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Reader Says |
Ed Says |
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Defending Publik Skools Dear Ed, In our last Trading Tribe Meeting, we discuss our progress toward completion of our projects and achieving our snapshots. The chief notices that he is giving advice and stops himself. He says that he notices he is giving advice and that we do not give advice in Trading Tribe. I respond by thanking him and saying it's ok. I say that I know what he means and that I am totally fine with it, no need to worry. I feel that his advice is genuine, caring and respectful (I.e. he is not telling me what to do, but just offering suggestions on what might work). Now I reflect back on that. I feel that I often welcome the advice of others. It gives me ideas and things to ponder. I don't see it as a threat nor feel any discomfort. Instead I welcome it as a resource to help me reach my own goals. After all, we are hear to support each other. Given the context above, can you offer any guidance about when "giving advice" within a Trading Tribe is appropriate and when it might not be? Also - on another topic; I read your response to the following FAQ entry from August 13: Thinks TTP is a Cult. In particular the following sentence: "I don't know of a blog where people who go to public schools report improvement in their lives." I sense your disdain for public schools. Your reply seems to imply that public schools to do not help to improve people's lives. I want to ask if you might re-consider the value of public schools to individuals and society. For example the learning I do in public schools (reading, writing, math, science, literature, languages, etc...) is ample evidence for such improvement in my life. Smile emoticon Thanks as always for your support, |
In general, I refrain from providing specific advice for current
situations, particularly the "you should" type of advice.
I do suggest, during the Rocks critical incident process, that people consider implementing resources such as sending and receiving feelings and testing for willingness. Once Hotseat implements these resources, they seem quite able to generate specific advice for their own current situations. ----- If you know of such a blog (where people report substantial personal breakthroughs at public schools) please send me the URL. I hold that you can find excellent teachers in all kinds of schools - including public ones. I observe that, in general, private sector solutions are generally more efficient, more caring, more motivating, more innovative, less corrupt and less coercive than public sector solutions. My reply does not, in any way, suggest that public schools do not help improve people's lives; it suggests that making more schools accountable is likely to improve all of them and that competition implements accountability. My own research indicates the best predictor for student success is, far and away, parental involvement. The second best predictor is the intention of the principal. You might consider noticing what Governor Christie is doing with the New Jersey public school system and/or viewing this video of people advocating for bigger and smaller government. You might consider taking your feelings about <public and private solutions> to Tribe.
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Searching in Nevada Hi, I recently moved to Nevada and would like to know if there are any opportunities in the area to learn about trading from Mr. Seykota. Thanks. |
You might consider reading through FAQ, reading my book, joining a Tribe and attending a Workshop. | |||||||||
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Monday, September 27, 2010 Positive Intention of Boundaries Hi Ed I hope all is going well for you. While exploring "What is the Positive Intention of Boundaries?" for a day the following qualities became evident. 1. People feel safe-establishes a buffer between you and the world. 2. Intrusion protection. 3. People know how close to get to you -i.e. 1 foot or 3 feet. 4. Protection of private property. 5. Protection of family. 6. Protection of home/yard, city, state, country and scope of jurisdiction/ responsibility. 7. You feel comfortable. 8. Job description - don't overreach professional license or responsibilities. When people talk about boundaries in general they may say something about - needing space, setting limits, determining acceptable behavior or creating autonomy. A definition of a boundary states "it is the ability to know where you end and where another person begins." I particularly agree with this statement. "....when you know where you end and others begin, you can then closely engage with others because you won't feel overwhelmed or unprotected. Having a sense of autonomy prevents the need to distance ourselves from others with a barrier." Surprising to me to learn is that the term "positive intention" is first used in Systems Theory. Light can shine into darkness. We just need to find what is obstructing the light....to paraphrase Robert Diltz from the article Bringing Light Into Darkness The Principle of Positive Intention. |
Thank you for sharing your process. | |||||||||
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Monday, September 27, 2010 6:53 PM Tribe Report: Learning to Ramp Emotions Up and Down Ed, We first check in and then report on what we have experienced the last two weeks. I report I feel better than I have in years and smile often. I feel like some weight has been lifted off me that I have been carrying around for a very long time. Next we report on our projects. I report I have completed mine. I have started trading again after a very long time and am profitable. This has been my desire for quite some time and I have accomplished this in this series. We then ask if anyone has an issue they want to work on. One member has a feeling that bothers him. As he gets into this feeling he remembers an incident that happens when he is a child. His parents are arguing and just as he comes into the room he hears his dad yell at his mom that he never wanted the son to be named after him. Hearing this he feels very bad and just shuts down and leaves the room feeling that way. We check to see if he is willing to alter this pattern or if he wants to keep this way of doing things. He states he wants different results. I notice in these sessions the tribe checks for willingness from the participants several times at different stages of the processes before continuing with the hot seats. We role play different resources he may use. He tries role-playing the incident again but this time he tells the father how he feels. Then he ask the father what he is feeling. This hot seat ends with the father hugging the son and the son being able to let go of all these emotions he has been holding onto for years. I notice later in the night how relaxed he looks now and the big smile he now has on his face. In the middle of his hot seat I remember times when I was young where I feel small, insignificant and unwanted. I report this in the checkout of this hot seat. The next hot seat a woman discusses a way of relating with her husband where he ask her a question and then he gets upset when she ask him to clarify his question because it is not clear to her what he actually means. As she gets into how that feels for her she remembers an incident from her teen years where her sister moved out of the house while her parents were gone out of town. When her parents came home they started yelling and blaming her for her sisters actions and wanted to know why she had not stopped the sister from moving. They were yelling at her why did you not call us, why didn't you call the police etc. She ended up screaming at them "what do you want from me" and leaving the room to go to her bedroom and cry. I played her part in the role-play and when the parents started in on me it did not take long before I felt pressure in my head and intense frustration. I yelled "what do you want from me" and left the room. We then role-played different resources. In the heat of their yelling I told them how I felt then later I ask them how the were feeling. This worked very well at calming down the tension level and being able to talk and relate with each other. With coaching from the process manager I came to realize that every time I blamed them, made them wrong for what they said or did, tried to argue with them or ask why, the emotions and intensity ramped up and every time I told my feelings or ask them what they were feeling the intensity went down very quickly. It was interesting to see the difference. She tried out the new resources for herself and she seemed to like them although she said she felt awkward using them at first. |
Thank you for sharing your process and your report.
