[KateMoloney]

I am currently doing the Demartini Method on Jordan Belfort.

Whilst he is not a trading man, his hedonistic ways became his biggest downfall. The human mind is wired to “seek pleasure and avoid pain” and it is something we have to over come as traders. The market can give us instant feedback in terms of price. If we focus on the short term, we forget the long term and don’t show up consistently enough to succeed.

In studying Jordan Belfort, I have been confronted with my own “avoiding pain seeking pleasure” habits which have showed up in the form of “seeking the next shiny object”. I can have a very active mind and love complexity and strategy. It can serve me but it can also be a disservice because I get bored easily.

The last few months I’ve been looking at regular habits/rituals and routines in relation to my trading business. And ways that I can stay focused on the long game without the short term distractions putting me off path.

In terms of my mindset around sticking consistently to the same thing, I have a session with my mindset coach next week and we’ll be looking at some of my patterns around “seeking the next shiny thing”. Until then, I am writing a list of all the benefits to sticking to trading long term (and consistently showing up) and a list of all the drawbacks of seeking the next shiny thing.

[KateMoloney]

What I’ve learned so far …. (if you want to lose money in your trading business consistently)

Constantly change systems. Constantly upgrade/modify your system.
Switch your system off during a drawdown and create a new system (because the old one must be broken)
Get highly emotional about your wins AND losses.
Chase the next seminar/guru/course that looks promising.
Invest $5k into your system hoping to turn it into $1Million by the end of the year …

Finally, and most importantly of all ……

Blame Nick for all your losses. They are his fault after all
Take responsibility for the wins (do this if you are trading Nick & Craigs systems …)
Send Nick a nasty email complaining about his systems and how badly they perform.

[KateMoloney]

Nick,
See attached STT for AUS dividends.

The franking credits don’t show up in the data.
I’ve tried adding the franking % (30) but nothing changes…. do you need to manually input the franking credits?

[KateMoloney]

I haven’t seen a dividend statement yet – but I assume it is tax with held in the states.
The data shows a gross dividend of $67.28, so I’m assuming the $56.62 deposited in the bank account is after tax with held.

[KateMoloney]

Update.

Nearly finished the coding part of the mentoring program. Had I known about the depth of coding up front I probably wouldn’t have signed up for the course. Now I am starting to enjoy the coding, oddly enough !!

Most days I aim to do about 3 hours on the mentoring program. Sometimes that means staring at the code for 30 minutes trying to think it through .. (I’m blonde, don’t judge me). Then I mix the rest of the day up with trading admin, reading/podcasts/videos (by Nick only) and reading through the forum. In particular I enjoy reading peoples progress journals from the beginning. I want to think through problems in advance where possible. For example, how would I handle a large windfall? How would I handle market conditions such as October 2018? Thinking problems through in advance helps me think of strategic solutions in advance. Then I can be proactive rather than reactive to the market.

Mindset is so important in life, but especially in trading.

MRNA has been erratic the last few weeks. I’ve been surprised at my (lack of) emotional response to big gains and losses with MRNA. This game is long term for me, so perhaps that helps. My weakness is definitely in the coding so I’ve given myself 2 years to learn it properly, even if that means committing 15 – 30 minutes a day to coding ….. over the long run the results will add up.

Aside from trading, I love studying and learning about human behaviour and self mastery. Since 2012 I have studied with Dr John Demartini. He created “The Demartini Method” which is essentially a set of quality questions designed to dissolve your emotional charges.

One aspect of his work is known as “Owning the Traits of the Greats”. Where you essentially own the traits of people you admire/look up too. At the moment I am studying some of the greats in the equities markets. In June I owned Warren Buffett’s traits and noticed an up levelling in our finances within 2-3 weeks of completing it (to the point where I had to increase our financial goals).

One point Nick made, which I love, is that “Everybody gets what they want from the markets”.
Trading is a business and if it is not treated like a business, it is likely either a hobby or opportunity to gamble.

[KateMoloney]

A saying comes to mind ….. when the voices and vision on the inside are louder than those on the outside, you have begun to master your life.

Everyone has an opinion, you are instead trusting your system and processes.

[KateMoloney]

Silly question Nick.

When you sell MRNA and rebalance the portfolio, do you wait till new signals appear and then rebalance?
Or do you just pay the extra brokerage and top up the other positions?

Or should I be asking .. which of those methods were backtested?

[KateMoloney]

Nick,

Are you saying to leave the rebalancing until the portfolio goes 100% cash ? Or leave the rebalancing until the share has been sold?

[KateMoloney]

The discussion about MRNA has been very helpful.

After a lot of consideration (re: rebalancing the portfolio or sticking to the system), I decided to stick to the system since that is the goal as a trader.

This morning I checked our portfolio expecting MRNA to drop … instead it went up 17.1% in the trading session.

[KateMoloney]

Ok … So thanks to Nicks help, the performance tables are up and running ……

July
ASX Momentum +5.67% (15.77% inception CAGR)
Growth Portfolio -0.35% (Started July 2021)

US Momentum -2.52% (Started end of June 2021)
Trade Long Term +7.74% (20.90% inception CAGR)

Also reviewed the strategic holds that we bought through a broker. Bought during the COVID crash.

ASX – 39.39% (18 month hold time)
US – 12.38% (18 month hold time – performance dragged down by one share that dropped 70%).

It was buying shares through a broker that sparked my interest back to TA trading. The financial planning industry is very regulated, my guy has major issues selling shares at a loss. At one point, I was happy to sell a losing share at $29.70 but he insisted on trying to get $30 for the share to save $100 …

Also, when asked about an exit strategy for the shares, my broker/fin planner has no idea.

This is why I love TA – there are defined entries and exits. You don’t get emotional over shares or losses, you just move onto the next trade and cut the losses short.

The share that dropped 70% showed me how one bad egg can drag down an entire portfolio performance. On the contrary – with the TLT strategy – MRNA is a winning outlier and is dragging the portfolio performance up. Trading to me is all about maths. Fundamental trading through my broker seems more about emotion and “being right” all the time.

[KateMoloney]

Thank you for sharing Nick.

[KateMoloney]

Thanks Nick – will do.

Appreciate your help.

[KateMoloney]

Thanks Nick.

I have been using the report function and doing monthly reports to get the back dated monthly P&L. STT is such a great tool.

[KateMoloney]

Thank you Nick and Glen for sharing.

I spent a number of hours yesterday trying to figure out best process for this.

Grateful for this community.

[KateMoloney]

Also, do you have any videos or information about VAMI tab on share trade tracker?

Not sure if it is user error, but the data seems incorrect on the VAMI tab. For example gross profit and loss is completely different to the gross P & L I get when I run a report for that same time period (or what is reflected on the summary tab).

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