July 31, 2015

Intentions = Results

Chief Ed,

You say intentions=results and on balance, everyone gets what they want.

In light of the foregoing, I wonder if you might say a few words about the Donald Trump candidate for President.

I notice he is often quite candid. I am not sure what he ate.

Dear Ed,

As a fellow student of language and the written word, I believe you might enjoy this list of alternatives to using the word "very" to amplify an ordinary adjective.

This chart comes from a site for writers, but as I read the words I can feel the liveliness of the language and find myself reminded of your SVOp-b concept, which similarly seeks to bring our language out of the murky shadows and into the brilliant sunlight of the present moment.

Yours jubilantly,

www.writerswrite.co.za

Vacation Trading

Hi Ed,

One question I would like to ask you is this:

If you are a one man trading fund how do you manage the trading account when you go on vacation?

I can manage my trading once a week no problem. Is that how you do it? I guess going for a 3 month vacation to Antarctica is out?

Regards

Dealing with Boredom

Hello Ed,

So once you have your system in place, manage the trades end of day, no opinions, hype, outside news ever needed it leaves a lot of free time.

How do you fill your spare time or cope with the boredom? Boredom alone can lead to making stupid decisions.

Thx

Intuition

Dear Sir,

On the evening of the 10th of July I was going through my weekly routine of updating and checking my charts on commodities, as the evening and the process progressed I got this reeling feeling, the same as losing your balance mixed with being out of breath.

On Sunday I looked at the charts again after lunch, with the family, and I thought of your story in the beginning of the second "Market Wizards" book, "was this stone in my hand real Jade?"

On Monday morning to loud booing of my office mates, (we have a little commodities club at the office, that I started, for being tired of placing bets on the weekend's Rugby and Soccer) I went short on Sunflower, Soya, Corn and Beans.

A friend that sits two offices down the hall from me, that was long Corn, from the week before, slapped me on the shoulder and said, "Your funeral."

Now this event reminds me very strongly of the Jesse Livermore tale in ROASO where he just had to be short the Stock Market some days before the Earthquakes were known.

Thank you

I would like to enquire if there is any Ed Seykota tutorials courses that i could attend and learn.

I am from [Country] and i am willing to fly to Anywhere to learn from Mr Ed.

Please kindly advise

Regards

I hope this message finds you well. ... I live in [City] with my wife of 20 years & our 4 children ranging in ages from 5-18. I recently listened to a podcast of you with Michael Covel & that's how I was directed to your website of FAQ's.

I'm reaching out b/c I'm 37 years old & I want to be a full-time trader. However, I can't seem to find a mentor. Everything that I read, says that in trading, you need to find the right mentor. And I'm reaching out to you b/c for your private consultation, it said you're usually in Puerto Rico. I'm going to be in Puerto Rico for a family wedding from 8/6-8/12. Would you let me buy you a cup of coffee one morning so that I can personally introduce myself & make a case on why you should take me on as an apprentice? I promise not to keep you past the cup of coffee.

Many thanks in advance for your time & thoughts. I hope to have the opportunity to meet you in the near future.

Tribe Report - Trading University

Ed,


3 members present. 3 absent (two overseas, one on a work course). Another member recently moved to <city> will be joining shortly.

At the previous Tribe (not reported), we say farewell to an old member who retires and moves to a farm.

Another member plans to move overseas in a couple of months.

After resolving issues in her relationship, perhaps with our help, she plans to move in with her partner. She organizes a conference and tells us very excitedly that she has agreement for <renowned trader> to speak.

It is a long time since we see our interstate former members. They also resolve their most pressing issues, perhaps in part with our help, and move forward in other ways. We remain in contact and they seem to be progressing well in their lives. One just put up a photo showing he succeeds in losing much excessive weight.

The trading university which I spin off the tribe, as a vehicle for talk about trading techniques, now has about 70 members. Most are new traders, some with tragic stories of big losses. I find training new traders helps me to solidify my own knowledge.

For quite a while I try very hard to follow the standard "TTP Process". This leads me into some frustration as people don't "follow my script". With my work on my trading system I emphasis 'discipline' less and "being in tune" more. With my trading system I remind myself why I want to do this, rather than trying to force myself to do it. After that, things go a lot better and I make more rapid and less stressful progress. I have fewer setbacks and I have more fun.

Perhaps I can do this with the Tribe as well. So I initiate a discussion of our Tribe process and how we can run it at the start of this meeting.

Member #1 says he does not "get" the rocks process. He is happy to participate in others' processes, and perhaps to have hot seats himself as a vehicle to ramp up his feelings. He feels he makes good progress by having the hot seats and "venting" from time to time. His trading progresses from big losses to reasonable gains, though he wants bigger gains.

He often complains about health problems, but seems unable to fix them. He seems - to me - to unerringly find ineffectual things to do. At the last meeting I suggest he try a snapshot with his health, write down a vision/goals and a plan and see what feelings come up. At this meeting he reports some progress - he is doing his Pilates exercises more often though he feels unsure that they help with the sciatica pains. He focuses strongly on making doing the exercises for 40 minutes each day into a strong habit. He finds a medication that helps with his joint pains. Larger doses of strong anti-inflammation medication help tame his skin inflammation. His weight loss has stalled. He sticks with the Pilates practitioner and has no plans to see a physiotherapist.

Before the meeting, while having dinner, I talk about Van Tharp's idea that we are made of parts, and if you think you want something but don't get it, some 'part' of you has a problem with the process or the outcome. I suggest that it occurs to me while reading this that perhaps some part of him may have a problem with getting healthy, or with what it takes to get healthy. He feels he is absolutely taking every reasonable step to improve his health and that there is really nothing more that he could possibly do, so he thinks that doesn't apply to his situation. I suggest asking his wife if she agrees and he changes the subject.

Yes I know this is analysis.

This member does not want to do a TTP process on the issue. So that's that.

Member #9 joins the tribe recently and feels happy with his involvement with it. He feels he lacks expertise to comment much further on the process. He reports that his marriage is much improved. His wife is spending more time with their baby and she is getting home in time to allow him (house husband) to come to Tribe. He reports she says that she feels he understands where she is coming from. He feels she understands his feelings too. This after he forms the intention to receive his wife. He is trading well, though his system has some ups and downs.

Member #3 (me). Last time I came in with a topic of "creating frustrating situations". I do not feel hot about this. Talking to other people, my life seems not very frustrating in comparison. So I don't do a hot seat on this. In following weeks I experience very little frustration. My trading work (not optimizing the system) proceeds nicely. I have a minor health problem but I am fixing it. My wife and I are getting along well. I don't feel hot. I have enrolled in another Breathwork session.

With no hot seats, we close the meeting about 20 minutes early.

I summarize by saying that with new members we will put them through the full TTP process, subject to willingness. Several of us really like and thrive with the TTP. Others seem not to like it. They can perhaps make some progress in other ways. I want to avoid amateur psychoanalysis, which doesn't work. I find that the snapshots can help. Beyond that, I am feeling fairly fluid about things. Maybe if everyone made rapid progress they would all leave and I would have no Tribe!

I close down my 401k-equivalent for various reasons. This turns out to be a fairly convoluted process due to government red tape. I feel good now it is done, but I wonder if I make a lot of busy work for myself somehow. This before the previous Tribe meeting.

After a Tribe meeting a while back I end up having a long conversation about moral philosophy with a religious Tribe member. This results in a long e-mail exchange and I end up reading a lot about moral philosophy. I also get interested in the history of religion, how various religious texts came about etc. But I feel concerned it is one of those "fascinating but useless" diversions.

I find running the Tribe a strange mixture of extremely gratifying experiences with wonderful changes in people's lives, combined with other times when we seem to make no progress, or very limited progress. Van Tharp claimed that most people don't want to change, though they want their lives to get better.

Possible topics for hot seats for me

* Fixing people who don't want to get 'fixed'
* Frustration
* Fascinating but useless activities
* Avoiding things by making busy work

Yesterday my son writes his first program to read and parse price data.

Thanks,

July 27, 2015

Govopoly Trending Up

Chief Ed,

I think and I feel that the effective elimination of state's rights via ruling by the SCOTUS and SEC tends to support the Govopoly thesis, namely: the idea that "monopoly by government sanction" is trending up.

My current belief is that support for the Govopoly trend is created (in part) by the continuous and now-escalating increase in the authority of the Federal government, relative to the individual states.

Kind Regards,

I refer to Apr 17, 2015

Intentions and Results

In your reply you state:

A such, intention and result present two views of the same thing; in brief, we say, intention = result.

I have a feeling that it should (!) read As Such ..

You may want to correct it if I am right in my grammar.

Or you may not if I am wrong or even right.

I realize and send you this:

Now, Now, and only Now is what we all have now, in the the ever-evolving moment of now.

Thanks for the guidance,

Just wanted to share this golden oldie. Thank you for the food for thought that flows so freely on the T.T. website.

https://www.facebook.com/sciencedump/photos/ a.296290153732762.90161.111815475513565/ 1119618338066602/?type=1&fref=nf