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Questions

(Quotes from Ed in Red)

Tue, 27 Dec 2005

TTP Report - From a Guest at the IVTT

Hello Ed,

DIM, I notice that I have been able to release anger and frustration (which has been extraordinarily valuable), but sadness is different. Alone, I cannot cry or feel weak and vulnerable. There is a K-not.

I take the hot seat and genuinely appreciate the opportunity to work. I immediately begin to feel, to the fullest extent possible, emotions of sadness that have been stored within my mind and body for decades.

With the support, encouragement, and respect of the group, I risk shame. I am able to completely experience my feelings, appreciate their value, and watch them change.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Psycho-Analysis

is like having a sender,

a receiver that keeps the sender in his head,

and no healing field of acknowledgment

and then paying a couple hundred bucks

for a 50 minute hour.

Mon, 26 Dec 2005

Keeping it Simple

Hello Ed,

I hope you're doing well. Things have been really good since the tribe meeting, thank you. I'm still working on the narration of my experience.

I have lesson one down (TLCM), and I believe I'm ready for lesson 2.

Lesson 1
Trade with trend
Let winners ride
Cut losses
Manage Risk

It's amazing how many teachers complicate things rather than simplify them.

Keeping things simple is pretty simple, in theory.  In practice, keeping things simple can engage complications.

The Megaphone Pattern

The February 2006

Natural Gas Futures Contract

has an expanding pattern

of higher highs and lower lows.

A simple trend trading system

that goes long on higher highs

and goes short on lower lows

might experience something like this:

Net Loss per Contract = -6.75 handles

or $67,500 in 6 weeks.

Welcome

Wallingford

Connecticut

Sun, 25 Dec 2005

A Fair Fee

Hello Ed

I wish you a very merry Christmas and prosperous New Year for 2006.

Thank you for crediting www.tradingtribe.com for the captions.

Per your question, FAQ does not  recommend specific trading system parameters, or tell people what they should do.

You might consider taking your feelings about "fair" to your Tribe as an entry point.

Fair is a Concept that Politicians Use

to transfer power from the strong to themselves

in the name of the weak.

Sun, 25 Dec 2005

Radial Momentum

Yes, you seem to have a pretty good grasp of Radial Momentum Theory.

Particles accelerate across a pressure differential. 

 

Acceleration integrates into velocity.

 

Pressure change integrates into  pressure level.

 

Radial Momentum does not speak to the motivation to follow curving paths. 

 

Air particles tend to flow in the same direction with the same velocity until something motivates a change.

 

Air moving radially outward tends to expand into larger and larger volumes, experiencing lower and lower density, thus inducing lower and lower pressure.

Classic Airfoil Diagram

illustrates modern goofy physics.

There is no justification for the assumption

that particles traveling along two different flow paths

must reach the same destination simultaneously.

There is no justification for the assumption

that fast air has lower pressure than slow air.

Lift is a function of angle of attack,

not of wing curvature.

Nevertheless, standard physics texts

and even NASA,

continue to purvey this diagram

as an explanation for lift.

Sun, 25 Dec 2005

Thanks for the Changes

Dear Ed,

On this special day I want to thank you for the wonderful changes taking place in my life as a direct result of your teachings.

From my tribe to yours,

TTP does not attempt to fix people; it is a method to assist people who are willing, to fix themselves.

I teach a system.  For that, you are welcome.

Your changes result from your own intention.

Sun, 25 Dec 2005

The Fix is In

Hi Ed;

I’m writing from [Country]. We are 3 people at the moment. I meet TTP with the help of my friend (who writes you about DIM process at Dec.15.2005). I want to share my TTP experience with you.

We tried TTP for the first time with this friend and I was the sender. However, it failed. I was tried to express my feelings but I could not concentrate enough. Also my friend, as a receiver, tried to fix me about using present tense instead of past tense and also fixed about cause and effect approach to my feelings. May be he was right to correct me but I could not make it.

