11-April-2006
Movies: Thoughts on "The New World" and Adapting in Trading and Life, by James Sogi

The movie “The New World” is about the colony of Jamestown. It would have been more interesting to have the details of the survival life back then than 30 minutes of Pocahontas romping through the field with the wind in her hair Hollywood style. The European immigrant’s lifestyle and rigidity led to starvation while living amid plenty. “Some traditional scholars of early Jamestown history believe that those pioneers could not have been more ill-suited for the task. Captain John Smith identified about half of the group as gentlemen who knew nothing of or thought it beneath their station to tame a wilderness.”  They would put fish into a hole hoping the corn would grow so they could make bread, and starved, meanwhile, ducks and fowl and game were abundant. The Europeans who immigrated were used to and apparently knew how to prepare grains as a staple and their narrow focus limited their ability to obtain nourishment. Many starved.

As opposed to the dung beetle who with Sisyphusian stubbornness clings to his single narrow minded task of pushing his pile of dung around, even when it is removed, man’s ability to prosper is his ability to adapt. To the point, the adaptable person is able to utilize varied styles in a single situation to reap maximum benefits. The army, the boxer, the racquet player, the pitcher that utilizes a varied styles in a single session has flexibility and an advantage over the opponent who will not be able to pin him down, or may not be able to adapt to the change ups. We have seen this in many of our “Connections” discussions. In the martial arts there are the hard straight punch-kick styles, the circular, the soft styles, the grappling styles, weapons, and the spiritual. All have their advantages in the circumstance, but the best at least know the many styles, perhaps master a few.

For the trader there are many profitable styles. As with any discipline it is very hard to master more than a few at any level of comfort over years of development, but the payoffs are worth the effort. In a day, a week or month in a single market there are different styles, and many more among the different markets. Proponents of one style often are critical of the practitioners of other styles. Some say find a single style and stick with it, but the ability and flexibility to adapt with several styles is beneficial. The larger firms of course have staff to populate the specialties, but for the sole operator flexibility and knowledge of and the ability to use differing styles is helpful to prosper. The changing cycles demand the ability to change styles with the cycles. Knowing the weaknesses of the style is essential to avoiding blinding defeat. Many styles are represented on the List. Why starve when there is plentiful bounty surrounding us everyday in many markets.