If you spend your trading day alone, does your mind slow down?

[rols]

I've decided that for me, the thought of spending my day trading alone, is quite lonely/bleak (even intimidating - a slight risk of financial catastrophe) etc.
However, as with many things in life, the reaiity is not as bad as the anticipation, and i always find stuff on the web to help keep me entertained during the day.

It's lonely sometimes but not half as lonely as standing on platform 2 every morning with hundreds of other lost souls.

 

[fibonelli]

....and being crushed like a sardine in a 40c furnace next to a ret4rd who doesn't know how to use a deodorant!

 

[shadowninja]

I've now worked out that my most profitable trading time is from about 4pm to 7pm. So now I can loiter in pretentious coffee shops all day pretending to read Sartre?

Or perhaps I need to think how else I can use my time. (I know I mentioned going climbing or training before but I can't do that every day!) I know... I can host seminars on how to make money by day trading. :cheesy:

 

[inggscap]

Yeah, needing an office here too, working from the house also gets those "you just sitting there? why don't you get a real job?" Umm...

Does she think those rings just pay for themselves with CO2 or something?

As for mind slowing down, I wouldn't say it slows but you do tend to take a little longer getting around to reading a report or two.

 

[chilltrader]

Try Yogic breathing to relax and stimulate your system. Works really well.

Keeps you mentally agile and physically top form. Would definitely help when you do happen to bump into those birds :cheesy:

Hi wasp

it is a big motivation!

I've never been a big tea or coffee drinker, but i got into the habbit of 2-3 cups of tea a day. But then i started to feel quite strange mentally, similar to how i feel after drinking coca cola on an empty stomach after playing sport - physically stimulated and alert but mentally dazed. I find this a strange and uncomfortable sensation. Therefore haven't touched caffeine this year, nor have i wanted to!
The tea/coffee phenomen has always amazed me. I've worked with men/women who drink 5-6 cups per work day, and i am a big chap who starts feeling funny after drinking 3 cups of tea in a day! How do they drink so much!
What also made me stop was reading/watching something about how caffeine relates to depression, anxiety, stress, sleep etc. A TV experiment with a none coffee drinking fitness guru who had to start drinking 8 cups per day. He ended up having to drink beer on a night to help him sleep, and having to rely on the coffee to make him feel awake due to the lack of sleep - a vicious circle! He also complained about how his body felt really awake, but his mind like mine felt dazed.

following on from my previous posts, it is possible to feel mind numbingly unstimulated in a work environment when you are interacting with other people. Furthermore, if you are surrounded by people who have lots of things to say to each other, and you are isolated in a minority with less opportunity to interact with others (eg. being one of 3 men in an office full of 20+ women etc.), then this can be quite bad because you are really not being stimulated, but you are surrounded by people who are, and continuing working/focus/motivation can be a real effort then also.

I guess, where ever i work, whatever i am doing, when i reach a point when i do feel that i am slipping into a mild coma , i am able to snap out of it and remotivate/sharpen myself from within.

But trading alone has definately highlighted to me the need to be as active as possible outside work hours, in order to get the work life balance right. I think balance is the key!

I've been in contact with traders who do not work from home due to the possible family hassles etc. and therefore have their own office. And having a place to go to trade, as opposed to trading from home, is for some people a good idea.

Perhaps when the profits start rolling in, It might be a good idea to get a few friends to join me. ....a shared office with a few twenty something 5'8"- 6' Swedish looking birds will do the trick!....hmm, what do they call him - Hugh Heffnor :idea:

 

[Lee Shepherd]

After a while your partner will stop asking these questions if they see the money coming in, it should only take a few months and given the confidence to say "I'm working and trying to earn money, can you respect that please" will soon make others around you understand . If people randomly knock the door, even if family, providing you've informed them it's your place of work and that they should ring before hand wouldn't be out of the question.

I'm sure they'd mind if you went to there place of work and demanded there attention, either that or their boss would.

Therefore, make it clear from day one what you are doing and that you need the time to do it, at home or not. Dont be ashamed to tell peolpe what you do, whether it's a success or not, at least you've tried. Make sure the room you've allocated for trading is not a through way and also make sure it is dedicated to you and you only.

Yeah, needing an office here too, working from the house also gets those "you just sitting there? why don't you get a real job?" Umm...

Does she think those rings just pay for themselves with CO2 or something?

As for mind slowing down, I wouldn't say it slows but you do tend to take a little longer getting around to reading a report or two.

 

[dumbowl]

Once you manage to be able to trade for a living you have become a king.
Any king worth his crown is terribly alone.
Trading is a boring and lonesome business.
If you can make a living from the markets but can't take the heat of loneliness you can escape to the forums and flame all the self proclaimed gurus or go to any forum and post things about death and poverty, get flamed and feel good.



jmho

 

[km24519847]

My first post on this forum so hi everyone. Make sure you are in good physical and mental health. Take breaks to do some exercise. Drink lots of water. And above all, when you are cosidering trading NOOO infuence of ALCOHOL or drugs.

 

[potshot]

I would prefer to trade alone without the family around. Distraction takes your focus away then dicipline drops and mistakes are made. I plan to have a room to myself with a pc and TV and lock the door only coming out for the loo and refreshments. The amount of times I told my wife this is my full time job and if I went to a office somewhere you wouldn't be asking me take you shopping or pick up the kids from school. It never sunk in.

 

[gamma]

One thing that really helps me is reading the posts and writing on T2W it stops me over trading I feel like the people here are like my work buddies.

 

[BTippen]

Interesting thread.

I talk to 2 other traders on skype while I trade. Its like being in the office. PLus we alert each other to possible setups which can sometimes help.

If I get distracted by the chatter I can just take my headset off for a few minutes.

Works perfectly IMO.

I really miss it if both those guys have the same day off and im all on my own again.

 

[ficdmo]

In all works there are pros and cons .
The truth is that not always a trader must trade .Overtrading causes a lot of losses, SO, with this in mind, it is not said that a so called " day trader " must be fully concentrated all the time ; sometime the best thing is to leave and go out. these are the moment in which , maybe, a full time trader could feel empty , when there are not opened positions and there is not much to do, when in the market there is not momentum.
It is a hard work .

 

[JTrader]

My mind no longer slows down that much when trading alone from home. I find the endless flow of pips profit, a real inspiration and motivator, that makes me feel lively!
In any case, i won't be trading alone for much longer, as I'm interviewing a few supermodel types for the purpose of becoming naked appprentices!

 

[the blades]

My mind no longer slows down that much when trading alone from home. I find the endless flow of pips profit, a real inspiration and motivator, that makes me feel lively!
In any case, i won't be trading alone for much longer, as I'm interviewing a few supermodel types for the purpose of becoming naked appprentices!

I thought you were binning the trading? What happened?

UTB

 

[JTrader]

I thought you were binning the trading? What happened?

UTB

Too much free money on the table, I'll bin it when my pockets are full enough!

 

[ficdmo]

I disagree in doing trading only "to make money" ( I hate this expression) .

 

[SirFrancis]

I disagree in doing trading only "to make money" ( I hate this expression) .

Why do you do it then:?:

 

[JTrader]

Too much free money on the table, I'll bin it when my pockets are full enough!

I can hear the money calling to me -

Please come and get me, you'll need me. Please give me your full attention, and i will be yours, and i will look after you. Please don't leave me here in the void, you know how to get me, so please don't stop amassing me. With just a little work on your part, we can have a long and beautiful friendship.

So thats what I'm doing. I'm removing all unneccesary distractions from my trading environment, and concentrating on reaping the benefits of my hard work!

Later guys!

 

[lbranjord]

I can hear the money calling to me -

Please come and get me, you'll need me. Please give me your full attention, and i will be yours, and i will look after you. Please don't leave me here in the void, you know how to get me, so please don't stop amassing me. With just a little work on your part, we can have a long and beautiful friendship.

So thats what I'm doing. I'm removing all unneccesary distractions from my trading environment, and concentrating on reaping the benefits of my hard work!

Later guys!

The satisfaction of knowing how you got the money is what I love about trading. I like to think back to when I would get smoked on the charts and not know why, I always felt determined to compete in the market profitably but never quite believed I could. In the meantime I had plenty of good salary jobs in IT, but something was always missing. When I started showing consistent profit through investing, I was hooked.

Money is also rewarding, in the most literal sense.

 

[Pakua42]

Hi j,


trading alone all day has made me realise just how important social interaction is.
I have found that without social interaction for many hours at a time, my mind slows down a bit and things (eg. like reading a long winded post on T2W) can become a blur and a chore, and require greater effort perhaps, than if i was in a more stimulating environment where i felt fully alert.
This is slightly worrying as it perhaps indicates a slight deterioration in cognitive functioning .

Basically, i have found that just basic social interaction and physical movement, a bitg of adreneline etc. are what are required to get me firing on more cylinders. Interacting with others in work helps give a person a meaning and a social identity.

1. When I have worked in places where i enjoy interacting with the people i work with, getting up on a morning is a pleasure.
2. When i have worked in environments where i have not liked the people that mcuh or the atmosphere, motivation to get out of bed is less than in 1.
3. When trading alone all day, i have no one to intereact with and bounce off so to speak. Motivation is all down to me and the day although easier than in 1 & 2, can seem a greater challenge to get off the ground.

Whats your take on these matters?

Thanks.

I feel exactly like you do. No, money alone is not the motivation I thought it would be to sit in a room by myself with no social interaction. Maybe the people on this board feel that way but most people wither and die by being alone all the time. I myself am on the cusp of developing the best day trading futures method in years of trading and surprisingly, I dont even feel like getting up in the morning lately. Im amazed. And yet, if I had a beautiful Latim woman who wanted to "get into " trading with me and would get excited about what was going on because I was her man and we did it together, everything would be wonderful regardless of how profitable the day turned out. We have to talk. Im trying on another board to get a group of 4-10 guys who want to trade together, maybe startiung virtually in a chat room online but definitely with the opportunity for us to move to one location and trade out of an office or house together. Yes, I would leave my home tomorrow to be where exciting, funny and warm people were all trading together. Question for the board: Do you think many of the market wizards from the book or the biggest hedge fund traders are sitting at home in their pajamas facing a wall with no interaction all day...for years and years, thruout their career? I doubt it. In fact I would bet that trading alone for years will make some of the winningest day traders go over the edge and do something very destructive via either drugs and alcohol, excess caffeine or bad trading. I agree with j trader that your mind doesnt function properly without human feedback. Forget the coffee fix, i tried that, and it works for a little while. Then what?

The only thing money is good for is to be with the people "YOU" choose to be with anyway. Personally, id like to see the culmication of my trading career end with me on a lovely caribbean Island with me in a hotel room I rent by the season where I look at beautiful girls of all shades and colors running across the beach every day and they all wave to that "mysterious stranger" who is sitting on his terrace doing 'somthing interesting" on his computer every morning. I could die and go to heaven right there. Even Warren Buffett has charlie Monger and office staff to interact with. Do all of you really want to do rich but get that way sitting in a dead, quiet neighborhood facing a wall every morning? I used to be a prop trader for Oliver Velez in Florida and loved going into the office and trade live with the moderator of the chat room right there. Nothing beats the learning curve and the thrill of victory than to have people around you to whoop and hollar when you just took off a 10 point trade or to ask a question when nothing goes right. ANYONE INTERESTED IN MAKING A TRADING ROOM AND THEN MAYBE INCORPORATING TOGETHER AND FORMING A POOL? OR JUST DOING OUR OWN THING BUT SHARING WHAT WE DO? Me-I just want to trade forex and naz futures until 11am and be done. And later add crude oil as its very expensive to trade that contract. Anyone interested? Im a middle aged guy from Brooklyn living in Delray Beach/Boca. We can form a team. One guy can do research, another print out all our trades for the day on charts, another listen to the news wires, another do programming for us. We could form the Berkshire Hathaway of daytrading "if" you are willing to get out of that safe little apartment. -)