To most people e-mini trading is pretty serious business; which is to say there isn't a whole lot of levity in most e-mini trading rooms.
Nope, this is a solemn experience and you better not get caught cutting up or having a good time; after all, we are talking about real money here; cold hard cash, moolah, real greenbacks and the stuff of disappointment, letdown, heartbreak and failure.
More than anything, we deal with pure, all American, unadulterated greed.
By George, you better keep your yap shut and read the e-mini charts with studiousness greater than the sum total of all of your years of study in college.
Laser sharp focus is the name of the game.
Unfortunately, my laser sharp focus can become a tad fuzzy at times, and my laser can lapse into a diffuse glimmer from a cheap flashlight whose "AA" batteries are on their last leg.
Which is not to say that I can't concentrate fully at all times; but there are infrequent and rare moments when my mind wanders into ga-ga land with potentially disastrous moments; and then are times when I can blindly blunder into hilarious e-mini trades that shine, despite doing everything possible to mindlessly sabotage my trip into the glimmering land of profitability.
I had one of those experiences last week.
I felt like I stepped on a landmine and instead of blowing my bowels into the stratosphere I was showered with uncut diamonds.
The e-mini trading was a tad slow last Monday afternoon, as Monday afternoon trading can be somewhat mind-numbing from want of meaningful price movement.
To make matters worse, I had been harassed all morning by a small fly that launched suicidal attack after attack on my trading screen and my forehead, arms and computer keyboard.
I felt he was mocking me; I could feel the fly gaining confidence in his ability to elude my swipes and attempts at plucking him out of mid-air and missing pathetically.
It didn't take long for my one-watt brain to drift from e-mini trading to plotting the death of my nemesis, the fly.
That being said, my attention to the fly was interrupted by trading.
A very high-probability trade on the CL contract (crude) had presented itself and I instinctively entered a very conservation buy stop and in due course I had entered the trade at a very favorable point in the set-up.
Meanwhile, the fly had begun to dive-bomb my head like an F-16 and my demeanor had taken a turn toward pathological; the fly must die at all costs and all my intellectual abilities had now been diverted to sending him to his maker.
Then he did it; he made the mistake of landing directly on my main monitor screen.
My eyes widened to moon pie dimensions as I knew the little devil had made a tactical error that would be his last.
My body tightened as I slowly moved my hand into prime position to make a cobra like move to squish his annoying body on my computer monitor screen...
Whack! It was a perfect, well-timed, arcing blow that dealt a swift death to my little friend and I am convinced his passed not knowing what led to his untimely demise.
Battle won! You would be surprised at the amount of electrical energy released when the structural integrity of a monitor is compromised.
A stunning amount of sparks, puffs of smoke that smelled distinctively of burning electrical wire, and alarming electrical pops that simultaneously erupted from the mortally wounded computer monitor.
Since I use cross-firing graphics cards, the other seven monitors connected to my e-mini trading computer dimmed and finally went black; a complete meltdown.
War lost! I have a back-up computer for just this sort of thing, though I never dreamed it would be used in this type of situation.
It seemed like it took hours for my older computer to creak into action and even long to get the NinjaTrader up and running.
After the preposterously long interval of time passed I quickly navigated to the CL screen to find the trade had run its course.
I had hit my profit target, through no skill of my own.
I was up $400 dollars.
I quickly rationalized my fly victory by kidding myself into believing my immature actions were a good thing.
After all, $400 dollars was more than enough to cover the cost of a new monitor.
I sometimes amaze myself with my ability to rationalize wrong-headed actions.
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes my mind can wander.
As always, best of luck in your trading...
Nope, this is a solemn experience and you better not get caught cutting up or having a good time; after all, we are talking about real money here; cold hard cash, moolah, real greenbacks and the stuff of disappointment, letdown, heartbreak and failure.
More than anything, we deal with pure, all American, unadulterated greed.
By George, you better keep your yap shut and read the e-mini charts with studiousness greater than the sum total of all of your years of study in college.
Laser sharp focus is the name of the game.
Unfortunately, my laser sharp focus can become a tad fuzzy at times, and my laser can lapse into a diffuse glimmer from a cheap flashlight whose "AA" batteries are on their last leg.
Which is not to say that I can't concentrate fully at all times; but there are infrequent and rare moments when my mind wanders into ga-ga land with potentially disastrous moments; and then are times when I can blindly blunder into hilarious e-mini trades that shine, despite doing everything possible to mindlessly sabotage my trip into the glimmering land of profitability.
I had one of those experiences last week.
I felt like I stepped on a landmine and instead of blowing my bowels into the stratosphere I was showered with uncut diamonds.
The e-mini trading was a tad slow last Monday afternoon, as Monday afternoon trading can be somewhat mind-numbing from want of meaningful price movement.
To make matters worse, I had been harassed all morning by a small fly that launched suicidal attack after attack on my trading screen and my forehead, arms and computer keyboard.
I felt he was mocking me; I could feel the fly gaining confidence in his ability to elude my swipes and attempts at plucking him out of mid-air and missing pathetically.
It didn't take long for my one-watt brain to drift from e-mini trading to plotting the death of my nemesis, the fly.
That being said, my attention to the fly was interrupted by trading.
A very high-probability trade on the CL contract (crude) had presented itself and I instinctively entered a very conservation buy stop and in due course I had entered the trade at a very favorable point in the set-up.
Meanwhile, the fly had begun to dive-bomb my head like an F-16 and my demeanor had taken a turn toward pathological; the fly must die at all costs and all my intellectual abilities had now been diverted to sending him to his maker.
Then he did it; he made the mistake of landing directly on my main monitor screen.
My eyes widened to moon pie dimensions as I knew the little devil had made a tactical error that would be his last.
My body tightened as I slowly moved my hand into prime position to make a cobra like move to squish his annoying body on my computer monitor screen...
Whack! It was a perfect, well-timed, arcing blow that dealt a swift death to my little friend and I am convinced his passed not knowing what led to his untimely demise.
Battle won! You would be surprised at the amount of electrical energy released when the structural integrity of a monitor is compromised.
A stunning amount of sparks, puffs of smoke that smelled distinctively of burning electrical wire, and alarming electrical pops that simultaneously erupted from the mortally wounded computer monitor.
Since I use cross-firing graphics cards, the other seven monitors connected to my e-mini trading computer dimmed and finally went black; a complete meltdown.
War lost! I have a back-up computer for just this sort of thing, though I never dreamed it would be used in this type of situation.
It seemed like it took hours for my older computer to creak into action and even long to get the NinjaTrader up and running.
After the preposterously long interval of time passed I quickly navigated to the CL screen to find the trade had run its course.
I had hit my profit target, through no skill of my own.
I was up $400 dollars.
I quickly rationalized my fly victory by kidding myself into believing my immature actions were a good thing.
After all, $400 dollars was more than enough to cover the cost of a new monitor.
I sometimes amaze myself with my ability to rationalize wrong-headed actions.
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes my mind can wander.
As always, best of luck in your trading...
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