There really is no light way of putting this. My younger brother, Paul Nguyen, suddenly passed away at the age of 25 recently. Words cannot convey how much he meant to me and how I'm feeling now. I returned back to Canada a while ago and will no longer be traveling as I did before. My priorities in life have changed drastically. My only concern now is being here to take care of our parents and younger sister. Knowing that I would give up anything to be able to spend just a little more time with my brother I've come to realize how insignificant work and money is. The real value in life is the time you can spend with your loved ones.
My brother was loved by so many. Incredibly smart, outgoing, friendly, charming. Always had a big smile on his face that could light up any room. He was going to be a great trader one day. He had just aced his CFA level II exam, had a Bachelor of Commerce, completed tons of CSI courses, and had been trading full-time alongside me for the past several months with great success. I now can't imagine trading alone without him but I know that he would want me to continue and finish what we had started.
This will probably mark the end of this blog. So in closing, I want to thank everyone for following me even though it was only a short while. Thank you to all our friends and family for supporting us during this difficult time. And if you were to take only one thing away from my blog I hope that it is.... there's more to life than squeezing pennies out of the market and aiming for high Sharpe ratios... what's really important is those around you. I no longer have the mindset, "if I take one week off for a vacation with my family I will lose xxxx amount of dollars". Don't take your time with them for granted. You may never realize what you have until it's gone.
Peace and God bless.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Burnt out... 10:50 AM
Before beginning this trip I didn't anticipate the physical and mental toll that working and traveling would have on me. In this past month I've stayed in over a dozen hotels in different cities. In the past 9 days I stayed in 6 alone, and spent over 24 hours on buses, trains, and planes in just the last 3 days. And that doesn't include the waiting time!
I've lost about 8 pounds already and possibly more cause it's been days since I weighed myself. Too often I forget to feed the machine because I'm either too tired or lazy. I don't get much sleep either. I work until 5 am most nights and all the hotels here require you to check out before 10 am, or if I'm lucky 11 am. And then you usually have to wait until 2-4 pm before you can check into another hotel so you're stuck dragging your luggage around for a few hours.
So now that I've returned to Tokyo I've decided to settle down in one place for a while and forgo the traveling for a bit. I go out and do something nearly every day because I feel like I "should". But I need to rest and get on a regular sleep pattern so I can better concentrate on work, do some programming, test out some new strategies, and whatever. My trading has been suffering since I began the trip.
The trip to Hokkaido was amazing. I'll talk about it and post pictures in the next post later this week. Too tired... must sleep... oh wait, market doesn't close for another 5 hours...
Here's a photo of Sapporo at night. During the day you can see the city is surrounded by mountains. I'm going to include a photo with every blog post from now on just to make it a little more colorful.
I've lost about 8 pounds already and possibly more cause it's been days since I weighed myself. Too often I forget to feed the machine because I'm either too tired or lazy. I don't get much sleep either. I work until 5 am most nights and all the hotels here require you to check out before 10 am, or if I'm lucky 11 am. And then you usually have to wait until 2-4 pm before you can check into another hotel so you're stuck dragging your luggage around for a few hours.
So now that I've returned to Tokyo I've decided to settle down in one place for a while and forgo the traveling for a bit. I go out and do something nearly every day because I feel like I "should". But I need to rest and get on a regular sleep pattern so I can better concentrate on work, do some programming, test out some new strategies, and whatever. My trading has been suffering since I began the trip.
The trip to Hokkaido was amazing. I'll talk about it and post pictures in the next post later this week. Too tired... must sleep... oh wait, market doesn't close for another 5 hours...
Here's a photo of Sapporo at night. During the day you can see the city is surrounded by mountains. I'm going to include a photo with every blog post from now on just to make it a little more colorful.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Rain rain go away... 3:02 AM
I didn't realize beforehand that it was the rainy season in Japan. It's been cloudy nearly every day with a lot of light rain. For those that know me you know I don't like hot weather so this isn't so bad for me. In spite of the rain, it has been so incredibly hot here. The weather feels like Thailand but without the screaming ladyboys.
I just spent the past 7 days in Kyoto which is the old capital of Japan. I went there to experience the cultural and more traditional side of Japan. I got to see much more than I had expected because I came during the week they were celebrating a festival called Gion Matsuri. The people, mostly teens it seems, paraded in the streets wearing Kimonos all week. A few blocks were blocked off from traffic every night so the people could gather and walk around. On the final night there were hundreds of food and game vendors lined up on the sidewalks, and the large decorated floats were filled with men creating music with drums and bells. This is side of Japan that I had always wanted to see.
Here are some photos with desciptions (use one of the slide show options and increase the duration).
I just flew into Sapporo (same as the beer) from Tokyo which is up north in Hokkaido. To be honest, this place looks like Buffalo or for us Canadians, East Hamilton. The building and house style here is very much American. I'm going to tour around this large island by train and visit some of the national parks, world heritage sites, and hot springs for the next few days. My friend lent me his wireless broadband USB stick so I'm able to stay connected wherever I go... if I want to that is!
The weather here is so cool I have to wear a sweater. I couldn't get the smile off my face when I got off the plane and felt the breeze :)
I just spent the past 7 days in Kyoto which is the old capital of Japan. I went there to experience the cultural and more traditional side of Japan. I got to see much more than I had expected because I came during the week they were celebrating a festival called Gion Matsuri. The people, mostly teens it seems, paraded in the streets wearing Kimonos all week. A few blocks were blocked off from traffic every night so the people could gather and walk around. On the final night there were hundreds of food and game vendors lined up on the sidewalks, and the large decorated floats were filled with men creating music with drums and bells. This is side of Japan that I had always wanted to see.
Here are some photos with desciptions (use one of the slide show options and increase the duration).
I just flew into Sapporo (same as the beer) from Tokyo which is up north in Hokkaido. To be honest, this place looks like Buffalo or for us Canadians, East Hamilton. The building and house style here is very much American. I'm going to tour around this large island by train and visit some of the national parks, world heritage sites, and hot springs for the next few days. My friend lent me his wireless broadband USB stick so I'm able to stay connected wherever I go... if I want to that is!
The weather here is so cool I have to wear a sweater. I couldn't get the smile off my face when I got off the plane and felt the breeze :)
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Error fixed 12:50 PM
I found the solution as to why non-google users weren't able to leave comments. There was an issue with the formatting when you had to enter the word verification when posting comments. It's been fixed now. So those of you that weren't able to comment can now do so.
Update coming soon. I'm so tired. So much traveling and walking this past week... but I love it!
Update coming soon. I'm so tired. So much traveling and walking this past week... but I love it!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Tokyo Ghetto 9:09 AM
It’s been a while since my last post because I’ve been quite busy and I vowed to stay away from the computer unless I was working. So what have I been up to? Enjoying Tokyo
For the dudes cause I’m sure you’re curious: The girls here are by far the most beautiful in the world. The girls on the street look as good as the models and actresses (movies/tv and adult) you're used to seeing. They make themselves up real nice and dress very stylish. You have to come here to see for yourself.
Here is a photo of the place I stayed in for the past week. It’s a Japanese-style apartment meant for out-of-towners who have to work in the city during the week, minimum stay of 7 days. I’m very fortunate to have a Japanese friend here. He’s been able to get me great deals on accommodation and travel which I could never find online on English booking sites. My flight up north to Hokkaido is going to cost 30000 yen (325 USD) including 1 night at a hotel, whereas the best deal I could find myself was 60000 yen without hotel. And the new hotel I’m staying at now is costing me 5000 yen a night and it’s in a better location than the 10000 yen one my travel agent in Canada got me (which was the cheapest). So if you know someone in Japan you definitely should have them book your trip as it can save you a lot of money.
As for trading, it has been quite disappointing lately and I hope it’s just the slow summer months. I’m finding it quite difficult to trade from 10:30 pm to 5 am because I’m dead tired by mid-session. But now is probably the best time to travel because I won’t be missing much in the markets. There isn’t much to say about my trading at the moment so I’ll tell you a little bit about my equipment setup.
