STREET DOGS

From Kevin Creasey, CEO of iGolide Consulting:

Ithink the market is a 3rd level derivative abstraction from reality – trading is like sailing the endless squalls cross winds and currents moving on the illusory surface. At any point in time a superstorm can come and wreck all ships plying the waters.

What might have been a legitimate market run by savvy speculators is now hopelessly distorted by central banks and blind players — that is, passive and institutional funds that keep buying overpriced index securities that causes more buying of the selfsame securities.

Add leveraged hedge funds and quantum computer algorithms with perfect trading records frontrunning and picking up zillions of zillionths of a cent in front of the market and it seems trading is all chasing after smoke and an exercise in futility and gambling.

My trading friends use a plethora of charting tools: Fibonacci, momentum indicators and colour-coded tick counters. Of course, to unlock the best tools and best pricing information you require a subscription. For those whose trading tastes are more esoteric, there are Gann spreads, time price squares, sidereal pricetiming tools to name a few. The idea seems to be to come up with the perfect all-weather system.

I see the latest trend, to give you the razor-sharp trading edge, is neuroscience.

As I understand it this means perfectly lining up your emotions with your intentions – a good idea in life in any event. Your emotional capital is much more valuable than your monetary capital.

Talking emotions, success can be even more dangerous than failure as it causes complacency and a bias to a single system that automatically leads to failure – it seems one needs to reset oneself every day. Rather like switching off windows – begin each day as a beginner with a totally open mind.