The Tortoise and the Hare
A reminder... to myself
When I was a kid, my mum would read me fables. I loved them. One of my favorites was “Le Lievre et la Tortue”, or The Tortoise and the Hare.
In the fable "The Tortoise and the Hare," a slow but steady tortoise wins a race against an overconfident and speedy hare, teaching the lesson that consistent effort can overcome natural talent when it is squandered through complacency.
I guess you see where I’m going with this. And if you don’t, you’re probably on the far left of the curve. Congrats, you’ll live a happy life.
Jokes aside, let’s get to business.
Learn about my framework, how I use ADR and rotations. I won’t promise you that it’ll turn you into a lambo guy, but it will save you a lot of time and give you a clear view to look at the market. (Code RETAIL for 20% off)
One of the funniest things that happened to me is that my original mentor (a French scalper) kept saying how he lost 10 years before becoming profitable. I listened to him for years and still lost 10 years. Maybe “lost” is a strong word. Let’s say that I invested my time and money for 10 years.
It’s easy to blow up and a day like today. I kept telling this to myself for years. And I would blow up. For the last 2 weeks, I’ve been taking 1 trade a day, sometimes 2. More than half of the time my day is done by 10 AM. It’s a relaxing life. I miss a ton of opportunities, but I:
Enjoy my free time;
Am not stressed;
See the charts more clearly.
I will not get rich quickly by doing that. In fact, I’m far behind my yearly goals. I’m nicely green and in control of my equity curve this year. Probably my cleanest trading since I started this discipline. But I didn’t have a single 5 fig green day.
On a day like today, where I was looking for a trend day, closing the day with 25pts in 1 trade feels weird. I keep wanting more. I watched the charts most of the day, despite being done very early in the morning.
“What if” I traded more? All these “obvious” setups that I didn’t take.
As I often say to the traders I talk to, it’s easy to think of the upside, but we rarely think of the downside. I did a complete U-turn on that and risk always come first for me.
You can’t tilt if you trade 1 trade a day. There’s not enough time to build all the frustration required to tilt. That’s why it’s a good thing to do.
It’s also hard to tilt if the $ amount you’re ready to lose doesn’t mean much to you. I know some folks talk about “putting on size that almost makes you puke”. I’m not trading for that. I’m trading for a relaxing life now.
Lastly, going with the flow will avoid stress and frustration too. I built my templates to help me on that side. I only took long trades this week.
Today, no shorts were allowed, and certainly not ABOVE 500 (ADR). I’ve shared a lot about my ADR framework, and that’s something that saved me many times. I hope that after years of reading my work, you have a system for yourself too.
This table shared by Lukas (TheShortBear) is helpful in understanding the bigger picture and market dynamics in the larger timeframe.
I mostly write this for myself, as a reminder.
If you’re feeling lost in your trading this year, I invite you to read some of the work done by my friend Metaal who shared his playbook publicly (why did you do that mate?).
I also invite you to read Dragsv and Mlabs work.
If I had to describe my trading, I’d say it’s a mix of these 3 folks.
Lastly, if you can do me a small favor, follow my friend William Anderson who will be sharing more and more trading-related content. He is one of the nicest people I met on Twitter, and I know he’ll make it big time in this industry.
I wish you a great rest of your week.
Thank you so much for the support my friend. It means a lot to me and it gives me motivation to push myself.