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The Journey of Making a Living as a Professional Trader
Why write a journal?
I'd like to start a journal here that will outline pretty much every thought and feeling that goes through my head as I work toward becoming consistently profitable. I'd like to cover the routines that I establish, the methods that work with and pretty much everything that I go through.
My motivations for doing so aren't for validation and acceptance by others but for myself and having something 'external' that I can look back on and be pushed to improve. By holding myself to high standards and being honest and public in my journal I hope that over time other people can add value or provide insights - and ultimately gain value from.
At the end of my trading journey I'd like to write a book about my experiences trading (another way of holding myself to a high standard) and hopefully my writing style will be improved and honed by posting here. If nothing else I'll develop a habit of continual self-reflection and awareness that will help me deal with the psychology of trading and steady continual improvement.
Previous trading experience
I'll be starting at a prop trading firm in a couple of weeks and trading Oil Calendar Spreads. I have previous experience at another firm trading the Bund/Bobl/Schatz FLY. I have also traded Commodity ETFS, Stocks and the DAX, but I'll get into all of that in more detail later on.
What to expect?
Daily or Weekly P/L
Insights
Chart Analysis
Detailed thoughts about trades
Anything I'm reading or learning from
Learning about my trading personality
I'll find an interesting way to structure things and try and write an 'article format' post once in a while as I learn and develop new things. But overall this journal will be a work in progress - hopefully improving as much as my trading! 
Journey
i would be interested in following your posts. im new to trading and am trying to learn a trading strategy for the emini s&p market.
__________________
THINK AND GROW RICH
Ditto.
And I like the handle.
Getting Started
So I’ve just found a place to live 10 minutes from the trading floor (hell yeah) and I pretty much have a couple of weeks now to get everything sorted in my head before I start. Some of the topics I’ll cover will probably ramble a little and be unstructured but I’ll try to edit them down so they’re easier to read and so they’re clearer in my head.
Some of the topics I have an interest in and will write about:
• Nobody cares about your success
• Getting on the path to mastery
• Finding your trading personality
• Meditation and Trading
• Recommended reading to get you to the next level
• Having a balanced life
• Different styles of trading
Hopefully write a couple up in the next few hours
Re: Getting Started
Quote from Wingz:
So I’ve just found a place to live 10 minutes from the trading floor (hell yeah) and I pretty much have a couple of weeks now to get everything sorted in my head before I start. Some of the topics I’ll cover will probably ramble a little and be unstructured but I’ll try to edit them down so they’re easier to read and so they’re clearer in my head.
Some of the topics I have an interest in and will write about :
• Nobody cares about your success
• Getting on the path to mastery
• Finding your trading personality
• Meditation and Trading
• Recommended reading to get you to the next level
• Having a balanced life
• Different styles of trading
Hopefully write a couple up in the next few hours
Finding your Trading Personality
Finding your Trading Personality
I’m sure you’ve probably heard that most traders mess with perfectly good systems or don’t trade them as they should. Even if they spend $2000 dollars on a system they still don’t follow all the rules correctly. Why is this?
Everyone has different risk appetites and feel different emotions when faced with the same market conditions, finding your trading personality is about choosing a strategy that has an edge and that you have the resilience and determination to stick to without screwing up. Are you the kind of person who is aggressive and likes to be correct? Are you the kind of trader that likes to read and research before taking action? – the best way to find out is to get out into the market on a simulator or with small size and see.
Finding the market to trade
Re: Re: Getting Started
Quote from Lights:
A great trader once told me to never talk about trading. Verbalizing trades forces the brain into a bias towards the literal and trading is more abstract and dynamic than that.
Meditation and Trading
I had always looked at meditation as some kind of spiritually enlightened practice performed by monks in caves. Even if they were blissfully happy in a state of constant ecstasy and peace – they were still in a damn cave! Not living life or even having sex, not experiencing the fun and amazing things in the world. Turns out after a little digging deeper I was wrong.
So how does this relate to trading?
Let me start with my definition of meditation. Meditation is letting things be, it is allowing thoughts to happen without judgements or attachments, it is being present, in the moment.
The direct benefit to trading I have experienced is that once a thought that diverges from my trading plan comes into my head or my mind starts coming up with rationalisations to add to a position or get out of one (basically any negative psychological affects that impact my decisions) … I just allow, allow, allow those thoughts to flow past me like water under a bridge. I therefore limit emotional mind rationalisations from interfering with my trading plan. On a surface level anyway – there’s probably a lot more going on deeper that I’m unaware of yet.
What do you need to do?
I have only started meditation recently but I’m already feeling the impacts throughout my life and all it took was a few minutes a day and a commitment to meditate every day.
Meditation is easier than you think and the best book to get started that I’d recommend is ‘8 Minute Meditation by Victor Davish. There’s a different meditation technique each week over 8 weeks for 8 minutes a day.
The first one is simply ‘following your breathing’, focus on an anchor point where you feel your breath the most and practise allowing your thoughts to flow through your mind without hooking on to them by focusing back on your breathing anchor point. It’s definitely something that you should keep an open mind to and if nothing else give the exercise a shot for 8 minutes. If it doesn’t help you in trading it will definitely add to other areas of your life.
Influences
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
The Inner Voice of Trading – Michael Martin
8 Minute Meditation – Victor Davish
The Psychology of Trading - Brett Steenbarger
Has anyone else meditated or have any thoughts on the subject?
Meditation and Trading
I had always looked at meditation as some kind of spiritually enlightened practice performed by monks in caves. Even if they were blissfully happy in a state of constant ecstasy and peace – they were still in a damn cave! Not living life or even having sex, not experiencing the fun and amazing things in the world. Turns out after a little digging deeper I was wrong.
So how does this relate to trading?
Let me start with my definition of meditation. Meditation is letting things be, it is allowing thoughts to happen without judgements or attachments, it is being present, in the moment.
The direct benefit to trading I have experienced is that once a thought that diverges from my trading plan comes into my head or my mind starts coming up with rationalisations to add to a position or get out of one (basically any negative psychological affects that impact my decisions) … I just allow, allow, allow those thoughts to flow past me like water under a bridge. I therefore limit emotional mind rationalisations from interfering with my trading plan. On a surface level anyway – there’s probably a lot more going on deeper that I’m unaware of yet.
What do you need to do?
I have only started meditation recently but I’m already feeling the impacts throughout my life and all it took was a few minutes a day and a commitment to meditate every day.
Meditation is easier than you think and the best book to get started that I’d recommend is ‘8 Minute Meditation by Victor Davish. There’s a different meditation technique each week over 8 weeks for 8 minutes a day.
The first one is simply ‘following your breathing’, focus on an anchor point where you feel your breath the most and practise allowing your thoughts to flow through your mind without hooking on to them by focusing back on your breathing anchor point. It’s definitely something that you should keep an open mind to and if nothing else give the exercise a shot for 8 minutes. If it doesn’t help you in trading it will definitely add to other areas of your life.
Influences
The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
The Inner Voice of Trading – Michael Martin
8 Minute Meditation – Victor Davish
The Psychology of Trading - Brett Steenbarger
Has anyone else meditated or have any thoughts on the subject?
Re: Re: Getting Started
Quote from Lights:
A great trader once told me to never talk about trading. Verbalizing trades forces the brain into a bias towards the literal and trading is more abstract and dynamic than that.
Welcome to ET, good posts so far.
Having started a journal, be prepared for haters, bashers, flamers, posers, and all manner of other angry and bitter people. In between, you will receive some positive feedback, and if you choose to focus on such you will definitely benefit from the experience.
You have two choices in how to respond to the aforementioned "thread-jackers": place them on ignore (probably the best way), or fight back against the hate. Being an adrenaline-junkie myself, I usually choose the latter, and have found it to be an enlightening experience, to say the least.
It sounds like you have a level-headed approach to the trading journey that lies ahead of you. Mediation will most certainly help, as will positive visualization exercises (mental rehearsals of achieving the success you desire). Kudos for landing a spot at a prop firm, and best wishes for remaining focussed on your goals in an environment that is likely to be full of chaos and negativity.
__________________
Work is for people who don't know how to trade!
Quote from keeptradin':
Welcome to ET, good posts so far.
Having started a journal, be prepared for haters, bashers, flamers, posers, and all manner of other angry and bitter people. In between, you will receive some positive feedback, and if you choose to focus on such you will definitely benefit from the experience.
You have two choices in how to respond to the aforementioned "thread-jackers": place them on ignore (probably the best way), or fight back against the hate. Being an adrenaline-junkie myself, I usually choose the latter, and have found it to be an enlightening experience, to say the least.
It sounds like you have a level-headed approach to the trading journey that lies ahead of you. Mediation will most certainly help, as will positive visualization exercises (mental rehearsals of achieving the success you desire). Kudos for landing a spot at a prop firm, and best wishes for remaining focussed on your goals in an environment that is likely to be full of chaos and negativity.
My experiences down the path to mastery
The idea of becoming a professional trader flittered around in my head for a few years before I actively and seriously pursued it. I was probably around 15 or 16 when I first started reading about trading. The idea of compound interest was all it really took for me to realize the scalability and potential profits that traders could make.
On one hand the pursuit of compound interest may have given me an unhealthy ambition for what could be accomplished but on the other, the understanding of the sheer power of compound interest allowed me to never really be suckered into the fallacy of the ‘magic pill’ or ‘holy grail’ systems thinking. If I had a system that good then there’s no way in hell that I would market it to other traders – I’d do what any rational person would do and find investment for the system not for the ‘secrets behind the system’.
I read as much as I could about markets, economics, indicators, methods and money management, but focused especially hard on the psychology of trading (hence the self-development slant I have). For example I knew that I had to have discipline so I worked to build discipline in my life, I got up at a certain time each day – I completed at least an hour of ‘quality’ work each day… etc.. I crafted myself early on to build up the attributes I had read were needed.
However I spent so much time on the nuances of trading that many traders ignore but very little on an actual method of trading to apply. You can read about basketball for years but until you start playing and improving inch-by-inch it’s all mental masturbation. It’s almost like I read just for the rush of those ‘aha’ moments without actually putting it into action.
It’s so simple in hindsight, just take the first awkward step, then the next, then the next and if you have the right attitude things will fall into place. In my experience this took a while and a lot of persistence.
I was a Dabbler and a Hacker – many emotional shifts had to happen before I set my head straight.
Getting on the path to mastery
One book that helped me get on the right path was ‘Mastery by George Leonard’ in it he talks about 4 different personality types
The Dabbler – In trading this is a guy who reads a few books and then quits right as he hits a plateau or tries another trading method and dabbles in that before moving on to another. This includes continually jumping from system to system trying to find the 'holy grail'. The perpetual starter.
The Hacker – This is the kind of guy that gives trading a go but does in in a half-assed way and is in no way consistent. He holds back due to fear of failure, for fear that his mental masturbation of becoming a big boy trader will come crashing down, so he never tries hard in fear that this will become a reality. He may become bitter and twisted as his self image is distorted.
The Obsessive – This is the kind of trader that finds it difficult to adapt, if he comes to a hurdle he tries to smash through it getting more and more frustrated and emotional. These guys blow up when markets change. Sometimes it’s better to step back, be flexible and re-assess the situation. Edges change.
The Master – this kind of trader lives and breathes the Japanese concept of ‘kaizen’ continual small improvements. Trading for him is about enjoying the process of becoming better, learning more and more. He doesn’t bitch and whine about spending some money on a book and only getting 1% of value from it, he takes that 1% and compounds it over 10 years.
