On my exciting and amazing journey to the stars.....

[Ajax616]

I will always make a choice for patience and calm every day.

[Ajax616]

"(...) The archer ceases to be conscious of himself as the one who is engaged in hitting the bull's-eye which confronts him. This state of unconscious is realized only when, completely empty and rid of the self, he becomes one with the perfecting of his technical skill, though there is in it something of a quite different order which cannot be attained by any progressive study of the art (...)"    - Zen in the Art of Achery

[Ajax616]

http://www.seykota.com/tribe/pages/2003_July/July_6-12/index.htm


http://tradingcrude.blogspot.com/2012/01/zen-and-art-of-trading.html

[Ajax616]

http://www.bigmiketrading.com/trading-journals/4211-zen-art-small-account.html

Thank you for the story, I hope you achieve your success.

Here goes....

So my account size started at $5,000. Its all I had left after a 15 year mortgage career that both made me almost "rich" and then took it all away. I got close. I made over 2 million dollars over a 6-7 year period. I owned commercial real estate, no debt other than my house, traveled a lot and gave a lot of money away.

But when the real estate collapse happened here in Arizona, it took my brand new mortgage office I had just opened with $250,000 of borrowed money and flushed it down the toilet. I lost the mortgage business, an Allstate insurance agency I owned, $1,000,000 of commercial real estate and filed a business BK to keep the creditors from taking everything else. I got off easy. Many of my friends lost their wives, their kids and one guy I know was homeless for a bit. I managed to keep those things and my health as well. I am fortunate!

I tell you this so you know where I am coming from. I know how to make $25-40K a month. I've done it once and I think I can do it again. The first time I did it, I did it in a business I knew nothing about but learned very rapidly. Just like in trading, the mortgage business was all mental.

The account size is no longer $5,000. I have refunded it a couple of times over the last year. The guy that got me into trading said it would take $10,000 and a year to "get it" and become profitable. It has taken every bit of that.

But I thought I was too smart for that. After all, I was in financial services, I traded interests daily and was very good at it. But my time horizon was always a month out, so I guess you could say I was swing trading rates. Trading against the customer that is.....so I figured I could do it in 6 months. LOL....that is funny. Shows you what being arrogant will get you. Frustration in spades.

Fast forward 16 months to today. I am finally beginning to show some consistency on sim. I decided to trade my small sim account as though it were my actual account for a month. In other words, if I could develop an edge in sim, I can do it with real money.

Even though my account is not $1,000 that is the amount I will start with for this journey. Why, because at one point, my account was down to $1,000 and that's when I decided to find out how to trade instead of chasing the holy grail. That was about 4 months ago. You can read my elite journal (aztrader's journal) if you want to read more about this. I figure some of you are at the $1,000 level and are desperate to find out how to make that $1,000 blossom into a stead income.

This post will include my daily trades, my thoughts, and a spread sheet tracking my equity curve.

I am not perfect. In fact, I'm probably not the person to have this thread. But I had the idea and just went with it. Here is my promise to you. I will be 100% transparent about this journey. Nothing held back. If it happens, you know about it. In return, please be honest with me as well. It'll be good for the thread and others will benefit from your thoughts as well.

I hope you find value in this thread.....ple ase make sure to leave me your feedback. Its important.

Next post is about what I think are the essential rules and strategies for turning a small account into a living.

Start small but think big...thats what I say!

[Ajax616]

http://www.seykota.com/tribe/TT_Process/index.htm

[Ajax616]

My friend, find your happiness and joy in golf and you will find winning again.

Tiger Woods tends to have a pretty good handle on state of his golf game, but it's safe to say even he didn't see the meltdown coming Sunday at Pebble Beach. Less than 24 hours after Woods holed his final putt on 18 on Saturday to close out a stellar 5-under 67, he showed up for his head-to-head battle with Phil Mickelson with a chance to not only beat one of his biggest adversaries, but also capture his first official Tour win in more than two years.

But there was just one problem: Woods forgot to bring his swing to the course. In one of the most shocking rounds we've seen from him since his first-round implosion at the 2011 PGA Championship, Woods completely lost it at Pebble Beach, blowing his tournament hopes to pieces with a final-round performance that will certainly have him wondering where it all went wrong.

