How the human processes information

Discussions about personal psychology for the individual trader.
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ES
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How the human processes information

Post by ES »

Hope greed and fear are all emotions that must be disabled. As trend followers we must disable the emotion and prediction functions.

The human receives the information and it is firstly his animalistic soul that deals with the particular notion. Humans have the physical element, ieyour body, organs veins, etc then there's the soul that thatis comprisedof the "Good" and the "Bad". The bad firstly receives the first impulse amd the struggle ensues between the forces of the good vs the bad. If the good prevails then this allows the brain or the intellect to reciprocate. Conversely if the bad wins the battle, then you open yourself for disaster.
Enabling one'smind to maintain control remains to be, quintessentially, the foundation for a successfull mind that can potentially make disciplined decisions.
We all go through this constant wage of war, within ourselves and I found that anger was most definitely a catalyst for destruction.

We must all begin our days without anger or beligerance.

best
Eric
Ted Annemann
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Post by Ted Annemann »

I take a different approach: discover what's right for me, then do it. I find that I'm calmer and happier if I follow my own star, rather than listen to people who tell me what I must do. My trading seems to improve, too.
edward kim
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Re: How the human processes information

Post by edward kim »

Hi Eric,

I agree with Ted 100%. I feel that Ted's statement is very forceful and it has positive, intentional language. He also takes ownership of his commitment and direction.

I do not fight my emotions: I embrace them, and I see the positive intentions of my emotions. When I see the good message in my anger, my fear, I know what I am feeling, and then I know what I am doing in my trading.
babyturtle wrote:Hope greed and fear are all emotions that must be disabled.
I comment right now on this statement because I see this problem of people feeling like they "have to do something" or they want the answer so someone tells them they "need to do it this way". I see this happening on different forums, and even here at my workplace with people who want answers without "looking" enough.

My parents always told me I "must" or "have to" study. Have to do this, have to do that, you are wrong, don't think that way, you should never think like that, don't even think about it, etc. etc. I was never able to do what I wanted to do, even if it means me making a huge mistake.

must
need to
have to
should have
would have
could have

I let all of the above prevent me from thinking freely, doing what I like, feeling comfortable, and accomplishing what I want (e.g., blindly following someone else and not giving myself a chance to experiment.)

I notice that when it comes to things such as system parameters, portfolio selection, and optimization, a few people on this and other forums ask questions like "What are the parameters I need to use to get better MAR ratios" or "how do i know the Turtle Futures set is good?" rather than testing it out for themselves and seeing concrete results.

I posted a question to c.f. regarding the Original Turtle portfolio selection 6 to 8 months ago about why certain markets were avoided, and if the Turtle set was really composed of the best markets to use. I NEVER got an answer from ANYONE. I worked really hard to figure that out on my own, and I discovered what the answer was. It took a lot of testing, and a lot of time, and I learned a lot about the inherent weaknesses of my system in the process. Whether or not he intended to do that, I received a huge learning experience by doing some experimenting myself. Howard Brazzil's detailed post about portfolio selection confirmed some of the testing I had done, so I really felt good about my thoughts and ideas.

I'm not saying we stop giving out answers, because a lot of this stuff IS REALLY HARD to understand, and most users on this forum are very generous with their help. If it wasn't for you guys, I would still be losing money all the time in the markets!~:mrgreen:

What I now sometimes try to do is to post answers that help develop a longer-term process instead of just "giving the answer." :D


NOW, having said all that, Eric, I do understand what you mean about how being emotionally attached can become a problem in trading~ :D

Edward
ES
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correlation between the physical and the spiritual

Post by ES »

Having a set of parameters is one thing and trying to follow them is yet another. every human feels elation when they catch a nice move. There isn't a single human in the world that can not be phased when success appears. Conversely when we lose, I've somehow developed the ability to accept the losses as part of trading. And it is this very acceptance that has enabled me to continue successfully.

I actually trained myself to loose. I had an account set up with this moronic brokerage firm in Toronto that only allowed their clients to go long. They wouldn't short the market. I figured, here are these guys managing millions of dollars and constnatly losing millions of dollars and they don't believe in shorting the market. What's even more incredible is that the principals were highly educated. Does an MBA or a CFA ensure higher probabilities of success in the market? Of course not and no way, In actuality my returns were blowing away most CFA's results and I thought this was an absolute joke. When they began to speak i began to laugh and they couldn't understand yet my only dilemna was that I could not explain that my process was quite simple. Just give me a symbol and i'll tell you if i should be long or short. They just couldn't understand.
So i traded to test my discipline to quickly cut losses. And I did this when Nortel if you recall had a little bounce from say 8 to 11, then plumeted back down. I naturally exited accepting aminimal loss. I was also long GX(global Crossing at 1.90 and i blew out the positon according to the Turtle's ATR. We all know what happened to GX and the worldcom's of the world, but i was proud that i could maintain the required discipline. This test cost me about 5k USD, with various stocks, but i learned to stick to the turtle rules and get the heck out. Rest assured I will never do business with that firm as their policies lend to suicidal tendencies if not death, but I truly believe that to succeed in the market , one has to have the mindset. There's a huge difference between winning and being profitable and I began to understand this as I was learning the Turtle rules about two years ago. I now believe today through further research and trading that impatience can ruin a trader while patience enables nice pickings. Remember the orginal turtles had days where no trades were happening and most humans don't want to sit on the sidelines.
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