The road to Mastery is frustrating, boring and dangerous if you only look at the end goal, you have to fall in love with the process. Success isn’t getting the ‘8 minute abs’ it’s the long slow walk to the gym when you’ve had 3 hours sleep, that sense of inner peace when you’re on your path. Doing repetitive tasks over and over again to improve by 0.001%, success is in the process, the outcome just happens. Do a search on 'deliberate practice' and see how it can affect your trading.
Where are you right now and how can you get on the right path?
Influences
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
Mastery - George Leonard
Enhancing Trader Performance - Brett Steenbarger
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play - Neil Fiore
Quote from Wingz:
Thanks for the feedback keeptradin'
I definitely need to incorporate mental rehearsals into my daily routine, I've never put the idea into action with enough commitment.
__________________
Work is for people who don't know how to trade!
Quote from Wingz:
I started this journal with the awareness that what I wrote might be confronted with negativity. Everyone's entitled to their opinion and I'm not one to judge their responses based on their filter of the world. I hope my ego doesn't come out to play too much :P. Maybe dealing with negative responses will actually let me focus more, allowing them to pass by like negative emotions in front of the screen.
But who knows?
__________________
Work is for people who don't know how to trade!
Quote from keeptradin':
Decide NOW how you will handle this type of treatment, your "catastrophe stop" if you will. Otheriwse, this silly little forum will become a major distraction from the endeavor in which you have apparently devoted yourself to attaining success. If I can impart any words of wisdom to you, it is the importance of deciding in advance how to respond to the mean people that will be jealous of your success, and seek to suck the energy out of the beautiful life you are striving for.
Are you going into a trading group with a mentor or on your own once you start? Working with someone who knows what the hell they are doing helps... ALOT lol
It's a very nice setup actually, we are put into small groups and then have a mentor who actively trades sitting alongside us. They leave room for us to grow and pursue our own ideas and trading methods that suit us while at the same time calling out price action and what they see going on.
Much different to the other firm where I was trading - it was more along the lines of 'buy low, sell high' make 5 or more trades a day - then off to the floor with little interaction.
"Scalp three ticks"
- "But thats barely 2 after commissions and my stop is 8"
"Gotta hit those rebates! - trade monkey trade!"
Completely flawed at the time and didn't suit me.
Quote from Wingz:
It's a very nice setup actually, we are put into small groups and then have a mentor who has been trading for 3-4 years sitting alongside us - I think they're also financially invested in our success. They leave room for us to grow and pursue our own ideas and trading methods that suit us while at the same time calling out price action and what they see going on.
Much different to the other firm where I was trading - it was more along the lines of 'buy low, sell high' make 5 or more trades a day - then off to the floor with little interaction.
"Scalp three ticks"
- "But thats barely 2 after commissions and my stop is 8"
"Gotta hit those rebates! - trade monkey trade!"
Completely flawed at the time and didn't suit me.
Without going into too much detail as I'd like to respect the privacy of the firm.
Yes for all of them. The training period is 6-12 months, live after a few although it depends on the trader. Small basic salary and I've done my due dilligence with regard to traders already at the firm from networking with other traders at my prior firm.
Nobody cares about your success
So I’ve experimented with different kinds of motivation, I’ve found that motivating myself by pulling myself towards a goal is usually best. But sometimes we all need a little push to wake up and get as Napoleon Hill coined… a ‘burning desire’. This is my ‘bootcamp officer' side coming out.
I’m a grown ass man, if I go to war and die no one’s gonna give a sh1t, no sympathy, no one cares about my success apart from me. If I want to master trading then I have to do it myself. Not only that but people will actively be jealous of my success, ridicule my efforts, laugh at my setbacks and try to pull me down in order to make themselves feel better or confirm their worldview.
Nobody is going to ‘put me on the map’ – there are so many talented people in the world that are stuck doing mediocre jobs – waiting to be ‘put on’ by someone else, you need to take action and think for yourself. Talent means very little, in some cases talent even hurts people as they relax in early life only to see others with more persistence and determination speed past them. As soon as a set-back occurs they have no idea how to handle it, it’s almost a curse. It’s all about determination and a relentless drive.
