Again it has been over a month since I last posted on how things were going. The last few months have been great for me and the profitability came at a great time (the light at the end of the tunnel was getting very dim). This job is very hard even when you are profitable but almost impossible to endure at times when you are losing. I have been doing this full time for almost 2 years and am just now seeing my first consistent profits. I have questioned my decision to do this many times but the longer I do it the more it seems that it’s what I was meant to do. The more I do it the more potential I see in the markets and in myself. Nothing is written is stone, especially with this type of work, but I see myself continuing to build, continuing to grind it out, continuing to gain confidence. I have been profitable 9 out of the last 10 weeks and am averaging about 1,200 in gains a week. Seven of the last ten weeks I have have made 1K+ and 4 of those weeks have been 2K+. I have even had a few 2K+ days!! Although the profits are great that does not begin to tell the whole story. My one down week was a large loss, at 2,700, for the week. I lost most of the money in one really bad day where I was down over 3,400 before working the loss down significantly. I reviewed the week that Saturday and was confident I could come back the next week. The following Monday I lost 600+ and then proceeded to lose 1,200+ on Tuesday. So in the last 7 trading days I had lost 4,500 dollars and was well on my way to another big loss in the first two days of the new week. Instead of harping on the negative I stayed focused and was able to put together two strait days of 1,500+ gains on Wednesday and Thursday to end the week profitable. Early in October I had similar scenario where I was down through Wednesday of that week and then lost 900 on that Thursday. I was looking at a relatively large loss for the week and was down over 1,800 at one point on Friday but came back and made over 3,100 in GOOG and once again I was able to end the week slightly positive. Being able to take losses and come back to profitability is one of the biggest changes I have noticed in my trading. I can take losses now because I am confident I can get them back. Losing is a part of trading and you have to be able to take a loss and keep going. I recently bought a book called “Zen and the Art of Poker”. In the book there are numerous rules for playing poker effectively and profitably. The rules can very easily be applied to trading and #20 stood out to me. To me it defines trading to a tee. The rule says: “The true journey of mastery is in each moment”.  The gist of the rule is that poker, like trading, is a never finished journey. About the time you think you have it figured out new events and tribulations come along and prove you wrong. This continual learning process was defined by George Leonard as the “goalless journey”. There is no finish line: the journey itself is the destination. According to Leonard each minute, every moment, every day is the goal. I feel the same about trading: every trade, every minute, every day is my goal and I achieve my goal each day because I am a trader. I know this post is long but also wanted to post a few charts from the last few weeks: