Tuesday, July 14, 2009

It’s been a few weeks since my last post.  In my last blog entry I discussed how, while listening to Mark Douglas speak in Chicago, “I was beginning to feel sick.”  That night I did a CNBC appearance and really felt terrible.  I had the cab driver stop at a Walgreens on the way over to the studio so I could pick up some DayQuil and take a couple of shots.  That night I had the chills for a couple of hours — I was sweating and shivering for hours.  Miserable.  That hasn’t happened to me since I was a kid.  The next morning I woke up and knew I could never make it to the seminar.  Luckily I did my teaching on Monday and Tuesday, otherwise it could have been a very interesting week!  

Long story short, I got to the point where I could barely swallow.  I went into the bathroom, opened my mouth and said “aaaaaah” in the mirror.  Staring back at me from my tonsils was a white gooey puss mess about the size of a golf ball.  Uh-oh.  I spent about half an hour on the phone trying to book a doctor’s appointment with zero success.  I finally got smart and called the concierge and told them, “I need a doctor.”  They gave me the number of a guy who made house calls.  I called him and an hour later he was in my room.  The best $350 I’ve ever spent.  After he saw my throat he stopped shaking my hand — I had a bad case of strep throat “or possibly mono.”  He gave me some antibiotics and said, “If it’s Strep you will feel much better in two days.  If you don’t then you have mono and will need to stay in Chicago longer.”  Great.  He added, “For the next three days, just think: advil, advil, advil/water, water, water.”  I’m on it.

I spent the next 48 hours in my hotel room, doing advil advil advil water water water.  I watched 4 movies and read 2 books and slept a lot.  I drank about 5 liters of water a day and didn’t eat any food — I couldn’t swallow.

Friday morning I woke up and felt . . . better.  He did say by mid Thursday I would no longer be contagious.  And apparently if I had mono I would have to make out with someone in order to get them sick anyway.  I did venture down to the lobby and grabbed a pre-made sandwhich at the coffee shop and a green tea.  It was like eating a filet mignon at Ruth’s Chris steak house.  I also wandered over to the seminar and was able to say goodbyes just as it was finishing up.  I wish I could have spent more time at the seminar and hanging with the traders (that’s the best part) but life had other plans for me that week!

Health wise, I had two great workouts in Chicago and then of course came down with the plague which dampened future workout expectations.  I got home Friday night and spent the weekend resting, and then thought I would go back and join my trainer on Monday.  No dice —  my body was still recovering and when the alarm went off I didn’t even hear it.  I continued to rest T, W and TH and then I did do a light workout with my trainer on Friday.

On Saturday we left to Park City, Utah for a week.  I spent three days working with a hedge fund and then had 4 days to spend with my family.  Austin is really hot right now — in the 100s.  Waking up to 50 degree weather in Park City with a high of 75 during the day was awesome.  I also had a fun slide down the mountain with my son James.  We took a 30 minute ski lift ride up the mountain for the purpose of going down the long “Alpine Slide.”  He was scared and didn’t want to do it.  On the walk over to the slide he ripped his hand from mine and ran back to the ski lift yelling and crying, “I want my mooooooommmmy!”  Luckily mommy was at the bottom of the mountain and didn’t see that or his journey would have ended righ then and there.  I wanted him to have the experience of facing his fears.  As my wife tells me, “That’s what Daddys are for.” 

I talked him down and convinced him we should give it a try — and that I would go real slow if he wanted me to (you can control the speed with a handbrake).  I did manage to film this event with my iphone which I held out extended with one arm — here’s the video.  You can be the judge on whether or not he enjoyed the experience ;-)

While in Utah I didn’t go to the gym.  We did walk and hike around quite a bit, which can be tiring very quickly when you aren’t used to the high altitudes.  On the last night there I did some situps and pushups.  Overall I was very good about focusing on salads, fruits, etc.  I did have 2 drinks one night with some new friends, a glass of white wine and a beer.  This was the first drink I’d taken since May 30.  My goal of course was to last through July as well with no alcohol, but the moment seemed appropriate.  I had fun but when we got home I didn’t like the way I felt (not drinking for 6 weeks really cleans out your system) and the next morning instead of eating fruit like I usually do, I craved “greasy food” and got huevos rancheros.  In sum, I really missed the clear head and I have willingly jumped back on the no alcohol train.

