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TheRumpledOne
6,407 posts
msg #62456
Ignore TheRumpledOne
5/10/2008 11:05:27 AM

EWZuber:

To get a black belt, one must master the basics... isn't that correct?

You don't have to do the fancy moves you see in the movies just the basics.

Same with trading. Nothing fancy, just the basics and you make money, agree?

miketranz
956 posts
msg #62481
Ignore miketranz
5/11/2008 12:08:02 PM

Martial Arts is all about discipline and respect.True,to get a black belt you need to become proficient in the basics.All kata is formed from the basics.Trading is the same,keep it simple,pay attention to the basics,stay disciplined and respect the markets.You won't make it in the markets or in the arts without the latter......

johnpaulca
12,036 posts
msg #62482
Ignore johnpaulca
5/11/2008 12:57:03 PM

I tell my students that a black belt is to prevent your pants from falling down, it wouldn't help you in a fight... I found the following essay on the net. I haved trained in shotokan karate for most of life (JKA)...cheers



The Meaning of a Belt
by Tom Javoroski


I was never very athletically inclined until I got to college. I played sports in high school and junior high, but only in Phy. Ed. Classes. I never went out for actual team sports (although if my high school had’ve had a soccer program, I would have considered it), even though I was good at a surprising number of sports within the confines of the classroom. It was just that athletic activities didn’t interest me all that much. I was a tall, skinny kid, with the usual lack of motor control typical of tall, skinny high school kids (you guys like me know what I’m talking about).

Martial Arts was never an interest to me as a result of this. I was a wise-ass, probably too smart for my own good, and it never occurred to me that I might not be able to talk my way out of anything. So I never gave the fighting arts a second thought. It wasn’t for me. All of this changed at college, of course, where my interest in athletics increased dramatically, marked by the beginning of my career in the Martial Arts.

But back in high school, I didn’t know Taekwon Do from Kung Fu from Judo. I didn’t care. It was all the stuff I saw people doing in poorly dubbed movies from Hong Kong. These movies featured martial arts with names like "Flying Lizard Style" and "Phoenix Fist Style," which I was sure were made-up. Everything was just "karate" to me.

When I would hear people talk about "So-and-so is a black belt", I was instantly awed. A black belt?! That means he can kick ass! There was a note of reverence among my large circle of friends when we would speak of someone being a black belt. Black belts were human killing machines, larger than life, unbeatable. I had no idea that other belt colors even existed, much less what they would stand for. I never asked "what style does so-and-so have his Black belt in?" Style? He’s a black belt...what do you mean style? I find it a little unbelievable as I’m writing this to remember when I used to see things that way, but it’s true. If someone was a black belt they gained instant respect, and a little notoriety, to me.

There was one such individual who used to hang out at the same dance club my friends and I frequented. I cannot remember his name, but he was the one people would point at and say "He’s a black belt" in hushed voices. Imagine my surprise when I heard that he had been soundly beaten up by a local high school drop-out, a young man who was definitely not a black belt. Amazement, and a little fear directed at the guy who could take a black belt out!

It wasn’t until years later that I finally found out how ignorant I’d been. black belts are not unbeatable, they are not the "Best of the Best" simply by default, just because they have a black belt. The kid from the dance club who got beat up? He was a black belt...he had a first degree from a sport Taekwon Do school. I have seen black belts beaten in sparring matches by beginners, and I have heard of other black belts who have come out on the losing side of fights. I now hold a black belt myself, and I have both won and lost point, continuous, and full-contact matches to lower ranks, higher ranks, and to fighters who hold no official rank at all. I know for a fact that there are all too many people in this world who I would not be able to beat in a real fight if I had to. That’s my main motivation for continued study in the Martial Arts.

We have all heard the stories of "belt factories," schools that exist to churn out black belts and charge outrageous prices for it. Early on I wasn’t entirely convinced that schools such as that actually existed. I was privileged in that my first Martial Arts school had extremely tough requirements for advancement. Our students almost always performed at equal or high levels than equivalent belt ranks from other schools, and I had trouble believing in "bad" schools. There came a day, however, when I had the curious experience of working out with a young man who shall remain nameless. He claimed to hold a black belt from a Kickboxing/Karate school in a nearby city, and in fact had the patches and embroidered belt to show his rank. He told us stories of the skill of his instructor, the rigorous training he had endured...and he performed at the level of one of our lower belts. His fighting skills were barely adequate for our first colored belt rank, and he had none of the periphery skills we considered to be vital or even common to Martial Arts study. And this would not have been so bad, had he not possessed enough arrogance for ten or twenty normal Martial Artists. This poor kid had been given a black belt, told he was a fighting machine, and set loose on the world. After it became apparent that his skills were significantly less than we had expected, and I think than he had thought, he stopped showing up.

I tell this story not to claim that our school was the greatest, or to say that we should make fun of people who are not as good as we are. I actually regret that this kid stopped coming to class. My old school might have been able to help him out, give him some skills he though he already had. At the least, I hope that he has not taken that same attitude at other schools since then. In my experience, however, people who learn at schools like this are notoriously hard to talk to about the holes in their training.

But now here is a good question: what does a black belt actually mean? The evidence seems to point to the fact that a black belt is not an absolute. If one school’s red belts are better fighters, better at kata, and simply all-around better than another school’s black belts, what does that say? Is one school doing a poor job of ranking its students? If the skill levels of students at a given belt rank differ widely across a broad range of schools, how can we possibly place any kind of stable value on a belt?

