LOL! I guess some people don't appreciate your humor ... or maybe he (Pete) couldn't comprehend what your optimization process is all about. All I'll say it's a heck of a lot easier to trade the same thing day in and day out, as I now do, than to scan hundreds or thousands of stocks nightly (as I used to do and often be up until 2:00 am or so).
...after I finished crying, I thought about it and decided that Pete is probably a pretty serious guy and expected a more serious answer, perhaps not considering that I was in fact serious, since my preparation consists of no preparation. I work very hard at not preparing, because preparing might cause me to think, which makes me doubt my system signals because often they are illogical. Re scanning, I did the same thing as you when swing trading, and had a terrible time deciding which overnight-screened candidate to trade, as often they all moved together. So trading the same thing every day takes away that problem. And Pete was right, I am bored, and I post to relieve boredom, most especially to boring threads. Apologies to Pete for thread clogging.
in defense of hypostomas, I agree: I totally "prepare or antiprepare" by letting the day go. Letting the world go round, taking many deep breaths..... first of all....I either come in to "give it all Ive got, or I don't trade. If I have reason to get drunk, I get drunk. Usually it's off to the beach for a run or swim or both....and then relaxing for the duration of the evening.....usually with the wife, indoors or out....and then if i'm lucky good sex and off to bed. The above might seem flippant but my point is I have to take care of myself physically to be in any condition to handle the mental job. In a sense I'm like a pilot, or surgeon....I KNOW how to fly the plane, or perform the operation. I have the skill and just have to be in top form to function 100%. Sure I am constantly learning and studying, but that is another issue, the study never ends. Anyway, I am at my desk, latest 5:15am est. I'm done 12 hours later. I certainly don't stare at my screens for all that time, and may leave and come back several times.....but I am aware of conditions "in the cockpit" when I leave so I will be ready to act when I come back.
Hypo, You are right about trading one thing everyday makes preparation much easier. I mostly have traded ES and NQ for the last 6 months. The reason for my post was that I was finding some days the market was dull but there were setups in individual stocks that could have been traded to make money that day instead of being pissed off that the minis sucked that day. DTP
...I'm really with you on those sucky days. My systems don't trade one day out of four, and it's really BORING sitting there. Never thought of opportunistically trading something else, though. What's your style of trading? Ever try to rangebound trade on those sucky days? - Mike
...that is a brutally long day. No wonder you party afterward. Putting together the word surgeon and drunk, surgeons are notorious drunks. But they have an advantage we don't: their nurses are ready for them when they get in with and give them massive hits of oxygen to sober up quick. Could this be the next frontier in trading paraphernalia? The oxygen trader! You heard it first here!