On Victor Niederhoffers home page, there are many good stories and arguments. I strongly advise any aspiring trader/speculator to scroll through his page once in a while. Yesterday I found this absolutely brilliant metaphor from "everyday life" related to trading:

"I work at a 4 story building...the trading floor where I work is on the 4^th,a male dominated floor...very messy guys that pay little attention to where they piss...you can't imagine how messy the toilets are on our floor The 2^nd floor however, where the operations dept. is, is a female dominated environment which makes the men's washrooms totally unused and spotless clean....

I discovered this fact the day I started working here 5 yrs ago...

I started visiting the washrooms on the second (the clean ones), I took the stairs to avoid getting asked in the elevator what I am doing on the second ....

Last few months however, after I found out that our operation is moving to one of the towers downtown, I figured what the hell, I'll take the elevators....even if they ask me where I am going, I'll tell them...by the time they catch on, we'll be moved downtown anyway...

Sure enough, I was asked in the elevator what I am doing on the second... to my surprise, in less than a week everybody was going to the washrooms on the second floor...now the second floor washrooms are the messiest of all and the 4th are clean again...saves me the trip...

What do you learn from this toilet story?

1.      If you have an edge, keep it as close as you can to your chest.

2.      Don't get lazy (take the stairs not the elevator) .

3.      Cycles will change.

4.      Cycles will change faster than you expect. .

5.      If your niche is discovered, you might find a new niche close by. .

Amazing how much you learn from your visits to the toilets.....a meal for a life time!!!!"

This is so true!