The Weekend Trader – The Jazz Trader
ByNote: This piece, which I originally posted on the original Don Miller Journal in January 2009, was subsequently syndicated at various venues including MoneyShow.com. Enjoy.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a concert of the state’s top high school musicians, of which my daughter (who plays violin) was a part. The concert participants consisted of a chorus, jazz band, symphony orchestra, and concert band. And the music was simply incredible, especially considering that those involved had just two practice sessions together (Thurs and Fri), although they’d of course each individually practiced their pieces for a month or so leading up to the event.
I’m sure there were a few missed notes, momentary loss of the underlying rhythm, and some performance stress during yesterday’s jazz band set … which also happens to describe almost every day of my trading career. Yet I certainly didn’t notice them as they were buried in the net performance, which was all that mattered.
There may very well be as many ways to trade as there are ways to interpret one’s musical soul: Speculating, providing liquidity, hedging, swing trading, scalp trading, range trading, breakout trading, trend trading, 5-minute chart trading, 60-minute chart trading, emotional extreme contra-trend wholesaling … not to mention the thousands of trading “instruments” out there. There’s simply no “holy grail” or “right way”.
Someone asked me last night why I didn’t short into the shallow 30-second chart pullbacks on Friday’s opening cliff drop. My response was essentially that I wanted to short, but personally rarely take shallow pullbacks on market spikes as I prefer lower-risk deeper retracements, which may appear as the first pullback on a larger timeframe (my eventual short was the first pullback and bear flag on the 5-minute chart). And as I’m waiting, I may very well test the waters and provide some liquidity to those bailing on pure emotion, which eventually snaps back at some point … often hard.
As a quick aside, I also read a recent piece that essentially concluded that one can’t profit from trying to time short-term price movements. Wowzer … talk about a head-scratcher.
I suppose we are all market “players” in the truest sense of the word. We must learn the underlying market beat of course, yet the best players seem to play their own tune that reflects their individual strengths, heart, and soul.Don’t be afraid to step out of the crowd and up to the mike in trading — or life — and play your soul. Don’t be afraid to write your own music.
I suspect that some of the greatest tunes ever contemplated were never heard because they remained on the composer’s desk or in the solist’s heart. And perhaps some of the best trades ever considered were never made because they remained in a trader’s mind for fear of doing something unique or against popular convention.
Have a great and inspiring week.
