Category Archives: Society

Life at Frontier Minus One

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Sanity prevails…

…at frontier minus one.

Rat race is within the underlying’s…

control.

Virtual / quasi / substantial / semi debt-free-ness…

exists.

Free cash-flow generation on the balance sheet is…

…common.

At frontier minus one, the narrative is …

…under control…

…as proven by self-determination of speed of change…

…and by exhibition of substantial growth.

Not at breakneck speeds.

Not by borrowing to the hilt.

Not by greedy behaviour.

Not by indigestible trajectory.

Not by a reckless ‘not giving a damn too bad if you’re not so fast’ attitude.

Life at frontier minus one…

…is somewhat balanced, with a flow.

Innovation at frontier minus one is achieved much faster

…than at frontier minus two, but much slower than at…

…frontier zero zero.

No tech company that wishes to thrive well into the future is currently functioning at…

…frontier minus two.

Either the transition to minus one has been made, or, it’s in the process.

Why not go for the jugular? Straight to zero zero.

Everyone has their role in this puzzle.

Imagine an older civilization going into battle.

There was a front line, paving the way, at immense cost.

There was a reserve support line, with artillery, first-aid, communication, and what have you.

There was a third line with supply, reinforcements, semi-trainees doing other stuff normally, etc.

There was aerial support, naval support, intelligence, research and analysis staff etc.

All combined to create an ensemble of actions.

Cut to now.

Warfare has changed.

Immense cost is still there, but immense cost to the front line, as in cost of life, has been reduced greatly, speak drone and missile warfare, supported by AI backed intelligence and analysis.

Point is, innovation, a different way of thinking, disruption and all their cousins will find a way to make things affordable, implementable.

That’s the way civilizations move forward.

Not for you or me to change. It’s the way of the world.

And that is what frontier minus one banks upon.

Meaning, to keep functioning at sustainable levels, slowly, painstakingly, in the process, simultaneously, finding a way, a connect, to frontier zero zero.

The connect can be of co-work. Amicable. Win-Win. You earn, we earn.

At frontier minus one, the world view is not to annihilate, but to…

…accommodate.

To win…

…together…

…in…

symbiosis.

Symbiosis

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Imagine…

…the most value you can imagine.

That’s what this word is worth.

Especially now.

What’s the truth?

Existential question.

First we had everyone and their aunties proclaim the death of core Tech companies.

Hmmm.

Core Tech companies, and their chief protagonists, thought otherwise.

Number of believers kept waning though.

Until recently.

Something started to reverse in belief systems.

AI was behaving fantastically utilitarian with a human holding the reins.

Meaning, there needed to be a human there, for practical purposes.

Frontier AI deployed engineers to be the human face. Or so one was told.

Came the trust issue.

Do we double up on our trust in this no track record magician who just showed up out of nowhere?

Do we entrust privileged client data to the unknown?

Do we strip ourselves naked, TWICE?

NO.

Everyone and their uncles have answered with an emphatic NO.

Who is the human handler – the go-between – the trusted face – the rein holder?

Someone with a track record.

Proven.

Tried, and…

trusted.

Self-propelling.

With no liabilities. Spell ZERO DEBT.

With copious FREE CASH FLOW to INNOVATE FREELY…

…to navigate the reins successfully and as per the requirements of an enterprise.

Who is this entity?

None other than…

…our own very well known…

CORE TECH.

Leaner.

Hungry to prove its point.

To have its raison d’être acknowledged, and paid for.

To earn and compound steadily.

Forget about dying. Let’s talk about long term thriving.

Then, we had the captains of frontier AI admitting, that yes, ‘we do need core tech handholding to be implemented successfully’.

Gone was the initial hubris, that ‘we had come to wipe out old thought patterns, and all old systems’.

Reality had dawned, and these captains at least had the decency to admit it.

Actually, they had realized that their existence now depended upon how much their infrastructure would seep through. And…

…that no one was trusting them enough to hand over the job of seeping through to them, but much rather, to trusted old compatriots, to Core Tech.

So they came forward to shake hands.

Good.

Symbiosis.

We want to move forward on the back of this symbiosis.

There will be gigantic and fast development on the back of this symbiosis.

We are looking at space travel, space colonization, disease control, climate change, cheap solar, cheap desalination, perhaps even alien integration and partnership – unimaginable perhaps a few months ago, but possibly conceivable on the back of this symbiosis.

There’s new talk which has recently emerged, from the other extreme, and needs to be discarded, like its mirror image on the opposite side of the bell curve. This is the talk of frontier AI dying out because of becoming unaffordable.

Well, in whatever shape it exists currently, frontier AI does have tremendous capacity to solve problems.