I put together a server in a 2U chassis and shipped it to a co-location service in Chicago (not in the exchange). It’s an over-clocked Intel i7 920 @ 3.4 GHz, Asus P6T, 6 GB Patriot DDR3, and a 30 GB OCZ Vertex II SSD running Windows XP. Since I use multiple Sterling accounts I had to use a hack which lets me remotely log into my server with multiple logins at once using RDC (which is only available in Windows Server editions). The ping to the Sterling servers is only 3 milliseconds compared to the 23 ms I had from my home. I use Remote Desktop Connection and Radmin (made by the hackers who wrote sub7). The reason for using Radmin is because it allows me remotely view any resolution I want on my laptop whereas the max resolution I can use with RDC is that of my laptop. Did I make sense there?
I haven’t posted any pictures yet of the city but I will in the next post. But for now I’ll post some pictures of the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the traders among us. The place is empty since it’s all electronic now and the only people there were at some type of TSE regulatory meeting. Click image for sideshow
Oh yeah, why are none of my friends commenting? All the traders are going to think I don’t have any. lol. It's not just a trading blog guys!
I’m going to head out of the city in a couple of days and enjoy the historical and traditional cultural side of Japan. Peace
For the dudes cause I’m sure you’re curious: The girls here are by far the most beautiful in the world. The girls on the street look as good as the models and actresses (movies/tv and adult) you're used to seeing. They make themselves up real nice and dress very stylish. You have to come here to see for yourself.
Here is a photo of the place I stayed in for the past week. It’s a Japanese-style apartment meant for out-of-towners who have to work in the city during the week, minimum stay of 7 days. I’m very fortunate to have a Japanese friend here. He’s been able to get me great deals on accommodation and travel which I could never find online on English booking sites. My flight up north to Hokkaido is going to cost 30000 yen (325 USD) including 1 night at a hotel, whereas the best deal I could find myself was 60000 yen without hotel. And the new hotel I’m staying at now is costing me 5000 yen a night and it’s in a better location than the 10000 yen one my travel agent in Canada got me (which was the cheapest). So if you know someone in Japan you definitely should have them book your trip as it can save you a lot of money.As for trading, it has been quite disappointing lately and I hope it’s just the slow summer months. I’m finding it quite difficult to trade from 10:30 pm to 5 am because I’m dead tired by mid-session. But now is probably the best time to travel because I won’t be missing much in the markets. There isn’t much to say about my trading at the moment so I’ll tell you a little bit about my equipment setup.
I put together a server in a 2U chassis and shipped it to a co-location service in Chicago (not in the exchange). It’s an over-clocked Intel i7 920 @ 3.4 GHz, Asus P6T, 6 GB Patriot DDR3, and a 30 GB OCZ Vertex II SSD running Windows XP. Since I use multiple Sterling accounts I had to use a hack which lets me remotely log into my server with multiple logins at once using RDC (which is only available in Windows Server editions). The ping to the Sterling servers is only 3 milliseconds compared to the 23 ms I had from my home. I use Remote Desktop Connection and Radmin (made by the hackers who wrote sub7). The reason for using Radmin is because it allows me remotely view any resolution I want on my laptop whereas the max resolution I can use with RDC is that of my laptop. Did I make sense there?
I haven’t posted any pictures yet of the city but I will in the next post. But for now I’ll post some pictures of the Tokyo Stock Exchange for the traders among us. The place is empty since it’s all electronic now and the only people there were at some type of TSE regulatory meeting. Click image for sideshow
Oh yeah, why are none of my friends commenting? All the traders are going to think I don’t have any. lol. It's not just a trading blog guys!
I’m going to head out of the city in a couple of days and enjoy the historical and traditional cultural side of Japan. Peace
Friday, July 3, 2009
Greetings from Japan! 4:32 AM
Minasan konnichi wa
I’m writing this while I sit along side a river (albeit brown) in Tokyo as I wait until I can check into my next hotel. I wish I had my camera but I left my luggage at the hotel desk.
That had to be one of the longest most grueling flights I have ever been on. I came down with a fever during the Vancouver to Tokyo leg and I suspect I caught it from the girl sitting next to me. Before take off she fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder and didn’t wake up and remove it for at least an hour. Though I wasn’t sure at first, was she sleeping or was she just really forward? A man can only hope for the latter... But I believe she was sick cause she slept the entire flight and didn’t even eat any of the meals. Though I can’t put all the blame on her because I probably shouldn’t have whispered ‘sleep well sweet princess’ in her ear and kissed the top of her head. Just kidding, I ain’t a creeper! But all is forgivable because she was rather cute. Holla when you get out of quarantine okay?
I was really worried though because I’m psychosomatic (not really) and thought I could have contracted swine flu. There were already a few people on the plane wearing masks. I had most of the symptoms and I was surprised the thermal cameras at the airport didn’t notice me and throw me into quarantine. Thankfully I feel 80% again.
I’ve been trading from my hotel and surprisingly the connection to my server is excellent. Unfortunately I haven’t had a positive day this week! I suppose I can blame it partly on the fact I didn’t sleep for 48 hours, was jet-lagged, had flu like symptoms, and my head wasn’t fully there. I’m glad it’s a long weekend so I can recuperate, explore the city, and go at it again next week.
I met up with my Japanese friend who I worked with in Thailand and he’s been showing me around the city. I’ll be sure to post pictures and more about what I’ve been up to in my next blog post.
So I’ll end this post with a quick list of what I brought with me for those that may be curious. I tried to go as light as possible and went with a carry-on so I wouldn't have to check my bags in anywhere.
- leather duffle bag
- Thinkpad X300 (13”, < 1” width, < 3lbs, 1440x900 res, 64 gb SDD, 4 gb RAM, extra battery – perfect laptop for trading on the go), mouse, keypad, lock
- Canon XSi Rebel
- 6 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, pants, shorts, shoes and flip flops, and undergarments
- couple of books, space bags for compressed packing and dirty clothes, toiletries, some meds, travel sized steam-iron (have you ever worn air-dried clothes??), 2 cell phones: 1 for talking 1 for tethering, multi-plug adaptor, misc
All in all it’s about 25 lbs. I think I’ll go get luggage with wheels because this bag is heavier and harder to carry than I thought. I was trying to travel in style but it just isn’t practical when you're walking for miles. Well I’m off to Louis Vuitton to get something more practical for backpacking….
I’m writing this while I sit along side a river (albeit brown) in Tokyo as I wait until I can check into my next hotel. I wish I had my camera but I left my luggage at the hotel desk.
That had to be one of the longest most grueling flights I have ever been on. I came down with a fever during the Vancouver to Tokyo leg and I suspect I caught it from the girl sitting next to me. Before take off she fell asleep and rested her head on my shoulder and didn’t wake up and remove it for at least an hour. Though I wasn’t sure at first, was she sleeping or was she just really forward? A man can only hope for the latter... But I believe she was sick cause she slept the entire flight and didn’t even eat any of the meals. Though I can’t put all the blame on her because I probably shouldn’t have whispered ‘sleep well sweet princess’ in her ear and kissed the top of her head. Just kidding, I ain’t a creeper! But all is forgivable because she was rather cute. Holla when you get out of quarantine okay?
I was really worried though because I’m psychosomatic (not really) and thought I could have contracted swine flu. There were already a few people on the plane wearing masks. I had most of the symptoms and I was surprised the thermal cameras at the airport didn’t notice me and throw me into quarantine. Thankfully I feel 80% again.
I’ve been trading from my hotel and surprisingly the connection to my server is excellent. Unfortunately I haven’t had a positive day this week! I suppose I can blame it partly on the fact I didn’t sleep for 48 hours, was jet-lagged, had flu like symptoms, and my head wasn’t fully there. I’m glad it’s a long weekend so I can recuperate, explore the city, and go at it again next week.
I met up with my Japanese friend who I worked with in Thailand and he’s been showing me around the city. I’ll be sure to post pictures and more about what I’ve been up to in my next blog post.
So I’ll end this post with a quick list of what I brought with me for those that may be curious. I tried to go as light as possible and went with a carry-on so I wouldn't have to check my bags in anywhere.
