Wednesday, August 19, 2009
My Move
I've moved to wordpress now. You can follow me and leave nasty comments there at mloylo.wordpress.com.
Monday, July 13, 2009
My Psychic
My sister was in town the other day and she wanted to go see a psychic. I told her there was a psychic a co-worker had told me about and maybe she'd like to go pay her a visit. Emphasis on the pay there... I later found out she's now charging $75 for a 30 min. reading sessions. I don't want to blabber her private business all over the www, but let's just say she was seeking some marital advice. She then told me she made an appointment for me and I thought, what the heck, we'll see if this lady is full of crap or not.
The name is Yanie Brewer in case anybody is interested. She gave me a recording of the session on cassette tape, which I thought, seriously... who the fuck owns a cassette players now? This is clearly not iPod compatible and I doubt they have an app for the iPhone for this. I don't think I've had regularly used a cassette tape since 1997. Anyway, I finally went to my car and play back the tape. There were some pretty cool stuff that just made me dropped/dislocated my jaw.
I had my doubts but then one of the first things she said that made me feel like she might be for real was when she went "do you have two careers?" Which I replied yes but in my head I was thinking "Did my sister tell you that in her session before me? How could you know about that?" Towards the end of the session I asked a few questions about my family and she asked me if it was just me and my sister the two sibling and I said yes, but she said "there should've been a third." At that point I remembered that my mother actually did have an abortion way younger before my older sister was born. She also told me she sees cars, and asked me what that means. Well, our family business is revolved around car related products like AC, tire repair, engine oil or different kind of fluid.
A lot of these are kind of like I had to attach the meanings myself, but I thought it was pretty cool that if someone can really hear or feel and clairvoyant.
As for the future, I don't know exactly how much salt to take w/ what she said. It sort of just reflected a lot of what I know about myself or what I've been thinking. The topic of education came up a lot, which I have been thinking about going back for my MBA (pretty much like everybody else my age). It definitely seems like my journey here in Austin is about to end (and just when I decided to put a swimming pool in at my house, too...). There are some new beginnings. She says that I'm talented and have interest in many things and I have to find what my niche is and what will give me the most fulfilment is where I feel like I'm helping people. I mentioned about marketing but she said something even more people enough.
Apparently I'm also put on this earth to travel and I'll make very good money. She mentioned about going to Hawaii and golfing there (hmm...) and business travel in British Columbia, although I couldn't tell if she was feeling B.C. or regular Columbia. There's a big difference in Vancouver and Bogota. She keeps talking about some opportunity, I don't think she meant schools, in Florida and how being around the water is very good for me. I will also meet my best relationship, very vivacious and energetic person, on a trip and she even says that I'm going to have two boys, one of water and another w/ fire sign (really... c'mon). She even asked me how I feel about dogs b/c this person will have a small dog. Right, let me just go travel the world and ask every girl that sits next to me on the plane what kind of dog she has. St. Bernard, oh sorry... nice meeting ya. What? A Yorkie? What did you say your name was?
Basically, she has just told me what I've been feeling since sophomore year, which is what is my passion, what is my niche? I thought my path might be w/ the family business but she actually says that my footsteps won't be the same as my dad and in the long run I'd have to do something that's more me. Either do things more my style or take the background and experience to move on to another venture. Sigh... got a lot to think about.
The name is Yanie Brewer in case anybody is interested. She gave me a recording of the session on cassette tape, which I thought, seriously... who the fuck owns a cassette players now? This is clearly not iPod compatible and I doubt they have an app for the iPhone for this. I don't think I've had regularly used a cassette tape since 1997. Anyway, I finally went to my car and play back the tape. There were some pretty cool stuff that just made me dropped/dislocated my jaw.
I had my doubts but then one of the first things she said that made me feel like she might be for real was when she went "do you have two careers?" Which I replied yes but in my head I was thinking "Did my sister tell you that in her session before me? How could you know about that?" Towards the end of the session I asked a few questions about my family and she asked me if it was just me and my sister the two sibling and I said yes, but she said "there should've been a third." At that point I remembered that my mother actually did have an abortion way younger before my older sister was born. She also told me she sees cars, and asked me what that means. Well, our family business is revolved around car related products like AC, tire repair, engine oil or different kind of fluid.
A lot of these are kind of like I had to attach the meanings myself, but I thought it was pretty cool that if someone can really hear or feel and clairvoyant.
As for the future, I don't know exactly how much salt to take w/ what she said. It sort of just reflected a lot of what I know about myself or what I've been thinking. The topic of education came up a lot, which I have been thinking about going back for my MBA (pretty much like everybody else my age). It definitely seems like my journey here in Austin is about to end (and just when I decided to put a swimming pool in at my house, too...). There are some new beginnings. She says that I'm talented and have interest in many things and I have to find what my niche is and what will give me the most fulfilment is where I feel like I'm helping people. I mentioned about marketing but she said something even more people enough.
Apparently I'm also put on this earth to travel and I'll make very good money. She mentioned about going to Hawaii and golfing there (hmm...) and business travel in British Columbia, although I couldn't tell if she was feeling B.C. or regular Columbia. There's a big difference in Vancouver and Bogota. She keeps talking about some opportunity, I don't think she meant schools, in Florida and how being around the water is very good for me. I will also meet my best relationship, very vivacious and energetic person, on a trip and she even says that I'm going to have two boys, one of water and another w/ fire sign (really... c'mon). She even asked me how I feel about dogs b/c this person will have a small dog. Right, let me just go travel the world and ask every girl that sits next to me on the plane what kind of dog she has. St. Bernard, oh sorry... nice meeting ya. What? A Yorkie? What did you say your name was?
Basically, she has just told me what I've been feeling since sophomore year, which is what is my passion, what is my niche? I thought my path might be w/ the family business but she actually says that my footsteps won't be the same as my dad and in the long run I'd have to do something that's more me. Either do things more my style or take the background and experience to move on to another venture. Sigh... got a lot to think about.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
My Peacock
I've been working from home lately. With the trading volume being so light I basically had decided to put my account on hold for a month, maybe two. It was good to hear at least I won't incur any variable fees in the mean time.
Well, I was getting ready to leave the house on Tuesday and as I pull my car out of the garage I see this creature at my front door. Upon further review... it was a peacock. Yeah, I know it's random, but a damn peacock is just sitting at my front door. When I came back it was still there. Weird... it was not dead. Definitely alive and moving. Was this a present? It doesn't have a note tied to it or anything. I went to the formal dinning room and snapped this picture.
It looks like it's there to collect rent... Funny that my Asian friends, and the one French one after I told them about it all say to eat it. Oh the foodies. I tried to get it to open up a few hours later and that's when I noticed that it's actually a peahen.
I didn't know if this was an auspicious or ominous sign so I went to look up what peacocks symbolize. Apparently it represents royalty and immortality among other things in different culture. Overall, I took that as a positive thing. I've actually been thinking about a name for a new company that I'm planning to form for a new venture that's going to be strictly my effort and this gives me a few ideas. C'mon, a bird symbolizing immortality, as in always in never go out of business is pretty cool.
My name is in our family business's title and every time I meet a new client I gotta explain the story of how my dad couldn't come think of a good name while he was filing the paperwork. One thought I had was to use our last name but I am concerned about the marketability and confusion it might come up b/c, well, it's not the easiest last name to spell or pronounce. I just feel it's a little unprofessional. So far the best I've come up with is maybe somehow related to Expeditus, the patron saint of merchants, navigators, expeditious solutions and against procrastination.
Well, I was getting ready to leave the house on Tuesday and as I pull my car out of the garage I see this creature at my front door. Upon further review... it was a peacock. Yeah, I know it's random, but a damn peacock is just sitting at my front door. When I came back it was still there. Weird... it was not dead. Definitely alive and moving. Was this a present? It doesn't have a note tied to it or anything. I went to the formal dinning room and snapped this picture.
It looks like it's there to collect rent... Funny that my Asian friends, and the one French one after I told them about it all say to eat it. Oh the foodies. I tried to get it to open up a few hours later and that's when I noticed that it's actually a peahen.
I didn't know if this was an auspicious or ominous sign so I went to look up what peacocks symbolize. Apparently it represents royalty and immortality among other things in different culture. Overall, I took that as a positive thing. I've actually been thinking about a name for a new company that I'm planning to form for a new venture that's going to be strictly my effort and this gives me a few ideas. C'mon, a bird symbolizing immortality, as in always in never go out of business is pretty cool.
