- incremental approach
- short term goals can be useful developmental tools if they are balanced within long term philosophy
- focus should be kept on the process of learning
- feedback to effort over results
- when win, the spotlight should be on the road to that moment and beyond as opposed to the glory (same when losing, the spotlight should be on the road to that moment not on waning and sorries). Note the lesson learned, and move on to the next adventure
- disappointment is part of the road to greatness; the thing to take is that almost every mistake have both technical and mental components
- we need to put ourselves out there, give it our all, and reap the lessons, win or lose. The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the other reaches of our abilities
- in performance training, first you have to learn to flow with whatever comes, then you learn to use whatever comes to your advantage, finally, you learn to be completely self sufficient
- initial step along this path is to attain "The soft zone"
- you are concentrated on the task at hand. Then something happens. The idea is to be quietly, intensely focused, apparently relaxed, with a serene look on your face, but inside all the mental juices are churning. You flow with whatever comes, integrating every ripple of life into your creative moment. This "soft zone" is resilient, like a flexible blade of grass that can move with and survive hurricane force winds. (coping with distraction, allowing your creative states to flow)
- train to have a more resilient concentration, become at peace with the noise, integrate the environment into my creative process
- solution to adversity does not lie in denying our emotions, but in learning to use them to our advantage, to channel that mood into hightened focus
- when uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it. Always seek out challenges as opposed to avoiding them
- always be aware of the importance of regaining presence and clarity of mind after making a serious error (brilliant creations are often born of small errors
- beware of the downward spiral, avoid the ripple effect of compounding errors
- investment in loss
- we must take responsibility for ourselves and not expect the rest of the world to understand what it takes to become the best that we can become. Great ones are willing to get burned time and again as they sharpen their sword in the fire
- making small circles
- the learning principle is to plunge in the detailed mystery of the micro in order to understand what makes the macro tick. Don't let yourself floating along a two-dimensional world without any sense for the gorgeous abyss below
- understanding of this process of learning is to touch the essence (highly refined and deeply internalized theories) of a technique, and then to incrementally condense the external manifestations of the technique while keeping true to its essence. Over time, expansiveness decreases while potency increases
- subtle internalization and refinement is much more important than the quantity of what is learned. Often, a profound mastery of what may well be a basic skill set, is what drives us to the top
- if i want to be the best, i have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage. When aiming for the top, your path requiers an engaged, searching mind. You have to make obstacles spur you with creative new angles in the learning process
- it is all to easy to get caught up in the routines of our lives and to lose creativity in the learning process
- adversity is a tremendous source of creative inspiration
- slowing down time
- the road to mastery
- you start with the fundamentals, get a solid foundation fueled by understanding the principles behind theory and each element of your discipline; then you expand and refine your repertoire, guided by your individual predispositions, while keeping in touch, however abstractly, with what you feel to be the essential core of the art. What results is a network of deeply internalized, interconnected knowledge that expands from a central, personal locus point. The question of intuition relates to how that network is navigated and used as fuel for creative insight
- we are at the moment where psychology begins to transcend technique. Much of what separates the great from the very good, is deep presence, relaxation of the conscious mind, which allows the unconscious to follow unhindered. In every discipline, the ability to be clear headed, present, cool under fire is much of what separates the best from the mediocre
- in solitary pursuits this issue is even more critical; in the absence of continual external reinforcement, we must be our own monitor, and quality of presence is often the best gauge. If deep, fluid presence becomes second nature, then life, art and learning takes on a richness that will continually surprise and delight
- presence must be like breathing
- each morning, before market opens, after my training, after making my homework and market preparation make an analyze of what my mood is, how do i feel like, and what emotions do i face that particular morning. Be sincere, and make a trading plan for the day accordingly; defensive, offensive, combination of the two, or just stand aside an observe technical patterns. Always write down this data.
- define, describe and engineer precisely every action of every picture you want to trade. Define and describe each element of the picture. Describe the action that needs to happen for a particular move to take place from a starting point, one of the elements, to an intermediate or final point of the move, one of the elements; accurate details should be included along with the confidence behind the move, about how that move has to look like in order for continuation or lack of it. Make notes of how it behaved like, if offered opportunities for reentering or later entries, how that opportunities looked like, make a pattern that fits in the context.
