Goals for 2012

I'm no Jim Collins and this wont be a post filled with BHAGs. Rather, I just want to lay out a few macro bullet points about what I'd like to accomplish over the next 12 months. This will be my acid tester. A little strip that I've placed out there for everyone to poke at...and maybe hold me accountable to.

Goals for 2012 {1-5 Corporate, 6-8 Personal}

1. Create a sustainable trade in the EuroDollar Future's market. Not just taking blind risk {e.g. "Let's buy that spread because it feels cheap."} instead, making educated assumptions on risk and return and trading it with a directional bias at all times.
2. Manage my electronic trading more efficiently. Whether that is my auto-traders, auto-spreaders, or just my click trading, I want it to be done with more streamlined efficiency. I want to be able to watch the code work as planned and react accordingly if something gets derailed. 
3. Profits: I'd like to hit the % break by the end of Q3 2012. This will require at more effort than I'm currently exerting and wont be an easy goal. If we can achieve this prior to Sept 30, 2012, I'll have a legitimate shot at a personal financial best for a fiscal calendar.
4. Grow as a team. I've mentioned that we're adding another member next week. My goal is that he doesn't make a dime for the first three months. REALLY. The last thing I want is someone that thinks they have it all figured out. However, I do want him to succeed, and to wildly pass even his personal goals and aspirations. This will only be possible it we {the three of us} can figure out how to work as a team and how to build each other up and not destroy the boat we're all sailing on. I want to be an integral part of that growth and mentoring.
5. Begin to ask the question(s) about what the next steps are. Do we expand in terms of personnel? Allow ourselves to take on customer funds? What is the next level of our trading experience? 
6. Write MORE. I maintain a couple of blogs and a pair of Twitter accounts. I want to make sure that I respect what's in me to write and actually put most of my thoughts {trading related} on here.
7. Continue running. Specifically, I want to run the Illinois Marathon {Champaign, April 27-29} in under 3 hours. That should allow me to qualify for the 2013 Boston Marathon. I also want to run Chicago, however, its too far away for me to pick out a finishing time as of now.
8. Finally, I want to do some type of educational growth in my life. Whether that is continuing education or a refresher course or perhaps heading back to school for some type of graduate work, I'd like to reengage with learning.

That's it. I'm sure there are a bunch more. However, as I try to distill them down to the macro themes, these are the ones that keep emerging. Hold me/we/us to them.

as a fun link, read this Jim Collins post...it just makes sense

~LH

Closing the year

I'm looking forward to closing the books on a rocky 2011. In terms of trade, it was tumultuous to say the least. That's a surprising statement considering Q1 of '11 was actually a great time to trade. However, as the year progressed there seemed to be no end to the speed bumps I encountered.

Chronological review:

• Jan-March: Everything was firing at full capacity. That's not to say I didn't have losing days, but the quarter was profitable and gave reason for hope.
• April: I hit a legal snag that interestingly intersected my personal life with my trading life. It cost me 10 trading days and a way too much money. Externally, I was able to deal with it by escaping to Mexico for a week. Internally, it was just extremely frustrating to feel like like the victim and still be forced to play {pay} by the rules.
• May-June: The doldrums began earlier than expected this year. Many of the spreads began there march towards 0. This seemed strangely early and paper was hell bent on selling anything with value in the Fed Funds. I eked out a scratch for the quarter, but not without some last second heroics. 
• July: Dead, didn't trade very well. My partner had a good month, but I was never able to gain traction.I decided to start running {well, actually, I started on June 11th, but now I got serious}with hopes to complete a half marathon and a full marathon by year's end.
• August: At the Aug 9th FOMC meeting, Big Ben decided it would be a great idea to take a few hundred thousand from me, my partners, and my backer by announcing the following, "The Committee currently anticipates that economic conditions--including low rates of resource utilization and a subdued outlook for inflation over the medium run--are likely to warrant exceptionally low levels for the federal funds rate at least through mid-2013." As we all rushed to puke our spreads to each other it became apparent that I would need to find another market to trade.
• Sept: The grind back toward parity was slow and tedious. Little by little I peeled off the pieces of my book that showed small profits and gradually began to march back to even.I ran my first competitive race since 8th grade...and wound up in Jackson Park Hospital's ER with dehydration and hypoglycemia. Not to be deterred {it was just a bad trade, right?} I continued my pursuit of running my first marathon in December.
• Oct: I officially team up with the Neapolitan Man, merged our books and began a quest to add new products. Then the MF disaster struck. It paralyzed our accounts and broke our stride just as we were beginning to make significant headway. We're thankful for our backers who have made us whole, even though they still have outstanding monies with Corzine and Co. 
• Nov-Dec: We remained profitable, though we were never able to regain the swagger we seemed to be rolling with prior to the MF collapse. We identified some of the areas which we'll be focusing some of our additional energies on {trade wise} in the next few months and years. We found our next trading companion as well Mr. PRD {Philosophical Rail Defender} and he begins his tenure at the first of the year. I did run my first ever marathon {a full 26.2 miles} and surprised myself by clocking a 3:10:25.

Looking back...it wasn't a horrible year, but I'd prefer to never repeat it. I have plenty to be thankful for, but there are vast areas that need improvement. Everything from trading, to running, to relationships, to life, I look forward to attacking them all in 2012.

Hopefully, I slip one more post in this year and lay out a few of the goal we have for 2012.

~LH

ReEngaging after a long drought

It's been a long time since I've sat to seriously write my trading thoughts. However, as the New Year approaches I once again feel the urge to type.

Realistically, it wont be a daily thing. To be honest, it will be whenever the inspiration strikes. My goal is to take the notebooks and post-its around my desk and turn them into coherent thoughts. I no longer have the privilege of sitting next to the Practical Thinker, but I'm still seated next to the fabulously brilliant Neapolitan Man and we're looking forward to bringing on one other individual to help with the increased bandwidth. I'll probably be the primary writer, but their ideas will greatly influence what gets put out here. 

We'll stick with what we believe we know best. Mainly Fed Fund and EuroDollar futures and options, as well as some yield curve materials. We haven't traded a yield curve product for at least a quarter if not two, but our goal is to add them back into the arsenal of toys. When our newest member Mr.PrD {Philosophical Rail Defender} joins us at the first of the year I expect that we'll add commentary in the FX and hard commodity {GLD/CL} areas.

In terms of updating what we have on for the last few weeks of December, don't let this disappoint you...we've got virtually nothing on. A few small scattered option trades here and there, a tiny FFs book, and a scant amount of ED 1x2 double flys. As the New Year rolls around, we'll be looking to build a position and running timeline to track our success and failure!

Closing Note:
I don't plan on pasting large amounts of non-original content on here any more. I'll use my Twitter account to repost articles that I find useful. Feel free to join along in the fun @LeftHash

~LH