It’s been said many times that – with some exceptions – one can do anything … but not everything. Finite amount of waking hours in the day, days in the year, and years in a lifetime contribute to such a truth.
This truism has been especially evident, and frankly gnawing at me for much of the last two years, as it was 24 months ago to the day when I was handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which – as was the case with Dr. Brett Steenbarger a few years ago – would mean I’d have to step back from something that I loved so dearly, which in my case was working alongside a global network of trading offices that we’d built from scratch just 18 month earlier. For at the time, I was offered the opportunity to begin a new journey to build the financial arm of one of the fastest growing companies in the world.
I’ve been intentionally private about this effort for a number of reasons similar to those Dr. Brett referenced during his trading “sabbatical”, and will likely continue to do so going forward due to non-disclosure requirements. What I can share is that it’s been a labor of passion that has this now-60 year old feeling like he’s 40 again for enough reasons to fill another book, yet which include hiring, mentoring, and molding a tremendously dedicated financial team, along with serving individuals who I firmly believe (and yes, I’m biased) are some of business’ greatest minds. Perhaps some day we’ll be able to delve more into this.
It would be an understatement to say that it’s been a whirlwind 24 months, especially considering a global pandemic, death of my mom, wedding of my older daughter, and relocation from – of all places – our 60-year old family home on Cape Cod that has hosted so many memorable family and team events.
Yet I dearly miss my MDTN team – some of which I traded alongside for two decades – as well as staying loyal to diary places like this to self-check, share insights, or share silly movie or sports trading analogies. And while I still actively manage our private portfolio in much the same way I always have – especially during those high-probability ETH book-end hours, I miss being able to take advantage of those prime midday opportunities, as well as the laser-focus that is absolutely required to “step on the gas” and optimize opportunities. As this goes to press, I’m actively working on resolving that part of the dilemma – stay tuned.
As I said in Chronicles, trading profits – or any kind of money for that matter – does one thing … it buys or consumes time. Nothing more, nothing less. And it remains up to us to choose how to use the other side of that barter equation. In my case, past dedication and funding afforded me the opportunity to shift gears … an opportunity that I fully realize isn’t available to all.
Yes, one can indeed do mostly anything – with the right amount of dedication, ambition, talent, and/or teamwork – just not everything.
And such is one of the most difficult trading decisions one can make.
We’ll get back to more specific trading and financial market thoughts in future posts.