This experience was not successful but we know from your TTP FAQ that first time is always difficult. We studied this first experience; we tried to figure out the problems. (I think you call it ”workshop”). I was also using a drug (my psychologist gave me) for 1 year. I quit using it just before the first TTP experience. This drug was closing the feeling pump (Fred); I think the effect of this drug was continuing at the first TTP experience.

Two days ago the 3rd person who is our close friend also joined our tribe. He is also reading your TTP from you website and he knows the basics. I was well prepared for this second TTP as a sender. Also the drug’s effect was almost disappeared. I was feeling everything (like excitement, fear etc.) as 1 year ego which I don’t like to feel this much.

We started to read from your FAQ about the second TTP experiences of others; tried to find useful examples, similar things … After that every body shared the feelings for that moment. The common feeling was the tension (tightness).

I started as sender and first of all wanted to speak about the fear of this TTP. I was feeling tension and I was a little nervous. My hands were begin to cold and my heartbeat was increased. My body’s signals were similar to “before job interview situation”. Such conditions my body acts like this: “the liquid or something like heat is coming from my heart or my stomach, and it is going to my face”. I feel it intensively from where it is started to where it is end. This heat or liquid is spreading again and again and my heartbeat is staying very fast and my blood is withdrawn from my limbs.

I tell them to “touch my hands” to feel how they are cold and they understand the situation better. My hands were started to shiver (tremble, vibrate …these words from dictionary. I hope you understand the situation). This shiver has covered all of my body and my voice begins to vibrate. I tried to describe it to others. It was like; you run at -10 0C weather at a street. Your face, hands and feet are cold but your armpits are wet. My heart was beating faster but it is not enough to warm my hands. However my armpits are sweated much. I hate this situation of my body. My forehead is also getting wet. My feelings were really intense.

Since I feel really similar I changed the subject to have a launch with an important man or woman. He or she is my boss or important customer, important person. I feel these feelings in this situation also. But the most I hated event is my forehand break out into sweat. It was very embarrassing situation. It is most hated event because everybody can see this sweat at my forehead. The receivers wanted to describe what I feel when I have sweat at my forehead. I was feeling: the important man is thinking like:

“Look at this guy… What a pity! He is sweated without a reason. What kind of a disgusting person is he?”

I hate my body, my Fred, to make me in such a bad condition. The receivers want it to express what I feel when I looked to myself from outside and see there is a sweat at my forehand. I was look in to my self from mirror and shamed of myself.

The important man at lunch is thinking as

“How can I talk business with this poor guy… He is started to sweat without a reason … if there is a challenging condition; I can not imagine what this poor guy do.. May be he dies from excitement …”

I hate this body to make me feel really terrible. I can not control the heart beat or sweating.

Then I changed the subject were exactly I wanted to come.. The presentation …

This is where I feel worst. Audience is looking at me. They are seeing that I am not a normal person. He is excited very much, his voice is shivering. They were thinking that I am a normal person but now I am exciting very much, shivering, forehead is full of sweat. I was feeling this condition deeply as I was performing a presentation, at the room of our house at the front of the receivers. I think they understand my feelings very clear. They encourage me very well and I was sweating, shivering, my heartbeat was fast, my breath is like you run 200 meters fast and you try to give a presentation.

At that point the third person has told me: “you don’t want to see the audience while you were sweating”. I say: “Yes, I hate this situation and I sweat like in the sauna without a reason” he told me “you want to hide but you cannot make it”

I stuck and cannot say something. The liquid (normally comes from my stomach to make me excited) comes from my back, back of my shoulders and back of my neck and goes to my hairs then goes to my face. While the liquid going on this way the hairs where it goes, raised! My hair raised, my beards are raised and my eyes get wetted. I feel a salty taste in my mouth. And the liquid continue to go through my arms to the hands. I was shocked! This liquid is taking the withdrawn blood back to my hands and my cold hands begin to warm. The liquids pumped again for 2 or 3 times. I described what is happening at my body.