My name is in our family business's title and every time I meet a new client I gotta explain the story of how my dad couldn't come think of a good name while he was filing the paperwork. One thought I had was to use our last name but I am concerned about the marketability and confusion it might come up b/c, well, it's not the easiest last name to spell or pronounce. I just feel it's a little unprofessional. So far the best I've come up with is maybe somehow related to Expeditus, the patron saint of merchants, navigators, expeditious solutions and against procrastination.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
My Tweet
I'll be trading today and tomorrow for the Russell rebalance. Pool construction has started at my house and it woke me up @ 7:30am this morning. Sadly there's no snooze button on these machines. I'll be working out of the office even if I'm not trading.
I'm still not fully sold on this whole Twitter thing. I don't like it. It feels like there are some elements or narcissism going on here that you feel somehow what you are doing is so important that everybody must know about it. Little did you know that it's totally trivial. And what's the deal w/ following celebrities and what they (or their assistants/publicists) write about. As if their lives are really that much more interesting. Go out and live your own adventures and get into trouble or do something LENGENDARY. Except for the very few people that I follow the rest is just extra noise to me.
I tried tweeting a little bit about the trades I'm getting in this morning and it's... distracting. It's not really real time, I don't have the time to put in my stop or profit target that much, so I doubt anybody will actually find it useful. I might spot some really nice trends and I'll comment on that but overall I think it's a little silly and waste of my energy.
If anybody's interested there's a site call stocktwits that a lot of people comment on there through out the day. It's really noisy and I pretty much just tune it out unless there's really nothing going on during the day. I need to find the ones that are actually worthwhile following on there.
I'm still not fully sold on this whole Twitter thing. I don't like it. It feels like there are some elements or narcissism going on here that you feel somehow what you are doing is so important that everybody must know about it. Little did you know that it's totally trivial. And what's the deal w/ following celebrities and what they (or their assistants/publicists) write about. As if their lives are really that much more interesting. Go out and live your own adventures and get into trouble or do something LENGENDARY. Except for the very few people that I follow the rest is just extra noise to me.
I tried tweeting a little bit about the trades I'm getting in this morning and it's... distracting. It's not really real time, I don't have the time to put in my stop or profit target that much, so I doubt anybody will actually find it useful. I might spot some really nice trends and I'll comment on that but overall I think it's a little silly and waste of my energy.
If anybody's interested there's a site call stocktwits that a lot of people comment on there through out the day. It's really noisy and I pretty much just tune it out unless there's really nothing going on during the day. I need to find the ones that are actually worthwhile following on there.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
My Spinning Plates
Haven't been updating lately. Been pretty busy. I'm actually feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. I constantly feel a tightness in my lung, not in a way where I'm in pain or anything wrong with me physically. It's probably just that I'm constantly thinking about the business and trading. Not to say that I've never had to worry about money, but I've never felt monetary pressure like this before. Plus we're building a pool right now, which estimate is about $70k that will most likely end up in the 6 figure area in my opinion.
I really should be doing a better job at managing this, after having gone through Dale Carnegie training and all that. In fact, I was so out of whack and not myself I called up JT for lunch. I kind of wanted someone that have no idea what I do and just chat for a bit. I'm not sure how to describe what I'm going through. The best analogy I can come up with was the circus act you see where they spinning many plates on a stick. Under the optimal condition, everything would be spinning and you just have to occasionally walk over to a plate and give it a little extra spin. Right now if feels like as if all of my plates are wobbling and about to come crashing down.
Trading hasn't been that well either. The volume is pitiful. On top of that I think I'm probably trying to make up for lost time and trading much bigger for the hours that I'm actually trading. It's just really hard to focus, at least for me, to take yourself away from the market for a while and then expect to jump back in and be completely in tune and able to read what the market is telling you. I've adjusted to trading a lot less and much smaller position size and it's gotten better.
I tend to have these little Mik Matusow-esque blow-ups. If I'm trading that entire day, I usually just do what I do and be up maybe a thousand dollars at the end of the day, give and take a few hundred. But from time to time, seems like prior to the close I'd jump ahead of the volume and might get whipped out or take a loser on a big size and just lose my mind from that point on where I feel like I need to make that money back and revenge trade or just not thinking clearly at all and getting into trades w/out clear rational reasoning and risk/reward behind it.
Expensive lesson... I really just need to leave all the baggage at the door if I'm going in to trade and stick to my trading style. We hear about some of the people that swings really big size here and in reality it's probably just a small minority of the traders and totally not representative of how people trade here. It's funny that when I feel the need to make money or when I'm trading to MAKE money that's exactly when I don't do well... I know it almost feels illogical but when I'm put myself in the position where I'm just looking for my set ups and not caring if I make money or not that's when I'm seeing the market well. That's when I actually make money. This echoes a little bit of what Mark Douglas writes about in his book I think.
I'm going to Dallas tomorrow to meet one of our customers. They represent about 20% of our sales revenue. I need to review some sales stuff and prepare questions and stuff for the meeting tomorrow.
I really should be doing a better job at managing this, after having gone through Dale Carnegie training and all that. In fact, I was so out of whack and not myself I called up JT for lunch. I kind of wanted someone that have no idea what I do and just chat for a bit. I'm not sure how to describe what I'm going through. The best analogy I can come up with was the circus act you see where they spinning many plates on a stick. Under the optimal condition, everything would be spinning and you just have to occasionally walk over to a plate and give it a little extra spin. Right now if feels like as if all of my plates are wobbling and about to come crashing down.
Trading hasn't been that well either. The volume is pitiful. On top of that I think I'm probably trying to make up for lost time and trading much bigger for the hours that I'm actually trading. It's just really hard to focus, at least for me, to take yourself away from the market for a while and then expect to jump back in and be completely in tune and able to read what the market is telling you. I've adjusted to trading a lot less and much smaller position size and it's gotten better.
I tend to have these little Mik Matusow-esque blow-ups. If I'm trading that entire day, I usually just do what I do and be up maybe a thousand dollars at the end of the day, give and take a few hundred. But from time to time, seems like prior to the close I'd jump ahead of the volume and might get whipped out or take a loser on a big size and just lose my mind from that point on where I feel like I need to make that money back and revenge trade or just not thinking clearly at all and getting into trades w/out clear rational reasoning and risk/reward behind it.
Expensive lesson... I really just need to leave all the baggage at the door if I'm going in to trade and stick to my trading style. We hear about some of the people that swings really big size here and in reality it's probably just a small minority of the traders and totally not representative of how people trade here. It's funny that when I feel the need to make money or when I'm trading to MAKE money that's exactly when I don't do well... I know it almost feels illogical but when I'm put myself in the position where I'm just looking for my set ups and not caring if I make money or not that's when I'm seeing the market well. That's when I actually make money. This echoes a little bit of what Mark Douglas writes about in his book I think.
I'm going to Dallas tomorrow to meet one of our customers. They represent about 20% of our sales revenue. I need to review some sales stuff and prepare questions and stuff for the meeting tomorrow.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
My Omelet
The trip to Seattle was awesome. I ate so much. Thanks to all the walking I did around the UW campus and Discovery Park I think I only gained a few lbs. Prior to the trip I think I spent around 6-9 hrs on Yelp and different websites to research food places and I'm really glad it paid off. There are a lot of different specialty food shops around Pike Market for cheese and dessert stuff. If anybody wants recommendations feel free to drop me a line.
The main event for the heavy weight bout was me vs. the 12-egg omelet. Beth's Cafe serves four different kinds of omelet: veggie, American, bacon, and the southwestern exposure omelet. They also serve a 6-egg variety of their omelets. Let me just tell anyone that's brave/stupid enough to try the omelet, DO NOT get the southwestern exposure omelet. This happens to be the one Adam Richman ordered on the show Man v. Food as well, but that's not why I ordered it. I saw that it had chili and salsa and I thought the spiciness would help my appetite, but I totally did not consider the fact that chili has BEANS in it, which makes it extra filling.
I gotta say, I had my doubts going in whether I could actually finish this. I know I could eat, but I'm no competitve eater. My friends weren't really helpful either and filling me w/ negative thoughts. When they finally bring this monstrocity out on a f-ing PIZZA PAN, I didn't even know where to start eating.
