My Spring Clothes

My plan from yesterday worked!  I got up early this morning, finished reading the book club book, then showered, dressed, and was ready to go shopping before I had to move the car at 10:00am.  I decided to go to the Loehmann's in Paramus and was there by 10:30am.  I started in the Back Room.  My methodology was to visit each rack and try on everything that met my criteria.  My criteria?  

The garment:

• seems to be my size
• does not have cap sleeves
• does not have puffy sleeves
• does not have epaulets
• has either a V or scoop neck
  
• is not belted
• has a color or print I like
• is made of a fabric I like

I picked up as many items as I could carry, then tried them on.  Kept only the garments that were perfect.  I tried on clothes from 10:30am through 7:00pm with only a short lunch break.  I probably tried on over 100 items.  I came home with:  a denim skirt, linen pants that need to be taken in a bit at the waist, a beige knit pleated skirt, a coral tank sweater, a purple tunic sweater, a black knit top, and assorted undergarments.  Since this is my only day designated for shopping, that's going to have to suffice for my spring wardrobe.

I've gained so much weight I don't even want to think about what size everything is, it's mortifying.  But on the other hand, it had to be done.  Since I look much better in clothes that fit properly rather than clothes straining to hold their seams, even if the clothes that fit are, um, beyond large.  And I discovered I went up a cup size.  That was unexpected.  It's a large size, yet I don't consider myself to be particularly well-endowed, so it puzzles me.  Yet it's the only size that fits, so it's true.  I'm in the process of changing my self-image, you'll have to give me a moment. . .

Shopping Wears Me Out

I'm so tired.  Shopping just wears me out, and I wasn't even trying things on today.  I was pretty disciplined, I only bought baby clothes.  It took a while since I was looking for matching outfits; 2T and 0-3 sizes for boys for my nephew and his brother-to-be, and 2T and double 0-3 sizes for my niece and her twin sisters-to-be.  I tried to get some outfits that would coordinate so the older kids would look nice with the infants in the inevitable family photos that will be demanded and circulated once all the babies are born.  I've got to imagine that neither Cindy nor Kristen has time for that kind of shopping, each around 7 mos pregnant and with a toddler running around. 

I picked up some extra newborn items since some of my friends are expecting, it's nice to have some gifts on hand so I don't have to shop in Charlottesville.  Shopping in C'ville isn't even that bad anymore, but I've less and less patience for the drive into town.  From the farm, it takes me around 30 minutes to get to the WalMart or Rio Hill shopping center, 45 minutes to the Target shopping center, and about 25 minutes to Barracks Road shopping center.  It's about an hour and a half out to Short Pump west of Richmond.  Counter that with the drive times while I'm staying at the NJ apartment:  10 minutes to WalMart, 20 minutes to Ikea / Babies R Us / Jersey Gardens outlet mall, 20 minutes to the shopping mecca that is Paramus (several really nice malls plus Loehmann's), 25 minutes out to Wayne (there's a Loehmann's and Fortunoff's out there in addition to a regular mall).  So it's just way more convenient to shop here.  Better stores, closer, lower prices.

It's about 45 minutes via public transport to midtown Manhattan shopping (< 20 minutes by car midday, although parking is exorbitant if I drive in on a weekday).  Although frankly if I'm going to spend 45 minutes getting to a shopping destination I'd prefer to go out to Short Hills Mall.  They've got all the Madison Ave retailers, the same merchandise (or better) selection, and NO SALES TAX.  That saves 8 3/4% right there.  Plus ample parking (I think they even have valet parking, which I would use if I couldn't easily find a parking spot and I was in a hurry, but since I have the luxury of shopping on weekdays it's rarely a problem), which is key if I plan on buying a lot of things, who wants to schlep it all home on the train or a bus?  I generally only shop in the city if I'm going to be in Manhattan anyway for another reason.  And even then I prefer to limit my shopping to small items (books, makeup, jewelry, etc.) that are easy to tote around.  Carrying bags of clothes and shoes is a drag, and unless I'm shopping at Century 21 it's not convenient for me to drop anything off at Terry's office.

