Bildar: Consider your last post: "Many people claim they can do better than others. Some can; but they aren't usually the ones doing the bragging."

David White: Yes. but I was not the one degrading someone else specifically. Non-specific insults are hard to argue with. Often they have little truth.

David White: There are some people who will attack others in any way they can in order to seemingly build themselves up. I am not overly fond of those.

David White: Those that just brag that they are good are more acceptable. When they can't back up their bragging, they look bad without anyone

Bildar: You just degraded "some people" in your intitial post, and the implication was that you could do better than others, which is bragging.

David White: having to do anything. Those that brag by insulting everyone else are very unpleasant to work with.

Bildar: Bildar: This is beginning to sound like a major case of "the pot calling the kettle black".

David White: I can see your argument. However, I am also sure you know what I mean. I am talking about mostly negative campaigning as in politics.

David White: Obama ads bad-mouthing Romney's business acumen is perhaps a decent example of what I am talking about. Romney may not have done everything

David White: right for the US public in the past. However, he was mostly in "private" business. the approach is different. Obama does not have Romney's

David White: business experience or acumen. He can only hope he has good advisers. Then we can only hope he doesn't believe his own rhetoric that he

David White: always knows what is best for US citizens.

Bildar: Well that's some good advice: Listening to others and not assuming that you "know" everything. That's the first step to critical thinking.

Bildar: David, I think that you should always keep your advice in mind.

David White: There are undoubtedly circumstances where I would be well off to listen to others. However, there is a lot of group think in the market.

David White: A lot of it is BS and momentum trader/pumper market manipulation. The trick is to correctly figure out when reality is likely to come to

David White: the fore. I have gone against the tide many times when I thought I was right. Sometimes I got hurt short term because momentum traders won

David White: out. Usually I have been right in the long run on things I have come out strongly for or against. I am still working on being right more in

David White: the short term.

Bildar: Actually, I don't think that advice applies to market decisions.

David White: I know what you mean about listening to too many voices. You're almost sure to lose money that way. I got your other point too.

Bildar: If you have a successful systematic way of doing things, just close your ears and do your thing. Outside noise just complicates things.

David White: I should clarify that I thought I deserved to brag about the PCXCQ.OB short call with a possible bankruptcy. Many momentum traders, who

David White: seem to listen religiously to the "big boys" momentum propaganda instead of the fundamental facts, were very insulting when I made that

David White: call in Dec. 2011 and Jan. 2012. I knew natgas was pressuring coal prices. I knew domestic coal prices were going to go down on

David White: environmental concerns too (less use). PCXCQ.OB was in worse financial condition than most (perhaps all) of the other coals. The outcome seemed

David White: obvious to me. PCXCQ.OB was barely profitable in good times. Yet the "big boys" kept pumping it. HFT traders kept short squeezing it. I confess I

David White: enjoy being right in opposition to the biggest market manipulators. These are the folks that I think are scaring investment money out of

David White: the market.

David White: As for the folks that insult people as a method of bragging. I was turned off by a few of those. Most people where I have worked thought I

David White: was among the best. However, in one especially bad case I worked with a guy who must have called virtually everyone he worked with

David White: incompetent at one time or another. Those he worked more with often got abused more. He was a competent engineer, but his abuse made him

David White: much less competent. Many people were afraid to speak to him. I was never one to be overly bashful, so I got more abuse. I will say in my

David White: own defense that I was probably right about 90% of the time that I argued with him. The arguments were sufficiently important.

David White: I think the fact that others were very suspect of opposing anything he said probably had a negative impact on projects. I was disillusioned

David White: that management did not do anything to rein him in. I can only guess that his bragging through insults worked on at least some of the mgmt.