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Monday, September 27, 2010 Permission to use Photo Dear Sir, i am writing to seek your permission to use the photo of lung with tar at your website for the presentation at school of my son. thanks and regards, |
I do not generally own the rights to the illustrations on my
site. You can contact their owners by tracking the
attributions below the illustrations. In general you may reproduce illustrations, without royalties, for non-profit educational purposes, as long as you do not harm the owner. |
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Monday, September 27, 2010 3:14 AM Implementing Tribe Projects Dear Ed, I attach an updated TTID for the Amsterdam Tribe - would you please replace the existing one on your website ? Our tribe formerly meets at a spiritual center sympathetic to catharsis / noise. However, after one meeting with a couple of particularly explosive Hot Seats, we are no longer welcome, so I check out several amplified music rehearsal studios. We now meet at MuzyQ, a new purpose-built studio building, where we rent a great studio in which we can make as much noise as we like. There's even a drum set - useful if someone forgets their drum ! You may notice in the TTID that inspired by the reports from Austin, we start the Project Process for our Fall series of meetings. A member collates notes on this process from the Austin reports and we all present our Processes to the group, receiving help / feedback to define and describe them in a clear and congruent manner. More to follow on this via FAQ. A presto ! |
Thank you for sharing your process and for your TTID update. | |||||||||
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Learning to Ride Ed, I am feeling exposed (probably not a feeling). I have never opened myself up before. Last week I attend my first Tribe Meeting. I feel like an interloper and am fearful that the Tribe members will resent my presence. I am anxious and shy because I don’t know what to expect and I don’t want to embarrass myself or the Tribe Leader. I am, by virtue of my profession (and probably other factors), very attached to the causal model. I am used to being in control of the information I provide and the image I project. Also, I am an avid practitioner of the arts of skepticism and cynicism (fundamental building blocks of my personal fortress walls). I read the Trading Tribe book and think the results presented are quite remarkable, but it is difficult to imagine applying the principles to my life. It’s kind of like reading about how to ride a bicycle when you’ve never put your fingers around the handlebars. At the Tribe Meeting, the first tribe member on the Hot Seat describes feelings of rejection and failure to connect with his father. I am enlisted to participate in the role playing exercise. This Tribe member’s situation particularly resonates with me as there are many parallels with my own personal experience. As we are acting out the interplay between his father and his mother, I have a clearer understanding of the dynamics of my family’s relationships. I am very happy when the tribe member is able to tell his father he loves him and the feeling of love is reciprocated. The second Tribe member on the Hot Seat relates her feeling of never being able to meet her parents’ expectations. She relates two situations in which her parents demand more of her than she is able to give. During the role playing exercise, she reenacts a situation in which she becomes responsible for the actions of her sister. Her parents make her accountable for her sister’s behavior. She feels inadequate and extremely frustrated. The experience resolves for her when she is able to tell her parents how she feels and they, in turn, tell her their feelings. During the Tribe Meeting, I am able to observe what it is like to ride the bicycle. After the meeting, the Tribe Leader bluntly tells me that I did not share a single feeling during the meeting. He is right. Since the meeting, I am feeling unaccountably excited and euphoric. There is a sensation of fluttering in my stomach and my heart is racing. I realize that feelings are part of a person’s essence and that one cannot really BE with another person without sharing feelings. I am learning to ride the bicycle, but I keep falling off. |
Thank you for sharing your process. You might consider taking your feelings about <letting others help you> to Tribe.
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Wants to Join Dear sir, Having read through your web-site and being an admirer of Mr. Seykota work I very much like to be a member. I attach a copy of application form I look forward to hearing from you soon Kind regards |
Please follow the instructions for preparing your TTID. | |||||||||
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Sunday, September 26, 2010 Humiliation Dear Ed, I report about my visit to the Austin Tribe, which I attend as pollinator. In the first part of the meeting the Tribe members report about the developments in the last two weeks. They consistently observe improvements in interpersonal relationships and advances in their projects. A Tribe member describes his feelings regarding his wife and turns very emotional; his eyes are full of tears. We just encourage him to stay there and experience the feelings, whichever they are. It turns into a spontaneous hot seat. After some minutes the Tribesman reports experiencing a new sensation; he describes it as “the receiving zone”, where he is fully open for the feelings of other people without judgment. I feel connected to his experience and am really happy for him to make this discovery. In the FAQ I find reports of similar experiences (Monday, July 6, 2009 “Tribe Meeting Report” and Monday, July 13, 2009 “From Control to Intimacy”). After a break, where we enjoy a fantastic meal, a Tribesman is willing to work on an issue. He bought software from a company, but it does not work as stated by the salesman and is useless. The Tribesman feels angry and betrayed. I offer to manage his process. During the hot seat, the Tribesman experiences the feelings of sadness, anger and betrayal. He associates these feelings with the suicide of her mother as he is 4 years old. He goes into his forms, which I remember as ducking, tension in his chest and neck, rubbing his head, and feeling stabbed in his back. As I observe his forms, what I see are not his feelings, but his fight and struggle against a feeling that he does not like. In my own Tribe, at this point we encourage Hot seat to experience his resistance and mention that it is possible to keep on fighting or to give up resistance, and ask Hot seat about his preferences. Then, we encourage him to do exactly what he wants to do. But this is not my Tribe and I decide to carry out the process not as I usually do, but as I think that this Tribe does. With the support of the Tribe I help Hot seat to experience his forms of “sadness”, “anger” and “betrayal”. However, I strongly feel that the process is leading nowhere. After 70 minutes Ed makes me aware of the unusual duration of the hot seat. I ask him about his opinion of how to carry on. Then, the Tribe implements a Rock process and provides Hot seat with new resources. The reader can find several descriptions of this part of the Process in the September FAQs. Here, I describe my own feelings and the experience. After the process, Ed mentions that keeping a person in his forms for a long time results in a suppression / anesthesia of the feelings, the same as a cathartic / abreactive procedure. I recall him saying that what I do contributes to the zombification of persons. He is very careful in mentioning that I am doing a great job by helping Hot seat to get in touch with his feelings, and that in his experience, this method does not lead to the resolution of conflicts, but rather to a medicinal use of TTP, where Hot seat keeps on presenting the same issues for months and developing signature forms, which he repeats at each meeting. I have myself an issue; at the start of the meeting I announce that I want to work on it, but the Tribe has an agreement of finishing meetings at 11:00 PM, and I do not get to take the hot seat. During the checkout, I mention my disappointment about this. To me, this meeting opens several technical and personal questions. The following days Ed and I have several conversations about methods. I understand and accept Ed's views and experience; however, I recall that many times just giving up resistance / judgment of a feeling resulted in huge, life changing AHAs, and that Hot seat frequently finds himself spontaneously new proactive resources. Furthermore, in follow-up after several months I recall Hot seat reporting that the issue does not return. Therefore, I find it difficult to integrate Ed's experiences and my own. I feel uncertainty. And second, to me the experience in Austin recalls the feelings I have during a workshop: I arrive feeling good and happy about my ability to help people and the Tribe cheers me about my good work. But as I manage a process and listen to the observations about the way I do it, I experience pain, anger, humiliation and being left outside. It is curious: Ed is interested in seeing how I manage a process. However, I decide to do it not as I usually do, but in the way that I think this Tribe carries out processes. By trying not to experience being criticized or left outside, I get exactly these feelings. I decide to take these issues to the hot seat. I am very thankful to Ed and the Austin Tribe for this experience, for his acceptance, and his support. Best regards, |
Thank you for sharing your process. You might consider taking your feelings about <humiliation> to Tribe.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010 10:39 PM Benefits of Tribe Participation - Dealing with Sadness and Death Ed, I participate in the Austin tribe. I experience deep sadness and it is ok. I learn to enjoy sadness and smile at the same time. This feels very good to me. Last week my wife and I learn that one of her friends is killed in a car accident out of state while on vacation and her husband is in the hospital with a broken arm and ribs from this accident. My wife hears about this at work and calls me to pick her up from work as she don't feel she is any shape to drive she is so sad and crying so hard. I arrive at her work go inside and find her near the stockroom. I put my arm around her and we start out of the store. We go through shipping and receiving on our way to the back door when we stop and I sit on a table facing her. She cries and tells me how sad she is her friend is dead. I tell her that it is ok to feel sad when someone you care about passes away. I do not try to console or pacify her just look into her eyes and let her talk. She tells me how she feels guilty that they were supposed to go out to eat lunch but she has been too busy to do that with her. I do not interrupt her or offer advise just receive her feelings. She talks for about fifteen minutes. All of a sudden she stops, looks at me and tells me the store is closing and she is going to go close up her area. It is as if someone flipped a switch. She is fine now. She tells me to go home that she is fine and can drive herself home now. I drive home and think about how just letting her feel and express what comes up without judgment, trying to fix her or pacify her does wonders for her. She heals fast and is OK now. The husband gets out of the hospital and friends have a get together for him. We let him talk and share his feelings for his wife and about his future. As he shares his feelings his face lightens up and we can tell he feels much better just getting to express himself to people who care about him. This is a change for me. In the world I grew up in we did not share feelings. Our family just sucked it up and tried to keep going suffering along the way. I see the benefit of both sharing and allowing others to share with me. This Austin tribe has been the most powerful thing I have experienced. I thank Ed and my fellow tribe members. |
Thank you for sharing your process - and for the beautiful
example of healing by receiving.
