Apart from the obvious rest and re-couperation, the best thing i find about taking a long weekend away is how my general perception changes and how i’m able to re-connect with the real world. Trading can be a very intense world of it’s own where priorities both within and outside trading can get quite skewed.
Something to think about.
During the online poker boom 10+ or so years ago alot of “kids” dropped out of college/ university or decided against going to university at all because they were able to make so much money playing poker. Forums played a big part in the online poker culture.
Anyway, i remember reading or seeing a video about one of these guys in a sort of “What are they doing now?” type thing. Now this guy wasn’t one of the online superstars or even one of the forums better known players. He was a low key, “play poker for a living dude” that no one would have ever heard of.
Ok…10 years later, the guy has a nice house in a middle class area is married and has a couple of kids. To the surprise of the interviewer, the guy still plays online poker for a living as most of the online pros moved into other things, partially due to legislation in the U.S but also due to the development of the game, less fish and the games getting harder to beat.
Don’t worry; i’m about to get to the point. This guy wasn’t a great player but he could beat a certain level and put in alot more volume than most players. He was a “grinder” By sticking to a certain level and putting in that volume he made his money. After the boom he made less money and it was more difficult to make money but he was able to spend time with his kids etc.
Here it is… the interviwer asked him, “Is there anything you regret about choosing poker as a career or is there anything you would have done differently?”
He answered, “[B]I don’t regret anything, but if i had to do it again i would definitley have spent more time studying the game and becoming a much better player and less time playing, grinding for money.[/B]”
That statement stuck with me. In trading after you get past the “get rich quick” stage or the “double up, douple up” stage, by putting in some study and practice. [B]When you hit the intermediate stage things change[/B]. Depending on your individual situation, responsibilities, capital, country etc you can grind out a living at intermediate stage. It’s very easy to put in alot of trading and screen time, analysis, testing, and neglect study time. Of course that missing knowledge is key to going to the next level.
I don’t study nearly enough for what i want to achieve. I got to the point where i scheduled a couple of hours per week study time rather than nothing at all as i felt that 2 hours, minimum, intense study per week, (100+ hours) over the course of a year was much better than nothing.
However, of course it doesn’t even come close to being enough. Yes by daytrading you get alot of experience and by paying attention and not listening to music or watching youtube i feel i learn alot [B]BUT[/B], there are people who have done it all before whom you can learn from and vastly reduce the learning curve.
Forex is a little special in that you have to really search for material that is of good quality but also relevant to your trading arena, style, personality, experience level etc, and the knowledge comes in many forms.
In my case when i’m really driven to finding something, usually because of a loss, i often find something relevant that reduces the learning curve, so there is stuff out there.
Soooooooo, I plan to increase my study time. I will boost it gradually. For a month i’ll do a minimum of 4 hours per week instead of 2 and then add another 2 hours per week after that.
The long weekend did me good, i hope it does my trading some good both short and long term.
Hope your trades all hit TP today guys!
