Think Like A Trader Blog

Thursday 13 April 2017

Blog Post 12 from T-Model Trader

Hello Traders.

We are back with the 12th post from T-Model Trader. I hope you all enjoy it and have a great Easter break!

James Orr

Blog Post 12 - T-Model Trader


Warning: Rude words contained within. For those of you without trading experience, caution is advised, as you probably won’t understand the context and may be offended.
After a lovely summer (which means no extreme heat waves) and a long mild autumn, the first of the cooler weather has finally arrived as a southern ocean cold front blows into town.
The upside to this change is that with the finishing of daylight savings here and the commencement of it in the UK, my trading day starts two hours earlier in the late afternoon. What this gives me is a couple more trading hours into the market before that inevitable body/brain moment kicks in and says that enough is enough and it’s time to go to bed (to then watch the review video’s the next morning and see the missed trading opportunities).
Likewise with the seasons, I feel as though I am going through a change in my development regarding trading. I have been thinking about how to explain this over the last few days, as it feels to be an important step forward.
So here goes.
I had mentioned a while back about wanting to have a daytime market to trade. After much consideration I decided to go with the Eur/Usd a few months back. However, around 3 weeks ago I came to the decision that I actually don’t like the forex market that much. And this is the bit that I have been thinking about quite a lot. Why is this?
In the many articles and videos regarding trading that I have engaged in, it is fundamentally impossible to not run into the forex market. So, when DT came along with the Ftse 100, it was something very new. As I knew no better, I simply followed what was being offered and hence the Ftse 100 became known to me.
So over the last few weeks, I made the decision to stop with the daytime Eur/Usd and the Aussie $ in the evenings.  In doing so, I had this strange sense of relief take place that I am slowly coming to understand. 
Instead of the Euro$, I gravitated back to the Asx 200, which is a major index here in Australia. I say back, as this is attempt number 4 at doing so.
If the Ftse is like living in a faster paced city environment, then the Asx would be akin to life in the country. It is generally much slower and has a gentle trot rather than a gallop to its movement. It also starts at the most civilized hour of 10 am and by around 1 pm most of the trading is done.
I feel really happy about these changes and have this sense of contentment growing that I never felt when engaged in the forex markets. So again, I have been asking myself the question of why? Why these feelings and changes?
The answer kind of goes like this……..
Regardless of the market that I initially chose as the daytime trading, the underlying importance is that I wanted to create something independent of my DT engagement. I couldn’t help but feel that this was a really important step for me to take. This doesn’t take away from or diminish anything regarding DT at all, as I am still very much enjoying and benefiting from that ongoing interaction. In many ways, I am always motivated by seeing how DT is constantly pushing to be better…to do better and likewise aim to push myself along as well.
There seems to be a very natural evolution taking place with what I am choosing to do. As stated in an earlier blog, I like the notion of an index with their open and close schedules. I also really enjoy the energy of price action in that first 60 minutes as well. Without going into endless reasons why, all I can say is that the indexes seem to suit my trading personality.
The Asx is like a little cousin of the Ftse with many similarities, so I feel like I am interacting within a genre of trading styles. As I have just one in the daytime and one market in the evening, I have relaxed enormously about the whole process and feel super excited regarding it all.

There is a catalyst to all this. It was simply triggered by my choosing to start my own independent trading. The key to this took place about a month ago when I realized, in a somewhat delayed slow motion sort of a way, that in choosing to do this without external assistance, I indeed had the freedom to design my own trading plan.
I am going to say that again…. “The freedom to design my own trading plan”.
I could at this point wax on with lots of descriptive words and attempt to explain the significance of that statement however I will reduce it to a few words and say “Whoa….this is a profound moment”.
I am not going to get into the details of what is evolving as that trading plan, because that really isn’t the point. What’s important is that I have reached a time and place with the belief that I can actually do that. This is an immensely satisfying self-acknowledgment to make.
The outcome of this process then opened up the question…. “How do I want to trade”?
Following the recognition of the belief in my ability to trade independently, that question of how was the natural second part to this process gathering momentum. This is self-determination in action. This is the first embryonic stages of that independence starting to express itself.

In a state equivalent to whip lash, my mind suddenly engaged in the full reality of what was taking place with… “Holy Shit, this is MY trading plan….what do I want…..how do I want to trade….what is it going to look like…..what time frame am I looking at…..and so on and so on”?
This so reminds me of that dirt road up into the Arctic on my motorcycle years ago that I mentioned in the last blog of 2016. It is that simultaneous euphoria of freedom and the terror of the unknown clashing swords with each other.
The Asx trading plan isn’t complete and in reality has far to go in its development. I have thou, an outline of the shape of things to come. I have 15 months of knowing that all thou I have come so very close on several occasions to saying “F#*k this”,  (whilst curled up in a fetal position sobbing on the floor) and walking away from it all, I didn’t.  What this stage is really saying is that I am committed to being a success.

I mentioned above about the Asx and my many attempts at this market. In those attempts I would after many losses abandon the whole process, tail between the legs feeling like a failure. In time I tried again and repeated that process in a grizzly Deja vu like experience. I did consider for a moment or two that I had some sort of strange patriotic duty coming out of me that felt compelled to trade my nation’s index. But in the end, I think the reason is that I just like how it wiggles and does it thing.
I now see this market in a whole new light, which is really nothing more than viewing it with a modicum of experience tucked under the belt.
As to why I don’t like the forex market? Well…buggered if I know to be honest. I’ve just got to go with what I am sensing and so far it really does seem to be the correct decision.
Till next time                                                         
T-Model.

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