Studying in my underwear

I was up before the sun came out this morning, studying my new book Trade Your Way To Financial Freedom by Van K. Tharp. I found this book by accident while hunting through Amazon for something else. The decision to buy the book was made solely on the reader comments left at Amazon. I knew this would be an exciting read and I've actually had the book sitting on my bookshelf now for quite awhile, waiting for a good opportunity to consume it.

The only problem is... those opportunities are few and far between these days. It is rare that I would actually have any peaceful time in my schedule to sit down and study a book without interruption. Working at the dayjob is always hectic (or at least, I should say that I never can seem to find any "free time" with my ever increasing to-do lists). After battling evening rush hour, I'm back home to the hoppin' kids and frazzled mom who's been trying to contain them long enough to get some work done herself. I throw dinner on the grill and then race through my chores to hopefully save a few moments for reading later. Alas, by the time the kids are in bed and my daily routines are finally over... aside from the fact that it is my bedtime, my brain is now too fried to start a study on trading.

But trading is something I must find a way to make time for. It is my alternate lifestyle, one that is under development and in constant need of nurturing. I hope that one day all this learning will result in a tangible output that can actually demand more of my time. In other words, I foresee the day when I will begin phasing-out my other obligations (ie the dayjob) in favor of more lucrative time spent in the markets. The cool part about this dream is that there is no comparison between (any) dayjob and trading: to accomplish an equivalent 8-hour workday of output may only take 1 hour of effort. That means I'll have many more hours to spend with my family.

I've read many books over the years, and so far this one seems very on-target to me. It seems to encapsulate a lot of the wisdom I've learned through experience in trading to date. Also, I think I would have to say that this is not a "beginner" book. Some of the concepts presented are deep and might only be evident to someone with prior experience. I think if I was reading this book as a primer to trading, I might not grasp the difference between Tharp's concepts and your run-of-the-mill "How To Trade" book. I also believe that there is a lot of legitimacy to Tharp's teaching for the sole reason that (at least as of chapter 9) he has not yet tried to sell me anything. I'm adding this book to my "highly recommended" reading list.