Trading Can Be Boring, But the Lifestyle Won’t Be
Dear Traders,
Thank you for reading another email from me, two days in a row. First and foremost, I want to acknowledge Veterans Day and pay tribute to those who have honorably spent their lives in service to their country. I especially want to mention my good friends and colleagues, John and Mike. Thank you for what you have done to make our world a better place.
I am in Tanzania, near the base of the majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, which I plan to ascend in the next few days. Just shy of 20,000 feet (5,900 meters), Kilimanjaro is truly a huge volcano and one of the major destinations for avid hikers and climbers. It is not a technical climb, but the rise in elevation definitely gives you a workout.
Today, I managed to trade, albeit with a very intermittent internet connection. I sense I will not be able to upload a recap, but as I checked into the chatroom, I saw Thor, Peter, and the “Prophet of Profit” Brian trading. I am not exactly sure how this term was coined by Thor, but it is funny! I hope Thor can post a recap as it seems I cannot. Welcome back to trading, Thor!
I want to share with you now two progress reports on traders who are attending the Peak Capital Trading boot camp. One is from John’s team, where his mentee emailed him recently about the equity curve: “Since boot camp, and since I have been following my rules, this has been the most boring trading I have ever done. But my equity curve looks like this. Go figure.”
The second story is from a trader who Aiman is working with. He recently shifted his focus to R basis rather than $ value, and then subsequently refined his TradeBook. As Aiman emailed me, his progress is just amazing, and it demonstrates how critical it is to have a TradeBook and, most importantly, to STICK to it. He was green and that can be seen in his stats between September 22nd and October 17th. Although he was (and is) disciplined, he was green by 10Rs only. Once he found that one strategy that worked for him, and then kept trading ONLY that one strategy, look at the spike that occurred between October 18th and November 2nd. And I must add, there is nothing crazy about what this trader is doing, he has not had a day where he gambled and made a substantial win, nothing like that at all. His success is simply the product of slow and consistent results, and that is what really matters!
As I have always said, show me consistent $5 wins, and I will show you $500 per day. The key is to first get into practicing consistency, and once that has become a habit, it will be easier to scale. Regardless, trading is and should be boring. If you are having too much fun in trading, you must be overtrading. Be patient, and wait for your TradeBook to reveal what works best for you. It is like a hunting cheetah, waiting for the right moment to jump.
Trading may be boring, but as you can see from my own journey, the lifestyle trading gives you can be very exciting. I hope you will stay patient as you sit in front of your PC, so that you too can enjoy the freedom that trading brings.
To your success,
Andrew
