Tuesday 6 April 2010

Herman the First, Not Henry the 8th

I bought my first Herman Miller Aeron chair on Sunday. It's the first one I have owned but certainly won't be the last.
Having sat in the chair all day, I can report that I am at least 50% less tired and my performance today was better due to the increased concentration. Funny how things like this can help. I got it for about 70% off as it was a re-sale coming from one of the large bank mergers we have seen due to the apocalypse of the last few years. Seems that this bank had over $2,000,000 worth of just these chairs.

I first experienced one of these chairs in 2001 when I was working out of Chicago. The firm there had 60 of them and I really loved it. The price was the thing that stopped me buying one until now. I guess that I didn't really need the extra comfort until now - old farthood is getting closer. But as it approaches with it's downsides, I realize I wouldn't swap the downsides for all the benefits I have from the experience I have accumulated. Which brings me to trading in a round about way as things usually do.  Kiki and I were talking about screen time and I was saying there is nothing you can do trading wise to replace its value.  Screen time, be it live or SIM, will give you that "muscle memory" you need to react to all the situations you encounter and recognise what is happening.  So I did a rough estimate of the amount of hours I've spent watching, studying, sitting in front of a screen or being on the floor and the low estimate number I've come up with is about 100,000 hours.

The morning in London was like watching paint dry, white paint at that. After lunch, after a false start there was finally a reasonable trade around 3pm London time which gave about a 4 handle run to the Keltner upper limit. As you can see, I'm displaying the smoothed CVD as a histogram. It looks clearer to me.

Click to enlarge


11 comments:

  1. Good for you for making the investment. I have the exact same chair and have enjoyed it for the past 5 years. I must admit that I do also have a pillow lodged in the base of it to help support the small of my back.

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  2. Hi EL, that long was a nice setup. Enjoy your new chair!

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  3. jenrique42

    No se si me entenderas, pero descubri tu blog hace poco, y la verdad es que me esta gustando muchisimo, sobre todo, porque empieza desde cero, ahora que estoy empezando a hacer trading, claro esta en simulado, sin embargo me gustaria que pusieses una marca donde realmente haces la entrada y la salida para asi entender mejor tu metodologia

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  4. I have one(chair) at home and in my office. I have owned them for over 10 years. You will love it. enjoy.

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  5. EL, the histogram looks GREAT. It's much easier to read, good score!

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  6. El,

    On intrabar volume, what clues do you look for to help you enter/confirm the trade on the bar? Do you look for heavy volume at highs for red candles (for shorts), heavy volume at lows for green candles (for longs) etc. or some other clues? Thanks

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  7. I'm sorry, but you should be embarrassed by this post. You spend, what, 8 hours a day or so in a chair? So about a third of your life? You found a chair that could make that 1/3 of your life more relaxing, comfortable and enjoyable. You earn a very comfortable living. Yet you let a price tag of about $750 US delay that enjoyment for 9 years!!!

    Let me guess, you sleep on a 10yr old mattress that you bought from a secondhand store as well....

    Obviously, I am just "taking the piss" as you would say over there, but, seriously, live a little before it is all over with....

    Keep up the great work on the blog....

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  8. jenrique42

    These days I've discovered your blog, and the truth is that I like a lot, maybe because I'm in the same place as your daughter, I am beginning to learn what the discrepcional trading and now I'm in the simulated practice, practice, practice but not if one day have the courage to get into the real, but that'll be good later

    Today I would like to say I try to understand their methodology to do trading, but to do better need to know exactly their inputs and outputs, which comes to mind is that you please put a mark indicative as only puts a sign on the bar that comes

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  9. Nice...either Herman Miller Aeron or Human Scale is the way to go. I've been using HM Aeron for a while now; definitely helpful when you're spending so much of your day sitting in front of screens.

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  10. Guys, I wasn't exactly sitting on the floor before I bought my Herman - $US450 by the way. My last chair was OK then but doesn't match my comfort now.
    jenrique42, bienvenidos, hay que leer todo el blog para sus respuestos
    tickvix, same as always, nett volume and momentum

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  11. Lol!! "Guys, I wasn't exactly sitting on the floor before I bought my Herman"

    Cheers

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