Questions

(Quotes from Ed in Red)

Answers

Thu, 19 May 2005

OK.

Thu, 19 May 2005

IVTT

Hi Ed,

Thank you for admitting me to the local tribe. Please inform me of the start time, and other information I may need. I am excited.

OK.  I currently have a couple openings in the Incline Village Trading Tribe.  See Directory for details.

Wed, 18 May 2005

If Two Opposing Economists

Agree on Capitol Hill ...

Almost Unnoticed,

Bipartisan Budget Anxiety

by Dana Milbank, The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

The timing could not have been more apt. On the eve of a titanic partisan clash in the Senate, eggheads of the left and right got together yesterday to warn both parties that they are ignoring the country's most pressing problem: that the United States is turning into Argentina ...

With startling unanimity, they agreed ... "The only thing the United States is able to do a little after 2040 is pay interest on massive and growing federal debt," Walker said. "The model blows up in the mid-2040s. What does that mean? Argentina."

Each of the three had a separate slide show, but the numbers and forecasts were interchangeable. Walker put U.S. debt and obligations at $45 trillion in current dollars -- almost as much as the total net worth of all Americans, or $150,000 per person.

Balancing the budget in 2040, he said, could require cutting total federal spending as much as 60 percent or raising taxes to 2 1/2 times today's levels.

As Ron Haskins, a former Bush White House official and current Brookings scholar, said when introducing the thinkers: "If Heritage and Brookings agree on something, there must be something to it."

...  both parties still deny the problem. "I don't think we're there yet," Walker said. "The American people have to understand where we are and where we're headed." And where is that? "No republic in the history of the world lasted more than 300 years," Walker said. "Eventually, the crunch comes."

What tends to happen when economists agree an a direction - is the opposite direction.

Since the date of this pronouncement, I notice the dollar is much stronger.

Directions for Executing the Crunch

Raise your head and shoulders as high as possible and hold for a second or two. Exhale and slowly return to the start position.

Clip: http://www.dolfzine.com/

page709.htm

Wed, 18 May 2005

Trade Mentoring Consulting


Hi,

My partner and I have been trading from on our own for a couple of years. We have developed various trading systems to generate income. We are looking for a trading consultant or coach to enhance our performance. If you could recommend something that would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

See FAQ Index & Ground Rules for details on consulting.

Tue, 17 May 2005

IVTT


A friend of mine referred me to [IV TT Member]. He in turn referred me to your site. I'd come across it a year or so ago when looking for info on applying Kelly's formula to money management. At any rate, I took his advice and pulled up your site again and poured through it. It piqued my interest in your organization.

In talking with him this evening, he mentioned the possibility of me leading up a Park City, Utah, Trading Tribe: PC TT. I'm interested and look forward to the release of your book to learn out more.

Recently, I noted the Incline Village TT was full. I just now noticed, however, you've indicated it is open to new members. Perhaps I could start there for a few months of training and exposure?

Thanks for your consideration.

See the Directory Page for information on how to apply to the Incline Village Trading Tribe.

Tue, 17 May 2005

Olympia Trading Tribe

Hi Ed, I sent this inquiry on May 12 and have not yet received a response. Do you have any information if this tribe is current or has disappeared?

---

I do not monitor individual Tribes for activity.  From time to time I request a confirmation of activity from all of them, to keep the directory current. 

If you don't find an active Tribe in your area, you can start your own.

Tue, 17 May 2005

IVTT

Dear Sir,

I would like to attend the Incline Village TT.

I discovered that your book is arriving today in IV for shipment tomorrow. Would you please reserve one for me to pickup either later today or in any case before Sunday, or at your convenience? Please let me know where and when to pick it up.

FYI, after a long search, I was able to locate and copy Jesse Livermore's "How to Trade in Stocks, the Livermore Formula for Combining Time Element and Price". I have an extra bound copy (photocopy / color where required). Would you be interested in a swap with your book?

See the Directory Page for information on joining a Tribe.

See the FAQ Index for a link to information on the book.

Tue, 17 May 2005

Snapshots


Ed says:

Snapshots, as we use them in the TTP Workshop:

In the Present
Emotionally Vivid
No Motion
Tribe Buy-In
You See Your Own Face


Does that mean that the snapshot is in third-person form (you see your own face)?

Can you please kindly elaborate because I've always been under the impression that the snapshot is first-person so that it can be more emotionally vivid and evocative if we put ourselves in it?

Many thanks.

First and third persons are properties of logical language.

Snapshots are not necessarily logical. 

They are more like dreams or wishes, in which we may find ourselves with multiple existence.

The inclusion of your face adds another dimension of your feelings about your snapshot.

Snapshot of Snapshot Process

Hot Seat in the Woods.

Clip: http://www.uci.agh.edu.pl/htdocs/

gifs/fantasy/1cUponATime.gif

Tue, 17 May 2005

Snapshot / Trading Money


Ed,

thank you for your response to my question in the post Snapshot / Trading Money from April 28th 2005. You point out the solution to my problem which I don't see, even though it is right in front of me.

Thank you for your support and all you do.

OK.

Tue, 17 May 2005

Feedback - May 2005 Workshop

Hi Ed,

I trust this finds you well.

I got back to India 3 days ago - and my body has just about gotten re-accustomed to its new time zone.

The May 2005 Workshop has been yet another fabulous experience for me.

What stands out as particularly memorable and powerful is:

1. The session: "Everything You Need To Know About Trend Following". That it took all of 10 minutes to complete the session, and that you chose to SING the rules, with a banjo and guitar in accompaniment, only helped drive home how simple Trend Following really is! (I intend to repeat this session to my Tribe at our meeting tomorrow.)

2. Jason Dekker's session on "Vision". Truly inspirational work. Again - a lot of the power of what Jason says comes from its simplicity. Specifically, I am struck by:

(a) His emphasis on "willingness", which I realize is just a paraphrasing of your Responsibility Model: Intentions = Results, and

OK.

Tue, 17 May 2005

Seminar Feedback

Dear Ed:

Thank you for founding the Trading Tribe Process. It is a week now since I returned from the seminar. I feel alive like I have never felt before. The feelings that have wanted to be expressed are flowing. Several times I have been presented with situations that would have engaged me in dramas before the seminar. I have been able to allow most of them to pass without me needing to get involved in them by just merely allowing my feelings. (I still need more work with my Trading Tribe)

Again thank you for putting together this seminar and allowing others to share in this journey.

I also read the book on the way home – thanks for putting that resource together for us.

PS I too enjoyed drumming with you.

OK.

Tue, 17 May 2005

Greetings from Sydney Australia.

G'day from Sydney, Ed!

My mate [Name] is an Options trader at [Firm]. We used to work at the [Other Firm] together on the trading floor and during our time have often talked about, amongst other topics in the arena of trading, you, and your website and trading at great lengths. We are both "young" and making our way in life.

Since then, he is trading for [Firm], and I now trade for myself.

In the attached interchange, after he sent me something from your site, I put it to him that I felt you were somehow skating around some issues which people really wanted to know, and are willing to pay you to learn about ie.) how you trade and how you "made it" in trading, the exact methodologies and processes & systems used for your trades - ie. the how and why of your trading.

He thinks I should share my sentiments with you, and so this prompted me to email you.

Sure, the importance of the psychological realms you investigate are of huge importance.

But what of those of us who might have a command of self to the point where these issues are not as problematic as they are for others.

FAQ does not offer specific trading advice, or recommend specific trading system parameters, or tell people what they should do or make up reasons for things or judge right or wrong or answer "why" questions.  See ground rules.

You might consider taking your feelings about people and markets who don't do what you think they should do - to a Tribe meeting as an entry point.

The Design of a Tank

 is to send, and not receive.

Tanks are pretty good for asserting what others should do.

Tanks are not so hot at recovering when they get upside down during a campaign.

Clip: http://www.cyberus.ca/~ggfg/

Forceful%20III%20pic%202.jpg

Mon, 16 May 2005

Addiction

Dear Ed,

What definition would you give to the word addiction and what do you believe is the most powerful to overcome one?

