No More Trading While Working

In November of last year, my boss entered my office and said that she was hearing “rumors.” Of course, I asked what rumors she was hearing. “That you are daytrading.” I admitted that I opened my brokerage account from time to time to “check things out,” and that I had placed a “few trades” while at work. I mentioned that these events were no different in my mind from someone balancing their bank account online, or bidding on an Ebay item (common occurrences in the office). I told her that I was not a daytrader. (That is true). Whether I was or wasn’t a daytrader really did not matter one damn bit as she would not know the difference between a daytrader and a pile of camel crap. I asked from where the rumors originated, and she mentioned a certain department.
 
After racking my brain for a few hours, I finally remembered going to a conference over a year previous with a certain girl from said department. During a lunch break from all the stupid seminars, we were sitting in the hotel lobby, and I whipped out the laptop and tried to get a wireless signal so I could check my positions. It turns out the hotel’s wifi was malfunctioning, but it ignited a conversation between myself and my colleague. It went something like this:

“So, you are an investor?
“Yeah.”
“Cool. My husband is into stocks. He wants to put a lot of money into them.”
“Yeah, you can make and lose a lot of money.”

And that was about the extent of the conversation. Remember, I was never even able to pull up a quote screen.
 
As it turns out, shortly after this conference, this “colleague” and my boss began kindling a relationship which was probably pushing the boundaries of professional distance, i.e., drinking and vacationing together. It became a well-traveled rumor that this “colleague” was gunning for a position in the upper echelon of the company, which would be in the office I work. Was she out for my job? Maybe, although it is more likely that she was more seeking to curry favor with the boss. I’m assuming that was her motivation when she decided to tell my boss the “rumor” that I was a daytrader. What a cunt. Why don’t you go eat a couple of fucking cheeseburgers you fucking bean pole. And by the way, try some Proactive. I mean who the fuck has acne at 30 years old?
 
Anyway, at my old blog, Trade While Working, I wrote an article titled Befriend The Network Admin. The article was sincere, as I had befriended our network admin when I first started trading at work, over 4 years ago. He has known what I was up to from the start. Let’s just say it is a mutually beneficial relationship. After my boss confronted me about daytrading, the network admin and I met out of the office for a cigarette (I don’t smoke). I told him what was going on, and he mentioned that the boss had asked if there was any trading-related sites on my computer’s history. He had told her that Scottrade would appear from time to time, and then he echoed my sentiment that he was unconcerned by this as most everyone spends time on websites unrelated to the company business. Overall, he did not seem very concerned about my activities. From his nonchalance, I deduced he was not being made to log my activities.
 
Over December I took a break from trading, for the most part, and there really wasn’t any reason to open up the brokerage account very often. Still, from time to time, I would open up the streaming quotes and watch the action. I figured it was smart to lay-low for a bit. I even tried to stay away from iBankCoin, but, as you know, the site is addictive. When I came back from vacation after the New Year, I had some positions to manage, and so I once again began opening up streaming quotes during the morning, sometimes over lunch, and then again at the close. I placed maybe a half-dozen trades.
 
Everything seemed cool, until last Friday, January 25^th. The network admin came in my office and whispered, “Be careful.” Of course, I was like, what the fuck? I called him on his cell, and we created a bogus excuse to meet over at some other offices, and away from the bosses, for another cigarette (I don’t smoke). He was fairly pissed off, as he was being made, as of Thursday, to log all of my internet activity. Now the admin could certainly delete anything he wanted from my computer use, but he has a family to support, and I can’t blame him for fulfilling his obligations to my boss. We bitched and moaned for an hour about the job, discussed who we could trust (each other) and who we couldn’t (all the women in the offices who happen to be our bosses). Finally, he set me up on another computer in a remote office where I could trade, should I need to manage some position in an emergency. “Fuck them,” he said.
 
It should be obvious by now that there will be no more trading-while-working for Woodshedder. All trades will have to be entered at home before or after market hours, using limit orders for entries, and stops to manage risk. I do have the computer in a remote office where I can go in an emergency, but it is not something of which I want to make a habit. I tell you all this because it brings the end to an era for me, and because it will force me to re-define myself as a trader. As I will be posting all my trades, every month, you are obliged to monitor my progress, should there be any.