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In this post I am going to write as much as I can in 30 minutes because I have a lot to say but all I have is 30 minutes to write.

1. I need to maintain a normal sleep schedule. I am going to make this a priority. Getting enough sleep has many benefits. Aside from the obvious health benefits, hopefully I won’t waste as much time in the office, and when it comes to trading, there is a strong tendency to underestimate risk if you are sleep deprived.

2. I am also going to go to the gym more often. In the past week, I have gone four times. I plan on going 2-3 per week. I am resuming going to the gym after a two year break because I was butt lazy. This summer I figured I am relatively free and I have run out of lame excuses.

3. I need to read my Bible more often. I’ve been exceedingly lame in this regard.

4. A little more than a week ago, I said Skype made the cutoff on my trading computer’s software list and that I’d also install my printer. Well, the printer didn’t make the list and I restored the disk image of my drive that does not contain Skype or my webcam drivers. To my mother who is about to find my blog any day now, if you haven’t seen me on Skype recently, now you know why. I am not going to install Skype on my trading computer just so that I can talk to you and Dad. Sorry. Hit me up in AIM or something, but I use Pidgin which does not support voice.

5. There’s no way I am touching this market before July opex this week. One year ago, I got burned into July opex and for the next few days after that. If you care to look at the chart in the linked post, July opex was the 18th. That burnage one year ago was what caused me to finally change the way I trade. Hopefully the latest very minor burnage will do the same in a positive way. Oh and one more thing. You see that market bottom in mid-July of 2006?

That’s when I dumped all of my long positions. I had an internship that summer and later that summer I’d be moving because I was going to start grad school in the fall. Because of that, I said screw it and dumped all my long positions. Too bad I picked the piss bottom. The point is, I’ve had very bad experiences with this time of the year.

6. As you know from a post I wrote at the end of June, as well as a few posts about getting a dedicated trading machine, I am transitioning from being a swing trader to a day trader. The goal is to put on a trade at 9:30 am, set a target and a stop, and just walk away. The play pretty much breaks down to two scenarios: (1) you fade (go against) the opening gap OR (2) you trade in the direction of the gap. So far I’ve developed two strategies, one that bets on a gap fill and one that bets that the market will move in the direction of the gap for some time before it reverses. The two strategies are not symmetric as the target and stop loss parameters are slightly different. In the last two weeks of forward testing, the gap fill strategy is only slightly down while the gap continuation strategy is slightly up. I think I need to work on two things: (1) I need a way to determine on a given morning if (a) I should play for the gap fill OR (2) I should bet that the market continues in the direction of the gap OR (3) do nothing, AND (2) there are days where either strategies’ target price has been hit but the market continues in the same direction for the rest of the day; I need a way to determine if I should stay in the position even after the target is reached because this is where the big money comes from. I haven’t been working on this as much as I should partially because I had no motivation to do so because of my lack of sleep.

7. Well how about that fibonacci time series I blogged about last week?

It wasn’t really what I expected though. I expected a ramp into the turn date or a crash into the turn date, but instead it was market indecision into the turn date. If you were betting that 880 would fall, all you got was 10 points after that and that was it. Bad deal, kids, bad deal! Last week I was worried about my 910 call and I was really freaking out when the S&P 500 was down at 870 because I thought I had missed the train on the short side. However, I knew it would be dumb to short the market then so I didn’t.

Well, my 30 minutes is up and I’ve talked about everything I wanted to talk about.

Before this sentence, 841 words in 30 minutes = 28 WPM. I max out at 70 WPM (which isn’t impressive at all). Apparently thinking about to write takes quite a bit of overhead, but a 0.4 net blogging speed/max typing speed ratio ain’t bad.

UPDATE because I am addicted to blogging and I believe I can still make my bedtime:

8. If you haven’t noticed, there isa new page called “Recommended Stuff” at the top right. When I made it over the weekend  I thought it would be a good idea. Now I am not so sure and that page may not be up forever. In the past, there was a page called “Qual Study Plan” but that was taken down after my qual.

9. Last week I said I was going to add more Prudent Bear in my Roth IRA, but I decided not to. Apparently ownership of the fund has changed and now there’s a 5.50% purchase load. There’s no way I’m paying 5.50% just to get into a fund. Makes me appreciate Vanguard a little more. Vanguard’s low costs is one of the reasons they are recommended in my “Recommended Stuff” page.

10. I paid $50 for a wireless keyboard and mouse last week for my trading computer. I feel that the F1-F12 keys are too small, but other than that it’s fine. I considered using Synergy to be able to use the same mouse and keyboard on two different computers but I decided not too. Even though the memory footprint is small, a dedicated trading machine is still a dedicated trading machine and I will not have unnecessary stuff running in the background. Synergy would also require that both computers be on if you want to use the computer that doesn’t have a mouse and keyboard attached to it. Although Synergy is perfect for having two computers (with two monitors) side by side, I typically use one computer with both monitors at a time. While I could remote desktop to the other computer, I can’t play Tribes 2 through remote desktop so in the end I feel I should have two keyboards and two mice. Although I am using two keyboards and two mice, there is a simpler solution. There is only a single USB transceiver for the wireless keyboard and mouse and both of my desktops have USB ports in the front. It wouldn’t be much of a hassle to pull out the USB transceiver from one computer plug it into the other, especially with the USB ports on the front. Unfortunately, I really hate my wireless mouse when playing Tribes 2 because the mouse wheel is completely smooth and it is difficult to change to the next weapon with the mouse wheel without going over to the weapon after that one. On the other hand, real FPS gamers use the number keys to switch weapons. However, the wireless keyboard is such that I cannot go foward, jump, and switch to weapon 4 at the same time and I find that to be highly annoying.

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