What? comes around

I complained a lot to my wife because I don't see the courtesies in Breda, the Netherlands. We bring our stroller everywhere and I know how difficult it is to bring the stroller into a train or a bus and off.

Many times when I see other people with stroller, I would help them carry it up or down through the steps but I have not been helped once. That is until 2 days ago. A guy helped me with the baby stroller when I tried to get on a bus and then my next trip a lady helped me when I tried to get off the bus.

I supposed my disposition is still correct. Selfish and inconsiderate people are not hard to find, but when some strange help me out, I really feel the world is 10 degrees warmer. I hope those strangers that I helped out would feel the same.

Bear Market?

Does not feel like there is an imminent bear market. But a recession is more imminent due to the degradation of credit in this great nation. So how will it affect the stock market? I don't know. It will be uptrends and downtrends during recession as well.

I think it does not matter. there are still many opportunities out there during economic expansion or recession.

Morning Walk

Every work day here in the Netherlands I walk from my apartment to the train station. It is a 30 minutes walk and I do plenty reflections during that time.

Futures -vs- Options were in my mind today. Futures provide delta of 100, but it can wipe the margin out very easily. While option prices go up and down with the underlying price, it in fact is a simple to the bone supply and demand relationship. The underlying of an option contract changes the expected value of the option contract and hence drive the option price.

Anyway, this is no news. Options provides a little more protection, because it will somehow has some time value into it, whereas Futures does not, just a straight 100 delta, $100 dollar is awarded -or- subtracted for every point movement.

Potty success

"I want to pee pee in the toilet", my son told me. So I held him while he stands on the edge of the toilet bowl. After 40 sec of shhhhh. He did it! First time ever in the toilet. He had success in the mobile potty and in the bath tub. But now he graduated.

I am so please, I need to take a picture of that toilet, an Holland toilet.

Curse is over

Time to take responsibility. From the bottom of my heart, I don't believe in curses nor blessings. They are, to me, psychological back hole for blames, in which we don't need any reason or reflection and attribute failures (less often success) to that.

Even for that, my failures are due to "stick to the gun" principle. Larry Livingston (the protagonist in Reminiscence of a Stock Operator) stuck to his gun and won millions, before he then lost millions before he recovered financially. I need to set a stop and but now the stop is lower because I can tolerate more risks after the last big win.

So I stuck to my gun and suffered a significant loss yesterday. I lost $500!!! it is not the money but the confidence. I closed everything to cash in and longed a Put the day before. The only put I had limited my exposure to risks because that 770 Put is in fact 90% time value and 10% intrinsic value. That being said the delta still killed me.

Enough about sticking to my gun, I looked at the intra-day chart and saw the rise again fits my day trade rule. Had I got into that trade for a call, I could had made some easy money.

The final verdict is, I need to be nimble. I need to know which set of rules applies to which situation. I need to be a day trader and a trend trader the same time.

Potty! Good job

Little did we know, Markkus is 3 months away from being a full 3 years old. Yee started to potty train him when he just turned 2 and it worked for a few weeks. Then he started to refuse. Now Markkus picked up the slack and going potty all the time in the Netherlands.

It is great for us because we don't care if we make a mess here in the temporary apartment, and the floor is also laminated so there is no mess to be found afterwards.

I think it is so nice to be away from home and try new things also at the same time appreciate what we have in Dallas.

A good win

So the RUT went down 20 pts. And my prediction was correct. And I made ~37% profit on my 790 puts. It was so awesome.

I sold them and entered longed 1 contract on Oct 770 put just to catch the remaining of the plunge. My wife sees me so happy, she was also happy.

We will see what news today, so far "bargain" hunters are picking up the slacks. But it is normal to rebound a little after a drop like this.

Game of Probability

I went to bed last night at 9:45 pm Central European Time, which is 2:45 pm Central Day Time, which is 15 minutes before the stock market closes. My account was down $500! A whopping number for a guy like me.

This morning I checked, it was only down $90. A loss that I will swallow any time. It turns out the last few minutes of action took all the gain out and turned market to the red and as a result my overpriced puts purchases have made me a genius.

The jury is still out for Tuesday, but I think we are going to be fine.

7 Euro Cent Fries Sauces

Europe overall is not an easy place to live. Crowded, smokers everywhere and stuffs are pretty expensive too. Lucky for us we had a sponsorship. During my stay here in the Netherlands for 2 months my family joined me.

We went already to Rotterdam, Antewep, Zaans and Amsterdam. It has been fun so far and I got to spend a lot of time talking to my wife. It is very nice.

I just hope soon that I can be a trade such that I have more time to spend with my family.

I am scared

Since I decided to day trade RUT, it is the first time that I am carrying my PUTS over night. I am pretty sure that I will have dreams about it.

