Well, here goes another week of doing this all by myself. The number of reads for my topic actually outnumbered the reads for the open section, and I started it part way into the week, so I know people are following it. I just miss the possibility of the back and forth, as limited as it was. And it's too early to tell, but it seems like the posts in the open section have dropped since all this started.

This is just not how I envisioned this forum. I'm very saddened by it. I'll keep plugging away because people like tomo tell me this forum is important to them. I know I have a small, core group that read it pretty much day in and day out. But it just doesn't 'feel' the way it should to me. I had a vision, I got kind of close at times, but it really feels far away right now. And that's too bad.

Well, it sure looks like we are going to go the entire week with no open topic and no other posters. I got a whopping whole one single reply to my request for comments on how this new section is working for staunch KTers. Now, tomo has voiced his opinion in the forum many times, so I know where he's at. And I got one e-mail. Everyone else expects me to do this, do it for free, and won't even give me any thoughts on how they prefer it done, or anything? Wow, that is so frustrating. I just post and post and post, no feedback, nothing, and I'm supposed to just keep doing it, not even knowing if it is helping, or on the right track? All I can say is, I'd love to see how my readers would fair walking a mile in my shoes...

I wish they would just go ahead and flush it. This grinding is so frustrating.

And it looks like any second...

It will probably shoot for the upper 90's for now, just for a stop run flush. There is also a lot around 88-92. Then my low 80's area.

I'd really greatly prefer it bounce off this .886 in the original GZ, but will they do it?

It's ready to go, any time now. I said that before, and it held out, but it's hanging on the cliff by its fingertips...

It probably won't happen, but this is very close to getting crushed here, just monkey-hammered.

They have to see that, to know that. Why they don't come in I just don't get. Understand, I want it to go down, just not yet. I'd rather it do a bigger bounce so it is more likely to do a sustainable trend down, not a quick crush and back to upside every day.

But, it looks like it's going to be now... Two ticks from the previous low in here...

Get ready...

All right, let me do my spiel on the forum and posting. It will be long, and rambling. In other words, typical Jim.

These last two weeks have been extremely discouraging to me. I'm down. Seriously down. I've done this forum for just about six years now. This will be my 17,107th post, if I read that right. Just try to imagine that. That's like an average of eleven posts a day for every trading day for six straight years. I'm tired. My health is none too good.

I had visions of why I created this forum, and what I was trying to accomplish. It was my job to try to keep it on track. Everyone has their own vision of what they are trying to do, and what they want to get out of it. Ultimately, though, it has been my job to steer the ship. It sounds easy. It's not.

The forum has devolved to me posting a bunch, followed by a bunch of rat posts, the occasional roofer burst, and then a few scattered posts by people like Al. There is very little discussion. I wanted discussion. Questions. Give and take. It was not to be. I've spent endless hours pondering why that is, and trying different things, but to no avail. Nothing I did mattered; it brought no more posts, and no more discussion. So I would fill the empty space with more and more endless posts.

In other words, I’ve been wandering in the desert by myself. Now I’m really tired, and very frustrated by the last few weeks. It has me rethinking my mission, and what I’m doing here. As the two weeks has passed by, I kept posting more and more. Like somehow I expected my herculean effort to motivate someone to start a new topic, for more than one person to respond to my request for feedback. But, no. Nothing. Dead silence. Crickets chirping in the background. The people have spoken. Loud and clear.

Now, part of me wants to ‘retaliate’. I will respond in kind. Part of me realizes this will punish the handful that follow me day in and day out. That would not be fair to them. So, I find myself in a quandary. I do not want to go forward and do another 150 posts next week (that’s still almost 30 a day when Sunday is accounted for, and I only post a small part of the trading day). It reached the point of rambling, posting on every little wiggle, for something to do. Yes, I could cut back, keep to just the most salient points. Many have said they like my KT philosophy posts, and explanations of what I am thinking, and why. That’s one ‘solution’.

Still, I am busting my a#% off in here, and I ask my serious readers for input, to help me in my direction with this new approach, and I get one response. One. Are you f#%&in’ serious? One? No one else is even willing to stop for two minutes and help me out, for all I give? That makes me a little upset (I’m exaggerating to the downside for effect), and makes me want to quit. I can’t get any discussion in an open forum, and I can’t even get feedback about how you want me to post? It only makes sense for me to quit at this point.

Now, one thing I thought of is that I can require a feedback e-mail from everyone who wants to remain a follower in here. Send me feedback by a certain date, or I will delete your name from the permissions. I can even do a little form about what I am asking for. But, I recall when I was thinking awhile back that everyone should participate in the forum in order to enjoy all the benefits, and do like two posts every whatever the time period was, and the backlash was insane. I got down votes, I got people telling me they hated the idea. Geez.

When I look at what I have been willing to do to get to where I am, the dues I was willing to pay, the hours, the work, whatever it takes was my attitude. If I had a resource like me available to me not only would I have asked so many questions I’d have probably gotten myself booted out, if I was told I needed to jump through this and that and the other hoops, I’d have said ‘When do we start?’ I know, because I’ve played that game with some pretty mean mentors in other fields in the past. Some were very mean people, and treated me very badly. I endured it because what I got from them, as far as learning, was simply not available anywhere else.

And I’m not treating anyone mean. I bend over backwards to try to give of myself. Maybe that’s part of the problem. I never made participation a requirement from the start. I never gave clear guidelines for posters to avoid trouble like we had a few weeks back. I never ‘took charge’ right from the start. I acted, to a great extent, like California parents in the 60’s. Let the kids do whatever they want, eat what they want, go to bed when they want, go to school if they want, they’ll do the right thing. And now they are older, and how’s that working for you? Now it’s too late.

So, do I just archive the forum at this point? If no one else is going to post, I am not going to leave the forum as is and feel like a total a#%. It goes to archive status. Do I keep posting? If the forum is archived, I might as well post, if I am going to post, in a blog. Should I just finally call it good after six years? I’m tired, my health isn’t good, why am I doing this? I can’t even get more than one person to tell me what they want out of my postings, what helps them the most. I already know tomo doesn’t want me to quit, and really gets a lot out of my postings. I also know what the one person who gave me feedback thinks. (Maybe I should say two people are willing to tell me, since I basically said tomo doesn’t need to respond, his viewpoint is clear.)

Part of me is leaning towards creating a little form and giving everyone a few days to fill it out or your permissions are deleted. There are no right or wrong answers. I just want to know what you want out of my postings. KT theory discussion? More discussion about example trade sequences from start to finish? More levels? More about why I see things the way I do at a given time? More price action reading? And on and on. What isn’t useful? Is it better with other people posting, or do you prefer a pure KT section? Would discussion and give and take be helpful (even though this is a theoretical question, since it can never, ever be…)?

One other option I am considering is to take a break. Let the forum ‘go dark’ for awhile. I think if I do that most will leave, never to return, and that would bring the numbers down to a level that won’t make it worth me coming back. But, I could give that a try. So, those are some of the things I am pondering. I just know it can’t go on like this. It’s no longer appealing to me. It’s kind of too bad, too, because it seemed like things were going okay, and then other people do things, things which they perceive as completely fine, and maybe many agree with them, and it sends the forum on a downward spiral which may, in the end, bring it to a close after all this time. How crazy is that?