So I´m thinkin if I want this spread trading gig bad – as in really, really super bad – I have to make certain sacrifices.
Chiefly among this Masochism For Dummies strategy are all things fiscal. After all, if I´m gonna end up gnashing my teeth over markets and stop losses I must abdicate from the throne of ´anything, anytime´.
But a guy´s gotta eat, right? Well, kinda… Because that´s exactly what this latest self-denying jape is all about.
I´m in Málaga with €1.20 to spend between now and Thursday, 11am.
By my reckoning, in lateral measurements of successive increments of now we´re talking 86.5 hours. That´s approximately 1.5 cents an hour.
Ha! And quite literally while I´m typing, I just realised I have another €1.10 to splash out with because I paid a €10 deposit for my room key, which will more than cover the cost of the airport bus!
That´s oh so much better. €2.30 is the stuff of kings and queens. That´s nearly 2.8 cents an hour!
Anyway, at this point I must confess to a small amount of deception.
In the fridge I have three cans of beer; margarine; a potato; two tomatoes; a carrot; an onion; two bananas (gotta get some energy for tomorrow´s four hour slogathon through the city streets by bike) and a blushing capsicum.
I figure I can do a real nice microwaved-hot potato skin with caramelised onion (steal the sugar and duke it out) and mash mush for tonight.
I´ll buy some cheesy hot dogs (say what you like about the Spanish but my god, they got concoctions down to a fine art) at about 60c which will be entombed in some breakfast bread. I also omitted to mention breakfast comes with the room (as does the prolific snoring) and it´s from that table of culinary delights (bread, UHT milk, soft cornflakes and an assortment of jams with margarined knives poking out of their mouths) that the lunchtime baked goods will be snarfed.
With my new-found wealth, a bag of pasta will duly be acquired. And I may even have enough left over to buy some dog darn baked beans and another potato from the bargain bin of the neighbouring greengroceria!
I love a challenge, me. And while it doesn´t directly benefit my trading training, it teaches me value – something so often maligned and overlooked in today´s grabbing society.
Editor´s note: Words cannot describe the euphoria and elation of discovering that extra €1.10 was mine for the taking. Especially since I have spent much of this evening reading the 50 best food blogs on earth…