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Ed
Seykota's FAQ
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| FAQ November
01-30, 2021 <== back | down | forward ==> |
| Contributors Say | Ed Says | |||
| November
19, 2021 Getting a Round Tuit Ed, I feel grateful for your work on the Trading Tribe and Govopoly. I sketch out a trading plan on paper and your work inspires me to acknowledge my feelings of apprehension and fear. I notice that I feel excited about the concept of building my own personal trading strategy. I also notice I feel overwhelmed and fearful when I think about building a backtesting model. I delay backtesting and continue to think about programming a model and the hurdles I'll likely face. I stop and notice that I spend a lot of time thinking and not a lot of time doing. I mail a request to Trading Tribe for a copy of "The Essentials" and a "Round Tuit." I acknowledge the intentions of my feelings (overwhelmed and fear) and write out a step by step plan to articulate my trading strategy and codify my rules into code for a backtest model. The plan is a guide to help maintain focus on the present and apply the principle of compound interest to compound learning. A little bit each day adds up. I place my Round Tuitt in a prominent place on my desk as a reminder to stay present in the "moment of now." I celebrate the process of following my plan to back test my trading strategies. I become overwhelmed and fearful and I pick up my "Round Tuit" and say, "You don't need to backtest - you can always get around to it someday." I laugh at the absurdity of this statement and I get back in the moment. I feel a fresh burst of motivation and energy -- and a little bit silly that a plastic coin helps me maintain my path of Right Livelihood. I wish you well, |
Thank
you for sharing your process and for acknowledging the work. In TTP we celebrate our feelings and appreciate their positive intentions.
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| November
18, 2021 Wants Linguistic Precision Dear Ed, Could you clarify the response to the inquiry from the FAQ list dated Oct 7, 2021? Specifically, the underlined statement related to the five trades … are they 5 trades of the same stock (or) 5 trades representing unique equities within the entire $50k portfolio? Is there a distinction between taking “a position? and making “a trade”? Thank you kindly in advance, |
Thank
you for raising this issue and or caring to notice imprecise writing. The "five trades" refers to diversification into five separate positions in different instruments. Five positions in the same instrument would amount to one 5x-large position. I use position (noun) to refer to instrument in an account or in a portfolio. I use trading (verb) to refer to the action that moves instruments in and out of an account or portfolio. I use trade, in context, to refer to either. |
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| November
14, 2021 John Conway Dear Ed, Did you know John Conway? |
Thank
you for asking about John Conway (1937-2020): mathematician;
game-theorist; inventor of the Game of Life. I know of his work and do not have a personal connection. |
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| November
11, 2021 Health and Wealth Good afternoon Ed. I hope this email finds you well. First off, congratulations on your successful weight loss program. I think that's awesome. Someone once told me if we didn't have our health we didn't have anything. He was right. Health is wealth. The Essentials card has been a tremendous reminder for my trading plan. Pretty cool the day it came in the mail I doubled my money. Very thoughtful, thank you. I enjoyed your book The Trading Tribe very much. Thank you for signing it. I plan to order Govopoly very soon.I also wanted to thank you for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and giving us a platform to communicate with you. Be well, take care! Best Always, |
Thank
you for acknowledging me and the work. |
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| November
7, 2021 Fairness Good morning Ed, Hope this email finds you well. As I am reading Loren Eisely's essays on evolution, Nature and the cosmos, questions emerge and I think of none but you as the teacher for explanations. Eisely believes, contrasting to Dawanian theories, the human brain is the pandora's box which experiences sudden and "violent explosive" transformation while his body remains a "peculiar larva nakedness." Because of the discrepancy of body and brain, huma becomes creatures of society, swinging between human and animal. Eisely emphasizes, "man could not be man if his dreams did not exceed his grasp." Here comes my question and my puzzlement: If man's rise is credited with its brain, why isn't this 3-pound, 15-centimeter gray matter been distributed evenly across the board? Why are their chiefs in Native Indian tribes? Why are there so many called and so few chosen? Is this a defective design or a joke from nature? Imagine every human life is the replica of Leonardo Di VInci, Albert Einstein or Confucius, would human civilization still experience Thomas Cole's five-stage of history? Would we be able to delay or eliminate the "Destruction" and ""Desolation"? Or is it possible that even Aristotle and Lao Zi are just victims of Nature-half human and half animal? What is your take on this topic? I am forever grateful for your explanation or answer. Thank you and take care! |
Thank
you for raising these questions. - - - - - On the fairness of people having different abilities, mental capacities, assets, etc. I recall my kids saying, "That's not fair." I reply, "If life were perfectly fair, you'd both look like me." They reply, "eeeuuuwww," and drop it. - - - - - On delaying destruction. The fundamental condition of life includes birth, growth, maturity, decay and death. You can accept this natural progression and enjoy it while you got it - or you can resist it, at your own peril.
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| November
5, 2021 Intentions and results Good morning Ed, Hope this message finds you well. How do you define "hope" and "intention"? Thank you! |
Thank
you for posing these questions. - - - - - Intention: the structure of a system. For example, a pendulum structure includes a string and a bob. That structure (intention) produces the resulting behavior: namely, it swings back and forth. If you wish to get a different result (behavior), you can change the intention (structure), say by shortening or lengthening the string. Wishing has little to do with intention. You change your intention = result by altering the system structure. - - - - - Hope: a desire for a condition to change. For example, if you hope for some or another stock to go up (you do not accept the current price) you may wind up medicating your hope by loading up on the stock, over trading and inviting drawdowns. You might consider hopelessness as a helpful attitude for system traders. |
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| November
4, 2021 Doubting Dear Ed, Thank you for maintaining this website and continuing to help a lot of other investors and traders. After doing a lot of technical work and psychological preparation suggested by most of the experienced traders and investment professionals, I was able to generate 15% return per year but I was not fully satisfied. I created and back tested some new strategies to do 100% returns per year, But I ended up getting poor UNEXPECTED results due to various reasons including some execution reliability and discipline issues due to the large drawdown of 10% in one week period. As of now I am down 30% from the peak. Even though I knew from back testing and simulation I might have to face a 30% drawdown in TWO WEEKS, I did not think that it would be this painful to experience a 20% drawdown EVEN over a THREE MONTHS time period and wouldn't be able to stick to the strategy when the going gets tough. I am basically trying to pick up the nerve back here and it was very painful and decided to write to you. I know in a situation like this you remind traders the quote "Everybody gets what they want" and I know from the intention equals results principle I concluded that I have to realign my intentions in a Tribe. I still find it difficult to go to the Tribe and continue to judge and doubt the TTP technology as I couldn't get my intentions right the first time. So, I decided to write to you to find out if there is something wrong with me or I am doing or you also had similar experiences in your trading career. I have written to you a few times and each time your insight was something I never expected and it fixed the issue miraculously. Your thoughts are much appreciated, and thank you sir. Thank you Ed, Take good care of yourself. |
Thank
you for sharing your process. You might consider taking your feelings about <doubting> to Tribe as an entry point. |
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| November
1, 2021 MMT and Govopoly Ed, I am new to you, but I have been looking at your website etc., via reading the mention in “Unknown Market Wizards”. Anyway, I am planning to purchase the Trading Tribe book and was wondering about Govopoly. The question I have is this: Do your thoughts in Govopoly integrate Modern Monetary Thinking (MMT)? The reason I ask is because I have listened to Mosler recently and what he is saying seems borne out by what fiat systems in place around the world are manifesting. Just wondered, before I make decision to purchase or not. Thank you, Mike p.s. Bastrop… do you take in-person visits? I live in Houston. |
Govopoly
presents a model of the intention (structure) of the economy and how it
generates its results (behaviors). The model explains MMT as a justification for the generation of fiat currency. Yes, I take visits from visitors, especially if they bear musical instruments that they know how to play. |
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