My son’s a faster sprinter than me. That’s bloody depressing. He’s only a teenager for God’s sake. He’s only just clipped me after years of it being a non-contest. But now the little sod’s nudged ahead… only just, but what’s worse is that in a years time he’s going to be that much more ahead.

But, I have something on the testy tyke.

I’ve distance. I can drop anything at any time, run a half marathon, and still have the energy to “harass” my wife in the evening. For this achievement I’m mightily proud. Half that and my son’s knackered. So when he now reminds me of his speed over 50 metres (I’ve still easily got him at 100), I smile smugly and just say, “What’s your timeframe, bro?”

So timeframe is important to me right now. Not least because I can keep some of my fading dignity… for a bit longer at least. But you know this got me thinking about how I’ve changed over the years with my investing.

I’ve probably never told you this but I spent just under two years day trading. Mostly currencies. It was a looong time ago and was easily one of the most profitable periods of my life but oh boy, was I a mess.

Grumpy, sleep deprived, miserable, unhealthy — just a sod to be around. I’m lucky to have such a gorgeous wonderful wife who put up with me. So I stopped that. And I’ll never go back. Never!

And most of you reading this aren’t about to stop whatever it is you’re doing, stare at screens until your eyes bleed, and take the stress of trading leveraged FX spot into the wee hours of the morning either. Lucky you. I recommend it right up there with a bout of severe diarrhea.

In any event, that’s the shortest timeframe I can think of. I rarely held positions overnight and never more than a few days.

As you probably know if you’ve been subjected to these missives for any length of time, for many years now I’ve taken the approach of watching for major trends and getting involved for a pretty long, multi-year period of time.