My friend and I actually talked strategy a little bit on our bus ride over to Aurora Village. Laugh all you want about how much of a dork we are, but it really helped. We debated a little bit whether to eat it really fast or pace myself. The omelet comes with some toast and hash so we decided that I should finish the toast and hash first since I don't like it as much. Well, the hash is buried underneath the omelet so I decided to change strategy and just mix everything all together.
I inhaled the four pieces of toast and cut my omelet into 4th's. I blew through the first half great, no problem at all. Then the grease from the hash, plus the sour cream and all the beans just slowly to trigger my gag reflex. Each bite was becoming more and more difficult to swallow. I mixed the remaining omelet and has together and then divide them down into 4th's again. And I think I did this one more time when I find it hard to slide the food down my throat again. Somehow the last fourth really wasn't all that bad... I guess I just hit a wall.
You know, when I watched the show I was wondering why Adam quit like a little girl with only maybe 3 or 4 bites left and maybe the producers had something to do with him throwing in the towel. I know now what kind of pain he was in. I mean, damn... that was some serious work. All that chewing and at one point I had to try to trick myself and think happy thoughts. But hey, I finished it, he didn't. Jason > omelet > Adam Richman.
The main event for the heavy weight bout was me vs. the 12-egg omelet. Beth's Cafe serves four different kinds of omelet: veggie, American, bacon, and the southwestern exposure omelet. They also serve a 6-egg variety of their omelets. Let me just tell anyone that's brave/stupid enough to try the omelet, DO NOT get the southwestern exposure omelet. This happens to be the one Adam Richman ordered on the show Man v. Food as well, but that's not why I ordered it. I saw that it had chili and salsa and I thought the spiciness would help my appetite, but I totally did not consider the fact that chili has BEANS in it, which makes it extra filling.
I gotta say, I had my doubts going in whether I could actually finish this. I know I could eat, but I'm no competitve eater. My friends weren't really helpful either and filling me w/ negative thoughts. When they finally bring this monstrocity out on a f-ing PIZZA PAN, I didn't even know where to start eating.
My friend and I actually talked strategy a little bit on our bus ride over to Aurora Village. Laugh all you want about how much of a dork we are, but it really helped. We debated a little bit whether to eat it really fast or pace myself. The omelet comes with some toast and hash so we decided that I should finish the toast and hash first since I don't like it as much. Well, the hash is buried underneath the omelet so I decided to change strategy and just mix everything all together.
I inhaled the four pieces of toast and cut my omelet into 4th's. I blew through the first half great, no problem at all. Then the grease from the hash, plus the sour cream and all the beans just slowly to trigger my gag reflex. Each bite was becoming more and more difficult to swallow. I mixed the remaining omelet and has together and then divide them down into 4th's again. And I think I did this one more time when I find it hard to slide the food down my throat again. Somehow the last fourth really wasn't all that bad... I guess I just hit a wall.
You know, when I watched the show I was wondering why Adam quit like a little girl with only maybe 3 or 4 bites left and maybe the producers had something to do with him throwing in the towel. I know now what kind of pain he was in. I mean, damn... that was some serious work. All that chewing and at one point I had to try to trick myself and think happy thoughts. But hey, I finished it, he didn't. Jason > omelet > Adam Richman.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
My Day at Home
Didn't trade at all today. Woke up and my throat feels extremely dry and coarse plus a little tightness in my chest. I stayed home and talk with my dad about the deal we're working on with a potential partner in Memphis. Another good chunk of time setting up some communication stuff for my parents and our wireless network. I wish technology would just work the way they're designed. It's quite frustrating at times. It feels like these technology that's suppose to make our lives easier end up creating more hassles. And what do we do? Create something else to deal w/ that new hassle which ends up complicating things even more.
Last week was actually a pretty eventful week. I got to see Rent here in Austin w/ Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal reprising their roles as Mark and Roger. Earlier that week I also went with my dad to Memphis to visit somebody we're thinking about entering into a partnership w/ and start negotiating some contracts.
Rent is definitely one of my top favorite musicals. Sure, some people might not agree with the subjects involved like homosexuality and drug usage but I think the emotional aspect of the relationships between the character is just beautiful and the music component is exactly what I expect out of a musical. It inspired other pop culture and spoofs (Ref: Lease the Musical in Team America: World Police) instead of having musicals "inspired" by other pop culture items lately like the Shrek and Dr. Seuss musical.
I remember during intermission when I saw it in NYC, this family was sitting near me and the dad was explaining to his two boys about the play. The boys looked no more than what... 12-yrs-old? I'm sure their young mind were pretty confused about why the two men or two women are kissing on stage.
I did a lot of prep work with my dad on who's going to say what so we're on the same page in front of the counter party. We talked a lot about the new project on the drive up to Memphis... it's about 10-11 hrs I think. I really think we should've taken a flight. I got to eat at Corky's as I wished. I knew it was right down the street from our meeting location. When we got there we actually got to meet the owner Don and his son. Turns out the guy we were meeting with went to school with Don when they were young in Memphis.
Corky's is really good, man! If anybody is ever in Memphis I highly recommend their tender juicy pulled pork. I tried the ribs as well. Memphis barbecue focuses on pork and dry rub while in Texas where I am it's more about beef and the sauce. I can appreciate all the spices they put into the pork, I think I just prefer the pulled pork more.
There's quite a few points to the deal and I won't bore you with that much details. We basically have another product that we have a patent on we have been trying to sell for a couple of years unsuccessfully due to lack of contacts and channels. The partner we're in talks with actually marketed the Chip Clip and couple other products. From our conversation I could tell that they were trying to sell us more on the idea of partnering up w/ them plus we have the patent. Sure, we could try to market it ourselves but it'll probably take longer and we won't sell as much. Their initial proposal was 50-50 profit split which I didn't like. I kind of feel them out to see if they'd go for something like a more commission based structure and it was obvious from their responses that was out of the question. At the end of the meeting to recap all the points my father sort of very casually and quickly agreed to the 50-50 point which I had asked him to not to agree on so easily. At the very least, save that for further discussion or even if he's ok w/ that act somewhat reluctant in order to set up leverage for other minor points in the negotiation.
That's basically what we talked about yesterday. I got on his case a little bit about leaving money on the table... but whatever, ultimately it's his decision. I still have some calculation and projections to run. If nothing else, it should boost our bottom a bit and gain valuable experience and contacts.
Last week was actually a pretty eventful week. I got to see Rent here in Austin w/ Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal reprising their roles as Mark and Roger. Earlier that week I also went with my dad to Memphis to visit somebody we're thinking about entering into a partnership w/ and start negotiating some contracts.Rent is definitely one of my top favorite musicals. Sure, some people might not agree with the subjects involved like homosexuality and drug usage but I think the emotional aspect of the relationships between the character is just beautiful and the music component is exactly what I expect out of a musical. It inspired other pop culture and spoofs (Ref: Lease the Musical in Team America: World Police) instead of having musicals "inspired" by other pop culture items lately like the Shrek and Dr. Seuss musical.
I remember during intermission when I saw it in NYC, this family was sitting near me and the dad was explaining to his two boys about the play. The boys looked no more than what... 12-yrs-old? I'm sure their young mind were pretty confused about why the two men or two women are kissing on stage.
I did a lot of prep work with my dad on who's going to say what so we're on the same page in front of the counter party. We talked a lot about the new project on the drive up to Memphis... it's about 10-11 hrs I think. I really think we should've taken a flight. I got to eat at Corky's as I wished. I knew it was right down the street from our meeting location. When we got there we actually got to meet the owner Don and his son. Turns out the guy we were meeting with went to school with Don when they were young in Memphis.
Corky's is really good, man! If anybody is ever in Memphis I highly recommend their tender juicy pulled pork. I tried the ribs as well. Memphis barbecue focuses on pork and dry rub while in Texas where I am it's more about beef and the sauce. I can appreciate all the spices they put into the pork, I think I just prefer the pulled pork more.There's quite a few points to the deal and I won't bore you with that much details. We basically have another product that we have a patent on we have been trying to sell for a couple of years unsuccessfully due to lack of contacts and channels. The partner we're in talks with actually marketed the Chip Clip and couple other products. From our conversation I could tell that they were trying to sell us more on the idea of partnering up w/ them plus we have the patent. Sure, we could try to market it ourselves but it'll probably take longer and we won't sell as much. Their initial proposal was 50-50 profit split which I didn't like. I kind of feel them out to see if they'd go for something like a more commission based structure and it was obvious from their responses that was out of the question. At the end of the meeting to recap all the points my father sort of very casually and quickly agreed to the 50-50 point which I had asked him to not to agree on so easily. At the very least, save that for further discussion or even if he's ok w/ that act somewhat reluctant in order to set up leverage for other minor points in the negotiation.
