep the public aware of various forms of promotion.

A society that experiences schemes through cartoons has little need for protective regulations.

Cartoons, in general, help us look at feelings we keep in k-nots.

I don't like the looks of this, Marv

Bulls, feeling uncomfortable

in a Bear Market

Clip: http://www.pritchettcartoons.com/

Fri, 31 Dec 2004

To Stop or Not to Stop

Dear Sir,

Let say I feel that 50% drawdown is about the limit my stomach can take reasonably, and so I go on and develop a system where historical backtest suggests that such losing streak is 2+ standard deviation away.

Now assume I follow my system perfectly, but market condition has so many false breakouts that even as I keep trimming down the size (according to the system to keep risking less as equities drop) I end up losing 50% of my starting capital.

I feel devastated and undeserved, and even fear as I don't know how to proceed. I wonder if it makes sense for me to continue running my system, especially I have committed to running my system and take every signal.

It's a dilemma, because I feel this trend-following system hasn't broken but just a run into some unusually bad period, yet I don't know if I can handle further losses.

I hear different voices, one tells me to hang on through the tough times because I have committed to my system, and commitment means stick to it in good times or bad (especially the bad); the other voice keeps telling me more false breakouts and abrupt trend changes, and the stubbornness to throw more money and refusing to cut the loss (to the whole system) may just make me a trend-following martyr.

Yet if I stop trading it, I feel terrible for giving up, and powerless for losing the system that I have most faith in.

Would you mind please sharing some of your insights and suggestions?

Fred seems to want you to feel terrible. 

If you stick with your system and lose, you get to feel terrible; if you abandon your system you get to feel terrible.  Either way you win.

Even making money is not much of a problem, since you could engineer other ways to feel terrible about your business.

Instead of manufacturing drama in your business to justify your feelings, you might consider asking your tribe to assist you to feel terrible, directly, on purpose and joyously.

Your Tribe can help you untie your terrible k-not and dissolve your terrible drama.

Here's Your Badge

Clip: http://www.cyber-heritage.co.uk/

Welcome !

Mumbai

India

See Tribe Directory

Taj Hotel

Mumbai (formerly Bombay)

The name Mumbai refers to a temple of the Hindu goddess Mumba (aka Parvati) in the southeastern part of the city.

Clip: http://www.galenfrysinger.com/

mumbai_india.htm

Thu, 30 Dec 2004

Trance  Experience

Hi Ed !

Trance experience report I received today from Sri Lanka, FYI:

Fourteen fishermen were out at sea.

Some 5-10 plus km. away from the shore.

The women were not sure if they would ever see their respective other-half alive.

Group prayer started in all earnest at the
Kannikaparameshwari Temple, Kovalam. The chants reached a crescendo when one woman went literally into a "vibrationary trance", the ones recognized by common villagers as the visit of Mariamman into a human body.

The woman shouted out of her deep trance: "I am Kannikaparameshwari speaking to you. I know where your husbands are. They are safe, because I am protecting them. They will all return to you very soon."

This offered temporary solace to the womenfolk whose husbands were out at the sea.

Within hours after the waters calmed down, the fishermen returned to the shore. To their families. Intact.

Even more amazing is that the 14 wives are able to instantly assemble for chanting, prayer and vibratory trance, right in the middle of a tsunami.

Trance-In-Dental Meditation

Courtesy of Novocaine, the

Trance-In-Dental Medication

Clip: http://hogwild.net/images/

Thu, 30 Dec 2004

Comfort, Growth and Pain


Ed says:
Comfort seldom attends growth.
Comfort may come at the expense of speed.


Dear Ed,

Your statement gets me to ponder a lot. Looking back on all my hot seats, many times I find myself "self-torturing" in one way or another.

I take all those self-torturing and experience them because I keep reminding myself the feeling I don't like (and I certainly don't like torture, at least that's what I think) is the exact feeling that is running my life. Well, when I experience and finally get through the torture, I realize I really enjoy the feeling of going through struggles like a warrior.

However, as this keeps going on, over and over, I start to doubt if I fully resolve and integrate the feeling, for it seems that I just keep getting back to torture, struggle and pain in the next session, and the next. I start to wonder if it is some kind of sick addiction, that I just keep going back for more self-torturing so as to feel good about myself afterwards?

Your statement seems to suggest that if we want to grow, we need to be uncomfortable.

We struggle so as to grow; and it may be painful as we grow. I can't seem to connect how my self-torturing is leading me to growth though. Certainly I don't see the contestants on the Fear Factor show on NBC (where they eat worms, eat crap or jump from tall buildings) "growing," despite their dealings with uncomfortable and disgusting challenges.

