Dr Z I've been trading a little longer than you have and we are almost the same age. I'm glad you are perfect.
My father died when I was 1 1/2 years old. He left $200,000 for me and my mother. Needless to say it wasn't easy- that money was in annoying bond coupons I clipped as they matured and eventually I started investing the money as I went to Boston University and it almost held out all the way into the mid 1980's. That's not easy (20 years). I've fallen victim to bad LP's, Enron, Infospace, and any zillion other bad tech ideas and still I've traded my way through it. I never had a normal job in which I was really under someone's thumb- the closest I got was a long stint at Any Warhol Studios and you could roll in there after a long night on the town no problem.
The dark tunnel I was referring to is the passage of age not investing.
Mephisto11 where o where do I start? The Greatful Dead- my roommate being passed christ like along the top of the crowd- unconscious. When he woke up, No Joke, he was a deeply religious man and we hardly ever talked again. U2 when they where great and the wet mushrooms they told me to eat 10X the normal amount. Not the correct ratio especially when everyone decided to stand on their rickety seats!
REM at the Beacon first big show for them. What an experience- that guy with the pipe he said it was opium. The Smiths when did I not see the Smiths?
What a great band.
For years I DJ deep house in NYC among other venues at The Tunnel in the downstairs party room. Under my bed is something like 3000 records I wonder if I'll ever hear again " Jack this " " jack that" out of Chicago and all the good OLD rap when it was fresh. Tons of house & Body & Soul stuff...Now I'm left ordering bizarre and rare Italian soundtracks and Brazilian Beats. Music as it stands now has never been worse.
I too dabble in day trades and ST stuff and I am burdened with some long standing holdings, a proper mix is essential. If you are all ST you churn and burn and at the end of the year you're not up as much as you should be. If you have a balanced portfolio and are lucky enough to get a couple take outs the return is much higher, especially so when you factor in the lower tax rate of long term holdings. I have been right on the cusp of saying buy and hold does not work the last 5 years but I'm not there yet.
As for: But when scalping the futures, I can only hope that I am in front of the herd, so I don't consider that as being a follower. One thing I do know is that I always beat the alarm clock out of bed, because the internal anticipation has already started to build for the new trading day.
Scalping futures puts you in bed with everyone else trying the same thing- that is herd mentality and wether just ahead of the pack or in the middle it's hard to paint a pretty picture. It's certainly not what I consider " investing " it's button pushing. It's not due diligence, research up the ying yang, undiscovered gems, picked up coverage, technical charting, predicting breakouts, etc. Research you can be really proud of.
Back to the 40 year old daytrader... yesterday I had two amazing daytrades working I had the research down- I had already been following the stocks and I knew they were ripe for big moves. Well I got the moves but my 3 year old also got his first earache!
I had to transfer my action to my lazy ass brotherinlaw who was home instead of at work at Wackyovia- so I had to trade while I carried my boy twenty blocks to the Doctor (he insisted on being held) trying to finagle a cell phone out of my pocket and with my aching back scream in some symbols and directions buypoints and exit points... of course everything got ass screwed up- he bought the stocks out of sequence and I didn't make nearly as much as I should have.
That whole situation would not have occurred if I was 27 and staring at the computer all day. Real life does take control.
I like your take on bounding out of bed! When I'm on one of my hot streaks I can barley sleep! I'm so excited for the next days trading, I'll even be watching Bloomberg's asian reports at all hours of the night. conversely- When I make a couple STUPID ASS mistakes as I have lately, I want to stay under the sheets and I become very grumpy. Like gambling it can change your whole mood around the house and for that I'm sorry to my family.
You got to take the good with the bad in investing as well as in getting older. I planned a 5 day trip to Puerto Plata for Jan 2 after a nailed a big trade many months ago and I would so just like to be free and travel at a whim, but now I have my poor kid's ears to worry about and no trip insurance-- and I'm just more "scared " that I would like to be about many things in life. If that's " Paranoia " DrZ so be it.
