6 Month Anniversary

I know I haven't written in a while. There have been a few times this past week where I have thought about writing, but honestly, there just isn't much new happening with my job or in my life these days. I would just be writing to write, and quite frankly, I have been enjoying watching a lot of US Open tennis these past two weeks, so this always gets overlooked.

As far as my job ... I celebrated my 6 month anniversary this past week. Again, I have been pleased with my progress, but I struggle to take my trading to the next level. I had one of my better weeks this past week, but mostly, I feel like its "Groundhog's Day" everyday. I am positive mostly everyday, but struggle to find ways to make money other than trading one stock, SLV. I look at my P&L at the end of each day, and I am positive whatever I make in SLV. Sure, I trade other stocks, but they end up washing each other out -- positive in some, negative in others. This has been going on now for several months and is starting to get a little old ... and frustrating. Everyday I go in looking for something new. I am ready to find another stock I can consistently profit in, but everyday .... same thing. Dare I say I am getting a little burned out already?

The one thing about trading is that everyday you are working. Sure there are down times during the day, and I need to take advantage of that more I suppose. But I remember the low stress times in between projects at my other job where I brushed up on skills, or unwound a little bit from the subsequent months of intense work. There definitely isn't much of that going on with trading. However, I need to remember I am never asked to work weekends if I don't want to. Pluses and minuses to everything I suppose.

One of the things I have been getting worked up about lately at my new work place are the IT staff ... developers and testers to be exact. There are a lot of people who work their butts off at the company, I won't deny that. But there appears to me to be little or no accountability of these particular people and their jobs. I started noticing several months back that nearly everytime I would get up from my trading desk to use the restroom, get something to eat, or go talk to another trader, I would see these group of 4 to 6 people roaming around. Sometimes they would be playing ping pong, sometimes playing foosball, sometimes eating leftover food from lunch, and sometimes just hanging around. A couple of weeks ago another new trader mentioned this to me, and I guess I started paying more attention to it. Now, I have become obsessed with it. Once again, this is something I can't control, and I am getting worked up about it. Ugghh.

But seriously, figure this. This is a private company that has a development and QA software staff that creates software for internal use only. None of the software is going to be sold to customers, so there are no defined development or testing procedures in place. I started asking them about test plans or content documents and they looked at me with a blank stare. Furthermore, there are no defined release dates for any product that is in production. If it takes a few more weeks to get something finished, really ... who cares? It's not like traders are not making money because a new product hasn't been released. If something crashes or doesn't work, it is all internal ... no big deal. Also, I have yet to have one of my software improvements or suggestions actually be implemented. I am continuously met with the response ... "Yeah, we can't do that. Sorry."

So, lately, I have been paying more attention to the work habits of these people, and I have become more and more frustrated. After all, I am helping pay these people's salaries with the split from my profits. That wouldn't be bad if I was getting my money's worth, but with the percentage split as it is and my "Groundhog's Day" performances, I am struggling to make ends meet in my own life. Yet, I have to go into work everyday and watch these people play ping pong and foosball all day long and know that I am helping pay them to do these things. All the while they tell me that they can't implement improvements I think would help make me more successful. And this behavior is acceptable.

Don't get me wrong. I am thankful for the opportunity that has been extended to me with this company. I am thankful I don't have to use my own money to trade and don't have to worry about that in the back of my mind everyday. But, I can't help but come to this realization: if I traded with my own money at a shop that gave me a split between 80% and 90% and I was able to continue my "Groundhog's Day" performance, I would be making as much, if not more than what I made at my previous software job. However, with the my current split being what it is, I won't even make as much as I did when I was a school teacher. Combine that with my rant above, and hopefully you can sense the frustration. I really need to start taking advantage of the fact I am not trading my own money. I need to trade with more size ... a lot more size and go for broke. If it doesn't work out ... oh well ... not my money. Start looking for a place where I can trade my own money and trade how I do now. That would be a pretty comfortable living.

So, there is my soapbox rant for this posting. By the way, the company is hiring more software developers and testers, so if the work environment described above appeals to you and you know of anyone looking for a technical job, let me know. If I recommend them and they get hired, I would get a $1000 bonus. Just trying to make my money back anyway possible :-).