How bad was it? Put it this way: Woods' amateur playing partner, Tony Romo, shot a lower final-round score … and he was playing as a scratch golfer. But that wasn't the only black eye for Woods. He didn't just lose the tournament to Mickelson — who was two shots behind Woods when the day started, he finished the final round with a 3-over 75, which was 11 shots worse than Mickelson's 8-under 64.

"I didn't hit it as bad as the score indicated, but I putted awful," Woods said after his round. "I just could not see my lines. I couldn't get comfortable."

As CBS analyst Nick Faldo noted during the closing holes of the tournament, if Mickelson and Woods were going head-to-head in match play, the match would have ended 7 and 5. Simply put, it was a "Mickelson Massacre."

[Related: Phil Mickelson wins Pebble Beach, reminds everyone why he's a future Hall of Famer]

As quickly as the good vibes came in for Woods following three rounds in the 60s this week, they all but disappeared like the surf in Stillwater Cove in a matter of a couple holes on Sunday. Woods looked robotic in the final round, rehearsing his swing over and over again in an attempt to try and find it on the back nine. But it never came back. Hard as it is to believe, Woods went from owning his swing for a majority of the tournament to looking completely lost when it mattered most.

We've seen Tiger take two steps forward and three back over the last couple of years as he tried to rebuild his confidence and swing with instructor Sean Foley, but after after watching him fail to make a move during the final round in Abu Dhabi, and melt down on Sunday, you have to wonder what's next for Woods.

Based on all the progress he's made over the last few months, it's hard to believe the final-round struggles are going to turn into a trend (Tiger's made too much headway to make that assumption). But if he gets himself in this position again and fails to produce on Sunday? Well, expect the

[Ajax616]

"Opportunity is a haughty goddess who wastes no time with those who are unprepared."

"Will power is but the unflinching purpose to carry a task you set for yourself to fulfillment. If I set for myself a task, be it ever so trifling, I shall see it though. How else shall I have confidence in myself to do important things?"

"When I set a task for myself, I complete it. Therefore, I am careful not to start difficult tasks, because I love leisure."

"A part of all I earn in mine to keep...let it be not less than one-tenth and lay it by...but lay by that portion first...what a rich feeling it is to own a treasure upon which you alone have claim."

"Counsel with wise men. Seek the advise of men whose daily work is handling money."

"That what each of us calls our 'necessary expenses' will always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary."

"A man's wealth is not in the coins he carries in his purse; it is the income he buildeth, the golden stream that continually floweth into his purse and keepeth."

"Every owner of gold is tempted by opportunities."

"I urge all men to be in the front rank of progress and not stand still, lest they be left behind."

"Procrastinator ...he accepts not opportunity when she comes. He waits. He says I have much business right now...Opportun ity, she will not wait for such a slow fellow."

"Men of action are favored by the Goddess of Good Luck."

"A bag heavy with gold or a clay tablet carved with words of wisdom; if thou hadst thy choice, which wouldst thou choose?"

"Help must be given wisely, lest...in our desire to help we but take upon ourselves the burden that belongs to another."

"How can you call yourself a free man  when your weakness has brought you to this? If a man has in himself the soul of a slave will he not become one no matter what his birth, even as water seeks its level? If a man has within him the soul of a free man, will he not become respected and honored in his own city despite his misfortune?"

"The soul of a free man looks at life as a series of problems to be solved and solves them, while the soul of a slave whines, 'What can I do who am but a slave?'"

[Ajax616]

Here's a quote from The Richest Man in Babylon that summarizes the three key lessons learned in chapter one:

You have learned your lessons well. You first learned to live upon less than you could earn. Next you learned to seek advice from those who were competent through their own experiences to give it. And, lastly, you have learned to make gold work for you.

Simply great advice. Here's how I translate these three key learnings and recommend you apply them:

1. Spend less than you earn. It's the one way that the majority of people reading this can become wealthy.
(A part of all I earn is mine to keep.)