They said (after finishing TTP) they understood the condition from confused _expression of my face. I was shocked. At that time we think that it should be an end for TTP. We started to discuss the situation. “Hiding” is the key word for me to feel this “first time in my life feelings”. At that moment, all of us were making comments for this event. It was a long time to start this TTP and the second friend wanted to go WC and he told loudly  YOU ARE TRYING TO HIDE SOMETHING”. Actually this loudly _expression was the middle of his comment; he was explaining something and may be he did not want me to go into the TTP deeply again.

But I don’t remember what he said at the beginning and at the end of his comment. I just stuck for this loudly _expression. He went to WC but his sentence was in my mind. While he was saying this I think ... as if my father and my father were speaking with his hand remarking me and saying. “You are trying to hide something”.

At that moment the time went to 12 years ago and I remember the high school. I think this was an A-HA!

My past schools before high school were successful and my parents trusted me. But that second year of high school I was terrible, I did not went to school properly. I failed 5 courses out of 6 for attendance. Since they trusted me they even don’t ask the school about my courses. And my friend and I planned to change the school report. We prepared for this changing process 2 or 3 weeks. We invent something to erase the ink. But when we get the report we see that it is an ink that we cannot erase. We tried to change the letters like “E” to “B” by using the same color ink. But the operation failed and my parents understood the situation easily. I feel big embarrassment. But the more important thing is that: I was trying to hide this situation by telling them that my lessons are good and they don’t need to go meeting for my courses at the school. This period harmed me because I was trying to hide for a long time.

After he goes to WC I explain the story to my other friend. I felt the strange feeling again and again while explaining the hiding process. And I connect this hiding process with the presentation situation hiding about excitement. Yes I was trying to hide the excitement of myself from other people. My heartbeats became normal and my breaths are slowed down. I take a deep breath. Now everybody understands that the tribe is over.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Trying to fix the sender tends to interfere with the process, as does trying to give advice. 

If your receivers cannot resist trying to fix you or giving you advice, they might consider taking their needs to do so into the process on their own turns.

Sweating it Out

is just another form.

Clip: http://tell.fll.purdue.edu/JapanProj/

Fri, 23 Dec 2005

For my thoughts on trends, see my article on Trends at TSP, above.

You might consider taking your feelings about wanting to find the best to your Tribe as an entry point.

Finding the Best One

depends on the use you intend.

In this photo,

three top research analysts

are waiting for the judge to declare

whether the 8, 6 or 1 day moving average is best.

Clip: http://www.carsatcarlisle.com/images/

Thu, 22 Dec 2005

TTP for PTSD - Call of the Wild

Hello Ed

I would like to share an experience with TTP in a new application that I had with the (city) tribe.

I recently had a very emotionally traumatic experience --

my dog Sally was attacked by a coyote right in my front yard and died in my arms about one hour later. The attack was brutal and bloody, she died from shock and blood loss.

She was elderly and frail.

After this experience, I had difficulty sleeping, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts that plagued my waking hours and made it difficult to concentrate on my work. I kept "seeing" and reliving different parts of that evening in my mind and often I would wake up sobbing, or fall apart on the job and have to remove myself from the workplace to compose myself. I was irritable, weepy and tired all the time and functioning poorly.

The symptoms seemed similar to PTSD syndrome. I wondered if TTP would work in this situation and decided to bring this to the tribe for some work.

At check in, I could not even talk about the situation without immediately welling up with sadness and grief. The process manager spotted my issue as "hottest" and I immediately took the seat.
Throughout several forms, the tears just flowed. I rubbed my hands (which that night had been covered in blood), moaned loudly and focused my attention and energy on the lump in my throat which I had been living with since the trauma. After an hour or so and several forms I finally experienced the positive intention of my grief -- that it was a blessing to be emotionally intact, to feel the whole gamut of human emotion from joy and happiness to rage and grief. It is a blessing not to have to live my life "numbed-out".

