I'm in my box, checkin' my stocks
I was dead pleased with myself last week - I managed to not look at my trading accounts for two whole days! Interestingly, I was able to enjoy the work that I was doing rather more than when I check my accounts frequently. You know how it goes: you are a bit bored or frustrated, so you check your positions, which can be good if things have moved in your favour, but is just as likely to be bad, as things move against you. You mood then deteriorates - I find I get angry when things move against me - and so a little while later you check the positions again, hoping they have improved. Guess what? They haven't! What is going on here? A number of things: firstly I'm pinning my whole emotional state upon my trading, similarly to a football fan mirroring their life upon how their team performs in one game. This is not a good idea, as it puts my mood at the mercy of the markets, and takes it away from being my responsibility. Secondly, I find that my life is transported away from the moment into some distant point in the future when all my trades are profitable and I don't have to work to put bread on the table. I then resent having to work to put bread on the table and stop enjoying the work that I am doing or even the time spent with my family and friends.
I also have to remind myself that the style of trading that I am doing is aiming to catch the large shifts in price - similarly to the tide coming in out going out. There will be much smaller movements of the waves, both in and out and I should be neither unduly optimistic when a wave comes in in the same direction as the tide, nor unduly pessimistic when a wave goes in the opposite direction of the tide that I am trying to catch. These wave movements are distraction and I should ignore them. What is the best way to ignore them? By not checking my accounts in any less time than the time frame that I am trading. Being a weekly trader, I should only check my trades weekly. Trade checking is addictive, but checking them more frequently than weekly is emptying my life.
My 3 trades for the coming week:
1. Long (buying) Global X Uranium (URA). This looks like its found a floor at about the $13.00 mark and is pushing to rise up
2. Short (selling) Unite Group (UTG).
Unite Group build and operate housing for students. This is, again, a housing play, but possibly potentially magnified by drops in applications and enrolments at some universities, a a result of the increase in university fees. I am setting a sell stop order with the price below the low of 4 weeks ago, around the £3.86 level. There are lower lows and lower highs in place, but I dont want to go short unless the price goes below £3.86 - I want to know for sure that the price is dropping. This technique does not always work of course. Those of you that follow my trading will know that I went short Rightmove using a similar stop order. The order was just triggered before the stock rose again, and the trade has not yet moved into profit. Entering on a pull-back would have put me into profit now, but as they say, one man's pull-back is another man's reversal. I set a similar short order on a stop with Grainger a few weeks ago. The order was not triggered, and the price reversed, leaving me, gratefully, unexposed.
3. Short (selling) EUR/JPY.
The Euro looks to me to be set to drop against the yen, It has fallen through through the 50MA, and I think its reasonable to expect it to fall quite a lot further. However, I think currency trading is remarkably difficult because of government and bank interventions, so I'l not hold my breath!
Don't forget, these trades are what I am doing, they are not a recommendation to anyone else. If in doubt see my disclaimer.
I hope you have a great week. I plan to, partly by not checking my positions every day!
Andy
I also have to remind myself that the style of trading that I am doing is aiming to catch the large shifts in price - similarly to the tide coming in out going out. There will be much smaller movements of the waves, both in and out and I should be neither unduly optimistic when a wave comes in in the same direction as the tide, nor unduly pessimistic when a wave goes in the opposite direction of the tide that I am trying to catch. These wave movements are distraction and I should ignore them. What is the best way to ignore them? By not checking my accounts in any less time than the time frame that I am trading. Being a weekly trader, I should only check my trades weekly. Trade checking is addictive, but checking them more frequently than weekly is emptying my life.
My 3 trades for the coming week:
1. Long (buying) Global X Uranium (URA). This looks like its found a floor at about the $13.00 mark and is pushing to rise up
2. Short (selling) Unite Group (UTG).
Unite Group build and operate housing for students. This is, again, a housing play, but possibly potentially magnified by drops in applications and enrolments at some universities, a a result of the increase in university fees. I am setting a sell stop order with the price below the low of 4 weeks ago, around the £3.86 level. There are lower lows and lower highs in place, but I dont want to go short unless the price goes below £3.86 - I want to know for sure that the price is dropping. This technique does not always work of course. Those of you that follow my trading will know that I went short Rightmove using a similar stop order. The order was just triggered before the stock rose again, and the trade has not yet moved into profit. Entering on a pull-back would have put me into profit now, but as they say, one man's pull-back is another man's reversal. I set a similar short order on a stop with Grainger a few weeks ago. The order was not triggered, and the price reversed, leaving me, gratefully, unexposed.
3. Short (selling) EUR/JPY.
The Euro looks to me to be set to drop against the yen, It has fallen through through the 50MA, and I think its reasonable to expect it to fall quite a lot further. However, I think currency trading is remarkably difficult because of government and bank interventions, so I'l not hold my breath!
Don't forget, these trades are what I am doing, they are not a recommendation to anyone else. If in doubt see my disclaimer.
I hope you have a great week. I plan to, partly by not checking my positions every day!
Andy
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