Everything should be seen, observed and classified into the greater context of the bigger picture, the direction of the move, the location of the starting point inside the balance area, compared to the location of the value areas of each day, POC of each day, VPOC of each day and compared in the location of the same elements inside the composite profile of that balance area.
Observe and classify the location of the current balance area in regards to its location and previous balance areas, note, classify and mark down the same elements and be aware of them, include them in your scenarios and create strategies along possible moves.
Create connections, create a map of those connections made by all the elements involved and make notes of what was the result achieved, how value is moving, remember and focus on this: we are trading value, the price is just the price. About value and value moving a greater description can be found at "element value".....
- monitor and observe for things that can and should be improved, abilities that can and should maintained, changed. Constant monitor the results, along with monitoring the improvements in executing the technique. Keep focus on improving.
- every aggressive move is risky
- to attempt an aggressive move market weakens its structure, even for a short period of time, you have to be present and aware of that blink, which can manifest in different ways, to take advantage of it. Slight changes in different elements often open the doors for such opportunities. You have to make notes of these changes, how they look, how they relate with greater context of the bigger picture you previously defined, understood and visualized.
Based on all this monitored, classified data and the map of those connections you apply the right tactics of the the right picture previously defined, understood and visualized.
- deep creative plunge into an initially pool of information
- laying a solid foundation by studying simple setups first, simple interrelations between elements, simple reactions of important levels, outcome of reactions. You have to observe and study the conditions that were present facilitating the movement; observe and study the necessities of the combination of elements that were present and the relation between all the above and the final result.
- lay the foundation by knowing in detail what is the significance of each element; know how it is looking like and how it behaves under certain and different circumstances (like uptrend, downtrend, range bound, choppy, fake moves)
- know the picture of the interactions between each element with being aware of the context.
- internalize the whole principles and possibilities by sim trading, understand the theory behind them and understand the theory behind every connection between them
- then apply the internalized principles to increasingly complex scenarios
- take a simple technique, idea and practice it until you feel its essence (trades based on clear, predefined conditions to be met, by connections made of elements)
- then gradually condense the movements while maintaining their power, until we are left with an extremely potent and nearly invisible arsenal (making small circles)
- focus on a select group of techniques and internalized them until the mind perceives them in tremendous detail. After training in this manner, we can see more frames in an equal amount of time, so things feel slowed down (slowing down time)
- we use our cultivation of the last 2 principles to blend in and take the right trades, to go with the flow, in the right context, to achieve our short term goals with the focus on longer term process. And again, we do this by zooming in on very small details to which others are completely oblivious. (the illusion of the mystical)
- the beautiful thing about this approach to learning is that once we have felt the profound refinement of a skill, no matter how small it may be, we can that use that feeling as a beacon of quality as we expand our focus onto more and more material. Once you know what "good" feels like you can zero in on it, search it out regardless of the pursuit
- be aware and engage in technical after-thoughts processes
- review market action, review trades, review tactics and strategies used. Keep a good record of what you are doing and of what is going on. Review everything based on what happened and what have you done and question yourself, formulate, define what has been done good, what should be kept, what should be changed and what else can be done under the same conditions to improve your method and results. You can refine your techniques by breaking down what works and what doesn't
- work on converting that creative inspiration, instincts, in something to understand technically and usable further
- creativity it is always seen, thought of, made in relation to our foundation
- we have our knowledge
- it becomes deeply internalized until we can access it without thinking about it. (Then we have a leap that uses what we know to go one or two steps further. We make a discovery)
- you are building a pyramid of knowledge. Every level is constructed of technical information and principles that explain that information and condense it into chunks. Once you internalized enough information to complete one level of the pyramid you move onto the next
- when in a few levels of the pyramid you have a discovery which seems like suspended in the sky, above your pyramid; you should be aware that there is a connection between that discovery and what you know (or else you wouldn't have discover it) and you can find that connection if you try. The next step is to figure out the technical components of your creation. Figure out what makes the magic "tick".
- tactics come easy once principles are in the blood
- if you have a solid foundation you should be fine under any circumstances, as long as you are flexible enough to adapt and change and apply the right contextual tactics. You have to roll with the evolving situation and contour new tactics around principles already internalized
