Movies Watched -- Aquarius (2016)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

In Portuguese. 146 minute running time so at least 46 minutes too long, but this is a big story … a story about modern Brazil, the people, the culture, the history … it’s pretty intense .. Sonia Braga plays a “nailhouse” (that’s what we called them in Chynar) tenant, an apartment owner who refuses to move so the building site can’t be re-developed… this was too long and the symbolism a little too heavy-handed (so things are rotten to the core?), but if you’re interested in modern Brazil, it’s probably a must-see. I liked Neighboring Sounds better, esp. my shortened fan edit version.

A darker-skinned family, right? That had to sweat a lot to get what they got.

A darker-skinned family, right? That had to sweat a lot to get what they got.

Notes for Beyond the PDT, Episode 21

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Episode 21 … Brice Foose (79:41)

  • Interview from 2019

  • Lives in St. Louis

  • Trades remotely for Seven Points Capital

  • Pharmacist at CVS in evenings and weekends

  • Started trading in 2011

  • Graduated from pharmacy school in 2013

  • Started at Seven Points in January 2019

  • Joined subscription website, Bio Runup in 2012

  • Focused on biotech stocks, had an edge being a pharmacist

  • Good year in 2013

  • 2014 learned how to short and lost money for the next three years

  • 2016 took a loss in DRYS that was huge, shorted at $12 (it went to $100)

  • Account went from $55,000 to $8,000 after DRYS loss

  • January 2017 finally got traction, green year

  • Couldn't overcome fees when shorting with small account

  • In 2017 with $40K account, had $68K in gains, fees were $70K, so a red year

  • 2018 his best year, 2019 should be even better

  • Put in the time and never give up

  • Every trader who is good has battled through things to get them where they're at

  • Main things is controlling losses

  • Have to have confidence in your method that you can make your losses back

  • Got $20K from his stepdad

  • Wanted a method that he could use for the rest of his life

  • Anyone looking for a quick buck, trading is not the profession for this

  • Oversized losses mainly explain his red years

  • If you feel enough pain, you're going to change

  • "Getting away with stuff" before big DRYS loss

  • DRYS loss the best thing that ever happened to him

  • Insitituted max loss after DRYS

  • Can see through press releases since he's a pharmacist

  • Does biotech catalysts, wants hard date and doesn't hold through catalyst

  • Anything up huge in the morning that has an ATM, he's interested in shorting

  • Knows all the companies that are notorious for pumping stock price

  • Combines technicals with fundamental bias

  • Looking for things to fade all day or a couple days

  • Tough to have long bias with scammy company

  • Liked Mike Katz on Twitter, impressed with attitude and demeanor

  • Attended every Traders 4 a Cause since 2014

  • Met Katz in Vegas at Traders 4 a Cause in 2018

  • Asked Katz if he could trade remotely for Seven Points

  • Failed one of his licensing tests at first, but it was a blessing in disguise (missed a bad market)

  • Seven Points has great borrows and gave him more buying power

  • People on TWTR never post about fees, they can be a killer

  • Seven Points internal messaging system is key, surrounded by good traders

  • A trader's midset can be fragile, good to have pep talks from fellow traders

  • Uses hard stops for every short position, already mentally accepted the loss

  • Tries to be positive, life is short, cut out the constantly negative people

  • Dreamed of going to the NBA, realized he wasn't going to make it

  • Worked out a lot in high school and college

  • Did body building for two years, ultimate exercise in discipline

  • Hard stops and max losses keep him disciplined, can't spiral out of control

  • No more adding, no more holding and hoping (which he did in the past)

  • If you trade with edge, and avoid bad losses, the sky is the limit

  • If he takes a loss, he's confident he can make it back quickly

  • Uses wide stops, sizes position to lose a certain dollar amount

  • Uses 1-minute charts during the day

  • Uses technical levels for targets

  • His strength is he can hold winners for a long time, tries not to take partial profits

  • Doesn't think of risk reward when he places his stops

  • 90% win rate means risk reward can be 1 to 1 [or worse]

  • Talked to a lot of top traders in person at Traders 4 a Cause, like Phil Goedeker (who spent 25 minutes with Brice)

  • Met Brian (Lee?) at Traders 4 a Cause in 2016, became buddies, helped each other through tough times

