102%

While magically making a pizza disappear a moment ago, I was struck by an awesome truth of this, my global existence:

I'm in the middle of Texas. I'm eating Italian food that was built to last for no less than a decade when stored at the right temperature. I'm listening to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra perform Hungarian piano concertos by way of a public radio station in Vermont over the internet. Such a mixture of influence and personal consumption made me especially happy for a moment and I thought it should be recorded in some capacity.

Well this was generally a good week. I didn't get a great deal of sleep because I was up most nights watching my trades. It looks like my nickels and dimes (literally) have paid off.

After revising my risk to a more aggressive approach while targeting smaller fluctuations against larger trends, I doubled my account in September: 102% gain in 25 trading days with an 86% win ratio. I took the rest of last week off and haven't looked at a chart in about 36 hours. I traded gbpjpy almost exclusively on Asian open. I maintained discipline and if another trade presented itself after the first, I did the right thing consistently and traded half or a quarter of the position and promptly forgot about it. It's about to turn into work again, but it's a necessary addition to this kind, low-key existence. Tomorrow I'll update my COT reports and work on the charts for a little (long) while before tripping awkwardly into the forthcoming workweek. 100% return in 25 days. Now if I can just do that ten or fifteen more times...

We had a great cold front come through last night and it turned into genuine fall weather around here. I woke up plainly cold after the air conditioner ran all night. I think it was about 60 this morning when I woke up, but I just wasn't motivated enough to check the temperature directly. After the week I had, I was reluctant to do much more than scratch myself when I woke up today. I'm also generally just a little disappointed to see the cold weather come back. Living in Texas, a person gets used to sweating. And I've done my best to incorporate it into my life insofar as I simply expect it to be hot outside. It's true we move just a little slower down here in the South. The only way to come to terms with the heat is to relax and keep your heart rate where it needs to be. I also think it's best to break a sweat once a day. I think the biological response is sort of like a mental and physical reboot.

My roommate just left. He has dead bikes and drums all over the place and won't goddamn bathe his dog. He did, however, start to flush the toilet after using it... apparently to the direct detriment of children without drinking water around the world. I'm ready for him to be gone.

My pizza was spectacular.

I'm writing this on my tablet! I got it back yesterday and spent all night and morning setting it up. After setting everything up just how I wanted it on my 120gb drive, it failed and I had to do it all over again on the OEM drive. It was tedious but not too bad. I might actually do all my... yeah. I'm gonna do my charting somewhere around town tomorrow.

Had I not squandered my social life so efficiently over the last few years, I might have known Austin City Limits was happening before today. There are a few reasons I would have considered going. First, there's new grass. The recent rain has probably helped it take root considerably well and it should do just fine through the weekend. Next, looking at this year's sponsor list, it looks like Mr. Attal and C3 did it again by selling the local companies. AMD, Dell, Austin (Capital) Ventures and HEB probably carried the brunt of the bill. This is also probably one of, if not the only, major marketing efforts they'll make in Austin (and maybe Texas altogether) all year. I wouldn't be surprised if C3 had to prop up the budget a little on their own. They're bringing some big names and... it'd be interesting to see what Dave Matthews is charging. I doubt they get out of bed for less than $400 or $500k. Lenny Kravitz and Kid Rock don't play for less than a million. Madonna and JayZ, $1.25m. It's such a farce. I get more satisfaction from playing Faure's Pavane on a dumpy classical guitar than any amount of exorbitant production and glamour at a show like ACL. But I digress.

The only bands I'd like to see are Medeski, Martin and Wood, Mos Def and Pearl Jam. I learned how to play the drums with Pearl Jam and Sublime way back when :) Coheed and Cambria and Ben Harper might be fun to see, but I can only take one or two songs by either of them in one sitting. I don't need to see DMB anymore. If I need a DMB fix, I just watch some Carter Beauford videos on YouNube. I think I'll be just as content staring at charts and jamming to Banco de Gaia in my headphones tomorrow.

>> "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt