My Blog List

Saturday 27 August 2011

Inspiration for Discipline

Bad Assed Trader:  I've been casting about for inspiration recently and have had no shortage of role models but I'm blogging today about two which have put me to shame.  These are two people who have shown that discipline brings amazing results and have the evidence to show for it.  I'm reflecting on them as a way of inspiring myself to develop my own discipline more and to take the bull by the horn and do my long overdue trading analysis work.

The first is my youngest daughter Ruby who received her GCSE results the other day.  Ruby plans to be  a fashion photographer, see her blog here, and she is single minded to achieve success.  She knows the field is extremely competitive and so her aim is to study at the prestigious University of Arts London for her degree as she knows this will give her the best chance of a good start in her career.

Her first goal to secure that place was to get into the sixth form of one of the best state schools in England - a goal which required really good GCSE results.  She worked hard and started her revision in Feb/March.  We put together a revision timetable and she followed it to the minute.  Over a four month period she had about 6 days without revision or exams - weekends included.  It was incredible to watch her determination and discipline.  Once or twice she flagged a little during lulls between exams and we talked again about her goals and thought about ways to motivate but on the whole she just ploughed on and delivered.

She was at the Reading Festival when the results came so I went to her school to collect her results.  I think I was more emotional than she was when I read out the 10 results - all As and A*s - which have secured her the place at the school of her choice.  I was blown away.  What a great start to the next stage of her academic journey.

The second source of inspiration for me is my gym coach, Chris.  Now I always knew Chris was fit but I only recently discovered that he is a body builder too. When I was chatting with him at my gym the other day he mentioned the show in Scotland in which he is soon to compete and described the regime he has to follow in order to look like this:
Chris: Iron Discipline...
Now that really is discipline of the highest order. And when I say it puts me to shame when I see the achievements of Ruby and Chris in pursuing their goals I know I still have a long way to go.  It's not that I'm lazy, but I've been choosing to spend my time on the fun side of trading rather than the (sometimes) painful side - analysing where I have gone wrong (or even what I've done well) and reflecting on this to develop my trading plan.

My work as a Faceless Bureaucrat is drawing to a close at the end of next month and although I still have other work on a freelance basis I will have more time to dedicate to improving my trading.  In getting myself motivated to get down and spend this time productively I will be recalling the fruitful efforts of Ruby and Chris and letting their lights shine the path for me.

Thank you both for your inspiration guys.

Thursday 4 August 2011

FTSE 100 Double Top Pattern comes to pass...as predicted...not that I've made any money on it!

Bad Assed Trader:  Back on June 19 I posted a blog about the FTSE showing the "double top" pattern and heading for a probable fall.  I said at the time that I would wait for another retracement up (which it did with an amazing show of strength - having (from 28 June to 6 July) one of its biggest and longest rallies for months/years I understand.  I was then looking for a way in to trade it short but sadly the opportunity didn't present itself within my trading rules.  Following that great rally there was a higher low and then a lower high (peak) showing more indecision.
The FTSE 100 Index at close of play today
I was waiting for the trend line to be broken and then for a retracement back towards that trend line before taking it short.

It seems that I'm behind the herd on this one.  Other traders have not waited for such confirmation before sell sell selling. When you look at the chart here you'll see that price has fallen off the cliff and tanked.  Today alone saw 250 points wiped away over the course of 9 hours.

There may yet be a retracement back up and then cautious little me may be able to step in and take a trade but I'm certainly not jumping in now.

I'm not feeling any pain from missing this trade, but this may be partly down to the fact that I've been trading the Euro (EUR USD) short today and am pleased that for once it saw sense and agreed with me so I'm over 4% up on the day - result!

To be quite honest, that's an exceptional day and I can't say I'm consistently there yet but let's think of it as progress in the right direction, eh?