I've been addicted to tobacco chew for about ten years now and I started it at a time of tremendous insecurity and used it as a substitute for what I perceived I 'lost'. Your insight is appreciated.

Addiction does not refer to the behaviour (chewing, drinking, smoking).

Addiction refers to the compulsive nature of it (have to chew, drink, smoke).

To the extent you use the behaviour to cover up some feeling (loss, loneliness, anger) you can use TTP to re-frame your feelings from adversaries to allies, and thereby eliminate the need to cover them up.

To the extent, the behaviour is a form for some feeling in a knot, you can take the form to your Tribe meeting to find it's positive intention.

Then again, maybe you just like to chew and the only problem is with other people who think you "should" not do it.  In that case, you can take your feelings about others telling you what to do to your Tribe as an entry point.

An Addict is Typically Compulsive

and gets very accurate

at getting everything into the spittoon

 except the compulsion itself.

Clip: http://www.riverjunction.com/

catalog/saloon/spittoon.jpg

Mon, 16 May 2005

TTP Workshop Feedback

We did the snapshot exercise in our Tribe meeting the Tues. night following the workshop. It is powerful, and I feel as though it helps to form a bond in our small group.

OK.

Mon, 16 May 2005

Does it mean anything

if the price moves from A to B

in 1 day or 10 days?

Hello Ed,

Does it mean anything if the price moves from A to B in 1 day or 10 days? Does the price have speed and does price speed make money?

No it does not according to the following:

I think it means nothing and only means that the price moved from A to B and no indicator in the world will tell you when it will reach to B; the market is completely random and is unpredictable.

In case you Bought / Sold at A then you have leveraged or lost at B, in case you have not traded, you have not profited / lost anything, there is no secret and the future is unknown.

Instead of measuring market volatility we should measure our system’s profit / loss volatility and adjust our trade size accordingly. 

Measuring price volatility is impossible because it is using past price data which is obsolete. Now why did trend followers were able to measure market volatility and adjust to it successfully?

That is because they measured price volatility of the markets that they already were participating in which is relative to their win / loss ratio and is not because they could predict future volatility, which means that they actually were measuring their profit / loss volatility which is reflected by markets volatility and this is very important to learn because most of the articles I read about volatility indicate that it is a method of knowing how the market is behaving at the current moment but its not, it is how the market is behaved on your open positions so we should look at volatility as a result and not a cause.

One may never know how the market is behaving at the current moment because it will change dramatically in a split of a second and if you were thinking that you know that the markets volatility is high or low during any time frame then you will either have a big unpredictable loss or lose a significant part of a winning trend which is equivalent to a loss, but in contrast you can study what the market had behaved previously on your trading system to find out what is the profit / loss ratio and adjust position-size accordingly to survive until the big move happens.

This means that by participating we are actually still living in the past until we close the position; that means we can control the past in the moment of now and plan for the future according to our profit / loss ratio because we have an open position which is still affected by the past price movement.

I don’t have a tendency to control the past, in case you will ask me to join a trading tribe to cure this.

What have I learned? The market like anything in life is too complex for me to track completely without missing a flaw which can destroy me.

The only way to look at life in its real form is looking at the possibilities and their outcome against your action system and acting accordingly.

Many people pray to god and think he listens to them, some do sometimes good things that god had stated in his holy books.

I have been thinking on god since I was young like everyone else, and I found that god is everywhere; in the sense that everything is part of god, for example a glass of water is a part of god made of glass and water and so goes for cars and everything including our selves, I believe that god is not imaginary or spiritual, god is everything put together under one name “GOD”.

Humans have survival abilities by instinct that’s why some looked for the right way of doing things because it’s a way of survival and religions were created in the process.

Many people are extremely religious and they do everything like god had stated yet they don’t know scientific facts on how and why good and bad things happen and why good things should be done in a certain way.

The lack of understanding is a great enemy, even doing something right without understanding the scientific reasons can be very dangerous, the lack of knowledge can lead to the illogical redundancy of a good act which in return become a bad act.

