A Different Feel

Thursday, sitting at my favorite restaurant bar, great cocktail in hand, waiting for my friend to finish so we could enjoy a drink together and catch up on each others lives. We haven't been able to sit down and talk for months and this time finally it looked like we would.

I said it looked like; all elements were "go": the bar was relatively empty as was the restaurant. The owner, my friend, just had to finish meeting with the chef and finalize the evening, and she'd join me, she said. Then, it started to get busy as more people arrived, bar became crowded, noise level raised. Watching the bartenders, it became evident that this was not a normal Thursday eve. I ordered dinner, glass of wine, still waiting. Noticing that conversations increased and people surrounded me on left and right.

When my friend arrived, she shook her head and commented,: "It is really busy, didn't expect it", we started talking but then she got called away; someone needed wine advice, service, questions from staff .. normal events for a busy restaurant. Yet the energy was not the norm; not the usual I have come to expect. My clue: I didn't feel as the same as I normally do when there. First I questioned if it was me, was I there with a different energy? Was it my anticipation for what will be coming and then consequent disappointment that it could not happen? Maybe some, but in total it did not connect. Then, as I looked around me, realization hit home! I was surrounded by not the "usual" crowd which consist of mostly couples, singles, some working colleagues usually of equal male/female mix. This evening however there were mostly women around. A couple of women groups in fact were in the immediate bar area next to me.

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing bad or negative to relate here. It's just interesting how subtle differences change the feel, change the room, change the energy and it is so much so as well in the markets. The feel was different today, the rhythm not the same, and looking around there was a difference in the behaviour of traders. Mostly we felt out of sorts, yet could not put a reason to it. So some felt frustration, anger, kept trying to find the key to the change, some of us stopped trading and sat on the sidelines watching perhaps like me in dismay by the reaction of the majority.

Changes, subtle or not when there is no immediate explanation, can create panic. Many seem to look for explanations from others, rather than look around and see how they feel about the changes around themselves or within. Accepting those changes creates calm. We all have to adopt our trading strategies to our own feel. When that feel is not right, it's best to just watch and wait until the feel is back in our rhythm. No need to panic, no need to blame or look for major catastrophes, look rather at the subtleties that create a different energy and then, if you can adapt, play but if you cannot adapt just let it play out.

The more you can tune into subtle changes, the easier it becomes to recognize the new energy and change into the new rhythm. Then, like me at the bar, you can include yourself with what is, rather than disconnect from the flow. Both are acceptable as long as you do it by choice.

Expecting Greatness

When I first started my journey at being a Stock Trading Advisor, every day I'd get up expecting greatness out of myself, from myself to show others: Yes, I can do this! Truly, I used to be petrified, well not quite because then I couldn't have moved, but close enough where I could not act or do anything and watched trades go by. That being followed by self deprecation for being so inept.

The truth about expectations is that it petrifies you, keeps you stuck and blind to opportunities. Expectations presume a satisfaction if certain criteria are met and therefore you are unable to see or watch for anything else. It is what keeps you in a trade too long, unable to take profits; or it is what keeps you from acting on a trade missing perhaps the run of the day.

Think on that as you are sitting impatiently during the down times, the lull times, those slow times; as you are wondering where that next trade will come from: is it your expectations that keep you from seeing it?

The minute you let go of expectations is when you notice the smorgasbord of opportunities for that next trade, that you thought did not exist; it's there, as you pick and choose from all the delectable treats, that you realize that you don't have enough time to act on it all. It's usually then that I call for Sam's help....HELP.. because I have more trading calls to make and not enough boxes, fingers and eyes to enter them fast enough.

In the process somehow you lose the worry about being great and delight in the here and now of each moment which in turn brings on an overwhelming feeling of greatfullness. (no, I misspelled it on purpose). Feeling great and satisfied, full = greatfull. I now get up greatfull and grateful every day.

Happy Trading
Anni
Stock Day Trading Advisor

(Originally posted by me on Yahoo 360 October 25, 2007)

Testing my Skills

A friend recently told me that I was a good writer. It came as a surprise as he was not reading anything particular that I wrote, but rather just my conversations in the trading room I belong to. I have always wished to write about ..... well something... wrote a children's story many years ago, but did nothing with it, took a screenwriters course but life events prevented my finishing it and there you have it. I remembered that screenwriting instructor (successful in his field) telling me I had talent. I let it go... and yes that was years ago. Many years ago.

This time it stuck in my head and won't let go and if I were to be a hypocrite I'd brush it in some back corner of my brain; but because I am a believer that "things happen for a reason", I have to act this time. In other words I have learned that you cannot lose what is right for you, in your life, to make you complete, therefore this seed was again germinated revealing an opportunity for growth.

So we come to the reason and the purpose of this blog. The reason is simple: I want to write and test my writing skills. The purpose is to share what it is like to be a stock day trader and the everyday ups/downs of life as one choosing such a life. I say equities because that is what I do, but the philosophy would apply to any trader in general be it in equities, futures, forex, doing swing or day trading and also apply to just about anything else I do in my life. I do not wish to teach trading here or to discuss the day to day gyrations of the markets as we have the day-trading chat room for that. It is rather, to discuss what it is like to be a trader; The emotions, hardships, elation involving such a life; the premise being that to be a trader is not so much an occupation as a lifestyle.

If you were like me, you did not wake up one morning and decide.. I think I'm going to be a day-trader. It is not something that you as a child fantasized about or even knew about as an occupation. It is simply not discussed with most of the public. So if you were like me, for reasons of your own, you evolved into the lifestyle. And what a lifestyle it is. The emotional and financial roller coaster of life. I guess perhaps that means that we are of adventurous nature bordering on death wish.

Like most, I believe, I started as an investor... a studious investor, nothing reckless with money would I contemplate; but along the way one information led to another and temptation took hold. A song comes to mind if I were to remember that feeling, but this is beginning to have the look & feel of a biography and I'm not going there now. Enough will come through my thoughts in this blog to give you all a taste of my history, if you are so inclined to stay and read my musings yet to germinate and be written.

So, welcome to this new adventure of mine.

Anni

Stock Day Trading Advisor


(originally published October 25, 2007 on Yahoo 360)