Let it do just that on the back of this symbiosis, and earnings will start to flow.

Core Tech won’t let it wither, frontier AI has now become their raison d’être too.

Don’t you see it?

Two universes are converging, each needing the other to survive.

In the end, they become one universe.

Companies will merge. Synergies will multiply. Mega projects will be achieved, faster, more bombastically.

Earnings will flow.

Where do you want to be?

Remaining a doomsdayer will not help you.

Get into the flow.

Invest into debt-free, free cash-flow generating core tech as value deepens.

Look for debt-free, frontier minus one, free cash-flow generating semi AI companies, research these thoroughly for any red flags, and if those found are manageable, put in some funds.

If you find a frontier tech with manageable debt and a reasonable balance sheet, with a PEG ratio (price to earnings ratio divided by earnings per share growth percentage for the fiscal) somewhat under control. ok, put in some money there too.

Get out of the doomsday mindset.

Put your money to work, and then lock it in for another twenty years. Leave the compounded proceeds to your children.

Now.

Let the crashes come. There will be compounding post crashes too. Just look at the monthly chart of an IT index from 1995 to today. Dot-com peak looks miniscule and low compared to the levels of the monthly chart today.

Enough talking. Do the recce and then let’s talk.

Mantra

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Hey.

Writing became a breeze.

Posting a blog from inside Claude, keeping the originality of the post, whilst assigning to AI all mechanical tasks like feeding in categories and tags – I’ll admit, this does make life a lot easier, and blogging a lot more enjoyable.

Which keeps the admissions coming in continuation, perhaps repeatedly.

From being the leading AI skeptic, towards gravitating to some kind of a chief protagonist – people who know me would probably say, “There he goes again.”

So what’s this going to do?

The number of blog posts is going to increase. Hopefully, the quality too. Primarily, the enjoyment while blogging.

Beneficial. We thereby move towards the realm of Planet 2.0.

Wunderkind AI needs to benefit mankind to the max.

What about the risk?

Opening up to the Wunderkind, allowances, permissions, sometimes an odd password shared.

Does the AI take these towards Planet 3.0?

Yeah, that’s the one on which mankind is harmed.

Skeptics are still on 1.0, exactly where I was 11 days ago.

Idea is to make a conscious effort to gravitate towards 2.0, every time there’s a drift towards 3.0.

Remember, we will tend to drift.

Drifting got us here in the first place. One can use fancy words for it, like disruption.

There’s a quick trick which makes us aware from where we are functioning, 2.0 or 3.0?

Greed. Hubris. Exuberance. Ego burgeons. 3.0 functionality.

Feeling of benevolence while functioning, well-being and / or goodness emerging – 2.0 domain.

Natural human drift towards 3.0.

Bring back consciously towards 2.0.

That’s the Mantra, going forward.

Check

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Hey.

Facing some basic issues on the other side.

Life has changed.

Race became more intense.

There’s greed in the equation, the desire to achieve as much as possible in as little time as possible.

Everything’s moving…

…faster.

As if…

…from one day to the next…

one just…

…shifted.

It’s clear to me that we don’t shift till we are ready.

Was a hard nut to crack.

Had to be literally goaded into the AI trajectory, several coaxings required. Hard skepticism took its time to be broken down.

Not happy about the greed.

Speed of coasting is also very high.

Need attunement.

Unable to slow down easily.

Need to be careful about a ‘now I’ve got this and to hell with you attitude’. Can develop unchecked.

Addiction. Need to stay de-addicted.

All non-electronic activities in the day go up immensely in value.

Reading – books. Check.

Chanting. Check.

Basic verbal conversations. Check.

Human interactions. Check.

Helping someone. Charity. Check.

Non-distracted eating. Check.

Bringing down multi-tasking levels. Check.

Whole detox days. Day travel. StayCation. AutoCut the system. Check.

Evening chanting session. Lengthen. It’s not electronic. Check.

Anything not connected to a device and creates value. Check.

Not going to fall sick in this hyperactive space.

Check.

Incorporating before proceeding further.

Check.

Waking Up On The Other Side

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Hey,

First up, humbled. To the nth.

Was an AI skeptic till, like, yesterday.

Well, skeptic tried, and died, the skeptic did.

What woke up was armed 25x and on steroids.

That’s me now, after 9 days of intense work on Claude.

Encouraged to try by friends and compatriots, initiated into entry, took the plunge.

There’s a chronic buzz in this dimension. This is an electronic world. Just got more…

…robotic. It’s just that the robot is invisible.

It’s like fighting a matrix war from inside a digital maniacal super-intelligent tool who knows…

…everything.

