Friday Notes - A Stabilizing Week

3:55pm Whew.

Let the record show that I had a far from spectacular performance this week, yet I accomplished what I absolutely had to do in order to stabilize the recent situation and turn momentum back in my favor which I felt was slipping away from me for the first time in a few years as May drew to a close.

And so the changes implemented last weekend, including taking all focus off the daily P&L, ditching the scorecard, and adding the longer-term perspective "game in progress" chart on the left (updated through today) all helped to put in a very modest, yet enormously stabilizing week.

For me, this week wasn't about earnings, and performance was far from perfect, the take is well below "usual" gains, and well below the $1M annual pace at only +$12K on 4/5 trading. Yet in my view it's huge, for as powerful as the 2008 and early 2009 performance momentum was, a downward spiral can be even more powerful (ask Archie Karas, 99% of traders, and every Internet bubble paper millionaire-gone-broke) ... and the current waning momentum had to be stopped in its tracks.

As with the market, the personal P&L can't begin going back up strongly until it stops going down -- and yes, I view a flat or slightly delining equity curve an emergency -- and this week was all about solidifying the footing ... period. Interestingly, last year it was that one-day October -$90K hit that was the "test of the year", yet which became the ultimate kick-in-the-a$$ and springboard for the record fall. Time will tell if surviving the last few weeks will have a similar effect.

Last weekend, I didn't sleep well at all, and Monday couldn't get here fast enough. Ask my wife ... I wasn't particularly pleasant and she was probably more than happy to see me spend all of Sunday at Foxwoods.

This weekend should go better.

And yes, the longer the coil, the harder the eventual move.

###

btw, I captured 3rd place in the poker tourney last night, but lost my grip on first place for the more important quarter (winner gets a buy-in to Foxwoods) by the slimmest of margins as the final three were all 1-2-3 in ranking and one got additional bounty points for taking out last week's winner. The good news is I played extremely well after someone tried to put me on tilt, and was able to come back from a single chip with ten players remaining to take the 3rd and stay in the overall hunt. The parallels to trading continue to be strong.

Also, a continuing reminder that all are invited to the upcoming June 27 cookout here on beautiful Cape Cod. Just please be sure to RSVP so I can gauge food. Remember, I'm buying!