But I shopped for over 4 hours including drive time, and I'm tired now.  Tomorrow I once again have shopping on the agenda, but clothes shopping for myself this time.  I've gained quite a bit of weight since last spring and my clothes from last year don't fit.  I might be able to lose the weight by summer, but since I've put away all my "thin" clothes my closet is looking pathetically bare for spring, so I'll try to fix that.  I don't need much, just a tailored business-y outfit, a church dress, a dinner dress, a lunch dress or separates, and maybe a few blouses.  I purposefully parked in a spot across the street that becomes illegal at 10am as motivation for me to get up early and get out the door in the morning.  Then I can shop, rest for lunch, shop somewhere else if need be, and return home before dinner.  Or continue shopping if I'm really desperate, but I think I'll be able to find what I need in one day.

Tonight I'm going to play my turns on Scrabulous then turn off my computer and try to finish "Water for Elephants" since it's the book we're discussing on Friday evening, and I'd like to be done by then.

New Site Design v.1.0

I spent 1.5 hours cleaning the master bathroom this morning--just the part with the toilet and shower. It seems like a long time unless you already know my shower-cleaning routine is to avoid cleaning except when absolutely, positively necessary so it only happens a few times a year. So spending only six hours a year scrubbing the shower seems about right, I just don't break it down into 5 minutes a week or whatever.

When I was done, I rewarded myself by working on my new website design. I want to aggregate all my blogs and photos and stuff to one site. It won't be "Thorsense" but I think it will be better. And yes, I'll post the old archive Thorsense issues again. I'm surprised people still want to look back at those, but I did have tons of photos of everyone in there at the time.

I started with a template that was kind of close to what I wanted, but I barely know how to use style sheets and these had php all in them and I really couldn't figure out how to change things right. I realized I was putting the cart before the horse so abandoned that and set about just trying out a design, forget about all the code. Here's version 1.0:

The big photo will be randomized to change with every refresh. I might be able to make the big slogan change, too. That would be fun. I probably won't have quite that many tabs and they certainly won't have those titles; remember I'm not making the site just designing it. This would be the written blog page.

I'm using the website software, Drupal, and it automatically comes with a logon for users. I guess I could use that so people could post and comment. Right now I've got the site running locally and I get my new blog entries using an rss aggregator so I still post as usual to blogger and people can go to the "repcat842.blogger.com" site directly and see what they do now, but if they go to heidithorsen.com the entries will also be there, but all formatted to match each other. I haven't decided if I'm going to do away with separate blogs hosted all over the place or keep them and just add this as a "wrapper".

I was only going to spend one hour working on my site before I got back to cleaning but I guess I actually spent about 1 hr 45 minutes. Not bad, I think I got a lot done. Please comment if you like the design or have any suggestions. The only thing I know for sure I like is having the main part "float" over the background, and having the "tabs" be directly above the content and sort of big because I don't like navigation bars that are just text, it looks too much like ordinary links to me and I associate links with leaving the current site, and I just think the floating thing is cool and looks nice no matter how you've got your browser window sized.

Ouch.

I'm outta the top ten in my Cake category (I'm 11) so I don't show up on the first page of results.  I take consolation in the fact that I'm still the highest ranked platinum market timer with a low risk portfolio.  I lost over 6% this week.  I did go ahead and sell some GLD since it was my plan to do so and I stuck with the plan even though I'm still bullish on gold.  I've got another sell level which I will also stick to if it comes to that, although I'm also going to be ready to buy it up again when the indicators turn around.  SDS and DBC are also down a bit, but their technicals are still strong in my opinion.  GLD is wishy-washy since it's now 3% below it's last higher low.

How Did thinkorswim Rank So High?

Today, I started placing trades using my "paper" account on thinkorswim.  It wasn't long before I discovered that they overstate portfolio gains by not adding commissions to the stock cost.  They take the commissions out of the available cash, so why not add the cost to the stock basis?  Once again I logged onto their "live chat" to discover that there is no setting that will enable me to quickly see true gains and losses, nor is there another screen (outside of the "profits and losses" screen) that I could use to find this out, either.

TDAmeritrade adds their commission to the cost of the stock right off so you can track your true gains and losses.  This is such a dumb thing for thinkorswim to not do.  They also have a number called "Net Liquidating Value", but all it really is is the current market value of your portfolio plus the cash in the account.  I think a true "Net Liquidating Value" would take into consideration the commission fees to sell all existing shares.  Thinkorswim shouldn't mislabel these things, I would be less annoyed if they were just upfront about the numbers they were presenting.  How about "Current Account Value" and "Gross Profits and Losses" instead of "Net Liquidating Value" and "Profits and Losses".

I really don't know how they ranked so highly on the Barron's Survey.  I might want to phantom trade based on TradeStation and see if I could still hit my target numbers with their fee schedule.  The per-trade costs are lower, but they have a $99 monthly flat fee for use of their trading platform.  But if it  makes it easier to place good trades, then it might be a better deal anyway.

thinkorswim

The top-rated online brokers on Barron's survey this year are TradeStation and thinkorswim.  I read the review and decided thinkorswim might be for me.  I go through the whole registration process even though at this point I just want to use their "papertrade" feature to test the effect of creating a portfolio with individual stocks instead of indexes.

The screen is dizzying, I haven't seen any way to change the colors--that black background is extremely hard on my eyes.  It's not intuitive to me, so I take the time to watch some of their demos and tutorials.  Then I go to do a simple screen based on a slow stochastic, but couldn't find any information about how to do that so I used their "live chat" help.  To discover their software doesn't do that.

I'm shocked and disappointed.  thinkorswim (the whole web 2.0 we're-too-cool-to-use-capital-letters really annoys me) was rated higher than TDAmeritrade (the online broker I use most) in all but one category.  Yet I was able to set up up slow stochastic screen using TDA's "Strategy Desk" software in under a minute.  They have a nice wizard so I just searched on K% < 25 AND D% < K% then sorted the results by today's percentage gain and picked the top three with decent liquidity (BGP, BID, FTO).  I was hoping to do the same using thinkorswim's platform so I can start paper-trading, but as I just mentioned, I can only do the 22 screens they've set up, and none of them particularly interest me at this point.

Now I'm sad since I had already seen that thinkorswim has columns for Industry Division, Industry Sector, and Industry Group which would be very helpful for me to see when researching what stocks to choose, and my current software doesn't have that.  Waaah.  Why can't I just get software with everything I want?

I know the answer to that one--because I don't feel like paying for it.  Perhaps there are better professional systems out there but I'm not ready to start paying for them yet.  I'm not ruling it out for the future, but for now I'll make do with what's available even though I don't like it and I have to duplicate efforts across multiple programs to track things the way I want to.

I Knew I Was Off-Course When. . .

. . .I realized I was picking teams for the NCAA tournament.  I woke up this morning determined to NOT play any video games.  I got a shower and made a plan to turn on the computer, read my emails and two technical trading articles I had flagged, then get dressed and eat breakfast.

My stomach growling and a tournament bracket on my screen I think back to how I got so far off-track; it started with a trading alert email.  I had just updated my trading alerts last night (I do this every month or so) and already got an alert that GLD was down to one of my watch levels.  Actually, it's down more now, I just opened a trading screen since I might sell the long-term shares.  Anyway, I logged into my trading programs to monitor that, then also checked the charts for my other positions since the market is all volatile again today.  And while I was reading this morning's commentary on Minyanville, I came across the Minyanville pool for the tournament and so clicked through and was merrily filling out my brackets when I realized I had gotten distracted.  And GLD is down about $3 / share from when I first noticed. . .

Now I've got a trading decision to make on an empty stomach.  Grrr.

The Day You've All Been Waiting For

You may have been wondering, where's the daytime TV?  Where are the bon-bons?  Well, here you go.

