If you have the feeling that the market has a split personality, one day out to shower you with peace and blessings and the other to punish mercilessly, it can only mean that on some level you are still taking it personally. Think of it this way – there are too many players with too many conflicting ideas about market direction for it to ever form one cohesive personality. The only exception I have witnessed to this rule is when fear clearly dominates the scene, and ironically these are times that are the easiest to trade. The highest attainment for a traders developing psychology is to achieve what has been called “intellectual purity” – that is the state free from emotional reactiveness to market behavior; the ability to accept both reward and punishment with equanimity and understanding. That said, we know that big players perform ‘market sweeps’ to take out stops at sitting duck levels, so we can at least attempt to protect against that. The main point though is to struggle against any dimly forming impression of the market being a single entity with a personality. That is an illusion.
Archives of “purity” tag
rssQuotes from -Walter Isaacson’s biography on Steve Jobs
For those of you who have never followed or read about Steve, this book may be a shocker. He was not a nice man, but he did get things done and was very successful. CEOs view him as a visionary business leader. I found some really great quotes that I like to highlight and share.
On motivation:
(Y)ou should never start a company with the goal of getting rich. Your goal should be making something you believe in and making a company that will last.
On impressions:
People DO judge a book by its cover. We may have the best product, the highest quality, the most useful software etc.; if we present them in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod; if we present them in a creative, professional manner, we will impute the desired qualities.
A great Jonny Ive quote:
Steve and I care about things like that, which ruin the purity and detract from the essence of something like a utensil, and we think alike about how products should be made to look pure and seamless.
On Apple stores:
Jobs decided that Apple stores should have only one entrance, which would make it easier to control the experience.
On problems:
If something isn’t right, you can’t just ignore it and say you’ll fix it later,” he said. “That’s what other companies do.
On how ruthlessly focused he was:
“What are the ten things we should be doing next?” People would fight to get their suggestions on the list. Jobs would write them down, and then cross off the ones he decreed dumb. After much jockeying, the group would come up with a list of ten. Then Jobs would slash the bottom seven and announce, “We can only do three.” (more…)
Madame Market
If you have the feeling that the market has a split personality, one day out to shower you with peace and blessings and the other to punish mercilessly, it can only mean that on some level you are still taking it personally.
Think of it this way – there are too many players with too many conflicting ideas about market direction for it to ever form one cohesive personality. The only exception I have witnessed to this rule is when fear clearly dominates the scene, and ironically these are times that are the easiest to trade.
The highest attainment for a traders developing psychology is to achieve what has been called “intellectual purity” – that is the state free from emotional reactiveness to market behavior; the ability to accept both reward and punishment with equanimity and understanding.
That said, we know that big players perform ‘market sweeps’ to take out stops at sitting duck levels, so we can at least attempt to protect against that. The main point though is to struggle against any dimly forming impression of the market being a single entity with a personality.
That is an illusion.