Life relates to trading and trading relates to life. Constantly revealing, unfolding before us as we trade and live, so I write about how my life relates to trading and how I trade the markets. Along the way I share my opinions on anything that evokes my passion or tickles my funny bone trying not to forget that enjoying life is the best part of living.
I credit Peter Lynch in turning on my "lightbulb" about the markets. It was my "aha" moment. I poured over many a prospectus, investement sheet in the reference section of the library about investing prior to reading his book,"Beating the Street" which I read at my favorite cafe in Santa Cruz, California. That is going back to 1994. I returned from teaching in Europe and was literally looking for something else to learn, study, do for the summer while waiting for my next teaching "gig". Needless to say I got struck and stuck although I had choices. I chose a totally different road to travel at that cafe; it's the moment I will never forget because from that moment on all the mystery fell away from investing for me.
I realized just how simple investing is because it's really not about the "best" "hottest" or the "greatest" but it's literally what is in your own neighborhood, no matter how large or small. Investing is what your interests are because that is where your knowledge is. Work, play, dine, shop. Everything you touch, do or use can be an investment. Look around you and wonder who invented that item you use and like so much, who or what company produces, delivers or manufactures what you take for granted but enjoy having in your life.
Knowing and bringing things into perspective that basically revealed to me the truth behind the "American Dream". Its simplicity and its brilliance all at the same time. You don't have to be rich beyond your wildest dreams, you just have to be interested in what is happening around you and be willing to work your own magic into it.
So, no matter where you are starting from, and how much you have, remember that what you know will allow you to find places for your funds. It's really the best way to start, and rest assured that as your interests grow, so will your ability to invest in them.
I like to trade while playing music because it moves me from within and if I cannot find a correct match, I prefer to be in total silence, where muses will find me instead. Either way, I tap into what I call the Universe or Universal Consciousness where all energy flows to and from.
Energy flows in/out and all around us. It's being generated by thought. But we not only generate energy, we all gather and process it prior to releasing it back into the Universe via an expression. Our expression is in the form of the way we move, the way we talk, the way we act and the way we create and the way we think. Energy needs expression or it becomes nervous energy instead, which has a totally different feel. Nervous energy is disruptive because it cannot flow. Energy needs to flow much like the ocean, in waves, and dissipate back into the Universe via an expression. No matter what you do, you dissipate energy back into the Universe and you cannot help but be part of the wave pattern.
Trading charts illustrate the energy flow and they create the patterns of thought that traders have. In order to best understand it, it is best that you tune into it, much like you tune into music. In this way you can best anticipate it's flow and be able to tell the difference between nervous energy from the clear flowing; the bottleneck created by the debris of indecision and the smooth even movement of the consensus which is reached by traders tapping into the energy flow rather than fighting it. It's like riding the waves, being in the "zone" or like moving to the music with no thought involved because you are involved with your whole body and soul. There is no separateness in a perfect trade, there is just the feeling of being at one with the trade.
If you'd like to learn more about this style, come in and join me while I trade via the Special Trial.
Indeed Shakespeare wrote: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Well on Sunday we had a sweet victory on the announcement that Osama Bin Laden was killed in a raid executed by the Navy Seals. Upon the news the futures market went ballistic and I saw as high as +120 on the YM.
Prior to that news, silver futures plummeted 13% as CME boosted required margin. Gold followed suit but only slightly and the dollar strengthened as the oil dropped. All these were big news before the Osama Bin Laden's death announcement but it became exciting when silver dropped with barely a trace.
But we all know that Osama's death has nothing to do with reality in the world markets, so then we must ask ourselves what caused the earth to move? Sell in May; or perhaps something totally different?
Euphoria is a simple diversion from reality. The feeling is good and people wish to get lost in it because the alternative is not very palatable, what ever it may be. The reality that we are ever growing our debt, that we have increasing daily living expenses at the grocer and the pump, or that our dollars will not last as long as we have planned and even the thought that we are not able to enjoy the fruits of our labor as much because we cannot afford it, sends many of us to seek other ways to feel that all is not lost. So if we find solution and hope in the equities, commodities,and currency markets then that is where we'll go. Many who cannot see any way of increasing their worth via savings and have not much hope in real estate, are now flocking into the markets. All that cash that was for long talked about is now entering a market that is already frothing from over a two year rise... or shall we say high rise. The more wishing to occupy it, the more they will pay for the privileged of doing business.
It is the common sense of free markets: supply and demand. It would have its own checks and balances if it were not manipulated. But what if the supply in the "supply/demand" markets has been set askew and what if the demand is forced and unreal? What if like with Bin Laden we do not take this "threat" seriously either.
Drastic or otherwise, there will be a turning point perhaps most won't foresee. Much like the airplanes into the World Trade Center.
At first, we stared incredulous. Then we denied it could happen on purpose, then we cheered on the rescuers to save those who were trapped but in the end, no one foresaw the collapse and utter total destruction of such terrific monuments of man's achievement.
Will there be such a parallel in the markets? I hope not. I hope we all get out of this burning tower before we get ruined. But we can only do so with a dose of reality and not while we are in a euphoric state. We can only survive if we quit dreaming that the more debt we accumulate the easier the drop will be. If we don't, then we'll have to look and ask ourselves, who will be the firemen sent in for the rescue, how many will be sacrificed and what will the name be of the one we'll blame for it all?
