Vol is coming back in... but. I've let my former clients $convince me$ to come teach a couple of Big Data classes for them. Not only do I have to go off gallivanting to two remote locations for a week apiece, I also have to set my Trading Brain aside and turn on my Big Data Brain (the info sets are so large that they're essentially mutually exclusive. Certainly for now; perhaps I'll be able to fit both in at some point in the future.) Besides which, I have to spend the next week immersing myself in catching up on what the latest state of the state is... I owe that much to my students, and in this field, six months is an eternity. So, at least two weeks of essentially no trading (argh...) starting right about now, and maybe a week and a half of the same next month. On the other hand, a week of teaching every month would keep me afloat pretty well. (I wish the universe would just give me a few mil, then leave me alone and let me trade in peace. Not like I'm asking for anything big, right? This annoying "making a living" stuff gets in the way, dammit.)
Reading over this old journal, just spotted this... interesting, in the context of everything that's happened since then. At this point, I'm averaging a bit better than $100/day. I could fiddle about with the definition of "confidently" and "consistently" - it's not like getting a $100 check automatically cut every day, and I won't claim rock-solid certainty or absolute professionalism in my trading - but if we're talking about meeting my mental image of what I wanted at that point, then that's an unqualified "yes". TONS to learn yet - I don't think that's ever going to stop - but I'm surviving, meeting my expenses by nothing more than trading (my usual business having been killed off, or at least put on a long-term hold by the corona crash.) On the one hand, it seriously sucks to be just scraping by... but on the other, the fact that I've been able to keep it up over the past year or so is one of the most exciting things that's ever happened for me. I can survive, just by trading. Holy shit. That's a dream fulfilled... even though I didn't want to be in a position where I have to do it to survive, that's an amazing accomplishment. One I'm quite proud of, and with much gratitude to all you folks who have helped me along the way.
Congrats! I assume (I think you actually mentioned this) that this 100/day is coming from utilizing very small portion of your capital. If true, safely scaling it to 3,5,10 times this amount should be within reach. Agree?
Thanks, @qlai; much appreciated. I wish that was the case, but - no, compared to some here, I'm trading a tiny account (one that will get larger quite quickly once I go back to work, since the trading income balances my expenses.) But since I've averaged a ~5% return on it per month, even during the corona crash and the crazy election market, there's no way I can complain. My focus these days is on learning directional trading; I seem to recall @destriero basically saying that you won't amount to jack in this business unless you can do that, and it's definitely something I'm missing. There's still a huge amount for me to learn in lots of other ways, too, but... now I have a foothold. That's more amazing than I can even begin to express. Again, I'm super-grateful to a number of folks here who have helped me along the way; they've made the road much easier than it would have been otherwise.
Wow, didn’t expect him to say that, but I agree. Long term, I would like to build my stake large enough to allocate about 20% to premium selling and the rest to swinging only when there’s exceptional opportunity.
Absolutely “Directional Trading” will push you to the next level. Its not by accident he is one of the best and most consistent traders on Elite. Des is the Option god!
Frankly, I've gone from being pig-ignorant about anything related to finance during all of my previous life ("money comes in, money goes out... can't 'splain dat!") to - well, at least somewhat educated about it during the past year and a half. Truth to tell, it's been a bloody shock. A continuous series of shocks, including the incredibly bitter realization of where I would be today financially if I had learned about this early on. But better late than never - and it would have been "never" except for a series of fortunate accidents. I'd love to have an account big enough to segment in the way you're describing - but that's a ways off, unless a number of things come together for me. So far, I've had only mild success trying to scalp futures (i.e., chart-based/directional trading); nothing with a definite positive expectancy, although moving averages plus cumulative delta seems promising. So does market profile. In any case, I'll be exploring all kinds of avenues while keeping my current processes running... hopefully, my brain remains plastic enough to keep learning and absorbing this stuff at the same clip that it has been. Although it often feels like the info is overflowing my brain pan and sloshing out of my ears.
Always bias long, man. It's been working since the Tulip bubble of 4,000,000 B.C. Do you want to know the secret of why the markets go up, always and truly? It's because of sex. More sex = more people, which = more GNP/GDP, (more productivity), thus more output, thus more goods, thus more consumption...more more more. Therefore, go long on sex! I mean, er...