I finished correcting the 2006 Federal return last night, but had not yet started on the 1040X form when Terry called.  He was giving me grief about it so I called it quits for the night and decided to play some Super Paper Mario.  I got another "pure heart" but was caught up and wound up playing about three hours.  I was too lazy to go upstairs so I slept on the sofa.  I didn't feel like doing much this morning, so after breakfast I fired up Mario again and played through lunchtime.

I tried a new "6 o'clock Scramble" recipe for homemade fish sticks.  They tasted fine, but they didn't really look like the fish sticks for which they were meant to be a healthy alternative.  That made me feel disgruntled since the recipe said they'd be as good as frozen fish sticks but without all the additives.  And they actually tasted better, but that's only half the point.  I like the weirdness of fish in stick form.  Plus the crispy.  If I'd wanted to make breaded pan-fried fish I would've used a slightly better technique, I was hoping for actual fish sticks and so followed the recipe.  I was duped.  And so decided to play more of the video game until I felt better.

Um, by the time I noticed it was after 4pm, I decided to just commit the day to Super Paper Mario.  I took a break for dinner (leftover "fish sticks") but otherwise didn't get off the sofa until bedtime rolled around again.  I got all the "pure hearts" except the last one.  I was trying to just finish the game and be done with it, but I continually thought I didn't need to go back to Flipside to get a bunch of extra heart food since there was a refill fountain at the beginning of the level.  I was continually wrong.

When I started getting hungry again, I couldn't be bothered to reheat the steak fajitas I'd prepared yesterday (or was it the day before?), so I just dug into the candy bowl and started eating Reese's peanut butter cups and Kit-Kats.  Terry called around 10:30pm to let me know he'd arrived in Salt Lake City.  I considered playing through the call, but couldn't concentrate so I turned the TV off so I wouldn't be distracted but I kept the Wii on so I could pick up right where I left off after the call.  Terry was off the phone within thirty minutes since he called me after he ordered room service dinner and then it arrived and he wanted to eat it.  Fine with me, back to the game.  When my eyes started getting tired I decided to call it a night even though the game wasn't over-over.  Just in time to watch a little David Letterman.  So I watched that, had a beer, ate more candy.  Watched Conan's monologue--I liked the "instant audience upgrade" although if I got the upgrade I would've asked the page for free drinks.  Decided to go to bed before the first guest (Ice-T) came on.

Tomorrow I haven't decided if I will finish off the game or do something more productive.  I could continue my impersonation of Shaun-of-the-Dead's deadbeat roommate, or I could actually act like a responsible adult.  I do have to leave the house to get more cat food.  And if I want to go to New York next week, I really need to at a minimum clean the kitchen, fridge, and do the laundry.  I think Terry's not going to be back until Thursday--oh darn it, I thought today was Monday.  Hmm.  I'll sleep on it.

Give the People What They Want

Now I'm starting to feel like a bona fide investment professional.  I gained *another* follower, "Novadd" from Cambridge, MA.  Now that I have as many followers as people I follow, I've started to feel a responsibility to do something for them.  So I posted a few "journal" entries on the site.  I shared my expert analysis (insert head shake and eye-roll here) of DBC's chart and why I'm not even thinking about selling despite the nearly 6% drop in value its seen so far today.

C'mon, so many of the traders and analysts all over the TV and web are full of $&*%.  Sometimes I hear them on CNBC and I want to throw something at the TV they make me so mad.  Sometimes of course I'm happy, especially when they're inappropriately fear-mongering since I'm invested bearishly and that helps my returns.  But mostly I feel bad knowing there are actual viewers out there who will act on some of their dumb advice just because those guys are presented as "experts."  So I feel completely justified sharing a bit of my thinking with the three people who seem interested. 