An example of my life is what I have learned about alcohol, I was told it is bad all the time and that it’s okay but lots of it is bad. I of course didn’t understand why it was bad, I used to drink and I still do occasionally yet looking at the possibilities these days I find that when ever I read about alcohol or drink there is always bad side effects associated so why should I drink?

Is it the mood? I can drink once and twice and daily and be in a good mood yet its like trading, you can get away with a $10000 in a gambling trade but not all the time so why to get those temporary personality change kicks?

Why don’t I build on my mood and concentrate on doing things in a way which relax me and put my self in a great systematic mood which brings my true best feelings, like that I wont need a drink after a hard working day for example because I am in mood already because I am built to love my work.

Another example is sex, I was told many opinions. I have been in between relationships all the time with ups and downs, I don’t know why I have sex but I love it by instinct and like any guy I think I can take on the a whole bunch of women but these days looking at the possibilities and outcomes I find that I don’t need a bunch of women when any woman will be correct if I build my mood around her to my satisfaction and vise versa. This can only be achieved with following a system with commitment and it yields great results.

The more I think of life in my way the more simple it turns out to be, the more discipline and hard work will be needed to keep it simple and get great results.

My challenge is to kick the markets ass consistently to create a fortune which I can spend on implementing all I can from my ideas to improve people’s common sense from food to knowing what we really need as humans and not the hype associated with everything we do these days. If I save money from my job I will be old before I can achieve one only of my projects be it fail or win but if I beat the market I can risk as much is I want.

Sometimes I pull back and look at the possibilities and outcomes and I don’t feels so good, no one is perfect Ed but I face it with the possibility of winning and it is in these days a great feeling as I follow my dreams, I am not a gambler like Jesse Livermore though that’s why I wont have his depression because in my life I will have discipline.

The last time I decided not to write all to you but I have no choice, your story is inspiring like Livermore, Dunn, Monroe trout, Jim Simons, Nassim Taleb. Inspiration is a kind of knowledge that is like a dry sponge which is suddenly dipped in water to absorb all the water it can and when it comes to people like I have it now I must kick ass.

I can take my feeling of wanting to kick ass to a trading tribe Isn’t that what you are going to say?

Events have no inherent meaning. Meaning is something you bring to an event. 

Looking at possibilities is a guessing game with the non-existing future.

You might consider creating a snapshot of the way you want it.

Per "why should I drink"  FAQ does not answer why questions or tell people what they should do - such requests are typically invitations to enable drama.

You might take your feeling of wanting to improve other people to your Tribe meeting as an entry point.

The Pointing Hand

aims three times as many fingers

back toward the pointer.

Clip: http://price.ou.edu/pcblabs/

pcblabs_body/Classfiles/Class%20Files

%20NP/BCC%20Media%20Files/

StockImages/hand_pointing.jpg

Mon, 16 May 2005

Thanks for the catch.

Good Catch !

Clip: http://digitalmemories.com.pt/

campeonatoultimate/images/catch%20it.jpg

Mon, 16 May 2005

OK.

Sun, 15 May 2005

OK. 

Thank you for your contribution.

Sun, 15 May 2005

Run on Hedge Funds

Hmmm ... With all that money, and research staffs, and all the kings horses and men, they still can't predict the non-existing future. 

Even Egg Heads

Must Deal with the Fact

that gravity operates in the now.

Clip: www.teachersandfamilies.com/ nursery/humpty.html

Mon, 16 May 2005

OK.

Sat, 14 May 2005

Worries


Dear Ed,

I am aware that I have lots of worries, and furthermore, I am aware that all my worries are about what may happen - in other words, the (non-existing) future. I am doing all the worry now, about something that may not even exist. It reminds me of Mark Twain's words, "I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened."

Despite knowing that consciously, I still feel anxious about it. I know at this very moment, it is OK and there is no problem. I can enjoy this very moment NOW.

You take your feelings of worry as an entry point. Perhaps you can find some positive intentions.

wor·ry: verb, intransitive

1. To feel uneasy or concerned about something; be troubled. See synonyms at brood.
2. To pull or tear at something with or as if with the teeth.
3. To proceed doggedly in the face of difficulty or hardship; struggle: worried along at the problem.