I also saw that the coyote had been there for a very good reason. My dog had been diagnosed with a progressive degenerative neurological disorder just a week before her death.

There was some rough road ahead. According to the vet she was facing: "loss of rear extremity function and incontinence" Though he didn't say it, I knew at some point I might have to make the decision to euthanize my beloved pet. With one bite, the coyote took all that pain and suffering away. My dog died quickly in my arms with you and me talking to her and petting her, not on a table in a vets office with strangers around. The "rightness" of all this ceased being a concept and became known on a deeper level.

Since the meeting I have had no more nightmares and no more intrusive thoughts.

I think of her on occasion, feel sad that she is gone and miss her. I've started remembering some of the absolutely hysterical clowning things she used to do and a smile comes. I have not relived the attack since the tribe work.

Many thanks for continuing the work and constantly refining it to include other applications. It really works, and helps me with the challenges of an active emotional life.

And OH! -- here's to Sally, the smartest dog to ever walk the planet!

Sally

Thank you for sharing your process.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is common among victims of violence, particularly among soldiers returning form war. Modern Medicine treats PTSD with a combination of drugs, talk therapy and discussion groups.  The treatment is largely ineffective.

TTP treats PTSD successfully in about an hour and a half.

Coyote Subduing Lamb

The lamb may perish

in a few minutes.

The trauma from watching it happen

typically lasts until you are willing

to experience its positive intention.

Clip: http://lib.colostate.edu/research/

agnic/images/photos/livestock/

Wed, 21 Dec 2005

Thank you for sharing your process.

Things Move Forward

when the gears engage

they also move forward

when people engage.

Clip: http://discover.edventures.com/functions/

termlib.phpaction=&termid=27&alpha=e&

Wed, 21 Dec 2005

TSP

Hello Ed,

I've been enjoying your website for about a year now, and realize you get a lot of email questions, so I'll keep it brief.

Installments appear when they do.

The project might run on and on until everyone finally knows everything about everything.

You might consider taking your need for completion to your Tribe as an entry point.

This Cyborg

Does Not Have to be Complete

in order to be useful

Clip: http://www.clairobscurgallery.com/images/

jeffery_scott/(9)%20PREMATURE%20

Wed, 21 Dec 2005

Small Example

Ed,

Your response was what I expected. But I had to give it a shot, especially after reading an interview you did in "Stocks & Commodities" in which you said, "Good money management is equity invariant. I'd ask a trader who thinks he needs a certain amount before he can trade exactly what amount he would need to stop trading."

I'm also confused, was my question such a burden that you had to make an example out of me on your webpage? Because it makes me feel pretty small.

Respectively,
 

Yes you are indeed an Example: See Ground rules:

FAQ is a classroom forum in which contributors can ask questions, become examples, and support each other. 

Yes,  in my opinion $5,000 is a pretty small trading account, see Rules of Thumb.  See Keeping it Simple.  See Guest Report.

Phrasing a question so as to frame the sender as pathetic and the receiver as guilty is a strategy I discuss in my book. 

Such extortion attempts generally works best on people who are unwilling to feel guilty.

Your use of this technique is consistent with (1) your complaining about being small (2) your asking me to make concessions and (3) your having a small amount of money.

Guilt Trippers

try to exact concessions

by threatening to make people feel guilty.

This strategy does not work on Tribe Members

who are willing to experience their feelings.

Clip: http://www.thetshirtgame.com/

Wed, 21 Dec 2005

Chicago Tribe Full Up

Hi Ed,

Congratulations.

Your listing now indicates "currently full."

Wed, 21 Dec

The computation of ATR follows from the description at System Math at Resources at the Trading System Project. 

I am not clear exactly what help you need or how you know you need it.

You might consider taking your feelings of needing help to your Tribe as an entry point.

Unwillingness to Experience

feelings of need

leads to co-dependence

Clip: http://www.economist.com/