Introducing The Idea Index: Building Thought Bottom Up
Launching a new series: ideas, fragments, and frameworks assembled from the source.
Dear Reader,
You’ve come for the stories and remain for them, and there are quite a few brewing in the tank as we speak. Stay tuned!
Understanding The New Series
Asymmetrist is continually evolving, perhaps fatefully pulled into the direction of some kind of open-air R&D department; a little adventurous ship sailing on the fringes of its known world. To speculate on the edge of our known industry, of how we look at ourselves and our domain, from the trading firm to the trader.
I can’t yet refine this identity or name for this direction because Asymmetrist is also exploring itself. If I can predict the destination, would it be that novel, interesting and useful?
Everything from Asymmetrist is direct from the source, and so far, you’ve seen but a fraction of what comes from the source: the trading floor and the traders behind the markets.
You’ve read the finished products that rolled off the assembly line and were built to address a specific question, problem, or observation. Behind this is an endless stream I pick up—nodes—of observations, conversations, information, stories, ideas and more. Other new nodes emerge through reflections within what’s been published in Asymmetrist or Traders of Our Time, unearthed potential in the latter that can now be taken further. Sometimes these nodes remain disjointed, yet I retain them because I sense deep value to be revealed later.
I talk of none other than Steven Johnson’s “spare parts” analogy from his book Where Good Ideas Come From, which we leveraged in our Traders of Our Time. Let these desperate nodes accumulate, which at best seem like mere spare parts in relation to the final, bigger product and something will emerge. The more novel and disparate these parts, the better. Then, a chance interaction will suddenly jolt these parts together and the writer executes the piece.
And so is both a trade and trader also described. The eureka-lightbulb moment is as rare and mythological as a trader’s ‘getting it’ moment. You are instead the product of a vast accumulation, then executed uniquely, a product of the emergence of endless factors and experiences, rather than waiting in a sanitised room with a blank mind to find inspiration or have trading skills suddenly conferred to you by staring at the wall.
So, I want to experiment further and introduce something on the other end of the production line: the spare parts themselves.
Introducing The Idea Index
Specifically, I want to publish the nodes I sense already have value, and I will likely borrow them many times to execute different articles, ideas, and projects. Perhaps call it a scrapbook, a commonplace book, or an open-air table to watch as things accumulate, merge, emerge, and remerge, yet with the express invitation for you to use these spare parts!
Further, they will be a patchwork of ideas, thoughts, links, resources and more. They are ‘think-out-loud’—warts and all. Fork them for your own purposes, collaborate with me, build on it yourself, or reject them entirely, which could be as useful. You can revisit and watch the nodes growing as they become their own full-blown piece, perhaps an entirely new project, or remain a small, disjointed node forever. I have no idea what will emerge because that’s how it works.
Since this is a new series, the publishing and emailing frequency will adapt for the best fit.
For now, we will publish The Index every other week, allowing for the Dispatches and the Feature to slot around it.
First Node
Consider this the first roundup of the node I’ve just published today. Why not read it right now?
Don’t forget!—collaborate with me: comment in these article-nodes, reply to this email, or send direct: bogdan@asymmetrist.com
More to come in every possible vein: wide-spanning, ultra-specific trading curiosities or exceptions to more of an R&D like piece I most recently published: Building The Future. That was inadvertently the unofficial launch of ‘The Index’ series, and I’ll move it to the Index as it, too, is an open-ended, evolving work that seeks collaboration!
And as usual, more to come in the Dispatches and Features you already know, enjoy and find of use.
Good trading to you all,
Bogdan Stoichescu
We are glad you are on Substack, Bogdan! TOOT was a fantastic read. Heart and soul work from you and Alex (and the willing crew).