Rhody Trader

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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.

I get to work late today because I have a meeting after hours to accomodate a colleague in Adelaide, Australia. Now the Aussies have treated me quite well, but I this is a bummer. It means I’m going to be in the office for like 11 hours today.

Ugh!

The subject? A proprietary technical indicator we use in-house that we’re looking to expand to a wider usage. The gentleman from Down Under has some things he wants to do, not all to do with this indicator. As for me, I’ve developed a whole proposal to create a website with that as it’s focus.

If my trade today had made some money I might be a bit more enthused. As it is, I’m dragging with tired eyes and sore fingers.

Yes, the market is closed today but I am still in the office. I’m that much of a trading addict.

Of course I’m not actually trading. I’m just working on trading related stuff. I had to meet up with a guy on an interesting trading social networking project he’s developing focused on forex, so I figured I might as well make it here. As things develop, I’ll pass along more info on that. Not sure yet what my involvement might be. He’s talking about some kind of advisory type role. We’ll see.

Aside from that, I’m working on my new book and some other bits and pieces. I’ve been rather wiped out the last couple of weeks, and a lot of stuff I should have been doing wasn’t getting done.

I found out my 2007 bonus and merit increase today. It’s all I can do to keep from dancing. Well, that and my chest congestion. I am quite happy, though. My pre-tax bonus amount is about 25% more than what I expected and my raise was quite respectable.

Whohoo!

Yesterday was a rough day. I was running a fever most of the afternoon and into the evening. Can’t help but wonder if my system being out of whack, as clearly it was, had any influence at all on my performance for the day. No way of knowing for sure, obviously, but logic suggests it probably did have some influence. I ended up spending 13 hours in bed that night - well, sort of. I was up and down quite a bit going to the bathroom and getting water. At some point, though, the fever broke. Feeling better today, though not motivated to really do much.