That's a good example. You need to love it. I've learned to absolutely hate manual trading. Others thrive on the challenge. Not me. I hated getting up in the morning. But what I finally found is that I love coming up with new ideas, and then testing them, and automating them if they work. But sitting there all day while waiting for a particular setup to occur turned out to be too much. I felt like I was wasting my time. If you think hard work means waiting and waiting, and then hammering a trade for a small profit, good luck. You'll easily get burnt out in a hurry, even if you're profitable. Unless you have the personality and discipline of a military sniper, I think you're screwed before you begin.
you did not reach the level of success. or psychologically you are not enjoying trading. trading is not hard work. the harder you work, the worse the results. overalysis is one of them, watch or monitor the market all day and night, frequently check the quote are others. put it that way, whether you watch it or monitor it or not, the market still will go where it wants to go. so let it run. if it reaches your arget, get out. simple. if it did not reach your target, choose to wait or realize the train is going another way, get out and reverse. of course market is full of noises. if you look at those noises too frequently, easily shake out a good position, or suck into a trap if you do not want to get lost in those noises, look at the major trend, ignore intra-day short lived trends or wall street manipultions. trading does not need lots of knowldge, all just common sense: try to buy low and sell high, try to sell high and buy low, follow major trend. what I keep those noises off is: ignore them, only I see major development, I will change my position or reverse. sinff around for those trending end signs. often those days, evryone knows major development fast, so sometimes do not bother to reverse at all, you are late to the party. trading is an enjoyable job. does not need hard work. most time, we are just lucky enough to profit since lots of people see the same things. if trading needs so much hardwork, better change into a career with stable pay and enjoyable working enronments
I actually believe that following the news is important, just because complex news stories are the one thing that <i>they*</i> can't code. Just take last week's big Japanese announcement for example. *"Them"= The damn HFT algo bot dudes, who have totally ruined most of the once lucrative short-term repeating patterns, thereby drinking my milkshake.
greed,sloth,pride,lust,envy,gluttony are all fallen humanities tendencies ..no matter what you work at
I like your comment. It is a reality that we should not only work hard but work with focus. A focused work can be done in less time bringing better results.
I think this is a better list: ET Reading and replying - 0hrs Reading general news (politics etc.) - 0hr Trading - 2.5hrs Coding/Researching strategies - 0.5 hrs Planning/Dreaming/making realistic/ unrealistic future plans- 7 hr Some other cool stuff that I do - 3hrs Total - 13hrs per day
You worry about the process, the journey, rather than the destination. Begin with the end in sight. Set goals, then figure out what you need to do to get there. It may be 20 hours a week, it may be 100 hours. And do leave time for the really important things in life. If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
I've had a similar problem and the solutions that work best for me are: i) collaborate as regularly as possible with 1 or more skilled traders who 'get' your trading style. ii) make your work environment as focused and professional as possible. If you trade from home, rent a small office (100 sq foot is enough, and dirt cheap even in metro centres like NYC/London). Have market paraphenalia (e.g. 1987 or 2001 market crash headlines newspaper editions framed on the wall; photos/paintings of pit trader; a bookshelf of trader classics), have ZERO clutter, minimise distractions (tv, internet etc should be used sparingly if at all), have a small fridge with supplies for lunch, dinner, and all-night sessions, have backup gear e.g. spare laptop, smartphone, UPS, data recovery plan etc. Choose an office with an attractive receptionist. iii) devise a set of 'triggers' to get your mind into work performance mode. Have a different set of clothes for work compared to the rest of your life. Have a pre-work routine that you go through each day. iv) exercise regularly and follow a healthy diet, no junk food or excess alcholol/drugs. Mens sana in corpore sano. Healthy living increases testosterone, motivation, lifespan, focus, energy levels etc. If you are too lazy to exercise, hire an attractive fitness trainer of the opposite sex, or get an exercise partner whose company you enjoy spending time with. v) get a colleague or trading assistant with a good work ethic. Lazy people work harder when their colleagues work hard also; whereas by themselves, lazy people don't work much. I am pretty much the laziest person ever so I know what I am talking about here. vi) get motivation from attraction/passion, and addiction, rather than discipline and 'work ethic'. If you were the type of person who is self-disciplined, you would not have made this post. That means you are more of an unstructured, enjoyment-motivated person. You therefore need to create endorphin addiction in your working habits, make work fun and a rush, then it will be incredibly easy to go to put in the hours, in fact you will work harder than any 'disciplined' hard-working person will. However if you get out of the zone and lose your habits, you will work pitifully low hours and fail. vii) research by large corporations and industrial psychologists from the post-war era shows that working more than 8 hours a day for more than 1-2 weeks at a time actually reduces performance and work output. So only pursue a 16-20 hour work ethic if you want to be poorer. Also, that is for manual labour. For mental labour, the optimal work period per day is a mere 6 hours. After that your brain gets frazzled and you start losing focus and making mistakes. So, less is more. Only work >6 hours of solid concentration (you can add in 1-2 hours for menial tasks like email, filling in forms, paying bills, lunch breaks etc) in limited bursts when it is absolutely necessary, for example when markets are super busy. Then, make sure you sleep like a log at the weekend. It is not possible to maintain >8 hour days/40 hour weeks for the long-term without suffering reduced productivity. After 2-3 weeks of it without a break, not only is hourly productivity reduced, but TOTAL productivity is reduced. I.e. you literally will produce less output (of sufficient quality) with sustained 80 hour weeks than 40 hour weeks - mistakes will creep in, results will be worse, human interactions will become frayed, and so on. The fact that your non-work life will suck is just a further reason not to do it. Most trading can be done with 2 hours morning session, 2 hours afternoon session, 1 hour prep pre-open, and 1 hour post-mortem after the close. Add another 2-4 hours if it's busy and you need to trade bell to bell. Total 6 hours normally, 8-10 hours if manic (about 20% of the time).