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Excellent post John. You said a lot of what I was trying to say, but the
gift of expressing yourself in writing that you obviously possess is not in
my toolbox.
I absolutely love what I do and rarely if ever regard any of the time spent
as "work". And I think it's that passion that allows you to overcome all of
the hurdles that trading presents.
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Hayden" <jhayden@xxxxxxx>
To: <omega-list@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2002 3:59 AM
Subject: Re: Work 50-70 hours a week
> Hello list,
>
> Sorry, but I just couldn't pass this one up. Every single trader that I
> have ever known that is worth a damn works at least those many hours. The
> vast majority of these traders (myself included) are not mechanical but
> discretionary traders. Sure some of them might use some mechanical models
> but for the most part they are discretionary. This means they must know a
> certain amount (and often a lot) of fundamental's. This means they must
> read, and think - this takes a lot of time. Reading the WSJ, Financial
> Times, NY Times, and the headlines of the overseas newspapers on the
> Internet every morning - before the NY markets open, then reviewing your
> trading diary every afternoon (don't tell me that you don't keep a trading
> journal) takes time. Reading the news articles that the news clipping
> services send you every day takes a lot of time. Then on the weekends
> reading Barrons, various magazines, and various think tank journals takes
> time.
>
> What takes the most time through is taking the time to put all of the
> pieces together inside you own unique mental perspective so that you can
> profit from this information. The big money is made in the big moves, and
> big moves typically don't happen out of the blue. Likewise, big money is
> unable to enter a market without leaving clues - our job is to determine
> what those clues are and why.
>
> The other day a trader asked for info on a web site that would provide
> historical financial information on a certain date. To my knowledge this
> doesn't exist. As another trader observed that the market moves THEN the
> reporters then attempt to explain why - this is true. However, before the
> big move there are often plenty of signals/news/clues/info that would
> indicate that a big move was being "set up" by the big money. The saying
> that "hindsight is 20-20" is very true, and it is true because after a big
> move then even the idiots can figure out what the clues were. The trick is
> figuring out what these clues are before the big move.
>
> This means that you must be willing to read, and you must be willing to
> read news that stretches your mental perspectives. By stretching your
> beliefs about life in general and the markets in particular you are able
to
> grow. So, if a person thinks that trading is easy, or is something that
> would be great to do because the markets are only opened for a few hours a
> day then why not trade Potatoes, or Cocoa as a "day trader" then?
>
> Successful traders are successful because they are masters of their mental
> environment, their computer models are only a outward manifestation of
that
> mastery. They are successful because when they were becoming master
traders
> they spent thousands of hours studying the markets. Often they became
> obsessed - they had no other thoughts but the markets. Even after becoming
> successful they still spend an ungodly amount of time reading and
thinking.
> Spending 50 to 60 hours a week if you are a new trader is ludricious - how
> about 100-120 hours a week? Then once you can actually earn doubly digit
> returns for at least 5 years, then you can think about scaling back to 60
> or 70 hours a week! But you say that you only want to be a technical
trader?
>
> If the amount of hours seems too high, then may I suggest that you would
> have more fun going to Monte Carlo? In closing ask yourself one question,
> whom would you rather perform your heart by-pass surgery - a surgeon who
> loves his work so much that he spends 10 hours a week in actual surgery
and
> then 70 hours a week reading and thinking about his profession, or a
> surgeon who loves the money and does the least amount of time studying to
> remain proficient, and the majority of the time swinging a club?
>
> Great traders love what they do, and do not notice the amount of time they
> spend to remain the king of the hill - it is not work - it is actually
fun!
>
> Have a great summer guys & gals, I'm out of here till August!
>
> Best regards,
>
> John
>
>
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