Questions

(Quotes from Ed in Red)

Saturday, January 31, 2009 6:51 PM
 

Bailout

Hi Ed,
 

My feelings about the evolving financial bailout keep changing.

The Intention of a Bailout

is to increase buoyancy.

The current "stimulus" methods

are more likely a form of

bail-in.

Clip: http://www.auxodept.org/images/

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Just Wanna Say Thank You
 

Thank you for your encouragement.

Saturday, January 31, 2009
 

Trading the Passage of Capitalism

Ed,

The passage from one form of government to another associates with changes in many ratios.

For example, consider the length of time an entry-level employee has to work to earn enough money to buy a McDonald's hamburger.

If this ratio in the US were to approach that in Egypt, your Big Mac would cost about $50.

Australia 16 mins

Japan 22 mins

Britain 22 mins

France 25 mins

United States 30 mins

Chile 43 mins

Russia 53 mins

Argentina 1 hr 40 mins

Mexico 2 hrs 33 mins

Brazil 2 hrs 56 mins

Indonesia 3 hrs 3 mins

South Africa 4 hrs 52 mins

Egypt 5 hrs 15 mins

The Big Mac Index

is a pretty good indicator

of the level of prices

and the level of freedom

in various countries.

Data: http://www.reuters.com/article/

companyNewsAndPR/idUSN1039409620070110

Clip:

http://www.corrupt.org/articles/

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Levels and Rates

serve to model the structure

of feedback models.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Favorite Books
 

Ed,

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Drift-Adjusting Definition,

Trading Metrics & Diversification

Mr. Seykota,

Thank you for showing interest in the definition of drift adjusting. ‘drift adjusting’ definition: adjusting the price of the panama style continuous contract to eliminate the drift.

I believe that the drift-adjusted continuous contract offers an improvement with respect to the continuous contract because we no longer have to cope with the drift effect. The price of the drift-adjusted continuous contract matches the price level of the original futures contract. Perhaps it is of value to the TSP.

Trading Metrics Diversification

The simple support and resistance system selects from the optimization table the timing parameter with the highest frequency. However, trading with the single optimal timing parameter does not imply that the future performance of the system will be anywhere close to the historical performance. Therefore, a trader may wish to diversify the system by choosing a range of timing parameters.

The optimization table of the simple SR system indicates the range of timing parameters with high frequencies that are suitable for diversification. For a given instrument, initially we select from the optimization table a trend definition metric that seems to work well (e.g. slow = 150).

Perhaps you can clarify some points..

I do not see a definition of "drift."

A continuous contract does not have "a price." It has a series of prices.  If all the prices match those in the original contract, then it is an original contract.

A trading metric (parameter) has a value, such as 50 days; it does not have a frequency.

Saturday, January 31, 2009
 

Compassion

see: Random Acts of Violence

I wonder if you can also feel compassion for the perpetrators.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Carrots and Foxes

see: Receiving and Fighting

Ed,

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Fighting about Reasons

Ed,

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Catching Rabbits - by Receiving

Thank you for sharing your process.

In TTP we come to experience

the art of behaving as a carrot

and the art of behaving as a fox

in matters of catching rabbits
and people's hearts.

Clips:

http://websiterepository.ed.ac.uk/

news/images/070122rabbits.jpg 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/

Friday, January 30, 2009

A New Capitalist
 

Ed,

Guess who says:

OK.

Predators and parasites tend to regulate themselves;  strains that work out symbiosis with their hosts survive, while ones that kill their hosts entirely also perish.

Savvy Foresters,  like Savvy Governors

balance harvesting

with planting.

Fox and Rabbit Populations

naturally oscillate

in this predator-prey model.

Clips:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry

http://comptlsci.anu.edu.au/Module-ODEs/

Friday, January 30, 2009

Yes.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Induced - past tense of induce - to cause.

Madness - obsolete term for lunacy.

I do not know the phrase "Induced Madness" to be a medical or therapeutic form.  It's first component has linguistic roots in the causal model and in the past.

The primary users of the phrase, Induced Madness, appear to be people who claim to suffer from it. 

Professional IM sufferers (victims) try to capitalize on their imaginary disease by having others pay attention to them, or feel sorry for or guilty about them.

IM victims, who wish a cure rather than attention, might consider celebrating their forms; they might start by re-stating their condition in SVO-p.

For example, change from:

I suffer from induced madness

to:

I enjoy pretending I am loony.

The Joy of Lunacy

Important Observation:

Tweety, Elmer and Porky

all have the same doo.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Trend trading Trending Up
 

Ed,

Ed Says:

our total system comprises your mechanical system that generates trades and your emotional system that deals with the results.

In general, for a simple robust system such as some solutions of the Donchian method, the parameter set seems to work, more or less, over extremely long time frames - if and only if you can stick to it.

Thanks.

The temptation to tinker with the system in search of the perfect system, or the holy grail of trading systems, so as to avoid the unavoidable uncertainty of the future and the nagging feelings that come with it is indeed great.

Just a side thought, I notice that the trend of books on trading system research and "quantitative trading" is up.

Thank you for sharing your process.

You might consider taking your feelings about <uncertainty> to Tribe.

Developing a Taste for Uncertainty

can help you stay on track

with Trend Trading.

Clip http://www.peirnet.net/moodle/

Friday, January 30, 2009 2:49 AM

Magnets - Cool Video

Ed,

I know you like to experiment with magnets, copper and motion.  I think you might like this.

http://www.youtube.com/

Thank you for the clip.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Feelings About Paying Interest

Hi Ed,

Thank you for your suggestion that I take my feelings about paying interest to Tribe. I want to take them to IV Tribe. I commit to ten meetings in IV. I have a goal I want to attain. I want to find my right livelihood.

When I am 14, I think of myself as socially awkward. I cannot succeed in forming relationships. I observe that when I program computers, I need no human interaction. I decide on a career in software engineering. I reason that in this line of work, I need no social skills to succeed.

When I am 29, I run engineering at a small startup. I notice that programming computers revolves around communication, mostly between humans.

Each programmer communicates with the author of his operating system, the author of his compiler and the author of the libraries he uses. He must understand documents [what] these humans write, and assumptions they make, sometimes many years and miles away. He communicates with his users through his user interfaces or library routines he exposes. He must communicate the intended use and limitations of his software, often across years and miles.

Also, programmers often communicate with co-workers, product managers, project managers, designers and testers. I notice that I enjoy this communication more than I enjoy the engineering itself. I observe that I chose my career based on faulty assumptions. I wonder if I can find a more fulfilling livelihood.

When I am 28, I develop an interest in trading. I read /Reminiscences/, /Wizards/ and a number of trader memoirs. I reason that my programming experience is an edge over other traders. I think of the market as a way to capitalize directly on what I think of as my superior intellectual ability. I reason that my success or failure in trading will be mine alone and will not depend on bosses, subordinates, customers, investors or the economy.

In the moment of now, I am 31. I no longer try to use the market to prove my intellectual superiority.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Your total trading system comprises your mechanical logical rules and also your emotional ability to follow the rules.

Lots of bright people report going broke by being right.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Random Acts of Violence

Hi, Ed Seykota.

I am from [City-Country]. In Aug'2007 I join [Firm] as (Technical & Derivatives Analyst) they are in process of starting their broking business. I sense that that it is going to take a long time before the operation is up and running.

I have the whole day at disposal. In Oct'2007 I Google for Ed Seykota (I think every one first read about you in Market Wizards). I follow the link to TTP website and start exploring it everyday. I am hook to TTP site, days and weeks are gone. I am almost done with exploring the website beside the FAQ.

I start reading the FAQ's after reading all FAQ’s for 2007 I am bit lost as to the context of the flow in the FAQ's, certain terms like Rocks, Hot Seats, K-not's. So I start reading FAQ's backwards from 2003. I finish reading the FAQ's in couple of months and got various insights.

By end Aug'2008 I get the TTP book. The book provides insights to the drama that entrains my life it also explains the TT process. Then [Other Firm] buy the [Country] operation of [Firm]. I become part of the downsizing process. I am now unemployed at home.