In two weeks I’m leaving on a week long trip to Iceland.  It’s an “adventure trip” so to get ready for that I’ve worked out Monday and Tuesday morning already with my trainer, and am planning to work out every weekday morning with him until I leave. 

I did receive many interesting emails on theories about my being sick.  That’s one of the great things about everyone who is involved with the website.  There are people from a wide variety of backgrounds who are passionate about different things.  It’s information you would never stumble across in a book store.  One of the emails told me about a book that focused on keeping your liver healthy, and why that is literally the most important thing you can do in your life to stay healthy.  It’s a fascinating book and I’m in the process of trying out some of the recommended foods and procedures.  I’ll update more on this as I go through and see the results.  Right now it’s just a book that I read and that I found fascinatingly interesting.  The other email was from a gentlemen who focused on “energy flow.”  There is not an easy way to explain this.  So far I’m trying it out and I’ve found the results impressive to say the least.  I’ll discuss more details in the future.

Finally, I did meet with a fellow trader here in Austin who suggested we meet for lunch and we discuss health.  I was intrigued and we met at a restaurant in Austin, which turned out to be a raw food restaurant.  He talked about his 20 years “in pursuit of great health” and found that a raw diet worked best for him.  After the lunch I was really energized.  He said this is from all the nutrients you get from eating raw food — nutriets that vanish during the cooking process.  Yet another fascinating conversation and I’m incorporating some of that into my diet as well.  As the saying goes, the more you know, the more you realize what you don’t know.

Good Trading!  Until next time . . .

Hey everyone. This blog is multiple entries over the past week. Let's take a look . . .

Ah, options expiration day. I'm taking today off from trading. Getting ready for a seminar compresses a week long to do list into a day, and today is that day! One utter joy I'm experiencing right now is being on hold with Bank of America (BAC) for 20 minutes now. I'm trying to process a vendor ACH payment online, and apparently you now have to call now to "verify" that you actually want to do the wire. The irony of course being they encourage you to move away from checks and do online wires to save both you and the bank time and money . . . and this is making the process ten times as long and ten times as frustrating. Now where did I put those checks?

It's a few hours later -- I just got back from said Bank of America (BAC). I went in to process a wire to a company that does not accept ACH payments. The bank's Vice President, Greg, took me into his office and instead of processing my wire, spent 10 minutes trying to talk me into going back home and signing up for a new service where I could do it online--that way I would never have to come to the bank. I told him I liked to come to the bank. I have this weird thing about wanting to develop a relationship with the people who are holding my money. He explained how it was easier to just stay home and essentially never have to come in again. I pressed him why he was selling me on "going away." It turns out its a corporate directive to get their clients to do everything themselves--outsourcing tasks to the actual clients. This suddenly made sense -- the prior day I had gone in to deposit a check and they begged me to go outside to use the ATM machine. I played along and also asked, "Why?" It turns out they get bonus scores if their clients use the ATM Machine to transact business instead of going to the counter.

Going back to the VP--he truly did not want to process my wire and wanted me to go home and logon to my computer to do it. I literally had to tell him, "Look, I am your customer. I am making a request. Do the damn wire." He appeared shocked and said, "Mr. Carter, I'm just trying to make your life easier." "Great," I said. "Once again, stop talking and do the damn wire." After he finished the transaction I wished him well and let him know I'd be moving funds to a local bank.

I understand they are trying to become more efficient and reduce costs, but there is something to be said for having a personal relationship with the people who look after your cash. It's the difference of being in a pinch and being able to call and make a request with someone you know on a personal level versus having to come in and show three forms of ID to a faceless bureaucracy that doesn't even want you in there in the first place. Call me crazy--bigger does not mean better.