I attended a belt test not too long ago, where a few participants simply outclassed everyone else who was testing at their respective levels, in all areas of testing. The question we can ask is, if the stand-out students are qualified for their new rank, should the less-able students be qualified? Along those same lines, how should a school treat a guest who’s skills are not on a parallel with their own students? I have experienced many times guests and new students who hold previous rank working out with a new school. Without exception, the instructors have allowed the guests to wear their previous belts, and even on occasion allowed students to "transfer" into their school at an equal rank. And nearly without exception, there have been grumblings behind the back of the new student. "She doesn’t deserve that belt," "how did he get a brown belt?"

This inequality also serves to heighten the disrespect felt between so many Martial Arts schools. Two schools teach similar styles of Martial Arts. Both hold different traits and skills as valuable to their art. Both schools test according to these differing traits and skills. Both see that the other school’s students "don’t deserve their belts," because they don’t have the skills that a comparable belt in their own school would have. Bias, ignorance, and intolerance are the problems.

So what does a belt mean, then? How can you tell whether your school is a "good" school? Will your black belt and skills be respected if you go to another school? When a friend from another school tells you "I’m testing for my such-and-such belt," how do you know whether he’s "earned" it or not; how do you respond?

The simple answer is the only answer: a belt means whatever you think it means. A belt has whatever value you put into it. If you’ve worked hard for your belt, if you’ve busted your ass to get where you are, and you know it, then that’s what your belt should mean. Don’t listen if anyone tells you that you haven’t earned it. What does that even mean? According to that person, you haven’t got the skill that they think that belt signifies...who cares?! What does their opinion matter? They weren’t the one working hard during your classes, sweating to get the techniques right. I guarantee you, for anyone at all, there will always be someone who thinks they’re not as good as others have believed they are. For proof, just go in any chat room and start a discussion about "who would win, Royce Gracie or Bruce Lee?" Opinions vary widely in the Martial Arts.

Don’t give your belt meaning because your instructor says you should. What if you find out later that he’s a fraud, that he’s been teaching Martial Arts, but never got past yellow belt in his first school? It has happened before, to all too many students. The belt they’ve been bragging about to their friends doesn’t seem to be worth all that much now.

But the fact is, if you’ve evaluated your training, and you’ve decided that your belt stands for all the training you’ve done, then you’ve earned it, no questions asked. Why? Because you haven’t based its meaning on some arbitrary scale of skill and rank. No such scale exists! No one else can give your belt meaning, and no one else can take it away. Not your instructor, not your fellow students, and certainly not someone from another school. My black belt doesn’t mean to me that I can kick anyone’s ass. When I think of what my belt means, I don’t think of other black belts and compare myself to them. Not even black belts from my own school. I think of the training I’ve put in, of the sweat, of the increase in skill that I’ve seen in myself. That is the value of my belt.

The simple fact that belt ranks differ so widely from school to school, style to style, and art to art, means that there can be no objective standard for belt ranks, for why would one school be right and another wrong? If I start attending a new school, and all of their black belts are vastly superior to me, should I hold my own black belt to be less valuable as a result? Did I put any less effort into my training because someone is better than me, or because a school might have higher standards of testing?

The moment you start believing that your belt is some kind of universal measure of skill is the moment you will begin to find that your skill won’t always be equal to the task. It’s also the moment when you’ll begin to look down on those who’s skill isn’t equal to yours. As Martial Artists, we need to be smarter than that.





TheRumpledOne
6,407 posts
msg #62491
Ignore TheRumpledOne
5/11/2008 7:43:53 PM

When I was in college, there was a black belt in our class that basically terrorized us. But at the finals, he was paired with a blue belt that kicked the crap out of him all over the gym. It was so funny.

johnpaulca
12,036 posts
msg #62495
Ignore johnpaulca
5/11/2008 9:48:55 PM

Tro: thats why I entered open tournaments, cause no one cares about your ranking. I competed against black belts when I was 3 kyu Brown and won many tournaments. I wasn't blessed with the best skills but I outworked them. Same as trading, I still practice trading everyday so it becomes instinctive, like fighting.

TheRumpledOne
6,407 posts
msg #63053
Ignore TheRumpledOne
5/27/2008 10:20:17 AM

SPF on fire today!

binhp
71 posts
msg #63054
Ignore binhp
5/27/2008 12:22:40 PM

Huge run !

Heman49
3 posts
msg #63134
Ignore Heman49
5/29/2008 9:33:02 PM

Chip,

I know you've been asked this a bunch by now, but can you tell me in detail step by step what you do to prepare and execute the trade (ie. link to the filter you use, what stock you chose, and when to buy) Many Thanks!

heman49@gmail.com

13th_floor
724 posts
msg #63135
Ignore 13th_floor
5/29/2008 9:42:08 PM

Fetcher[ show stocks that the symbol is SPF]



Just fooling around Chip,how you been doing with SPF?

chip
67 posts
msg #63150
Ignore chip
5/30/2008 2:23:21 PM

Good one 13th!

Here is the filter I want:
Fetcher[show stocks where close tomorrow above close today]

.

SPF has really dropped it's ADR making it hard for me to trade. Those 2 days after the cash infusion were good, but before & after -- not so much. I made a few cents on it in afterhours trading twice last week & twice this week.

I'm looking for a replacement as we speak.

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