I must respectfully disagree. Some of my best days have been hung over days. to each there own. Sometimes slower reflexes aid my trading But the comment about not coming in with a new sytem in your mind to trade the old system, is very true.
What a glorious morning! I made enough money to satisfy my modest needs, so I am off the clock, and can tend to my flock. Spinner, isn't it paradoxical that you are confident but humble? That you've read your Douglas? That you realize that "Anything can happen."? You've heard Mark D. Cook speak, so you know that "You don't know nuthin'!"? But you have a system or systems, you are thinking ahead about what could happen, but not choosing any path, waiting for the market to commit before you commit. You remember your Vadym Graifer "Trade what you see, not what you think." You remember your Linda Bradford Raschke "I wait for the market to come to me." And above all you remember your Alan Farley "They see you coming."
Thank you, Wave. The best trading system is one that studies what THEY do, and gracefully jiu-jitsu's it! When you know what MUST happen, you can trade with confidence. And I agree with you so strongly that trading is a video game that all my audibles are pinball and slot machine sounds.
Minmike, would you kindly comment more on trading hung over? If you could teach me to do that, I would be most grateful. Unfortunately, what I do is reach for hair of the dog. Can't keep away from the sauce. Being a trading therapist is such depressing work. So many seekers after gurus! And they don't listen!
There was a time when I prepared myself quite carefully for a mornings trading. Too carefully as it turned out, all I succeeded in doing was winding myself up. Now I avoid preparation like the plague. I have a system, it contains some WAV files to alert me and bring my attention back to the screen and all is well with the world. I found that too much prep made me try too hard; whereas this game is easier than it first appears if you relax back into it. WAV files like " get you ass back to the screen chop chop" seems to help me enormously
Fearless, I am with you. By preparation I didn't mean study, only taking mental inventory. The list I posted is my checklist, accomplished in seconds. Of course I can never check off everything, especially the sobriety, but it tells me where I may fall down during the day. "A man ought to know his limits." The only real prep I do is to read the WSJ, and check Bloomberg to make sure I know what today's announcements are. Then I relax by letting my dick get hard watching Erin Burnett, and laugh a little at the morning SCT posts. Thank you for sharing your use of audibles. I use them to let me take micro-naps, and to get away (but never too far) from the temptation to overtrade when things get slow. I have an awful tendency to tick fuck down intom the weeds, which the use of audibles soothes. No audibles? Stay in, or stay out. Thanks for posting.
Satisfaction. When I trade, I don't want to be aware of any distracting needs. Not being hungry is number one. So I eat a moderately unhealthy breakfast, biscuits and gravy is nice. Not being horny is number two. So I try to sneak in a morning quickie about three hours before the market opens. The drowsiness wears off, but the satisfaction remains. A boner is a wonderful gift, but not while you're trying to trade. Number three, during RMH, I don't want to feel anxious. So setting some fruits and cookies and chips and dip and nuts and cheeses and meatsticks and crackers nearby is essential. I get pissed easily (at myself and at the market), so rather than biting the monitor I snack. Number four, I play classical music. KDFC over the web is my favorite, and it has the side benefit of alerting me to connection failure if it goes quiet. Perhaps you all are very brave during RMH, but I tend to get rattled easily, so I want maximum comfort.
Always a pleasure to serve, never a chore. My mental tick list starts by establishing that I am indeed live when I wake up and after that I am so bloody pleased with myself that I forget the rest of the list. A quick 3S and off to the gym for a one hour flogging. Home for breakfast, a quick look at the daily screen for price and volumes and then into my intraday screen. I dont bother with triple screen or even double for that matter, the bloody ES is either going up or down in the morning session and all I am concerned with is quickly hoping on and off the train with the minimum inconvenience to my fellow passengers. Since I live in Buenos Aires, it is time for lunch around 3pm when we discuss what we are going to do for the day. In no time at all it is 11pm and dinner time and eventually bedtime so that I can get up and do it all over again tomorrow. Yes, I know it is tough but someone has to carry the load.
Well of course at my age it is "wake up alive and with a hard-on", and preferably not from the need to piss. So all you do is figure "up" from "down"? How very un-TA. Do you use ANY tools?