Bollinger CrossFit sent over an amazing Thank You for the support from our community GoFundMe.
“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.” Thor Heyerdahl
#STONKS Having spent many years of my career in the stock trading industry, I was surprised to see history repeating itself last week. Manipulation of the markets by large institutional investors, especially short sellers, was a common occurrence in my experience. Thus, it was really cool to see individual retail traders fight back en masse to save GameStop. I was also sad to see the actions of Robinhood, and other large institutions whose interests appear conflicted.
Retail traders have been a major force of change in the stock market for the last 25 years. They massively disrupted technology to provide more transparency in the markets. No longer were institutional investors, specialists & market makers the only ones to see large blocks of buy or sell orders before the transaction occurred. Retail traders helped create most of the electronic order execution systems in place on every exchange today. Retail traders helped usher in trading in decimals, instead of fractions. Retail traders helped eliminate the large number of middlemen in stock transactions, trading directly with the exchanges or electronic communication networks – creating more liquidity, less conflict, and significantly lower transaction costs.
But, if you’re thinking of making a career in short term trading, I urge caution and a long term approach. I owned a broker/dealer and ran a retail trading firm for several years (ProTrader Securities). It is a perilous business. I also worked with hedge funds for more than a decade. Hedge funds and other large institutional traders have incredible resources, highly educated experts and very sophisticated computer systems all focused on alpha. They will spend dearly to get an edge in the market, like:
- Rent office space across the street from the Tesla factory, and pay people to count loaded car carriers to determine if Tesla will meet their quarterly delivery projections
- Utilize call centers to call retail store chain location managers (Best Buy, Gap, Forever 21..) and ask about store traffic and sales, prior to earnings
- Hire “expert networks” to contact MDs who have knowledge of drug trials for pipeline drugs soon to be evaluated by the FDA for approval.
- Use teams of Reservoir Engineers to consolidate and evaluate State & County drilling data & land acquisitions to determine the viability of an oil company’s new drilling project.
- Hire MIT graduates to develop automated trading algorithms to take advantage of market moves.
- Set up sophisticated high-frequency, automated trading systems in office space adjacent to the stock exchanges in order to minimize order execution time by milliseconds.
Day trading without significant research and experience is gambling, and the house has better odds.
FAREWELL CARLY Carly Ogata is moving to the East Bay. She started with us in our 6 week transformation program and has become quite the athlete. Her morning crew came together on Saturday to send her off with love. Farewell, Carly. Please visit often!
ROW’D ROYALTY 21.3 F-2020! Row 3 Intervals: 2021m, 2min rest, 2021m, 2min rest, 2021m. Check out our weekly update.
OPEN READY – CLINICS Coach Lara’s has put together a series of small group (max 4 ppl) skill clinics for members to help improve technique before the Open. Register on the app!
- Friday, 5:30PM. Primary: Handstand Pushups, Secondary: Box Jumps
- Sunday, 12:30PM. Primary: Rowing, Secondary: DB Box Step Overs
RTC19 OPEN PREP CHALLENGE “If you’ve come this far, maybe you’d be willing to go a little farther.” (Shawshank reference).
I’m really impressed with the participation on our RTC Challenge. Many of us have put in place some great new habits, ie., no alcohol, no sugar, fasting. Check out the points results here. The feedback from our community has been great. And, quite a few people have asked to “keep it going” since the 2021 CrossFit Open is coming in March.
So, look for the RTC challenge wod on Sugarwod and keep up with your healthy habits! Also, please share your success & experiences in our FB Group. And, be sure to read Yvonne’s post about her amazing experience with fasting & recovery.
WORKOUTS THIS WEEK (check Sugarwod Track “Workout Of The Day”) Check out the videos on Sugarwod or on YouTube (PRsAllDay).
- Primary Strength: “Heavy Days” working with the barbell in the Front Rack.
- Secondary Strength: Barbell Cycling
- Skill Focus: 2021 CFG EMOM sessions
The week ahead:
- Mon: Amrap 16m – 35/45c Row, 12 Box Jump overs, 200m SB Carry
- Tue: 5rft – 30 Suitcase Lunges #35/53, 20 KB Swings, 15 Pushups
- Wed: Hang C&J work. Metcon: Max Cal Bike in 3 sets.
- Thu: 7rm FSquat. Metcon: Amrap 8m – 5FS #75/115, 8 SPress, 13 Pullups
- Fri: Open 11.1, Amrap 10m 30DUs, 15 PSnatch #55/75
- Sat: Skill – Burpee BJ & DB Hang Clean & Press. Metcon: 3rft – 12 HWB, 200m MB Run
- Sun: Metcon: 3rft – 900/1000m Row, 1m Rest.
CRAIG’S LIST (Stuff I’m Reading, Listening To or Watching)
Best Time of Day To Exercise NY Times- Diablo member Chris MacCrary recently asked me this question, and literally this article popped up in my feed the next day. “Men at risk for diabetes had greater blood sugar control and lost more belly fat when they exercised in the afternoon than in the morning.”
Rhonda Patrick: Time Restricted Eating – We’ve had some positive feedback from our members who’ve been fasting for our RTC challenge. This article breaks down all of the benefits for the body. And, in her Aliquot podcast Dr. Patrick gets into the reasons why recovery is improved: primarily because the digestive process is work(!) and also needs to recover. She includes a free snippet on her Aliquot page.
WTF Gym Podcast – Invited by my friend Stuart Brauer who runs WTF Gym Talk and gym consulting to talk about our experience of trying to stay open during the pandemic. I think it came out ok..
CFL Podcast – Me & Matt Souza – I talk about the future of CrossFit and thoughts about where we might be headed – and where I’d like us to head!
Make it an awesome week!
Craig
