I’m undertaking a 1000-day reinvention project, blogging here daily to track my progress. In Sunday Planning, I plan for the week ahead.
Last week I had my retinal procedure and this week I am supposed to be leading a sedentary lifestyle1, to give my left eye a good chance to heal well. My eye doesn’t feel too bad but I can’t use it as of yet. The surgeon put in an air bubble as a temporary internal bandage, along with some fluid that replaced the vitreous humor that was removed. There is a solid horizon line through my vision where the air and fluid meet. Over time, the air will dissipate and my body will generate new natural fluid to fill up the eye (though it won’t be vitreous humor anymore). Then I’ll be able to use my left eye again.
This week, I won’t be walking the dogs, doing much gardening or house cleaning, or driving much if at all. Wednesday I have a one-week follow-up after the surgery, but other than that my schedule is wide open.
this week in trading
Last week I came up with yet another refinement to my short put trading plan. I’ve realized that the key to succeeding with short puts is to find stocks in a solid uptrend that have recently pulled back. This gives the best chance for a move upward in the next couple days, leading to quick profits.
I’m not sure how to find stocks that are in a solid uptrend without inspecting each chart. Right now I’m using a TradingView screener that surfaces any U.S. stocks with market cap over $50B and positive one-month, three-month, and six-month performance. I’m also checking for a five-day RSI less than 50. This finds stocks that have recently pulled back.
The overall market is looking pretty weak right now, and I am not fully allocated up to my normal levels of exposure. With new attacks in the gulf this weekend and recent semiconductor equity weakness, we might be looking at a moderate pullback incoming.
And other plans for this sedentary week
I started listening to the audio version of Iris Murdoch’s The Good Apprentice last night and so far I’m quite enjoying it. Murdoch deals often in themes of remorse and guilt, alongside the question of what it means to be a good person. Can you be a good person if you’ve done bad things? I hope so, otherwise I am a bad person.
My daughter (who recently moved in with me) and I have also decided to begin watching Game of Thrones, new to both of us. Perhaps we’ll start this week. I imagine, but I don’t know, that GOT deals in themes of morality, loyalty, heroism, and more. I suspect that I’ll be able to draw some interesting lessons from Murdoch’s work alongside the worldbuilding of George R.R. Martin.
The week wraps up with the 4th of July holiday. Markets are closed on Friday, which makes me sad, because I like the days that markets are open better.
One thing I think I might like to do is write an article here on my website about my experience with vitrectomy and membrane peel for macular pucker. There’s very little information about it online, even on Reddit, where you can normally find detailed stories of people’s medical experiences. i guess it’s not a very common procedure. There are many things I wish I had known beforehand about it, including that there would be a horizon line in my vision that was so upsetting the first night.
My writing in general has devolved to only daily blog posts. I wonder if I might find a renewed focus on writing for an audience in the near future, rather than keeping this public-private journal of sorts.
- The instructions say “Commence sedentary lifestyle immediately after surgery” which I think sounds funny. ↩︎