Saturday, November 7, 2015

The Fillings Will Continue Until It Doesn't

So I went to my bi-annual checkup with my dentist recently and they found another cavity.  I felt very discouraged.
I used to have very strong teeth, with no cavities. Up until I was 40, I had not developed any cavities, despite not keeping good regular dental hygiene.  But then something happened after I turned 40.  I started getting cavities in my back molar.  Every visit to the dentist would show some problems.

In fact, I just came back from getting a second filling done on the same molar.  I feel disheartened.  The dentist keeps reminding me to floss, and I keep ignoring the advice.  Hopefully things will be different this time, and I am able to develop the flossing habit.  I really don't want to keep visiting my dentist and have them shove some crap into my mouth to make my jaw stay open while they drilling out my cavity.  It's very uncomfortable to have to visit them to get this filling done.

However, I guess I don't hate it enough to make me change my admittedly bad habit of not flossing.  I do have a laissez-faire attitude sometimes, to my detriment.  That is why while it is fresh in my mind, I hope I can kick this bad habit by talking about it.  Recognize it, expose it out in the open, and hope for the best.

This Is What It Should Be

My trading endeavours will no longer be blogged about here.  Instead I will use an old blog of mine to record my trading journal.

This blog will remain active for capturing my non-trading thoughts.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Spending Money

Account Balance:  $11055.00

So, I have been able to generate $1000 of trading income on my $10,000.00 of initial capital.
I will reward myself by withdrawing $100 as my "income" from my trading account and use it to pay down the $10K principal + interest.  The goal for the month of November is to generate another $1000 of trading income,  which will allow me to withdraw another $100 from my trading account.  If things go real well, I'd like to withdraw $150 or more each and every month.  But first things first, and that is to reach my goal for November which should be doable - it took me 15 business days to generate the first $1000, and I will have 20 trading days in November to reach the same goal.


The 100% win rate did come to an end a couple days after I made the previous post.  Losing trades does negatively affect my confidence.  Winning trades only marginally improves my confidence.  The key to maintaining my confidence (and also consistency) is to follow the rules:

1) Always do my homework and plan out the price levels to take trades
2) Wait for the market to tell me what it is doing
3) Execute
4) Stay out of trouble - take losses early, and avoid taking any trades that are not part of the plan.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Flying Start

12 trades this week.  100% win rate.  Average win size:  0.91 points

So far so good, I feel good about these results.  At this rate I will reach my profit target in a couple of weeks.  The challenge is to remain consistent.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Borrow to Trade

I have borrowed $10K at 3.25% interest, and the goal is to use this money for short term trading with a target of $1200.0 net profit within 12 months.

The 3.25% interest is tax deductible.  Each $100 profit earned to be used to pay down the loan principal.  $100 net profit per month from short term trading is doable, but I will need to be patient and disciplined.  I need to first establish that I can consistently net $100 profit per month.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Philosophical Rant of the Day

Everyone who considers themselves remotely normal is without fail, looking for someone to care about them.  If you're lucky, you will encounter a partner who loves you and cares about you and wants to accompany you on your journey through life.  If you're not lucky, then you will have to go about it the hard way.
And therein lies the rub.  The law of human nature says that no one cares how much you know until they firstly know how much you care.
So what that means is if you're looking for someone to care about you, the real issue is to really, sincerely, and honestly examine your own capacity to first care about them.   It's as simple as that, and yet so hard to carry out in real life, since so many other "things" get in the way.  These things that get in the way could be that you carry emotional baggage, pain from a previous experience, selfishness, or ego.   Or, the cruel truth could very well be that you just are not very capable of caring about someone that much.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Gentrification and Densification

The metroplitan region I live in is undergoing a major transformation.  The combination of a cheap CAD$, stable economy, low interest rates, and increasing population has driven housing prices up, way up.  Many foreign investors are snapping up houses in the west side of Vancouver.  The sellers in Vancouver west migrate to Vancouver East, which pushes those people over to Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, and Delta.  As a result of this migration trend, housing prices also get pushed up in each region.

Once these sellers sell their detached homes, many of them will opt to move into multi-family, higher density developments like townhomes and condos.  As a result, more and more townhomes and high-rises, and low-rises are being constructed all over the region.  One side effect of this construction boom is that the apartment developments push out low income housing.

Chinatown is a prime example of this phenomenon.  About 10 years ago, Chinatown was vibrant, active, and filled with busy shoppers.  But now, it is slowly losing its vitality, becoming derelict, with no new shops opening to replace shops that have closed down due to moving or going out of business.  At the same time, a few major condo developments are being constructed right in Chinatown, driven by people who can no longer afford the higher priced condos in the downtown area.

When I was a young lad, my parents would take us to Chinatown once a week to go shopping and eat dim sum.   There were certain shops in Chinatown that we would always visit, as my parents liked certain ones for the vegetables, and certain ones for the meat.  Sometimes my parents would buy some candy for us while we went shopping. I would jump for joy, and pick the Blackcurrant pastilles, which were my favourite (and still is). That was then, this is now.  But nonetheless, my heart is saddened now when I look upon what is supposed to be the busiest street in Chinatown and find only a couple of people walking in it.