Personal Notes Series 021 : Going Full Time?

There are days when people message me on my page asking for help because they want to go full time into trading. Syempre tatanong muna ako bakit nila gusto gawin yun. And usually, it's because of a major life event, eto yung top 3:

Kaka-break sa jowa.

Pagod na sa buhay abroad.

Nawalan/Mawawalan ng trabaho. (top 1)

I understand that me being a full-time trader and fragments of my documented journey through my blogs brought about some kind of inspiration for many to follow the same path. But what people forget is the time I spent mastering the craft. I didn't magically become good at trading overnight. Siguro 3 years din akong nag dusa sa "trusting the process" before I finally became profitable (net profit by the end of the year kahit na maraming losing trades). And magnanine years na ako this year.

When people tell me na "wala kasi akong oras para aralin yung stock market", I usually reply "In short, di mo priority." And that's okay. Ganyan din ako dati. Di ko priority kasi I didn't see the potential in it before - until "life happened" and I saw the opportunity. Then my priorities changed, less time para gumala and do stupid shit and more time learning about trading stocks.

Points ko lang dito:

1. Don't go full time into trading or investing if you're not prepared. Otherwise, magsusunog ka lang ng pera. Sunugin mo nalang ng literal para at least, nahawakan mo pa.

2. Respect the process. Professional doctors, athletes, etc spend many years in their craft before they earn their titles. Trading is no different. If kumita ka on day one, pwedeng sinwerte ka lang. But how long before your luck runs out? 

3. Prioritize mo rin sarili mo. Invest in yourself and invest early. You can't help anyone if you're stuck, depressed or dead right?

Trading as a Performance Sport

Many consider trading as a performance sport. And if professional athletes have coaches, I have my own. 

Meet my trading psychologist/peak performance coach Rooting For Celeste. And let me give you a glimpse of what she does.

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Today was quite interesting for me as I started to dive into the FX markets with real money. 400USD lang muna since newbie pa and getting a feel of things.

Take note:

1. I have a system I am adapting into.

2. I know the rules and how to execute them.

3. I have mentors that are currently guiding me.

And as you all know, our beloved PSE went wild today with several issues flying - 8 in my watch-list, 3 of which were in my port ready for selling for a switchblade.

It was chaos.

By the end of the trading day, I hit at least 500k in profits and took a nap. Pag-gising ko, BOOM! 400USD in my FX account got decimated and I am left with a measly 22 bucks. 18k pesos down the drain. 

Dali-dali akong pumunta sa workstation ko and went Sherlock on my trading day. And in these special cases, called my coach for help. I wish people can see how these sessions are done, iba grabe! You know that feeling when you're a level 2 trader and you just "discovered" a high probability setup while doing your backtesting and you think to yourself "this is the shit that my life has been missing!" - that's the kind of feeling I get whenever I have these psych sessions. Will try to record an actual session one of these days so you know what I mean.

After the session, we got to identify what went wrong. I traded even if:

1. I didn't get enough sleep.

2. I lacked the focus.

3. My current psychological state wasn't sharp and healthy.

4. I was busy doing other things I shouldn't have been doing during trading hours.

5. I was aware that I was getting high on certain negative emotions (manifested by my right leg restlessly fidgeting.)

Consider this: Professional athletes make sure they are at the optimal condition when they play or fight. Because it would be stupid to play at the championships when you're injured - physically or psychologically. And today, I was stupid.

There are things you discover about yourself on your own and that's cool if you do. But its amazing when you are able to unlock and see yourself through the elusive 3rd and 4th panes of Johari's window.

I knew what I was supposed to do, but I messed up on my actual execution. I may not have lost 100k pesos today, which is my initial psychological pain threshold, but I lost a certain level of discipline which I need to recover as soon as I can. 

I'm sure that you are aware that big institutions that handle millions and billions of funds have risk managers and performance coaches employed to help their fund managers. Because a single professional fund manager that is left unchecked, no matter the years of experience, has the potential to deal enormous damage to their funds. At kung ginagawa nila, why not we retail traders do the same? This is one of the reasons why we advocate having accountability groups/partners in trading. Hirap kasi pag wala kang kausap at ka de-brief sa mga ganitong bagay diba? Wag lang kayo mag hawakan ng kamay pag pareho kayong naipit. Hindi ito prayer meeting. 

So always remind your accountability buddy to

 CUT

THEIR


LOSSES

Thankfully, I have a beautiful performance and psych coach keeping an eye on me, making sure I don't dig my own grave.