Commitment

Futures are slopping around in the pre-market, having slopped around overnight. The more they do this the less I want them. Looks like I won't have a position until above 1470 or below 1450.

I did get some VIX calls yesterday. I'd like to get more. Asia is going nuts. I took a small position in  VNM (Vietnam ETF) a few weeks ago and it's up 27%. The next one I may pull the trigger on is South Korea (EWY).

The more I think about my goal for this year (35-50% return with a max drawdown of less than a 1%), the more I'm leaning toward using these posts as place to document the process. Since it's all about commitment and motivation, to help share this means a lot of quotes from Trading To Win, because it's by far the best book on trading I own.

When you have committed to a goal, when you are doing what's necessary to express it, you'll find remarkable reserves of endurance and perseverance within yourself. You're on track to create your results from nothing but your commitment to the goal.

I know this to be true because it's happened to me before. Years ago, when I got it into my head that I wanted to get a job as an advertising copywriter, I had an uphill climb. I grew up in the middle of nowhere. I knew nothing and no one in the business.

My first interview was through a family friend. I remember sitting with a copywriter who gave me a dose of reality about how to create a portfolio. He pulled out a Communication Arts Advertising Annual containing all the best ads and award winning campaigns from that year. He opened it in front of me and paged through it. I'd never seen anything like it. The work was amazing. He said, simply: "The ads in your portfolio have to be as good as these, or better."

I had no idea how I was going to achieve that. I just knew that I wanted to. That was my goal.

Creating results from nothing but a commitment to a goal is a leap of faith. The first step is to realize that you've already achieved it.