Tonight, I reflect a bit on transitioning to 2009 and dealing with a crossroads in both my continuing trading journey and the blog.
Enjoy the weekend.
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About Me
- Don Miller
- Don is an intraday S&P E-Mini Trader and Member of the CME who has educated traders and advocated for industry transparency since 1999. Long-term performance of his privately traded fund ranks among the industry's best at over +800% from its 2004 inception to 2010. His 2008 performance of +214% +$1.6 Million bested the industry's top CTAs.
Feb 2010 MoneyShow Interviews
Feb NY Expo Presentation
Don's 2002-2010 Interviews & Articles
2009 Interview With Matt Davio
2009 Presentation to Linda Raschke's Team
2009 Interview with Tim Bourquin
Don't Let Congress Turn U.S. Markets Into A Ghost Town
Every Moment of Every Day
Click on Chart For What This Means
October 2009 Jellie Article
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Comments
8 comments:
Quite frankly, your video was nauseating. You sound as if you were Bret Favre and had just won the Super Bowl at the age of 45 and its "time to think about what's next". This is trading, its not sports. A heart surgeon doesn't graduate medical school, go through his residency, perform a successful surgery, pat himself on the back and 'decide what's next.' Trade for charity? Ha, that's laughable. I can't believe you even mentioned something so absurd. Step off your high horse please.
Anon -
Interesting comments and I respect your opinion. Just a couple of thoughts in response from this end.
As I've said for years and throughout the blog, I'll go to my grave believing competitive trading in the futures market is absolutely a sport ... albeit a mental one. It's a zero sum game with winners and losers, and all of the mental elements of sports are present in trading, if not more.
With respect to charity, it was actually suggested by a reader, and is what several cash poker players do with part or all their tournament winnings, including Barry Greenstein and several at the 2008 WSOP. I also know several traders who do similarly with a portion of their winnings (either a % or profits over a period of time).
As far as the surgeon goes, I'd hope if he was feeling he needed to be refreshed after years of operating and thousands of surgeries with few vacations, he'd consider taking a break before operating on me :-).
Appreciate the diary feedback and best wishes in 2009.
Don
Greetings Don : Ionly found out about your blog within the last week. I missed your journey (and sorry I did ) and I must tell you that I have a feeling of pride for you and what you have done. I am thinking to myself "hey the good guys can do well. From what I have seen/read of you in just the last week, you certainly seem like a "good guy".
All the best to you and your family in 2009.
Congrats and thanks for sharing.
John
Hi Don,
I've been a silent watcher for several months now and felt I needed to respond to the earlier comments. I first want to thank you for openly sharing your journey, especially your candor in describing your mistakes throughout the year. It has helped the light bulb 'go on' for me in a world where no one wants to share their mistakes. Where most want to tear each other down, you've given without asking for anything and supported us on our own quiet journeys. Don't feel you need to defend yourself. Your work and diary are self-evident and speaks for itself. Like you say, those that disagree can always change the channel. PLEASE keep up the dialogue and vids.
im impressed you can singularly focus on the spooz during the day - ive tried and it leads me to force bad trades when no setups there and get movement envy seeing other vehicles giving big gyrations/trends.
do you see avg true range/volatility compression coming to make it trickier for you?
do you consider expanding into other instruments that are showing hi beta? how did you do during the 2002-2006 period.
congrats on year- go take a vacation on a beach and have some umbrella drinks.
pete
Hi Pete -
There's no doubt I do best in a market of high volatility and strong emotion, which we of course had in 2008.
And while I do OK in a tight market by providing some market liquidity as a member of the CME, I tend to back off more than anything and wait for market emotion to pick up again. So for me, yes I see it getting "trickier" as you suggest.
Ironically, I know other traders that are just the opposite, where they excel in tighter markets and got torched this year, so I suppose it just depends on how you're wired.
Take a peek at today's (Saturday's) post for more thoughts.
Don
Welcome the blog John.
When I stay out of my own way, I seem to do OK. It's a constant challenge :-).
Don
Tex -
Thanks, yet I have no problem with professional differences of opinion ... if it weren't for that coupled with strong emotion, we wouldn't have a market with profitable opportunities to trade!
I'm usually taking the opposing wholesale side of the trade anyway.
Stay well.
Don
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