When I published my latest stack on Monday (Dan Zanger interview notes), there were 960 of you.
Now, as I’m writing this on Wednesday evening, there are 1,260 of you.
Wow.
To every single one of you who has supported me and this Substack, whether by just reading my work, or also liking, sharing and/or commenting on it — thank you so much! Honestly, I feel very blessed and honoured to be given the opportunity to share my writing with so many of you.
And Jeff Sun, I owe you a particularly big thank you for sharing my Substack on X/Twitter and exploding my inbox.
I really love your tweets, and I’ve learned a great deal from you, so to see you endorse my work like that was simply amazing. Thank you again!
Where I started: Qullamaggie stream notes
When I launched this Substack back on 7 May 2023, I had the vague idea of one day creating some sort of trading resource hub — thus the name. A place where I’d gather numerous trading resources and, more than that, add something to them — through note-taking, adding my own insights (including by linking lessons from different resources and even different traders), and occasionally even sharing some relevant Excel techniques.
But I didn’t publish anything for weeks. Not until Dr. Mansi tweeted on 24 May:
So I thought I’d do that. At that point, I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be spending all my spare time (I do have a day job) writing up stream notes, or whether the more general trading resource hub was going to happen, but I felt that writing up something was the right thing to do.
And not just any old something, but quality notes on quality content. Qullamaggie streams are obviously right up there.
And so it happened. I published my first stack, and reached my first 100 subscribers in 25 hours. That was one of many surreal moments these past few months.
The early feedback was terrific, too. Here are just a few messages:
But things really started getting crazy when Kristjan himself praised my notes:
Anyway, for those of you who missed them, you can find all my stream notes here, which cover all 2023 streams to date. I have also written up notes on two interviews Kristjan did: on Chat With Traders and on Stocksholm’s The Compounding Lounge.
Thrown a curveball
In what was rather awkward timing, straight after Kristjan’s praise, I was going on holiday for the first (and so far only) time this year. To keep publishing while I was off, I prepared some older stream notes, as well as a few posts that ventured away from Kristjan notes and closer to the original intention of this Substack. Most notably, I published “Know Your Numbers”, which focused on a topic I’m particularly passionate about: smart journaling.
The overall reader response seemed to be positive, so I thought it’d be nice to write up more posts like that, if I could find the time. But after coming back from my annual leave, a surprise was waiting for me at work.
In my day job as a technical writer, I do all types of explanatory writing. You might describe it as translating technical content into plain English. Anyway, as part of that, I ghostwrite non-fiction books. Before going on leave, I’d handed in my ninth manuscript. Upon my return, I was told that the publisher was going to nominate it for a book award. I also learned that the credited author was offering me the opportunity to be credited for my work.
The flip side was that taking that opportunity would mean spending a lot more time in my day job, and a lot less writing stacks. It’d certainly mean not being able to write up Qullamaggie stream notes every day (not knowing at the time that Kristjan was about to start a multi-month hiatus, of course).
So I discussed the situation with my family as well as with my readers. My Substack was and is free. Moreover, I’ve made a public commitment to never paywall my direct notes, even though many of you continue to say that I’m adding value with them — which, incidentally, a few people mocked me about, but they clearly didn’t understand that this decision was (and remains) driven out of principle.
But at this stage, I had been surprised by a few voluntary pledges. So I explored the possibility of turning down the publisher’s offer, and continuing as I was with Substack, but with the voluntary financial backing of my readers. As it turned out, most of you urged me to take a step back from Substack, and just publish new stacks whenever I can find the time.
I really, really appreciated receiving so many positive messages from you that weekend. Above all, I got the impression that you were happy for me to receive that sort of recognition at work, which was just wonderful to hear. Thank you.
Looking ahead
So that’s where we are now. I’ve been publishing less on my Substack, but make sure that when I do, it’s of high quality. I also do my best to ensure that the content I publish has enduring value.
