Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Rain, Rain Go Away

Well, it is about time I got on here and updated the blog on what is going on in Stevie's World.

I have spent this last week playing poker at Wildhorse in Pendleton, OR. I was getting used to the drive down there. I went down on Monday this last week to listen to a seminar on playing NLHE. The next day I went down and played in the Seniors tournament. My truck was having issues with tires so after the tournament I went to Les Schwab and purchased a couple of new tires. The truck was pulling to the right real hard. Figured out it was a tire that got down to the wires. Then I had the brakes looked at and found that one of the calipers was not moving. That could have caused part of the issues. All fixed except I want the truck looked at for an alignment. Back to poker. I played on Sunday in the final event at Wildhorse. I was sitting on the left of Marsha Waggoner. It seems that whenever I play there I am at the same table as her. At least this time I didn't go out by her. Actually I was sitting in the middle of two professionals. I really tried to mind my P's and Q's. I actually was following their lead on playing. I didn't play but a couple of hands during the time I was there. I went out of the tournament with AK vs 55 and the flop was A55xx. I of course followed him all-in and then went out of the tournament. Oh well, another tournament done. I am anxious to get to Las Vegas and get some training. Another month and I will be there.

As far as FT and PS are concerned I am doing well with the tournaments. I am building my BR from the tournaments I am playing. I am trying to follow what my coach wants me to do and if I do that I should be alright. Last night was a first place. I was trying for a couple of weeks to get a seat at the WSOP Main Event. That was not going well. I can at least dream. I keep saying some day I will play in an event down there. That would be a good goal.

I have been working on my equities trading. Today is a down day. Everything is going south it seems. All of the stocks I was watching and ready to make a move on are now quite a bit away from my entry prices. If I am not in I am not loosing. Right now the QQQQ are over a $1 down. The Goldman Sachs issue doesn't help as well. You can see the influence they have on the market right now. There is always tomorrow. I will work up some more trades and be ready.

I am reading a number of books right now. I am still reading "The Complete TurtleTrader" by Covel and then I am reading "Harrington on Hold'em" by Harrington. If that is not enough I am also reading "A Beginners Guide to Short Term Trading" by Turner. All are very good books. I am also reading my standard poker magazines. I have never been much of a reader but now I can find the time and try to fill my mind with good information.

We had a visit from Cindy's sister and her husband this last weekend. It was fun to spend some time with them and go to a very nice restaurant here call Magills. Good food and some good time spent. I missed the breakfast the next morning as I was headed to Pendleton.

Until next time.....

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Playing Poker

I guess I should try to catch everyone up on what is happening in my little world. Playing Poker and working on the stock equities has been keeping me busy.

I found a place online that I can watch and get some ideas on the equities that might be good to play. I will still need to do the due diligence but it does give me some ideas of what to play. I did get myself into one stock and then it came back on me and stopped me out. I was able to raise the stop loss enough that I broke even with the cost. I consider it good practice then. I will get back at it when this week is overwith.

Poker has been going strong this week. Wildhorse casino is in full swing and on Monday I went down there and listened to Linda, Jan, Marsha, Susie, and Barb. Five Poker Hall of Fame players give us pointers on how to play the game. I then went out and got into a Live 2 - 5 NLHE and came away with profit after 3 hours of sitting at the table. That makes you feel good. Then today I went back down there to play in the Seniors Tournament. I wish I could have listened to what I learned the previous day. My mind was not on the tournament. I was having vehicle issues and I knew I needed to purchase new tires before going home. I found the belt broken on the tire when I got down there and would explain what I was experiencing driving the truck. As I said my mind was somewhere else. We had T$5000 starting stack and I ended up going all in with AK with T$3700. Why would I do that with so much left and AK is just another hand in poker after the flop. The other guy got his straight and I got the door. I can't wait to go to Las Vegas and get some help with my game. I now have to decide if I am going to play on Thursday and Sunday.

On Saturday we went to Spokane to move Nick and Emma back to the Tri-Cities. Nick is back home and going to school.

One other item about Poker. I have been playing some qualifying tournaments for the WSOP Main Event and with 30,000 players vying for 5 spots it is very hard. I am getting through half the field before going out. As long as they keep offering I am going to keep trying to win $12,000 to go to Las Vegas.

Have a good week.

Friday, April 09, 2010

Days are better

Maybe I should just post on the blog on Fridays. I would like to keep up with what is going on but it gets hard. I have been working on the platform setup with Scottrade and then at night have been playing poker. If I can get into a routine and let all the other stuff just take a back seat that would be good as well.

Trading has gotten off to a good start. I have been working on my trading plan ( Business Plan ) and that takes time to write up how you want to be trading. I would like to make it like a Policy and Procedure type of thing so anyone could take over for me and trade the same way I would. Anybody want to try that out for me when I am done? The other part of this is trying to find the trades so I can start my trading. I see where it would be easier to be a Day Trader since you could close your positions before the market closes. I am a Swing Trader and must keep my trades overnight. I don't mind holding the trade as long as it is going in the direction of my trade. I have some ideas on what I am going to do about locating the equities I will want to trade. I am also trying to pick a few equities that are basically local and something I know something about and follow them as well as trade them if they look like they are going in a good trend.

Poker is doing well and I feel better about how I am playing. I had three first places this past week. Nice for the pocket. I did tell a few at the previous job that when I made good money I would take them out to lunch. If this keeps up I will honor that at some point. At least it shows that I can and will make it. I think it is a good goal since it is achievable. I qualified for the Main Event Qualifier the other night as well. Now I will play on Sunday for a chance to be seated in the WSOP Main Event. Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants. I would like to play well and give myself the opportunity to be in Las Vegas come Main Event time. The coaching that I have gotten has really helped the game quite a bit. I am anxious for the week of the 19th since I will be spending some time at Wildhorse playing in a couple of tournaments and attending a seminar on No Limit Hold'em. That will be it for April. After that it is May and the trip to Las Vegas. I have my plane ticket and will be staying at the Rio for 4 nights. WSOP starts during that time so it will be fun to spend some time in the players area. More on that later.

This last week we were also able to have the new garage door put up. It was so nice to be able to walk out and push the button and watch the door open and then close. The next order of business is to clean out the garage. I would like to sheetrock the walls and empty out the storage and bring that all home. I need to get a door for the garage as well. Hopefully I can have Bill put that in for us so it will be cleaner inside. Mowing has started and it looks like once every two weeks right now. I am still working on the backyard to get grass back in there. So much to do and not enough time.

I am reading a couple of books right now. I am reading "A beginner's guide to short-term trading" by Toni Turner and at the same time I am reading "The complete turtle trader" by Michael W. Covel. Both of them are good reads. I am also spending time reading my Poker magazines. I have two subscriptions Bluff and Poker Pro. I enjoy both of them for the updates on what is going on with the players. Of course they have great articles.

We have N and E living with us right now and she will start her clinicals at the local hospital for the month. N has started college classes and is waiting for deployment. Exciting times for them.

Work the Solution not the Problem.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Back Again

It has been a week since I last blogged but in my world I have been busy and unable to get to the blog site. I will try to catch you up on what is happening and then I will try to get back on my schedule for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Don't give up on me.

The week and a half in Redmond was tiring and very informative. Finally paying for some education that I really wanted and not something I had to have. I enjoy the financial market and have wanted to do something in it for a long time. Now I get the chance to try and work in this field as my new job. I can't hardly call it a job but I do want it to produce an income. When I got back on Saturday night I just wanted to relax and just enjoy being home before Monday came around and then I had some work to do. I needed to sign up with Tradestation and transfer my working capital to that account. As a trader this platform is the cream of the crop and of course you pay for that as well. I went ahead and filled out the information and then got to the last page and just couldn't push the button. I don't know why but my gut told me that I didn't need this one.

The next day I went back and took a another look at the platform. I had been using it all last week and it was so nice to use. Why couldn't I pull the trigger? I would get 20% off of all of my trades and would pay $100 per month for the platform. This was intended for me to get my tuition back from the Academy. I met a fellow student at the class and we exchanged email and so I sent him an email asking about what he uses for his platform. I started looking at Etrade and Scottrade to see if they were usable. Mike uses Scottrade and he just happened to be in town and so we got together and he showed me what Scottrade had to offer. Now this platform is not Direct Access like Tradestation but the job gets done if you trade like I will be doing. I will not be Daytrading but will be a Swingtrader. I would like to work towards Daytrading but not know. With that in mind I didn't need Tradestation. I ended up the week signing up with Scottrade and will start with them. The platform is free as well and the amount to make the trades will be comparable. Now to work on my trading plan and have it turned in by April 12.

My Poker playing this last two weeks has been on the back burner. I did play a couple of games during this time and got a 2nd place but just couldn't give the time that it needed. Now that I have the platform done I will be able to start on my poker game. This is called multitasking. I will have a scheduled time for trading and then will also have a time to play poker. I am scheduled to play at Wildhorse at the end of the month. I would like to play a couple of events. I am also attending the seminar on No-Limit Hold' em. I also need to finish the coaching I am getting from my online coach. I am hoping to get in more games before I go back and have him watch me again. Last night I came in 1st in a tournament I played. Feels good to get back in the saddle again. In May will be the WSOP Academy for my live tournament play. I will also be attending the Hand Analysis as well in Las Vegas. I will be there for 4 days and this will coincide with the start of the 2010 WSOP. I will be in the same hotel as well. Maybe some autographs at night? As you can see the next two months will be busy.

Of course I am not done yet. Starting in June I will be attending a 12 week class from the Trading Academy called XLT. This is extended learning that I will do from home on my computer. They say this will speed up the learning process for trading equities by over a year. Anything to help the bottom line faster. I will be online with an actual trader looking over the trades and being mentored by this trader. I am looking forward to that time. So, the next two months will be on my trading and then heavy for poker and then after that I will get into trading heavy.

The house is basically ready for our son and his better half. We are going to have a new garage door put on our garage. It will be nice to be able to open it up and put our cars in for the summer heat or winter cold. After that it is going to be awhile before we start any other projects other than some smaller ones that won't take much $$.

I am walking now on a daily basis about a mile a day. This is hard on my feet and my lower back but I need to keep up with this. The insulin pump is great. It is nice not having to stick myself 7 times per day now. I feel I am doing well with this pump and now to work on the other parts of my health. I am not that old but feel like it at times.

I have a couple of sayings that I like to read over and over again.
Amateurs work at it till they get it right, Professionals work at it till they can't get it wrong.
Work the solution not the Problem.

Have a good day.