All right let's take a health inventory. My last blog talked about my failed attempt to be Rocky Balboa on a 7 mile run in 100 degree heat and I discussed my workout on Monday. On Tuesday I did a nice 2 1/2 mile run. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I worked out with my trainer. (Since I'm heading to Chicago next week I wanted to knock out an extra session with him). There are too many exercises to list but I can give you the general idea. On Wednesday we did a 10 rep/20 rep workout. For example, one armed inclined dumbell bench press: 10 reps. Then jump right into pushups on a stability ball: 20 reps. Heavy barbell curls: 10 reps. Then jump right into lighter dumbell hammer curls: 20 reps. We did a circuit that hit each body part three times through, cranking out 2 minutes on the treadmill between each set. Great workout.

On Thursday we did all core. Lots of ab work and twisting with cables and stability balls. After we finished we did three sets of dead lifts, doing 145 pounds x 10 reps, 185 x 6 reps and 225 x 3 reps. Keith is really strict about form. Dead lift injuries are caused by poor form, but when done with great form, they are one of the best exercises you can do because they hit everything. Legs, back, forearms plus the body has hundreds of little muscles that have to fire off to keep you stabilized while you are doing the actual dead lift. If these muscles don't fire off, you will literally fall over. It's a great all round strength training exercise. For form, the main thing with dead lifts is to stick your butt out on the way down as far as it will go and keep your chest and head up -- no leaning over.

On Friday we did a heavy day. Heavy weights with 4 to 6 reps, and we hit each body part. Bench press going over 200 pounds (a lot for me). Lunges with 75 pound dumbells in each hand. Barbell curls with 100 pound. And so on . . . my chest and glutes are still feeling the pain.

It's currently Saturday and my plan was to run today and take Sunday off. The day has passed and alas I have not run, so I'll need to do it Sunday morning. I have to leave the house at 10:00am for the airport, and I have to be on time not only for my flight, but when I go out of town Maria's extended family moves in to keep her company while I'm gone. If I say I'm leaving at 10:00, then at 10:01 they are moving in! So needless to say I have to get the hell out of there on time!

On Sunday morning I made the decision to finish up my power point instead of going for a run, so this means I need to crank something out later today when I get to the hotel.

It's now Tuesday in Chicago and Mark Douglas in talking to the group. His insights are awesome. "Most traders operate on the mistaken belief that since its easy to make money on one trade, that it then must be easy to make a consistent income. Traders say they want to make consistent money but in reality most people just want to have fun and win." Great stuff. "You have to learn how to lose and not feel like a loser." "On a trade by trade basis, the results of your trading are totally random. There is no relationship to the outcome of one trade to the outcome of the next trade--understand this and then and only then can you start trading without regret."

When I landed on Sunday I did grab a great strength training workout in the gym. I pushed each set to failure and hit all body parts. On Monday we had a full day doing live trading and teaching at the seminar. After the seminar I ran to the gym and did 40 minutes of interval training on the treadmill, then headed over to Flatwaters to meet the group for a cocktail reception. This is a great restaurant right on the river. The draft beers looked great! I did hold back though and stuck to water and cranberry/soda, and overall I've continued to eat well: no processed flour or sugar, no sodas, no alcohol. Focus on vegetables, fruits, lean meats. The only thing I've caved on are the "double tall soy lattes" from Starbucks. Seminars wear me out and that caffeine boost helps me through the lulls.

This morning I woke up feeling sick. I think I got it on the plane -- not a thorough washing of the hands after using the restroom! I'm planning to take today off from working out but then attempt to get in a workout on W, TH and Friday. At 6:15 pm tonight I've got to go over to a CNBC studio here in Chicago for their Singapore show to talk about commodities. It's something I really don't feel like doing but they don't appreciate it when you cancel. I'm going to try to talk Hubert into going in and just telling them, "Uh, yeah, I'm John Carter."