That's basically what we talked about yesterday. I got on his case a little bit about leaving money on the table... but whatever, ultimately it's his decision. I still have some calculation and projections to run. If nothing else, it should boost our bottom a bit and gain valuable experience and contacts.
Monday, May 18, 2009
My Flight...
Oh... and I just found out that Meiko is playing in Seattle @ The Crocodile the same day I leave. I leave in the afternoon and she doesn't play until at night. Too bad I can't change my flights by just snapping my fingers. If I had known though I definitely would've planned around it. I have to say though, my crush for Meiko has waned quite a bit. Maybe it'll get back up there when she put out a second album. She also does the vocal for the last track of The Crystal Method's latest album called "Falling Hard," which I think is pretty cool.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
My Emerald City
I'm heading to Seattle this coming weekend for Memorial Day. I'm really excited! Seattle is one of the few cool cities I've never been to before. My parents went with my sister a few years ago I think... I think I had to work so I didn't go w/ them. Honestly, nothing against my folks, but they're pretty boring.
God knows how many hours I've spent on Yelp looking at different restaurants and what not; probably somewhere in the 6-8 hours ballpark. I'm going w/my friend Craig and we're staying downtown close to Pike Market. I have a feeling that by the time we depart Seattle there's going to be a food shortage.
We're going to a Mariners game, and I'm going to be taking on the 12-egg omelet challenge @ Beth's cafe. I also kind of want to explore the UW area, or U-District I guess is what the local calls it. Check out Discovery Park and the Ballard/Fremont neighborhood and their Sunday markets. I want to try abalone somewhere. I don't think I'll be doing the whole museum thing that much this trip or even bother with the Space Needle. I have a lot of restaurants and little dessert or snack shops planned out but I'll report about the ones I actually went to when I get back. I'm already hitting the gym extra hard this week in preparation for all the eating coming up.
This 12-egg omelet... it doesn't look that big, but I'm kind of scared. Pray for me that I defeat this culinary beast!
God knows how many hours I've spent on Yelp looking at different restaurants and what not; probably somewhere in the 6-8 hours ballpark. I'm going w/my friend Craig and we're staying downtown close to Pike Market. I have a feeling that by the time we depart Seattle there's going to be a food shortage.
We're going to a Mariners game, and I'm going to be taking on the 12-egg omelet challenge @ Beth's cafe. I also kind of want to explore the UW area, or U-District I guess is what the local calls it. Check out Discovery Park and the Ballard/Fremont neighborhood and their Sunday markets. I want to try abalone somewhere. I don't think I'll be doing the whole museum thing that much this trip or even bother with the Space Needle. I have a lot of restaurants and little dessert or snack shops planned out but I'll report about the ones I actually went to when I get back. I'm already hitting the gym extra hard this week in preparation for all the eating coming up.
This 12-egg omelet... it doesn't look that big, but I'm kind of scared. Pray for me that I defeat this culinary beast!
Friday, May 8, 2009
My New Shop
I'm set up and ready to go @ Assent now. I've been away too long and I was getting itchy fingers, plus I wanted to trade after the stress test result... although I figure that it might just turn out to be a big non-event, that all this window dressing has already been priced in. Oh well, I want to at least take care of this before heading to Memphis next week w/ my dad to discuss a partnership contract.
There are some areas it's just the same as Kershner and some areas w/ pretty dramatic differences. It took me over the span of like two days to get up to speed where I'm comfortable w/ everything. It really could've been accomplished in a morning or afternoon but Assent only has one tech guy w/ multiple duties. Plus there are other new people starting (some ex-KTG traders) so he really couldn't spend too much time or attention with me.
Once I'm proficient with the new system I'll write a comparison between the two shop for the benefit of the readers. I'm not sure if this will burn any major bridges back at KTG. I hope it won't. And again, I hope this is only part-time and temporary anyway.
There are some areas it's just the same as Kershner and some areas w/ pretty dramatic differences. It took me over the span of like two days to get up to speed where I'm comfortable w/ everything. It really could've been accomplished in a morning or afternoon but Assent only has one tech guy w/ multiple duties. Plus there are other new people starting (some ex-KTG traders) so he really couldn't spend too much time or attention with me.
Once I'm proficient with the new system I'll write a comparison between the two shop for the benefit of the readers. I'm not sure if this will burn any major bridges back at KTG. I hope it won't. And again, I hope this is only part-time and temporary anyway.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
My Rumor Mill
Man, I was getting text messages last week the very next day I left my position about me setting up shop at our competitor, Assent. The truth is, I have filed for some paperwork but I have not put a deposit down and funded my account just because I still wasn't sure how much trading I'll be doing and I couldn't quite go through with the decision to switch. I do have some guilt as if I'm betraying the team if I do switch. It feels as if I stabbed my brother in the back.
Andy had proposed a new structure to the guys on the older commission plan to increase their commission rate, an added infrastructure fee, and I think lower split? I don't remember that part. It didn't really involve me since I was on TAC plan so I didn't pay attention to the great details. At least within the discussion in my team the move didn't make too much sense. The purpose was so the company can have a higher margin but chances are we'll lose a few of the top traders that are getting the higher split, which would negate the savings/margin the company would get from the move.
Sure enough, that very same week two very major traders, one that's definitely in the top 3 P/L wise and the other is probably somewhere in the top 10 but has many HP traders under him, left the company. From my understanding, Andy made an announcement late last week to switch back to the old compensation plan.
I'm not going to doubt Andy. I believe that entrepreneurs and artists do see the world a little differently. He probably sees something with the whole China move. We knew we weren't going to be able to trade A shares but the plan is to have access to Japan and Hong Kong. I know at least for me I was getting tired of having more than half of my profits go to fund this project and the number of employees we have working in the back offices. It was one thing if we were seeing promising results but I can't even plot VWAP on my charts or overlay multiple stocks on one chart to compare price % movement. Sometimes if I have an order sitting out for a position I'm in but my stop gets triggered before that all of my special programmed keys would get fried, to which they have yet to be able to find a solution for and it'll cost me some serious money sometimes.
I know some of the employees in different departments and a good handful of them provide some real value. I love the pit guys and the quant team, but there's a ton of people, especially the new hires that I have no idea what they do and I know we're the ones funding their paycheck and 401(k). It just didn't sit very well with me the longer I think about it
There are many reasons why I left and the higher payout at Assent is only one of the factors (and it's not the main one despite what the rumor is saying). If I was going to be trading part-time, I knew I didn't want to take such a small slice of the pie.
Andy had proposed a new structure to the guys on the older commission plan to increase their commission rate, an added infrastructure fee, and I think lower split? I don't remember that part. It didn't really involve me since I was on TAC plan so I didn't pay attention to the great details. At least within the discussion in my team the move didn't make too much sense. The purpose was so the company can have a higher margin but chances are we'll lose a few of the top traders that are getting the higher split, which would negate the savings/margin the company would get from the move.
Sure enough, that very same week two very major traders, one that's definitely in the top 3 P/L wise and the other is probably somewhere in the top 10 but has many HP traders under him, left the company. From my understanding, Andy made an announcement late last week to switch back to the old compensation plan.
I'm not going to doubt Andy. I believe that entrepreneurs and artists do see the world a little differently. He probably sees something with the whole China move. We knew we weren't going to be able to trade A shares but the plan is to have access to Japan and Hong Kong. I know at least for me I was getting tired of having more than half of my profits go to fund this project and the number of employees we have working in the back offices. It was one thing if we were seeing promising results but I can't even plot VWAP on my charts or overlay multiple stocks on one chart to compare price % movement. Sometimes if I have an order sitting out for a position I'm in but my stop gets triggered before that all of my special programmed keys would get fried, to which they have yet to be able to find a solution for and it'll cost me some serious money sometimes.
I know some of the employees in different departments and a good handful of them provide some real value. I love the pit guys and the quant team, but there's a ton of people, especially the new hires that I have no idea what they do and I know we're the ones funding their paycheck and 401(k). It just didn't sit very well with me the longer I think about it
There are many reasons why I left and the higher payout at Assent is only one of the factors (and it's not the main one despite what the rumor is saying). If I was going to be trading part-time, I knew I didn't want to take such a small slice of the pie.
