If you’re like me, you’ve experienced moments in life where you can’t believe how fast time is moving — yet at the same time, the past month seems like an entire year has gone by. Before the virus, between juggling work, travel, taking care of Leo, and everything in between, my husband Darrell and I could barely find time for a date night. Something I’m sure all you fellow parents out there understand!
However, now that we’re several weeks into self-quarantine, we’re stuck together more than ever before! Is it just me, or does spending 24/7 with your whole family (though I’m sure, you love them!) in tight quarters prove to be a challenge for anybody?
So, what did we do in order to survive our COVID-19 environment?
We reorganized our house.
Before quarantine, Darrell and I shared the same home office, and it worked flawlessly. On the days where both of us were working from home (which was a rare treat at the time) we’d spend the entire day back to back working on separate projects. It was fun knowing he was just one swivel chair away, especially when I would have issues with technology (which, if you know me, is all.the.time. and our “lunch breaks” were a lot of fun).
But, as the weeks in quarantine went by, there were moments where I’d find myself daydreaming of how I could plot my escape — searching for real estate in the country on my lunch breaks, that had LOTS of space!
Frequently, both of us would have meetings scheduled at the same time — but how do you decide who gets to stay and who has to go? And then we ran into recording issues. I’d need to record a video, but Darrell would still be hard at work, was it fair for me to ask him to leave? I don’t think so, it was his office too after all!
I drove him crazy as well. I tend to get pretty animated when I’m doing the trading room. I just get excited — especially when there’s a short squeeze into the close.
I think the last straw for him was when my new koi fish ate their tank mates, leaving a reeking fish smell along with bala shark fish skeletons floating in the tank in our small office. And that’s when I think I pushed Darrell over the edge. He said, “How about I move my office upstairs? We have a spare bedroom, afterall.” (cue picture of Darrell trying to escape me, ha ha).
At first, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, and of course I argued a bit, as I tend to avoid change. But, what I didn’t realize at the time was that he was doing something very selfless (moving is hard) in order to make both of our lives easier.
Now, the logistics have worked itself out and we’ve been having a great time helping each other decorate our spaces. And, I have a gorgeous new office with lots of space (and, I cleaned the fish tank!). Though I was resistant against change at first, it turned out to be the best decision we could’ve made!
And the best part? We’re still married (did you hear divorce rates in China skyrocketed after quarantine was lifted?). We didn’t need to change anything major — it was just a tweak in how we do every day things to provide for much smoother sailing in quarantine life. It was a win-win for us!
So what does this have to do with trading?
Similarly, just like in marriage, the market changes as a result of its environment. No one could’ve predicted the far reach of the Coronavirus pandemic. All we can do is work with what we have and make the best of a situation, and who knows — sometimes the results are better than we could’ve expected.
My feelings about separating our home offices can be mirrored in my feelings about changing my trading strategies. When the market first started crashing, it took a couple days to get my bearings (which is often prudent and necessary when the market shifts). I liked trading in a bullish market, just like I liked when Darrell and I shared an office.
But given the new environment, I knew my strategy would have to adjust if I was going to survive and thrive though COVID-19, just like Darrell knew a little separation is not a bad thing (he’s a smart man!).
So what exactly did I change?
These days volatility has been high, so I’ve turned into a predominantly intraday trader, which is a departure from the swing trading I was doing previously. I also used to pick stocks, and trade them over and over again, riding the short squeezes. But in this bear market, I’ve mostly been focusing on trading the indexes.
Change is hard but the beauty in all of this is much like my home life with Darrell, I didn’t have to challenge the integrity of my trading in order to succeed. Instead, I just tweaked how I did it. By tightening my timeframes to intraday, and switching to trading indexes, I was able to stay within a reasonable comfort zone while adjusting to the market conditions to be successful.
This past Saturday I taught a class outlining in further detail how I used my background in momentum trading to take advantage of the opportunity this volatile market is handing us. If you still want to join, everything was recorded and available to stream, along with my live trading which will be tomorrow and Thursday, at market open and market close.
Here is some feedback I got after the strategy portion of the class:
Candy said, “You always under promise and over deliver!”
Lorna said, “Awesome as usual! So much easier to see the patterns when you are describing!”
Otis said, “I am very confident the live trading will pay for the class”
If you want to join me, I’ll be getting started bright and early tomorrow, at 8:15CT! Join me for the market open and close — two of my favorite times to trade in a momentum market. Check out the link to sign up HERE.
Hey Danielle, The market volatility has been fun for sure. While I send out ‘Heart Felt’ feelings of sympathy and luck to everyone that has suffered any form of grief during this uncertain time, I can not help but to feel blessed to have been able to trade and to get practice in trading the market action we have been presented with.
When all of this is over the normal market of old will seem kinda boring. Of late I have lost count of the number of times I have been on the edge of my chair holding back to press the sell or buy button.
Thank you for a great class, really looking forward to the live trading. I am not worried about the live trading paying the class, the information presented and the knowledge gained has already paid for it.
A great big thank you!! To you and the Simpler team for all the effort.