Accord Advisory Group

Twitter has begun to serve the social function of anchoring day traders to one another in a virtual community. Checking in on one another’s picks and strategies, supporting one another’s creative trading approaches, the positive takeaway is that a lonely and isolating occupation has developed a communicative outlet. The downside is that as with drinking, while trading alone may be difficult, trading together may not be much better.

Which links to the uniqueness of learning from client presentations.

A year back, in answer to a client’s question, I wrote about adrenaline withdrawal among the newly unemployed. Back then, I was thinking of adrenaline withdrawal as only one of many potential developments necessary to consider in adjusting to a hard transition. However, with more and more individuals turning to trading in a buoyant market, adrenaline withdrawal has achieved a new significance.

Especially for individuals once accustomed to the bustle of the trading floor, a kind of manic enthusiasm may result from a succession of positive trading experiences. Rather than cooling through reflection, physical exercise, or taking in a movie, I have heard repeated stories of individuals’ lengthening their odds through leverage, to heighten the manic rush.

What begins as an alternative livelihood ends in a personal Vegas as earlier gains are wiped out, and self-recriminations soar. Twitter in this sense, may either act as a control on personal madness; or may fan the flames: dealer’s choice.

What clients tell me is that like revenge, trading is best accomplished cold: best handled from a position of emotional detachment and even boredom. Better a wealthy yawn than an anguished moan!

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