Words to Live By? (Part 4)

Having lain the foundation for critical thinking, I will now begin to analyze the trader “wisdom” as presented in part 1.

The trader begins:

“I think one of the most important things X teaches is trading the same market over and over and over again.”

This suggests I should not trade multiple markets sporadically.  I find this interesting because I have often debated whether I should have a watch list approach to trading where I limit myself to a specific group of markets to be analyzed and traded all the time or whether I should use a scanning approach to trade any markets that meet a specified set of criteria.  People line both sides of the aisle on this issue.  There is no right answer.

“You get to the point where you don’t need any indicators. You really understand how the market breathes.”

That sounds encouraging!  This also sounds very meaningful and even, dare I say, intimate.  Good persuasive technique.

“You get really comfortable [and really start to think] ‘okay, I know what I’m doing today.’  It’s not that you can predict the future with it but you get comfortable with how [the market] reacts.”

The unspoken premise here is if I consistently make money trading it.  Surely if I am losing then I will not feel comfortable or very knowledgeable.  If my losses are great enough then I won’t think I know a damn thing and I might even decide to throw in the towel altogether!  In other words, by phrasing the advice in this way, he suggests you will make money consistently because that is the only way his statement will be true.  This is good persuasive technique as well.

Are you getting the gist of where I’m going with all this?  I will continue with my next post.