Monday 12 January 2009
Just as knowledge of the trend is indispensable, repeating the following conjecture
from cuttlefish is equally important:
> Possibly a topic in its own right - how does publicly expressing a viewpoint
> on a stock affect trading psychology around it. (actually I've seen WaneL
> post a subsection of Murphy's Law about posting live's trades - tends to
> ring true some of the time).
In attempting to handle a trade in gold, while at the same time providing an
ongoing explanantion re marketactivity, I shot myself in the foot and exited from
an excellent short position. Since, I did get back in, advantageously, but
without commentary here so as not to interfere with the position. Gold
continues to act as expected from my original premise for going short.
I could see the market developing, and there was nothing wrong with the activity
to cause alarm, but, as Shakespeare says, "Thinking makes is so," and my
thinking, as expressed here, put clouds in my coffee.
Our brains are enormously complex and extraordinarily capable in processing
information, equal to, or surpassing that of a computer. By articulating the
whys and wherefores, it requires a stoppage of the free flow of thought in
order to put the thinking into cohesive sentence structures.
Once I cleared myself of the task explaining ongoing market activity in post
format, I was able to let my thought process flow unencumbered and rely upon
natural instinct, that which is too fast, occuring in instants, as flashes, yet
sufficient to give the brain faculties enough to go on and reach a decision
without being able to express it in words. Call it what one will, gut instinct,
inspiration, etc, it works when left unimpeded.
Discussing one's trades, positions, reasoning, etc, short-circuits that process.
Leave well enough alone, and tend to the business at hand.
It is for this reason that I never ask anyone's opinion about a trade. The asking,
in itself, already creates a seed of doubt, in a subtle way.
One person's opinion.