More than that, I’m increasingly doing my best to really add value to the content I produce. (A habit drilled into me by my mentor, whom I’m very grateful to. He taught me virtually everything I know about technical writing.)
Concretely, that means I try to avoid sharing notes on resources already extensively covered by someone else. In addition, I prioritise resources that truly offer value, but aren’t necessarily structured in a way I’d consider optimal, or where I really think I can add something. Practical Excel techniques to put a good suggestion into practice, for example, or connecting the lessons taught by trader A with those taught by trader B.
I feel that taking this approach — which may well evolve with time, but this is the intended approach for now — doesn’t just give you as a reader the best possible value, but also really amplifies my own learning experience. I absolutely love that my writing can genuinely help so many of you, but it’s also an effective tool for myself to improve both as a trader and as a writer.
Since starting this Substack, my trading performance has improved, and I also feel like I’ve reached a new level of confidence as a trader, though no doubt still have a long way to go. As for the writing side of things — well, as I revisit my first few posts, I wince a little at some of my writing. Not the best of feelings, but at least it’s evidence that I’ve improved.
But it’s you who helped me improve so much in such a short space of time.
The vast majority of you have simply been supportive in what I do, which is great. But a number of you have also provided more specific feedback and suggestions for improvement, including adding timestamps and taking a multi-part approach to some stacks. Also simply saying what it is you like about my posts is extremely helpful, as that tells me what to do more of. Please keep it up, by:
Leaving a comment below;
Messaging me on X/Twitter; or
Emailing me at kayklingson@yahoo.com.
I take all your comments on board!
Upcoming posts
While I’m about to head into an especially busy period at work, I have made a start on a few new stacks. Most obviously, I’m yet to publish parts 3 and 4 of the recent Tom Dante series I started (if you missed it, here is part 1).
But if that’s something you’re not really interested in, then watch out for a new stack, if not a stack series, on David Ryan. Following a question I recently posted on X/Twitter — about what other videos/interviews I should share notes on — David came up as a very good suggestion, whom I’d been thinking about covering anyway. So I’ve started rewatching and rereading materials on him to figure out how to write about his teachings, in a way that aligns to what I outlined above.
If you have new stack ideas for me, please share them! While I can’t promise to do everything, if only due to time constraints, I am definitely open to suggestions.
Exploring my archive
If you’re not sure what I’ve already written about, here are some of my favourite posts to date:
Notes on Qullamaggie’s Chat With Traders interview — my first multi-part stack. I particularly like part 1, which goes into the mechanics of Kristjan’s breakout strategy.
Stream notes from 18 May 2023, which was basically a masterclass on EPs.
The aforementioned Dan Zanger interview notes. I really like just how well this 2005 interview highlighted how nothing much changes in the markets, and what some of the most important principles are. Also, my dad, who is an investor but not a trader, said that he found this post especially interesting, so perhaps this one will also appeal to people approaching the markets from a different angle than myself.
My first post on journaling/quantitative analysis: “Know Your Numbers”. As mentioned earlier, this is a topic I’m really passionate about. I also feel like this post was the first one where I really explored my different voices as a writer, mixing storytelling, general explanatory writing and full-on instructional writing. Plus it was the first post where I brought together the experiences/teachings of different traders.
Part 1 of my ongoing Tom Dante series. The topic is similar to “Know Your Numbers”, but it’s a little more personal to me, and also addresses psychology and building conviction in what I think a fairly pragmatic way — specifically, in how journal analysis can help with these.
My longest post to date (and quite possibly ever): lessons from The Art of Learning by chess and tai chi champion Josh Waitzkin. This stack highlights excerpts from his book on how to optimise performance, and applies them to trading.
I realise that’s quite a list, but I wanted to cover a range of topics so there’s hopefully something for everyone in there. What’s more — I really do love all of these posts and, frankly, hope that I’m not the only one occasionally revisiting them!
Thank you for reading and for your continued support!
I remember well the beginning of the journey! It’s been a great one keep it up!
Really love the way you give structure to the content! Thank you for much the work done, keep it up and going !!!