  • Another buddy, Justin, talks with him during Brice's half-hour commute

  • Talks with ViperofDC (Jay) about mindset

  • Essential to have some trading buddies who are on your level and have the same mindset

  • Trading is a lonely business, amount of traders who come and go is staggering

  • He wasn't profitable the first three years he attended Traders 4 a Cause (a tax deductible business expense)

  • He had his eye on the big picture, looking 20 to 30 years ahead

  • Traders 4 a Cause in October, best trader networking event he knows of

  • Tips for beginners: trading is tough, you need to put in 10,000 hours at least

  • Use ThinkOrSwim OnDemand ... it's an incredible resource, speed up your learning curve, use every weekend

  • Embrace your losses and learn from them

  • A losing year is not the end of the world, learn from it and move on

  • The amount of money you can make is totally insane, mind-boggling to a normal person

  • Use negative energy to improve your trading, channel it to motivate yourself

  • His CPA in 2014 saw his statements and said, "you know we have investment services down the hall"

  • Pissed off, motivated him, said to himself that yearly loss I will make in one day in future

  • Feel the pain and build the habits

  • You need to have a side income, pay your bills while you're learning

  • Big believer in trading podcasts, loves listening to them

  • Intuition developed through screen time is huge

  • He never paper traded, need the emotions that come with risking real money

  • Build a process that you can eventually scale

  • Don't give up ... learn and improve ... focus on continuous improvement ... learn from your losses

  • "Train the Brain" -- a SmashTheBid saying ... hold something longer than you planned to, build patience

  • Had cancer when he was two years old, a survivor

  • Pharmacist income is very high, opportunity cost too high to quit, spent seven years in school for it

  • Focused on paying off his debt: car, mortgage, student loans

  • Has real estate LLC, needs the W-2 to secure loans, lenders look askance at trader income (too volatile)

  • On Twitter, but rarely posts, turned off by the nonsense ... @PharmDFoose

Movies Watched -- The Big Red One (1980)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

163 minute running time so at least an hour too long … Sam Fuller made one great movie (Pickup On South Street) and a lot of bad movies, including this one. I like Lee Marvin in almost anything, but…. Luke Skywalker is also in this … it just goes on and on and on … give it a miss. Farr got it wrong.

I can understand you being horny, Fritz….

I can understand you being horny, Fritz….

Movies Watched -- Days of Heaven (1978)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

93 minute running time so the right length but it still feels like an epic … a W.D. By movie … he threw out the script and thankfully cut cut cut as much as he could … an unusual one, created a mood, a sense of time and place (turn of the 20th century), however romanticized … sparse dialogue, mainly voice-over from a child’s perspective*, it’s all about creating a feeling, a mythical or fairy tale world … with a Biblical plague of locusts and hellfire no less! … but it does give you a sense of a country unformed and people untamed … pretty boy Richard Gere and young Sam Shepard (too young to be a wealthy farmer? I guess he inherited it) … and Linda Manz can dance (that was my favorite scene) … with an Ennio Morricone score and lush cinematography … I can see why this movie is widely loved … it’s a green-go.

(*”It was a last-minute decision by Mr. Malick to have Ms. Manz do the voice-over narration, without a script.”)

He must think we’re awful people

He must think we’re awful people

Movies Watched -- Brick (2005)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

110 minute running time … a W.D. By movie, this had a strong Trust Fund Kid Project feel … an incomprehensible story that puts Chandler-esque dialogue in the mouths of attractive, rich-kid, California high schoolers … I didn’t last long before tiring of the gimmick … give it a miss (waste of a borrow).

I'm not heeling you to hook you. [Line after line like this!]

I'm not heeling you to hook you. [Line after line like this!]

Movies Watched -- Suture (1993)

Added on by C. Maoxian.

96 minute running time… this was terrible, had the feel of a Trust Fund Kid project … in black and white, about identity … just bad, pretentious. tiresome, poorly done … Roger Ebert, of all people, could even get it right when he panned it. Give it a miss.

How is it that we know who we are?

How is it that we know who we are?

Linda Raschke on Who Succeeds in Trading

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Nice connection to my Matt Marino post:

“All the people who I have observed who have made it over the years found one thing, and it might have taken them five years of doing their own journey, it might have taken them ten years, but eventually they will wind down and find one thing that really works for them.”