Staying On "The Path"

Sometimes it doesn't pay to anticipate anything when you're trading.

I mean, here we are July 4th week and the market chooses to freak out a bit. It's like last summer... I remember being caught entirely off guard by the late-July and early-August lunacy.

The market volatility is not on that level yet, but neither does it appear the market wants to go quietly into the summer night.

Looking at my RO today hurt a little. Guys made bank, pure and simple. Top dog was up over $15k... 8 traders were up over a grand and 3 of those were up over 3 grand each.

However, I have to remind myself that I changed up my trading style not because I wasn't making money with it (even last year, my shittiest year ever, I cleared 6 digits) but because it was driving me crazy. I need a system where I can be profitable more and have fewer drawdowns. I need to remind myself that most of my profits from last year came on a handful of big days... the rest of the year was painful churn.

When I was single, had no financial obligations and had a sliver of the responsibility I have today, drawdowns didn't effect me as much as they do now... now however, I really hate them. Drawdowns freak me out, and post Hybrid, I just haven't been able to avoid them using my old methods.

These days where the market freaks out are not the norm... so I'm catering my trading style to be able to make money on the "normal" days... not the odd volatile day.

Anyway, I had a good day again, and it was all one trade. Then, I head out to the beach for a midday surf session. BID was trading with good volume and showing relative weakness off the open, and within striking distance of $25, which has been a support level since mid May.



See? I don't want to be rich... I want to be rich AND happy. I don't want to be stressed out all the time, waiting for the market to change and "be good." I want to take my money out of the market each morning, with a consistent, tried and true method, and get on with life.

Okay, that was really a pep talk to myself, to keep myself on "the path" as it were, and to remind myself that I have a plan and I'm in the middle of executing it...

If it would just rain for an entire day, I could post my June recap... but it looks like we'll be spending another evening at the beach, so NO RECAP FOR YOU!

As for the tone of the general market, despite the volume, I can only view today as a big short squeeze. Even I was squeezed, as I covered my LEH short. I short at over $40 in my LT account and covered today around $21... not bad. I think with my extra funds, I'll just buy more HCBK.

Indeed, slow and steady wins the race...

BTW, don't forget to check Tokyo's site for the VO... Meanwhile, I see he's now posting what he considers "good music" on days when he makes money and "bad music" on days he loses... Surely, mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery, but I won't be asking Tokyo to be my roommate anytime soon. If he takes up surfing, I will change my address and buy a big gun.

Good music dropping with the sun.