Attack the Week (ATW)
Self-Mastery / Central Bank Week / Weekly Calendar / Asset Allocation Model Update
Sunday Thoughts
A few months back, I hired a coach. Not a trading coach, not a productivity guru, not someone to tell me when to buy or sell. A coach with one singular goal: my road to self-mastery. You know, I hired one more than a decade ago, but then I thought I didn’t make enough progress to justify the outlay. The truth, however, was that I didn’t know what I was looking for. An easy mistake to make.
One of the very first things he asked me was deceptively simple. “What’s your why?” He wanted me to articulate why I am drawn to investing, to macro, to this whole pursuit of understanding markets and the world around them. There are millions of other things I could have chosen to do with my time, energy and focus. Why this?
I sat with that question for a while. It’s easy to blurt out the obvious answers. Money. Returns. Financial freedom. Sure, those matter. But if that’s all it was, I’d have burned out a long time ago. Or worse, I’d have become one of those hollow characters chasing a number that never feels like enough. I wrote about that very dynamic in my piece on money and career — the frustrating reality that no matter how much you earn, there’s always someone with multiples more. The hedonic treadmill is real, and it’s relentless, and you can only lose.
So the why can’t be primarily monetary. It has to mean something deeper. It has to connect to something that sustains you when markets are dull, when the news cycle is nothing but idiotic ping-pong, when geopolitics descends into pure noise that has little to do with macro or investing. You know the kind of days I’m talking about. We’ve had plenty of them lately amidst this absurd war. Days where you stare at your screens and wonder what any of this has to do with the craft you signed up for. Days, weeks and sometimes months when you're fighting a drawdown and when you literally can’t buy a damn basis point.
Those are precisely the days when the why matters most.
Everyone’s why is different. Some are drawn to the competition. The intellectual battle against millions of other participants, each trying to be right. Some live for the thrill — that rush when a thesis plays out, and you’re positioned correctly. Some, whether they’d admit it or not, are in it for the ego boost. The bragging rights. The scorecard.
I’ve been all of those at various points in my journey, if I’m being honest. But none of them lasted. None of them was enough to carry me through the inevitable drawdowns, the self-doubt, the periods where nothing seems to work, regardless of how sound your analysis is.
For me, the answer came back to something I’ve circled around in many of my writings here. Self-mastery. The markets are a mirror. An unforgiving, brutally honest mirror that reflects back every part of you — the discipline, the impatience, the greed, the fear, the ego, the humility. All of it. Every interaction with the market tells you something about yourself, if you’re willing to listen.
I keep saying that investing is a long, hard journey into yourself. There is a tremendous opportunity in that. The parts of me I haven’t yet figured out — the behavioural blind spots, the emotional triggers, the recurring patterns that hold me back — they all show up in how I interact with markets. The coach helped me see that this is not a bug but a feature. This is precisely why I’m drawn to it.
Of course, this goal never ends. You don’t wake up one morning having mastered yourself. That’s not how it works. But that’s precisely its purpose. The pursuit itself is the reward. Strive to get better every day. Compound not only your returns but also your knowledge and wisdom. And then share those with people who are on a similar path. That positive feedback loop is more powerful than any single trade.
That’s precisely what my journey has been and why I started this place. This blog was never meant to be a signal service or a tip sheet. It’s a reflection of my own pursuit, shared openly, in the hope that it resonates with those who feel drawn to the same kind of journey.
Speaking of the journey, pa-globalmacro.com has been the newest addition to the offering, available exclusively to paying subscribers. It’s where the model signals, dashboards, and analytical tools live. Things I have carved from my own personal pursuits in connecting with markets.
I have now added a new feature that I’m quite excited about. Subscribers can receive the daily signal and dashboard update directly into their email inboxes. No need to check the site every day. All you have to do is log in to your account, head to settings, toggle it on, and you’re set. Simple as that.
Are you ready to join and explore? Self-mastery is the goal, and my goal is to support all my members along their journey. The tools, the signals, the education — they’re all there to help you become a better, more informed version of yourself as an investor.
What are you waiting for?
Next: Macro D Thoughts on upcoming central bank meetings, Weekly Macro Calendar, Dashboard / Charts / Asset Allocation Update
Let’s go!
