Its been a long time since I’ve done it, but today was a complete write-off for me…
I’ll be the first to admit it, it’s not my finest hour and I should know better, but letting off a little steam rendered today’s activity in the markets useless (and frustrating).
I’ve often been heard to harp on:
“the most important thing not always what you do, but what you don’t do!“
If you’re interested, there’s a popular article here [click] where I talk about it in depth.
Saturday 28th of September Trading:
…well that was a waste of time (and quite stressful).
It all started last night. You know, one of those ‘catchup beers’ with friends you haven’t seen for a while, that inevitably leads into a few more beers. And then some of this stuff…
It’s safe to say, the Northern Monk had me – in multiple ways. A different but moreish bevvy, that will leave you waking up with a hangover capable of killing a small child.
Foolishly, I rallied around to down a full English before the afternoon’s racecard. Not wanting to miss out on a few quid I jumped into the hot-seat with a little time to spare. I knew it was less than ideal but I did it anyway. Going against my own advice quoted at the top of this post.
After an hour or battling back and forth, I gave in. A few unforced errors leaving me at a whopping £12 profit.
It could have been worse, but at this point I admitted defeat. Continuing would be likely to end in tears. Despite being over the worst of the hangover, my concentration and reactions were totally off…
Moral of the Story:
Even after all this time, it’s easy to make mistakes and slip into poor discipline. I should have chosen one or the other; have a few beers and finished up early, or plan the day off. There’s nothing wrong with a little work-life balance, but blurring the line is a recipe for disaster.
This time I was fortunate, maybe the benefit of experience helped me. A lost opportunity is better than an irrational trading mistake, there’s always next week.
I guess there’s one more point to be made here too. Don’t mess with the Northern Monk!
Hopefully, you all had a profitable days trading. If you didn’t, I sincerely hope you haven’t got a headache to match mine…
7 thoughts on “Easiest Way to Write-Off a Days Trading… (Today)”
I am off to Tesco to find Northern Monk 🙂
Not sure you’ll find it there, 100% worth the time to do a search though.
…plan the next day off work though ye? 😀
Hahaha I havent done that in a long time but on Monday I am going to a funeral of a friend of mine and will know most of the people and other friends there and I just know there will be a lot of drinking so Tuesday is a complete day off …
Every now and then it comes around, doesn’t it? Hope funeral is upbeat… and the drinking is good.
Sounds like strong stuff!
Trading takes a lot of concentration. If your mind is not focused, it’s easy to make mistakes.
Drinking and trading don’t mix too well (a bit like drinking and driving).
Yes, I used to have maybe one early afternoon, that seemed okay to relax… but trading drunk is an absolute no-no… as is with a fuzzy head/hangover.
Hangovers get worse and worse the older you get until you no longer want to drink mate!