Rhody Trader

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Sorry for the absence. I meant to post a note before I left on holiday, but got caught up in other things. I’m back now, though!

It’s been a heck of a week. I was offline from Monday to Monday (something like 2000 emails waiting for me), but I did catch some of the news in the markets with the Congress votes and the ups and downs of the markets. If the pattern holds, things will probably calm down right about Thursday when I get back to work. But then maybe not since we’re soon to be heading into third quarter earnings release season.

I’m getting my feet back under me at the moment, but I’m definitely refreshed from being unplugged and fired up to get back to work.

I’ve tentatively been put on the schedule for the Traders Expo. Things will get firmed up later, but the plan is for me to present at the one in Los Angeles in June. There are ones before that, but they weren’t ones I could commit to at this stage because of other potential schedule conflcts.

This should be interesting, though. I’ve spoken to plenty of student and other groups before, but this will be my first Expo experience.

If you’ve ever been to one of them, let me know what you think.

I came across this awesome looking computer workstation in a recent post on ProBlogger.

This is about the coolest set-up I’ve ever seen. I’ve been lobbying at work to get them for everyone. Everyone loves it, but I’m not holding my breath, though.

I tried doing a search for this set up. While I did find some workstations based on a similar general concept, I couldn’t find this specific model.

Anyone ever seen it anywhere?

I’m sure it’s not cheap, but it looks ever so comfortable. Might need a few additions, like a beverage holder. Wouldn’t hurt to have some pedals built into the footrest to allow for a little aerobic workout while you’re surfing the web or blogging.

A guy can dream, right?

Next month my employer is going to have an open access period for the stock market analysis product I work on - Thomson Squawk Box (part of Thomson Reuters). It’ll run for 2 weeks during prime earnings season. I’m not sure of the specific dates just yet, but I’ve been given permission to release the special login information to anyone I want. I’ll be setting something up to do that, so keep a look out if you trade stocks.

The product I write on is primarily geared toward shorter-term traders (though we do have some longer-term commentary mixed in as well). We cover individuals stocks, sector ETFs, and the major indices overall. There’s a lot of new and rumor stuff. We look at what’s going on in the options market (and often are ahead of the likes of www.optionmonster.com) in identifying major plays developing. We’ve got technical commentary and fundamental stuff, as well as a healthy dose of intermarket analysis too. We also have some external contributors, one of which is my trading mentor.

In other words, there’s a lot of great stuff.

Normally our target audience is just institutional traders, but this open access period will be for anyone.

I’ll be back with more specifics soon.

I just had to get this out.

I’ve read a number of the Dirk Pitt novels written by Clive Cussler. I had a roommate who had a whole bunch of them. I was spending a couple hours a day on the train back then, so I was going through books very quickly. He let me read the ones he had, along with a bunch of Clancy and others in that action, espionage, adventure genre.

Until recently I hadn’t read a Cussler book in a long time - certainly more than 10 years. A few weeks back I read one for the first time - I think the first one ever written. It was fine, but nothing spectacular. I remembered Cussler’s style, but this one was from before he’d really refined it.

Cussler’s got a lot of books in print, and I’m a voracious reader, so I figured I’d give another book a shot. I picked up Night Probe and started reading it this week.

Wow!

This book hooked me really quick. I’m only a few chapters in, but every time I put it down I can’t wait to pick it back up again. And Dirk has yet to make more than a couple of quick appearances. Cussler has really got a nice little mystery going here.

I realized late in the day today that it’s been one year since I started this new gig as a stock analyst. I’d been a fixed income analyst before. I’d been a forex analyst before. I’d even been a fill-in energy market analyst on a few occassions in days gone by. Before one year ago today, though, I’d never been specifically focused on the stock market.

Of course I’ve been trading stocks for 20 years or so. It’s not like this was a totally new thing. But I’d basically done the stock market analysis for my own uses. I’d never written recommendations and trading thoughts on stocks, ETFs, and indices for others to read - especially professionals.

Now, on a daily basis I’m writing intraday index trading strategy, and swing and position pieces for sector ETFs and individuals stocks. I’m writing technical stuff and I’m writing fundamental stuff. Oh, and I’m writing valuation stuff.  My boss, for some reason, considers that something outside fundamental analysis. I’m writing earnings previews and listening to conference calls. Good stuff! Well, maybe not that last bit.

So now it’s a year later. Boy it went fast!

This morning I finished reading The Way of Zen by Alan Watts during my daily commute. I’ve been reading it for the last couple of weeks, though it’s not that long a book (about 200 pages). I just only have about 15-20 minutes in each direction. It’s been my experience that I can’t read things which require a great deal of concentration because of all the distractions. That being the cast, it would probably seem strange I was able to read a book on a cerebral topic like Zen in that situation, but it worked out just fine.

I’ll admit this is not my first run through on Zen, so it wasn’t really a wholely new subject. That probably made things easier. Even still, The Way of Zen was definitely a mind twister in place. The book first provides a history of Zen’s development as kind of merger of Buddhist and Taoist ideals, then goes on to explain its principles. I think Watts did a great job trying to explain things in a way that was approachable by the Western mind.

Of course my mind probably isn’t strictly a Western one in its thought processes, although certainly that’s been my education a training. I’ve always found Eastern philosophies much more applicable to my own personal view on things - to include trading.

Good stuff!

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain

If you’re up on your Dune, you’ll recognize the above as an incantation of sorts Frank Herbert had some of the characters speak in times of stress to calm their minds and exert control over their emotions. This has always been one of my favorite sayings or quotes or whatever you want to call it.

Very Zen. I bet The Financial Philospher would like it.

Charles Kirk quoted me yesterday in his collection of interesting links.

Good trading requires learning and practice - just like anything else you want to get good at. There are no quick solutions. Don’t expect them, and don’t let anyone lead you to believe that there are.

That was from the end of my Good Trading Doesn’t Happen Overnight post from my trading education blog, yesterday.

I feel so special now.

It’s been a whirlwind few days! A short while back I became an Advisor on Trade2Win. A couple days later I got my first golden dot in my member reputation. That means I’m “utterly indespensible”. 

Now, today, I have just reached Legendary status.

Basically, that means I’ve posted 1000+ posts in the forum. It’s taken me a bit over 3 years to reach that mark. That’s definitely not record-breaking speed. There were some lengthy spells were I didn’t really participate on the site. Also, I’m not the type to post every little thought in my head. Nor do I get into pissing matches with other members. I try to only post when I feel I have something meaningful to contribute to the discussion.