Trading Futures...and...Trading Time

Trading Futures….and…Trading Time!  Kind of an odd title for our first blog post, but the underlying theme of our site is pretty much that. 

But more specifically, it is a question and not a statement.

So perhaps it should read; “Are we Trading Futures…for our Time?”

You see we get into trading and those of us who choose the lower time frames become enthralled in the excitement of the price action.  We realize quickly that no one is going to hand us success.  But there are a lot of successful people who make serious money by investing or trading.

And of course we immediately add ourselves into that pool of success…..even if we are just a beginner.

But getting back to the excitement of the lower time frames…..it tends to pull us in.  A price bar takes off and we immediately become like a cat chasing a laser pointer.  Our pupils become wide….our hand lurches forward to grab the mouse.

And of course if we jump in….it most likely is the worst time to do that.  So maybe we did get in…..and the market snaps back at us and grabs our stop.  We grumble about the evil institutions or market makers….LOL…..even though it was us that pulled the trigger.

Now….we have to get our money back so we become glued to the computer screen.  Bar after bar goes by…..and we wait to jump back in.  Then some news comes out and the market takes off in the opposite direction.  And here comes our cat like nature again…..with the wide eyed madness on our faces.  The hand lurches for the mouse again.

It sure is addicting isn’t it?  And we love it…..we all get caught up in it.  We spend hours at it…..waiting for the next trade….glued to the screen.  Sometimes we even feel like it is somewhat hypnotizing.  And heck we may even stop for a minute to yell at the kids for spending too much time in front of the video games or on Facebook.  Hmmmm….?

But the point is that it can be somewhat addicting and the very thing we desire is what we are giving up. 

We seek the life style of those who make a serious income and that life style always seems to be accompanied by more time.  More time to go on vacations…..and to visit exotic places.  More time to go fishing, play golf or play with the kids.  Travel the country and spend time with our loved ones……that’s exactly what we look for from trading…..and yet…..it’s our time that we give up.

Well at some point in our trading career we usually get an epiphany or a revelation of what is happening to us and we wake up.

For me it was rather abrupt and folks who know me know exactly what that was.  But for those of you who do not know me….let me take a minute or two to explain.

I have had a long career in aviation and was self employed.  My business tanked and for the last three years have had very little work.  Because I was desperate for income and couldn’t find a new job even after a couple of years looking…..my trading was becoming increasingly worse….instead of better.

The added pressure was just driving me crazy and I had a hard time focusing on my trades.  Finally I just closed my account because the winters in New England can be brutal and heating the house had to be the priority.

I continued looking for some menial job but nothing.  And then comes Easter.

Some of the family came over….time with the kids….a little too much to eat….and some stomach pains.

After a week the stomach pains were starting to get me a little nervous.  And finally on May 4^th I went to the emergency room.  I was admitted into the hospital in the early morning hours the next day…..and started with all sorts of tests being done.

Turns out, I had some weird infection.  It was weird because the Dr.’s didn’t know what it was, where it came from…..or how to fix it.  And a CT scan revealed that I had a couple of abscesses on my intestines from the infection.

Long story short…..I went into surgery.  I came out of that and within a week or two; the nurses ripped my wound open while turning me to change the bed linens.  So a second surgery to fix that was required.

All of this time I was being fed with an IV and given every anti-biotic known to man….or at least it seemed that way at the time.  Then a few weeks later they were concerned that I may be leaking inside so they ordered another CT and I had to drink an oral contrast.  Within a few hours I went into septic shock…..and a coma for 8 days.  

All my organs were going into distress….my heart beat was uncontrollable and I was building up fluid internally….and my lungs were failing.  So life support was the order of the day.

When I finally came back…..I was obviously weak and the drugs and the septic shock just wreaked havoc on me.

One day while the nurses were working on me they looked up on my monitor which was over my head.  In monitored care….your vital signs are viewed not only on your monitor, they are also on the monitor at the nurses station and if something is out of line…..it will show up as an alert on all of the monitors.

So the nurses were at the foot of my bed looking at the monitor…and then each other and then they glanced at the curtain separating me from the patient next to me.

They called his name….and went over to his bed side.  I could hear them talking and I could see one of the nurses face as she watched.  The patient went into arrest….actually I think he choked on his food….but he had a DNR or do not resuscitate order.

So as they talked and watched…..he died….within inches of me and my wife.  Later his wife came in and some family members also and we just sat there quietly.

After a couple of hours the wife left….and I noticed that she was wearing that mans watch.  I just choked up because I remember when my father died….that’s what my mother did….she wore his watch for a while.

That day and many days after that, I would lie in my bed and think about time.  And mostly……what a waste of my time…..via my career or especially with trading.

Now I said that I went into the hospital in May, but I didn’t get out until the middle of June.  And on top of that I was being fed through the IV until mid September or the beginning of October….so I couldn’t eat or drink anything.

I lost about 80 pounds….and it felt like all my muscles had disappeared.  And….I had so much time laying in bed thinking about time itself.  In addition to that…..thinking about how in the world could I make a living?

At one point I got my computer moved into the room and had it at the foot of my bed.  I had my charts up…..but they were frozen in time because I didn’t have the money for the data.  So I just stared at my charts and contemplated my methodology and my efficiency when trading.

And one phrase in particular that kept ringing in my brain was “Time is Money”.  Well we have all heard that phrase and duuhhhh…..we get it right?

But do we really get it?  When we look at all the great traders and investors….we have to ask the question; what time frame do they trade?

And then for me a different element entered the picture.  I had plenty of down time to re-read Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas.  This time I just really got it when it came to trading with probabilities.

After 11 years of trading all of a sudden, probabilities became real to me.  And if that wasn’t enough…..an impossible dream came to me as well. 

I discovered a private fund and I applied to be a money manager with them.  I figured if I don’t have money of my own, what could I lose by applying to trade some one else’s money?

Well I was accepted and when I saw their strict money management and risk control requirements it really set me back a little.  Not that it was wrong…..but actually it was so right.  The problem is that it just didn’t fit my trading style.

So I had to trade differently…..and change my rules that took me years to develop. 

Now I plan to discuss money management, risk management and trading with probabilities a lot in the near future on this blog.

But let me leave you with this for now. 

I did change my trading style and it is becoming the absolute best thing that I have ever done.  And perhaps I was half way there because of my health surprise last year.

But you see TIME is the absolute most important and most valuable commodity that we have.  We only get 24 hours per day so the supply is very limited. 

Now I wish you the very best of health…..but what would happen if you were to get sick or something disrupted your current life style. 

Do you have your act together….and do you have your affairs in order? 

And are you making the absolute most amount of money per hour that you invest in trading……for the least amount of risk?

These are some of the very important questions that we need to ask ourselves.  And oh yes…..there is one more question.

Are you a Tradeoholic?

For me…..I am Dave Webber…..and I am a recovering Tradeoholic.

Well that’s what this site is about.  Yes we may trade futures…..but we do not trade our future for our time.  We aim to maximize our free time…..and minimize our trading time by managing our money, our risk and we trade high probability trades.

And you know what…..it’s still a lot of fun.  But you get a peace about you because you know that you are doing it right….and you know that you win.  Even when we take a loss…..and we will always take losses……but we win.

We win because we trade very low risk……high probability trades…..with high positive expectancy profit potentials.

And if that sounds like what you need or where you want to be in your trading…..well then maybe you should come on back and check us out. 

We will be adding a lot of useful information in the very near future so keep coming back and watch us grow.

And until then…..I wish you the very best in your trading endeavors!!!!

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