Friday Notes – Focus on Focus

I didn’t trade alongside my Jellie peer traders today.

For I made a conscious decision to simply focus on today’s MATD in solitude, and - to use a golf analogy – finished this week’s trading “round” by going birdie-birdie on Thursday and Friday on the heels of the mid-week bogeys.

So what happened since Wednesday’s “going to put the car in park” post?

Two things.  First, the market provided classic TD (Trend Day) – MATD sequences on Thursday and Friday, which is about as obvious a pattern in this business as there is.  And whether I was fully recovered or not (still getting there), it would have frankly taken a coma to mess it up.

Second, and as I’m sure other traders will attest, it’s not surprising that once one sets his/her mind to not trading, trade setups and optimal wholesale entries just seem to fall in your lap.  I’ve seen this time and time in my own trading, and it’s largely because any self-imposed pressure to perform is magically lifted.  The result is that “too early” or “too late” often morph into “right on time”.

In terms of trading solo, it was a change of pace that everyone probably needed.  For me, I tend to get into some bad habits of babbling instead of trading more aggressively when in the networking room.  And while additional sets of eyes can be helpful when one gets tired or unfocused, the charts will always provide everything you need in terms of price action.

For the team, they probably enjoyed the relative serenity after my Thursday rant.

And such are the risks and benefits of group trading.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, there are significant pros AND cons of group trading dynamics, and I’ve long been hot and cold on this topic. 

There’s a reason I emphasize self-sufficiency in one’s trading, which in addition to not wanting people to pay me some ongoing revenue stream (I make nothing from the ongoing room) is in part because the last thing a good golfer needs while putting is 15 caddies reading the green when you already know how to read it.  You focus on the putt … and nothing else.

Perhaps the scenario that best balances the two is to use such a support system as an occasional booster shot or check and balance rather than a continual tool which can become a harmful subconscious ”crutch”.

Lastly, I wanted to share an email response I sent one thoughtful onlooker last night who was concerned that I might be losing a bit of life perspective in terms of recent posts and events:

Hi and thanks for your heartfelt note.

It is definitely true that I’m driven in all that I do, and that some day, I’ll likely step down from the trading arena (or maybe they’ll have to take me out screaming).

As you probably know, trading is much like athletics in that careers can be short, and as such, we must push hard during those fertile times in our careers. This is especially true because we have no pensions or retirement vehicles other than to self-fund 100% of our future need, and as such, we must work harder than other professions to fund both current and future needs.  And such is likely evident throughout any trader’s approach.

Having said that, you’re entirely correct in that I can be fully absorbed to the point where some may think that a deeply-held passion may be bordering on obsession.  Yet for me, it’s never been about wealth accumulation.  Never.  Instead, the challenge of trading and teaching others remain passions of joy and giving, much like it was for Larry Bird when people asked him why he was so obsessed with getting up at 4am every day to shoot 300 baskets.  His response was that he simply loved what he did.

Yet your words ring true in terms of stopping to smell the roses … something that I can always get better at.

God is still working on me.

Thanks again for the thoughtful words.

Don