In trading its equivalent to someone wanting someone else to teach them the secrets – the magic pill that will get them into the land of riches. Not gonna happen, no one gives a sh1t about you, if you want something – take it. If you’re not willing to take sh1t from other people, do endless repetitive tasks, make sacrifices to ‘hone your craft’, tear yourself down then build yourself back stronger just give up and slink back into mediocrity.
This path is hard work, either go at it 100% or pursue something else, don’t be like the average person when you age – looking back at the good old days with cynical and bitter world views. Wake up! Don’t slip into the zombie like consumer culture state that’s so common in society.
Something Brett Steenbarger said: ‘Trading is a vehicle to self-mastery and development’ – I’ve taken that to heart. I think it’s significantly more aligned to consistently profitable trading than taking on a ‘poor me’ attitude or that trading is an easy get rich quick scheme with zero effort.
So decide right now, are you willing to go down the narrow road with hyper-focus, face all kinds of setbacks – have a relentless drive – or would you rather sit at home watching X-Factor whining about how unfair life is like a little biatch?
Influences
The Narrow Road – Felix Dennis
The Daily Trading Coach – Brett Steenbarger
Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill
Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
High Performance Trading - Steve Ward
The Truth About Success - Owen Cook
Quote from Wingz:
Without going into too much detail as I'd like to respect the privacy of the firm.
Yes for all of them. The training period is 6-12 months, live after a few although it depends on the trader. Small basic salary and I've done my due dilligence with regard to traders already at the firm from networking with other traders at my prior firm.
Achieving Goals – forming habits with smartphone apps
I’m sure everyone has read about the importance of goals, off the top of my head one of the first things I read was a study done quite a few years back with goal setters from Harvard or Stanford. Basically something like 3% of graduates from a class had written out their goals and that 3% went on to make more money than the other 97% - don’t quote me on that.
There’s one thing to have goals, another to actually write them out and another to actually take steps toward achieving them. One method that has worked really well for me in recent years is achieving goals through establishing habits. Success is that slow walk to mastery, inch-by-inch improvement – its sometimes difficult to get started and consistently follow through.
Apps
The apps I use at the moment are ‘Habit Streak’ and ‘Task:Life’ both on the android platform – there are probably even better ones on the iPhone – it’s all about finding the right fit for you.
The Process – step 1 – setting a goal and asking questions
So I set myself a goal in trading that’s incredibly broad – ‘master trading’.
I then ask myself questions that help to break down that abstract goal into sub-goals, a technique I learned from Tony Robbins.
Sounds interesting
__________________
Chance favors the prepared mind. (Pasteur)
know your trading platform cold, there have been lots of execution errors which have killed people over the years. You see some fat fingers that take people out, so whatever you are using practice executing orders, getting in and out when there is a fast market, etc. Under pressure people make errors, you hit buy when you want to sell, good luck...take your time.
Preparation for the Start Date
It’s now only a few more days until I get started, I moved into my new place last weekend and am a 10 minute walk from the trading floor and the gym. This time around in order to ensure success I’m establishing goals outside of trading and getting into productive routines.
Exercise
Established a gym workout incorporating weight lifting for strength and cardio for increased energy. One sprint cardio day, one hardcore lifting day and two mixed per week. I’m never good at going in the mornings so I’ll get everything done in the evenings – we’ll see how it goes, might do mid-day or morning in the future.
Proposed results: increased energy, better able to get to sleep at night, endurance in front of the screen, reduction of cortisol, a form of self-confidence and discipline not related to trading.
Diet
I make my food twice a week and store it. Lots of meat and legumes, no processed carbs and massive amounts of fruit and vegetables. Probably snack on nuts and fruit with oat shakes for slow energy release. Blueberries and other antioxidants.
Proposed results: no shit in my diet screwing with my energy or killing my brain. Hyper-focused when on the floor without worrying about what or when to eat, no sugar or caffeine crashes. Really have to completely give up smoking.
Routines
Consistent weekday morning routine - wake at same time daily, take vitamins and have healthy morning smoothie/shake, morning yoga and light exercise, shower, brush teeth, make bed and clear desk.
Consistent weekday evening routine – stretch before bed, read something other than trading, occasionally watch TV, meditate, chill with housemates, eat dinner, glass of red wine, chat to friends.
Maintenance – cooking food, washing clothes etc.. going to the gym, buying food.
Social
Friday and Saturday nights out extreme socializing with new people and friends – goof around and have fun – guilt free play, clubbing, karaoke and paintballing etc...
Goal outside of trading in socializing - to take pimping to the next level – go hard or go home, no time for anything else.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Once I figure out what I have to do on the floor I’ll work toward establishing work routines that involve a lot of self-reflection and continual repetitive tasks. Such as having ‘report cards’ for certain trading behaviours I want to improve and going through past charts bar-by-bar, developing and backtesting whatever strategy I decide on.
Really itching to go - trying to find out a little about the fundamental relationships, I've created a Mindmap. See attached file.
If anyone has any pointers about the fundamental relationship driving oil calendar spreads they would be very appreciated.
Thanks
Quote from Wingz:
Preparation for the Start Date
It’s now only a few more days until I get started, I moved into my new place last weekend and am a 10 minute walk from the trading floor and the gym. This time around in order to ensure success I’m establishing goals outside of trading and getting into productive routines.
Exercise
Established a gym workout incorporating weight lifting for strength and cardio for increased energy. One sprint cardio day, one hardcore lifting day and two mixed per week. I’m never good at going in the mornings so I’ll get everything done in the evenings – we’ll see how it goes, might do mid-day or morning in the future.
Proposed results: increased energy, better able to get to sleep at night, endurance in front of the screen, reduction of cortisol, a form of self-confidence and discipline not related to trading.
Diet
I make my food twice a week and store it. Lots of meat and legumes, no processed carbs and massive amounts of fruit and vegetables. Probably snack on nuts and fruit with oat shakes for slow energy release. Blueberries and other antioxidants.
Proposed results: no shit in my diet screwing with my energy or killing my brain. Hyper-focused when on the floor without worrying about what or when to eat, no sugar or caffeine crashes. Really have to completely give up smoking.
Routines
Consistent weekday morning routine - wake at same time daily, take vitamins and have healthy morning smoothie/shake, morning yoga and light exercise, shower, brush teeth, make bed and clear desk.
Consistent weekday evening routine – stretch before bed, read something other than trading, occasionally watch TV, meditate, chill with housemates, eat dinner, glass of red wine, chat to friends.
Maintenance – cooking food, washing clothes etc.. going to the gym, buying food.
Social
Friday and Saturday nights out extreme socializing with new people and friends – goof around and have fun – guilt free play, clubbing, karaoke and paintballing etc...
Goal outside of trading in socializing - to take pimping to the next level – go hard or go home, no time for anything else.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Once I figure out what I have to do on the floor I’ll work toward establishing work routines that involve a lot of self-reflection and continual repetitive tasks. Such as having ‘report cards’ for certain trading behaviours I want to improve and going through past charts bar-by-bar, developing and backtesting whatever strategy I decide on.
Really itching to go - trying to find out a little about the fundamental relationships, I've created a Mindmap. See attached file.
If anyone has any pointers about the fundamental relationship driving oil calendar spreads it would be very appreciated.
Thanks
Quote from kinggyppo:
you should get "oils endless bid" by Dan Dicker. I really enjoyed this. His thesis is that the over the counter contracts mostly traded by the big houses like GS and MS are what is driving fundamentals higher. Mark Fisher a great oil trader seems to talk only about China they loom large in the oil world in terms of fundamental demand. Regarding spreads a calendar is either long or short vol no?