Really, the only difference between me and someone on CNBC is that I'm doing my analysis at home, and not for some investment house in New York (with what happened to Bear Stearns, perhaps my analysis is BETTER than that going on inside a big fancy NYC investment house) so I'm not on the reporter's call list.  Well, that plus a lot of highly intensive in-house training and a likely college major in finance plus several years experience, but that's really picking nits, now, isn't it?

Local Crossword

I was reading the Crozet Gazette this morning, and did the crossword puzzle when I was done. I thought, "I could make a local crossword puzzle, too!" and then I did it; it took maybe an hour. I'm not ready for the New York Times, I've got way too many two-letter words, but I'll submit it to the CG. Terry is trying it out now.

Terry found a few mistakes in my first version, but I fixed the clues and the corrected one is posted for you to try. I think if you click the image, then click it again to zoom in (probably depends on your browser) it should show up large enough you can print it from your browser if you'd like.

On the Home Stretch

Guess what I did today!  I actually worked on the amended tax return!  AND went over plans for the redirected driveway new tree location with one of the landscape architects for an hour and a half AND did a load of laundry AND cooked a delicious frittata.  I didn't finish the return completely, but I'm done through calculating the regular tax.  Next I'll have to calculate the AMT, but that's the last hard part then I'm done.  Well, done with Federal, I don't even want to think about amending the states right now, but it's required.  Blech.

Follower #2 !!

Now I'm both pleased and puzzled.  I can understand why my first "follower" on Cake is watching me, since I am watching him.  But I really have no idea how "spiffy" from Beverly Hills, CA decided to follow me.  Maybe he/she clicked on me from the "Tops" list.  This person "spiffy" hasn't linked any accounts to Cake yet, so maybe he/she just chose to follow me at random to get a feel for the site.  I need more than fourteen followers to show up in the "most followed" ranking for the platinum category.  That's a long shot.  Maybe I should post something useful to my Cake Journal. . .

Three Downed Trees

So it's 6:15 pm, am I meeting my goals for the day?  Again, it looks like I'll just finish one of two.  I did take a nap on the porch after lunch.  And when I awoke, I decided I would exercise outside instead of doing one of my 10-minute DVD routines.  But that turned out to be quite a bit less efficient--I spent an hour walking around the grounds and dragging tree limbs into the water to continue the "dock" I'm building into the reservoir so I can launch my rafts into deeper water.  I've got some of the photos from this afternoon posted already on Heidi Sees.  It certainly was quite a workout.  The trip down to the lake is downhill, but coming back home is brutal.  I'm so out of shape, by the time I climbed back up the cliff and then uphill through the back field I was trudging one step at a time with a blank look on my face like a Confederate soldier returning defeated at the end of the war.  Then I had to relax on the porch to catch my breath and used that time to post my photos.  Now there is only time to shower and get ready to go to church.  And it's extremely doubtful I'll feel like starting the tax return when I get home tonight.  So you can guess what my goal for tomorrow will be. . .

Naptime already?

So my goals for today are 1) amend our 2006 tax return, and 2) go to the reconciliation service tonight at 7:30pm.

I didn't fall asleep until 2am last night, so didn't wake up until around 10:30am.  Read the February issue of Martha Stewart Living for 30 minutes, ate breakfast, then went upstairs to pay a bill and do the taxes.  I paid the bill, but somehow ended up figuring out how to renew my passport instead of starting the taxes.  I tried to print the renewal application, but my printer isn't working right and everything is blue with a bit of yellow and black only in places with no red except when I do a "nozzle check" test page then it's only blue and red.  I gave up.  Hopefully my friend Cathy will print out the page for me when she takes my passport photo (if she will do that, I haven't heard back yet but I don't see why not).

Then I checked facebook to see if it was my turn in scrabulous for any games (no) but while I was there I checked out Sarah's profile since she just recently "friended" me after we got back from Utah.  She turned 30 in November, man we're all getting old.  Some guy in a truck was sitting in front of my house for about 15 minutes, but now that I glanced out the window the truck is gone but I didn't hear the driveway alarm go off.  Hopefully he's just with the power company driving through the field to get to the towers, but I don't know.  It wasn't a power company truck.  Strangers drive around the farm surprisingly regularly, it's a good thing I'm not uptight.  Sometimes I go out and ask them what they're doing, but most of the time I just keep an eye on them from inside the house.

It's 1:30pm now and I'm sleepy.  I don't know why, perhaps the skim milk in my cereal and strawberry yogurt wasn't enough protein for breakfast?  I'll go make myself some lunch, take a shower, get dressed, then do the taxes.  I never did download the 2006 1099-DIV from my brokerage last night, I'll start with that.

The Perfect ADD Career

I'll just post my discovery for the benefit of ADD people everywhere, I finally found a job that matches my skills and limitations.  I'd been thinking for years about what kind of job to do other than corporate accounting, which suits me well enough but if it's "exciting" then it's probably because you're not doing a very good job.  When the accounting department is run well then things are dull.

I ruled out any job where I have to provide a service to customers or clients.  I tried that while at Arthur Andersen and I resented them when a client had some request that would require me to work overtime to answer.  Theoretically I would care more if I had an equity stake, but the fact is that I'm not particularly motivated by money.  It's all about the lifestyle for me--which is why I quit a fairly well-paying job at Arthur Andersen to move to Florida to try out for Team Rollerblade.  But that's another story.

So I thought of manufacturing, maybe I could just make a product and sell it wholesale.  No customer handholding, they place an order and I fill it.  But there's nothing I particularly enjoy making, certainly nothing that would bring a high enough price I'd rather make and sell it than just not make it and goof off for free.  And if it was something I could invent then hire workers to make it I'd have to manage employees and that's also a nuisance I'd rather avoid.  Running a business is out since there's just so many things to take care of and I get overwhelmed easily.

After ruling out both service and manufacturing jobs I was at a loss.  Until the little lightbulb in my head came up with TRADING!  No customers, no product.  No deadlines, no employees.  Reasonable hours even if you work full-time, from 9:30am - 4:00pm.  Plenty of time to close up shop and get a good patio table for happy hour.  I came up with this idea in May 2007, and have stuck with it all this time.  If you know me, you know that if I stick with anything more than eight weeks it's unusual.  When I didn't know anything about trading one of the first things I read is that each trader needs to develop a strategy and stick with it in good times and bad.  So I decided that my strategy would be to make 10% profit every day, and quit work once I did that.  I'd start with $100.  By the end of the year I'd have something like $142 million, I don't remember but I worked it out at the time.  It didn't seem quite right, but how hard could it be to make $10?  And if it's a percentage gain, why wouldn't it be scalable?  Anyway, I was very excited and set out to be a trader.

I ordered a bunch of books and started reading them.  Spent most of the summer on that part, just learning.  Here's where the ADD pros & cons comes up; I learned that good traders

• have an innate sense of the tape.  One of the benefits of ADD is that your brain absorbs so much minutiae that you just "know" things intuitively without knowing quite how you know it.  I've got that--I have very good intuition and I've learned to trust it and accept it as a skill.  More of a talent, really since I don't know how it happens.  But trusting it is the hard part and I've learned to do it.
• must come up with their own strategy.  This is because there are plenty of winning strategies, but they only really work for the person who invented them.  It has to do with trusting the system--if you've done enough research to discover a system then you know how it works and why and can trust it.  If you just buy someone else's system you won't have a familiarity with the data that was used to create the rules and the lack of complete understanding disallows complete trust and that can lead a trader to second-guess the system and make bad trades.  From what I've tried so far, it's kind of monotonous to backtest strategies and to study charts looking for patterns.  But I love it.  That's an ADD thing, too.  Hyperfocus.  ADD people can have extraordinary attention when it comes to simple repetitive tasks.  I first learned I was good at this when I took a psychology study in college.  I had to hit one key if a shape on the right was rotated versus the one on the left, and another key if it was both a mirror image and rotated.  It seemed to go on and on, but I did like they told me and chose as fast as I could while still being accurate.  Apparently I finished in a normal amount of time.  When it was over they asked me how I thought I did, and I said I was pretty sure I missed one since I reacted just a little too quickly and hit the wrong key although I knew immediately it was a mistake.  They laughed and said they'd check the results.  They were SHOCKED when they returned and said I was right, I missed one.  I shrugged and said I did my best, I knew I went a little too fast on that one.  But they said, "No, you don't understand.  Most people miss several hundred.  The next best participant missed fifty-something."  So I thought that was odd but it's not like I can make a career out of correctly identifying if shapes are mirror images or not.  Later I had a temp job where I had to add stacks of checks with an adding machine and attach the tape with the total to the stack.  I was great at that--I blew through whole stacks without any mistakes, I liked how neat the tapes looked without any corrections.  I'd add anything from 200 to 600 checks at a time.  I found out later that the other women could barely get past 50 without making an error.  Now years later when I was diagnosed, I found out this is special to people with ADD and I've found a practical application for the skill since I can look at charts and test strategies and repeat and  repeat and repeat without really getting bored with it, I just get into a zone.
• must stick with their strategy even when it's not making sense.  This appeals both to the tendency for ADDers to love systems.  Special lists, beeping devices, index card systems, you name it.  All necessary to help us do what other people take for granted.  Before I got meds I actually would forget things while I showered and had to come up with a strategy to make sure I washed and shampooed and rinsed in the right order and I still sometimes would do things twice since I forgot if I did it just a few seconds earlier.  Seriously, it was getting bad and that's when I went to a doctor to find out what was going on and found out it was ADD.  But back to the systems, it's a matter of trusting the system more than yourself.  And that's par for the course for the ADD crowd, we wouldn't need a system if we could manage without it so of course we trust it more than ourselves.  Plus it's reinforced by the trusting your intuition thing.  That involves trusting that you know what's going on even when you don't understand why something is the way it is or even understand how you know it.  You just know it and that's that and it just wastes time to try to figure out how you got to the conclusion.
• must not make emotional decisions about money.  I'm not sure that this is particular to those with ADD, although anecdotally it seems to me that those of us who are this way are fairly happy-go-lucky about money.  Easy come, easy go.  Maybe it's a psychological defensive mechanism so we don't feel bad when we can't succeed in traditional jobs as we watch our peers pass us by.  Or maybe it's because our sense of time isn't as linear as most people's.  There is now, and there is the future.  No systematic progression from one to the other.  Things are now, or they are in the future.  At some point, some of those things previously in the "future" will pop into the "now" and we'll deal with them at that point.  So as I see it, if you have money "now" then it's not particularly relevant if there is money in the "future" or not since you aren't going to spend it now anyway.  You use "now" money to buy things "now" and you can't really buy things in the future because when you buy them you always do it "now".  I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else, but it does make it easier to be dispassionate about temporary gains and losses and just stick with the strategy.

and that's mostly it.  Your hours depend on your strategy.  My strategy doesn't require me to work all day every day.  Except sometimes during crucial transition points.  But even then, I set my trade triggers and can be anywhere and just get a text message that my trigger went off and I purchased or sold shares.  I don't day-trade or invest in anything that would require hair-trigger order placement to make money.   So trade triggers are great, they might be a few cents off the ideal but for me that's unimportant.  For others, it could be the difference between profit and loss.  I set a bunch of stuff up before I went on vacation, and could relax without checking the market.  Because I trust my system.

If anyone reads this and has a perspective about ADD and trading please leave a comment, I'm interested to know if I've come up with a great career for many ADDers or if it's just particular to me and I'm generalizing too much.

I have a follower!

When I logged into my brokerage account to print out last year's 1099-DIV, I saw that my investments were up over 1% *in a day*.  I was pleasantly surprised since everyone was talking "rally" yesterday and I'm invested as a bear.  And I was out slushing around during market hours today and didn't know what happened (still don't, I've gotta focus on taxes).  Anyway, since I was up so much I had to of course log onto Cake Financial to see if I've been upgraded to "elite" from "platinum".  I was "elite" for a day earlier this week for the first time, but was kicked back the next day.  But I know I must be close.  I'm still platinum, but I noticed something curious.  My welcome splash said "You have 4 members in your network."  But I'm only following three other investors, so I clicked to find out what was going on.