- leather duffle bag- Thinkpad X300 (13”, < 1” width, < 3lbs, 1440x900 res, 64 gb SDD, 4 gb RAM, extra battery – perfect laptop for trading on the go), mouse, keypad, lock
- Canon XSi Rebel
- 6 shirts, 1 pair of jeans, pants, shorts, shoes and flip flops, and undergarments
- couple of books, space bags for compressed packing and dirty clothes, toiletries, some meds, travel sized steam-iron (have you ever worn air-dried clothes??), 2 cell phones: 1 for talking 1 for tethering, multi-plug adaptor, misc
All in all it’s about 25 lbs. I think I’ll go get luggage with wheels because this bag is heavier and harder to carry than I thought. I was trying to travel in style but it just isn’t practical when you're walking for miles. Well I’m off to Louis Vuitton to get something more practical for backpacking….
Monday, June 29, 2009
My first blog post!
My flight leaves in just 6 hours from Toronto and my first destination is Tokyo Japan. The flight is early in the morning so you can’t possibly expect me to sleep tonight. Since I still have a few things to do in preparation for my trip I’ll keep my first post brief.
I’m going to start the blog with a brief introduction about myself so you have an idea of who I am and how I got to this point.
After graduating with a B.Sc. in psychology (yes, psychology) I went to Asia to teach English like so many other lost graduates. I somehow ended up in Thailand and worked there for 18 months and it was the experience of a lifetime. Upon coming back I knew that I had to continue traveling because I felt there was so much to see and experience in this world and I wanted to do it while I was still young. So I looked for a field that would make that possible. How could I become a digital nomad? And that’s how I began trading prop…
It was June 2007, two months after returning to Canada and I was near broke. I had never thought about trading but I was put in contact with a proprietary firm through a friend. I put 2000 dollars down as a deposit at a Toronto firm which offered a 50% payout and 20 cents per 1000 shares commission (I am no longer there btw). I had never traded before so as a neophyte I thought it was going to be easy and I was going to get rich... boy band rich. I was soon proven wrong…
The atmosphere of a trading office was exciting as there were always guys screaming for stocks to go up or cursing a stock and calling it names that you would reserve for a cheating ex-girlfriend. I began by scalping thick stocks like F, S, and AMD and had made money the first 3 days of trading. I thought I was going to be a superstar! Soros 2.0? Unfortunately that would be the last 3 day winning streak I would have for months, lol. It certainly didn’t help that all of the other traders at my firm were struggling as well as they were not adjusting well to the new NYSE hybrid system. Having no part time job or savings I was able to keep myself afloat by playing poker both online and at the casino. It was something I had done throughout school and my travels to allow for a comfortable living. I would say that the skills which I acquired in poker have helped me greatly in trading (possibly more on that in a later post).
I quickly gravitated towards automated trading. I had been programming since I was 13 (but I wasn’t a nerd!) and in high school I had written automated email spamming software which made me a generous amount of money as a teenager. So automated trading it would be! From the get go I began back-testing strategies using a back-testing platform which I had written myself. Being the noob I was at the time I didn’t realize there were dozens of platforms already out there. I had tested everything under the sun. Moving averages, MACD, stochastics, RSI, CCI, moon phases, weather patterns, my biorhythms, you name it (alright, maybe not the last three). I always thought I had found something but it never seemed to work in real time because I had made the mistake that all newbies make: over-optimization!
It wasn’t until the start of 2008 that I was able to find something that worked on a consistent basis. Using Don Bright’s opening order strategy as a base, my manager and I developed a profitable variation of it. With the burden finally lifted off my shoulders and with new risk capital to use I began testing strategies in a new way: I ditched the idea of back-testing and focused on just throwing money at new ideas as I saw them. This was when my trading finally took off and the rest is history...