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Saturday, September 25, 2010 Riding the Big Wave in Relationships Hi, Ed! How are you? It's been some time since I last visited the FAQ page. I have my trading system running since September last year. Still recovering from a drawdown but I feel it's fine and in line with back tests and what I expect from it: it's a long term, high leverage, trend following system. Reading the page about the Workshop, these new concepts caught my attention: The 39-th Day Effect Riding the Big Wave Zero-Variation Accounting Intimacy-Centric Relating Defining and Realizing Goals Qualifying Your Associates I have been trying to achieve an intimacy-centric relationship, or "romance" as I define it, in the context of a long term love relationship. So far still on a "drawdown" however: on June I and my ex-girlfriend broke up as I told her my feelings about the relationship we had, which I perceived as being mostly sexual and not having the kind of romance and emotional intimacy I am looking for. And recently I just got rejected after approaching and telling my feelings to a girl I was interested in starting a relationship with... Perhaps you will explain these "new concepts" in your new book as well? I wonder how they are connected to which other, such as defining a goal, going for it, living in the present, acknowledging feelings along the process, riding the "big wave"... I have found some books which I think might be helpful and are in line with the TTP principle of "right livelihood": Intimacy Factor, by Pia Mellody; For Women Only, For Men Only or For Couples Only, by Shaunti Feldhahn and Jeff Feldhahn (very focused on male/female feelings perspective and, most importantly, a couple who seems to live what they teach); Upfront & Straightforward, by Alan Roger Currie (who kind of equates dating to trend following, encouraging men to be upfront and straightforward about one's feelings and also to welcome rejection as "God's protection") Theory and talk aside, I understand it's very important to commit and live by these "principles" and teach by example, just like the aforementioned couple seems to do. Best wishes! |
Thank you for sharing your process. Control-centric relating is more about getting someone to do what you want; intimacy-centric relating is more about establishing a connection and then discovering common ground. I am planning to deal with these topics in my upcoming Austin Workshop. My book deals briefly with these topics, mostly with the economy and ways to relate to it. |
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Saturday, September 25, 2010 Translating The Trading Tribe Hi Ed. I am translating your book “The Trading Tribe” from English into [Language] (it's almost ready, just final editing is left). I have some experience in translating and personal growth too. I've translated nine C. Castaneda books and some works of J. Krishnamurthy, and for about 20 years I'm following path to the freedom. I don't know if You are familiar with that staff, but the main thing there is to learn how to stalk yourself, that is to clean yourself, dissolve your emotional fixations (or untie k-nots in your terms). In my own book I describe it in details and in few words it means that, when you encounter some challenge of perception and have some emotional reaction to it, then – with help of direct understanding that feeling that you are having right now is just your conditional reaction equal to any other (this understanding prevents judging) – by being that feeling, you watch it, observe it with full acceptance, embrace it, let your feeling grow up fully, than let it step by step diminish and disappear. The most difficult thing here, of course, is not to react to your own reaction, that is to avoid self-reflecting process. I've never thought that this self-cleaning can be group process, but now after reading your book I see that with friendly attention of others, usage of forms, Relentless Validation and Field of Acknowledgement it is infinitely more effective. Yes, Forms Process is your real finding. And it is completely in compliance with the truth that outer manifestations always reflect inner state. You really have useful, deep and priceless findings, thank you very much! Another thing is that I'm trader. I trade for 3,5 years, read a lot about the subject, develop good profitable system and face the problem you very well describe – I'm unable to fallow my own rules. And here also your book helps me a lot – now I'm not only clearly define and see my problem, but also have a way to resolve (I hope so) this issue. I realize that real intelligence comes with awareness of our true motivation of any action (or inaction) and in this case your concepts “feelings you are unwilling to experience run your life” and “intentions = results” are really helping me in my trading. I already have my own Tribe. That is I have my few close friends who are really interesting in TTP and after they read your book we work with it. Really interesting… I want to tell you many good other things about “Trading Tribe” and discuss something (about the nature of k-nots in particular) but maybe later – I don't want to disturb you that much. It's really great book and extremely useful system! I have few questions to you now. What to do with my translation? I am doing it for myself and for my friends without commercial interest, but it would be great to publish your book here. I can connect some publishers or do it in any way you suggest. It would be good to run website like yours in Russian language later and maybe conduct workshops. I don't really know and I am too busy with my trading now. So let's begin with your book. PS: I am trying to write this letter in SVO-p, sorry for my clumsy attempt. ))) My best regards and thanks again for great gift! |
The process you describe is the Disappearance Process - that
demonstrates if you experience a feeling fully it tends to go
"to term" and disappear. If you hold that some feelings are good and some are bad (painful), then you might have a goal to make your bad feelings go away. This is the basis for much conventional psychology. I call it the "medicinal" approach to feelings management. To medicate feelings, you can use various psycho-tropic drugs (SSRIs), distractive drama, and also cathartic emotional abreaction, such as you can engineer by encouraging the appearance and disappearance of feelings and forms - by carrying them to term (to the zero point). In the "pro-active" approach, such as with variations of the Rocks process, we encourage the appearance of forms to the extent that hot seat is highly florid with emotion and then we find ways to link the associating feelings with pro-active resources. In the pro-active approach, we stop the cathartic process before hot seat fully discharges the emotion - so we can work with it. Some of the most potent pro-active resources are to connect with others, to share your feelings, to receive the feelings of others and to test for willingness. Staying in the now, respecting private property and thinking in terms of dynamic systems also seem useful. You might consider taking your feelings about <following rules> to Tribe.
