my journal 2

[Yamato]

money from the mob or robbing a bank

Rather than not taking cabs anymore, it might be easier to rob a bank or get money from the mob. It might be a good incentive for not losing money. Maybe the mob could see eye to eye with me. I've always liked Al Pacino and maybe if I got in touch with the mob I could interact with similar people. I could have a shot at becoming Michael Corleone, or a friend of Michael Corleone. Like Tom Hagen, the consigliere.

But seriously now. I would welcome a financial crisis like the one we're having in Italy right now. An earthquake in rome would not be too bad either. I want something to mix things a little bit. I need a good shaking. We all need a beating. I would not mind a beating for all Italians. I am always taking a beating anyway, so they might as well suffer a little.

Yeah. My colleagues need some drugging.

Mother ****ers.

 

[Yamato]

All right, I did some more math:



Now I only have 100 exercises to go and I'll be done, with 140 behind me.

 

[Yamato]

Did more math. Only 98 exercises to go until I am done with the academy's math section:



Now some work on arms transactions and then I'll go home.

 

[Yamato]

Did 4 more exercises:



Now I only have 94 to go.

 

[Yamato]

I'll try to cut down on the posts and do even more exercises. I'll post every few days. In the meanwhile my exercises have been going further and further:



I now have only 91 exercises to go.

 

[Yamato]

Twenty days of non-stop math exercises and only 87 exercises to go.



After this, I'll need to find a place to do equations. A lot of equations. Then I'll need the summation formula exercises. And then I need probability theory, then statistics, and then I might be ready to tackle portfolio theory.

At the rate of 4 exercises per day, I might be done in 20 more days, with Khan Academy's exercises. But the problem is that it only covers up to algebra. I wish it covered much much more.

This is the best learning web site I could ever find.

 

[Yamato]

85 exercises to go:



Great. I am becoming a math whiz. Best way to study things: at my own pace, years after they tried to force feed me.

 

[Yamato]

weekly update

It keeps going up, relative to the bottom touched on the day we stopped trading, Sept.26th:

 

[Yamato]

Manhattan Transfer

Manhattan Transfer Birdland - YouTube

The Manhattan Transfer - Chanson D'Amour - YouTube

 

[Yamato]

21 days of uninterrupted math exercises

I am learning this material inside out...



It gets harder and harder but I also get more confident as I learn.

164 exercises accomplished behind me and 76 more exercises ahead of me. I have less than one third of the material left to cover. I will take a break now, for a few minutes or a few hours.

 

[Yamato]

I can be satisfied for the day. Only 71 more exercises to go.

 

[Yamato]

Ok, did more:



70 exercises to go.

5 hours of math exercises/videos today. It's enough.

 

[Yamato]

Did more exercises:



Didn't know that wolfram alpha can also solve equations:
x^2+2x-15 - Wolfram|Alpha

I am very weak with equations, even though I did solve all 10 problems in a row. I will need to work much more on them, but first I want to get done with solving all remaining 69 exercises at khan academy.

Almost six hours of math today.

 

[marbig]

Re: i am in trouble and discouraged

Probability of Dependent Events 2 - YouTube

Travis, why are you focusing on basic probability theory?
It is very basic high school maths level. If you think that it will give you an edge over the PhD quants at Investment Banks, then you may be deluding yourself.

I don't believe that all these maths equations you are doing will lead to a significant improvement in your trading (which by your own admission is terrible. Fourteen years of losing in trading).

Any improvement will only come from a change in your attitude to people and the markets.

 

[marbig]

With all respect, Travis, what makes you so sure that you are destined to be a successful trader?
The fact that you have 14 YEARS of unprofitability would indicate to me that I was either totally unsuited to trading or that my trading strategies were completely off-target.
I respect that you are determined to keep going, but at what point do you acknowledge that it is a lost cause?

Good questions.

Travis, in an earlier post you said that you had lost $40K. That was before your latest investors lost all their money. How much have you and your investors lost altogether in your trading?

What reasons do you offer other potential investors to give you money?

 

[Yamato]

Another one on my ignore list, unfortunately. You misquote me, you obviously didn't read enough of my journal to be entitled to post here, nor read my posts carefully... it would be a huge waste of time to reply to you. Your total lack of attention/comprehension/respect for what I write/do is disrespectful to me. Thinking that you're stupid is of little consolation to me: I nonetheless feel hurt that an idiot like you dared to post such garbage on my journal. Furthermore, it turned out to be a wise choice to also ban bbmac, someone so low as to "recommend" your garbage. You'll both be in my ignore list for a while.

17th user on my ignore list, in two years of journal. Less than one ignored member per month of journal (journal is already 27 months old, cfr. "my journal" and "my journal 2"). 112 (unique) members posted on the two journals, of which I banned 17 people: 15%. One banned member every six weeks.

 

[Yamato]

Did some more math to erase from my mind the monkey who posted earlier. And I broke my record of 6 hours 12 minutes, by accomplishing 6 hours and 13 minutes of math in one day:



Yet tomorrow I will only be able to do a few exercises. They're getting harder and harder.

 

[Yamato]

good movie

Watch Puncture online - download Puncture - on 1Channel

 

[Yamato]

Done for today. I need to sleep a little. I haven't been able to sleep well yesterday.



I am going to try to relax for the rest of the day.

The most depressing thing of yesterday was not just the monkey post I had to see on my immaculate journal. It was neither that, nor the fact that these math exercises are getting so complex (especially the equations) that I can barely do any more of them. The most frustrating thing of yesterday was the balance sheet I did for my monthly expenses, that says that, unless I stop riding cabs to work (and take the subway instead), I will not be able to save any money. And I cannot stand the thought of taking the subway.

So for now I will have to postpone my hopes of trading. I can't believe I spent thousands in restaurants in the past few years. I regret it now.

Only 68 more exercises to do, and yesterday great work, but this was a mistake, because when you overdo it, that's when you risk running out of energies, and you lose your pace, and if you lose your pace, then you are screwed. I learned this in cross-country running. Better to go slow at a steady pace than to overdo it and run out of breath. It's better to underdo it, in math, in running, and in trading.

I will now forbid myself to do any more math for the day.

Also, I might do just one exercise per day in the next few days. At this rate, I will still be done with all exercises in two months.

 

[Yamato]

I am neither calm nor serene.

First of all, I am still pissed off about the jerks that have been abounding on my journal lately. I would rather have nobody than jerks.

Second of all, I have come across some hard math exercises that have been slowing me down.

Then, there's the t2w members' chioce awards, that never fail to upset me, because i don't win them and now because someone has added me to the list of users voted as the "funniest member". I rarely mean to be funny so I would not want to win any award as the funniest member. If anything I'd want to win as best journal or best contributor. If someone tells me I'm "funny" I tend to have joe pesci's reaction. Unless of course it was JRP2891, in which case i'd take it as a compliment.

Then, as mentioned, I am frustrated because I drafted a monthly balance sheet and found out that, with the present expenses, I will just keep on breaking even, month after month, so that I'll never be able to invest any money again, unless it's from outside sources. So at the moment I can do nothing but study math.

Then, for one reason or another, I've been unable to sleep. Maybe this all happened because I didn't let my friend visit me this weekend. He might have distracted me, and now I'd be less upset. But I didn't let him because he made me upset by stepping on a pistachio shell and scratching my nice wooden floor.

I don't know who to invite any more. It seems that no one is good enough to be around me except for my parents and my favorite woman, who on the other hand doesn't want to come, since a long time ago, in 2008.

I don't want to be around anyone I know, but I also don't want to be by myself. There's plenty of people I like who are elsewhere, but if I went to those places, I'd start disliking them as well.

To some degree I am spoiled and over-sensitive, I know.

Another week of work ahead of me. The only good thing is that now I know that if I respect my balance sheet, at least, I will break even.

I need to find other sources of income other than the bank. Today I heard on tv about all these bribes taken by politicians and for a few instants I thought "damn, why aren't people offering me just one bribe?". I'd just need one mini-bribe.

But I am too honest to make money that way. I might be too honest to make money in any way. I need to find the resolve to start being dishonest or at least cheap and stingy. After all that is what is necessary to be a good money manager. I am a good journal manager by banning all useless users. I have to become the same as far as money management, and ban all useless costs. Whenever I see a useless user posting here, I don't hesitate and ban them. I need to do the same with useless expenses and activities.

But then, I ban all my friends, and the consequence is that I don't sleep. So, by removing a lot of seemingly useless activities, I end up producing damage. Maybe. I used to be balanced even by myself. But maybe I have changed and I am not that way anymore. Maybe.

Damn. I was this close to success. In August everything was perfect. Then we paid, all at once, for that money management mistake.

Damn.

[...]

I'm gonna turn my alarm off.

Oh, I started a blog with some useful links and advertisements from google adsense. Probably nothing good will come of it, but you never know. No point in listing the link here. There's nothing but idiots lately.

Hopefully my dad or someone will give me some money soon. Right now I am sitting on the dock of the bay, doing equations. I am not "wasting time". I am doing equations.