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  1. A Winding Path of Progress/

A decision about day trading and unlocking more presence

·4 mins·
Challenge
Table of Contents
Me in the forest

Hi 🙂,
two big things happened for me this week:

  1. A decision about day trading

After playing with the idea last week, I now made a decision. I will seriously dedicate myself to make day trading work. This is my new all-encompassing focus. See the full write-up.

  1. Unlocking more presence

I did an NLP technique to investigate any mental barriers to being more present. I already had two challenges over the course of this newsletter to try to improve in this area. I found a significant roadblock. In essence I had to decide if I wanted to be more present. To accept everything that comes along with it. Making that decision I reconfigured my subconscious and got instant1 (and lasting) results. I got a markedly increased sensation of presence and some other goodies.

Commitments #

My ongoing commitments are:

  • To become profitable at day trading
  • Focus challenge2 on trading, until Dec19
  • Don’t buy sweets and such, until the end of the year
  • Generate 10 ideas every day
    Favorite from last week: 10 ideas to make my life 1% better in 5 mins
  • Publish this newsletter every Sunday (3x streak😎)

What I’m working on #

For context, see /now.

Due to my focus challenge2, everything I’m working on is about trading.

  • trade day trading strategy
    It was exciting to be in the markets. I did the first few trades. Getting familiar with the strategy I’m using.
  • research & deliberate trading practice See day trading.
  • do internal analysis See day trading.
    I have adjusted my behavior to be more present while staring at the chart and to not be greedy about unrealized profits.
  • trade options strategy 🇩🇪
    I got a good hit rate on paper3. Seems promising so far.
  • improve trading journal
    Added the capacity to accumulate important metrics in one place (hit rate, P/L both global and by trade type) and more. At this point it works well enough that I can turn my attention elsewhere.

Challenges #

Applying a specific learning or philosophy for a week (see project.)

Last one #

Last weeks challenge was: Keeping the vibe up

I found it a helpful reminder about how important my current state really is in everything I do. It has been adopted into my personal philosophy.

Next one #

Nothing particularly caught my eye. Skipping for this week.

On previous challenges #

I’ve been tracking how my morning routine (get out of bed with alarm and stretching) is correlated with my outcomes (how I felt and what intensity I brought to my work.) As part of this I looked at my awareness, my level of presence during stretching.

I have made it a rule to continue stretching until I’m in the present. The days when I’m not is when I need it the most. Where otherwise I would bring those scattered and distracted thoughts into my next task.

New articles #

All the best,
Jonathan


PS: Please let me know if you have any comments, feedback or criticism.

  1. Not literally instant. It took 10-20 mins. Which is still pretty quick considering the change. ↩︎

  2. What is a focus challenge?
    I commit to work on a topic (a subject) for a period of time. The leading principle is: Stay on-topic at all times. That means any task, project, action, media shall pertain pertain to the selected topic. Anything off-topic is to be noted for later without receiving much attention.

    Exceptions apply for established habits, outside work, chores, FFF, etc.

    Some applications of this principle:

    • I hid all my off-topic projects.
    • I only listed to on-topic audiobooks and podcasts.
    • I only read on-topic books.
    • I only listened to instrumental music.
    • I did not process any off-topic notes in my note-taking system.
    • I did not make any online purchases.
     ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. The number is 85%, but some of those trades were tests. I don’t take this number so seriously. ↩︎