Trading is not as exciting as might be thought - unless you are overleveraged and every moment spells potential disaster. It should mostly be the disciplined following of a robust methodology embedded in a suitable risk management framework. The more boring it is, the better you have designed the programme. My type of short term trading might generate a few trades a day at the most and might generate none if things are going my way. So for the most part, my type of trading involves the constant monitoring of markets but not in a particularly intense manner - but you do have to do the monitoring. You can't just slip away for a couple of hours!
Overnight, markets had barely moved but in the pre-market around 6:30 and before the main opening there was a pick up in buying and an upward movement of 10 points or so. A couple of hours of sideways movements which came very close to giving a reversal signal and then a steady rise that continues for much of the day up to 5480 from last night's close of 5405. No trades made as a result, a +75 pts day worth (at the current low position size), the princely sum of £375. Still that is "earnings" of £500 for two days "work", which would produce £60k per annum at constant leverage and well into six figures if leverage remained constant as the account grew. So not bad.
More importantly, perhaps, I have been able to get on with my usual study while following the markets. In fact, it was rather a nice way to spend the day - technically I am both studying and working! Everyone should be happy, though I have decided not to tell Linda that I have embarked on this programme at this stage. She has had two very busy day's work so far this week and would probably not be pleased to find out that she has earned less than I have this week so far, when I have just been sitting in the study reading and listening to music - that could be an issue later on though and could easily overwhelm the good news that I can apparently still earn money.
As a complete aside, the current issue of The Treasurer (one of my professional journals) has a long article on Charles van der Welle, a former colleague at Hanson. He recounts the demerger announcement at Hanson in early 1996 and claims he was offered the position of Treasurer in the Hanson rump. In my view, that is not correct - Jonathan Nicholls was in line for that all along. And in any case, Charles should have realised that Imperial Tobacco offered the best treasurer position going forward - which I got of course. But it was an important part of my development as an executive that I took control of the demerger during the period Charles was working out his notice at Hanson. He has now been at ITV for over 14 years - I can't imagine working at one place for so long. Maybe I should give Charles a call and go and see him one day when I'm up in London - that could be pretty strange!
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