Habitual Coffee Drinking
By Lawrence
I used to drink a lot of coffee. Back in the days when I was trading pretty much 7/24 on all the major markets, drinking coffee was a necessity. There was no energy drink back then in case you are thinking about alternatives. Although I was a heavy coffee drinker during the college days, it was nowhere near what I drank back then. I am not talking about 6 to 8 cups a day. I am talking about pouring down 6 to 8 mugs a day. That’s the equivalent of drinking 12 to16 cups of coffee every day for years.
Can too much coffee be a bad thing?
Coffee lovers argue that it is perfectly fine to drink a lot of coffee. Personally, I think the opinion is quite bias. Seriously, anything we eat or drink too much are bad for us. How can coffee be an exception.
After years of heavy coffee drinking , the first sign of trouble was that I had hand tremors even when I was not drinking coffee. This was very annoying as it reduced my dexterity in a number of sport / martial art activities. It took me at least a year in cutting down my coffee in-take before the hand tremor was under control.
Another reason why I prefer reducing coffee intake is that coffee actually makes me a bit more excited than normal. This actually affects my ability to hang onto trading positions that require patience. Many good trading setups can take a long time to unfold and being jittery is the last thing I want when I am managing this type of trade.
Nowadays, I still like drinking coffee in the morning but I would stop once I feel I am alert enough for my daily task. From my experience, as I get to exercise more, the need for coffee is reduced significantly. In fact, I find midday exercise wakes me up more than having another mug of coffee in early afternoon. Having a good night of rest often allows me not taking any coffee at all until late morning.
Rigorous exercise helps. So do enough rest. Isn’t this the perfect formula for better trading performance as well?
I guess my dependency on coffee is more psychological than a real addiction now. I can skip coffee during weekend with no withdrawal symptoms like mild headache. Maybe one day I can enjoy coffee as an occasional treat instead of using it as my caffeine medication.
