Recharge the Batteries
Last Christmas one of my gifts was a AA battery recharger and a bunch of rechargeable batteries.
We might forget which Aunt gave us that wool sweater as it collects dust on the closet shelf, but every time I recharge the batteries for the remote, or the flashlight, or my computer mouse I think of the person who gave that simple gift.
As much as I hate vacations (or better yet how much I love trading), I realize that even an extra day away from the markets is a good thing. I am recharging my trading batteries.
Saturday and Sunday does not count. We are used to that. We need special days.
Besides resting our trading brain (not sure if it’s the left or right side), and our wounded self-esteem and stressed vocal chords from over-condemning or praising the markets, we should embrace this precious time to reward ourselves on our wise decision to become professional traders.
For many beginning traders the idea of a mini-vacation is unpalatable because they are already depleting the bank accounts due to trading losses. Who needs to spend more money? You have heard that to make money you must spend money; well spend some on yourself.
Now the other side of vacations/breaks:
WE RETURN AND WE ARE OUT OF SHAPE.
Sad to say this but most professions stress proficiency training. I am a current Instrument Rated Pilot. If I had to fly from my home in Destin, FL to Philadelphia and I knew that the ceiling was 300 feet and I had not flown serious, in-the-clouds IFR for the last 2 months, I would not attempt the flight. In flying you need recent practice to survive. Even experienced brain surgeons need some kind of review to keep their skills polished.
What should you do if you come back from a week or so vacation?
Take the first day back to just watch the market for a couple of hours. NO TRADES! Not even a sim. Then the next day take the sim to trade and see if you can pick up the market tendencies. If you lose 3 out of 4 trades then your trading skills are rusty. Do NOT trade cash until you can trade successfully on the sim.
Pretend you are a fighter training for a championship fight. You would not take a 2 week vacation before the fight pretending you are Jimmy Buffett in Margaritaville.
Act more like Warren Buffett.
