James Q. Wilson is a UCLA sociologist who has written extensively about bureaucracy and professionalism. He said professionals receive important rewards from members of their group, that their group has special membership criteria usually related to formal education and the group defined code of conduct, and that they learn things in ways that are different […]
Category: Teaching
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: applying Gladwell’s insights from “The Tipping Point”
Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book “The Tipping Point” describes the common characteristics of mass psychology with respect to fans and trends. Even though it is just a popular psychology book, and has been criticized by some for its lack of academic rigor, I still think the book offers a lot of useful insights to the world […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: my 10 best reasons for joining a mastermind
I have been a member of a trading mastermind for year and a half and have found it to be one of the most powerful edges in my arsenal as a trader. I cannot recommend a mastermind too highly to anyone interested in improving their trading practice, no matter what their skill level may be. […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: Respect Volatility, use its power for good
At the most fundamental level, volatility is the fluctuation in the price of an asset. The greter the price swings in the shorter periods of time, the greater the volatility. Periods of great volatility are like thunderstorms. They get your attention. Volatility is an absolute requirement for a trader to make money. Most investors look […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: Finding your best mental state for trading
In previous articles I have described my concept of the “zero-state”, and the combination of personal satisfaction and improved bottomline performance I get when I trade from that state. In this article I want to describe some other mental states that traders I know find useful and consider the implications for your own journey of […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: Experiencing the Zero-State
For me, achieving the zero-state is a necessary precondition for trading at my peak. In other essays I have described it as a place where adjective pairs of mental states cancel each other out, leaving only a moment of pure being. It is the space between the words that we know, a moment and a […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: Trading From the Zero-State
One of the most important qualities of the professional trader is the ability to manage your psychological state. Psychology is such an important component of shorter term trading that it can make all the difference between success and failure. In my own trading, the essential state of mind I must be in to trade at […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: How science can improve your trading
Trading by its very nature is filled with uncertainty. Any human endeavor that has such a strong psychological component must be uncertain, until such time as human nature itself undergoes a fundamental change. It is uncertainty which helps make a market for assets. It’s what helps drive the discovery process to uncover the relative value […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: 8 attributes of quality research
There are plenty of snake oil salesmen in the financial advisory business, but there are by far many more conscientious professionals prepared to act as good fiduciaries for you. At the same time there are many people willing to take on full responsibility for the design and implementation of some or all of their own […]
Profitable ETF Trading Strategies: You don’t have to be “right” to make money
What happens when you have placed your trade and you immediately have second thoughts as you watch the market moving against you? It is a normal trading experience to have a position that has moved in your favor a certain distance but has begin to stall before it reached the price that you were expecting […]