Customer Reviews

Dancing with Lions: One Man's Odyssey Through the Chicago Markets, Trading and Self-Discovery

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'Dancing with Lions' just doesn't pass the smell test. 'Trader X' knows enough about the brokerage industy and the psychological trauma of trading to show that he has been involved with the game on an intimate level- maybe an ex broker, pit local, or financial reporter assigned to the Chicago markets, who knows. But is he the real deal, a consistently successful trader? I seriously doubt it.

How can I say this, without ever having met the guy or seen his account statements? Mainly because of what he says about winning percentages in his book, which illustrates an ignorance of reality so glaring that it puts everything else in doubt. Trader X says that his winning percentage is somewhere above 70% (I forget the exact number), and that he has colleagues who have achieved 100% winning trades. Let's put aside the fact that this is laughable from a probability standpoint for upstairs traders (and 90% of profits for floor traders and market makers, by the way, come from exploiting the bid/ask spread, which makes them more 'slippage extractors' than anything else). And we can even put aside the fact that a skilled trader wants and expects a number of small losses over time, because points of true opportunity are defined by uncertainty, and the best trades are often defined by the reward to risk rather than the probability of occurring.

But the main point I skewer trader X with is this one: focusing on winning percentage is one of the tells that helps you spot a pigeon- like splitting a pair of fives at the blackjack table. It demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of what is important and why. If you have ever flipped through a trading magazine and browsed the many trading course and system ads that are designed to siphon dollars out of pigeons' pockets, you will notice that they commonly emphasize high winning percentages. Hmmm, why is that? Because flies are drawn to BS, that's why (it's no big surprise that Trader X sells a trading course). Winning percentage is the big draw for the neophyte, when in reality it is irrelevant.

Who will be more profitable, trader A who only wins 40% of the time but makes three times as much when he is right, or trader B, who wins 80% of the time but with an average loss that is twice his average win? The answer is trader A, who wins much less often but takes more dollars out of the market overall (assuming they trade with the same size and frequency). Or to make the example extreme, consider the venture capitalist, who might lose on nine out of ten deals but then hit a grand slam on the tenth one and clean up. Simple math shows that winning percentage as a measure of success is useless, because it does not take into account how much you gain when you are right versus how much you lose when you are wrong! This point is so glaringly obvious there is no excuse for Trader X missing it completely.

This is not the only thing Trader X said that made me doubt his credibility, it was just the icing on the cake. His image of the brokerage industry was accurate in spirit but way over the top, like a comic book caricature. His advice on the markets being a reflection of yourself had truth in it, but was off base enough and overly zealous enough to show that he missed the true point of self reflection. His vehement statement that volume and open interest are the only valid indicators held a kernel of truth also, but was ridiculously unattached to anything else in the text, dangling out there unexplained with no elaboration or support. His supposedly remorseful bragging about how he has destroyed other traders was an ego trip in disguise, showing childish vanity and further ignorance in its telling.

Over and over again, I got the feeling that Trader X was repeating things he has read or heard elsewhere, but that he doesn't understand the concepts quite well enough to get them right. This whole book had a Wizard of Oz showmanship feel to it. Trader X displays a combination of knowledge and ignorance that makes me think he is one of the permanent suckers Jesse Livermore talked about- knowing just enough to be a danger to himself and those who listen to him, making the same mistakes over and over ad nauseam. Because he is an imposter, Trader X's image of what trading success looks like, and his advice on how to attain it, falls short of reality.

There are so many other good books on trading out there, written by guys with actual credibility who give their real names, that this one is unnecessary.

Reading this book is extremely worthwhile for the same reason Mark Douglas's books are; i.e. they relate more to being a more powerful and disciplined human being and then applying that to your chosen endeavor of trading, rather than rehashed things about cutting your losses and technical indicators. Succinctly put, it is about understanding things in terms of conflict, and knowing yourself and how you reach decisions in order to resolve those conflicts in the way where you become the winner....instead of reacting unconsciously.

The author looks at market action in a way I've never seen described anywhere else, and to me is very original though it is most applicable to futures markets than equity markets (though I'm starting to pay closer attention to open interest in options now).

The cover is very telling. You are the mirror. When you look at the market is reflects off you. You are the market. Ponder these points:

I am nothing; yet I am everything.
I see nothing; yet I see everything.
I win with what is inside me; I lose with what is inside me.
I am the market; I always win.

This book contains kernels of truth. Ask yourself if you want to see the kernels of truth. Are you prepared to be a mirror?

The writer basically shows his experience how trading is no piece of cake, and many are fooled into thinking it is. Most traders don't need to read a book like this after they have been trading for a few months.

He also "exposes" the brokerage industry as an industry filled with coke addicts and innept jobs. Supposedly these people would snort coke while on the lines with customers. Well, excuse me I have not had a job as a broker, but I find it hard to believe it is filled with coke addicts any more than, say, accountants.

All throughout the book while reading the revelations that trading is not easily mastered you must contend with a giant ego, and statements like, "when I was a loser, I had no idea what I was doing. Now, I am a winner, and I do the right things."

He also takes a story out of Charles Le Beau's book, an incident that happened in the sixties. I have no idea if he met the same person an identical individual or he is making that up too.

Trader X cuts to the chase. Some of the LaSalle street myths get kicked around a bit, but hey what are myths for? As a long time market participant I find Mr.X's attitude refreshing.....after all trading is a win/lose, take the other guy's money proposition......an enjoyable trading aid.

The concepts in this book will challenge current trader thought, and almost all books written about trading. If you really want to be a successful trader for the long haul, then this material will start that journey. You will appreciate it.