whales
Whales = the composite operator
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Wyckoff, “The market is made by the mind of man, and all the fluctuations of the market and all the various stocks should be studied as if they were the result of one man’s operations. Let us call him the Composite Operator, who, in theory, sits behind the scenes and plays a stock to his advantage."
we should consider all market activity as a purposeful operation in which informed interests exert continuing control over stocks and the market. These large interests, such as banks, mutual funds, investment trusts, hedge funds, specialists, and position traders are best thought of as a Composite Operator.
Wyckoff, “imagine a super investor. How would that person handle the situation that is before you? What would that person look like? How would that person feel? What state of mind would your superior investor be in to deal with the situation confronting you?"
http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/trading/composite-operator.htmlwe should consider all market activity as a purposeful operation in which informed interests exert continuing control over stocks and the market. These large interests, such as banks, mutual funds, investment trusts, hedge funds, specialists, and position traders are best thought of as a Composite Operator.
Wyckoff, “imagine a super investor. How would that person handle the situation that is before you? What would that person look like? How would that person feel? What state of mind would your superior investor be in to deal with the situation confronting you?"
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Wyckoff felt that an experienced judge of the market should regard the whole story that appears on the tape as though it were the expression of a single mind. He felt that it was an important psychological and tactical advantage to stay in harmony with this omnipotent player. By striving to follow his footsteps, Wyckoff felt we are better prepared to grow our portfolios and net-worth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_WyckoffI often like to think of it is the entire market is out to get me. Me against one entity, the composite operator..
I think that view of the market is too simplified, because I think that there are still a lot of free market principles at play, and perhaps bitcoin is going to bring some dynamics to the markets that have not been experienced before, with the introduction of a lot more laypersons into trading with a lot more access than they have previously had, and also bitcoin seems to be differentiable from any other asset previously in existence with the degree of the underlying soundness of the underlying asset, and so there is a considerable value in attempting to directly own it rather than some of the manipulation that might be attempted through exchanges and other financialization products that might attempt to represent the underlying asset while NOT being as valuable as the underlying asset. So, even though I make proclamations of manipulation, I still believe that there is likely both differentiations from traditional markets, and likely a continuation to be differentiated from traditional markets.
It is yet to be seen whether bitcoin is going to continue to be able to differentiate itself from traditional markets through tools and communities that are likely to continue to develop as the likely ongoing manipulation challenges and war continues to take place and to evolve into the future. As individuals, we can continue to monitor these developments and decide to reallocate our position to the extent that we might believe the battle is evolving in one direction or another - yet I continue to have a decent amount of confidence in bitcoin about it's ability to continue to attract value and upgrowth inspite the likely continuation of threats from the inside and the outside, so BTC accumulation seems to continue to be a prudent strategy, and I wished I were younger to really be able to enjoy watching this play out for 100 years, but I would not have been in any kind of position to have had accumulated as decent of a stake in bitcoin in my younger years, either... so, the situation is what it is, and in that regard, each of us just has to continue to decide how to play our cards and to best position ourselves for the momentum that we believe is going to continue - even if the shorter term movements might sometimes move against us.
I think about it as if I were the composite operator, how would I try to trick me out of my satoshis on the exchange, with bull traps, bear traps, fake walls, fake volume etc.
What would I do to trick the little guy out of his money?
Like 4D chess..
What would I do to trick the little guy out of his money?
Like 4D chess..
That might not be a bad way to think about it; however, I don't think that regular people have enough tools to really play at the level of the players with more resources and perhaps thousands of coins on several exchanges. So, perhaps there is a bit of David and Goliath going on, where the little guy still can win if s/he plays with a bit of strategy that anticipates some of the moves of the opponent before they come, as you seem to be suggesting.
I prefer to think of the whole situation as a river that is a bit out of control, and I am just trying to manuever around the various difficulties and take advantage of situations that seem to be part of the flow of the river, but I am not attempting to delude myself into thinking that I can control the river but just to go along with the flow rather than fighting the current.
Also, it appears that every single shitcoin that forked off of Bitcoin core 14.0-16.3 is also going to have to patch things up. We really dodged a bullet here. Hope no other surprises are lurking in the code. 
