Friday, November 11, 2016

Putting Setbacks in Perspective...

In late August, I made a bad trade in wheat futures followed by another one in corn futures, incurring M$ 2,900 in losses, after offsetting two profitable trades in corn that reaped M$ 464 in profit.

I made the right decision to cool off after that, returning in September to reap a profit over 24 hours in KLCI futures earning M$ 160 and then regrouped again to make another five consecutive profitable trades in wheat, gold, gold, KLCI and KLCI contracts between October 26th and Nov 9th, the aftermath day of the US Presidential elections.

In the process, I whittled down the M$ 2,900 loss to just over M$ 1,000 and was overjoyed.

However the joy lasted for less than 48 hours as I returned to go long gold at 18c below my original profitable entry but was loose with my stop and got triggered with a loss of 24.5c a couple of hours after the market opened as the yellow metal unexpectedly plunged. In the process, I gave back all my M$1,035 profit earned two days prior and an additional  M$ 200 plus to boot.


Thankfully, despite this, on the weekly scorecard I was a net M$ 400 up thanks to the two profitable KLCI trades.

Yet, despite the 8-3 win-loss scoreline in the futures market thus far, I'm still down a net M$ 2,100 or so.

As I post this account on a beautiful Saturday morning, I am a little blue but remind myself, even when the loss figure was M$ 2,500 just 3 days ago, that  just over 2 grand is a cheap lesson as far as futures lessons go.

The big lesson from my biggest losses so far is : A tighter stop is required always, no matter how high the probability of success seems(as my mistaken prognosis of yesterday demonstrated). This is to allow for violent gyrations in these markets to play themselves out without wiping out one's account!

Now I'm following up on this with an intention to turn this setback to my advantage by tuning in more to the entirety of Life without being so parochially focused on money.For started, I have my wonderful SENSES in perfect working order, to enjoy the beauty of the bountiful and scenic planet I live on!

Life is a blessing because I have good health, healthy debt-free largely liquid assets and a cash balance of 22.8% of the recommended minimum retirement sum published in the papers today for people aged twelve years older than me, not to mention the total asset figure at 220% of that threshold currently! Despite this generally difficult year, my dividend income alone is a 2.5% return on that total asset figure, with the over M$ 18,000 in capital gains providing another 3.6% fillip to my returns.

So I never need to go hungry or depend on another's generosity for my survival!!

I may not have friends aplenty like some others but after experiencing my fair share of good, parasitic and generally bad friendships over 3 decades, I value my privacy and solitude more than the regular bloke.

My home has saved me easily over M$ 100,000 in rental and bills, reversing the 8 or 9 years of rental costs incurred in the years that I studied & worked in a foreign country.


Additionally, I have easy access to myriad varieties of food and healthy entertainment and can get by without a car. This means that my low maintenance lifestyle will be easily supported by interest, dividends and a nominal freelance income if I husband my assets carefully.


I live in a town where the hustle and bustle of a large city is largely absent and allowed me to log over thirty days so far in 2016 without spending a cent!

Summoning the intention to enjoy the NOW and appreciate the blessings already in hand allows me to will the blues to depart very quickly! 

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