My Outrage
So I'm up, can't really sleep... I'm operating on Asia time more these days. I was flipping through the TV and I saw back to back infomercials that just makes me sick. The first was for Investools and the second was for Optionetics. I think what was interesting enough for me to blog about was that this occupied back to back 30-minute slots on ABC from 2:00am to 3:00am.
I knew these ads have always been out there. Honestly, I don't know what to say to you if you truly believe that you can pay $2,000 or $3,000 and they'll tell you everything you need to know to trade equities or options successful in a 2-day 2-hour seminar or some variation of that format. You're just a little too gullible or maybe your mom didn't raise you right. You gotta take everything they say in the ad w/ some salt right? That was my first thought.
Second thought: interesting they would pitch these ads at this time! Does this signal the American people's appetite for risk? My impression is that you tend to see these ads during bull markets, when the market is white hot. Who could blame them? We have been in a pretty bullish run here. Now the big question is: is this a contrarian indicator? You probably have noticed the more and more frequent ads for gold like Cash 4 Gold. For crying out loud they ran one during the SUPER BOWL! I consider these things to be contrarian indicators. Gold was very bullish during that brief time frame, yes. But after it made a "sort of" double top late February where it didn't break the previous high made last March and started making lower highs you knew the gig was up.
There was another case and this one had to deal w/ real estate. Yup, you've seen the ads about how to make money from foreclosure and what not. Well, I thought it was a little ridiculous when a company took ads out on THE RADIO. I thought we'd find, if nothing else, at least a temporary bottom in housing.
So, does this mean that stocks are overbought? Maybe a little. I've been out of the game a little... more research is needed on this.
Final thought: I was disgusted at these ads, especially the 2nd one on options. The main reason was that they played up so much the leverage factor in options, like how a stock going in your direction can make you 5 times the earning while taking on only limited risk. This is true, I won't debate that. My belief is that most novice had no idea the true risk they're taking on or even what to do if their options get exercised (even though percentage wise most options positions are closed out before expiration). Anybody that tells me he can teach somebody in 2 or 4 hours how to trade confidently and profitably is a liar. And yes, I will tell him that straight to his face. Right after I kick him in the nads. Leveraging was the exact reason how we not just shot ourselves in the foot but in the face or whatever vital organs you deem fit in this analogy. And now you're encouraging individual investors to go out and leverage the hell out of this. Hey, take out yet another mortgage if necessary right?
This is just dumber than the kid you will have with your cousin from Oklahoma.
I knew these ads have always been out there. Honestly, I don't know what to say to you if you truly believe that you can pay $2,000 or $3,000 and they'll tell you everything you need to know to trade equities or options successful in a 2-day 2-hour seminar or some variation of that format. You're just a little too gullible or maybe your mom didn't raise you right. You gotta take everything they say in the ad w/ some salt right? That was my first thought.
Second thought: interesting they would pitch these ads at this time! Does this signal the American people's appetite for risk? My impression is that you tend to see these ads during bull markets, when the market is white hot. Who could blame them? We have been in a pretty bullish run here. Now the big question is: is this a contrarian indicator? You probably have noticed the more and more frequent ads for gold like Cash 4 Gold. For crying out loud they ran one during the SUPER BOWL! I consider these things to be contrarian indicators. Gold was very bullish during that brief time frame, yes. But after it made a "sort of" double top late February where it didn't break the previous high made last March and started making lower highs you knew the gig was up.
There was another case and this one had to deal w/ real estate. Yup, you've seen the ads about how to make money from foreclosure and what not. Well, I thought it was a little ridiculous when a company took ads out on THE RADIO. I thought we'd find, if nothing else, at least a temporary bottom in housing.
So, does this mean that stocks are overbought? Maybe a little. I've been out of the game a little... more research is needed on this.
Final thought: I was disgusted at these ads, especially the 2nd one on options. The main reason was that they played up so much the leverage factor in options, like how a stock going in your direction can make you 5 times the earning while taking on only limited risk. This is true, I won't debate that. My belief is that most novice had no idea the true risk they're taking on or even what to do if their options get exercised (even though percentage wise most options positions are closed out before expiration). Anybody that tells me he can teach somebody in 2 or 4 hours how to trade confidently and profitably is a liar. And yes, I will tell him that straight to his face. Right after I kick him in the nads. Leveraging was the exact reason how we not just shot ourselves in the foot but in the face or whatever vital organs you deem fit in this analogy. And now you're encouraging individual investors to go out and leverage the hell out of this. Hey, take out yet another mortgage if necessary right?
This is just dumber than the kid you will have with your cousin from Oklahoma.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
My Departure
I left my position on Monday. Got in after lunch and traded for a little bit. Up a few hundred bucks and basically decided right then that was that, final answer. Made the announcement to the team and handed in my key card. I've been going back and forth for the greater part of April even long before I made my previous post. It didn't quite hit me until the moment I took the keycard out of my wallet that this really is it. The point of no return.
There are so many factors at play here and maybe I'm making things more complicated than they are but I'll try to address them here, including some of the comments from the previous post.
Did I want to walk away from trading and Kershner? No. God forbid that somebody actually loves what they do for a living and the people they work with. It's exactly because of that complicated the decision process for me I think. There's this book by Malcolm Gladwell that is on my reading list (I'm reading Malcolm's Blink right now) called Outliers: The Story of Success, where he uses examples like Bill Gates and at one point I know he said that before becoming an expert you need to put in like 10,000 hours of practice or work. If you do the math, there are 6.5 trading hours a day, not counting pre and post-market action and 250 trading days to a year, 10,000 hours is the equivalent of 6.15 years. I still got a ways to go. I've made my decision based on current situation, current facts with the opportunity potential. It's not that I'm obligated to help out mom and pop. I could've chosen to be like my sister and do my own thing.
The main reason is the fact that my parents have entrusted in me to take the family business to the next level. We have a patent on one of our products and that's helped us tremendously for quite a few years now. Right now just seems like a good transition point and critical for us to position ourselves for years to come. I suppose it's because of the economy but there are quite a few changes in personnel in our clients and my dad feels this is a good time to introduce me to the new blood. We also wanted to solidify our relationships before the patent expires... not for close to another decade I think. Meanwhile when we still have this competitive advantage we want to grow into other markets like in Europe. A family friend works for the government and has been stationed outside of the country like in South America and currently he is in Saudi I believe. We're planning to do Christmas in the middle east this year and I'm sure we'll try to gain some contacts and pre-approach while we're there as well.
To me, this is exciting. I've been working for my dad in some capacity since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. There's no child labor law in Taiwan when we were living there, heh. From just sweeping the floor to being on call for the night shift; from menial repetitive jobs on the assembly line to reviewing contracts and handling accounts receivable/payable I've seem and involved in every process of the business. There are some greater details that my parents need to bring me up to speed on before they fully let go the reins but I envision us doing 2 or 3 times the business we've been doing.
There are certain facts my parents purposely withheld from my sister and me as we were growing up. They never wanted us to know how poorly or well we were doing as a family. God bless them for that. I know at least on two difference occasions we had to move b/c of rent issues that I was not even aware of until I was in college. I think they thought we might have self-esteem issues if we knew how poorly we were doing early on and lose our work ethics if we found out how much money we were actually making. I'll be honest with you, I still don't know exactly what our yearly revenue and profit numbers are like. I only have an idea or ballpark figure. Even if I do obviously I wouldn't be disclosing it here. They don't want me to think that I'm set for life and that the biz would just be here for me when I graduate and they'll just hand it over to me. They've even gone as far as to discourage me the idea of working full time helping my dad. But now everybody in the family believe that I'm the best person to take it to where we want to go.
I appreciation the time people actually takes to read what's on my mind. My impression is that people range from having no idea about trading/Kershner to 10+ years of trading experience or actually works @ Kershner right now. There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes that even us normal traders like me don't know about. I've been blessed that my coach is on Trader Council and would share with us information that might not be as readily available on the floor, but nothing that's classified. All that is another post at another time. I think mainly you continue to read this because you don't fully understand. Basically situations changed quite a bit with me and at Kershner from two years ago when I joined the firm.
