In hibernation

It's been a while since I posted anything of note. Since it was a bear market, some time in suspended animation was much appreciated. To recharge. To decompress. To reassess and realign myself with my goals and priorities.

I highly suggest it for everyone. 

Not everything is about the grind. Taking time off to invest in yourself is PRICELESS.

Now for some updates. It's been some time so here is a bunch of them:

- The Investacup has come and gone and my final rank was at 215th. Missed out on a lot of my milestones but the good thing was my knowledge and experience trading downtrends has increased exponentially. My main goal for the competition was to have a venue to trade downtrending stocks to see if that strategy is viable in the long run. In conclusion, yes, there are numerous opportunities for downtrending plays but the risk still outweighs the reward for me. Uptrends will always have a special place in the heart of this robot.

- 2018 has come and gone and it has been the most profitable of my trading career. Sure, I gave back some gains during the last quarter but that was inevitable due to the general sentiment at that time. The thing that saved me was the mindset of protecting the profits that I already gained, managing risk and allocations. That combination went a long, long way in preventing me from squandering all my gains. So again, 2018 was a BANNER year.

- Decreased social media presence. This has been by design. There has also been a proliferation of others who have taken the mantle and continued the time honored tradition of posting snapshots and provocative quotes and other wise words. But rest assured, I'm still here trading in the sidelines as seen below. 

- Lastly, I'm currently coming up with a personal project that is fun to do. Not entirely sure what the public reaction would be. Hopefully it's something that clicks with others as well. Tentative release of it should be sometime 2nd half of 2019. Here's a sneak peek.

Lessons from a master angler

The past holiday break, I've been binge watching the show River Monsters featuring Jeremy Wade. Take a look at his greatest catches here. 

What caught my robot senses, aside from the monster fish, was the parallels in his approach and methods to the way trading is done.

Each episode begins the same way, he goes off to investigate reports of a monster fish in some remote area and will go and try to catch it. He then does an immense amount of research before actually going into the waters to fish. He would ask the locals of the area and try to identify what kind of fish he is actually looking for so he can determine the necessary tools and techniques he would then use to catch the fish. 

The show focuses on just how much preparation is done BEFORE he even goes into the water to fish. What a revelation!

Applying this approach to trading, before the market even opens, the trader should have already done their research and have made their trading plans. Buy and sell areas/triggers, which stocks to watch, which stocks to avoid and so on. 90% of the work should have already been done beforehand so when the market opens, all they have to do is wait and execute their plans. The traders, like the anglers, will cast multiple fishing lines and see which one moves first. 

This has made me curious and I went to go look for other similarities between fishing and trading. 

Ah, TOTGA, the one that got away. Some people will always focus on the what ifs. What if they bought Y stock at X price and then it went up. Another thing, people usually want proof of your achievements, hence the term, pics or it didn't happen ;)

I've discussed this point previously. Just like the fishes in the sea, Ms Market will never run out of plays to give us. If you missed one play, just be better prepared so you can be ready to catch the next one.

Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing intended as a technique of conservation of the fish. In the stock market, this is intended for the conservation of the trader. It just means you have to sell the stock or your holdings for you to profit or cut your losses. Unless, you want to be an investor in a company/stock then by all means just hold on to your positions.

Lastly, one other thing I picked up from Jeremy Wade is PATIENCE. Fishing is BORING. Each episode shown could actually have been 2-4 weeks of actual fishing. There could be days where he will catch nothing but he will still persevere. Confident in the fact that his approach and process is sound and it's the fish that aren't biting. He doesn't get frazzled easily and in the end, always catches his monster.

So I end this post with a video of the master in action.