Also, isn't comfort what we're striving for, as in the peacefulness, calmness, blissfulness and **comfort** one experiences at the Zero Point? (I have yet to hear anyone reporting feeling uncomfortable at the Zero Point) Hmmm, my thought seems to be running in circles now, and I am getting more and more confused with the concept of comfort.

Can you please elaborate your thoughts on comfort? Many thanks.

P.S.

A k-not is a feeling that intertwines with a judgment that inform us we do not like the feeling.

To dissolve a k-not, keep experiencing the feeling until the judgment melts and you can notice yourself enjoying the feeling. 

As a k-not loosens you may, at first, perceive discomfort.

This discomfort is natural - it keeps the k-not tight. 

The DIM (Do It Myself) process typically fails at the discomfort point.

Your tribe can help you get through the discomfort to the tipping point. 

When a feeling finally tips, and starts to feel good, you generally get an AHA.

The Cooling-Off Seat

Follows the Hot Seat

Clip: http://www.extend-it.com/

1stclass.htm

Thu, 30 Dec 2004

Guten Tag Herr Seykota


Is there anyway I could get a copy of the old charts that you have posted on your website?

I have tried using Google's Cache and I have tried the Internet Archive Website (www.archive.org) and they didn't get copies of those pages.

Whether the answer is yes, no or maybe -- thank you for your time.

and p.s. Thank you for freely advocating the principles of trading - they may seem basic but they are invaluable. There are many market theories, but your basic principles have summed up the essence of professional trading.

Guten Tag !

Was ist dort, ist dort - was nicht dort ist, ist nicht dort. 

Mehr kommt, wenn es kommt.

Bitte Bleiben Sie im Moment.

Trink, Trink, Brüderlein, Trink!

(TTP Version)

Trink, trink, Brüderlein trink,
Lass nicht die Sorgen zu Haus

Trink, trink, Brüderlein trink,
Laß nicht die Sorgen zu Haus!

Genießen Sie den Kummer und feieren Sie den Schmerz,
Dann ist das Leben ein Scherz!

Genießen Sie den Kummer und feieren Sie den Schmerz,
Dann ist das Leben ein Scherz!

Clip: http://www.beerstein.net/

Thu, 30 Dec 2004

What's their Intentions?


Dear Sir,

As I read over the recent South Asia tsunami news, I can't help but ponder - what are those people's intentions that get them such tragic results?

Intention = Result. 

The situation in South Asia reflects the intentions of the South Asians,  your intentions, and mine, too.

Some co-operative intentions:

Political drama tends to compound natural disasters - and typically manifests societal k-nots around guilt and fear.

Untying societal k-nots might require a big tribe.

Behold Your Intention

and mine

Wed, 29 Dec 2004

Wed, 29 Dec 2004

No Replies


Dear Ed,

I must say regretfully that other than 1 person in the beginning of my endeavor to set up a tribe here, the few others that have written me were searching for help on trading methods or a system.

I suggested that they re-read the site
and that the TT Process was more to do with the psychological and emotional
aspects to trading.

Starting a Tribe can be tricky. 

When people first hear about the work, they they are, naturally, likely to know little about it.

They may be open enough to tell you a few things about what they think they want.

Whatever they do present, you can take it as an entry point and start receiving them on the spot.

Telling people you cannot deal with their issues is a good way to keep your Tribe small.

In a Tribe of Receivers

the one who cannot see can hear,

the one who cannot hear can see,

and the who doesn't talk much

 both sees and hears.

Clip: http://i.xanga.com/LaYdEeStLZ/

Tue, 28 Dec 2004

Forget-o-Sexual

You are becoming a "forget-o-sexual?"

Fred has no intention, other than to pump feelings.

K-nots form around unwillingness to experience feelings.  A k-not tends to attract drama that brings forth the very feeling at the center of the knot.  The results of such drama indicate "virtual" intentions, such as "wanting to feel sad."

Conscious intentions (plans) also appear as results, particularly if you are willing to experience all the feelings that come up in the process.

Good Dresses are Like Good Speeches

They are long enough to cover the subject

and short enough to be interesting.

Clips: http://www.starcostumes.com/

Tue, 28 Dec 2004

TTP seems to work best for groups of individuals who commit to meeting regularly, in person. 

Tribes tend to form around a geographically convenient center. 

Forming a tribe around an interest group  might also work, if members commit to regular attendance.

Formula One Cars

Ideal for commuting to Tribe Meetings.

Clip: http://www.autoreview.ru/new_site/

Tue, 28 Dec 2004

Some Banjos

have clear heads.

