Now with Dave Landry
What I'm Reading
It's been said that a bad entrepreneur takes a shotgun approach, trying to focus on 100 things all at once. Guilty! On the other hand, a good entrepreneur focuses on one thing, but gives himself a ridiculous deadline to get it done. With clients, markets, and a lot going on with my family, I don't have that luxury. I am using every other minute that's available to take "sharpshooter's" approach to the Member's Area. I scored and set up a countdown clock. This dovetails nicely with my recent "micro vs. macro" mantra (keep reading).
The clock serves as a constant reminder to stay focused. Don't click on the click bait, stay away for social media (unless necessary for business), don't spend 45 minutes looking for (or editing) the perfect column clipart, and avoid going down any other "rabbit hole."
Oh, where was I? Oh, my point is that I still haven't had much time read lately, based on my sharpshooting attempts. So, what am I reading? Well, I broke my promise of not starting a new book until I finished an old one-it's a sickness. Anyway, I started "Seeing What Others Don't" by Gary Klein. In a recent Week In Charts I had quoted Gary. This led me to some Googling, where I found this book. I'm only a chapter or two in, but it's pretty good. I'm thinking, "this reads like a Malcolm Gladwell book." (my favorite author) Then, like a big dummy, when I added a slide to this week's Week In Charts, I noticed on the cover Gladwell wrote: "No one has taught me more about the complexities and mysteries of human decision-making than Gary Klein." In my understanding trading psychology quest, I'm all about insight, intuition (and avoiding "into wishing!"), decision making, and epiphanies. So far, this one hasn't disappointed. It's also been entertaining-but I'm a nerd about these type of things.
What I'm Thinking About
I'm still thinking a lot about the micro vs. the macro. Everyone focus on the some day, but the some day is really made up in the now. In this day and age of constant distractions, it's really easy to waste minutes. And, those minutes add up. In this minute, are you moving toward or away from your goal? In trading: Are you taking the minute to take the trade should or a minute to pause before you take the trade that you shouldn't?
I left this in from the last Now so that we can continue to think about the now.
What I'm Trading
My trading report is pretty much a cntr-a, cntrl-c, cntrl-v: As I've been preaching, now's the time to take the "F-yeah!" test. If you simply cannot sit on your hands because the opportunity looks so great, then take the trade. On anything else, pass-especially given current choppy conditions.
In stocks, I'm long a couple of IPOs (HPR & SURF). The reason that I'm still keen on IPOs now is because that they can often trade independently of the indices. "Can" being the key word in that sentence (as I learned this week!). There actually been a few other setups showing up lately, especially in the energies and small cap stocks. What's interesting is that none have been triggering. It still amazes me that this simple technique can often keep you from putting capital into harm's way.
I'm still long the ETH/XBT pair in the cryptos. Although it's (still) doing quite well (did I just put another jinx on that trade?), the jury is still out on whether trading the crypto pairs will be a viable longer-term strategy. The pairs can trend nicely but can be quite "spikey" at times. In Forex, I remain short the EUR/USD based on an hourly pattern. I've taken partial profits and am allowing the trailing stop on the "free" position to widen with the ultimate goal of having an hourly trade turn into a longer-term trade. In case you're wondering what I'm doing on the hourly, in these efficient markets (especially Forex!), I like trading the hourly because that's where the potential to catch an inefficiency lies, especially when they are coming off of major highs or lows. Keep in mind that I AM NOT daytrading. I might go weeks or even months without a trade here. Also, once in, again, the ultimate goal is to hold on for a long, long, time... I touched upon this again in this week's The Week In Charts.
This Week's Content
In working on the member's area (see below), I continue to find some decent content, if I say so myself. This week, I found and refreshed "How To Capture Long-term Gains Without Excessive Risk." I know money management isn't the most exciting topic in the world, but like tires, "you gotta have it." As I often say, usually after a presentation a dozen people will approach the stage. Eleven will have setups questions and one will have a question on money management. I guess you can guess which one I'd bet on becoming a successful trader.
For the chartshow, I discussed the psychology of technical analysis, and YOU. Our job as good little market technicians is to use charts to read the emotions of the market while at the same time embracing our own. This is a simple way to success. Notice that I didn't say easy!
Around DaveLandry.com
Same as last week: I'm doing a tremendous amount of work on the website back end. Again, the ultimate goal is to enhance the user experience.
I'm making a lot of progress. I now have 70-something lessons in the learning management system (member's area). My goal is 100+ before launch. I'm ready to take on a few beta testers. Let me know if you're interested.
The Holistic Trader
I thought about taking this paragraph out of this column, but realized that would just be avoidance behavior-and I need some accountability. "Holistic" means a combination of psychology, money management, methodology, and I have learned over the last year or so, YOU. Take care of YOU. This isn't an easy business and certainly not without stress. You have to make sure you're operating at peak performance.
I spent a little time on the Peloton, but didn't do much else for my physical, mental, and spiritual health. Maybe next week? Hmm, I'm seeing a pattern.
Upcoming Appearances
I'll worked a little with Charles Kirk on my role as his special guest for his upcoming retreat in St. Lucia.
On Thursday (05/24/18), I'll be playing the role of Dave Landry in Dave Landry's The Week In Charts. Other than that, my dance card is wide open. Anybody need a clown for their kid's birthday?
May the trend be with you!
Dave Landry
P.S. Now that you know what I've been up to, leave me a comment below to let me know what you've been doing.