When I started trading with a Prop firm they started me scalping on the 5-year because it wasn't as volatile as other instruments. I think it was a good instrument to start with. Once I had success with that I moved on to other instruments but starting with the 5 is a good place to get going.
Quote from Wingz:
Thanks I'll check it out. I'll be doing calendar spreads over the futures markets - so wanting the spread between the contract prices to widen I'd go long Jan Crude and Short Feb Crude, i.e I want Jan to rise faster than Feb, or Feb to drop faster than Jan etc etc. It's the difference between the two contract prices.
When you say long or short 'vol' (volatility) are you talking about options? I don't really have any experience with options if that's the case.
Quote from the1:
When I started trading with a Prop firm they started me scalping on the 5-year because it wasn't as volatile as other instruments. I think it was a good instrument to start with. Once I had success with that I moved on to other instruments but starting with the 5 is a good place to get going.
Quote from kinggyppo:
ok I see what you are saying, you are spreading. In options calendars you are selling short front month strike and buying the next month, so it a play on volatility. you may find this link useful, quasi related.
http://www.cboe.com/micro/oilvix/introduction.aspx
Good Luck Wingz , I'm looking forward to your journey.
Quote from ggold:
Good Luck Wingz , I'm looking forward to your journey.
Any updates?
First week
Ok so a quick update, nothing crazy in my first week. The guys were just teaching everyone the mechanics of how to use the front end software. It's what I was using previously so a nice refresher.
We will be using a spread matrix to get an overview of the markets and even enter orders through it, I personally prefer ladders but I can see that after everything clicks I'll be able to see lots of opportunities with the spread matrix.
Some of the questions Ive been asking myself this week that I'll aim to properly answer when on the sims.
How can I determine what the 'curve' is doing?
what are the fundamental factors that influence this market and are there any tradeable opportunities?
How can I anticipate 'fills'?
What is the correlation of the back month spreads to the front month?
how does volatility change when you increase the time between two contracts?
what is a 'free' trade - how can I find them?
am I able to program in relationships using excel to alert me to possible areas of value?
when should I build a 'synthetic' spread out of building blocks (e.g build the 6 month from two 3 month spreads) - what are the costs and benefits of this?
-------------------------------
Other than the trading - I'm sticking to a good diet; I feel I need to add some more carbs during the day to keep my brain working, so I might add a little pasta to the food I bring in. Going to the gym consistently, keeping a good sleep cycle.
Just building on from here I guess!
Wingz,
I do my best to avoid trading forums these days, but I can't quite resist when I see a thread title that intruiges me - as this one did. Kudos on the thread so far, I enjoyed reading it from page 1, these last 20 minutes.
The story you've told bears striking similarity to my own. I recently joined a prop firm (although unlike you, I have no prior-prop firm experience), and I too recently moved so that I could be within 10 minutes walk of the trading floor.
In your earlier messages you placed particular emphasis on routine: namely Gym/Diet/Sleep/General Living. Funnily, over the last several days I have been devising very thorough diet plans + inducting myself into the local gym. [To run off on a complete tangent for one moment, I'm pursuing this simple but supposedly effective programme:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...t=998224&page=1]
I am also impressed/inspired by how introspective you are, with regards to becoming both a better trader & presumably better man. Thanks for referencing a number of books - I will see about reading them in the coming months.
You listed topics of interest that you will be writing on, and I think it was great to include this one:
"Having a balanced life"
Even before I moved house so that I could be closer to the trading floor, my commitment to becoming a successful trader was (and still is) an obstacle to a balanced lifestyle. Now that I have moved, and am at least temporarily isolated socially, I think I more than any other ET member will have to carefully read any thoughts you might have on balanced living, hehe!
One or two friends have jokingly remarked I am in danger of turning in to Patrick Bateman.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGeAMVK75T4]
Anyway, look forward to reading more of your journal. I hope you stay motivated enough to keep posting.
P.S.
I had to chuckle to myself when I read this:
"Goal outside of trading in socializing - to take pimping to the next level"
Definitely worth a topic of its own at some point.
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