What a week, my blood pressure went through the roof 174/125, I had a two-day immersion session on Mental Wellbeing, I battled with Gold in my Forex Trading and had an ECG to check the heart was still pumping!
My journey took a different route this week, as per most weeks.
Blood Pressure
Following my heart attack in June, I had been feeling like my head, arms and chest were about to explode. Fortunately, I had been requested to monitor my blood pressure ahead of a Cardio Clinic appointment next week. We have a home blood pressure monitor, it normally just collects dust, so I thought I best start my log.
My first reading 153/103 on my Left Arm, pulse 75. This is high for me, I am used to a “normal” 128/78.
30 minutes later let us try my Right Arm – oh dear 172/120, pulse 68
2 hours later 174/25, pulse still 68
It’s the monitor, isn’t it? Let ask Sue, my wife, to check her pressure, a good 125/78. Not the monitor then!
The instructions for the device recommended anything >110 for the lower reading was “contact your doctor immediately”!!!
I made the call, got through to the receptionist quite quickly, now the challenge – can I get an appointment this side of next week?
As soon as I mentioned the reading the response was – “I will get you a doctors callback”
Hmm, guess it is a little high then.
Sure enough, the doctor calls, I get an immediate appointment. The reading had dropped a little by then but was still high.
Solution: Double up my blood pressure tablet dosage, I now have to take it daily following the heart attack.
Long story short, my blood pressure is now back down to something more normal 140/85, guess the tablets are doing the job.
I hate being reliant on tablets but at the moment I need to play the game.
Mental Wellbeing
Following my heart attack, I felt I needed to get back in touch with my true self. I visited Class Performance during my cancer battle and just prior to our son passing through pancreatic cancer.
Denise changed my world in 10 minutes flat. Understanding how my mind works really helped me cope with that intense time and the next year of coming to terms with things. During COVID lockdown I did not continue the learning, I knew I was not coping as well so, re-engaging was the best move for me.
This is really something I am hoping we can provide for the vulnerable children that we help through our charity Ricki Neil-Jones – The Gift of Golf Foundation.
We looked at a number of issues, my anger at prostate cancer treatment, my hate of the effect of radiotherapy on the prostate, subsequent retention and need for yet another catheter, we also looked at the heart attack, the necessary changes needed following that experience, my 9-5 work, learning to mentally Trade using “The Houses Money” and my loss of passion for golf.
A long way to go with all this but I managed to calm my thinking which helped with the blood pressure and how I was feeling. Weekly sessions are planned going forward.
Forex Trading
In my Forex Trading, I had a battle with Gold, two weeks ago the USD ($) had an increase in price and, due to the correlation, the price of Gold dropped considerably. In this type of price drop, there are always winners, losers and those that have a survival battle – I was the latter.
Gold is such a great trading opportunity but it moves so fast if you get on the wrong side of the direction the drawdown of your capital rapidly increases.
This week, the way things were set up Gold could either fall to the floor or retrace back up. I needed to protect my account against the fall, I needed to manage my drawdown so decided to place a hedge trade.
For those that do not trade, it basically is a trade in the opposite direction to your existing trades. This can either reduce the speed of your drawdown or, if planned correctly, can create sufficient positive value to supersede your negative trades. This then allows you to exit the position with your account still intact.
Hedging is often a challenge, when do you enter, where do you place your SL (stop loss) etc.
I have done this a number of times, the majority of the times have been successful, some not so. But I had a new thought this time, I do not know why I did not think of it before.
Along with manual trading, one of the EA (Expert Advisor) which I use is an algorithm created by the developer and it takes the trades, sets SL (stop loss) and TP (take profit) levels. The trading style it is using is known as Martingale, each additional trade taken is designed to cover any existing losing trade. This is great when the market ranges (moves up and down in a range) but not so great if it trends off in a direction for an extended period of time. The commitment of the new trades keeps growing, your account balance keeps falling.
My commitment to this Gold trade is quite substantial, so there is a lot of trades waiting for the price of Gold to go back up, now I need to Trade on the assumption that it could continue to go down. Where do I put my SL? I would normally tuck it away behind a resistance level but the nature of Gold, it could easily travel a large distance, eat up my SL (costing me money) and then retrace straight back to where it started.
Something from the clarity of my mind popped up, why not use the doubling of the trades up to this point to protect your SL. This would mean that if the price of Gold goes back up to a specific point any losses for the new trade can be covered by the existing trades already placed. I looked, I checked and double-checked and all appears to be in place for me to now sleep easily and get out of this mess without losing my account.
Watch this space.
Sorry if this got too confusing for anyone who does not trade.
ECG – better safe than sorry
My final appointment of the week was an ECG, the doctor I saw regarding my blood pressure wanted this done, safety first I guess.
I had the test this morning, apart from the pulling of hairs when they removed the sticky pads all went well.
The doctor was on hand and immediately reviewed the readings, giving me a thumbs up and sending me on my way.
All in all a positive week, bring on next week.