I write to [City] Tribe for participation and wait another three months for reply. Finally I Google the name of the tribe leader reach his face book and leave a message. The tribe leader reply after 8 days. I talk to the leader and we schedule a meeting for this week.

I write to Ed and tell the drama in my life. The drama (pattern) is as follows.

Life is good I am happy and feel good, slowly things stagnate then the downhill starts and finally I am in distress, I am miserable, I am in pain, I try hard to wriggle out of the situation and fails.

The miserable state do not decorate further it stay put, but I slowly run out of patience and cry in isolation. I keep looking for help and silently beg for help which will alleviate me out of the situation. I am in this situation for some time and my senses numb. I continue in pain but longer feel the need of a helping hand as none is coming. Slowly things start looking up. Slowly I get out of the miserable state. The uptrend accelerate and I reach a new high, I remain on the highs and then follows the downhill. I hit the bottom remain in a rut and the cycle repeats.

The TTP book jump start me to think.

I think about my childhood. My father is disciplinarian and punishes me and my elder brother randomly. I am completely confuse and think that we have done something terribly wrong hence we are being punish.

My father get angry and do not know why I and my brother is physically assaulted this follow a very dreadful punishment to remain in the posture of a "Hen" where in you bend your knees, tilt your head down inwards and catch your ears by taking your hand below your knees and remain in this posture for at least an hour. I remember my mother crying for us and begging mercy for us from my father but that is of no avail.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Punishment is a penalty for violation of a rule. 

Violence is overtly intentional physical aggression toward another person.

If the treatment from your father is random and if you do not consistently associate your treatment with breaking any particular rule, it is likely not punishment; randomness more likely associates with your father's predilection toward violence.

Your father is  likely venting and / or medicating his own feelings - likely those he inherits from his (and your) ancestors.

You and your Tribe now have an opportunity to "replace the rock" and to find out how to avoid passing the pattern down to your own children.

You might consider taking your feelings about <anger> <punishment> and <violence> to Tribe.

Your Tribe may be able to assist you in coming to celebrate your feelings, to see their positive intentions and to get to the Zero Point.

When we come ...

... to experience ...

... our feelings ...

... of violence ...

...  against children ...

... we have an opportunity ...

... to end it on the planet.

When We Come to See

the abusers

as former recipients of abuse

and to forgive them their rocks,

we set them, and ourselves

free.

Note: "Forgiving the Rock" is part of the rocks process in which the sender rejects the offer of  behavioral resources from a childhood role model.

This prepares the sender to replace his medicinal rock with a pro-active rock that he, working with his Tribe, creates.

Clips:

http://www.coe.int/t/transversalprojects/

children/violence/sexualAbuse_

en-lottesxl_abuse-1.jpg

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Health/

pd_domestic_violence_080207_ms.jpg

http://www.adrants.com/images/womens_aid.jpg

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/images/

norbertbugeja/2008/05/04/reg03.jpg

http://homepages.stmartin.edu/orgs/sac/

Iraqi_children_under_sanctions.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/56/

151503027_c7d79eebb4.jpg?v=0

http://www.wmin.ac.uk/sabe/images/

Girl%20-%20Domestic%20Violence.jpg

http://www.demotivateus.com/posters/

domestic-abuse-battered-women-

Monday, January 26, 2009

Re-Optimizing / Tinkering
 

Ed,

Ed Says:

Back-test parameters do not predict anything.

They guide your response to the markets in the ever-evolving moment of now.

Hi, Ed! How are you? I hope you're well. It's been a while since I used to send frequent e-mail to FAQ. I guess I am letting go of my 'incorrigible pattern'. I feel I still have some minor work to do anyway.

Over the past several weeks I have been doing several back-tests on a system I wish to put on-line as a long term investment vehicle for myself. Owing to the constrictions of a small account, I will be limited to 6 instruments (currency pairs) in the portfolio.

In the backtest process I took the necessary precautions to test for robustness of the strategy against a portfolio of diverse liquid futures markets for the last ten years, and I also made several experiments of rolling optimization so as to simulate the transition from back-testing into actual trading.

My strategy is based on a Donchian type support and resistance system with a trade direction filter. I have chosen the Donchian model because I feel that it's the most reliable and robust one.

Although I conducted tests with other models, such dual moving average crossovers and Bollinger band breakouts, in a hope to use two different models, I have found that they are not as effective and robust as the Donchian type. As a matter of fact, I wonder why so many traders like dual moving average crossovers, as I feel they are anything but robust trading models.

My research is practically done by now. I have attached two equity graphs for comparison: one is for 6 instruments in the period of 1996-2009, with a MAR ratio of 0.97 (Sharpe ratio 1.02), and the other is for 4 instruments in the period of 1980-2009, with a MAR ratio of 0.87 (Sharpe ratio 0.92).

The equity curves are not quite smooth, but I feel it's the best I can achieve with a limited portfolio while keeping the strategy robust.

One aspect of this system design process I am quite aware of, is that future actual performance may certainly be different of backtest results, and the future optimal parameters set might be different from today's values, as markets keep changing.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Your total system comprises your mechanical system that generates trades and your emotional system that deals with the results.

In general, for a simple robust system such as some solutions of the Donchian method, the parameter set seems to work, more or less, over extremely long time frames - if and only if you can stick to it.

You might consider taking your feelings about <tinkering with your system> to Tribe.

Tinker

A tinker is, originally,

an itinerant tinsmith.

A tinker's dam is, originally

a piece of wet bread

useful for arresting the flow

of hot metal.

In system trading,

a tinkerer

is generally an itinerant trader.

A tinkerer's damn

is an expression of remorse

at not following a signal.

Clip: http://forum.mflenses.com/userpix/

Monday, January 26, 2009

Trouble With SVO-p


Hello Ed,

Thank you for your proof read on my project for publication on FAQ.

I like how your study is coming along.

For an SVO-p approach, you might try something along these lines ...

I feel regret and remorse in my chest as I keep replaying the trade over and over, changing the script so that I am buying the bottom instead of selling it.

 

My mental revision works only for a while to keep out the sad truth which keeps rising in my chest and then flooding in over the dam of my wishful delusions.

 

The awful truth is, my trade stands alone, with the dubious distinction of marking the exact bottom of  the move.

 

Now, as the price swiftly rises, with me short instead of long, the feelings of anger and frustration rise with it ... etc.
 

Monday, January 26, 2009

Getting Clear on Trading Software

Ed,

My intention is to trade long term trend following systems such as Michael Covel's "Trend Following" book describes.

I intend to use the software I  am writing to operate a successful trading business, trading my own accounts. I do not intend to market the software and technology or be a software vendor.

I am funding the R&D myself. My work on this project is ongoing, off and on for over 10 years, between various contract / consulting jobs.

I am not trading now. I am in the process of establishing software, technology and a system that I'm compatible with, have confidence in, can trade and stick to.

Thank you for sharing your process.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Goal and Process

Dear Ed,

I've been trying to work out which of the following approaches to life gives the most life enhancing results:

1) focus on work, exercise, diet, meditation, visualization - etc. i.e. focus on the PROCESSES of life.

2) focus on the end results, the specific snapshot intentions, i.e. focus on the OUTCOMES I want.

You might consider taking the feelings of <process orientation> and <goal orientation> into the Polarity Process.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sunday, January 25, 2009

IV Tribe Meeting Series Coming Up

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the head's up reminder. I am in DC for a funeral and a little behind on my reading. I am making progress but it's been a month of unpredictable distractions.

I recently read the part about how we as a society are terrified of rejection, try to avoid it, and get a k/not.

I am trying to be grateful for every experience, pleasant or not. I have experience with this idea of "saying yes to everything" but I am out of practice.

Unsure when you want to start next tribe, I recall you said this year sometime. Let me know if it's soon and I will finish the book ASAP.

Thanks,

I offer my condolences and prayers on the passage of your friend.

