Who is missing trading?

[TraderFred]

Personally, as a manual horse racing trader, I’m enjoying this break!

Was just looking at the fixture list, today would be the Epsom trial day, and this week would have been the start of night racing proper. With the sun shining and the gorgeous weather outside it would have been a real grind this week.

Obviously don’t want it to go on too long, though another month or so wouldn’t really bother me. A mid May resumption with a behind closed doors Royal Ascot in June would be ideal for me personally, though it’s looking 50/50 that we get any racing in May at present.

Can’t believe it’s been over a month already, to me it is flying by, and I’m not getting bored. In truth, perhaps a little worryingly, I’m not really missing it that much at all, yet!

How are all the other traders getting on? Enjoying the break? Or rattling with withdrawal symptoms and itching to get going ?!

[jimibt]

Personally, as a manual horse racing trader, I’m enjoying this break!

Was just looking at the fixture list, today would be the Epsom trial day, and this week would have been the start of night racing proper. With the sun shining and the gorgeous weather outside it would have been a real grind this week.

Obviously don’t want it to go on too long, though another month or so wouldn’t really bother me. A mid May resumption with a behind closed doors Royal Ascot in June would be ideal for me personally, though it’s looking 50/50 that we get any racing in May at present.

Can’t believe it’s been over a month already, to me it is flying by, and I’m not getting bored. In truth, perhaps a little worryingly, I’m not really missing it that much at all, yet!

How are all the other traders getting on? Enjoying the break? Or rattling with withdrawal symptoms and itching to get going ?!

i'm enjoying it also (which feels very selfish when there are folks being drastically affected both economically and health wise).

however, this has allowed me to get so many tasks completed that have been hanging around for years. it also means i've been able to take regular excercise of an enjoyable variety again (walking, sawing up trees etc etc). however, this week i started to get back into a little bit of prep for racing resuming. a few years back, i started a project (in .net) to *once and for all* crack pre-race trading using a machine learning based approach. was never able to dedicate the time to it and have now (as of this week) decided that i'll use 3-4 hours of the day to fanny ar$e around with this kind of stuff. it may or may not see the light of day, but it will certainly spark up new ideas, so a few hours of dead time, balanced with the quality time i'm having now is perfect.

glad you are likewise enjoying the new abnormal

[TraderFred]

Personally, as a manual horse racing trader, I’m enjoying this break!

Was just looking at the fixture list, today would be the Epsom trial day, and this week would have been the start of night racing proper. With the sun shining and the gorgeous weather outside it would have been a real grind this week.

Obviously don’t want it to go on too long, though another month or so wouldn’t really bother me. A mid May resumption with a behind closed doors Royal Ascot in June would be ideal for me personally, though it’s looking 50/50 that we get any racing in May at present.

Can’t believe it’s been over a month already, to me it is flying by, and I’m not getting bored. In truth, perhaps a little worryingly, I’m not really missing it that much at all, yet!

How are all the other traders getting on? Enjoying the break? Or rattling with withdrawal symptoms and itching to get going ?!

i'm enjoying it also (which feels very selfish when there are folks being drastically affected both economically and health wise).

however, this has allowed me to get so many tasks completed that have been hanging around for years. it also means i've been able to take regular excercise of an enjoyable variety again (walking, sawing up trees etc etc). however, this week i started to get back into a little bit of prep for racing resuming. a few years back, i started a project (in .net) to *once and for all* crack pre-race trading using a machine learning based approach. was never able to dedicate the time to it and have now (as of this week) decided that i'll use 3-4 hours of the day to fanny ar$e around with this kind of stuff. it may or may not see the light of day, but it will certainly spark up new ideas, so a few hours of dead time, balanced with the quality time i'm having now is perfect.

glad you are likewise enjoying the new abnormal

Sounds good Jimibt,

Am wary that the initial question came across as selfish. Obviously there are far more important things going on in the world right now, and many peoples lives are being turned upsides down.

It was meant more just to ask how traders are finding having nothing to do ( although I see plenty seem to be keeping busy on the AUS and US racing).

I guess it’s different if you have automation and coding and stuff to work on, I imagine that keeps plenty busy.

Good luck with your machine learning bot that cracks pre race trading once and for all. I wish I had one of those!

[Kai]

Glad to see that others feel the same way, very much said the same thing last night here inb4 bed.

Am wary that the initial question came across as selfish.

Selfish or no, it's okay to say it because it's the truth and you can't ignore it. The truth being that traders are some of the least impacted people by the situation, while plenty of others are going through some of the most difficult periods in their lives and careers. It may not be appropriate to yell it from rooftops and let everyone know just how much you're enjoying the quarantine but there's no real shame in it.

None of us here have any real power to influence things, we're all very much spectators watching the same movie unfold, each in their own language, just hoping for a happy ending. But whether you want to be glued to the movie screen or whether you want to lower the volume and let it unfold in the background is entirely up to you. Many are understandably fascinated by how quickly the society is unfolding because they've never seen anything like it, a bit like watching a slow motion car crash where it's difficult to look away, but at the same time they also probably know the ending.