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Friday, September 24, 2010 Rejection Hi Ed! Earlier today I made a presentation for my back-tests and I also tried to convince my managing team to invest in a better system. My boss who is fundamentally oriented was really hard in his criticism. He didn´t even let me finish the presentation. He doesn´t believe in it and he makes all the classical mistakes in his own portfolio (add to losers, no SL) and finally we were given less risk mandate so we had to liquidate a lot of our positions at awful losses. I can only come up with one sentence "If you can´t take small losses, sooner or later you will make the mother of all losses!". Anyway, I don´t give in for criticism but of course I feel hammered. He said I could do this in my spare time but there is not much spare time when you work a lot and have a family. I´m in this business because I think I can deliver. My boss just goes on and on about what do I have compared to [Nationality] quant people who works focused for 15 hours a day... I said it is not only about intelligence, also about discipline. Anyway, I won´t get anywhere with him. Some of the criticism is of course relevant but one of my colleagues was almost upset by the way he brushed me off. Today I don´t feel like going on the company party but maybe I will get in the right mood when we start with the party. I will continue my work but I better start using something more efficient than excel. It is easier to make a correct and reliable back-test with a system using a back-test framework. Thanks for listening. Regards, |
You might consider taking your feelings about <rejection> to
Tribe. In the Control-Centric model you try to convince people to change and to do it your way. In the Intimacy-Centric model you connect with your client and discover if you have common ground.
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Thursday, September 23, 2010 Tribe Report - Connects with Brother Hello Ed, During the last tribe meeting a professor from a prestigious European university joined our meeting. He cited studies he had done with individuals who had been through years of deep depression and demonstrated how dramatically they improved by using the Trading Tribe method (the intimacy-centric model). In most cases, a 50% improvement in their depressed moods was attained. He said he was trying to promote this idea to the professors in the psychology department at his college but, they wanted to see further studies. However, this instance does show signs of hope for a better way of coping with life's problems and maybe many more people can experience the profound positive effects that the trading tribe has to offer. Then this professor led a process for a tribe member. The tribesman had just experienced a troubling situation at work. He was in charge of purchasing a software package for his company that would combine many departmental functions together in order to increase productivity and improve business. He was assured by the software vendor that the product they offered could meet all of his specifications. After loading the software onto the company servers, the tribe member realized that the software had too many problems and was completely unusable. He spoke to the vendor's project manager and asked if the software could be re-engineered to his business's needs and they responded saying that they could not do that because the costs would be prohibitive. The tribesman was angry and felt betrayed by the software sellers. During his process, he related this situation to an incident in his childhood about the events surrounding his mother's death. He said he felt betrayed by her death and felt very isolated. During role playing, he was distant with his mother at first but, he learned how to relate his feeling to her and to receive her feelings as well. I had the privilege of playing his father who initially avoided his son. However, the tribesman started to share his feelings of loneliness, anger, betrayal, and isolation with his father. When he did that, his father began to relate some of the same feelings and gave his son a hug. Another role play was done for this tribe member regarding the purchase of the software from the vendor. When he original bought the software he learned that he could have warned the software company about the consequences if the product didn't work. He also learned it was okay to express his anger to the vendor for the inadequate software and to pursue a lawsuit to get his company's money back plus time he wasted trying to implement the bogus software. Again, the intimacy centric model allows for expression of anger in stead of shutting it down. Another tribe member expressed his feelings regarding an extremely harmful event his wife experienced. He went through his process and realized just how very sad he was for his wife and how deep his love for her was. He was able to show the pain and anguish he felt. He was able to experience the intimacy model to it's most profound levels. As a follow up, I finally met with my brother before the tribe meeting. I hadn't seen him in seven years and I was very happy to see him. The next time we meet he said he is going to bring a cousin that I haven't seen in seven years as well. I look forward to that. The wonders of TTP never cease to amaze me. Thanks, |
Thank you for sharing your process. | |||||||||
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Thursday, September 23, 2010 Tribe Meeting Report - Rape, Suicide and Remote Healing Dear Ed and Tribe, It is the day before the Tribe meeting and my wife tells me that while I’m gone she wants some time to be alone, so we make plans for our four-year-old son to be with her mom that day and to spend the night there. At the meeting I’m not sure what happens. I start sharing some of the TTP that my wife and are doing and some of the breakthroughs that we have. During this process some feelings come up and I’m on a spontaneous hot seat. I share the feelings of pain that I have when my wife tells me about being raped. It hurts. I don’t like the feeling I get and realize that I am not able to receive her fully. It hurts to feel her pain. Ed and the tribe support me in feeling the feeling that I don’t want to feel. I’m able to feel the feeling and create space to receive my wife. I go in and out of the feeling of creating space for my wife. Ed tells me that we all get raped. I feel Ed making space for me to feel my feelings. Ed tells me that she can feel me creating space for her, that she can feel it right now. I get a feeling of creating space that helps me get into the feeling of creating space and there is just space there. There’s not good or bad or any kind of judgment. I go in and out. I practice going into this state and creating space for my wife. I feel the support of the Tribe. The process ends. I’m not at all sure what happens. During check out Tribe members tell me they can feel my love for my wife. We take a break. I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror and see lots of broken blood vessels around my eyes and temples. I’m surprised. What just happened? The meeting resumes and another Tribe member takes the hot seat. He is working with some software for his company and feelings come up. He links his feelings to when his mother commits suicide by being in the garage with the car running. During his process, I feel spacey. I am amazed by his willingness and ability to stick with his process. He undergoes tremendous physical exertion for seventy minutes. He is in great physical shape and sticks with the process as a visiting TTP member manages his process. Ed steps in at the seventy-minute mark and starts applying resources. He continues his process and connects with his mother, father, and brothers. He is four-years old, almost five when this happens. And in the magic of the moment of now, he is four years old, and he talks with his mother and shares his feelings with her, and her with him. I’m notice that I’m going in and out of his process. I’m still spacey. I don’t know what is going on and I’m struggling trying to stay focused on his process. The meeting ends and I go to my car. I immediately call my wife and share my process with her. I tell her that I share with the tribe about her rape. She is cool with it. I’m surprised. She says that she really wants to talk with me. She says everything is OK and that she really, really wants to talk with me. We agree to talk the next day as soon as our four-year old son goes to sleep. I do not tell her anything about the other tribe member who takes the hot seat after me. I only tell her about my process. It is the next day. I practice going into the state of receiving. I find that I am able to get into that receiving place quite easily. It is now nighttime and our son goes to sleep. My wife and I go into the living room. I get into the state where I am open to receive her. She begins by