I, too, am grieving about the passage of Capitalism, the funeral of which is also in DC.

Part of the effective way to fix things is to stop trying to fix things,

I am starting up a new series of Tribe Meetings in Incline.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

FAQ Reference to a Specific City
 

Ed,

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Apprenticeship

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Support and Resistance System TSP Project

Ed,

I am working on the support and resistance system in your TSP project and I am having difficulty understanding how you calculate your entry points.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Interventions

Ed,

I send you the report of my visit to IV and the consequences.

The Vice-Head of the Dept. of Psychiatry of our University attends his first TTP meeting last Friday.

The trend is strong, time to start pyramiding up!
 

My visit to Incline Village: The meeting is scheduled for 5:00 PM. I tell Ed that I will arrive at 4:45 PM. I park my car at Ed´s house at 4:44 PM. It is a feat, after travelling for 20 hours and covering 5.500 miles. I finally meet Ed in person, experience the glorious view of Lake Tahoe from his living room, and see its legendary dish washer in action.

The first hot seat: We are four. I am the first on the hot seat. I bring an issue in which I worked with my tribe, but without success (see Monday, December 8, 2008 “Breasts, Management and Embarrassment”). In the weeks after the meeting I still feel a pressure on my stomach each time I receive emails from Professor A and Doctor B (two women, I am a man). I do not like the pressure on my stomach: I hate this feeling. I experience the pressure when I feel “I am going to have problems and experience anger”. Emails from A and B usually mean problems. When I concentrate on the pressure on my stomach, I develop the form “ducking and bending my wrists”. Ed asks me thoroughly about the issue. We find the problem: when I am a little child my mother and my grandmother fight about me and try to keep me for themselves. I do not experience a relationship which favors growing, but I rather feel like an object which two women try to keep for themselves. I react with anger, withdrawal and tiredness: I get myself to sleep, or get mad, or run away.

We do a role playing: one tribe member plays my mother and another plays my grandmother. They fight for me and try to keep me for themselves. They hug and cuddle me and try to convince me to go with one of them. I am confused and not know what to do. Ed plays my father; he provides me a rock with the resources “anger”, “withdrawal” and “go to sleep”. I realize that they are not helpful. I see that I use the rock each time people treat me not as a person but rather as an object, or if they try to impose me their will, or if they do not respect me: in these cases, I get mad or I withdraw.

Ed asks me several times if I want to get rid of the rock. I am not certain. I am surprised about this uncertainty, but I understand: I have been acting this way for about 4 decades.

Finally, I firmly reject the rock. Ed tries several times to give it to me, and I use the chance to improve my English: I shout loud several four letter words while rejecting the rock.

In a second role playing, I receive a new rock. It contains the new resources:

“I take a deep breath and think about a better reaction”,

 

“I firmly tell them my opinion”,

 

I laugh at them and see that they are ridiculous”,

 

“I ask them about their feelings”,

 

“I share my feelings with them”,

 

“I tell them that I don't play their game, stand up and go”,

 

and also “I get angry”, which can be useful under certain circumstances.

My “mother” and my “grandmother” try to hug me and cuddle me. I firmly reject them; I tell them that I love them, but that I don't like the physical contact and the feeling of being an object. I ask them to share their feelings with me. Both are surprised and sad and feel it impossible to hug me! I share my feelings with them, and they with me.

Ed asks me to commit to apply the new resources, and after some hesitation I do it. I release the Tribe members from their roles and we check out.

Intermezzo: I return to my city. I still feel the pressure on my stomach, and still do not like it. However, when I go into the feeling, the old form “ducking and bending wrists” (anger) is no more there.

The following days I observe a substantial increase in the need of my wife for physical contact with me. The change is remarkable, since the lack of physical contact substantially affected our relationship in the last years. Aha.

