As I learned back in March, when I had my most profitable month, sometimes I need to take a break and step back to enjoy life.
Each month that passes with trading I find out how to balance life and trading together. It is truly a career that I love going down to my desk.  I’m seeing that my trades are better in the morning ending around 12-1. The afternoon volatility isn’t as good in the morning and it results in slower more boring trades.
So I tend to try to trade the mornings from 9:10 to 1 at the latest. Leaving mom duties, exercise and relaxation throughout the day. Sometimes I will watch a stock on my phone and use the stock tracker app to monitor if I want to enter a trade if I receive an alert that a double bottom has set up for the day.
As a mom I see more value in family and try to visit my family in the States at least 4 times a year. When we pack up shop for a trip I try to change the focus for my setups to a week long swing trade. In doing this I look at a longer time frame of a stock.
For a swing trade I look to see is there a nice void to fill? Does this stock have value to it? Is it oversold on the yearly chart? What day of the week am I going long?
Sometimes the swings take longer to really perform, but the initial buy does perform. These trades take patience. This patience I find is easier when I disconnect from my laptop and step away and let the trade develop. I do check in periodically while on vacation, but I try to prioritize time with family and friends.
When we were at the airport ready to leave I locked another $1000 profit on $STMP. I was daring and bought 200 shares  at 80 to swing through earnings. It spiked to 87 after hours and I set a limit at 86 to sell at open, but it only went up to 85.44. So my swing idea was correct but my limit order was too high. Still long for a small loss now and giving it time to develop.
I was also alerted from an apprentice (Thanks Chris) who knows my style and asked me to look at $INFN. It looked like it was primed for a gap fill above 8.64. It was slowly approaching and so I bought at 8.62. I gave it time to really spike above 9 and nothing happened. Then Cramer touted no one should buy it so it sold off a bit. Today I put in my limit for 8.79 and it executed and continued on up. I was curious why there was such a spike in price action and read that the CEO had bought 100,000 shares when it dropped down to 8.48. So I decided the original idea was correct and went long again at 8.94 looking for a spike with the positive news in AM.
All this being said it is possible to find balance in trading and in life. It is great to be able to sit down at my desk and make these profits, but there is definitely more to life. Taking the time to step back and put it on simmer watching the daily price action instead of minute by minute is important.
What is all this work worth when you don’t enjoy life. For some it is traveling the world, which is what it was for us before our child. We specifically worked for an airline and flew around the world for $300 as part of the perks. Now with more perspective in life we value family time and need to honour it.
In stepping back it also allows you the time to look at your trading with a new filter. Like when you are first absorbed in a relationship and it is hot and heavy and then you need a break to assess these intense emotions. Trading is great, but sometimes too much of a good thing is not good for you.
So balance in life is important in whatever you do. Not too much of one thing as it will cause your equilibrium to be thrown out of whack. Like my style of trading looking for price extremes to come back to equilibrium, life is easier when you are not living in an extreme.
As always I love hearing feedback from you. It makes my trading more personal and I like to hear how I can help you. If you have questions or comments you can contact me here or on Profitly, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.
The tool I use for scanning and alerting is Trade Ideas who offer an always free trading room.
For my charting and level 2 I use Equityfeed.
This blog is for information purposes I am not a registered securities broker-dealer or an investment advisor. The information here is not intended as securities brokerage, investment or as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security or fund.