Friday, December 11, 2009

Friday Notes - The Weekend Trader Early Edition

As I'll be on the road this weekend attending some family gatherings, here are my current thoughts on a variety of topics.

Current Trading Environment - As I've mentioned many times this year, the most fertile - in terms of momentum - S&P trading environment continues to occur between the hours of 4:00am and 9:00am ET. And such was once again the case today as Europe broke nicely from its Thursday range and trended up, complete with three pushes on multiple timeframes which were extremely tradable from both sides. Many of my highly profitable trading periods have occurred during those times, as opposed to the U.S. general session which has often been rather lackluster in terms of market pace and rhythm.

For those able to set their "trading store hours", you may want to consider adjusting them accordingly if your P&L is suffering.

Trader Transaction Tax - I've added the ghost town photo from Thursday's post to the left hand margin to help us all keep this critical fight prominent in our minds.

ADA Update - I'm pleased to announce that I'll continue to donate a portion of Jellie Video Trader Study Series proceeds to the American Diabetes Association in 2010. The total donation, including both the 15% "jump start" of Q3 proceeds and 5% of Q4 proceeds, now stands at $13,744.

2010 Personal Trading Goal Update - I've made one adjustment to my personal goals for 2010, which I recently deemed "Year of the Iceberg", which is to remove the specific dollar target, which will allow me to initially focus on the critical task of exponentially increasing size. More to follow in future posts as I continue to mentally plan for the transition.

Fruits of Labor - Of everything I've accomplished in the trading world over the last decade, none of the accomplishments even come close to that of seeing my two daughters grow into young women.

And like my trading career, the real kudos go to my wife Debra, who has often sacrificed major portions of her own life and is the constant, supportive rock of our family.

As I said in Wednesday's post, dare to dream girls.

Key Posts - A reminder for newer onlookers that there is a list of Key Blog Posts in the lower left hand margin, which include posts which I or others felt were worth marking for future reference. And while I continue to get requests to write a book, I continue to feel that the free ongoing blog is a better way to go.

Jellie Broker Feedback - A quick note of thanks for continued broker feedback from various Jellie traders, including Russell Levens at Velocity Futures who recently emailed, "I take my hat off to you that you have been able to teach veteran traders like (name withheld) how to trade the S&P profitably." While there are always varying degrees of success in any educational venture, such feedback continues to tell me we remain on the right path in terms of making at least a small difference trader education.

Team Jellie Update - Yes, many of the Jellies continue to trade alongside each other and network throughout the trading day. We've recently migrated to the Omnovia platform, which allows us chat and share charts throughout the course of the day, while remaining focused on our individual trading businesses. I'm also now using Omnovia to help a few traders work through some kinks (in what essentially evolved into a last-minute quasi-Jellie effort at the request of a few folks which I didn't publicize), and am very pleased with the product's capabilities, which include the ability to stream live charts, text, and audio throughout the day.

My thanks to Kevin and Jeff from the Jellie team for their help in transitioning the ongoing team to the new platform, as well as Lou at Omnovia for his help during non-business hours last Sunday in helping me get a teaching room up and running quickly.

Tiger Woods - No jokes at this end ... simply compassion for all involved. While unfortunate, it's a good reminder that we all fall short in this life. Hopefully, something positive will come out of it.

Have a wonderful and enjoyable weekend.