Over the years it’s been suggested on several occasions, that perhaps I should write a book.
Not to say that my story is anything special ( by any means ) but fair to say “unique” – as I’ve wondered this planet some 15 years now with little to no sense of “home” and with few connections to anything……or anyone. Some call it lonely – I call it normal, as for the majority of my adult life – this is all I’ve known.
I used to stay at the same hotel whenever I’d get back to visit my family, and the girls at the front desk always had a chuckle. Knowing me as they did – I’d been filed under “N for Nomad”. I had a laugh too.
Reasons for this behavior run the gambit. I have my own theories as do I assume – those who know me. It’s not important. Without question I’m as regular a person as any on Earth, questioning at times – ” what am I doing?” and “why am I the way I am?”
Up until most recently I’ve had little interest in “writing it all down”. From confrontations with machine gun packing Rastas in the West Indies…to long dark drives into “deep dark places” of Colombia…to the “helplessness” of being trapped in an elevator in Romania. Problem being – I’ve never had a “plot” and for the life of me can’t come up with a decent ending.
Don’t get me wrong – there are some really good times as well.
They just don’t make for very interesting stories.
A pivotal day in “the life of Kong” as a number of factors come into play. Of particular significance “00.01” the irony, the drama – and further development of a story that just might have a plot……….and an ending!
The 00.01 Revelation: When Markets Mirror Life
The Precision of Pennies and Pips
That pivotal moment at 00.01 wasn’t just about time—it was about precision. In forex, we deal in fractions that most people can’t even comprehend. A single pip movement in EUR/USD represents 0.0001, yet fortunes are made and lost on these microscopic shifts. Just like my nomadic existence, measured not in years but in moments between connections, between places, between trades. The hotel girls filing me under “N for Nomad” understood something fundamental: precision in categorization, even when the subject defies standard classification. Currency pairs behave the same way—they resist neat categories, flowing between support and resistance like a restless traveler between time zones.
The irony of 00.01 hits different when you’ve spent years watching Asian markets open while the rest of the world sleeps. There’s something profound about those first few pips of price action when Sydney comes online. It’s raw, unfiltered market sentiment—no New York noise, no London manipulation. Just pure supply and demand, like those moments of clarity you get at 3 AM in a foreign hotel room, staring at charts while the city breathes quietly outside your window.
Machine Guns and Moving Averages
Those confrontations with armed Rastas weren’t just adventures—they were masterclasses in risk management. When you’re face-to-face with real danger, you learn to read situations the way you read charts. Body language becomes price action, tension levels become volatility indicators, and your exit strategy better be crystal clear. The same principles apply whether you’re navigating Kingston’s back streets or trading GBP/JPY during Brexit uncertainty. Both require absolute presence, unwavering discipline, and the ability to act decisively when the situation deteriorates.
Those dark Colombian drives taught me about trend following in ways no textbook ever could. Sometimes you’re committed to a path—whether it’s a mountain road with no turnoffs or a USD/CAD long position during an oil crash. The key isn’t avoiding these situations; it’s recognizing them early and preparing for every possible outcome. The helplessness of being trapped in that Romanian elevator mirrors perfectly the feeling of watching your stop loss get triggered in a gap opening. You’re powerless, committed, and completely dependent on factors beyond your control.
The Carry Trade of Existence
Fifteen years without a home base creates its own kind of carry trade. You’re constantly borrowing against future stability to fund present mobility, collecting interest payments in experiences while paying the overnight fees in loneliness and disconnection. It’s exactly like holding AUD/JPY positions—you earn that sweet carry trade premium night after night, until one day the risk-off sentiment hits and you give back months of gains in a single session. The question becomes: are the accumulated experiences worth the eventual emotional drawdown?
The nomadic lifestyle offers unique advantages in currency trading that settled people rarely appreciate. You develop an intuitive understanding of global interconnectedness that textbook traders miss. When you’ve lived through Turkish lira devaluations in Istanbul, experienced Argentine peso collapses in Buenos Aires, and witnessed Swiss franc shocks in Zurich, you understand currency relationships at a cellular level. Each country’s economic pain becomes personal memory, not abstract data points.
Plotting the Unplottable
The challenge of finding a plot in chaos mirrors the eternal struggle of technical analysis. We draw trend lines on seemingly random price movements, desperate to find patterns that justify our positions. Maybe that’s what 00.01 represents—the moment when random walks reveal their underlying structure, when the nomadic wandering crystallizes into purposeful journey. Every successful trader eventually realizes that the market doesn’t care about their story, their background, or their emotional attachment to positions. It only respects preparation, discipline, and the ability to adapt.
Perhaps the ending isn’t about finding home or achieving some predetermined destination. Maybe it’s about recognizing that the journey itself—through markets, through countries, through the endless cycle of risk and reward—is the plot. The machine gun encounters, elevator traps, and lonely hotel rooms aren’t obstacles to the story; they are the story. Just like every losing trade isn’t a failure but data, every uncomfortable experience isn’t suffering but education. The ending might already be writing itself, one pip at a time.