2. Seek advice from people/resources you know and trust. This means friends and family as well as magazines (I recommend Money), books (here's my recommended list) and websites like Free Money Finance. Learn all you can with the intention of becoming your own best advisor. In my opinion, the best manager of your money is you.

3. Make your money work for you. Simply said, invest the amount you generated from spending less than you earn (I like index funds as investments) and do this for many, many years. Then, time and the power of compounding will start to work for you -- making you wealthy over time.

[Ajax616]

From 'The Richest Man in Babylon'

Every gold piece is a kind of slave to work for you. Every copper it earns is its child to work for you.   If you want to become wealthy then what you save must earn and its children must earn.  In this way your abundance grows.

“Wealth like a tree grows from a tiny seed.  The sooner you plant the seed the sooner it grows”

“A part of all I earn is mine to keep (not less than 1/10th)”
Do not hoard money, but make your money become your slave and work for you, and its children and children’s children
Council wise men who knows about money, who’s business is to work with money.

[Ajax616]

I ran into an interesting situation today. 

I never want to carry more than my 14 positions, because that is my maximum.  However when I put orders out there, I do end up more than 14 positions.

My solution is to cut away the positions that are set to expire tomorrow.  Cut one bad for one good.  They have already had their chance to perform.  It's now time to make the money work somewhere else.

I also ran into another situation as well.  I ran into a position that almost expired, but there is still time left.  However, there is a large negative candle against the position.  Therefore, I covered the position, and it also helped my compliance with my maximum amount of positions as well.

My actions today was a little different from my plan of action, but they are consistent with position management for success.  I didn't think of this before, because I have yet to encounter the situation, but the solution does make sense.  Thank you.

[Ajax616]

V vs MCD

They both displayed similar patterns, but clearly one is a better growth stock, for the fact that its a newer IPO.

V

[Ajax616]

Thank you for the lesson:


Zen and the Art of Trading

I am a trader.

I have a plan.

I follow it.

Trading is boring.

Perhaps Zen is boring.

Perhaps boring is good.

MUTs are exciting.

Perhaps exciting is bad.

Yes.

Let me first state that anything I say has worked, or not worked, for my trading, and my trading only.

It may have absolutely nothing to do with your trading and any implementation of my thoughts toward your trading may make it worse.

I have learned that I will not get all the moves in the market place. I have always theoretically known this but have not been able to implement it. In other words I kept chasing the "missed" trades.

Curve fitting a system to take yesterdays missed trades is idiotic.

Have I mentioned humans are stupid?

Dr. Brett Steenbarger states one of the keys to trading success is recognizing when market conditions change and then adapting your trading technique to the new conditions.

I disagree.

I can't do that, I wind up chasing last weeks market conditions in this weeks market.

What I have to do is use a plan that has minimum and maximum conditions in it. Before my plan always had minimum conditions to be met in order to trigger trades, it now (last 5 months or so) has maximum conditions as well. I could call my system the Goldilocks trade. I only want the porridge luke warm.

So there are more days now when I just sit here.


I sit here and do nothing.

The results have been nice, higher win rate, higher RR, less trades, less comm, and a sense that I have a niche in the market, a niche that works, I just have to sit here and wait for it.

    “I've wondered why it took us so long to catch on. We saw it, and yet we didn't see it. Or rather we were trained not to see it. Conned perhaps into thinking that the real action was metropolitan and all this was just boring hinterland. It was a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away. I'm looking for the truth." And so it goes away. Puzzling.”

    Robert M. Pirsig

[Ajax616]

VISIONaries see what's invisible to others! Vision Speaks Louder than Words - by way of Daniel Shanon

[Ajax616]

Why did I not enter any trades in my Options account?

There are many opportunities to enter, and I have only one trade to show for.

There should be at least a couple more trades.


My biggest regrets is not being in charge of my thoughts.....

[Ajax616]

Yes, it is true whenever I break a rule out of fear, greed or desire.  It makes the situation three - four times worst.

DVN
OMC
Swk

My system works very well......I am glad to have found it, and I will never break a rule or fail to apply my trading system again.