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My "real work" largely consisted of what is sometimes called "chartism" today. Technical analysis is ridiculed by the academic community, but in certain market
by 3dfxiter 8y ago
My "real work" largely consisted of what is sometimes called "chartism" today. Technical analysis is ridiculed by the academic community, but in certain markets it sure as hell works. I don't think, however, that I ever "created value" in anything I did as a commodities trader, in the sense that cancer researchers or teachers create tangible value. If anything, I felt that I was exploiting supply/demand shocks using capital from investors that I was lucky enough to know. The strategies were never that complicated or innovative either. Today its even simpler: constant rebalancing between a couple of high market-cap ETF's.
- CryptoPunk 8y agoTechnical analysis is exploiting inefficiencies in market behaviour to profit, and in doing so, reducing those inefficiencies. It is not value-less work, no matter how far removed it is from the end-product that people consume. >>If anything, I felt that I was exploiting supply/demand shocks using capital from investors that I was lucky enough to know. This helps with the allocation of physical resources. The faster prices are aligned with supply-demand dynamics, the more efficiently those physical resources will be consumed. When there is a major shortage of a commodity, you want people to start conserving that resource as soon as possible, and that is what an increase in prices brought about by traders like you results in.
- somethoughts 8y agoThis thread reminds me of this hacker news post from a few months ago: https://meltingasphalt.com/wealth-the-toxic-byproduct/ https://meltingasphalt.com/wealth-the-toxic-byproduct/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18825103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18825103