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Why Me Failing At Scuba Diving Teaches You An Important Trading Lesson

Posted by Timothy Sykes on Tue 30th of Sep, 2008 04:12:05 PM
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Yup, I couldn’t go scuba diving yesterday afternoon (I’m down in the Florida Keys right now) because I flunked the basic training program in the morning. For some strange reason, I’ve always had issues with putting my head under water so I tried confronting my greatest fear and I failed, big time.

As my girlfriend and the 2 others in our “class” went off scuba diving, I was forced to go snorkeling with the kids and older people. It actually wasn’t so bad after 30 minutes or so–saw lots of cool fish–but I even had problems with it at first!

Weird, I know, but life could be worse.

After my snorkeling, last night I grilled up some lobsters and slept on a hammock on a perfect beach.

So what can this teach you about trading?

1. Don’t be embarrassed –it’s okay to admit defeat! No matter how hard you want something to work out perfectly, sometimes it won’t. Learn from goes wrong, get better and move on.

2. Focus on what you’re good at–if you’re strangely good at Short Selling like me, focus on it. Don’t let Brig Brother SEC hold you down, it’s a fully useful and important trading strategy. If it’s buying breakouts, you have America on your side, but good luck finding many plays right now!

3. Control your risks and always have an exit strategy–even if I had overcome my fear and gone scuba diving, sooooooooo many things coulda woulda shoulda gone wrong down there, no easy way out, it was not be a good risk-reward situation. Snorkeling fit the bill much better for me.

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  • Good for you, Tim, for trying, failing, and sharing. It's worth it on all three counts. And, yes, it teaches a valuable lesson to your fans and friends and followers.

    And there's nothing wrong with snorkeling -- some of the best, most colorful fishes do not go that deep. Hmm, sounds like a strategy.

    Be well and enjoy the keys while you can. Shanah tovah.
  • Chris G
    yea indeed, I've that as well no luck getting the head underwater...haha
    But that doesn't mean there aren't other ways of having fun, enjoy the keys and the sun.
  • A
    Nice post Tim. One of the hardest things I find to do is accept losses and move on to the next trade with a clear mindset.
  • Jay Cornelius
    Hey, maybe your reluctance to be held underwater will save your life one day. Deeb scuba is kind of rough on the body anyway. But yeah, good relation to trading.
  • Wait until you puke into your mask. I did that, and had quite a little panic session. When I asked my instructor about it, he said "no problem, just keep breathing." There's a lesson there, as well, I think.
  • CB
    Tim, that was a challenge presented. You should overcome that someday.
    Reasonably and tell us about it.
  • JeePee
    Zen trading by The Snorkeling Speculator LOL Tim. You're aboslutely right even rigorously consistent sticking to ones winning strategie will not always return winners. I think if you have an 'edge' that works for you stick to it, but realise that it wont always work. The market is always right. Enough philosophy for today :-) cheers Tim and enjoy your break in the Keys!
  • Getshorty
    Good balance you are getting, getting a hell of a job done and enjoying life at the same time.

    DIdn't knew stuff like the goog Nasdaq error could be reverted. Scary stuff. I thought it was the mother of all stop loss orders avalanche.
  • younggunz
    Yeah they can revert errors like that. That's what happens sometimes when a computer is doing all the work, once in a while it doesn't handle what's going on. There were some erroneous trades that they canceled. Basically every trade under 420 got canceled I think.
  • Ray
    Tim,

    I'm a PADI instructor and have had a lot of students with the same problem that you had. Ask the instructor if there is a pool where you & he can go for an hour and swim along the bottom. You'll get comfortable in a safe underwater enviorn, you'll see that there's nothing to worry about and that you can relax in the water.

    Good luck, Ray
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Date Stock Buy Sell Net
Nov 6 QXM $4.31 $4.80 $1936
Nov 4 COT $8.66 $8.88 $642
Nov 4 QXM $4.61 $4.89 $822
Oct 30 DDRX $25.70 $26.53 $812
Oct 29 CTDC $4.00 $4.42 $781
Oct 26 AWSL $3.24 $4.10 $2516
Oct 23 RODM $5.27 $5.23 $301
Oct 22 AMLM $2.69 $2.97 $820
Oct 22 USEG $6.12 $6.09 $85
Oct 20 CBOU $8.93 $9.06 $243
Oct 16 VRMLQ $16.79 $18.65 $2773
Oct 13 YONG $11.05 $11.66 $1202
Oct 13 NPHC $0.59 $0.71 $583
Oct 12 IMGG $0.60 $0.70 $682
Oct 9 ZAGG $5.50 $6.10 $2380
Oct 7 GVBP $0.03 $0.27 $702
Oct 1 NPHC $0.70 $0.85 $1482

Total: $92,304 (644%)