Holiday hours for Futures exchanges + a Cheshire cat's wisdom

Brian here with the holiday hours for the Futures markets, and a bit of wisdom from the Cheshire cat.

1.  You can access the hours for the Futures exchanges here,

http://www.zaner.com/3.0/market_information/hot_topics.asp

This comes to you compliments of my good friend and colleague Larry Schneider at the Zaner Group.

2.  Here a wisdom applicable to your trading from the Cheshire Cat,

Alice:  “Which way should I go?”

Cheshire cat:  “That depends on where you are going.”

Alice:  “I don’t know where I’m going!”

Cheshire cat:  “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

– Lewis Carroll

1872  Through the Looking Glass

So many traders come to me for help because they are tired of NOT knowing what to do, and what direction to take.

Even when I ask the question directly, “How can I best help you right now?”, often the reply is “I don’t know.”

I know how they feel because I’ve been there too,

…feeling rather lost and having tried so many things without results, to the point of no clear answer on how to get things working.

This is one of the “business lessons” that you learn when you start working for yourself, as all traders do.

It is a simple illustration of the importance of having a plan for properly starting up the business and getting it to sustainable profitability, over and above having a system.

The hardest thing to “get” for many who’ve never started their own business before is how taking the time BEFORE getting too busy and to plan, actually saves massive wasted time, effort and money.

If you and I were on the phone and you told me that you’d been ‘trying’ for years to get your trading working, but that you thought it a waste of time to plan it out, that it’s just better to get making some money and then figure it out, I’ve found that the best way to convey the message is with this simple question:

“If you can’t build consistently profitable operation on paper, how do you expect to do it in the real world?”

Just like we do in the Trading P.I.T. Club training program, you start by giving yourself direction.

There’s a right way and wrong way to determine which direction you’re heading.

“Make lot’s of money” sound enticing but is NOT clear direction, and will leave you running in all directions chasing it AND have you still running years later.

Giving your long-term operation good and useful direction requires a sensible and business-like process.

Alice was asking for direction, but had no idea how to even figure out where she wanted to go.

Do yourself the favor of saving time, stress and waste by planning your trading business out the right way.

Treat your trading as a business by starting with proper direction

It really makes so many things much easier.

Cheers

Brian

P.S.  I got an email the other day from a guy that just wanted to see if there was a real person here – yes I’m real!  Send me a note and let me know if you have any questions and how I can best help YOU. 😀