Since I started this health blog I've received a lot of great ideas for books to read to really step up the health. I just got one that really looks promising that focuses on eating to "keep your liver healthy." My mother in law works at a hospice and I asked her one night point blank, "From what you've observed what is the most painful way to die?" She said without question it was people whose livers had failed. Not an upbeat topic to be sure but I'll keep you posted on the book that I'm reading which talks about how to keep your liver healthy. Also -- crazy -- yesterday at the hotel gym some guy in his late 30s was running on the treadmill and had a heart attack and died right there. No one in the gym new CPR and by the time the paramedics got there he was gone. At first I thought about how this news would impact his family. Was he a father? Where is he from? How shocked are his friends and family going to be? I'm not sure why I'm mentioning this except to say it made me realize that you can go at anytime, and my reaction to this was to feel more optimistic. We can go at anytime so we might as well enjoy it.

Ok, back to listening to Mark Douglas talk about Trader Psychology. Until next time . . .

It's a little after 4:00pm central and the markets have closed, and I think today was a reality check for a lot of people. I've been talking about a looming June 18/19 "cycle date" in the markets. This is an important area where markets should reverse course. So if stocks rallied into this date, that would be a top; if they sell off into this date it would be a bottom, etc. Stocks sold off hard today and most people I talked to thought they would rally all week. I'll talk about this more in the videos of course, but for now many people are trying to decide whether to cut their long stock positions and run or hold through the selling. This, combined with options expiration this week, is going to cause a lot of erratic action. Ok on to health.

On my last blog I talked about a killer ab/core workout I did with my trainer on Friday. Well, its 3 days later and I'm still sore. It hurts to cough and a sneeze brings tears to my eyes. Sitting up in bed? Forget about it. I roll off. That workout was one full hour of just abs and core. And today he told me we are going to hit it hard again on Wednesday! That's why you hire a trainer--to take you to places you never would have reached on your own.

Backing up a bit: On Saturday I ended up going for a ru-alk. We were at the goat farm in Wimberley, and I got the bright idea at around 3:30pm that I needed to go for a run. Never mind that the temperature hovered right at 100 degrees. I got my ipod and headed out for what I had planned to be a 4 mile run. Two miles out, two miles back. When I hit two miles I did a process check and was surprised to see I still felt pretty good. Rather than doing the smart thing and turning back . . . I pushed on. I ran to the end of the next road, which is another mile and a half. So now it was 3 1/2 miles out, 3 1/2 miles back. A nice 7 mile run!

After hitting the turnaround point at 3 1/2 miles I started feeling a little light-headed. Cravings for water and food increased substantially. I had neither. No food, no water, no cell phone. This is the country mind you. Not much traffic and not many houses--and most of the houses had signs that read, "Trespassers will be shot." I ran a little further and suddenly ran out of gas. I had to walk. My mouth was very dry and my tongue felt like cardboard. Country roads look very, very long when you are walking.

By the time I got back to the house I'd been gone well over two hours. My wife was in a panic -- she had heard wild dogs barking and a police car raced by. Our nearest neighbors are a half mile away and dogs in the area have been known to attack goats and chase people. "Where have you been!" she yelled. "I've been worried sick!"

In between apologies I pushed my way past my wife and kids and grabbed a 1 liter bottle of Evian out of the refrigerator and downed it. Then I grabbed another and drank half of it. It was truly the best tasting water I've ever had in my life.

I hopped into the shower then ran into town to pick up some to go food. I was starving and I ate my dinner and whatever else didn't get finished. Still hungry, I started putting honey and jelly on some rolls and even busted out with a few spoonfuls of ice cream. I think the heat sucked the life out of me and I was trying to stuff that life back into my body.

On Sunday I took the day off from any workouts. My abs were more sore today than yesterday. I thought my legs would be sore but they were fine. My exhaustion yesterday was more from the heat apparently. I will try this run again soon -- in the early morning! On Sunday night we met a group of "healthy friends" for dinner. None of us drank alcohol and it was one of the most fun dinners I've been to in a while. However, I still felt very hungry and I ate a lot. I stuffed myself. I point this out for a reason.

One thing my trainer told me is to eat until you are "80% full." Our bodies have a 20 minute delayed reaction in telling us when we are full. If you feel bloated while you are still eating, you are way past the full point. So eat until you are about "80% full" then in 20 minutes you will feel full. This is something I'm going to start working on. During dinner Sunday I felt full, but I pushed on and kept eating. I had been eating moderately so I attribute that to the 7 mile running fiasco--but again its something I want to be more conscious of in the future.

On Monday I got up and headed to the gym to meet Keith, the trainer. Today's workout was another good one.

1. Dumbell step ups. Grab two 35 pound dumbells and "Step up" on a 2 foot tall box. 10 times each leg.

2. One armed dumbell bench press on the stability ball. The key is not to move. Flex your glutes and your core so you stabilize. If you don't, the lopsided weight will cause you to flip off the ball. 75 pounds x 10 reps each arm.

3. Bar pull ups. Like a chin up except you are laying flat on your back on the floor and pulling yourself up till your chin hits the bar. Like a reverse push up. 15 reps.

4. Lunge/curls. Lunge onto a "half circle" stability ball, stabilize, then do a biceps curl. 30 pound dumbell, 10 reps, each arm.

5. Skull crushers -- for triceps. Lay on a bench, narrow grip a bar, touch your forehead and extend. 80 pounds, 10 reps.

6. Dead lift/row. Grab a kettle bell, lean over slowly, back arched, till the kettle bell touches the floor, then stand up. Once up, bring the kettle bell up to your forehead in an upright row. 60 pounds, 10 reps.

7. Pushup/Chin up. Do a push up underneath a chin up bar. Push up, bring your feet under you and stand up, do a chin up. Drop to the floor, do a push up. Repeat. 10 each. This is a high cardio impact exercise. My sore abs were killing me on the chin ups.

8. Twists: Lay on your back, point your legs to the ceiling. Rotate your feet to one side and touch the floor, then up and back to the other side of your body and on the floor. 10 times each way.

9. Kettle Bell Walk: Grab two kettle bells and left them straight up overhead, locking your arms out. Walk the length of the gym and back. Two 24KG kettlebells (1 KG = 2.2 pounds, so 52.8 pounds each). The last 20 feet were killer.

10. Ride Bike for 2 minutes to elevate the heart rate.

11. Repeat entire circuit two more times.

12. At the end of 3 circuits, I hit my forearms hard. I noticed when I do barbell deadlifts once every few weeks my forearms are burning and I have to stop the deadlifts because my grip is giving out. Keith gave me some exercises to help with this.

One thing I noticed is that I wasn't gasping for breath during this workout as I have done in prior weeks. Keith said that since I hit the cardio hard last week its paying off in the gym.

On Tuesday I was heading out the door for a run at 7:00am when I saw some posts on twitter that said our website was down. I was working with tech support for about an hour to get that fixed (fun stuff) and by that time that was over the markets had opened. I stayed in front of my PC and I traded till 10:00am. At this point it was starting to get hot and I had a ton to do and I almost bailed on the run. But I sucked it up and headed out the door and did a quick 2 1/2 mile workout. Walk half a mile, run 2 miles (more than half the run is up hill, some of it steep), walk the last half mile. It's a good run and I'm glad I did it. It it weren't for the blog I would have passed today as I'm slammed with stuff to do getting ready for the Chicago seminar next week. June is, after all, health month.

Speaking of, its time to work on some slides. Good trading and good health!

Friday, June 12, 2009

This is my second shot at writing this blog entry.  After I completed it the first time around, all 1200 words, I went to copy and paste and the blogging software (Blog Jet) locked up on me and went into “Not Responding” mode.  I waited about 10 minutes to see if it would get out of that mode . . to no avail.  I almost said “to hell with it” but then Adelita, who is sitting next to me viewing FX Platform tutorials, said, “That was a really good blog post.”  I’m like, “How in the hell did you read it from 5 feet away?”  Ah, youth has good eye sight.  So let’s try it again while its still fresh in my mind.  I’ve also inserted a chart down below of a trade setup I took on Thursday night.  I’ll try to do more of this in the future.

I didn’t do an update for Thursday so I’ll start with a quick recap.  I traded from 7:30am to 9:30am central, then went for a 2 1/2 mile run, getting back just in time to whip up a shake and hop on a conference call at 10:15.  On this run I took my ipod and was able to shave a few minutes off the same run I made on Tuesday.  It really helps when you can’t hear yourself gasping for breath.  When I was in LA last week I heard some cool songs and grabbed them out of thin air with the “Shazam” feature on my iphone.  This is an amazing application.  Have you ever been in a store or in the car or in a bar (drinking cranberry and soda, of course) and heard a song you like, but can’t find out who is singing it or what it’s called?  Welcome to 2009.  Just whip out your iphone and tell your Shazam app to “tag” the song.  Your iphone then listens to the song for about 15 seconds, matches it to its database of tens of thousands of songs, and tells you not only what song it is but gives you a link to download it.  Cool stuff!  It hasn’t failed me yet.  And my run was made all the easier while cranking up “Chillin” by Lady Gaga.

I ate great, unprocessed food (oatmeal, eggs, apples, veggies, lean meats), drank a lot of water and stuck to green tea for my caffeine for most of the day.  However, by the time the markets closed I could feel my body sagging with fatigue.  Thursdays are always the toughest days for me.  The combination of trading, keeping up with the website, managing a variety of people and businesses and keeping up with my responsibilities of being a good Husband and Father and all that . . . man by the end of the day Thursday I’m beat.  There was a moment yesterday when I would have traded a one ounce gold Krugerrand for a Grey Goose and Tonic.  I resisted.  No alcohol in June is still alive and kicking.

Instead I left the office and took a break at a local coffee shop, where I sucked down a double expresso.  This is much better than my usual, “double tall soy latte” that I’ve also tried to give up this month — but it ain’t green tea.  It did help.  After spending some time with my kids in the pool I mustered up enough energy to head back upstairs and do my trading research and videos for the evening.  I actually enjoy this process but on Thursday my life force is ebbing.  Just as I started this huge storm rolled into the area and as I talked, loud claps of thunder echoed against the windows and into last nights video recording.  A tornado actually touched down south of us and other areas got hit by hail.  We just got the high winds and sheets and sheets of rain.  Although the power went off for a few minutes, my battery back ups kept my computers up and running and I was able to finish and upload my videos without incident.  

As Thursday came to a close I checked my positions and orders for the night.  I was swing long GOLD (that’s a stock symbol, not gold futures) via June 65 call options and I also placed a bracket order on CD (Canadian Dollar Futures) based on the 60 minute chart I reviewed in last night’s video.  Then it was off to bed.  I really can’t sleep well at night unless I have a few positions working.  Here’s the CD setup:

Friday morning is “workout with the trainer day” (M, W, F) and I grabbed some oatmeal and green tea and checked quotes before heading out the door.  Nice.  Gold getting hammered down $20 an ounce, so when the stock market opens my options will get drilled.  On a positive note, I was up 100+ ticks on my Canadian Dollar Futures play.  For GOLD, I’ve played the 60 minute squeeze on this in the last 4 instances it has occurred, and each time made over 100%+ on the play.  This time I snuck in early while the squeeze was forming — and it fired off short today instead of long.  Sometimes “sneaking in” gives you a great entry, and sometimes you sneak in and join the wrong team.  The markets won’t open for another 90 minutes so I’ll deal with it when I get back from the gym.  I know from past experience that canceling my workout and watching the markets won’t help a damn thing.

My trainer, Keith, recommended that I eat steel cut oatmeal everyday.  I asked him how long it took to cook.  “About 30 minutes.”  I looked at him like he’d just told me he traded using only mental stops.  “Yeah, like I have 30 minutes everyday to cook oatmeal,” I chastised him.

Keith then explained that he cooked a big vat of oatmeal on Sunday, then stuck it in the refrigerator in a glass conainer, and feasted on that for the entire week.  He nukes his to warm it up.  I eat mine cold.  Let’s face it — you don’t eat oatmeal for the taste.  I also asked him about the glass containers and he explained to me about plastic.  Plastic leaches into your food and water, especially when its heated.  Heating food in plastic wrap or plastic containers over time is one of the most dangerous things you can do to your body — it messes with your neural functions and can lead to cancer.  On his recommendation we threw out all of our plastic containers and purchased some tupperware-type glass containers to store and heat food.  I also applied this lesson to my bottled water.  When I’m on the road I will load up on 1 liter plastic bottles of Fiji.  However at home I picked up 6 1 liter glass bottles, and I keep these filled up with Reverse Osmosis water (we had a filtered installed under our sink — about $500).  I store these in the refrigerator as well and try to drink 3 a day.

On to the workout.  Today was core day from the dark depths of fiery hell.  Normally I write out my workouts but there is no way I can describe what agony we traversed through.  I’ll give you an idea of just 1 of our circuits.  In the gym I use there is an elaborate cable and pully system—you can pull these cables in dozens of different ways.  We started with the cable on the floor—positioned as if you would want to do one-armed cable bicep curls.  Instead we stood sideways, then leaned over and grabbed the handle with both hands.  Keeping our arms locked straight, we then rotated from the waist and lifted the cable (with 35 pounds of weight attached) up and across our body and up over our head.  Picture the last half of a golf swing, from contact with the ball to finish.  We did that 15 times on each side.  Then we would get in a lunge position, and do one arms cable chest presses—except the idea is to focus on rotating from your waist and really hit the obliques.  15 each side.  Then we’d limp over to the stability ball and assume the push up position—feet on the ball, hands on the floor.  Roll in your knees to your chest, then extend straight again.  20 times.  Oh, and now please lie face down on the floor.  Now raise your head and your hands up, as if you were superman.  Higher.  Higher.  Now your feet and your glutes.  Higher — just stay balanced on your stomach.  Great.  Now hold for 45 seconds.  Time.  Go hit the treadmill for 2 minutes.

That was one circuit, which we repeated.  There were three other circuits of similar pain and agony, which we also went through twice.  I’m confident that I will not be able to cough tomorrow without bursting into tears.

Ok I think that’s enough for one day.  Someone asked me recently why I’m doing this extra work of writing a blog.  I actually enjoy writing and to be honest I’m doing this for me as well.  It’s a way for me to journal and stay on track and be accountable for my goals.  Although right now I’m focusing mostly on life outside of trading, I think I’m going to start tracking my trading journal here as well.  It’s Friday afternoon and the markets will be closed in 90 minutes.  It’s time to unwind . . . with a cranberry and soda.  Have a great weekend.

I've been making a living this week buying gold futures near 950.00 and selling them at 960.00. They are very range bound and rallying during the Asia session, then selling off during New York. It's not as fun as catching a great rally, but it beats working for a living.

I received an email this morning from a member asking me the best way to go about increasing their trading size. This is the answer I gave them: Just think of it like lifting weights. For a bench you might start off at 150 pounds, then a few weeks later you are at 155 pounds, etc., till a year later you are doing 190. It's the same with trading. Start with 1 contract or 100 shares, when you are comfortable with that add another contract, etc. When its gradual like this then at some point you are comfortable with higher size. When you get to a size where its uncomfortable, you can either scale back or stick with it till it becomes comfortable.

If you are trading too big you will freak out and make mistakes. Everyone I know trades better with smaller size. Don't focus on all the money you will make trading big size; focus on the money you'll save on your stop losses trading smaller size. In addition, the "peace of mind" that comes from trading small size makes you a better trader. "Small size" is relative of course. For one person that means 1 contract for someone else its 100. Its a factor of experience and account size. Trade too big for your account and you are losing an important edge right from the get-go: an unbiased state of mind.