telling me that during the day of the Tribe meeting she keeps getting waves of feelings rushing over her. She says the feelings come in waves. She is not one to use vulgarities, and she tells me she actually says out loud several times, “What are these feelings? What the fuck is wrong with me?” She says she has one particularly strong feeling that comes up. It’s a feeling she hasn’t had since high school. She says the feeling keeps coming up. She tells me that she would never act on the feeling. She says that she doesn’t want to tell me about the feeling because she doesn’t want me to think that I married “some crazy chick.” I just sit there and receive her. She continues talking but doesn’t tell me what the feeling is, and I don’t interrupt her to ask her what the feeling is. I just sit there and receive her. I notice that I’m really curious what the feeling is, but I don’t break the state that I’m in, and I’m OK with just receiving her. She says she keeps getting all kinds of feelings. The time is after nine p.m., and she says that she receives a “jolt.” She gets jolted, physically jolted. She needs to talk with our son. She calls him and she says that his normal voice and tone is different. He sounds serious. He says, “Mommy. I really, really love you.” She then tells me about the strong feeling that she feels that she hasn’t felt since high school. She says the feeling is a suicidal feeling. She says that she would never act on it, that it is just a feeling. It is a feeling she doesn’t like, but she is now willing to feel it. I ask her about the events associated with the suicidal feeling. She says she can’t really remember what leads up to the suicidal feelings, only that she is in high school, gets suicidal feelings, and goes out to the garage, gets in the car, and starts the engine. She contacts her sister at some point and her sister talks with her on the phone and gets her to shut off the engine. Her sister arrives and sits in the car with her and talks with her. They never talk about it again, and my wife doesn’t tell anyone else. She takes the hot seat at our next local tribe meeting. The process manager helps her and she goes into the feeling of inadequacy. It is a feeling she connects with many events. She gets comfortable feeling the feeling of inadequacy and, with the help of one of the tribe members she finds two positive intentions of the feeling of inadequacy: (1) it let’s her know areas where she can improve, and (2) let’s her know when someone is trying to manipulate her. The meeting is over and she goes into the bedroom alone to confront her attackers. She wants to do this alone. She stomps her feet and hits and kicks the bed while shouting, “No, no, no!” and “This is my body, my personal property!” She emerges from the experience in great spirits. She’s hungry and wants a pizza. I notice there is no longer such a long lag between me saying or doing something that she doesn’t like and her telling me about it. We both are sending and receiving each other more. We recognize more often now when we are simply exchanging K-nots. When we argue it’s like playing poker: I’ll bet you a K-not. OK, I’ll see your K-not and raise you some judgment. At least now we recognize that sometimes when we have disagreements, we are usually just soliciting from each other something that we don’t want to feel. And that once we get at the feeling and feel it, then the feeling dissipates along with whatever we are arguing about. I am thankful for Ed, the Tribe members, and the local tribe members for their willingness and support. Best, |
Thank you for sharing your process. | |||||||||
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Thursday, September 23, 2010 Tribe Meeting Report - Sending and Receiving Dear Ed, At the tribe meeting, the first member on the hot seat talks about receiving the feelings of his wife, in regards to a traumatic experience she had in college. It becomes clear that if he is able to express his own feelings, and experience his own feelings, he creates a space for his wife, so she can heal, and she can express her feelings as well. His ability to send and receive feelings, builds an environment of healing and acceptance for his wife to step into. I am impressed with the tribe member's willingness. The second tribe member on the hot seat feels frustrated and confused and betrayed by a recent turn of events in his business. This is the same feeling he has, as a four-year-old boy, alone in his driveway, watching family and paramedics try to resuscitate his deceased mother. No one pays attention to the boy, he is left out of any interaction in this scene. He is alone. I feel strong empathy for the boy. I want very much to go pick him up and receive his feelings. Through role play, the member is able to go back and send and receive feelings with his mother, father, brother, sister, and neighbor. He achieves a much different result and feels differently, more at peace with his family and with his business. Since this member's hot seat, I feel that same feeling of strong empathy several times. An example is a birthday party. My 3-year-old is eating a cupcake, alone, while the other children play. He is content, but I experience the feeling. I turn into it and I listen to it. I find that I enjoy the feeling. It allows me, in the moment, to feel a stronger connection with my child. I am continuing to send and receive feelings with the people around me. I talk to my boys about feeling frustrated. They receive me. The frustration, once I let myself experience it, and talk about how it feels, disappears. This frustration had been trying very hard to express itself for months, and in talking about it for five minutes with a first-grader and a three-year-old, it is gone. My wife and I have better, more emotionally honest communication than ever. I will continue to work at sending and receiving feelings with my family and loved ones. |
Thank you for sharing your process. | |||||||||
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010 Wants to Invest Hello Mr. Seykota, I read you interesting articles and thoughts on Bernoulli's issues and your arguments are interesting. Also, I had read 'Market Wizards' back in 1988 and still have the book today. While I don't work down at the CBOT any more, the markets are still fascinating. Do you take in new investors any more and if so, how much capital does one need? Kind Regards, |
Thank you for your inquiry. I base my choices about whom to accept as clients upon more than the amount of money they have. | |||||||||
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010 FAQ Typo Hi Ed, Just to let you know that in the application there is a minor error (September instead of December) in your Workshop information. all the best, |
Thank you for the catch. | |||||||||
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Wednesday, September 22, 2010 Tribe Meeting Update - Dealing with Embarrassment Good day Chief! Our Tribe meets last Saturday. New member (no-member) doesn't show up and next day excuses him self due to health problems. There is two of us attending the meeting. We start the meeting with project introduction and work on it's clarification. I introduce four projects to the Tribe. 1. I have Balanced/surplus family budget 2. I have Strong Trading system 3. I have clients 4. I am in a great physical shape With all my projects I describe to the Tribe my current situation, strategy on how I am going to achieve them and feelings associated with it. At the meeting I decide to create "I have clients" snap-shot I am CTA for two years now and have only one customer, a family member. I procrastinate on this task for a long time. I feel that I do not want to disappoint people. What if I fail? I do not feel that I am good enough. I describe my feelings in August 6th, 2010 Not Good Enough e-mail to TT FAQ's. I am ready to tackle this issue at our meeting. The other tribe member decides to work on a project of developing winning systematic trading approach. He just got back from seminar in [City] and seems to be very motivated to do the task. His current trading involves a lot of guess work. I see him slightly smiling when he describes his project and talks about how it would be trading a systematic tested approach. We both describe the strategies to accomplish our projects. We assist each other thru questions and suggestions with clarification of our projects. Once we are done we proceed to work on our snapshots. I do snapshot process with a TT Workshop graduate before. I describe the process to the other Tribe member. The process consists of drawing as vividly a picture of one-self living, achieving in moment of now desired specific goal and presenting it to the Tribe. Next step is for the Tribe to provide feedback to member about his snapshot. Based on the feedback members may change, adjust their snapshot. At the end the Tribe presents members snapshot as its own to the member.
