Pre-Market Mindfulness

This has been a hell of a week in the Market. After Monday’s sell-off, we are back up 2% on the S&P. I was pretty excited to play some same-day expiry options contracts today. I lost a little sleep thinking I could use some of this week’s profits and see what I could do. While that excitement was already a red flag (euphoria, future pull), I also slipped in my garage and tweaked my back a bit. So I went to sleep fantasizing of Friday runners.

This morning, I got up and noticed my back was hurting. I went on with my morning, made breakfast, stood on the back deck, ate then at about 9 am est, and went through the first part of my daily trade psych plan.​

​​I grounded myself and was doing a mindfulness exercise for about 5 minutes. During which I noticed my mind was telling me a few things most of the morning. It seemed to think AMZN calls were a great idea 

and, in general, was thinking this would be easy picking for Friday runners. It was also telling me how annoying it is that I tweaked my back, and it was sick of having pain all the time. I moved thru the rest of my morning Trade Psych routine, contemplating my values and whether I had been moving away or toward them this week, this morning, and at the moment, I was practicing.

I learned I was euphoric, thought I would kill it today, my mood was irritable, and I was angry at my back pain, and I had made significant progress in my valued direction this week. I considered all the data, and I decided no trades for me today. The Observer inside me helped me see I needed to be grateful and take a break from the market and heal my back a bit. These were the behaviors that would bring me closer to my goals today, these behaviors were based on my values. Essentially what I give a shit about. What matters to me. We are alone in the market, we need to utilize ourselves to guide us.   

So, I stretched, took a nap, went for a walk, tweaked charts, chatted with some trading buddies, and enjoyed the day. I didn’t make a penny today. I didn’t lose one either. And I think, we shall see, I built confidence, competence, and a sense of gratefulness.

I am ready for my short day shrinkin’ peeps tomorrow and enjoy my weekend and why the hell has a stack of rocks become a thing, and an item related to meditating and Instagram and shit. Weird. 

Thanks for reading. I have no idea if I keep blogging. I’ll try and come up with some stuff.