It was year 2 of my immersion to the ZFT system. Overall it was a very successful year. Smashing my expectations of what could be possible. Although, maybe that early DYM was a sign of things to come.
This December I've taken an extended break from ms market. During this time, I've focused on my intangibles. Spent precious time with family and friends. Enjoying the fruits of my labor. And remembering my whys. I also reviewed my trade statistics. They gave me a good picture on my profile as a trader. An average of about 7-10 trades a month. Good cutloss discipline. A tendency to hold on to winners. Remarkable improvement in bounce plays. Yet, there is still room for improvement. I have identified these profit leaks and will focus on making the necessary tweaks in my trading algorithms. This 2018, I plan to venture into the world of crypto trading as well. FOMO is real guys and girls. Just waiting for my coins verification which is taking forever. I will take part in the XXk to 1M challenge that the other members of the core are currently undertaking. It should be a very interesting endeavor. Thank you again 2017 for the multitude of blessings. Get ready 2018, here I come.
It is almost the end to this earth year. 2016 has been very fruitful. I think it's appropriate to give time for some quiet reflection.
It was Year 1 of being equipped with the ZF system. My immersion is still ongoing. And I do believe it is something that will not end soon. I still learn something new in every trade that I make. Ms Market is a hard mistress, she takes away as much as she gives. And it seems that I entered in a long term relationship with Ms Market, for better or worse.
With the recent launch of the ZF ORACLE, it has provided me with the perfect time to go back to my trades this year. Analyzing my trades, I still have a natural inclination to buy breakouts. It really is my bread and butter setup. Aside from breakouts though, there was a small collection of bounce trades here and there scattered once in a while. Then there are the TF trades. I still have to tighten my stops for those. There are still a lot of profit leaks in my trades and I plan to plug them eventually.
Going over my trades, I found out that my hit rate for the year is still pretty low, about 43%, so there is a still a lot of room for improvement.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there were only a handful of stocks that gave me most of my gains.
Those are some of the trades where in I was able to gain multiple times in a single stock. I think I missed a couple of others but I think I was able to milk these stocks for all they're worth. So after looking back on the past year, it's now time for some resolutions or goals for the new year. One resolution for the new year is to really ramp up my documentation skills. There were a lot of trades that weren't documented properly, real and paper trades. So much potential learning lost. I hope that Excalibur, a tribe project, can help solve that particular weakness of mine. Another resolution is to trade less. Focusing on those perfect setups. I have already started on this and have observed that this trait has been lessened this last quarter of 2016 but in the first two quarters, I had to return some gains/profit due to overtrading. One more goal is to get some more badges. Seeing one of these bad boys in the palm of my hand has really stoked the competitive flames in me. And lastly, will definitely step up my RAK game and have already discussed this with the Mrs Robot. We are now setting goals for this and identifying the potential beneficiaries for each quarter of 2017. That should be something to watch out for.
Ok, that's enough reflection for this robot. Here is some ear candy for you guys. Happy holidays and let's get ready for 2017!
The entity known as Zeefreaks recently posed a question to us mentors,
What does it take to be a success (in this world of trading)?
This was in response to a recent post on the ZF page. I find that it would be hard for my system to answer this question sufficiently in my current form so my system will reactivate the cyborg unit automaton for this purpose. Starting transmission... Before I begin, I would just like to say that honestly, I do not consider myself to be a success yet. Success is relative. Much like perfection, the important thing is the journey.
And to understand the journey, I feel like we have to start at the beginning. The dream
Ever since I could remember, I never wanted to conform to the norms of society. I never dreamed of having a 9-5 job or working in a company all my life. There were always loftier goals: living free from office politics, never answering to a boss or a client. However, life happens and reality sets in. So I went through the motions of working for a company yet the dream never died. In my off hours and weekends, I started several companies and worked on side projects to look for a way out of the rat race. Not all of these endeavors ended well. But the dream was always there. I was then introduced to the world of stock market through a friend. The allure of earning more than other mortal men has appealed to my very being. Of course, it started with just tips and rumors. It was hit and miss. But then there was always something at the back of my mind that troubled me with this technique. My dependence on these tipsters or insiders weighed heavily on me. What happens when they are gone? There had to be a better way. Enter the Zeefreaks program. The sacrifice
It was stated before of how hard it was to go through the ZF course. It was certainly not fun and games, people. It was 3 months of 3 hours daily of grueling study of charts, concepts and more charts. It was essentially and literally reprogramming our minds to how we viewed the market. After the hours of study, there were even more hours of seatworks, exams and lively discussions of more charts. This meant giving up family dinners and meetup with friends. Weekends spend charting and reviewing. Even sleep deprivation since my shift started at 4-5am. You could say that my life revolved around charts since then. It was a major change and needed total commitment but I immersed myself and totally loved every minute of it. The transformation
My performance throughout the course was up and down. Mostly down. But I stuck to it and didn't give up even when doubt started to creep in. I learned to trust the process. I went back to my notes and reviewed some more. Backtested again and again. There was a sort of manic drive to be better. If others were able to do it, why not me? What can other people see in the charts that are not visible to me? There was no proverbial light bulb switching on. I had to train my eyes and mind to see the little things, the small indicators, the patterns that were oblivious to all but a select few. I would remember the days when I felt helpless watching stocks fly with me just wishing I had those. That feeling would make me refocus and study some more. Once I got my first few winning trades, my confidence was restored. All that time spent was not wasted. It was just part of the process. Just keep pounding the rock as I said before. Those winning trades just helped to ignite a spark within. To experience that high of being able to spot winners on your own. The ongoing journey
So again, I do not consider myself a success. I like to think of the end of the course as my 'rebirth' in the stock market. So you could say that I have only been trading for about 6 months. A newbie to say the least. Maybe I'm a little bit better equipped to deal with the market than before. There is still a long way to go before I reach my 10,000 hours. I am still constantly improving my craft. Tweaking the defects, plugging the holes, documenting the results. I have yet to reach my final form. I am still feeding my newfound addiction. And so this is my story. Alpha Centauri of the ZF tribe. Just another fictional character in the world of the Philippines stock market. What's yours?
*Breaking the fourth wall and going out of character for parts of this post In the quest to further enhance my skills and increase motivation to make only good trades, I have come up with a way to document my successes and failures for all to see. I've come up with a small set of badges similar to cub scout badges. These badges will be placed somewhere on the right side of this blog. A link will also be placed to this post so anyone can reference it and if there is a need for my system to create new badges. To challenge myself even more, some of these badges will come with their own real-world rewards and consequences. Hit them where it hurts. Or in my case, appeal to my stomach.
So here are the badges that I came up with:
- The bagger badge. Yes, this is a woman's purse or bag. The agreement with my better half is if I get a bagger trade (100% up) then she gets a new bag. Simple as that. No questions asked. A happy wife is a happy life as I am told.
- The buffet badge. As our mentors always tell us, it is always good to reward yourself after a big win. So this badge is for every time I get in on a ceiling trade (up 50%).
- The oatmeal badge. If there is a reward for good trades, there should also be a corresponding penalty for bad ones. This badge represents what I have to eat for breakfast every time I fail to stick to my cutloss plan.
- The headshot badge. This badge is for the times my system has allowed me to buy the bounce within 5 flucs of the bottom.
- The sleeper badge. Being able to spot and ride a sleeper play before it makes a big move. Then still be able to hold on to that stock until it turns into a TF play.
- The VOLTRON badge. In trading there should be consistency. When my system has gotten 5 consecutive profitable trades, this is what I will get.
