Wednesday, 11th March: 14:05 P.M.
"I'm gonna crack that at 30" he says, stabbing a finger at the chart of Cotton.
"When it gets to all time lows, it's going to be free money", he adds.
"Who do you think you are? Percy Thomas?" I say.
"Look, I'm telling you," he goes on. "That thing could go parabolic."
"Alright, Percy" I say.
I'm digging around for the fundamentals.
"Actually, production is down," I say, dropping a paper infront of him. "If you look at..."
"Look, I don't give a flying f*ck about the fundamentals", he retorts. "I'll buy it when it fakes out the low and cover it into the first resistance. It's an obvious play."
We're in the coffee room later. I'm mocking a colleague who trades Euribor.
"Has that thing actually moved today?" I say to him. "You want to trade something that has a daily range larger than one tick".
The legend at poker - my new found friend - is sitting across from me at the table.
"This clown," I say, nodding at him, "is thinking of buying a market that is coming into a forty one year low..."
He nearly chokes on his prawn salad he is laughing so hard. It sounds funny to him when you put it like that.
But he is adamant and I respect him for that.
Later on, I'm back at my desk.
The Euro is hitting 127.50 in the futures market. It looks like it's about to break to the downside. I watch it hit 50 repeatedly and then dip below. Now, I've seen it break, I wait for the inevitable squeeze. It takes us up back to 60 and then we come off once again.
I sell two at 50 but I'm stopped out almost instantly. Another Euro trader on my desk has the same idea. He's gone in bigger. But we're both forced out.
I sit there sulking. Setups, for me, are few and far between today.
I pull the hood of my duffel coat, which is over the back of my chair, over my head and doze off. Looking at the charts and the ladder is a temptation I refuse to allow myself.
About an hour later, the boss is behind me.
"You're not going to see anything sitting there like that" he says.
I remove my hood and stare intently at the screen, frowning, but still, nothing.
But things are always setting up. And when they do, I tell myself, I will take them. The good trades. The high probability ones.
I sit there like that for what seems like an age, until the day is over and people begin to drift out of the office.
And I join them silently.