Daily Speculations
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James Sogi
4/25/5
A Lesson in Strategy
The closing dip and bounce on Friday, April 22, was a lesson in strategy. With a beautiful full moon weekend passing without a nuclear test by Korea or an earth-killing volcano, today's gap up, and slight breach of enemy lines, let's look back to Friday's closing action.
In Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, group leader Kanbei said, "A good fort needs a gap. The enemy must be lured in so we can attack them. If we only defend, we lose the war." A smaller group of outnumbered samurai lures in one bandit at at time, and kill them one by one, slowly gaining the advantage. In the recent Hollywood movie King Arthur an outnumbered group of Knights of the Round Table uses the same strategy to lure a smaller advance group of Saxons inside Hadrian's Wall and wipe them out, demoralizing the larger force before the main assault and head-to-head confrontation. Remember the March 15 gap that led to the bull's undoing up at the 1200 yard line.
Friday afternoon a small group of bears advanced through a gap in the line at the close, but the bulls let the small group in, and laying in wait, slaughtered them, bringing prices rapidly back up without any casualties. Today's skirmish brought an important gain in territory to the important 1166 yard line. The territory ahead is covered with casualties, but the bears already have committed. How much ammunition do they have? The weak bulls are out of the way, so there should not be many turncoats holding back a good advance. Many bears will choose to join the bull side rather than die like the captured prisoners in the two movies above. Shrewd and powerful enemies speak under truce of parlez here.
John Bollinger replies:
Kurosawa and Wyckoff in the same essay! The older I get, the more interesting they both get. Maybe it is time to get out the old SMI materials again. I have Yojimbo racked up for tonight and saw A Fistful of Dollars a few weeks back. It is really enlightening to watch the Japanese originals and the remakes back to back. The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars. They reflect favorably upon one another.
James Sogi is a philosopher, Juris Doctor, surfer, trader, investor, musician, black belt, sailor, semi-centenarian. He lives on the mountain in Kona, Hawaii, with his family