Bottom line: the market is going to stay open and the opportunities and timing with the family business would not come again. I do have to take into account that the people who left comments on the previous post is somebody that just started at Kershner and somebody that didn't get a position. I still do very much love trading and I don't want to influence anybody's decision or pursuit of their passion just b/c of my situation. There's only 24 hours in a day and something's gotta give.
There are so many factors at play here and maybe I'm making things more complicated than they are but I'll try to address them here, including some of the comments from the previous post.
Did I want to walk away from trading and Kershner? No. God forbid that somebody actually loves what they do for a living and the people they work with. It's exactly because of that complicated the decision process for me I think. There's this book by Malcolm Gladwell that is on my reading list (I'm reading Malcolm's Blink right now) called Outliers: The Story of Success, where he uses examples like Bill Gates and at one point I know he said that before becoming an expert you need to put in like 10,000 hours of practice or work. If you do the math, there are 6.5 trading hours a day, not counting pre and post-market action and 250 trading days to a year, 10,000 hours is the equivalent of 6.15 years. I still got a ways to go. I've made my decision based on current situation, current facts with the opportunity potential. It's not that I'm obligated to help out mom and pop. I could've chosen to be like my sister and do my own thing.
The main reason is the fact that my parents have entrusted in me to take the family business to the next level. We have a patent on one of our products and that's helped us tremendously for quite a few years now. Right now just seems like a good transition point and critical for us to position ourselves for years to come. I suppose it's because of the economy but there are quite a few changes in personnel in our clients and my dad feels this is a good time to introduce me to the new blood. We also wanted to solidify our relationships before the patent expires... not for close to another decade I think. Meanwhile when we still have this competitive advantage we want to grow into other markets like in Europe. A family friend works for the government and has been stationed outside of the country like in South America and currently he is in Saudi I believe. We're planning to do Christmas in the middle east this year and I'm sure we'll try to gain some contacts and pre-approach while we're there as well.
To me, this is exciting. I've been working for my dad in some capacity since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. There's no child labor law in Taiwan when we were living there, heh. From just sweeping the floor to being on call for the night shift; from menial repetitive jobs on the assembly line to reviewing contracts and handling accounts receivable/payable I've seem and involved in every process of the business. There are some greater details that my parents need to bring me up to speed on before they fully let go the reins but I envision us doing 2 or 3 times the business we've been doing.
There are certain facts my parents purposely withheld from my sister and me as we were growing up. They never wanted us to know how poorly or well we were doing as a family. God bless them for that. I know at least on two difference occasions we had to move b/c of rent issues that I was not even aware of until I was in college. I think they thought we might have self-esteem issues if we knew how poorly we were doing early on and lose our work ethics if we found out how much money we were actually making. I'll be honest with you, I still don't know exactly what our yearly revenue and profit numbers are like. I only have an idea or ballpark figure. Even if I do obviously I wouldn't be disclosing it here. They don't want me to think that I'm set for life and that the biz would just be here for me when I graduate and they'll just hand it over to me. They've even gone as far as to discourage me the idea of working full time helping my dad. But now everybody in the family believe that I'm the best person to take it to where we want to go.
I appreciation the time people actually takes to read what's on my mind. My impression is that people range from having no idea about trading/Kershner to 10+ years of trading experience or actually works @ Kershner right now. There are a lot of things happening behind the scenes that even us normal traders like me don't know about. I've been blessed that my coach is on Trader Council and would share with us information that might not be as readily available on the floor, but nothing that's classified. All that is another post at another time. I think mainly you continue to read this because you don't fully understand. Basically situations changed quite a bit with me and at Kershner from two years ago when I joined the firm.
Bottom line: the market is going to stay open and the opportunities and timing with the family business would not come again. I do have to take into account that the people who left comments on the previous post is somebody that just started at Kershner and somebody that didn't get a position. I still do very much love trading and I don't want to influence anybody's decision or pursuit of their passion just b/c of my situation. There's only 24 hours in a day and something's gotta give.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
My Big Decision
I'm indecisive. I have grown to accept that about me. As my sister, who reads into astrology probably more than she should, explains to me that it's all part of the territory w/ Libras. Just like a scale, we like to weigh the both sides thoroughly before reaching a conclusion. You'd think that would be a problem as a trader who has to make split second decisions all the time. Through my life experience though, it seems that I only have problems with decisions that affect me for more than 24 hrs. I have no problems picking out what to wear in the morning. If it looks bad I'm wearing something different anyway the next day. However, I've moved into the new house for almost 6 months and I still have tons of pictures and paintings that I have not hung up yet.
Many times people ask me what my career or life plans are and I usually say something about how moving from Taiwan to a podunk town in Kansas and eventually to Austin really has taught me that life never turns out quite how you plan it. I actually won a few competitions talking about this experience in Toastmasters, in which I also threw in a little line from Forrest Gump. You know, the one about chocolates. I'll also say that I know a decision has to be made at some point down the line whether I want to blaze my own trail or I want to take over for my dad. Being the type A or overachiever that I am I know I will want to try to do both, but life has taught me that something will have to take a backseat. I know at some point I want to go back to school for my MBA and what I study or where I want to go to school depends on this decision as well. At the moment I'm perfectly happy being a trader, just learning as much as I can about trading and keep on improving everyday. Funny that I probably said that just two weeks ago while chatting w/ an HP.
I believe that time has come.
With my dad out of the country and tax deadline approaching I had to devote a lot more time to the family business and I got a taste of what it would be like if I try to do both jobs. Maybe I've moved my own time table up but I figure the decision has gotta be made at some point. Plus there are a few transitions at some of our clients as well. The CEO of one of our clients passed away recently and a buyer has retired. I think my dad sees this as a good time to start hanging over the torch as well. We have a few products we want to bring on line and is working with another company in Memphis to enter into a partnership in the U.S. and we also want to sell in Europe. Maybe he think I'll do a better job or he's just too damn tired but he wants me to take the lead on this.
There are certain things I would do differently or how things should be done by the way we were taught in the business school. There are a few things my dad could be doing better when it comes to his taxes and honestly I don't think we really need our accountant except on a more consultative or audit role.
I believe there will be a time where I can trade full/part time and run the business effectively, although I know it'll take a lot more time and concentration. For the short run though I don't see that happening. We could be very busy all the way through August and then there's a big trade show that we go to every fall around the end of October/start of November and busy again through the end of the year. At the time being, I don't mind taking a little break from trading... especially with the volume being so pitiful.
The first question I had to answer for myself was that if I had to pick, which one would be first: the family business or trading? And I chose the family business, which leads to the troubling part for me. Do I trade at all? If I'm only trading part-time, is Kershner still the right place for me? Trading won't be a priority for me anymore and I'll be taking a cut of a pie that's gonna be significantly smaller if I'm not trading full-time. If I don't trade at Kershner, where would I go? Use my TD Ameritrade account? Go to Assent? What about the relationships I've formed during my tenure? I know it's just me, but I tend to put more value on relationships than most people. It's not simply just a business decision or I have to do what's best for me. It's never been that simple for me. Could I just pack up and leave everything behind to jump ship over to our competitor? That doesn't seem right to me after all the time and effort people have put into me and knowing that I won't get that team environment over at Assent.
I don't know. I'm close to the point where I can be a coach and I know Murphy would back me in a second. It would be a completely different scenario if I already had a few guys under me. It's not that I'm second guessing myself; it's just hard that I actually do like my job and the people I work with. At the moment, nothing is for certain yet... but I'm definitely leaning towards one way.
Many times people ask me what my career or life plans are and I usually say something about how moving from Taiwan to a podunk town in Kansas and eventually to Austin really has taught me that life never turns out quite how you plan it. I actually won a few competitions talking about this experience in Toastmasters, in which I also threw in a little line from Forrest Gump. You know, the one about chocolates. I'll also say that I know a decision has to be made at some point down the line whether I want to blaze my own trail or I want to take over for my dad. Being the type A or overachiever that I am I know I will want to try to do both, but life has taught me that something will have to take a backseat. I know at some point I want to go back to school for my MBA and what I study or where I want to go to school depends on this decision as well. At the moment I'm perfectly happy being a trader, just learning as much as I can about trading and keep on improving everyday. Funny that I probably said that just two weeks ago while chatting w/ an HP.
I believe that time has come.
