Roadblock Ahead!

 Reading Time - 4 Minutes

Roadblocks. We all face them. You can be chugging along, thinking everything is fine and dandy, ‘boy, I sure am making good time!’ and then along comes another hurdle.

I thought it would be fun to share my most recent, in the hope that if you’re facing your own, you can smile (in that knowing way) and keep right on through it, or take the necessary diversion to get around it.

Before we have a look at my most recent, let me lay out some of what I have been working on so you can see the full schedule that didn’t leave a lot of scope for a roadblock!

-       I am hard at work on my Swing Trading methods. This involves countless hours at the charts and is a lot of work – although I enjoy it, so the time isn’t an issue for me.

-       Working with subscribers, making sure they have all the relevant information each morning to set them up for success in the markets. This involves very early mornings setting everything up, but again, I love it.

-       Working on the new stop for Zone Trader. This is very near to completion also. The stop is the one part of my trading that I brought over from something I was taught as a beginner. The stop is effective, but I have never been fully happy with it. I always thought there was a better option out there, and so I set about doing what I always do… figuring it out myself. The stop is intended to increase overall profitability by making a simple change.

-       I have recently had the Decisive Trading website updated so that it includes all of the relevant information and is an easy to navigate space for beginners to find whatever they need. There are still additional aspects being added, and I am in close contact with the designers regarding this.

-       Lots of talking regarding seminars. I have been asked about potentially speaking at a couple of events, so the logistics of this is being discussed through what seems like an infinite number of emails!

-       Adding the AUDUSD to the review videos on YouTube as well as to the subscription service.

-       Regular testing of methods. I do this on a full time basis. I am always testing new methods and I do this through live trading. Basically I use the IG account as a means to test things. I find that trading live gives a much better insight into things than simply paper trading or backtesting. What I do is trade the new theories or methods as I think about and implement them. As the IG account begins to drop down, I start taking Zone Trader trades (at a higher £ per point) to build it back up so I can start all over again.

-       Small account trading. This has been part of the YouTube channel and something I have been running with for a number of months.

-       Actual, normal trading! Yes, at heart I am a trader and I do trade full time. This is my main passion and where it all began. I love it and wouldn’t change anything about it for the world.

-       Living some sort of a life outside of work! But alas, where is the time for such unnecessary things?

Ok, so that’s about sums up what I am doing and working on.  So where is the roadblock?

We can put the EU and my hosting website next to each other for this one.

Basically, the EU has implemented a law whereby VAT is automatically collected for any and all online content sales for anyone living in the EU. That is fair enough, and I have no power over it so I simply accept it. My simple solution is to cut the price of courses by the same 20% as the VAT, so effectively Decisive Trading is swallowing the extra tax. 

The new regulations have recently been rolled out and added to the hosting website…

The only issue is, their implementation of this, and contact with me in regard to it has been an absolute shambles. Couple to the situation that it is very difficult to get in touch with them (likely because they are receiving lots of complaints!) and I have my nice, large roadblock.

So what do we do when we find these roadblocks in our path? Flap and panic and get royally p**sed off? Well, sure, that’s allowed. Go ahead and have a good old fashioned rage. I certainly did. But then after that, you need to find your path around it.

For me that is going to involve a heck of a lot of work. I will need to cutback on some of the things I already do to accommodate this. It is simply the way it is.

How do you do that?

You need to prioritise.  Slide some things out of the way so you can see the light. For me that means I will need to shelve a few things:

Seminar discussions will need to wait. The regular testing of methods will need to go on hold. Small account trading will need to be shelved. 

Now I should point out that writing that down was easy. But cutting them wasn't so easy. I spent a long time deliberating over it. In the end what I decided to do was prioritise what was important to both me and subscribers and worked around it that way. Anything else could be put on hold.

 

Life likes to throw us all curveballs at the least expected times. Feel free to share your most recent ones. For now, I’m off for a trader’s best friend at times like these… a coffee!

I hope you’ve all had a great trading week!

James Orr