Ten days after the hot seat I have a meeting with Professor A, Doctor B, and two other members of the Faculty. Our group has a problem regarding a research project. The Faculty evaluated the issue and decided that A and B made a serious mistake, and that I am right. Now, A and B try to make me responsible for the mistake. I am immediately under massive attack. A and B are full of reproaches and accuse me of incompetence and of blocking the project. I feel fear: It is the pressure on my stomach. My hands sweat and my throat and mouth are extremely dry: in fact, I can barely speak. I try to explain my point of view, and they keep attacking me. I take a deep breath (a new resource) and tell them,

"See, I am here to try to solve a problem with you. However, I feel that you are here to attack me. Please tell me what you want to do. If you want to resolve the problem, I stay. If you keep criminalizing me, I leave” (another new resource).

Shortly after that, A receives a phone call and leaves the room (it seems to me that she cannot handle my new responses, and someone helps her by calling her away…). B stops attacking me and we look for a positive solution. When A returns, she changes her strategy: this time, she does not use “fear” but “anger”. But I have worked on my “anger” issue in IV! I really enjoy her being angry. I ask her if she is angry at me, or at the situation. I ask her to share her anger with me. She is confused and does not know what to say. I keep on enjoying her being angry at me. It is FUN!

After 90 minutes I see that we are not going to find a solution, I stand up and leave the room. I feel that they are ridiculous and I don't want to waste my time with them (another new resource). Furthermore, my Tribe is waiting for me. I don't care about the problem anymore: The Faculty has decided that I am right, and I feel that A and B only want to generate drama. Well, this is not my issue.

The second hot seat: I feel a lot of “fear” during the meeting with A and B, and I bring the issue to my Own Local Tribe, one hour later. First, I ask for a process manager: several Tribe members have themselves a problem with “fear” and hence cannot help, but another member is ready and volunteers.

This underlines the importance of having a larger Tribe. I go deep into the pressure on my stomach, and this time “ducking and bending wrists” does not appear. Instead, I am scared and afraid. We increase the form. I go into an embryonic position; I cover my eyes and shout. I am in panic. The process manager prompts me to freeze the form and to increase the feeling. At this point, I experience an explosion of joy and start laughing loud.

I think about A and B. They are RIDICULOUS! They are trying to scare ME! It is LAUGHABLE! I start shouting “Boooooh, boooooooh! I am afraaaaaaaaaiiid!” and keep on laughing. I discover that I really like the pressure on my stomach. Fear is FUN! Fear is COOL! Fear prevents you from doing silly things, or from taking too much risk (I handle stock options and experience a huge daily volatility, which generates, well, feelings of fear…I also start risky personal projects which lead to feel, of course, fear…).

Experiencing “fear” is good, while feeling afraid is useless. I enjoy the pressure on my stomach: It is a sensual feeling. I keep on rubbing my stomach and enjoying it, while I say “hmmmmm, hmmmmm”.  I like experiencing fear! I go back to the child I was and comfort him: He does not need to be afraid, I am more experienced and I can take care of him (as I write these words, I feel a pouring of emotion and my eyes fill with tears).

I also realize that the feeling of fear I had as a child was, in fact, loneliness. At night, I was not afraid: I needed company, and nobody was there. But a child is not able to differentiate the feelings and tells the parents “I am afraid of the monsters in my room”. They respond “There are no monsters, you don't need to be afraid, go to bed”…I suggest the FAQ readers to think carefully about this.

I feel deep compassion for A and B: They manipulate people with fear and anger instead of constructing positive personal relationships. They have a very bad reputation among Faculty members. Just two poor women…

I keep on imagining that I receive emails from them: I still feel the sensual pleasure on my stomach. I LOVE fear and look forward receiving more emails from them!

I also recognize the efforts of the press, the government, the media…to manipulate people using fear.

I want to sleep a couple of times to let the new resources affirm.

Conclusion: I sleep three times since the hot seat. I feel that the issue is resolved. I like the feeling in my stomach. It informs me about danger; it prevents me from taking unnecessary risk. Today there are no new emails from A or B in my mailbox. In the night there will be no monsters under my bed also.

It was a complex issue, taking three hot seats to resolve. I see that “fear”, “anger” and “loneliness” were intertwined. This is likely the reason for the limited success of the first rock process. But cutting the first knot with the IV Tribe opened the way for further resolutions. I still need a fourth hot seat to work on loneliness.

I thank my Tribe and the IV Tribe for their unceasing support. I cannot express my gratitude in words.

Warmly yours,

Thank you for sharing your process.

Perceiving Monsters Under the Bed ...

... May be a Way to Express Desire

for closeness and nurture.

Clips:

http://lukadium.files.wordpress.com/

2008/04/5.jpg

http://www.healthcompass.co.uk/

breast%20feedingStock_000005758168

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Workshops

Hello Ed,

I would like to participate in the workshops that combine the Tribe format with the preparation of a plan for accomplishing a goal as mentioned on the TT website.

I am sensing interest in having another Workshop.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Wants Advice About Advice
 

Hello Ed,

Happy New Year!

I'm updating about the tribe in [City] after quite some time. We are now 5 regular members and meet once every 3 weeks for TTP and the snapshot / hardball processes. Members also recommend fellow tribe members books on spirituality, trading/business, motivational etc.

In our recent meeting, during the check out of a hot seat session, one of the receivers suggests "remedies" to the hot seat member about his "issues" that he takes to the hot seat.

Thank you for sharing your process.

In the TTP rocks process, we typically offer "advice" during a specific window in the process.

The conditions for offering advice are:

- Hot seat makes a conscious decision to  abandon his current rock and to consider resources of a new rock.

 

- Advice appears as suggestions for resources in the new rock.

 

- Hot Seat practices situational implementation of the resource.

 

- Hot Seat considers the resource and decides whether or not to include it in the rock.

Offering advice at the end of a process is likely to have little effect on Hot Seat, except to irritate him and to pull him out of process.

I can take the issue of <offering advice without solicitation> to Tribe as an entry point.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Forgetting / Losing Something
 
Hey Ed,

i have this problem with forgetting or losing something. it happens, that i just get out of my door and i open my bag again to check if i took some particular item with me.

i remember working on this with my tribe two months ago. but i think this repeated checking if i have everything with me is becoming more and more.

Thank you for sharing your process..

You seem to demonstrate mastery in using the resource [periodically check your inventory] to remember things.

You might consider taking your feelings about <wondering if its working> to Tribe.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Risk Management - By the Book

You might consider trying this:

1. Get a couple dozen books together.

2. Guess the maximum number of books you can safely carry up and down a flight of stairs with your eyes shut.

3. Try it out and see what happens.

4. Repeat from step 2, until risk management mastery appears.

Risk Management Theory

appears in books.

Risk Management

appears in the gut.

Clip: http://www.hofstra.edu/images/

lib_news_book_deliver.jpg 

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Checking In

Hi Ed,

I am pleased to be in touch again. I see your son is doing great and already a young man. I have a girl, , and a boy, and they are just a few years younger than yours were when I first met them. Time flies. I am still in [City], trading away, always trying to balance between embracing change and remaining constant, like the proverbial willow.

Somehow, age has helped me in this pursuit, at least I humbly hope so. I often think of you and miss you and your wisdom - over they years much of what I did not recognize at the time as a lesson comes back to echo in my ears! I am interested to learn about you and what you have been up to.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Potholes on Steroids - Video

Ed,

We have it easy. Watch this power point presentation about the situation in the USSR.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Pain In The Neck
 

Ed,

Sometimes TTP has delayed effects on me. The morning after our last Tribe meeting, I wake up with a stiff neck. Something about the expression, "stiff-necked," bothers me. I look it up and read a story about early Israeli traders whose chief breaks off communication for forty days. The traders reach an uncle point, jump their system and go long gold and cattle -- with near-disastrous results. I find the story deep and instructive on many levels. The pain in my neck continues.

Over the next days, I read more about Moses. His parents abandon him as a baby. He has a k-not around attachment and spends his life running away, first from Egypt to Midian, then back to Egypt, then from Egypt. Moses returns to Egypt when the old Pharaoh dies. The young Pharaoh can't grieve for his late father. Pharaoh has k-nots around sadness, grief and letting people go. He engages Fred, Moses and Aaron to help him experience these feelings in a drama of such epic proportions that 3500 years later billions of people know about it. My neck still hurts.