Old English wyrgan . Originally in the sense “to strangle.” Its modern meaning developed perhaps via the idea of dogs or wolves harassing their prey by seizing it by the throat.

What Me Worry ?

Some people prefer

people who worry

to be their pilots,

money managers,

accountants,

chefs,

gardeners,

etc.

Clip: http://members.aol.com/

NoRcktSci/amafrica.htm

Sat, 14 May 2005

Akira Kurosawa

and the Snapshot process

Kurosawa: A Study in Right Livelihood and the Snapshot/Hardball process

On my flight home from the Workshop I have in my laptop the second disk of the Criterion Collection's spectacular presentation of Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha on DVD.

http://www.imdb.com/

title/tt0080979/

Watching the supplementary documentaries on the making of the film I am stuck by the realization that the legendary director used the snapshot process to get the movie made, after meeting initial resistance to his screenplay.

Here are some choice quotes from the documentaries, with Akira Kurosawa's words in boldface:

"Akira Kurosawa lived his life for cinema."

"It is wonderful to create."

"When you honesty draw on paper an image you have in your mind, that drawing somehow speaks to the viewer."

"After finishing the script for Kagemusha, I contacted many film studios to make it into a movie. But there were serious disagreements over budget. I almost gave up, thinking another script of mine would vanish into the void. My images for Kagemusha will never see the light of day.

They'll be buried forever! I couldn't stand that thought. I wanted everyone in the world to at least see the images I had in my mind, even if they weren't on film, even if they weren't moving images at all. I sat at my desk and began drawing those images diligently day after day.

Before I knew it I had drawn over 200 pictures. What kept me drawing these pictures was simply my obsession with seeing my script for Kagemusha turned into a movie."

After Kurosawa succeeds, with the storyboards, to get the film project going, Toho studios needs an additional $1.5 million towards the $6 million total budget - otherwise it will not get made.

OK.

Fri, 13 May 2005

White Paper

I have Studies at the Resources link, above.

Fri, 13 May 2005

Welcome

St. Louis

Missouri

Fri, 13 May 2005

You might think indecisiveness is a good thing ... then again, you might like to think about it some more.

Maybe TTP Can Help You

to get in touch

with what you want

Then again, maybe it can't

Clip: http://davepics.com/Album/Friends/

Blue/2004-10-24.Cant_Decide.gif

Thu, 12 May 2005

Welcome

Vancouver

Canada

Thu, 12 May 2005

TTP Workshop

OK.

Thu, 12 May 2005

Willingness Lubricates the Soul.


I go out alone and trade on my own, but Fred always stops me.

I willingly feel and listen to his wisdom and I learn i am not ready.

So I call on my friends and they are able to support me.

With our Under Fred Network we can accomplish our goals.

OK.

Wed, 11 May 2005

Training

Respected sir,

See Index page for details on one-on-one consulting.

Wed, 11 May 2005

Delivery Systems


Dear Ed,

Thank you for encouraging us to communicate in images. Intentions equals outcomes, right?

When we have feelings in k-nots, we tend to act out dramas.

Societies that have k-nots about sexuality also seem to act out in the area of warfare.

Perhaps the cannon is a metaphor for the male while the plane, releasing  cargo from the belly, has a more female aspect.

When we learn to validate our feelings about sexuality and also about warfare, we might be able to live with less drama in both areas.

Popular Peace Button

invalidates warfare

and may tie feelings

about setting boundaries

in k-nots.

To dissolve k-nots

encourage your senders

to experience all feelings.

Clip: http://www.purplemoon.com/

Wed, 11 May 2005

Not being able to alter behavior is evidence of compulsion or addiction. 

You might take the un-alterable behavior to your Tribe meeting as an entry point.

You are a computer addict if

you start writing friendly emails

to yourself

and then get excited

when you receive them.

Clip: http://www.andy-hawley.pwp.

blueyonder.co.uk/images/addict.jpg