10:00 a.m.
I return to the desk and quickly get an online update from various trading friends whom all know I abhor noise and merely desire to know what the charts are saying.

Alamo, a trading guru in his own right, gives me the run down that opening weakness was bought, breadth is flat and financials are showing peculiar strength. We both know this has all the characteristics of a snapper, so we go to work laying out our plan for the afternoon.

Each trade I take throughout the day, long or short, I quantify ahead of time the amount I could lose if my stop was triggered. This allows me to calculate precisely how many shares I should take on any given trade.

3:45 p.m.
As the day comes to a close, I make a final run through of the positions held for the day and note all sales or covers that need to be made in order to once again go home flat. It’s been a good day, as I have added 50 basis points to the funds performance for the month, despite a market that’s off yet another 100 points to end the day, despite an intra-day snapper that gave us all a great opportunity to sell into strength. Squaring up and going home flat won’t always be the right strategy - but for the time being, it is, and it's how I spend the final minutes of the day.

4:00 p.m.
The flickers of the tickers come to a halt, and I take a quick glance at the daily P&L. I always run through the index charts once again, particularly some of the bigger names, like Intel, Goldman Sachs, or General Electric, who have been the usual suspects to a market fall or bounce of late.

This final rundown helps me to keep my expectations in line as head into the evening and process all that is happening throughout the day. I turn off the television, not once having heard a sound, and on this very day, not even taking a glance as no major news event came about that warranted my immediate attention. I say goodbye to those I have been speaking with virtually all throughout the day, and I start on the task list of answering e-mails, and attending to the operations side once again.

5:00 p.m.
Winding down, I glance once more at the news flow to see if anything else has happened to alter the evening or effect the overseas markets that will open soon. I turn off the computers and call it a day.

Am I knocking the cover off the ball this year with double-digit returns? Absolutely not; however, protecting capital and putting myself and clients in a position to capitalize when the dust eventually does settle has been my primary goal of which I have been extremely successful.

I don’t have a fancy office on Wall Street, nor is my monthly operational budget 6 figures. I pour every bit of revenue I can back into the business. I am looking to grow methodically overtime, partnering with those who desire a manager who is going to be around for a very, very long time, and has successfully navigated one of the worst markets our history has ever seen.

I am not alone. I know many successful fund managers who have also navigated this time period well and maintained the discipline and patience needed to weather the storm. We are the next generation of fund managers and will be here for a long time.