I am standing in my office happy to close contract with couple of new investors. We all are happy. I am happy to offer my services to them I feel confident about my skills as a trader. They are happy to find a manager which offers what they are looking for. On the wall behind me is No 1. CTA of the Year award. Outside is a nice sunny day and the whole atmosphere is very pleasant. I feel in a flow - doing what I want - being a trader and being able to offer good service to people who enjoy doing something else then trading. I outline simple strategy to achieve this snapshot: * Experiencing the feelings in Tribe * Promote my business on CTA web sites * Increase traffic to my web site * Send information about my CTA business to [Name] * Find other web sites where I can promote my business * Prepare business presentation of my CTA business for friends, family and Financial advisors and planers from who accept my invitation * Submit my work to Ed * Report to Tribe and FAQ's about my progress Tribe other suggestions * add my trading program on a web site which allows small investor to mirror strategies of manager. My fellow Tribe members snapshot is of him experiencing trading success. He is floating in the middle of the ocean with his wife and son with no feet, no ground under them. There are dollars bills flying in the air and they all appear to have big zeros on them. I tell him that the picture seems unstable, fuzzy, not clear and I am puzzled by the dollar bills with only zeros on them. He makes attempt to write down a yearly return he wishes to make which also appears to be zero to me. He defends the picture claiming lack of drawing skills. I encourage him to keep it and if he likes it to put it in his office. He chooses to draw another picture. He sits at a table with his feet up and hands behind his head. He is smiling. He has a big window over looking the ocean behind him and chart on a wall showing very consistent returns over 10 years. It takes us a while to get to this point and it is getting late. He seems to have the essence of his snapshot on the paper but is still not finished completely. We go with this unfinished snapshot thru the process of describing, giving feedback and I present it to him as it is my own. He is satisfied with the snapshot. We continue the meeting with hot seats. I am taking my feelings of not good enough to the hot seat first. I recollect the situation when I feel this way very intensively. I start rubbing my head and ears and I feel a lot of heat. I shake my head, with resistance and discuss in my facial expression. My fellow Tribe member supports me. The feeling becomes very much like I feel when I am embarrassed, or feeling stupid. I really get into it. I do not seem to be able enjoy the feeling much until in a split of a second I burst into laugh. My fellow Tribe member wonders what happened. I experience the AHA moment. I see now clearly that avoiding the feeling of embarrassment is holding me back from having a strong system, from having customers, back from learning. I feel silly - happy embarrassed - trying to hide what I do not know and sometimes pretending to know more then I do. I see my self sharing my work and thoughts with Ed. It can be great learning and possibly feelings of embarrassment generating process! I thank my fellow Tribe member for support. He takes feelings of overwhelmed to the hot seat. He explains that his job is being constantly on the phone with customers. In addition he trades, conducts trading research, wants to take of the ground another brand new business and have some time for his family and him self. He is clearly hot as he gets into his forms very quickly grinding teeth breathing heavy making painful, angry faces. He is being pulled by his phone as he tries to pull back. I mirror him and several times he bursts into laugh. He is exhausted at the end. He has a clear AHA moment staring into distance and realizing he is the one who makes him self overwhelmed and that he is indeed in the control. He sits there shaking his head wondering how simple it is now. I sense that he understands him self better at this point without him describing it too much. I have been there. I know how it feels. Following the week after the meeting I get slammed by e-mails from my fellow Tribe member. He sends me clear description of what he wants to achieve, how is he going to do it and how is he going to measure it. I am so impressed by the documents that I consider to use the same form to keep up with my own goals. I can't wait to hear from him this week at the meeting. I encounter some technical issues past week and decide to get rid of my old falling apart computers. As I buy new ones I realize that the software I use for testing and trading developed by hired programmer is not working on this new machines. The programmer doesn't work for me anymore and so far I couldn't find anybody to pick up the work where he left it. He got a better offer some months ago, offer I couldn't match and left. I took his leave personally and got mad at him. So here I am freaking out and I feel very vulnerable and scared that all the work for past two years is now kind of lost and that I have to do a lot of things I had automated manually again. I finally decide to contact him. I feel embarrassed and stupid to ask him for help after I got mad at him. He helps me to set up the software on my new computers. We re-establish more normal relationship once again. I see my ability to go and talk to him as a direct result of being willing to experience embarrassment now. What a great thing this Tribe work! That is all from me this time. You all have a great time out there trading or not, I know I am. Thank you everybody for the reporting. Thank you Ed for your support and wisdom you so kindly share with us. |
Thank you for sharing your process. | |||||||||
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Tuesday, September 21, 2010 Machine Guns Hi Ed, Well I wasn't planning on buying a machine gun just yet, but instead planning to make a big pile of assets (rather than worthless paper money) so I can move out to some place where the situation is more pleasant. I think big cities could become dangerous places to live. If we are going into the next super depression, we have to be ready for it do we not? I have a loyal and dependable support team, working for free on a favor for favor basis, they get my trading expertise and code ideas and I get the programs written that I need. Then all of us get the benefit of a well written automatic trading system platform to use for life. So far its working very well, being part of a life changing project fills us all with optimism and purpose. The trading tribe is also working fine, only two hard core members and some who come and go. About 6 month ago a guy came along to the meeting had a record of 35 losing months in a row and 1 winning month ( this being the most recent month ), he was day trading the FT-SE100 with a 1 point deal cost and going for a £10 profit by way of a "one pound per point" spread betting method. If he took his 10 point win, he would pay 10% commission on it. I explained to him at length that his profit target to cost ratio would mean that having winning months regularly would be impossible. He remained adamant his system could work, and wanted to re-mortgage his house so as to be able to continue losing money. He just didn't get it. When we bet, we have 50-50 chance to win, then after deduction of costs and dealing spreads you end up with around a 49.5% chance to win, his model made this statistic unworkable. Incredibly just like you said in some article I read before, losing traders do not wish to transform themselves as that's what winning trades do. He only attended once, and we never heard from him again. On another issue, here is a little paradox for you. In all countries over the world it is illegal to make your own bank notes, as it increases the money supply, devalues the currency, and is essentially the same as theft. The federal reserve and other central banks are doing just that legally. During world war two the Germans got expert forgers in concentration camps to forge English pound notes with a plan to drop them over England in a plane, thus causing hyper-inflation, destroying the British economy and therefore making it easier to win the war. For some reason they never dropped them. I wonder if Bernanke is living out some drama passed onto him by his parents? A country destroying drama? Crazy. Here is a nice picture of the Zimbabwe stock index, as you can see the rise appears to begin from a level at around 10,000 and ends up going to 4million. If we see this kind of move in the US markets I have already figured out a way to get the profit without losing on the exchange rate from a dollar collapse. What I haven't figured out is what happens when they give up on the currency and use a new style dollar. I have not been able to locate historical data for this index, but would like to see it in a proper logarithmic scale.
