Tuesday, July 17, 2012

1000 + 1 Voices- White Noise & ADHD.

So an interesting thing happened to me the week before last. The heat sink on my computers' motherboard fan had dried, inefficient paste on it (used to carry heat from the board to the fan...or something like that. Complete computer novice here!)...this meant that the fan was going full blast and was quite a nuisance.

Add to that the fact that it's 38C here in Italy and, therefore, I also have another fan running to cool me down and you can imagine what I had to put up with.

That was also my second best week of trading... ever.

Perplexed by this outcome, I started digging around for reasons why the noise of a fan may actually have helped me in my trading endeavors. The result was shocking.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/question47.htm

The above link is the simplest definition of White Noise that I could find. Coupled with the section entitled "applications" in this link, it's not too difficult to see that the potential benefits of using this type of therapy, perhaps by using a site like simplynoise- or just by leaving a fan on- could be far reaching and extremely beneficial.

Incidentally, ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, is reportedly able to be controlled/reduced by the use of white noise.

The fact that white noise eliminates distraction by making the intruding noise (or voice-in-your-head) part of an indiscernible whole, makes this a brilliant tool for a trader fighting to get out of his/her own way and trade without that negative self-talk that often plagues us.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Police As Traders?

Hardware: 
These traders are mobile- so they need a car. This gets them to their trade location (more on that in a bit). Speed Radar, Pallets and a Police Radio to check out licenses/insurance etc.

Passive aggression: They don't do it to us, WE do it to ourselves.
Risk: 
Time and the officer's hourly pay.

Reward:
Speed fines and fines in general.

Methodology:
(for speed, we'll assume long trades only..)

They find their edge by waiting at that spot on a road where a drastic change in speed limit occurs. They'll hide just before the "resistance"- point of change- in anticipation of a breakout. Odds increase if they do this during rush hour as they know drivers will anticipate the change and try and get ahead due to sheer haste/impatience.

Another method they commonly use is sitting themselves at the bottom of a hill- people tend to forgo controlling their speed and let gravity get the better of them! This could be viewed as Momentum trading- a body in motion, "stays in motion until an equal and opposite force acts on it" (your will to be the captain of your situation).

Win Rate:
They can increase this simply by compounding the above methodologies- for example, waiting at the bottom of the hill, during rush hour where a speed change occurs from fast to slow. Do this all on a pre-holiday workday and....