I’ve discovered and gone through many trading edges since them. Some last for months, some for only high volatility, and some are still going strong. I believe the most important trait a trader must have is the ability to adapt. The market is constantly changing so we as small time traders must change with it. Since I had my first profitable month I have not had a losing month, rarely a losing week and am currently on a 50+ day positive streak (knock on wood). I don’t say that to brag but I must tell you because I doubt many people would be interested in following my blog if you thought I was a loser! But as a trader I know my fortunes can and mostly likely will change so I won’t get ahead of myself…
Well I guess that’s it for an introduction and it’s much longer than I expected. I promise my future posts will be much shorter :) My next post will focus on the logistics of how I’ll be trading while on this trip. The setup, preparation, safeguards, and how I plan to hardly miss a day of trading.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
My flight leaves in just 6 hours from Toronto and my first destination is Tokyo Japan. The flight is early in the morning so you can’t possibly expect me to sleep tonight. Since I still have a few things to do in preparation for my trip I’ll keep my first post brief.
I’m going to start the blog with a brief introduction about myself so you have an idea of who I am and how I got to this point.
After graduating with a B.Sc. in psychology (yes, psychology) I went to Asia to teach English like so many other lost graduates. I somehow ended up in Thailand and worked there for 18 months and it was the experience of a lifetime. Upon coming back I knew that I had to continue traveling because I felt there was so much to see and experience in this world and I wanted to do it while I was still young. So I looked for a field that would make that possible. How could I become a digital nomad? And that’s how I began trading prop…
It was June 2007, two months after returning to Canada and I was near broke. I had never thought about trading but I was put in contact with a proprietary firm through a friend. I put 2000 dollars down as a deposit at a Toronto firm which offered a 50% payout and 20 cents per 1000 shares commission (I am no longer there btw). I had never traded before so as a neophyte I thought it was going to be easy and I was going to get rich... boy band rich. I was soon proven wrong…
The atmosphere of a trading office was exciting as there were always guys screaming for stocks to go up or cursing a stock and calling it names that you would reserve for a cheating ex-girlfriend. I began by scalping thick stocks like F, S, and AMD and had made money the first 3 days of trading. I thought I was going to be a superstar! Soros 2.0? Unfortunately that would be the last 3 day winning streak I would have for months, lol. It certainly didn’t help that all of the other traders at my firm were struggling as well as they were not adjusting well to the new NYSE hybrid system. Having no part time job or savings I was able to keep myself afloat by playing poker both online and at the casino. It was something I had done throughout school and my travels to allow for a comfortable living. I would say that the skills which I acquired in poker have helped me greatly in trading (possibly more on that in a later post).
I quickly gravitated towards automated trading. I had been programming since I was 13 (but I wasn’t a nerd!) and in high school I had written automated email spamming software which made me a generous amount of money as a teenager. So automated trading it would be! From the get go I began back-testing strategies using a back-testing platform which I had written myself. Being the noob I was at the time I didn’t realize there were dozens of platforms already out there. I had tested everything under the sun. Moving averages, MACD, stochastics, RSI, CCI, moon phases, weather patterns, my biorhythms, you name it (alright, maybe not the last three). I always thought I had found something but it never seemed to work in real time because I had made the mistake that all newbies make: over-optimization!
It wasn’t until the start of 2008 that I was able to find something that worked on a consistent basis. Using Don Bright’s opening order strategy as a base, my manager and I developed a profitable variation of it. With the burden finally lifted off my shoulders and with new risk capital to use I began testing strategies in a new way: I ditched the idea of back-testing and focused on just throwing money at new ideas as I saw them. This was when my trading finally took off and the rest is history...
I’ve discovered and gone through many trading edges since them. Some last for months, some for only high volatility, and some are still going strong. I believe the most important trait a trader must have is the ability to adapt. The market is constantly changing so we as small time traders must change with it. Since I had my first profitable month I have not had a losing month, rarely a losing week and am currently on a 50+ day positive streak (knock on wood). I don’t say that to brag but I must tell you because I doubt many people would be interested in following my blog if you thought I was a loser! But as a trader I know my fortunes can and mostly likely will change so I won’t get ahead of myself…
Well I guess that’s it for an introduction and it’s much longer than I expected. I promise my future posts will be much shorter :) My next post will focus on the logistics of how I’ll be trading while on this trip. The setup, preparation, safeguards, and how I plan to hardly miss a day of trading.
Stay tuned and thanks for reading.
