Jun

18

Ocean Drift, from Jim Sogi

June 18, 2008 |

Jim SogiWe had a dinner on the boat tonight at sea, drifting with the wind and current. I positioned the boat so it would generally drift back towards the harbor, but as we drifted I thought how similar it felt to have a position with the intent of holding. The position drifts, sways, goes up and down with the winds, currents and waves without any action. This quite a contrast to the deliberate positioning and surfing the waves in the ocean and the market which takes concentration and accuracy. The boat drifted sideways. We sat and enjoyed a nice dinner at sunset with no one else around. The ocean is a different place. No one owns it. No one can stake out an area. Its all fluid and in motion.


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3 Comments so far

  1. m on June 18, 2008 1:22 pm

    Sort of like when you get caught in the rip tide; you have fun and swim with it or you tire and sink to the bottom.

  2. George Parkanyi on June 18, 2008 9:20 pm

    Jim,

    This is my trading method exactly. Fully invested in the same securities set up for a multiplicity of contingencies. I have simple criteria that tell me when to re-allocate between them, but the rest of the time I’m just watching as an observer to see what happens next, and which stocks/ETFs will respond. I don’t try to predict anything or exert any energy except when some minor adjustments are necessary. The market, like the ocean, takes me where it will.

    I hope you enjoyed your dinner. Sounds like a wonderful evening.

    Cheers,
    George

  3. Nelson Rangel on June 20, 2008 5:29 pm

    Jim, That sounds like a great evening, I should give it a try even if I have to rent the boat and the skipper… To me the ocean and the market have always been very much alike "fluid and in motion". Even when the market is drifting sideways there is an underlying trend that is taking you close to a destination (harbor); and despite what some conspiracy theorists and government officials like to think, just like the ocean "No one owns it". In the ocean no one can stake out an area and same goes for the market as staking out an area in the market is equivalent to marrying a position, and we all know what happens whenever one finds itself doing that.

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