Trading and Surfing

 One of my favorite metaphors for trading is surfing.  While I've never surfed, I do boogie board or body board (whatever you want to call it). Not at a high level but enough to understand the comparisons that can be made to trading. The metaphor goes like this. The ocean is the Market and the surfer/boarder is you. The goal is to catch a wave (market move/stock move) and ride it the best you can. What makes the metaphor work so well is that if you try to early, you miss it - if you try to late, you miss it. If you're out there and there's no good wave then you are just sitting waiting, watching.  The best waves are often those where two waves have come together - a double up - and you get twice the force moving you along. Out in the water you can see this  where a larger wave is almost chasing a slightly smaller wave and then they combine and you think "I wanna catch this one - it'll be great!" This is the same in trading. We should be looking for these waves. And they happen on every timeframe. So then it becomes which timeframe are you most comfortable with. Do you like big powerful waves that don't come too often but really get you moving because they likely have doubled up several times? Or do you like the little waves where you can splash around over and over again? Tom Hougaard talks about surfing on a couple occasions in his book "Best Loser Wins" and I agree with him. The man is not lying. I think one of the things I like is that when you do get run over by a wave (or market) and crash you have to have the guts to get back out there and try again even if it's dark and deep and powerful and you know technically there could be sharks out there. (just don't splash around too much or you look like a struggling seal and the sharks will go after you - same in the market). With that being eaten by sharks thought I close. Have a great day or night wherever you are. Cheers!