Tuesday Notes - Inspired Peformance

5:00pm Well, it was far from perfect (it always is) ... yet I'll accept the end result after waking at 3am ET to nail the Europe morning-after-trend open, catching a nap, and then repeating the effort upon the the U.S. session open.

The backdrop for the day was of course the textbook morning-after-trend scenario, coupled with a very inspiring post and link from Vic last night that I watched just as Europe was opening (more on that below), which combined to help me put in one of my better performances in a while with a +$19K chip gain, including a solid DAX contribution.

The only major regret I have is not holding one of my 30 lots on the early ES retracement to 905 for one final push toward the overnight Globex high, yet I suppose that's like a Laker fan saying they beat Houston in seven games instead of six.

As for Vic's link, while the story of D.J. Gregory (pictured above) has been around for a while, I hadn't seen it and it quickly helped me to put my current health struggles (increasingly painful pinched nerves that have persisted despite various treatments and approaches) in perspective, be thankful for the health I do have, and momentarily put any pain out of my mind to simply focus on hitting the softball the market was likely to toss this morning. And therein lies the power of connecting via the blog as Vic unknowingly helped ramp up my aggression upon rising today.

And while I haven't talked about it much lately (purposely), it became clear to me after this morning's efforts that my focus over the last two months has undoubtedly been affected in part by the now two-month old nerve problem, which is really starting to pi$$ the heck out of me. Not an excuse by any stretch ... simply a clear fact.

And so today yet again reinforces the notions that (1) it's not how much the market moves, it's how much your P&L moves, and (2) as Herb Brooks would say "Play your game". I would add, "Know your strengths and weaknesses -- not the other guy's -- and play to your strengths. I have no problem whatever watching a monster trend move as it simply increases the probability of the day two setups. Some may disagree (swing traders of course have to ride the occasional trends to offset all of the frustrating chop losses), yet I know my strengths which include focusing on high-probability short-term sequences which fit my criteria, and am very comfortable in my own skin. OK, poor metaphor right now, but you get the point.

I imagine new onlookers -- and perhaps even some veterans of this blog -- viewing yesterday's post were thinking that I've completely gone soft and have lost all motivation to put in another million dollar performance. Yet like last year, time and time alone will again be the judge, and there's a reason that silly countdown clock to the left and the Svithjod Rock post exist, which is to remind all of us that a single day, week, or month means little in the larger picture. Most newer traders continue to lose sight of the power of P&L "time". The year is a loooong time and interim scores mean little except in aggregation. Don't focus on the P&L bricks ... visualize the building.

Steady as she goes everyone, even if it's with a limp.