Keep Calm and Don't Move Your Stops.....

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning!

The Purpose of Life is Joy!!

Thursday, January 5, 2017

-.25%...-.375% for the week

Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for me. I'm not going into a lot of detail here but suffice to say, in 60 days I start work for a large national bank as their mortgage rep here in my fair city. 

In thinking through how this is going to impact my life and my trading, a few things became clear. The mortgage business can be all consuming. I've done it long enough I know how to minimize this impact and be effective in a so called normal work day. That said though, my preoccupation with trading is coming to an end. Not so much that I will stop trading, just that I will no longer eat, sleep and breathe trading. I can't, the mortgage business will replace trading for my attention. 

Therefore, as my wife and I have been chatting about the changes that are coming, we both agreed that trading will of necessity become the side hustle. I dislike that term because it implies less than focused work. However, in the overall scheme of things, I like idea. 

My mortgage work day will normally start around 9AM. That's the earliest I can get in the bank. That leaves me around 4 hours in the morning to trade, work out, meditate, study and otherwise prepare for the day. 

Since the RTH session opens at 7AM my time and then at 6AM my time when the time changes, I am going to revise my trading schedule starting immediately to 30 minutes prior to the RTH and trade for up to 90 minutes. The goal in that 90 minutes is to capture a single leg of at least 20 ticks. Whatever is available in that 90 minutes is what I will get for the day. If I get a 20+ winner in the first 30 minutes, I am done for the day leaving me more time for other things. 

Using a single chart, I will size trades between one and three lots depending on risk and look for a $200-$600+ day. As the account grows, I will add lots appropriately. 

I am a creature of routine. I like a reasonable plan for the day. This fits in with my personality. Even as I write this, I have a sense of well being about the decision. The idea that I need to sit here all day and try to capture a huge swing, be in the trade for 1 or 2 hours does not sit well with me. I am not wired that way at all. 

Time to settle in and grind it out. Small wins compounded over time makes Brian a happy man.