Women in Trading: The Days of Summer

Hi there Tackle Traders! I’m slowly coming off the highs of the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup win and parade. These past few weeks Washington DC has been so vibrant with everyone rocking the red and ALLCAPS. The players were just wonderful in how they celebrated their win with the fans. I think they will be sleeping in all this week just so they can recover from all the festivities that they participated in since winning the Stanley Cup. Speaking of sleeping, school is out and the kids have officially started their summer break. I’m sure a lot of us parents have already or soon will visiting the wholesale retail stores to rack up on food and drinks for the offspring. I don’t know about you but my kids destroy everything in the pantry the moment they come back from the pool or any outdoor related activity. With vacation planning in full effect, kids begging to go the pool all day long, cookouts, concerts, camping, and fireworks do you find the need to adjust your trading daily routine when summertime rolls in? Do you close up shop, trade less or is it business as usual. Are you the type to take the laptop to the beach just so you can get one trade in?

There are so many benefits to trading for a living, many which have been discussed here and in other platforms. One of them is the ability to adjust your daily routine to fit whatever is going on in your life. When the kids are in school, my daily trading routine is in the morning right after I drop my son at school. With school out, there is no daily routine for anything! There’s no telling which night we’ll stay up late, or the day we’ll decide to sleep in or the occasional afternoon nap. Gone are the days when I could trick them into doing something that was for my benefit. When I used to work a 9–5 I envied stay at homes moms. I had this notion that all they did was drink-iced lattes while the rest of us were sitting in traffic in a car with no air conditioning. I now have a completely different perspective about stay at home moms. There is no such this as “staying at home” and we should change the name to “work at home moms” because it is work to be at home with kids.

Forget having a title, at any point we can be referees, counselors, neighborhood watch, noise patrol, CIA, FBI, cybersecurity monitors, chef, nurse, cleaning lady and psychic to name a few. During the school year, all the kids kept saying was how they could not wait until school was over so they can hang out at the pool. Today that was the plan, unit the thunderstorms hit and forced us to stay indoors for a few hours before we could make our way to the pool. It is almost impossible to find a quiet place with the TV on and them running around the house with electronics in hand. With a blog to write and time needed to manage my trades, I told them to do the one thing that would guarantee me some quiet time. CLEANING THE HOUSE. Well after 5 minutes of mopping and complaining, I got the time I needed to manage my trades, watch the scouting reports and put on some new trades. Thought I was going to have a few more hours of quiet time but the skies cleared and like clockwork, I heard “mom can we go to the pool now?” Needless to say, I’m now writing this blog by the poolside. Aside from the “mommy are you done with the blog yet?” from my 9 year old it is quite nice to write while my kids are enjoying a dip in the pool. So let me get on with it then.

So what adjustments do you make or should you make when life gets out of schedule? Whether it is seasonal changes or work schedule or school-related changes it’s important to know when you may need to adjust your trading daily routine. I know for sure going forward I need to change my trading daily routine now that the kids are home all day with me. Whether that means switching to a nighttime daily routine or waking up before they do to get a head start I know that in order to be efficient and consistent with my trading I need to make these adjustments. If I do not then trading will become one of those things I tell myself “I’ll get to it later”. If you happen to be on the same boat as I am or you are anticipating a slight change in your schedule, take a little time to reassess and see if an adjustment is necessary for your trading daily routine.

Remember trading is not supposed to be another job, therefore, you shouldn’t be getting stressed out when going through your daily routine.

Aside from the time dedicated to learning and taking your courses your daily routine should only be about 30 minutes. If you are a newbie it may take a bit longer because it is all new to you but keep it in that 30–45 minute window. Another adjustment I’m considering is having on fewer trades. The fewer trades I have on the less I have to manage on a day-to-day basis. My portfolio typically has about 15–20 trades on at a time. Granted most of these trades are cash flow strategies such as the covered calls, naked puts and credit spreads like the iron condor, there really isn’t much to manage. Selling options is like watching paint dry. You put on the trade and let time pass by. So maybe I’ll ease up on the speculation trades and stick to a few more cash flow trades and after my Amazon debacle from April, it may not be a bad idea. LOL! What I don’t plan on doing is closing up shop. Maybe in certain circumstances taking a small hiatus from trading is called for and if that is the case communicate that with your mentor set goals for when you’ll return to trading. For the most part, however, we can always find time to fit in our trading daily routine. With said, if it means I have to deal with a little noise get my work done so be it; it beats the alternative. Whatever it is in your life that may cause your daily routine to change be sure to make the adjustment is warranted. The days of summer do not last long and before we know it, we will be at the stores for back to school shopping so do have yourself a fun and memorable summer with your loved ones. If you are like me and might have to spend a little less time with your trading platform, play Boys of Summer by Don Henley and sing “I can tell you my love for you will still be strong after the boys of summer have gone” to ease the pain. Haha! Who am I kidding! This girl can’t resist trading so yeah I’ll be the one at the beach with her laptop trading the FANGs and I don’t mean shark teeth but rather Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google. Until next time Tackle Traders!

Until next time traders,

Emily Muiruri