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Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:28 pm
by millionairemind
Cheng,

Yes. I do keep records of all my transactions which includes the following:

1. Stocks/Futures
2. Reasons for buying/shorting
3. Entered price
4. No. of Shares/Lots
5. Sale of stocks/Date sold (shorts covered)/
5a. If profit, %tage profits +reason
5b. If loss, %tage losses + reason
6. Where I went wrong if there is a loss (of course if I stick to my cutting losses, its OK :D)
7. The profits/losses are grouped by month.

I used to have a spread sheet to track my feelings daily about the market. I found it too tedious to update on feelings cos there might be weeks/months where I don't have a single trade :D

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
mm

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:51 pm
by Cheng
Thanks MM ge for the reply. That was fast haha... :)

Some more questions. Do you print/save the charts of every trade and file it somewhere so that you can review it easily next time? I know keeping good records is a tedious process, but it is essential for traders/investors.

What is your daily or weekend homework routine? Eg. Weekly charts of major indexes and commodities, Bloomberg news, CNA, Investideas etc. Weekend homework can be like planning your trades. What you want to trade or stay sidelined on the following week etc.

I attended Dr Elder's seminar and I like what he said which is very true. "Show me a trader with good records, and I'll show you a good trader."

I need to be more organised in record keeping haha... :oops:

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:19 am
by cif5000
millionairemind wrote:If you need $100K to live on yearly, then you better have at least $1MM before you contemplate trading.

If you need only $40K to live on, perhaps you can start considering when you have $500K.


Hello MM, it refreshing to read your interview. For the living expense buffer before venturing into a part-time trader, where do you reckon these $1m or $500K be kept?

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:06 am
by Aspellian
cif5000 wrote:
millionairemind wrote:If you need $100K to live on yearly, then you better have at least $1MM before you contemplate trading.

If you need only $40K to live on, perhaps you can start considering when you have $500K.


Hello MM, it refreshing to read your interview. For the living expense buffer before venturing into a part-time trader, where do you reckon these $1m or $500K be kept?


Hi MM,

Also a follow-up question:

If you need $100k for annual living expenses, - so you set aside at least $400k (4 years of expenses) and trade using the remainder $600k. Is that what you mean?

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:16 am
by millionairemind
CIF5K/A bro,

It depends on your living expenses.

Say you need 50K a year to live comfortably, I would advocate having at least 500K in cash first before you start. So set aside 100K for 2 yrs of living expenses and use that 400K for trading.

Conversely, if you need 100K/yr to live comfortably, then perhaps at least $1MM.

Just a simple rule of thumb only la....

It all depends on your strategy. Sometimes you might miss a massive uptrend, so you missed a chance to make 50-100% of your money in a year. So you got to wait and be patient. Markets don't go up forever. It will correct.

If you are doing part time trading now and can make at least 20% return annually, then that 500K cash with 50K/yr living expenses will be quite comfortable.

However, if you are a buy and hold, it will be a little tough, cos you are at the mercy of the market.

Trading for a living can be VERY LONELY. That's Y I have a very small group of trader friends whom I talk to over the phone daily :D

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
mm

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:32 am
by Aspellian
millionairemind wrote:Trading for a living can be VERY LONELY. That's Y I have a very small group of trader friends whom I talk to over the phone daily :D


Hi MM.

Thanks for pointing this out that Traders are LONELY batch of people. cos most people will think how glamourous and "liberating" being a full-time trader is like - probably driving fast cars, earning $10k a day etc.

many desire to be full time traders because one is struggling with a fulltime job, hate to be boss around, hate to wake up early, hate to work late... so probably that's the reason why alot of full-traders do not do well or failed in their first few years. there's such a big expectations gap and they venture forth because of great push factors of HATE rather than the Pull factors of LOVE of trading/investing and the TIME it can produce (if one manages it well).

Therefore i will think it is even harder for people who are highly successful in their career to put down all their "career aspirations", job titles, security of a monthly paycheck and venture forth towards a new meaning of LIFE. especially if they enjoy what they do in their career. ;)

You do present a balanced view. thanks for sharing.
:lol:

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:46 am
by millionairemind
Cheng wrote:Thanks MM ge for the reply. That was fast haha... :)

Some more questions. Do you print/save the charts of every trade and file it somewhere so that you can review it easily next time? I know keeping good records is a tedious process, but it is essential for traders/investors.

What is your daily or weekend homework routine? Eg. Weekly charts of major indexes and commodities, Bloomberg news, CNA, Investideas etc. Weekend homework can be like planning your trades. What you want to trade or stay sidelined on the following week etc.

I attended Dr Elder's seminar and I like what he said which is very true. "Show me a trader with good records, and I'll show you a good trader."

I need to be more organised in record keeping haha... :oops:


Here comes the slooooooooow...... response... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

I have read most of Elder's books and I find them quite good. I would classify him as more of a swing trader.

I am a trend follower. I get KILLED very easily in whipsawing markets.

No, I don't print out the charts and store them although I do look at them daily.

I have a set of criteria that need to be met before I enter LONGs or a SHORTs.

If these criteria are not met, I stay out, read my books and play with my son. :D

Re: Interview with Millionairemind

PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 4:46 am
by memphisb
Why doesn't a full time dad contribute to a full time trader??

unless we are talking about a fulltime dad for at Home childcare + household chores for straight 8 or more hours.

Just something that got me pondering, that's all. To me, even if its just monitoring mkrt, its still considered a trading task :?: