Athena Trader

I absolutely love Christmas and would love to spend every Christmas and New Year in a different country, to soak in the lights, the atmosphere and the general happiness of it all. That has yet to happen so it's definitely on my bucket list! Last year around this time, I received the best gift of my life and since then Christmas takes on a different meaning for me.  The only awful part of December is the fact that it rains more often than usual which means our dog don't get to walk out much and too much rain does make everything look depressing. But there were a couple of wonderful sunny and windy days which ACCICB tells me is perfect CNY weather. Which means 2017 CNY weather would not be like that...it could probably end up being scorching hot!  There's also lesser trading volume in the market and so while it was tempting to execute trades, I chose not to. It seems to be the right call so far and with Christmas just 3 days away it is time to be merry and rejoice..s...

It has been a year since I started trading as I took a break on and off for a few months here and there due to personal circumstances and it is only in the past few weeks that I have managed to successfully know and close my positions before the trend reverses. Previously, I just hope and hold on which reduces profits and also destroys my self esteem as I start to question whether I can only short but can't long successfully. I was tempted to reverse my trade twice but didn't and I was spot on both times! Argh, I'm still second guessing myself!  I'm still way better at shorting although I only started shorting much later in my trading journey . Somehow my instinct for shorting is almost always spot on but since nothing goes down forever, I urgently need to work on knowing when to long. ACCICB told me that's because there's only panic selling and no panic buying due to human psychology which is why shorting seems to work better for  me. I seem to always miss...

I'm surprised that Brexit happened... I thought like most other people that they wouldn't have the guts to exit the EU. But then again, you gotta admit that Brexit sounds a whole lot sexier, trendy and catchy than Bremain which sounds like spoilt bread.  I think the ordinary Brits have spoken as they are probably displeased with the way their country has become. I read with interest and horror from a recent article in Cosmo UK that hutching is how young people are surviving the ridiculous rents in central London. I think immigration is also a hot button issue and perhaps that's why outside of London, there were many votes for Brexit. I was laughing my head off with some of the other names that were given for other EU nations should they choose to exit the EU and boy are these people creative or what! My personal faves are Czechout and Byegium although funnily they have yet to come out with suitable ones for France and Germany.  I wanted to buy some British stoc...

Recently I managed to get a part time cleaner to come once a fortnight and as I watched her clean I realized that I can never be as efficient and effective as her. It doesn't help that my attempts at cleaning have not been successful as evidenced by the awful water marks on the bathroom glass door or the floor is never as sparkling as hers even 2 days after she has done the cleaning!  Of course she's more experienced than me and I did pick up some tips from her which she kindly told me as well as from observing how she does chores for 3 hours. Even ACCICB is amazed by her and keeps telling me that he has never had such a clean house before depsite growing up with a helper since he was a child which also means I'm far from meeting the mark.  Cleaning may seem like it has nothing to do with trading and investing but I think there are some similarities. Firstly, cleaning is a chore that needs to be repeated as no home stays clean forever.  Till the day someone has i...

1. Paper trade successfully for a period of time (at least a few months) before diving in. Start by keeping your trades small because your focus is to get it right rather than make it big. By starting small, your stress levels are reduced and you can make better decisions. Be prepared to stop live trading for a while if your small live trades go bad and after closing your open positions, you need time to research and look through your trade diary/notes or make new notes to find out where you went wrong. The key is to observe, be patient, dedicate yourself and persevere for a period of time so no shortcuts to trading success unless you are one of the few trading geniuses out there. 
 2. Seed money would depend on type of trading instruments you trade, equities can be costly so your seed money has to be substantial. Depending on types of market and if daylight savings is a factor to be considered, your seed money has to be adjusted accordingly. Decide on your filters such as industrie...

For some people like ACCICB, the new year only begins after Lunar New Year. For me, I prefer 1st January but whichever approach you take doesn't matter as long as it signifies a fresh start for you.  Much like in investing or trading, there are many ways to be successful and what works for you may not work for others. It's good to read about what others do for reference but to try to emulate them may not necessarily be the best way to go about doing things.  Multiple factors are at play when we invest or trade and our response or avoidance brings about different results which may end up affecting our decisions in the future. However your investing or trading performance was for last year, this year could mean a tidal wave change or a small ripple in your portfolio.  If you have not already done so, it's time to set yourself free from the shackles of the past so that you can begin living in the present and perhaps even striving for the future. 

No, that person wasn't me! ACCICB told me he heard of somebody who lost that much last year in the stock market. Regardless of how much the person's net worth was, 10% is a huge amount to lose in a year! I was asked to guess the dollar value of the person's loss and even after 10 guesses, I still didn't hit the magic number!  Let's just say that it is impossible for most people to have that kind of money in a lifetime and the amount lost can feed 10 families comfortably throughout their existence on earth. That conversation triggered off this post as most people have probably already calculated their realised /& unrealised portfolio loss/ net worth loss now that we are in the early days of 2016. Since investing typically means waiting for the value of a stock to appreciate, in such economic doldrums, valuations get slashed and usually so does dividends. I can't help but wonder with the changing nature of the world, valuations would be calculated dif...