Adelita started the first day of her summer intern today. This is her third summer. The first summer she worked hard. Last summer she got to slack because I was traveling a lot. This summer I told her she is going to work her butt off. Today she is watching the Forex Online Trading CD on my laptop with headphones. She is sitting next to me and I told her to ask me questions if she had any. She had some questions about Fib levels -- she's never used them before so we spent some time on that. After she is done we are going to set up a mini fx account for her and she is going to trade currency setups. I'm also going to have her document all of her trades and experiences and put them together on a CD ROM. If the content is good, and if she learns how to trade, she can put herself through college with both. That's the plan anyway. The other plan is she gets knocked up at prom and becomes a stay at home mom. I'm routing for plan A, of course. But I've also come to realize this year that everyone attracts, subconsciously or consciously, exactly what they need from life to make them feel the things they need to feel. Whether its feeling needed, or successful or loved or being a survivor or having people depend on you or whatever. I hope she takes the initiative and runs with it, and I will help all that I can -- but I'm not going to force it. All I can do is open the door and present a possibility. Good luck Lita!

Now for the health re-cap. Last night I went to a monthly meeting of Austin entrepreneurs in downtown. It's a fun group, and they do a lot of drinking. I stuck to my cranberry and soda -- its not hard to do that anymore by the way. A few people bought me drinks and I let them know what I was drinking. One guy I met who is known for being really drunk all of the time came up to me and said he stopped about 6 weeks ago. He feels great, clear headed, etc. It's a movement!

This morning I woke up very clearheaded (first time after that event) and met my trainer, Keith. Here's the workout:

1. Incline flies, 8 reps, 45 pound dumbells 2. Not sure what this is called: lay on a bench, take a dumbell and stretch it over your head and towards the floor, then bring it up over your chest. 8 reps, 60 pound dumbell. 3. Weighted Dips: 8 reps with a 25 pound plate around your waist. 4. Run 1/4 mile on the treadmill. 5. Repeat circuit 2 more times.

1. Renegade rows: 45 pound kettle bells, 8 reps (you are in an extended pushup position. Stay balanced on one arm, and then bring the other dumbell up to your waist in a rowing fashion -- hits the core hard). 2. Wide grip chin ups: 8 reps 3. Barbell curls: 8 reps, 75 pounds (biceps are shot at this point) 4. Bike 1/2 mile. 5. Repeat circuit 2 more times.

1. Leg Press: five 45 pound plates each side, 8 reps. 2. Squats: 200 pounds, 8 reps. 3. Walking lunges, no weights, 10 each leg. 4. Farmer Walk: Pick up two 90 pound dumbells and walk from one end of the gym to the other, about 100 yards total. This is to strengthen your grip and it is a bitch. 5. Elliptical 2 minutes. 6. Repeat circuit 2 times.

1. 3 sets of seated leg raises, 25 reps each.

Before the workout I had green tea, and a small shake with blueberries and 10g of Creatine. After the workout I had green tea and a larger shake with whey protein, 10g of Creatine, Green veggie powder, frozen blueberries (much better than frozen peas!) and an apple. Also took a handful of vitamins.

I've never tried Creatine before. I'm going to try it for 8 weeks. 20 grams the first 4 days, then 5 grams for the rest of the time. The powder I got is just pure Creatine. There are a lot of Creatine mixes out there that have a bunch of sugar and other crap--and they are more expensive. Just look at the ingredients and it will tell you all you need to know. You should just see "creatine monohydrate." Nothing else.

It's about noon on Wednesday and I exited a few overnight trades I had in gold futures this morning around 963.00. Today I'm working on stuff for Chicago and watching 60 minute squeezes as well as GOLD (the stock) to see if its going to be able to retest its highs this week. Tomorrow I'm not meeting with my trainer but I'm supposed to do cardio. I'm either going to do a 2 1/2 mile walk, a 2 mile run or a 4 mile run. I'm not sure which yet -- it will depend on how my legs feel in the morning after today's workout.

I do have to say this no alcohol thing is surprisingly helpful to my alertness, clear headed-ness and overall mood. Damn! Until next time . . .