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/

Musician/Banjo/5stAnatomy/

Tue, 28 Dec 2004

Tribe Verification

Hi Ed,

Want to follow up on the progress of the [City] Tribe. It is about 4-5 weeks since the posting of the [City] tribe on the TTP website, and to date I have not received a single inquiry/email. I consider being more proactive in the recruitment of members so that I can, at a minimum, work on myself and my ability to facilitate the process.

I look around the trading room where I spend each day and cannot find anyone whom I'd feel comfortable approaching about the process.

I decide that this would queer the dynamic. I remain patient. In the meantime, I contact the Tribe closest geographically, but do not get a response. I feel a little "islandish", but determine that like minds will come along.

I practice DIM, knowing that it is no substitute for the Tribe. I know that I fall victim to dramas that I do not recognize as plainly as I did directly after returning from the November workshop (maintaining an open line of communication with Fred IS difficult now).

When you align your intention to attract members, members show up.

To align, experience your feelings of discomfort in approaching people - until you can enjoy them.

The Teacher and His Student

go for a walk

The teacher points to some sand and says

"this is seems like a good place for a school."

The student places a tuft of grass

on the spot and says,

"behold the school."

The teacher smiles.

Clip: http://www.mro.org/zmm/

Tue, 28 Dec 2004

Bigger Risks

Ed,

You might consider going directly to the source - ask Mike what he means.

I can tell you I am the only one who dares to publish an FAQ column.

Aaarrrggghhhhkkk !

There is no Way Out.

The Questions Keep Coming.

Clip: http://mypage.uniserve.ca/

Mon, 27 Dec 2004

Social Security Surplus


Here is an interesting article and report on the privatization of the Social Security System in Chile. Sounds like the market system has done a very good job.

Mon, 27 Dec 2004

Tribe in the Game

My tribe is in the game, preparing new year's resolutions.

Ed Seykota once said, "I'm like the lion and I weed out the sick and the lame so that the herd is strong."

The quote seems apocryphal - I doubt saying it. The "weed out" notion seems to apply more to packs of wolves stalking, say, migrating caribou.

I do not know a profitable strategy that works by targeting weak stocks in order to strengthen (the herd of) others.

A bullish trend follower would not normally target the weak members of a group of stocks. 

Targeting the weak sounds more like a fundamentalist strategy.

Your tendency to be sure, also a fundamentalist property, might indicate longing for certainty.

You tribe might be able to help you develop this theme along with possible judgments you might have about aggression and pomposity. 

The forms we judge tend to show up in our lives.

The Only Thing Certain

is Uncertainty

In his book, Nyanasobhano examines the transitory beauty of nature and the mortality which is the fate of every living thing.

Clip: http://www.spiritualityhealth.com/

Sun, 26 Dec 2004

More Relationship Stuff


Ed Says: Your relationship seems to place you as the sender and your friend as receiver.

You might consider expanding your relationship to include you as the receiver, and her as the sender.


Yes. In our relationship I am the sender most of the time. And we both seem to be comfortable with such roles.  Lately our relationship has been expanding to switch roles, slowly though. I admit I owe her a lot.

Comfort seldom attends growth.

You might consider taking your feelings of being un-comfortable to a Tribe meeting.

Comfort may come

at the expense of speed.

In cycling, relationships, investing, etc.

http://www.comfortsaddle.com/

Images/Health%20benefits%202%20HB2/

HB2-comfort-cyclist.gif

Sun, 26 Dec

Wishes


Hi Ed,

thanks a lot for the great service you offer here. I wish for you and your family all the best in the new year.

Happy 2005 !!!

P.S. the correct date of Kelly's paper is 1956, not 1965, as reported on Risk Management page.

6 jumps ahead of 5 ... or is 5 a step behind? Shuffling sometimes is a requisite for a new comprehension. Ciao

Thanks for the catch - and for being inspirationally attentive to detail.

Another Example

of six-jumping

Clip: http://cover09.cduniverse.com/

MuzeAudioArt/410/414619.jpg

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Future of Tribe

HI Ed,

I see that trading-tribe transcends boundaries of various sorts. If trading-tribe were to have nation of its own, I am sure the following poem by Tagore is the right one for its spirit:

Where the mind is without fear

and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free

Where the world

has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls

Where words come out

from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving

stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason

has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action

Into that heaven of freedom,

my Father,

TTP does not deal with the future.

TTP does not rid us of fear. 

TTP intends to help us experience fear and integrate it.

Same for fragments - and for

words that come from other places.

You might consider continuing to intellectualize TTP, continuing to be right, continuing to invent ways to avoid experiencing your feelings.

Courage is Willingness

to experience fear

Clip: http://www.otoons.com/

Sun, 26 Dec 2004

King Pin


I traveled to learn,

from a master so great.
He lived in a house,

on the purest of lakes.

I walked on his land

and saw a pinecone on the ground.
I picked it up hard

and dropped it back down.

It pricked my hand,

with its sharp defenses indeed.
When I picked it up softly,

it seemed to agree.

We walked through the land

and as far as I could view.
There were beautiful pine trees

for me and some for you.

As I looked up and all around so many

pine needles on trees and everywhere.
It reminded the master

of where he was from.

When the master found fault,

we heard the sharpest of tongues
But when he was finished

you knew he was done.

The master did help me

and teach me so well.
Helped me to escape

some personal h___.

When all was done

I had to believe.
That he looked like a great man

Thank you for voicing your o-pin-ion.

Some Pins are like Short Positions

Their value rises when they fall.

Clip: http://www.adtennaball.com/

online-store/scstore/graphics/

300-002.gif

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Miracles

Hi Ed,

Given our love of freedom, creating The Best Money Management Trading Tribe in existence, more compassionate Tribe is a possibility. The potential is there. All we can do is use Now well ...

Marry Christmas ...

It's clear to me that with myself there is a success; with a manager there is different success; and with a manager and the tribe there is still another and different success.

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Some claim your [special method] enables practitioners to stop attackers in their tracks, just by shouting.

Others claim the demo requires the attacker to be barefoot, on wet sand, that contains electrodes.

Videos reveal muscle paralysis characteristic of electric shock.

The Truth can be Shocking

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Remote Member

Ed,

I was a member of the [City] tribe. However, because of my involvement with my son and his hockey team (I am an assistant coach and a certified trainer of the team) I could not consistently attend the meetings. So, after a couple of hot seats with the issue of commitment, and the acceptance of the reality I was in, I learned that the Essential Tribe was, and is, more important to me than my "full-time" membership in the [City] tribe.

Nevertheless, I tell the chief of the [City] tribe and a couple of its' members that I am the most dedicated, and committed, remote tribe member. We share a chuckle. I speak with a couple of them regularly ... even about their experiences when they are in Reno. Truly stimulating and educational.

Anyway, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and the best for 2005. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your website and the associations / relationships you have helped me acquire and develop. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for helping us to become better people and traders. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for helping us realize that many of the "answers" are within us. THANK YOU VERY MUCH, ED.

TTP seems to work best in person, in groups of independent people who have little to protect.

Implementing TTP in an existing organization (such as your family) can be tricky - as it tends to alter relationships.

People who are ambivalent about the work tend to invent elaborate excuses about regular attendance.

Emotions

Show on the face and on the body

as forms.

In TTP we encourage each other

to take our forms all the way to term

and then to integrate them.

Clip: http://www.stangl-taller.at/

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Krishnamurti

Hello Ed,

I hope you are well, and I wish you a very happy Christmas, and a successful New Year for 2005.

My friend recently introduced me to some excellent reading material, written by a man called Krishnamurti, it contains some real pearls of wisdom, which are very simple to understand. It is really incredible.
I am guessing you have already read his books, but just in case you haven't, then I recommend them wholeheartedly.

Trading has been fine, with this coming year ending me up with an 11,296% profit from my original starting stake four years ago, but if I didn't need to use my trading profits to live on, then this figure would be probably double.

Recently I have been investigating overseas property markets for the purpose of buying to rent (like holiday homes) to get a secondary income other than trading.

So I won't have to keep withdrawing from my trading wad, two visits to Bulgaria (chosen because on impending EU membership and rising house prices) convinced me that investment in this country is far too risky for anything other than purely "play money" so I am going to look at other places in Europe now.

Thanks for your help in previous correspondence, and your highly informative website.

Yes.

 J. Krishnamurti

...what is impossible becomes possible only when you understand that there is no tomorrow at all ...

... the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience... is an illusion ...

... total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all those things that thought has brought about psychologically ...then is there love, which is compassion and intelligence ...

Sat, 25 Dec 2004

Tribe Directory / Be Happy

Hi Ed !

Your visit to the [City] tribe had a noticeable effect. I hope you might consider marking the tribes you visit in the directory some way

-----

photo attached: the building's residents seem to have some judgment about happiness.

The residents might have some judgments about being not-happy. 

The feelings you judge wind up running your life.

I suspect the residents of the Ashram might become happier by embracing all feelings.

Even Grumpy Shows a Smile

when he feels the presence

of a good receiver.

Clip: http://www.collecto-mania.com/