An excerpt from an email from Arnie to the LinnSoft Yahoo Group on 03/26/02

A Fish Story and Learning to Play the Piano

I used to live on the Rhode Island coast, near a fishing village called Galilee. My friend's dad was consistently the most successful fisherman in the area. His success had garnered him 3 custom made boats, each worth millions of dollars. I learned his "secret" and I will share it with you.

Each day, before setting out, he would write down in a little book, the date, all the weather facts, temperature, humidity, wind conditions, barometric pressure, etc. He would also write in his book the sea conditions, water temperature, tides, etc. phase of the moon and any other observations that he thought relevant. Then as the day progressed, he would note where the boat was fishing, and what they were catching. He had been doing this for over 30 years, since he first started fishing with his dad when he was 17. When he was younger, he would patiently study his notes each night, and compare conditions and catches with previous trips. After a while, although he continued to make notes, and study at night, he found that he was able to rely more and more on his "instincts" about where to fish that day. It was rare that he didn't have the most successful trips of all the boats around the area.

How to Learn to Play the Piano

When a kid first learns to play the piano, or any instrument for that matter, they learn to read the notes on the page. They look at each note and then hit the corresponding key. This is the novice stage. As they become better at recognizing the notes, they don't think, "This is an E and so I have to hit this key." They become able to just look at the note and hit the key. Soon they can sit down at the piano and plunk out songs that sound somewhat familiar. This is the beginner stage.

The more they play and practice, the more adept they become and soon they are able to pick up a piece of music, or maybe even hear a song, and sit down and play it fairly well. They are now competent pianists. Many never get beyond this stage, but some continue to practice and learn until they can not only play the piece proficiently, but also communicate the emotional elements of the composer. Pianists who reach this stage are usually called masters. And a rare few, continue learning and practicing until they are able to add their own subtle emotional interpretive elements to the piece.

I hope I don't sound like Chauncey Gardner from "Being There" but my point is that Technical Indicators and Trading Systems, etc are necessary tools, but an individuals use of them is always dependent upon where they are on the learning curve.

Are you at the novice level, where you rely on that one to one correspondence between your technical indicator and your trade entry? Or are you an expert master who, after many years of study, while still observing and noting all the relevant indicators, is able to apply his own "insight" to each trading decision?

What do you think, Grasshopper?

Arnie