With my dad out of the country and tax deadline approaching I had to devote a lot more time to the family business and I got a taste of what it would be like if I try to do both jobs. Maybe I've moved my own time table up but I figure the decision has gotta be made at some point. Plus there are a few transitions at some of our clients as well. The CEO of one of our clients passed away recently and a buyer has retired. I think my dad sees this as a good time to start hanging over the torch as well. We have a few products we want to bring on line and is working with another company in Memphis to enter into a partnership in the U.S. and we also want to sell in Europe. Maybe he think I'll do a better job or he's just too damn tired but he wants me to take the lead on this.
There are certain things I would do differently or how things should be done by the way we were taught in the business school. There are a few things my dad could be doing better when it comes to his taxes and honestly I don't think we really need our accountant except on a more consultative or audit role.
I believe there will be a time where I can trade full/part time and run the business effectively, although I know it'll take a lot more time and concentration. For the short run though I don't see that happening. We could be very busy all the way through August and then there's a big trade show that we go to every fall around the end of October/start of November and busy again through the end of the year. At the time being, I don't mind taking a little break from trading... especially with the volume being so pitiful.
The first question I had to answer for myself was that if I had to pick, which one would be first: the family business or trading? And I chose the family business, which leads to the troubling part for me. Do I trade at all? If I'm only trading part-time, is Kershner still the right place for me? Trading won't be a priority for me anymore and I'll be taking a cut of a pie that's gonna be significantly smaller if I'm not trading full-time. If I don't trade at Kershner, where would I go? Use my TD Ameritrade account? Go to Assent? What about the relationships I've formed during my tenure? I know it's just me, but I tend to put more value on relationships than most people. It's not simply just a business decision or I have to do what's best for me. It's never been that simple for me. Could I just pack up and leave everything behind to jump ship over to our competitor? That doesn't seem right to me after all the time and effort people have put into me and knowing that I won't get that team environment over at Assent.
I don't know. I'm close to the point where I can be a coach and I know Murphy would back me in a second. It would be a completely different scenario if I already had a few guys under me. It's not that I'm second guessing myself; it's just hard that I actually do like my job and the people I work with. At the moment, nothing is for certain yet... but I'm definitely leaning towards one way.
Monday, April 13, 2009
My Last Name
Ok, there's a lot of outrage right now about this following clip in the Asian-American community and I have to say that some of it is a little unjustified. From what I gather from the video and the longer version, Rep. Betty Brown is attempting to come up with a Bill, or solution, to problems that arises when someone's ID doesn't match with the name on the voter registration. I get that. I really do. It's also a shame to be denied your right to vote just b/c of some inconsistencies in paperwork. For ages my last name was spelled S-H-A-W instead of H-S-I-A-O while we were living in Kansas. Quite honestly, people didn't want to take the effort to learn how to pronounce it and have you correct them a few times before they actually get it. Quite honestly, I didn't like people butchering my name... you make it sound worse than finger nails on chalkboard. For those of you that cared enough to learn and remembered or even go to the extreme to know my first AND last Chinese name like my friend Andy in Arizona, God bless you.
For the record, if you drop the silent H in front of my last name, it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled. A friend of mine with the last name Liao once complained that he had the most difficult last name in the world b/c Americans are not used to seeing three vowels in a row... yeah, I think adding a silent H tops that. I joke that it's b/c Americans watch too much Wheel of Fortune all the time. I joke but there's some truth behind it about how our linguistic mind is structured.
While I was at UT I did meet someone with my last name except his family Americanized it to the Shaw version that I mentioned. At one time in my life I did contemplate doing that as well. It would make my life and practically everybody's life easier. But I didn't. B/c my last name is part of my identity. Yeah, people have trouble pronouncing it but it's me. It's my family's name. My heritage. It's as unique as the birthmark on my elbow or my huge horse size calves that sets me apart from other people.
Back to the video... would it be easier to just adopt a different name? Maybe. Kind of like how Smyth transformed into Smith? Yeah. Would it be easier just to drop that silent H in my last name? Sure. What bugs me and the only part about this that angers me is the thought (or the lack thereof) behind it. For one, it's one thing if it's just my buddy and I drinking and joking about this name change but you're talking about legislation. A law. As in, do this or some of you civil liberties will be taken away just like going to jail. On top of that, Rep. Betty Brown doesn't strike me as someone that is "worldly." By "worldly" I mean she is a senile lady who should be at Luby's for the early bird specials, playing bingo and have her license revoked by the DMV on the account that she's so damn old. In about the 1:30 or 1:40 mark in the video you hear her asking about elections in China.... um yeah, there's no elections in China. Seriously, think before you speak. Think before you propose a ridiculous bill like this.
The root of the issue for me is this: Why should it be made easier for YOU? Why don't you take the effort to learn someone's name and have the government agencies correspond to make sure everything's consistent? God forbid that it should take a little bit of effort from your part. If not ignorant, it certainly is a very selfish thought.
I leave you with this: consider the scenario if it was flipped around, that there are too many Williams, Smiths, and Browns running around where it's becoming confusing and hard to identify who's who. What would you say?
For the record, if you drop the silent H in front of my last name, it's pronounced exactly how it's spelled. A friend of mine with the last name Liao once complained that he had the most difficult last name in the world b/c Americans are not used to seeing three vowels in a row... yeah, I think adding a silent H tops that. I joke that it's b/c Americans watch too much Wheel of Fortune all the time. I joke but there's some truth behind it about how our linguistic mind is structured.
While I was at UT I did meet someone with my last name except his family Americanized it to the Shaw version that I mentioned. At one time in my life I did contemplate doing that as well. It would make my life and practically everybody's life easier. But I didn't. B/c my last name is part of my identity. Yeah, people have trouble pronouncing it but it's me. It's my family's name. My heritage. It's as unique as the birthmark on my elbow or my huge horse size calves that sets me apart from other people.
Back to the video... would it be easier to just adopt a different name? Maybe. Kind of like how Smyth transformed into Smith? Yeah. Would it be easier just to drop that silent H in my last name? Sure. What bugs me and the only part about this that angers me is the thought (or the lack thereof) behind it. For one, it's one thing if it's just my buddy and I drinking and joking about this name change but you're talking about legislation. A law. As in, do this or some of you civil liberties will be taken away just like going to jail. On top of that, Rep. Betty Brown doesn't strike me as someone that is "worldly." By "worldly" I mean she is a senile lady who should be at Luby's for the early bird specials, playing bingo and have her license revoked by the DMV on the account that she's so damn old. In about the 1:30 or 1:40 mark in the video you hear her asking about elections in China.... um yeah, there's no elections in China. Seriously, think before you speak. Think before you propose a ridiculous bill like this.
The root of the issue for me is this: Why should it be made easier for YOU? Why don't you take the effort to learn someone's name and have the government agencies correspond to make sure everything's consistent? God forbid that it should take a little bit of effort from your part. If not ignorant, it certainly is a very selfish thought.
I leave you with this: consider the scenario if it was flipped around, that there are too many Williams, Smiths, and Browns running around where it's becoming confusing and hard to identify who's who. What would you say?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
My Bad Start
April and Q2 is off to a bad start. I'm letting a lot of things slip and sizing inappropriately and not listening to my stops. That's really all there is to it. I'm going to trade probably 200 share lots for a while until I get my head screwed back on right. It sucks that I gave back so much of my March profits but after having that kind of month gives me confidence that I can dig myself out again. I'm trying not to think about monetized goals and the only expectation is to make good trades as in getting and getting out as I planned.
Our team is doing this thing where one person has to do a presentation a week and this week was my turn. I did it on Trading in the Zone, which I read last August. It's pretty cool to go back and review some of the stuff. Also, judging by the comments I get the feeling that it was the author Mark Douglas that's been writing them. I dunno, just all this talk about expectations and the language or writing style that was used reminds me a lot of the book. Hey, like I said, if someone out there wants to help me become a better trader I am all for it.
I do have to give myself credit and pat myself on the back more often. I've come a long way and is much better than a year before. I'd say that I need to love myself more but I'm up to three times a day as it is (no, that's not true. I just couldn't help myself to make a joke that's all).
Gavin DeGraw concert on Wednesday night! I'm taking Cancer Girl to the show since this is the only show in the foreseeable future playing at The Parish that I think she'd like. Not gonna lie man, there are some cool stuff happening this month. White Denim plays on the 17th and the finals for the B-Boy competition will be on the 26th.
Our team is doing this thing where one person has to do a presentation a week and this week was my turn. I did it on Trading in the Zone, which I read last August. It's pretty cool to go back and review some of the stuff. Also, judging by the comments I get the feeling that it was the author Mark Douglas that's been writing them. I dunno, just all this talk about expectations and the language or writing style that was used reminds me a lot of the book. Hey, like I said, if someone out there wants to help me become a better trader I am all for it.
I do have to give myself credit and pat myself on the back more often. I've come a long way and is much better than a year before. I'd say that I need to love myself more but I'm up to three times a day as it is (no, that's not true. I just couldn't help myself to make a joke that's all).
Gavin DeGraw concert on Wednesday night! I'm taking Cancer Girl to the show since this is the only show in the foreseeable future playing at The Parish that I think she'd like. Not gonna lie man, there are some cool stuff happening this month. White Denim plays on the 17th and the finals for the B-Boy competition will be on the 26th.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
My Training, Part III
I'm separating this segment of the training out into yet another section since it was getting a little long. Brett just had a new book published on becoming your own trading coach. We got a Reader's Digest version I'm sure since the title of the books said "101 Lessons." Get it here! I know we already have at least 3 copies or so floating around the trading floor.
Five Best Practices for Self-Coaching
Using Brief Therapy Techniques (short term techniques to change your thoughts)
#1: Diffuse Triggers Through Exposure
#2: Shifting States
#3: Cognitive Restructuring
#4: Solution Focus
Training as the Best Therapy
Five Best Practices for Self-Coaching
- Break Trading Down into Components - such as idea generation, execution (how much heat you take on before the trade goes your way), and managing the trade. Think of it as a process
- Evaluate Performance w/ Metrics - like holding time for winning trades vs losing trades
- Identify Strengths and Weaknesses - profit by time of day and trade smaller during less profitable time
- Set Realistic Goals for Development - Set yourself up for success and have goals for each day that's achievable. You want to have non-monetary and controllable goals. Expose yourself as a success and increase your well-being. Ask yourself: what did I do right yesterday that I can continue today and what didn't I do well. Everyday is a learning experience. Think of yourself as a learning machine.
Using Brief Therapy Techniques (short term techniques to change your thoughts)
- Change by doing
- Targeted change
- Corrective experiences
- Rehearsal as key - until it becomes a part of you
#1: Diffuse Triggers Through Exposure
- Deconditioning emotional triggers - how to stay relaxed
- Creating hierarchies
- Using imaginal and in-vivo exposure
- Conducting intensive rehearsals - Slow down and control your breathing. Practice outside of trading hours at first. Imagine a worst case scenario as you're practicing. It'll desensitize you, mentally rehearse until you can do so
#2: Shifting States
- Taking your emotional temperature
- Activating complementary states
- Activating non-emotional states
- Using biofeedback for emotional training - such as vigorous exercise when you are feeling risk averse and focus your attention and control breathing for the opposite
#3: Cognitive Restructuring
- Identify negative thought patterns
- Externalize the self-talk - imagine someone else saying this to you. We think it but we don't like to hear it from other people, which leads you to...
- Challenge the self-talk
- Rehears new self-talk
#4: Solution Focus
- Finding exceptions to problem patterns
- Identifying triggers and facilitative factors that aid exceptions
- Creating models of desired behavior
- Anchoring models to distinctive states
Training as the Best Therapy
- Becoming more rule-governed
- Building capacity to perform "in the zone"
- Skill and talent won't get you anywhere if you can't access them
Friday, April 3, 2009
My Training, Part II
Lots and lots to think and write about. Gotta finish Brett's notes, conversation w/ Lopez, and I talked to Andy a little bit, meanwhile these comments on the previous training post is igniting a whole series of thought chains that I just couldn't handle anymore. I don't know who it is but if there are people out there that want to help me become a better trader I'm all for it. For all I know it could be our CEO or Brett making the comments. I played a lot of volleyball this week and I'm trying to let these conversations sit and simmer a bit but not to a point where I forget what they mean. Here's the rest of my notes from Brett.
Characteristics of Successful Trader
Characteristics of Successful Trading Firms
Common Trading Problems
Undercontrolled vs. Overcontrolled Trading
Poor Trading Patterns Are State Dependent
Common Triggers
The Importance of Well-Being
- Trading is a performance activity, much like sports, performing arts like dance. You have to find your niche, in other words a cross section of talent, skills and opportunities
- Build on your success and strengths. So many traders overlook their strengths instead they just try to correct their weaknesses. Once you have that, leverage it, scale it, trade more different stocks and more shares. You want to turn best trading into best practices and best strengths into habit patterns.
- Find your unique strengths. Brett told us a story about his blind cat Molly who was about to learn and navigate around a new environment after just about a day or two. Everybody has got something going for them.
Characteristics of Successful Trader
- High Conscientiousness: High discipline, responsible. They think about their day, think about their trading and think of trading as a craft.
- Low Neuroticism: Have a low tendency toward negativism. Blood literally flow out a certain part of your brain and you become in the "wrong mind."
- High Openness: Likes new experience, which correlate with risk taking. It's even better when you can take on lots of risk conscientiously.
- Problem-Focused Coping: When something goes wrong are you focused on the emotion or the problem. Brett mentioned about someone thinking of a losing trade as paying for information and testing out the market, which I thought was a really interesting way of looking at things b/c that's kind of like poker where sometimes you pay or call even though you know you're probably wrong to help you make more money in future hands.
Characteristics of Successful Trading Firms
- Sticking to Knitting
- Promote Teamwork
- Distribute Expertise
- Trader Support
- Hiring Expertise
Common Trading Problems
- Performance Anxiety - more concerned about the outcome than the process, which leads to poor decision making. It makes traders more risk averse to where they miss a trade or take too small of a size. You can't trade to not lose!
- Impulsivity - becoming frustrated, driven by anger and become reactive instead of grounded
- Failure to Adapt - either in trend or volatility. You have to continue to find new patterns but be aware that they change.
Undercontrolled vs. Overcontrolled Trading
- Most problems are control problems
- Impulsivity: the fear of missing moves and need for action. You have to think is your job to trade or to make money?
- Trader as ADHD: loss of focus and rule governance
- Hesitation: fear of sustaining loss, need for safety. Trader becomes anxious, self-focused attention and negative spiral. You need to focus on the MARKET instead!
Poor Trading Patterns Are State Dependent
- Behavior is patterned
- Patterns are associated w/ particular states of mind - most coaching won't work b/c you're not in the same state of mind any more. You need to coach while you're trading; work on performing while you're in performance
- States are evoked by triggers - the key is to figure out what riggers you and coach yourself to break the cycle and not get triggered, either during breaks or right b4 or after
Common Triggers
- Anxiety
- Guilt/Self Recrimination - I should have _____
- Boredom - it's easier to lose money than not trade
- Fatigue - we tend to over interpret things
- Anger/Frustration
- Physical Stimuli
The Importance of Well-Being
- Concentration
- Motivation
- Performance
- Over time, not enough positive emotion can be just as damaging as too much negative
- You can have a lot of distress but still a good trader if you're extracting lots of positive out of the job
- Contentment is a big area for most people
- It's not just about minimizing stress but maximize well-being as well
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My Shirt
During SXSW I came across something really cool. At least in my opinion... I had to have it.
Apparently it's call a T-Qualizer. Like the equalizer you see on your stereo, except it's on a t-shirt! I'm over my printed/graphic/humor t-shirt phase, but this just blows my mind. Way better than the drum t-shirt I posted about from last Christmas
Apparently it's call a T-Qualizer. Like the equalizer you see on your stereo, except it's on a t-shirt! I'm over my printed/graphic/humor t-shirt phase, but this just blows my mind. Way better than the drum t-shirt I posted about from last Christmas
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
My End of the Month
I didn't size correctly today. Pratically doubled most of my trades today and get in over my head. A losing day. Haven't had one in a while. Nothing too major or damaging. Will learn from this.
My brain feels very full right now. The same way my stomach feels after eating three Don Juan tacos. It's almost uncomfortable. I've been talking to so many different traders and reading different stuff. Have to digest all this and put this down on the blog soon. Lots of good stuff though. Expect good posts coming soon.
My brain feels very full right now. The same way my stomach feels after eating three Don Juan tacos. It's almost uncomfortable. I've been talking to so many different traders and reading different stuff. Have to digest all this and put this down on the blog soon. Lots of good stuff though. Expect good posts coming soon.
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