yes, this is very important. One must have a perfect routine to succeed. If one part of the routine is broken, one must not even attempt to trade for the day. For instance, let us begin. I wake up at exactly 5:29 AM. This is my lucky number. I get up out of bed and do exactly 9 push ups. I then walk to my desk to inspect that I have exactly 5 perfectly sharpened #2 pencils and a 70 page notebook open and ready. Then I inspect my highlighters. I must have a yellow, pink and orange highlighter with absolutely no pen smears on them. Otherwise, I must go into my filing cabinet and remove another yellow, pink and orange highlighter. Next thing I do is remove exactly 2 q-tips to clean out my ears. That is very important. If you have clogged ears, you cannot think straight. After that I walk into my kitchen in my fur slippers. Always must wear my fur slippers. I remove exactly one grapefruit from the refrigerator. I empty exactly one packet of Equal onto my grapefruit. I then prepare 6 oz of Green Tea. Only 6 oz. because 8 oz. can give me the runs. After I have my grapefruit and green tea, I then return to my trading desk. At this point, .....
Nothing wrong with that Jackie. I get up early (5am) and I go for a quick flight in my Bell Jet Ranger, loaded with 6 half filled water balloons. Depending on my score I look for long or short trades early in the day. If for instance I score a direct hit on one or more of my neighbors, their dogs or their kids, I look for a long trade first. If on the other hand, I score a direct hit or close miss on one of the neighbor ladies (usually out jogging) then I look for a short trade to open the day. Never fails. This week I am putting in new rules for the mailman, the garbage man, the pool maintenance guy and the meter guy (PG&E). I have a point system for these folks so that I don't have to waste fuel hovering. Its all just "bombs away".... My one firm rule is (from my military days) you have to be able to make positive visual ID of the target. If I hit a "civilian" I am out for the day. steve46
8:00 Wake up prepare morning homework - 9:30 , have every single entry pattern, risk , reward for every vehicle written out, pretty quick really. Espically compq and indu 9:33-9:45 , Enter one long position 10:00-10:30 watch for reversals After that : a) Every 5 minutes I work out in my office gym. b) Audio alerts. c) make fun of retards on elitetrader. c) Workout more d) Flex muscles, admire self. e) Hear alerts , run to computer. f) Set auto stop when position is put up g) bagwork i) Run on treadmill. with alerts set to max volume. 12:00- 1:00 Looking to put on another position g) Workout . g) If position put on , trash talk for the rest of the day for amusement. 3:00 - 4:00 visit various message boards 4:30 write up journal. As you can see, I'll be like king kong straight out of prison serving 10 with a big freakin trading account to go along with it.
Well i havent started trading yet at a prop firm as i will be joining a prop firm in 1st week of Jan My schedle is wake at 7.00 to 8.00 bathroom stuff After 8 i will walk to the subway (15minutes )8.15 to 9.15 i will be in train and i will reach the prop firm 9.25 I will watch the market from 9.30 to 10.00 10.30 ( i hate to trade at these hours and then see if i have to scalp or long postion till 4.00 a clock after that leave the prop firm by 4.30 and be home by 5.30 watch TV What a LIFE heheheehheeheh
Well, your schedule sounds like someone who will take 2+ years to start making any sort of living at trading (if you are lucky!). If you want to give yourself a fighting chance, get to work by 8:00am, prepare for the day, and stay at the office until 7pm minimum (yes, 3 hours after the market closes) researching charts, patterns, going over the tape etc until you can start averaging 5-10k a month net. Who goes home at 4:30 when they are new to the game??....I'll tell you who.....suckers! Dont be a sucker, do what you have to do now to build the right foundation for yourself. If you really want to succeed in this game, you have to prepare yourself well.
Time management is important, I trade because I want more personal time and freedom yet being able to pay the bills. So I trade different markets with different time-flames. My primary market is HengSang Index Futures and I use 1 min charts. The trading hours is GMT+8 09:45-16:15 with 2 hours break in between and that's my lunch break as well. My secondary market is FX, I hold both super long-term positions and swingtrade 60 min chart. So after my primary market has closed, I just have a snap of the market every hour and I can do my personal stuff in between. I'm planning to trade US stock options later and that will be based on another time-flame of cause, may be daily. Since the opening of US market is 22:00 in Hong Kong so it's perfect to placed the order in the open and switch off my computer.
Wake up @ 7:25. Stretch, shower. CNBC. Pre-market movers, pre-market movers research, look up eco #s, load up on some food, hit the desk for 8:30. Bail at 4:01pm. Watch Jim Cramer make a fool out of himself, do my own homework, sleep. Repeat.
Steve46, The dumpster (aka vagina) monologues appealed to my inner sense (no pun intended) of self-apathy. Your recent helicopter posts have put me into a limbo that begs the question: "does life really have a point beyond that of deciding between that cheap bottle of vodka versus the expensive stuff while at the liquor store?" Sure the cheap one will feel worse in the morning, BUT, when drinking the pricey stuff I feel like I accomplished something. Mike P.S. Whether its cheap or expensive vodka, it has to be Polish.
In my opinion, life is too short to drink cheap vodka. Of course I have to admit I dont drink much but thats the way I feel about it. If you're gonna do something, do it right, and since we are often in a place where we feel like we are treading water, you need to have a sense of humor. Steve