The 40/40 Club

Sean McLaughlin
February 15, 2022

In Major League Baseball, the 40/40 Club is an exclusive group of players who are the only ones to have achieved both 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season.

The first player to achieve this milestone was Jose Canseco in 1988 as a member of the Oakland A’s – back during the “Bash Brothers” days with his steroids pal Mark McGwire.

Since then, only three other players have joined this list: Barry Bonds (1996), Alex Rodriguez (1998), and Alfonso Soriano (2006).

Here at All Star Charts, we’ve achieved a little bit of our own 40/40 dynamic as JC celebrated his birthday this week and joined me in the 40+ crowd of awesomeness. Perhaps it’s not quite as exciting as crushing home runs over the wall or swiping second base against catcher Yadi Molina. But I like to think it’s cool in its own way.

We’re not getting old, we’re getting seasoned – with a little extra sriracha.

Meanwhile,

yesterday JC was asking people on Twitter: “What do I do now?”

He didn’t ask me for advice, but it got me thinking about longevity in this business.

I got started 24 years ago, with JC not too far behind me. And in the beginning, the way to get better as quickly as possible was to grind.

Don’t let up! Do more reps. More studying. Experience more winning. More losing. Make mistakes and learn from them…

All that is good.

Eventually, however, we get to a point where we want to maintain. We’ve built momentum in our careers and skills and now the struggle is to maintain the edge. Maintain the level.

Maintenance isn’t achieved by only focusing on our trading. Excellence in trading (in anything, really), is achieved holistically. When we’re thriving in many areas of our life, winning is contagious.

I don’t know precisely when my body began to change. But since turning 40, I’ve noticed my body doesn’t recover quite the way it used to. I could still play sports and exercise and throw back a bucket of beers with my friends. But the next day, I felt it. And not in a good way. I could no longer count on waking up and feeling my best, energized to tackle the markets. Sadly, this trend doesn’t feel like it’s reversing.

So, this week I did the unthinkable – I joined a gym.

I signed up with orangetheory, which is basically a one-hour class limited to no more than 24 people. The class is broken up into three “teams” and each team rotates through three different workout stations: Rowing machine (with additional intermittent off-rower exercises), treadmill, and free weights & floor exercises. I’ve committed to three times per week.

The main goal – as I understand it – is to target specific heart rate and calorie burn targets at various intervals and intensities. Everyone wears a monitor on their arms and all stats are tracked and displayed on a video board for everyone to see. It’s not a competition with the others. It’s a competition against your own metrics. But the board keeps everyone accountable.

And accountability is something I need, both in exercise and trading.

I’m not going to say that hitting my calorie burn target today is going to translate to a big PnL pop in my trading account tomorrow. But now, more than ever, I need to take a more mindful approach to my physical health. I’m no doctor, but I believe that strong physical health leads to better mental health. And better mental health leads to better awareness. And better awareness leads to better trading.

It’s all related.

So, welcome to the 40/40 Club, JC. Now the real work begins! :)

~ @chicagosean

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