Regards, |
Thank you for sharing your process. Let me know when you get further with your thinking about how to conserve your assets across a currency "re-styling." | |||||||||
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Monday, September 20, 2010 8:49 PM Goo to Go Dear Ed Seykota, In the September 18, 2010 item, Programming Language, Ed Says: If you goo beyond that, you might wish to hire a good programmer. I think you mean "go." |
Thank you for the catch. | |||||||||
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Monday, September 20, 2010 Farms and Machine Guns Ed Yes my comments seem contradictory in the Surprise, surprise post September 17th 2010. This is what I meant and in the order I expect it to happen. The whole economic problem is stated by many pundits as to being inexorably linked to with US house prices and the mortgages bundled up and sold off as a result of those. E.G if the US house prices fall again, then so do all those who funded the debts on those, and so do those who bought the derivatives of those, and so do Fanny and Freddie and many other banks around the world. As defaults on the option arms and alt-A mortgages are already over 50% before the teaser rate ceases and rate increase starts, it would seem likely that around 70% of these mortgages will default also. The subprime debt was around $1 trillion but the combined value of the option arms and alt-A's is around $1.5 trillion. Fanny and Freddie have been promised unlimited help from the fed, and surely once this 2nd down leg happens, they will have to print around another $1 trillion to "help out" the banks. ( 2nd wave down in real estate ) The increase in money supply after this will just be insane, and the decline of foreign purchasing of US bonds will reduce even further than it has already leaving the Fed as the only buyer of its own debt by way of printing more money, the dollar will fall through the floor and there you will get the hyper-inflation. (The big wave up in dollar priced energies, metals, grains etc.) Furthermore, this economic situation contains so many unprecedented scenarios that looking at historical comparisons does not give a scalable benchmark. I take the view that anything can happen in the markets and placing limitations on the magnitude of trends is a foolish activity usually adhered to by idiots ( Such as the "maximum option volatility expectation" of LTCM during the Russian debt default ) . They took the view that vols could not go any higher and sold put options heavily, also their model assumed prices would tick down in orderly 0.25 increments at a size and liquidity whereby they could exit losing trades with ease, without any big gaps. Even I could have told them that their idea was flawed. Amazing how they got awarded a Nobel prize for such a crappy system! The basic idea in my mind is that as this current economic situation is unprecedented, it figures logically that so will be ensuing trends. Just because gold has never been to 4,000 it doesn't mean it can't go there, and just because the dollar has never been 5 to the English pound, it doesn't mean it can't go there. If you had said the Roman empire would collapse back in the days when it was the world most powerful, probably people would have called you a fool. People will say I am fool after reading this post, but they belong in the "limited trend idiots" category together with LTCM....:) I am very concerned how the world will be in 5 or 10 years time after this debacle has panned out. The other day Jim Rogers made a scary comment when he was asked what would be a good investment, his reply was "Buy a farm and a machine gun". All this is news is unwelcome to most people, who prefer to bury their heads in the sand, me I am trying to understand it all and what it really means implies and how it will affect everyday life, which countries will suffer and which will remain strong, as people who don't prepare for it will surely have such a level of impoverishment that life will be hell for them. I will send you some video clips of the automatic system and the simulation-unit runs in a few weeks time, as its pretty interesting stuff. Regarding your learning curve with the new software, you might try opening up the old page design in the new program, and likely it will keep the same format, font and table design it has already? Hope it works. Glad your FAQ page style is heading back in the right direction. Regards, |
If you go the farm-and-gun route, you might consider employing
your Tribe skills to build and maintain a reliable support team.
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Sunday, September 19, 2010 Validation Dear Ed, I enjoy watching this film and share it with you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao Kind regards, |
Thank you for the clip. I wonder if you notice that the hero mostly validates people's features and clothing - and generally invalidates feelings and forms other than happy and smiling. I wonder how the movie might go when he accepts and validates the heroine's sadness - even encourages her to see its positive intention. |
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Sunday, September 19, 2010 Intimacy Growing with Wife Dear Ed and Tribe Members, We complete our September 9th Austin Tribe meeting. A tribe member on the hot seat has an issue with a business contract where the vender failed to deliver on the product's performance as promised in the sales presentation. The tribe member asks for a refund from the vendor but offers to pay for labor costs generated to fit his particular job application. After testing, he discusses feelings of failure, aloneness, being stabbed in the back. Thru further probing, he describes an early childhood experience where he witnesses his mother's suicide. We utilize the tribe to work thru role play to recreate the experience, allowing him to relive it. The process manager has him run the role play again and helps him find different resources of sharing his feelings and asking about his mother's feelings. The PM helps him identify patterns in his life where he sees his role in setting up more dramas. He focuses on his responsibility and seeks to reach different outcomes. The tribe offers its support and positive intentions. As I drive home I have feelings of aloneness, being disappointed, and let down. I think about the feelings I do not want to experience and how they impact my life. Thru the week I continue to focus on feelings and dramas that I continue to set-up. I open discussions with my wife, share my feelings and ask about her feelings, our intimacy improves. I am thankful for the support of our tribe members and their openness. |
Thank you for sharing your process.
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Saturday, September 18, 2010 A Walk on the Wild Side Ed, I'm just sitting here with my mouth hanging open.
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Thank you for the clips. I wonder if you can send me the photo source so I can post credit. These sheep are demonstrating: (1) high-risk, low-reward behavior, (2) the courage you need to ride a major bull market, (3) their desire for salt, (4) all of the above, (5) geckos do it better. |
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Saturday, September 18, 2010 Programming Language Dear Ed Seykota Can you please give me your opinion about which programming language is most appropriate for writing, and back testing trading strategies? Thank you, |
FAQ does not recommend commercial products. You might consider working the exercises on the TSP (Trading Systems Project) on this site. You can do these with a spreadsheet program. If you wish to go deeper, you might consider a commercial testing package. If want to do custom work, you might consider an applications language such as C#. If you go beyond that, you might wish to hire a good programmer. |
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Friday, September 17, 2010 Surprise, Surprise, Surprise Hello Ed, Your responses never cease to surprise me. I have learned to expect unexpected comments from you but the funny thing about your last "Hiding under your desk" comment was that is was even more unexpected than the usual unexpected comments. To answer your wondering "if I am actually trading", yes I am trading as usual with my usual mechanical system and my own "emotional stock selection system". My account is doing fine, the last two weeks have been very good. The idea of multi-tasking trading and programming is not new to me, and yes I do enjoy burying myself in coding problem and finding the solutions. I thrive on such recreational work, I maybe slightly addicted to it, and miss doing a bit of programming if I haven't done any for a few months. In simulations today, I ran some scans on Donchian system varying the days back from 210 to 10 and compared to my own system varying the risk percentage. There were several billion pounds difference between the results after a 10 year run with a £10,000 starting capital. So therefore I consider simulation testing a very important thing to do as I wish to be fully prepared for the hyper inflation rallies in commodities priced in dollars and the forex plays in short dollars, and all the other weird things which will follow as a result of the catastrophic failure of the US economy. I am excited to be soon moving over to a purely mechanical program which needs no human input as its connected direct to the API of my broker. That point I raised about mechanical stock selection by way of algorithms is particularly tricky so that's why I asked for your input. Do not worry, I will just test all my ideas and see which one works best. I have half a dozen ideas to try out. You are quite right, that there are some things on my mind, but they don't stop me from trading. A few relationships in my life are strained recently and also there is some other aspect which I am aware of in an vague kind of way. Or in other words, I am not sure what is on my mind in the background. My favorite tribe receiver is back from vacation in a few days time so I will go through that and see what pops up. Lately I have been becoming a running fanatic and running more distance each week, its a really positive thing to have reversed the trend in my fitness decline and weight gain, so now I feel as if I am growing younger. Despite weighing 105 kg and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day I am running 5.25km in 47 minutes and improving. I have not run such distances in more than 20 years. Now I have more energy, need less sleep, have more focus and concentration and losing weight as a bonus. I hope you don't take the following paragraph as a criticism. See it more as a compliment to the previous FAQ page design. Coca cola once changed the recipe for their best selling brand. People didn't like the new taste, so Coca cola reverted back to the old winning formula. Your new style FAQ page format is replacing something which was already perfect. It established your "brand" with the colors and fonts and background in a tasteful elegant simple design, the reader experience was relaxing, humorous and educational. The new design is green, and green just doesn't work, there was no reason to change something which was perfect as it was. If you survey for reader feedback on this topic, I would be happy to wager that 70%+ of your readers prefer the old style. I have changed the design of my website pages too, but have done so because the previous design was crappy. You didn't need to change yours. There is a typo on your time constants post September 9th 2010 "You might consider taking your feelings of confusion to Tribe as an entry point" And regarding your comment on the post "Magazine Covers" September 12th 2010 "According to this indicator, we might be nearing the lows on real estate prices." Another plausible idea is that because of the rate changes coming in option arms and alt-A mortgages, that there will be second big down wave in real estate prices. Regards, |
Thank you for your comments about this site. I am
transitioning from FrontPage 2003 to MS Expression Web 4, that
embraces current web design standards. You are observing
my learning curve as I work to transport the old look and feel
over to the new language. Thank you for the typo catch - and for the motivation to locate the spell-checker. The magazine cover that might be indicating resignation operates independently of other indicators such as your notion of impending hyperinflation or your other notion of a second big down wave. For another view of these magazine covers, see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870337 6504575492023471133674.html?mod=WSJ_RealEstate_LeftTopNews You might consider taking your feelings about <surprise> to Tribe. The markets are very good at delivering them.
