Correlations in Life

This blog post is a little different. I promise I'll get back to the technicals and all the fancy stock talk. At the same time, I want to take a moment to acknowledge certain things.

Someone recently said that when you're a beginner you do a lot of learning and sometimes that holds you back. I sat for a second with that thought and tried to think if I've done that. Honestly, I've been learning for 23 days while having a contract open with no knowledge. I've now opened my second options contract that is going to be fulfilled on Monday... except this time is with knowledge. People keep saying that you need a strategy and test it and if it works, stick to it. For now, I'm sticking to channels and trading volumes. Here's why:

• Some of the concepts I've explored (engulfing, pin bar, inside bar, etc) may work best for day traders. Granted they may be used for swing trading as well, but I don't know yet. As I've mentioned in the past, I have a 9-5 with several responsibilities and at this time, I don't have the luxury of tracking charts for a couple of hours when the market is open. Sure, you may argue that I can study charts during off hours, and while that is true, I am doing the basic learning first before I automate buying/closing.
• I've found that options trading and channel breakout/fake-out + volume pair well. I mean, this allowed me to get the full picture on the failed $NKE trade. So, I will be using this for options and swing in the future when I start with more capital.
• I need to find 2-3 setups that work. When I start day trading, even if it's 2-3 trades per week during, I need to stick to what works for me and me only. And at this time, I haven't tested day trading with real money.

The Discipline Correlation

In statistics, they say "correlation does not cause causation". It's true, but in life, the link is significant. I say this because I've been training at the gym for a over year in a somewhat consistent basis. Things changed about 3 months ago when I started being more disciplined about it. Now, I had already started seeing progress prior to the last 3 months, but it was that physical progress that pushed me to become more consistent and disciplined. How does this tie to stocks and my journey?

Well, I wish I would've started this journey several years ago. However, I didn't have the discipline I have acquired now. Showing up for a year for myself has shown me that I can show up in every area of my life, fitness has correlated to changing other areas and growing, sitting through the days where there is no instant gratification. I have the patience now to understand that it takes time, it takes showing up, it takes hours of work even when you don't want to. I think it's kind of poetic, really.

Accountability and Real Life

I've logged my exercises for over a year now, I did this because I needed structure and I wanted to grow. This blogging that no one may be reading wasn't part of any of my goals. Blogging originated as I started diving into this, and I thought to myself that blogging may help me stay accountable with myself. It may help me track my learning, and later on journal my trades as well.

No one is waiting for me to drop a blog everyday, no one is gonna slap my wrists if I don't. I am doing this for myself alone. So, this past week I've been stressed, I haven't had enough sleep and I've had a migraine for 4 days including today. I've been very low energy as a result, which also explains the lack of technical posts. This isn't necessarily an excuse, but the opposite, I've continued to study, learn, write, and apply it to the stocks.

So yes, correlation between fitness and stocks life hasn't been causation, but I can 100% say that it has inspired me to become better in my life about everything.