I’ve been considering blogging at least a few times a month for however many millennia it has been since I last wrote. I found several drafts that I started at various points this year and left quarter-completed. As much of a habit as blogging has been at certain periods in my life where I felt (positive) pressure to produce something on a Sunday, I’ve had the strongest resistance that I can remember towards blogging this past year.
Looking back on it I think it has been a combo of letting my brain be absorbed with machine learning/programming that is hard to mentally switch from to writing, and the (resistance) thoughts of not thinking I have anything worthwhile to share, or worse, what I’m working on might be abandoned, and perhaps it’s better to not talk about things that I’m flip-flopping on.
The start of a new year helped me remember that it’s better to put any words out into the world rather than just continue to procrastinate in silence.
In hindsight this past year I made progress in major areas of my life. In real-time it felt like I was stuck in quick-sand, and I definitely did backtrack on a regular basis. I lost around 15 lbs of weight that I needed to lose, and kept it off even while eating horrendously (but not huge quantities) during the past holiday month. I had been more or less around the same weight (or even higher) the past 5+ years. I did a super strict keto/carnivore diet for the first time where I wasn’t having cheat meals a few times a week just for over a month, and that somehow caused my baseline weight to maintain even after I reintroduced carbs, gluten, and other bad things into my diet. Starting today I’m planning to go pretty strict again for a bit as I like how my brain and body feel, as well as how quickly I lose puffiness and bloat.
My plan was to have a very lucrative year in trading, but I didn’t realize although I felt I was 95% good with my various trading strategies, that last 5% when spread out across 20+ trading strategies (and constantly working on new ones) would end up taking the majority of the year. I also let a lot of doubt creep in that caused me to turn off different strategies when they had very small drawdowns, watch them perform well for months, turn them back on, get scared of normal small drawdowns, and repeat. The good news is I turned a corner on both getting things finished and my confidence and understanding of what performance I should expect so I wouldn’t make mistakes every time there were multiple losing trades in a row. I’m currently in the midst of one of the most consistent winning trading periods of my life.
These were my main focuses this year, and some of my main ones for this coming year. I always want to prioritize my romantic and friendship/family relationships, and I could have done better this past year. I got mentally bogged down with the trading stuff, but it’s not a valid excuse to the important people in my life. I also wanted to rebuild a meditation habit as well, and started finding it more enjoyable and frequent towards the end of the year.
In 2024 my plan is to have my trading work be more of an integrated piece of my life instead of consuming it. I have a huge list of projects I can research, let alone working on what I already have, but I want to go at a sustainable and perhaps even slow pace, rather than using caffeine + energy drinks to work until my brain and eyes barely function. I have more than enough algorithms in a good place to allow me to have a great year financially. Transferring some of my work hours into other things like doing this blog, working with my girlfriend on fun side projects, etc. I think will help my trading too as I’ll be more refreshed and able to think more clearly than I often was this past year.
It’s been so long now that I can’t remember what I’ve recommended in my previous blog posts, and I don’t keep track of the “best of the best” of what I consume during the year, but I thought I’ll throw out a few books/film/tv that stuck with me this past year.
TV I enjoyed that comes to mind that’s less known and very different: “Warrior”, “Irma Vep”, “Sense8”.
Film: I didn’t see many films this past year, and I’m sure there’s something good that I’m forgetting, but recently I liked “Saltburn” although it was uncomfortable to watch at times. “Licorice Pizza” was another eccentric film that I really enjoyed.
Books: I re-read “The Player of Games” even though the first 20-25% of the book is just random things before the plot begins and still really liked it, the trilogy that starts with “A Little Hatred” by Joe Abercrombie, and in non-fiction “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papsan was one of the better self-help books I’ve read in a while.
With that I’ll wish you a beautiful start to 2024, and to look forward to more than bi-annual updates this year! Here’s a pic from Christmas in Sweden while on a boat going through the islands, and the start of a NYE party in CDMX.
Andrew Manser 