Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tuesday Notes - Welcome Back

Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out.

Welcome back to that same old place that you laughed about.

Well the names have all changed since you hung around,

But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.

Who’d have thought they’d lead ya (Who’d have thought they’d lead ya)
Back here where we need ya (Here where we need ya)

Yeah we tease him a lot cause we’ve got him on the spot, welcome back,

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.

Dear Diary -

I wondered when it would happen.

I wondered when everything would click in such a way where I'd regain the motivation, excitement, rhythm, confidence, and personal performance momentum of 2007-early '09.

I also wondered if the labor of the last three months -- which was meant to both rekindle my personal trading passion while giving back on two fronts: Trader Education and a Charitable Cause -- was truly worth the interim sacrifices of personal time, focus, and trading profit.

Well now this stubborn, impatient trader has his answers:

When? October 27, 2009.
Was it Worth It? Asbolutely.

Mark it down. For after dancing in complete step with the market over the last few weeks, including today's high-probability textbook morning after trend day (MATD) where I entered or exited trades within a tick of the swing high or low eight times, the passion and performance are both back in high gear.

And yes, it's been a while since I'd enter each day just "knowing" ahead of time that I'd nail it.

Swagger? Perhaps, although I prefer to use the term Confident.

And yes, it took this stubborn, impatient trader longer than he expected, which brings me back to a rather scary parallel (with advance apologies to those outside of New England).

Two years ago, Tom Brady and the Patriots set the world on fire with a 16-0 season to end all seasons. Then a miracle helmet catch on a last minute Super Bowl Hail Mary seemed to trigger a series of setbacks that included a torn up knee, subsequent infection, year-long rehab, dealing with a few crazy paparazzi, and finally some "shake off the rust" average-at-best games (overthrowing everything in sight) before getting "back to business" and reestablishing his prominence with 80 unanswered points. OK, it was against Nashville and Tampa who are a combined 0-13, but stay with me on this one. So for the fans in New England, the world is spinning on its axis once again.

And while I'm certainly no Tom Brady, the journey over the last six months at this end has been similar, at least from a performance and psychological perspective. For while I didn't blow my knee out (although there was of course that infamous bump on the head), I'd simply lost my motivation and burned out after a $2 Million run, before taking much longer than I expected in my version of "rehab", which was to create and train the Jellies, most of whom now trade alongside me.

Yet the events of the last few months have indeed rekindled everything that, well, needed to be "kindled" -- if that's even a word.

And now, with a few dozen new teammates and a few dozen less pounds for this body to carry around, there's a spring in my step (and certainly the P&L) that I haven't felt since May.

Welcome back Don.

It's great to see you again.