My father died when I was 1 1/2 years old. He left $200,000 for me and my mother. Needless to say it wasn't easy- that money was in annoying bond coupons I clipped as they matured and eventually I started investing the money as I went to Boston University and it almost held out all the way into the mid 1980's. That's not easy (20 years). I've fallen victim to bad LP's, Enron, Infospace, and any zillion other bad tech ideas and still I've traded my way through it. I never had a normal job in which I was really under someone's thumb- the closest I got was a long stint at Any Warhol Studios and you could roll in there after a long night on the town no problem.
The dark tunnel I was referring to is the passage of age not investing.
Mephisto11 where o where do I start? The Greatful Dead- my roommate being passed christ like along the top of the crowd- unconscious. When he woke up, No Joke, he was a deeply religious man and we hardly ever talked again. U2 when they where great and the wet mushrooms they told me to eat 10X the normal amount. Not the correct ratio especially when everyone decided to stand on their rickety seats!
REM at the Beacon first big show for them. What an experience- that guy with the pipe he said it was opium. The Smiths when did I not see the Smiths?
What a great band.
For years I DJ deep house in NYC among other venues at The Tunnel in the downstairs party room. Under my bed is something like 3000 records I wonder if I'll ever hear again " Jack this " " jack that" out of Chicago and all the good OLD rap when it was fresh. Tons of house & Body & Soul stuff...Now I'm left ordering bizarre and rare Italian soundtracks and Brazilian Beats. Music as it stands now has never been worse.
I too dabble in day trades and ST stuff and I am burdened with some long standing holdings, a proper mix is essential. If you are all ST you churn and burn and at the end of the year you're not up as much as you should be. If you have a balanced portfolio and are lucky enough to get a couple take outs the return is much higher, especially so when you factor in the lower tax rate of long term holdings. I have been right on the cusp of saying buy and hold does not work the last 5 years but I'm not there yet.
As for: But when scalping the futures, I can only hope that I am in front of the herd, so I don't consider that as being a follower. One thing I do know is that I always beat the alarm clock out of bed, because the internal anticipation has already started to build for the new trading day.
Scalping futures puts you in bed with everyone else trying the same thing- that is herd mentality and wether just ahead of the pack or in the middle it's hard to paint a pretty picture. It's certainly not what I consider " investing " it's button pushing. It's not due diligence, research up the ying yang, undiscovered gems, picked up coverage, technical charting, predicting breakouts, etc. Research you can be really proud of.
Back to the 40 year old daytrader... yesterday I had two amazing daytrades working I had the research down- I had already been following the stocks and I knew they were ripe for big moves. Well I got the moves but my 3 year old also got his first earache!
I had to transfer my action to my lazy ass brotherinlaw who was home instead of at work at Wackyovia- so I had to trade while I carried my boy twenty blocks to the Doctor (he insisted on being held) trying to finagle a cell phone out of my pocket and with my aching back scream in some symbols and directions buypoints and exit points... of course everything got ass screwed up- he bought the stocks out of sequence and I didn't make nearly as much as I should have.
That whole situation would not have occurred if I was 27 and staring at the computer all day. Real life does take control.
I like your take on bounding out of bed! When I'm on one of my hot streaks I can barley sleep! I'm so excited for the next days trading, I'll even be watching Bloomberg's asian reports at all hours of the night. conversely- When I make a couple STUPID ASS mistakes as I have lately, I want to stay under the sheets and I become very grumpy. Like gambling it can change your whole mood around the house and for that I'm sorry to my family.
You got to take the good with the bad in investing as well as in getting older. I planned a 5 day trip to Puerto Plata for Jan 2 after a nailed a big trade many months ago and I would so just like to be free and travel at a whim, but now I have my poor kid's ears to worry about and no trip insurance-- and I'm just more "scared " that I would like to be about many things in life. If that's " Paranoia " DrZ so be it.