Yes, it does warrant your response , Ray.

Will stand aside and post my blog for Wednesday instead.

Ana aka Idkit
Ag Moderator

Hello Ray,

It was good to see your reply. And I’m hoping and guessing it didn’t offend anyone, else you could’ve have had it deleted from the blog by your moderator.

Well, I think the implications of my comments were not fully understood. And it is not due to the philosophical divide that you say we have. We seem to have a social or spiritual divide instead. You may be a more emotional person than me, which will make you interpret my statements differently. But that doesn’t make me wrong. Does it? In order to be able to see and absorb truth about life in its entirety, I have worked hard to break the shackles of my social/cultural/religious conditioning. Not everyone wants to do it. Emotional security and a sense of belonging is any person’s first need in life. Aloneness (not the same as loneliness) scares people. I will not go into the why of it. Another day, perhaps. It is, therefore, not infrequent that people disagree with me, and quite strongly at that.

But since you’ve been receptive enough to answer to my comment, I’d rather urge you read this one as well. You’ve been observing traders’ psychology for so many years. You must know how adept people are at avoiding the truth. They color it, as they feel fit, to make themselves at ease. I, however, am only interested in truth “as it is”, no matter how ugly or bitter it may be. So, to see what I see, Ray, for the duration that you are reading my response, you must drop the ideas of morality and righteousness from your mind. I’m hoping I’ll be able to make myself clear.

Existence is a bi-polar phenomenon. Think of a magnet with energy flowing between two poles efficiently. From south to north, and then back to south. Nothing much happens outside of this cycle, as long as an external force is applied to destroy the entire system. The journey from south to north, thru the body of the magnet, is like our journey from life to death, through the physical world that we can perceive consciously. Whereas the journey from north to south seems to trace its invisible path outside the magent, just like our “possible” unconscious existence beyond death.

Existence too flows between the two poles of life and death, manifestation and destruction. These two nodes are inseparable, and never mutually exclusive, although this idea may be counter-intuitive at first. How can light and darkness or life and death co-exist, you might ask. But they do. Only in the background of darkness can you feel lumination. Upon viewing a light source, one may feel temporarily that darkness has been erased, but that would be the observer’s folly. Not light, but it is darkness which is permanent. Sun is only a star in the wide expanse of the rest of the dark universe, which is only why its existence can been comprehended.

One simply cannot pick and choose between these two extremities. Anyone who does, will only make the mistake of assuming a partial view of existence. The entire package of the contrast must be accepted in its totality.

And nowhere else is this duality of nature more applicable than the human mind. Trading is a mind game. We all know what happens when a trader sits in front of a computer. His subconscious mind completely takes over the logic and reasoning of the conscious mind, and starts issuing warning signals. If the trader goes left, it says consider right as well, and vice-versa. The mind starts wavering between the past (memories of past trading) and imagination of what “might” happen if the trade is executed. What the mind does not do is focus on the evidence on hand. No matter how many books this trader has read or seminars attended, one silly mistake is closer than he thinks. Well, that’s the story of 90% of the traders. And that has been the story of 90% of the traders always. The balance 10% traders act differently and encash other people’s mistakes. For them, others’ mistakes were opportunities. Two seemingly opposite events (one trader’s greed and another’s fear) become one for sustenance and continuation of existence of the society - market, in this case. Emotions can make you balk at one, and defend the other, but really, they are one and the same event. Not even similar or identical - both terms would are inappropriate. They are THE SAME THING.

The ancient seers of India call this non-dual nature of existence - “advaita” (in Sanskrit), meaning that which appears two, but really is only one. Life is contradictory, Ray. We call it life, yet we know it will end.

And it is with this wholesome view that I made my earlier comment. Profits and losses must co-exist together, else no one will make money. There’s a reason why nature created only one Warren Buffett, and only one Robert Prechter, and only one Ray Barros. You people are way ahead of the curve in terms of trading skills. And for you to be in your position, others must fall behind. If tears swell up in your eyes upon seeing the fate of others, you may choose to swap the places with someone else, yet the equation will remain the same - now from that person’s perspective. Sad but true. No matter how much compassion a trader feels toward the unfortunate ones, he will never alert them of an impending reversal unless he has off-loaded his position to them. Once the position is extinguished, the game of compassion becomes more convenient, and the pitch can be higher this time. Self-preservation always takes precedence over everything else.

Having explained the concept of “advaita”, let me introduce you to another term, “karma”. The term has been injected into the English language, but the meaning is not fully understood. There are plenty of other words borrowed by English from Sanskrit that are badly understood. Anyhow…

Karma does not mean “action” only, as many believe. Rather, it is the delivery of a dispassionate and random act with no goal or ambition in both the conscious or subconsious layers of your mind. It is something you do as a result of an outburst of energy within you. A man walking on the street spills his books. You see it, step forward, and help him. Whether he thanks you or not for your gesture is irrelevant. Most of the humans, however, will find themselves aggrieved and will complain about the ungratefulness of the man. They will even carry the memory of that incident forever in their minds, thus wasting crucial neural capacity. That doesn’t constitute karma. Real love and compassion have no reason for manifestation. They just flow out of a person whenever & wherever there’s an unfulfilled need.

And that’s probably why you chose this profession, Ray, despite being in another one earlier. So you could train yourself, and show others the way. I truly appreciate what you and lots of others are doing. By all means, everyone has a right to be educated and guided by the enlightened ones. I recently conducted two free training sessions for newbies in a small training facility in the basement of my house in New Delhi, India. So, sir, I cannot be against it.

Thru my earlier comment, I only alluded to the bitter fact that no matter how hard you or anyone else tries, there will always be some who are doomed to destruct themselves, no matter what - apparently to provide “opportunities” to others.

Acknowledgment of this fact really cannot be a reason to feel discouraged or stop doing what one feels one must do. If this truth discourages someone, he should understand his previous attempts were not a karma. For if they were, nothing would stop him.

I hope I have explained where I was coming from. I didn’t mean any offense toward Dr. Dorn’s article or your activities. And frankly, it may seem to you that I am lecturing you, but really, I am no one to tell you these things. Please consider my comments an accident, and try to forget them. What I say is not important. My apologies if…

Amit K Gupta