Monthly Report for August +4.5% / +$7,828.75
After the beating I took in July (my first losing month in a while) and seeing that I was going to be on vacation for two weeks in August I scaled down quite a bit on my capital and my trading. I only put on a handful of trades and was happy with my 4.5% return.
Trade Record
I didn’t keep my spreadsheets updated everyday (I can’t see my laptop screen on the beach) 
so I’m estimating here. I started off with $175K of capital and finished with $183K. I had 6 trades, 5 wins, and 1 loss but I don’t know what the average percent or dollar return was.
Update on Goals for 2008
Health - Came home from the beach a big fat sun burnt wildebeast. I feel pretty good but I ate like crap. I at 231 lbs. Soon I will have my own zip code. I don’t know if its a function of vacationing or trading full time but I feel a little bit and a little less stressed.
Give $25,000 to charity - We have given away $9,000 given so far this year.
Produce $250,000 in personal income (outside of my business and retirement) - $250K is still too much for a $175K account. I haven’t traded my small $5K futures account in a couple of weeks. I don’t want to add any more capital to my account until I reach $200K. Then I will consider it. No sense putting more capital at risk while I’m getting used to trading full time.
Pay off $125,000 of personal debt - So far we have paid down $42,000 in personal debt. I still have a second mortage that I would like to finish paying off but I’m putting this on hold for a bit to reduce any pressure I might feel to create excess income and mistakenly overtrade.
Study for and receive my Series 65 (Investment Advisor) license - Fail. I know, I know I have to stop trading long enough to get my license. Sheez!!
Insanemoney.com - Things are going well. I plan on updating the blog side to include a welcome video, a highlight tab showing some of the favorite posts, and will add some of the trade entries I’m doing without updates.
Raise $1,000,000 of investor funds - Haven’t started yet. I need to complete my license first.
Make 3% a month in options - Check. Made 4.5% for this month.
Lessons learned:
1) Great friends are those that come to your aid when you need them. I’m blessed that I have several of these fine folks in my life.
2) I need to stay focused on what I have and not what I’ve lost. This will help me to keep my gratitude and proper perspective.
3) I didn’t keep my spreadsheet up to date and couldn’t figure for the life of me what my returns per trade were. This isn’t good. I can’t manage what I don’t measure.
Plans for September
I’m still not convinced that I can consistently make money day trading futures. I’m going to take September, some capital, and the help a good friend to find out. I just need to either succeed or fail and move on.
All the best,
Mojo
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I am sure you have posted this before, but I missed it. Exactly why are you changing both your options and futures trading at the same time? Doesn't that divide your attention? I know when I went pro, I stayed with my best strategy and focused like mad. I understand the words around options for capital and futures for income, but wouldn't it be easier to get both out of one thing for a while? Are your futures returns that much better or consistent?
I use similar strategies for income and wealth building, the tactics are different, but the strategies are the same. It makes life easier, my returns for both higher, and tracking obvious.
Just a thought (well, an opinion
Matt
I really value and appreciate your opinion. I think you have a good point and I agree with you. Especially for me when I'm not focus I suck BIG TIME!
Over the past year I've been working full time at my job, trading options, and trading futures. Since I no longer have my job I've had more time to continue to trade options and trade futures. With that said, its very easy for me to stare at the screen 10 hours a day and overfocus on futures and under focus on options. Here's what I'm doing to contain that:
I work on futures trading only from when I wakeup to 830, then from 0930 to 1100, and then from 1400 to 1600. I'm looking for very specific technical setups so I'm using tradestation to give me audio alerts when those setups occur. That way I don't have to watch the screen the whole time. This gives me time to relax a bit, answer emails, read, work on posts, eat lunch, return phone calls, etc.
I honestly believe that I can make an extra $500 a day in futures without a ton of extra work. This will allow me to meet my goals of paying off my second mortgage while maintaining my options trading.
I check each of my option positions twice a day and occasionally look for new positions to take. I feel like this is working but I'm hopefully keeping a skeptical eye open and asking for feedback from everyone.
Thanks for input and keep it coming,
Mojo
I have a comment, since I am working to lose weight as you are. Investools teaches the key component, actually: get the emotion out of the decision and put "rules", or "discipline" into it. It's working for me. So far. When I fall off the wagon either with investing or weight control, it's because I fail to follow my rules, get emotional (usually manic about the neat trade that has presented itself) (or manic about how hungry I am and how losing weight really doesn't matter today) -- and don't follow my rules.