In need of vacation

Posted on April 17, 2008
Tags: Day Trading |

Despite pretty good results this week, I’m having harder and harder time focusing and performing as I expect myself to. I end up putting lots of mental effort into things that normally I do without too much thinking. For example, yesterday, I made not one, not two but three order entry mistakes, luckily it had very minor effect on the day’s result, but this shouldn’t happen. Today was even worse, it felt like I was in slow motion while the market was in fast forward, ended up with some missed trades, late entries, mistakes and generally poor performance. Most likely, today it will cost me money.

I know myself quite well and have a very close finger on what makes me tick. The conclusion is, I’m experiencing short term burn-out due to over-working on several projects and I need some rest. I’ve got a short week next week as I’m heading to Singapore for a long weekend and I’ve got a more proper vacation coming up in May. I wish it could be earlier but that’s the way it is. I may take tomorrow off depending on how I feel.

It’s one of those ‘curses’ of doing what you enjoy doing, from home and with just a computer. The risk of over-working is far greater in my experience than if you’re in a normal day job at an office. This burnout happens to me every now and then and I need to find a way to not only deal with it when it happens but hopefully avoid or minimize it. A better work schedule and better balancing with non-screen time will help. Great, now I have more stuff to work on and plan :-)

Comments

6 Responses to “In need of vacation”

Andrew on April 17th, 2008 11:32 am

I try and schedule long weekends away, it really help. I might take a novel but never trading material, though I sometimes find myself writing down trading ideas in my journal when I have some time.

If it’s anything like my chess career then I note that such obsession leads to more permanent things down the track, in terms of long term burnout, which is something that might need to be planned for.

So… best to be building up those income streams for a time when you can’t imagine ever looking at a chart again :)
Carlton on April 17th, 2008 12:33 pm

I’ve been in urgent need of vacation since three weeks ago, which is when I returned from my last vacation LOL
eyal on April 17th, 2008 1:16 pm

Andrew - I think scheduling time off is they key, both short frequent breaks and longer less frequent ones. I remember when I lived in HK I used to take a vacation every 4 months like clockwork, helped a lot in maintaining sanity.

How long was you chess career? I’ve been in this sort of obsessive mode since 2004 but after going full time it accelerated, I think mainly because I have a lot more time to obsess about it, less time spent on stuff like commuting, colleagues, meal breaks outside during the week etc.

I’ll look up some material on obsessive-compulsive behaviour and workaholism see what I can learn. I’m also treating this year since August 07 as a learning experience and a period of adjustment. Switching from working for the man my entire working life to being self-employed definitely has challenges and learning curve.

Carlton - try to enjoy micro vacations in between your meetings in Dresden next week ;-)
Andrew on April 17th, 2008 1:33 pm

Eyal,

All I meant was that active trading does take it’s toll, like chess it has the profile of a career that could lead you to a heart attack if not handled properly. In my case I thought the long tail payoff (years of sub standard financial returns for a shot at the pot o gold) was worth the effort, can’t say it has been yet though apart from the freedom to do a lot of things a 9-5 job would prevent me doing. Travel, live in another country etc… Digital nomads :)

A smattering of obsession will see you travel where others can’t, just don’t take it to far.

I played chess semi-pro (never earnt enough or got enough rating points to justify anything more) for 15 years or so and had a business teaching it, and would have been much better moving on after the passion left.

Andrew.
eyal on April 17th, 2008 1:40 pm

Andrew - no problem, I was just wondering when along the line of that career the permanent burnout happened. I haven’t come across this with other people before so I have no idea how/what a person in this situation might go through. It sounds like you’ve got quite a bit under your belt in this area and I appreciate your advice.

I agree about the smattering etc. comment. I definitely intend to do something about it to make sure I don’t take it too far (too often ;-) ).
Andrew on April 19th, 2008 5:00 am

Eyal I’ve never actually thought about it that closely before, perhaps I should.

I guess if you never find yourself doing something just because of the money then that’s a good sign.

I think the ultimate goal of money creation should be to automate it, whether through passive investments or something similar so that you free up the ultimate commodity of time.