I have a follower!  Someone is following *my* investments!  I am just tickled.  Terry said that makes me "officially" a professional trader now that someone is interested in my trading skills (or at least is curious about what's in my portfolio).  Granted, it's one of the guys that I'm following, so that's how he found out about me, but still, he did choose to be notified when I make a trade.

I'm still the #2 top investor in my category (platinum market timer), but my portfolio is significantly less risky than the top performer so I like to think that I am #1 in being closest to the "efficient frontier" in my category.  I might not be #2 when anyone reads this, but I've consistently been in the top ten.  Don't be too impressed, I think it's out of something like 42 other people.  But it's all the recognition I get, so I'll take it.  I've got no boss, no coworkers, no customers, no suppliers.  No one to send me flowers on national Trader Appreciation Day.

What do I do all day? Part 2

OK, so it's been about eight hours since my last post. Did I accomplish my goals yet? Not exactly.

So I called the resort this morning and got the report that conditions were excellent. Great! But I get out there and it's pure slush. Over old packed down snow turned to ice. I gave it a try, but it just wasn't fun for me I was too worried about running into the puddles and getting soaked. I know there is a certain snowboard technique that's good for slush, but it's too late in the season for me to be bothered to learn it, so I came home after just a few runs. Very disgruntled. Bad Wintergreen!

I lay down to take a quick nap, and then I get a call from a collection agent about some old business expense that wasn't paid. I call Terry so he can deal with it, but he puts it back on me. An hour later, I've made some calls and sent an email to put the situation on hold for the time being. I have not had time to relax and am still disgruntled.

I take a break to eat some of the delicious chicken I picked up at the Greenwood Market on the way home from the resort (you see I did what I could to make lemonade from the situation) and that started to cheer me up, although I was still tired.

I turn on the computer to start the taxes when I get the email from the landscaper I'd been waiting for since yesterday showing why the flags for the new tree are so near the house. So before it got dark I went outside with the plan and a measuring tape to better envision it. It took about an hour to measure it all out and satisfy myself that I will like the new look for the front yard, then when I got back in it took some time to write an email since I still had a few questions about the particulars. I had to deal with this today since the tree will probably be planted Friday and any/all changes to the plan have to be made by tomorrow.

Now it's 8pm and I'm tired of sitting at the computer, and a bit sore from the two hours of slushboarding I put in before I got disgusted with the conditions and left. It was a warm day, it would've only gotten worse.

I will take a break, eat some fresh bread & soft cheese, maybe have a beer. There's nothing on TV I'm interested in, but I might turn on "America's Next Top Model". I saw an episode before where one of the girls was so clueless she couldn't find any of her calls and spent the whole day asking for directions. The show should make me feel better about myself. At least I accomplished ONE of my goals for the day.

What do I do all day?

Here's an example of what happens.  My goal for today is to amend our 2006 Federal tax return and go snowboarding.  How I've progressed:  I woke up early so I squandered the found time by playing Scrabble with myself (I won).  I've updated my antivirus software on both my portable usb drive and laptop.  I've added my local bank address & business hours to my wiki, and sent direct deposit information to Terry's employer.  I put a September 2008 doctor's appointment on my calendar.  On their website I see that most of Wintergreen's trails and lifts are open despite the weather forecast showing a high of 59F on the mountain.  I will call them before I leave since I'm skeptical about this.  OK I just got off the phone, they apparently have been making snow overnight, so I'll give it a try.  Since I only have 15 minutes before it's time for me to leave for the afternoon half-day session I don't think I'll start the 2006 return now--I'll do that tonight when I get back.  The perfect way to relax after a few hours on the slopes, amending your prior year's tax return.