Tuesday Notes – Missing the Crossbar
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On Sunday, 60 Minutes ran an extraordinary piece on Super Bowl champion Drew Brees.
Toward the end of the segment, the following exchange took place between Steve Kroft and Brees:
We asked Brees if he would give us a demonstration of his passing accuracy for our cameras. And he accepted the offer.
The challenge was to see how many times he could hit the eight-inch goal post crossbar which is ten feet off the ground from a distance of 30 yards.
On this day, Brees wasn’t perfect – he hit the crossbar a number of times and his misses weren’t very far off. But he failed to live up to his own expectations and he wasn’t happy about it.
“Low. Not my day,” Brees said. “Nah. That was terrible. You got me on a bad day.”
“I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it,” Kroft said.
“Yeah, Brees said. After a long pause, he added, “I will.”
Last night, we had a very similar exchange during our final evening Jellie training session together when I explained that I was beyond upset that I’d gotten into one particular sequence much later than I should have given a momentary distraction, which ended up being very costly.
Not costly in terms of lost capital .. rather it was costly in the context of a missed opportunity which required I enter the trade later than I would have preferred, giving up 2 points in the process.
And while some in the room told me to take it easy on myself, I vehemently disagreed, stating that it was completely unacceptable.
I went on to say that I expected to lose quite a bit of sleep over it … which I did as I played the sequence over and over again in my mind.
Fast foward to today where one of the Jellies took exception to another comment that I was planning to do everything possible to avoid “missing out” once again.
“Isn’t ‘missing out’ a bad motivator?” he asked.
To some, perhaps.
Yet, you see … I know myself.
More importanly, I also know my enemies … of which there are only two: complacency and satisfaction.
For these two foes reflect the only barriers that will ever cap my income.
So I have to find ways to make myself constantly uncomfortable … especially during sick streaks such as the one I find myself dealing with right now.
The common rule of thumb is that fear, anger, revenge, and extreme disatisfaction with one’s performance are counter-productive. Not to mention the self-cursing.
Yet I’ve never marched to the “common” beat … nor do I plan to.
For me, they’re all powerful motivators.
In terms of yesterday’s trade, I essentially missed hitting the crossbar with one of my passes. Forget the fact that most hit the bar … that one miss was unacceptable.
And in terms of today’s trade, I simply wasn’t going to let it happen again.
Three hours of sleep and 11 full hours of trading later, the result was a personal record 27 for 30 (sequences) day, including two with identical setups to the one I’d suboptimized on Monday, and five long exits within two ticks of oscillating highs including the final late-day exit at 1145.75.
The record will show that over the past many weeks, I’ve been trading at an even stronger consistency clip than the mega-zones in 2001, 2004-05, and 2008-09, and I’m as dialed-in as ever.
Yet from my perspective, it will make my work in the coming weeks to retain the current edge all that much harder.
Tonight’s agenda?
To review those three sequences to determine what went wrong.
And to believe that today was the worst day of my trading career.
Enjoy your blog. What is constitues a “sequence”. Can you give an example. It would better help me understand your post.
Thank you.
I define a sequence as the opening and closing of a “trade”. Essentially, it’s going from a cash position to a capital-in-market position, and back to a cash position, and is comprised of the initial entry, intermediate adds and/or lightens, and a final closing entry.
Appreciate your insights on your own journey. I am only couple of years older than your daughter and went to babson college near tufts. Been trading the emini for 16 months with no break every day. It sure is psychologically, emotionally, and physically draining. But it is the fastest way toward transformation that I have ever experienced as there is no greater teacher than pain. Thanks again! Didn’t recognize the utility of the 3lb chart before seeing your site.
I remember a book someone once recommended… Golf is not a game of perfect !
Yes, but STRIVING for perfection remains the unending task at hand
.
Don
Have you realized that in each of the last two jellie programs you have done better than expected? Could this benefit come from verbalizing observations more? Just a thought.
I think it’s in part because I got more comfortable multi-tasking personal trading – which is a highly necessary part of the training – and non-stop audio narration.
There’s no doubt that talking out loud helps one sharpen focus (remember Dr. Brett’s Internal Observer) & I recommend that everyone talks through their thoughts and charts out loud (find a closed room somewhere), although in the case of Jellie training, such benefit is often more than offset by responding to questions and guiding the team through THEIR trades, especially in weeks 3 & 4.
“… which I did as I played the sequence over and over again in my mind.”
That’s one big reason why you are so highly and consistent profitable.
Cheers,
Markus
I think a lot of people, from the sound of it, do not understand why you are so hard on yourself. I admit wondering the same thing when I read posts like this, fully knowing that I have been in that same head space as well, and known it was exactly the thing I needed at the moment.
I’m not sure if you have in previous posts, but It might help to understand your actions better if you explain some of the foundation principles in why you trade in the first place. You have more then enough money, you could easily retire which I have seen you talk about before. So obviously the surface reasons do not apply. Perhaps it is for excellence’s sake? To make your happy? To grow spiritually? What do you think of posting something like this?
Enjoyed Reading,
Lucas T
I imagine the answer is sprinkled among the 800+ posts, but suppose it’s simply the athlete’s thirst (and this IS a competitive sport) for excellence and attainment of one’s fullest potential.
When Larry Bird was asked why he got up at 4am every day to shoot 300 baskets, he simply responded that he never viewed it as work, he loved the game, and was always raising the bar.
Continued attainment of one’s potential, in terms of both the human spirit and the craft which he/she pursues, is likely a lifelong pursuit for all of us … in one way or another.
At this end, paying it forward via education and charity helps balance the focus away from self, although I still think we can do more in those areas.