Chapter 3
Advanced Beginner
When David reached the advanced beginner stage, he could play a few simple songs all the way through. Then his instructor gave him a new song to learn that was in a different key signature, explaining that certain notes are raised and must be played on the black keys. When David tried to play it, he became frustrated and exclaimed, “This song doesn't work.”
He was playing every note as it was written, the way he had learned as a novice. The instructor calmly explained that in any key signature besides C major, certain notes must be played differently.
David fell victim to tunnel vision, for he was thinking only of the limited rules he had memorized and was not incorporating the new information in his playing. He then blamed the written music to explain his failure and frustration. The musical score is not right or wrong; it is only a passive medium that communicates a certain piece of music.
Tunnel vision is an easy trap to fall into, especially when learning large amounts of new information. It is not uncommon to hear beginning Market Profile traders comment, “The Profile doesn't work.” There is nothing about the Profile that does or does not work. It is only a passive gauge of market-generated information—a way to organize the data, much like the musical score. What fails to work is the trader's ability to see the big picture objectively and realize that everything is a series of facts surrounded by other circumstances. Only when all the circumstances ...
