"As long as people are clear on what they need to do and what’s going on, you’re very likely to succeed. When nobody is clear, then you're guaranteed to fail." Welcome, to all our current and recent subscribers! I am glad you are here, and want to thank you for joining me on my trading journey. I hope that you will find much value, and enjoy reading the Weekly Market Focus Report. My goal is to go easy on the hype, by providing fresh content demonstrating "where the market is now" using broad market volatility trend analysis, coupled with market insights and trade ideas based upon my years of entrepreneurship, market research, and technical analysis, in hopes you too may find the edge you are seeking in finding success with your active self directed trading endeavors Thank you for joining me on my journey! I am glad you are here. | Today we will be discussing the following topics: - What is the one personal trading habit that you need, without it you will likely fail?
- What is the most recent Weekly Market Sentiment?
- What might our Market Cycle Volatility Trend be telling us?
- The question now becomes: Where might the markets go from here?
- What might a review of this years trades lead to for Market Cycle Timing improvement?
Let's get going! | | |
This week I wanted to start off by discussing a few of my trading habits that I have. Some I am holding on to, but others I am dropping. I wanted to share this for two reasons. One is, maybe you are, if not already, considering to be more of an active trader. I want you to know what it really takes, and secondly, I wanted to share with you what might be some habits that may be either good or bad so that you can judge for yourself, what is best for you. See this guy in the picture above? That is kind of like me, except (knock on wood!), I still have a pretty decent head of hair, albeit about as gray as can get these days. I use a trading rig setup very similar to what you see in this picture. Instead of 10 monitors though (might be a slight bit of information overload going on there), I have / had up to 8 screens, two keyboards (one for my main trading platform, one for my back up platform), and a laptop for good measure to be logged into a live chatter room, full of other traders. When I was younger, and having had a lot to learn, I found trading exciting. I still enjoy what I am doing, but now I am a few years older, (and hopefully) wiser, with a few more market induced battle scars to show for it. To my benefit, I reached out and hired a mentor. One of the first things he did was emphasize on me putting more structure into my day. Unlike your typical job, trading is, for the most part, very unstructured business endeavor. It's not for the uninitiated or unmotivated person. There can be trading opportunities 24x7, nearly 7 days a week. But what and for how long to hold on to a trade? This is not always an easy question to answer as anyone knows that has traded. By putting structure into your day, this allows one to keep the work life balance necessary to avoid burn out, and to now better focus his time. I just mention, probably one, if not the most important word in trading. It's worth talking about: focus Trading requires much focus much effort. These days, when I am working, I am as focused as possible. I make an effort to minimize distractions, and in turn, this seems to have a resulting increase on my focus. I took a tour of a live trading floor (not some online chatter room) some time ago when I was thinking about working for another firm nearby. When I walked in, I thought I had made a wrong turn from the hall, and literally walked back out to double check the name plate in the hall to ensure that I was in the right place. It was not what I was expecting. I was there to speak to one of the risk managers. The entire floor, was extremely very dimly lit with only the glow of everyone's monitor screens, and CNBC tuned onto about a dozen additional larger screens scattered about at the corners of the celling everywhere. The room was so quiet, you could literally hear a pin drop, if it weren't for the warm buzz of computers running. There was no sound to be heard, no typical office chatter anywhere, but only a slight hum of computer fans buzzing about creating a very unique environment. Everyone in the room was a trader, and each had at least 4 - 6 monitors in front of him. All were wearing head sets on their ears. I thought to myself, "This is a professional trading environment. These guys are in it to win it." And guess what: Each and everyone there had: focus I use only one high end trading rig these days, that I personally built for speed and its quietness. It was as high end as I could build at the time. I still seem to require a lot of screens, and I try keeping them as organized as possible, with only 2 or 3 primary screens. I will however utilize up to 6 on any one day depending on what work I am doing. As back ups, I have two secondary systems. I bring them up occasionally for an old file, idea, or maybe to just ensure that if needed on a moments notice in case of disaster to my main rig, I could use either without an issue. I have a laptop as well that I can take on trips to stay connected, issue an order, etc... To avoid distractions, I am typically not tuned into live chatter during market hours anymore unless there is some highly unusual activity starting to take place, or something extraordinary happening in the charts, (which is rare, for sure not everyday). I have somewhat learned to now see what is simply just intraday noise in the markets, and just tune it out. I also tend to cut back on my trading during November and December months of the year. I do this because my time is limited, and I want to not short change the people in my life that I love spending most of my time. Where else can you find a job that allows you this type of flexibility and freedom? |
|
