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WHAT IS STRUCTURE?
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Any structure has four elements: (1) parts (components), (2) plan, (3) power source, and (4) purpose. All structures contain movement and an inclination toward movement; this means they have a tendency to change from one state to another state. Some structures have more tendency toward movement than others do. A more stationary structure is one in which the parts tend to hold each other in check. In a less stationary structure, the parts have a tendency to permit easier movement. A wheelchair has a greater tendency toward movement than a rocking chair does, and a rocking chair has a greater tendency toward movement than a couch does. A couch has a greater tendency toward movement than a building does. In each case, the underlying structure determines the tendency toward movement.

This underlying, usually unseen structure is everywhere in our life and is especially potent in our ever-changing reaction to a changing market.

Edmondson (1992) described the concepts of R. Buckminster Fuller's Synergectic Geometry:

Thinking isolates events: "understanding" then interconnects them. "Understanding is structure/' Fuller declares, for it means establishing the relationship between events.

Structure determines behavior. Structure determines the way anything behaves—a bullet, a hurricane, a cab driver, a spouse, a market. The way the pits are structured determines the behavior of the traders in the pits.

The structures that have the most influence on your trading results are composed of desires, beliefs, assumptions, aspirations, and, most of all, your understanding of the underlying structure of the market and yourself.

This study of structure is independent of and quite different from the study of psychology. However, here is a potent relationship. As you apply structural understanding and principles to your trading, two insights emerge.

First, most of us, probably more because of ignorance than arrogance, have a tendency to ignore nature and simply use it as a backdrop for our more important activities. Traders act according to the underlying structures that rule their entire lives. Since both the markets and the traders are part of nature, it should not be surprising that both act according to "natural" underlying structure. Chaos and fractals are new concepts for most traders. Most see their lives as a struggle against nature or the market rather than as being intimately connected with nature and the market. As the composer Hector Berlioz commented, "Time is the great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all of its students."

The second insight from the study of structures is that some structures produce more and different types of results than others. Structure is impersonal. Some structures lead to pain, no matter who is within the structures. Most traders attempt to change their behavior rather than the structure of their life. They believe that changing their behavior will change the structure. Just the opposite is true. As Robert Fritz notes, "You can't fool Mother Structure."

Some structures lead to final destinations; other structures simply oscillate. Let's examine both types here. Later, we will note the difference each makes when used in the stock market.

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