[MarkCottle]

I would, but it’s useess to anyone, even as a template. It’s explaining what countries I’ve got bank accounts; acct numbers; brokerage; how to access encrypted files; people who owe me money; shares in private companies; who has a copy of my Will and boring stuff like that.

[MarkCottle]

I wrote a document called ‘Kick The Bucket Plan’. It’s a series of instructions for people who have to clean up my mess.

My business partner and my life partner both have copies.

They also have half of the encryption key each to unlock my password manager so they can easily access everything in my world.

My son asked me last week what I want him to do with his share of the estate. I told him to respect how hard I worked for the money and don’t piss it up against a wall. Buy a house or something enduring. There is zero chance any of my kids will follow in my footsteps.

Here’s the intro to the document:

If you are reading this, then I’m probably dead. And it’s possible I kicked the bucket unexpectedly. That means along with burying my fat ass and spending a moment remembering what a prick I was, there is also a bunch of admin work to do. So, buckle up, and I’ll walk you through how to handle my shit.

[MarkCottle]

Is there a record here for length of time between journal updates?

Unfortunately I’ve had the worst year of my life when it comes to health.

I’m writing this update in hospital following my 6th back surgery in the last 12 months. All morphine, and no responsibility in this post!

I had a spinal fusion in November 2021 and then spent the last 12 months dealing with a nagging, recurring infection. It’s one of those cases a surgeon warns you about, but rarely happens.

Last night I had half the hardware (3 screws and a rod) removed. Fun times. The challenge I had going from one ass kicking to the next was I struggled to gain momentum in learning how to code. I’d work through sections of the course, have surgery, then spend time recovering…before forgetting a bunch of what I’d just learned. My interest in going deep in detailed, difficult work has been very low.

A couple of weeks ago I adjusted my path a bit.

My intention at the start was to be fully independent. It still is, but I might take some detours getting there. As much as I love Nick, I don’t want to rely on anyone for trading signals.

A couple of weeks ago I put my independence goal aside and signed up for a trial of the Chartist and a couple of days ago signed up for the 12 month plan. I’ve been trading the mean reversion system and the GP2.0. Very straight forward to follow. I reckon Nick, Trish and the team have done a great job.

I also bought a copy of the WTT code, but haven’t finished getting it ‘trade ready’ due to my latest ass kicking here. Shouldn’t be far away though as I did make a start on it and broadly understand what most of the code is doing. I’ve got some funky results in the explorer I need to sort such as companies that delisted a few months ago still showing as open positions. I vaguely recall something about removing tickers either in the testing or exploration. I’ll fix that next week once I get out of here.

The other thing I changed was the plan to build a day trading system first. For obvious reasons mentioned above, I need to start with the systems that have the least workload possible.

[MarkCottle]

Should be all done now.

Spinal fusion done in November, that subsequently got infected right down to my spine. Caught it in time before it got inside my spine, but was fairly serious.

That required two more surgeries to firstly remove the infection, insert antibiotic beads, then another surgery to remove the beads and check the infection is gone.

It absolutely takes the wind out of your sails. I spent a month taking enough antiobiotics to kill a horse I reckon.

Trading or doing anything demanding just has to take a back seat in times like that. Hopefully you feel better soon and the market stops closing on it’s bloody lows every day!

[MarkCottle]

I can relate to this Kate.

I just had my 3rd back surgery in 6 months a few weeks ago. My back now looks like a zipper on a jacket.

Trading hasn’t been at the top of my things to focus on. I’ve got my L Plates on with the coding…and each time I open the editor I just close it again within a couple of minutes. Hospital definitely put the brakes on my plans this year!

The upside (gotta find an upside while having the shit kicked out of you, right?!) of being butchered repeatedly is I’ve mostly been in cash for months and sidestepped the daily carnage.

Get well soon!

[MarkCottle]

I’m now two months into the program.

I’ve listened to every group recording from 2017 to 2022. I did it chronologically which was good because I was able to follow along with peoples’ experiences over the years. Much appreciation to the pioneers that have gone before me!

I’ve broken the back of the theory side of the course and while there is no way I can code something from scratch, I can understand most of what the code is doing as I read through it. I’m guessing as I get my hands dirty my understanding should improve reasonable quickly.

I had a call with Nick today and I will now start work on building my first system which will be a day trading system for the R1000. I expect to harrass Craig quite a bit as I break stuff in the weeks ahead. Apologies in advace, Craig!

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