That being said, it's very easy to not dwell on the negatives and find a ton of positives when your life doesn't really depend on the outcome of it all.

Still, I'd imagine it's a good test for all traders, not just a test of their adaptability and longevity but also a test of priorities and character. You have a rare opportunity to see whether you're addicted to trading and the rush of it all, and you get to see how much you actually need and want and value money in general, over all of the other things in life. For me these are some of the tests where I actually wouldn't mind a positive result on.

[Emmson]

Yes I am, the markets available to trade do not stimulate me, do not have me leaping out of bed with excitement I WANT MY CRICKET BACK & NBA!

[spreadbetting]

It's not coming across as selfish, TraderFred, it's a trading forum after all so it's bound to be a major issue for a lot of full timers especially some who may be starting out.

For me I'm happy of the enforced break as it's always hard to take time out from easy pickings. Luckily the aus racing is still running so my bots are still making me a living. I was considering brushing up on my python coding but my daughter is working from home too so I've donated my office to her for the time being.

For now it's a bit of a novelty as I don't know anyone affected , it's sunny outside and got my family with me. Not sure I'd want this break to be dragging on too long though for a variety of reasons.

[ShaunWhite]

I think it's all showing how much sport was/is pretty pointless and is hardly missed. If this results in less of it generally and a few 10s of thousands of people formerly employed in the industry move to something that's actually productive then it'll be no bad thing. As a country we've been fiddling while Rome is burning, neglecting what's important so we can play games like children avoiding their homework. When a civilisation that's been dominant for centuries is on the brink of collapse after a few months of disruption its clear we've had misplaced priorities. It's time for society to grow up.

[spreadbetting]

Can always bank on Shaun to tell us what we should be doing from his ivory tower

[Derek27]

When people around you are suffering and you're unaffected, all you can really do is empathise, appreciate your good fortune and make the most of it. I've been getting on with DIY, gardening, coding and still have US and AUS to trade. The lockdown has been driving some people nuts but I wouldn't expect traders to struggle for things to do, with all the data you can download and play with. Definitely a good time to learn a programming language if you need one.

[TraderFred]

I think it's all showing how much sport was/is pretty pointless and is hardly missed. If this results in less of it generally and a few 10s of thousands of people formerly employed in the industry move to something that's actually productive then it'll be no bad thing. As a country we've been fiddling while Rome is burning, neglecting what's important so we can play games like children avoiding their homework. When a civilisation that's been dominant for centuries is on the brink of collapse after a few months of disruption its clear we've had misplaced priorities. It's time for society to grow up.

That’s an interesting take, ShaunWhite. I was thinking more on the lines of I’m enjoying the garden and pottering round the house, and not having to sit and watch the markets and races all day. I hadn’t really gone into it that deep.

I know a trader can have a day off any time he or she likes, though I tend to find that if I have too many I start doing badly. I think if you are manual you need to be doing at least 5, ideallly 6 days a week. It’s nice to have the time off guilt free.

Guilt free in the sense that I’m not missing any markets or racing, not in the sense that it’s not a terrible situation and people are going through a terrible time.

[Trader Pat]

I'm missing trading but I'm missing sport more, don't agree with Shaun on sport being pointless. To me reality TV and gardening are pointless but millions of people enjoy both so good luck to them. We all need distractions from life and seeing as though my partying days and 4 day benders are behind me sport is mine

[ShaunWhite]

Can always bank on Shaun to tell us what we should be doing from his ivory tower

Ivory tower? You couldn't be more wrong, it's a brick bungalow.
I was just saying that watching a man hitting a little ball with a stick isn't perhaps the most important thing we could have been doing. Unless uk sport brings in overseas money all it does is recycle the money everyone has already earned.

[ShaunWhite]

I'm missing trading but I'm missing sport more, don't agree with Shaun on sport being pointless. To me reality TV and gardening are pointless but millions of people enjoy both so good luck to them. We all need distractions from life and seeing as though my partying days and 4 day benders are behind me sport is mine

I agree, we need bread and circuses, just not maybe quite so much.

[Euler]

I've quite enjoyed the break. I'd sort of forgotten what it was like.

I've generally had jobs that have involved a lot of work and commitment, so it's probably the first time in my career when I've not had much to do. But that said, if retirement is like this I'm not ready for it.

I've had a hugely creative period on old data and stuff I had half completed. Couple of major moments of distraction-free realistion.

If I choose to have a proper break though, I would jet off to some distance secluded island and do it there. But fairly content with staying where I am at the moment, especially with the weather.

1.01 shot that lockdown ends as the weather turns for the worse.

Feel sorry for people struggling with this. Plenty of people have little or nothing to live on and are stuck in less than ideal circumstances. Hopefully, everybody can find something positive from it.

[ShaunWhite]

Feel sorry for people struggling with this. Plenty of people have little or nothing to live on and are stuck in less than ideal circumstances. Hopefully, everybody can find something positive from it.

Hear hear.
Polution down to levels at the start of the 20th century and 1955 levels of traffic on the roads. We're realising that so much more can be done remotely and hopefully some of that will persist. Good will come of this I'm sure.