CHESS, GOLF, & TRADING

“Living life outside of a comfort zone.”

When I was a kid growing up in Northern Illinois, in the summertime my maternal grandparents used to take me to the public library almost every Saturday. I would pick up books for the week, and they would guide me towards subject areas, at that moment, that I didn’t find particularly interesting. My grandmother used to say to me; “learn to love the subjects you dislike … be stronger than your weaknesses and challenge yourself to learn as much as possible … do not rely on others, but develop a thirst for knowledge … and lastly, do not do the “easy things” but the “right things”.

And after I would read something, at lunch, dinner, or even on the porch watching the sunset, they would ask questions about what I read and learned; often I would hear, “if I wanted a book report I’d ask for one; I want to know what you think about it … what is the author really trying to say? … what is his/her premise”? And when I would attempt to answer with total bat guano, my grandmother would have none of it; “you’re talking like a 2 year old; speak correctly in sentences … get rid of the “umms, ands, like, etc.” and talk intelligently”. Some days, I felt like I was in prison; but I’ll tell you this. I was so far ahead of my friends when we all started first grade, you wouldn’t believe it. I remember getting “See Spot Run” as our first book and thinking, “seriously, is this a joke? You think I need help or can’t read this”?

All of which brings me to the present and my 3 greatest interests; 1) chess, 2) golf, and 3) trading. Chess is purely mental; golf is having a great time outdoors, getting some exercise, and controlling your emotions with the little white ball; trading is my profession. And what is it about all 3 that links them to each other? EASY PEEZEE: “they are simple but not easy; they require discipline & patience; and by constantly humbling you, you get to learn about yourself and how little you really know”. In other words, there is no “comfort zone” here, only constant challenges that make you want more. Partially, to that end, it’s why in the “Download Links” section over in the right-hand column, I include the link to “My Super Duper Chess Library”; over Labor Day I’ll be adding more books to the list and expanding it. You want a “mental challenge”? Dig into chess and you’ll never leave; drop the “couch potato” routine of mindlessly watching TV every night or over the weekend watching “meat sticks” play football, and start to expand your horizons.

Turning to today’s markets … a slew of reports coming out in the U.S. and late Europe to influence trading today and set the tone … very little in Asia and early Europe in terms of range in anything … I’ll be waiting for the ADP jobs report & GDP numbers at 8:30 before taking any position.

Well, that escalated quickly … and as soon as the dealers and other assorted LP scumbags clean out the order books on millisecond spikes after the ADP & GDP numbers are out… hello, it’s crickets time … simply almost impossible trading conditions exacerbated by horrible slippage and markets that are seeing the “Flying Wedge of Death” [FWD] (DAXX30), massive reversals (SP500), more reversals (EURJPY), and death on a stick (why, that would be USDJPY).

I’ve increased the volumes up to 400,000 in USDJPY, and quite frankly, for a market that pretends it’s the world’s most liquid, the slippage via the dealers and the stop running are atrocious. Tomorrow I’m having a “conversation” with Turnkey about the USDJPY LP, who quite simply, should be in jail. But enough of the “inside baseball” talk … all-in-all a slight losing scratch with commissions, considering the volumes, and truth be told the LP stole over $200 via slippage, so at least I can sleep tonight knowing we did our part in funding his mistress’s lipo-suction, his son’s drug rehab, and his daughter’s pony … Gosh, I just love a “feel good” story, don’t you?

And while I can accept losing money either when the algorithm is off, or when my timing is off, it frickin’ boils my blood when I lose any amount and I’m right about the market … sure, losing a collective couple of bucks today doesn’t matter; all told about a tenth of a percent or something like that, but it’s the “trading process” that the current “central bank trading paradigm” offers us, that is a problem; 1) speed of light trading … crickets, which is maddening, 2) LP dealer shenanigans when markets are slow and listless, and 3) the excessive running of stops [buy and sell] throughout the day and night on a daily basis that prevents decent short term trends from developing. Put it all together, and some days I feel like “superman” for collectively breaking even or losing less than $100 [no matter the volume].

And while the LP in USDJPY is bad [TBTF bank like Squid, Morgan, or HSBC], in other markets it’s worse; looking at a Dow30 M1 today for a little while, it’s simply a mess of gaps from one minute to the next, and in the DAX30 the spikes [up or down take your pick] will kill you. In EURJPY, while the spread is one of the best in the biz, that doesn’t help much when the bid/offer goes up/down 2 – 3 PIPS every second and you have absolutely no idea, if you click the buy or sell button, where you’re gonna get filled … but trust me, if you’re buying the LP will make damn sure you get filled at the top on a mystery spike, and on the low if you’re selling … that means you’re automatically down 1-3 PIPS before you’ve clicked the “OK” box for your fill. What the hell is that? And in markets like USDJPY, which is either exploding up/down, or dead in the water you can’t get 1 ½ PIPS move in 15 minutes dead, slippage like that makes making money very difficult.

Today, for example … yesterday was the “explosion” kind of day … market waits all night and early today for ADP & GDP numbers at 8:15 & 8:30; market explodes up in a millisecond, and then goes into the slow drift down and then sideways routine for 4-5 hours … you couldn’t get a 10 PIP move to save your life … the “special indicator” 2 EMA’S hugging each other for hours … and then BOOM! … here we go on a romp to the high, where now the LP starts to hand out slippage so bad on buys they should be locked up. And when the market can’t make it higher, it’s “speed of light” down 5-7 PIPS in less than a minute; what took 20-30 minutes to go up, takes 30 seconds to give it all back and then some … everybody who’s long out at the low, and then the dealers bid it back up cuz now they’re long … rinse, repeat, and you get the idea.

Add to this what I said yesterday … “is there a market in New York that actually trades, or is it simply a charade; cuz from where I’m sittin’, it’s either the “Plunge Protection Team” ramping stocks, or the “Rally Protection Team” pummeling gold”?

In any event, the ‘special indictor” is working very well, and although we had mindless “chop” for the vast majority of the trading day, which doesn’t help us in terms of profit, it is late August and markets have a tendency to be thin at this time of year. “With all that’s on the docket, both economic and political, in the coming couple of weeks, … OH, won’t September be fun and profitable”!

PAMM spreadsheet I’ll have tomorrow, as the “Open Office” upgrade didn’t work for some reason and has “bottlenecked” the spreadsheet … I’ll figure it out tonight and everything will be current by the end of tomorrow [hopefully]. Onward & Upward!

Time for the beach … the “Ice Cream King” [the dog] & I are outta here … until tomorrow.

Have a great day everybody!

-vegas

OUR TURNKEY FOREX “PAMM/MAM” IS NOW OPEN AND OPERATIONAL; SEE “PAMM/MAM MANAGED MONEY PROGRAM” IN “DOWNLOAD LINKS” SECTION IN RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR DETAILS [VIEW ONLINE AND/OR DOWNLOAD] AND START YOUR JOURNEY FROM WHERE YOU ARE AT TO “ESCAPE TO SUCCESS”!