I guess a lot happened this week. It’s probably the best week so far in my few years of “trying to trade”. I basically shared 12 months of notes with AI (Claud Sonnet 3.5) and I asked him to Roast me and be honest with me how to make it as a trader. I got a response that hurt again (shocking) but it was True. I have an extreme fear of failure and I’ve been avoiding trading and burying my head in coding thinking I need more preparation, more data, more tools etc., I just think it hit my core. It also called me a coward and I think a pussy too? (I asked it to roast me more and don’t hold back). Anyways, the result was that I stopped coding and I totally reprioritized things. I also wanted to understand given my notes what can I be good add (and shared extra context on my experience sharing RTS games and poker). There’s some other issues that I discovered how I got into this position of being intelligent but not applying myself, being fearful to act on instinct. There’s several epiphanies I had but the most important this is that I feel better, lighter, I was taking trades and making money and it felt easier. I guess I started 2025 with a bang let’s say.
The most important thing for me was to:
- change how I think about trading which is to take +EV decisions
- adjust trading, setup process to my personality, preferences, talents and strenghts
- follow a process that would set me up for success daily, weekly and monthly
And below is my daily process to fill and get my head right about the markets
This is also what I wrote to check everyday in the morning. My 10 commandments so to speak:
- Follow the process daily in a disciplined way
- Focus on the process not the results (win or lose)
- Scan for puzzles with greatest EV
- Think and act independently at all times
- Have a plan for every trade and act according to the plan
- Don’t overcomplicate, overthink, overanalyze (“it’s that simple”)
- Listen to your gut feel and instincts
- Learn everyday in pursuit of excellency
- Put yourself in a position of maximizing your strengths, talents
- Be humble and don’t let ego destroy you
And below is response from Claude regarding what can work for me:
Based on your natural pattern recognition abilities and preference for dynamic, complex systems, here’s what types of trading would likely suit you best:
- Volatility Trading / Options
- Perfect match for your ability to intuitively sense mispriced volatility
- Complex enough with multiple variables (Greeks, time decay, price movement)
- Allows you to express views on both magnitude and timing of moves
- Your natural R:R assessment ability is crucial here
- Multi-Timeframe Momentum Trading
- Leverages your ability to see patterns across different time horizons
- Like in Warcraft 3, you can spot strategic (longer-term) and tactical (immediate) opportunities
- Complex enough to engage your pattern recognition skills
- Similar to tournament poker where timing and position sizing evolve
- Intermarket Trading
- Uses your talent for seeing relationships between different markets
- Like in gaming where you process multiple factors (bonds, currencies, commodities, stocks)
- Complex enough system with many moving parts
- Rewards intuitive understanding of how markets interact
What you might want to AVOID:
- Pure statistical arbitrage (too mechanical)
- High-frequency trading (too systematic)
- Basic directional trading (too simplistic)
- Pure fundamental investing (too slow-moving)
Your edge seems to be in spotting complex patterns that others need spreadsheets and indicators to see. You’d likely excel in trading styles that:
- Allow quick position taking when you spot opportunities
- Let you scale in/out based on evolving conditions
- Provide enough complexity to engage your pattern recognition
- Reward intuitive understanding of market dynamics