Oh well, on the other hand I am getting real tired of the intensity of day trading. I need to be right anyway, I may as well be a trend trader. Unfortunately my capital is still at the minimal.

I don't know how it will turns out tomorrow, I am doing a lot of DON'Ts here: keeping a front month option for the trend and it is at the money. But if I am right tomorrow, the reward should be handsome.

The Curse of Jessee Livermore (on me)

Many traders idolize the late Jessee Livermore. Search engines yield plenty of sites about his life and how successful he was, there is no need to reiterate here. However seems like every time I read about him and his trading principles, my trades fell in shambles.

I have had winning trades everyday since Aug 7 on RUT, until two days ago (Aug 21) I lost 2 days in a row. I read excerpts of Mr Livermore's principles before I started to trade on Aug 21 and then I lost, it did not clean me out, fortunately. But it stifled my confidence.

Comes to look at it. I have too much to loose on every trade. I don't have enough stake to stay on my convictions either. I can't follow his principles, and found myself losing and losing again. It happened last time and it brought me to my knees in my trading account.

Yes, I am early in my trading career and yes, I am inexperience. But there is much to say about my consecutive winnings then anything else. My rules fit me. No anyone else's.

With all due respect to the "greatest trader of all time", I have a different idea of life. I love my wife and I can't see myself with another woman (Mr Livermore has three wives), I love my son and I don't want him to lose track of his life. I also don't think swallow a bullet in a hotel room is a good way to end my life.

So long Mr Jessee Livemore. I shall only read of you when I am on vacations and away from the market.

Easy Money at 200 per min heart rate

I have started RUT since Wednesday Aug 1. The first trade was profitable, the next 2 trades caused me $160.

They I flew here to the Netherlands for a Short term assignment and started again on Aug 7. Since then I have been able to make a winning trade daily. Since I had only $2,600 and change in my trading account, I can only make one trade on one contract. It was pretty pathetic but I have learned a great deal when my back is against the wall and I have to make profit on very trade.

The last two trades has been tremendous, as the time value decayed for August Options I was able to trade 3 contracts. After battling back 2 bad entries and turned 2 potential losing trades to winning trades. I am not back to the back again and more. My account has now over $4,000 which is the initial value of our account.

It was fun and tough. I was also very educational. I shall noted in my heart that my first priority is my family.

"I see you have found gabage"

I did not know how funny it was, until the evening that I thought it. Koen Gijbters is a friend/colleague of mine in ETM (the Netherlands office). We met in Plano when he came over to support yet another losing preposition (wire-line IMS ring back tone).

He made this statment when he saw he picked a croquette from the canteen. And he was right. It was terrible, it was a cylindrical deep fried object, about 4 inches long and filled with some unknown stuff, it was like think pie mix but salty. Yucky.

So that is the highlight of my trip so far, besides I have made $100 each day on RUT already.

Nothing new under the sun

I had my mid-year performance evaluation yesterday. It was funny how things changed. My manager told me that I have been doing a great job and if I keep up the good work I will get a good evaluation this year.

Funny that the same manger told me I did not do anything for the previous year and should not receive any salary raise. The funniest part was that I do what I have been doing all the time, I did what I was told. I say what I think it is right. Nothing has changed. Only this year, my manager is planning to give me a good evaluation. This is so pathetic. I just don't seem to understand how everyone in such a pretense and everyone still act this way. Many times I knew things are coming and I knew the consequences, but nothing can change that.

This is how frustrated I am. It always seems obvious what other people want from me. It always seems also bloody clear how they are planning to get it. I just don't want to play along, because it is just a child's play.

Day Trade Russell
On a lighter note, I have been working on a trading system to day trade Rusell 2000 index. Buying Calls and Puts in a bracket in which it would sell the option if when the profit is $1.00, and stop out at $1.00 trail.

It has been working fine for 1 week, I made $20,000 on paper. But it was just too difficult to trade real money, so much more pressure and my meager 1-contract system does not get executed really easily. I need to develop and more robust system where I would let my winner s run.

My hope is to trade for a living soon and spend more time with people I love. Rather than at work which elephants are big and mice are small, nothing new, just want to play along.

Short Term Assignment
Once again, I get to benefit form working in a international company. I will be going on a short term assignment at Rijen, the Netherlands. $104 per day per diem, no need to pay rent there, and the return ticket is included. Interesting arrangement, sounds like a trip for pleasure, and profitable trip. Nothing to lose! I am bring my loves: Yee and Markkus, but their tickets aren't included.

Still it is just a wonderful opportunity to travel Europe again. I am looking forward to this. Hopefully due to the time difference, I can also do some trading after work and perfect my day trade system.