I find a video clip of Jesse Brooks singing "Go Down Moses" in the movie Sullivan's Travels. As he sings, wardens march a chain gang into his church. I break down and start crying. I see myself at age 12, a refugee from <country>, a modern-day house of bondage.

I keep crying. I see myself at age 5 when my father abandons me. I keep crying. I see myself growing up with a mother to whom I am a burden, a tax on her well-being. She treats me like a receptacle for feelings she doesn't like. I must take her feelings locked up so she doesn't have to experience them. If I let them out, or if I let my own feelings out, terrible things happen.

I keep crying. A wave comes over me and I go under. I see myself as a prisoner and slave. Someone who is worthless. Someone who deserves nothing. I keep crying. I feel sadness so strong I cannot describe it. I keep crying. I let go of my myth of a happy childhood. I let go of a myth that I had a childhood.

Thank you for sharing your process and for being willing to work through your issues.

Resisting Feelings ==> Pain

Experiencing Feelings ==> Growth

Clip: http://drreeves.com/Neck%20

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Riddle

Ed,

Here is a riddle for you.

Thank you for your well wishes.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Marathon Goal Achieved
 

Ed,

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Million-Billion-Aire

Good morning Mr. Seykota,



I know you are a busy man and I do not want to take too much of your time. I myself am a 26 year old guy from [City]. I have been teaching myself about every different type of market since I was about 16. For awhile now I have been really researching and learning about the currency markets.

Thank you for sharing your process.

You might consider interviewing some successful long-standing traders to find out how many go for strings of 20 pips per day vs. 5% of equity.

You might find that they realize an adverse price move of 100 pips (perhaps a gap on news) can create a 100% drawdown.

You might find the easiest way to become a millionaire might be to do nothing and let the impending currency inflation propel you into the six-figure-and-beyond club.

An Honest Day's Pay

for an honest day's work.

Clip: http://balabeach.com/balabeachblog/

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Flirting

Hi Ed,

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to meet you and to participate in the meeting. I tried the new way of communicating yesterday, and I just sat down to a table of two stranger girls, and started to talk with them.

Thank you for sharing your process and on your breakthrough success with making contact.

Some Fishermen

are in it for the sport

and typically throw back the catch.

If you wish to extend your experience

past the catch and release stage,

you might consider taking your catch home

and collaborating to cook up

something delicious.

Clip: http://www.fishheadquarters.com/albums/

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Right Feeling in the Right Place

Sir,

does feeling always precede conscious mind?? Or does Fred always go before Conscious Mind?

I notice you still say "Fred" (firstly) and "Conscious Mind" (secondly). So, can we also manufacture Wisdom by using "Conscious mind" (firstly)with "Fred" (Secondly)??? CM and Fred still work together but not in the same time.

In other words, can I use my Conscious Mind to provoke the right feeling at the right place (I now totally agree that all feelings have positive intention)??
 

For example, if I feel too much trust on myself, can I then use my Conscious Mind to provoke or set off FEAR in order to control my risk??

Because when I feel invulnerable, I think that I don't need to control risk!! So in that case, the best way to act Wisdomly is to feel FEAR even though I may don't feel it instantaneously. So I have to set off FEAR thank to conscious mind.

Yours faithfully.

In the TTP model, emotions arise automatically in response to situations; emotions go on to trigger automatic responses according to resources.  We call a bundle of emotion-specific response resources a rock.

Feelings are our conscious awareness of our emotions.  Experiencing is the act of consciously processing feelings and generating wisdom.

Yes, you can change your feelings by conscious thought. You can also change them with drugs, alcohol and distractive drama.

We call the practice of changing feelings without addressing the underlying situation "medication." 

Friday, January 16, 2009

Inflation Concerns

Dear Ed,

While you are engaging your "if only" imaginings, you  might consider the pre-1913 (Federal Reserve Act) situation in which we have no central banking authority; a system of competing local banks carries out the business of regulating credit.