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Friday, September 17, 2010 Another cover Dear Chief, I want to share with you another cover. How is your new book, please? TTP is awesome!!!! Thank you for developing TTP and sharing with us.
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Thank you for the link. On the cover, I don't see an
emotional response to a roaring trend. My book is now all in one piece and entering the editing process. |
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Friday, September 17, 2010 Trading Tribe Workshop Dear Trading Tribe, I am looking to engage the Trading Tribe Process and the [City] Tribe requires that I commit to a TTP Workshop before they will discuss my admittance. I have a few of questions about the workshop. Such as: 1. When is the next workshop? 2. How much time is required? 3. What is the cost of the workshop? 4. What prerequisites are sought for attendees? Thank you for your consideration. |
See the link, above. | |||||||||
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Friday, September 17, 2010 TTP Inspires Course at Rice University Ed, The residential colleges at Rice University sponsor 1- or 2-credit hour classes taught by non-faculty members, such as students or alumni, on topics outside the scope of traditional coursework. The master of my former residential college has invited me to propose a TTP course for the Spring 2011 semester. My intention is for the course to consist of a series of Tribe meetings to assist current students in pursuing right livelihood. I am excited and slightly nervous about this opportunity. The course would be open to current students of the university. There would be no charge to them for the course itself. However, I seek your clarification as to whether the requirement for the students to have paid tuition for the semester removes the "absolutely free to participants" requirement for free non-commercial use of the Trading Tribe name and related materials from the Trading Tribe Site. I invite you to attend any sessions of the course you may wish, if the course proposal is approved. Thanks!
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Thank you for your note about your opportunity to teach a
personal development course at a very prestigious university. Yours is the second university to show interest in the materials, the other being a prestigious university in Europe - that is conducting some clinical trials and comparisons with conventional talk therapy and with pharma-therapy. I support distribution of the ideas and processes on this site. My take on your situation is that you are actually delivering a formal course for consideration (charging for it) since your University would not likely allow any "man on the street" to take your course and receive prestigious course credits - unless they are somehow in relationship with and benefiting the University. As such, you are free, and you have my support, to teach the content of this site, to conduct processes, to mention TTP and this site in your course and to refer people to this site as a course resource. You may not, however, represent in any of your advertising or in your course itself that you are distributing the TTP Brand experience. You may not distribute the TTP Brand without specific training by me and without certification as a distributor. Thus, you can still deliver your course, call it, say "My Super-Duper Self-Development Course," instruct your students to visit the TTP site, read my book and talk about TTP. You may not, however, say or imply that you are teaching or delivering TTP. You may do that only with a license from me. If you or counsel for your university wish to clarify my position further, I am happy to push for a win for all of us, especially for your students and ultimately for their children. I wish you well in your processes. If you go ahead with this project, I would like to apply for permission to attend, and to receive some of those tasty course credits. I would also like to follow your progress and see feedback from your students. To make sure you have the latest, up-to-datest information, you might also consider enrolling in the December TTP Workshop, in Austin. ----- The TTP ground rules that seem to apply to you are as follows (see Ground Rules Page) Ground Rules: About Using the Trading Tribe Name, the TT Logo and Materials Relating to this Site: Free Non-Commercial Use: Anyone may assemble and conduct meetings to discuss, teach and use anything on the Trading Tribe Site - as long as it is (1) not-for-profit, (2) absolutely free to participants, (3) at the risk of the presenters and participants. You may reprint materials if (1) your site is non-commercial and (2) you credit www.tradingtribe.com and (3) note the material is (c) Ed Seykota and that further reprinting is with Ed's permission only. Trade Marks and Terms of Art include: the words, "The Trading Tribe," the Trading Tribe Logo, (TT in a circle) and the letters, "TTP." These all trade marks of Ed Seykota. Terms of Art such as Fred, CM, Sender, Receiver, Grumpy Judge, Happy Judge, Hardball Process and Right-Livelihood Process, etc. are part of the Trading Tribe Process. The Trading Tribe FAQ site is copyright (c) Ed Seykota, 2003 - 2010. Permissions and Certifications for Commercial Use: To operate a business and/or receive money or other benefit from the Work of The Trading Tribe, or use, reprint or publish materials and concepts from the FAQ site, you may apply for: Reprint Permission; Certification; Trading Tribe Practitioner License. If your site is commercial, you may mention the material and post a URL to www.tradingtribe.com . If your site is commercial and you want to copy and re-print materials, write FAQ about licensing the material. In any event, you may not imply any kind of endorsement of you or of your work from this site. To use a clip appearing in FAQ, for commercial purposes, apply for permission from the source, per the clip credit line.
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Thursday, September 16, 2010 Good News For His Investors Hi Ed, From 2008 through now I save investors from the stock market disaster using the moving average crossover method. Chart attached. best regards,
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Congratulations on doing the simple and effective thing! | |||||||||
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Thursday, September 16, 2010 Wants to Work Dear ED Seykota, Sir, I want to work under you. i am in this industry from last 5 years. you are the best trader in this industry. I am nothing in front of you. I try to get knowledge from books. I have some qualities which is necessary for this work like consciousness which i got from my master Great Rajneesh [Name]. if you may give a chance I can prove that i am a good trader. thank you |
Precise language can be very helpful in trading, especially when
you place orders, make agreements, deal with clients, order
lunch, etc. You might consider, as your first job, re-writing your letter in perfect English. |
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Thursday, September 16, 2010 Taking His Account Dear Ed, I'm 31 and have been self teaching myself how to trade for the last 5 years. Believe it or not I haven't made a dime yet, as when I first started out I made all the normal mistakes, and lost 3/4 accounts. Since then, I decided that I wouldn't waste another penny until I could become consistent and learn to master as best I could all the other issues traders face. After a while I decided to join a prop firm based in Miami, I was meant to trade remotely for them, but recently they went to the wall and took my account with them ! After this horrible situation, I'm just trying to understand where I should go from here. I was wondering if you had any kind advise you'd be willing to share. Do you have any trading systems that you sell ? I hope you don't mind me saying hello, and may I wish you continued success. Thanks, |
Thank you for sharing your process. You might consider taking your feelings about <winning> and <losing> to Tribe. |
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Thursday, September 16, 2010 Position Sizing Dear Ed, I completed the EA and SR TSP exercises. Now I'm working on a portfolio simulation program. I have a question regarding the position sizing: shall I have to use the Balance (what you call in your metrics Clo_Bal) or the Equity (Clo_Bal + Open Profit) to compute the position size when there is a buy signal for an instrument? Best regards, |
You might also consider using "Core," where Core = Equity minus Risk. |