Who can connect dots…

…exponentially and asymptotically, both simultaneously.

Red flag list is at an all time high.

Sleep’s off.

Mind races all the time.

There’s some exuberance that’s come to the fore.

Don’t want to speak much.

Need solitude.

Basic life disturbs.

Withdrawal symptoms away from screen.

Welcome to the planet 3.0.

What happened to 2.0 ?

Wasn’t that supposed to be the shifted one, towards doing good for mankind?

Want it back.

Need to get to 2.0.

What is 2.0?

A controlled version of 3.0, using its tools only, not being ruled by it. Doing good for mankind.

Need to create a 2.0 out of 3.0.

Fast.

Constants

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Hey.

We play the game…

…with numbers.

Numbers are…

…our thing.

The thing with numbers is…

…that once we create a constant for ourselves…

…a pivot…

…something like a compass…

…AI doesn’t have access to it.

It’s our number.

It’s in our mind.

By the time AI gains direct access to our mind, we’ll be gone.

For example, we establish a low buying average, over many buys, in something we consider to hold value.

Each individual establishes their own, meaning…

…it’s each person’s own low buying average.

It decides the multiple.

It’s the centre-half. The libero. It creates the play. It’s unique to a person. No AI access. The whole game has been taken away from AI. It remains a human game. It’s not what the masses are doing. It’s contrarian. It’s going to make money.

Volatility is a constant.

Disruption is a constant.

Fear is a constant.

Greed is a constant.

Mass-behaviour is a constant.

Pigs getting slaughtered is a constant.

We play it by constants.

We’ve even started using unique mass-logic defying indicators, that only we have defined, that no one else knows about or can dream of, and we’re using them successfully, with no access to AI.

We’re functioning from within a matrix where we control the game, AI doesn’t.

Beauty is, outside of our protective matrix, we have access to all of AI’s capabilities, should we choose to use them.

Not yet though. Specifically after the 160+ girls murder rumoured to be caused by intel provided by AI, correct me if I’m wrong. AI as it currently is doesn’t seem ready for seamless implementation. All those foolishly believing so at this moment are the pigs referred to above. Pigs get what? Slaughtered. I didn’t say this first. It’s a common market saying. Markets are a – constant. We trust constants.

There will be many more blow-ups before seamlessness is achieved.

Think of banking systems causing and compounding massive errors because of blind reliability on AI.

This of AI suggested war strategy backfiring because of lack of understanding of human psyche.

Think of investment strategy imploding, left with eyes wide shut to AI, owing to lack of proper understating of human behaviour and its unpredictability. Anyways, on the plus side…

…think of any level of positive upheaval that AI will cause.

Think maximum.

Thought?

Since we play it by constants, we’ll continue to thrive, maximum disruption and beyond.

Such is the power of constants, that we successfully harness.

Matrix Diaries

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Hey.

I think…

…you’ve pretty much understood…

…that we’re buyers in this whole mess.

I’d like you to add one more word to your understanding.

We’re…

…fearless…

…buyers.

We were not always fearless.

The human being is born with fear built in as a protective emotion.

During the process of rewiring, we wired this emotion out.

How does one do that?

Before I delve into it, wish to reiterate the we.

Who’s the we here?

Everyone who gets taught forward in this space and from this space, and then goes on to implement successfully, that’s the we. Why do such a thing? Gives me a kick. What’s a good life? A collection of meaningful things that give one a kick, implemented repeatedly.

Now imagine a matrix.

We are in the matrix.

Outside the matrix are all things that cause us fear.

Inside the matrix we implement our strategy without fear.

We have built systems that have automatically thrown out of the matrix all things that cause us fear against acting in the markets.

First we created a safety net. An emergency fund. Perhaps two. Out went fear of existence.

Starting with a small networth, we plunged into the markets. Luckily, we tasted failure fast, and lost it all, broken down, emergency fund to fall back on, young, enough energy and will power to bounce back. Now we had a model of how not to do it. We knew where we didn’t want to land up, and understood somewhat how not to do it. The experience of a blow-up and the knowledge of how not to do it made more fear exit the matrix, as we itched to get back into the game.

Slowly we built a system. Incorporated models. Saw what worked. What didn’t work for us exited. Model developed a slight edge. Tasted some wins. Confidence started to grow. As it grew, more and more fear exited.

Then came replication. Would the model work again? It did. Would it work bigger? Scaled up a bit. Working. Till not working. Fine-tuned. Working again. Knew we had something now. Came a black swan and its aftermath. Model excelled. Realized we were anti-fragile. Whatever was left of fear was now outside the matrix. We were tready for all out implementation.

And that’s where we are functioning from in this crisis.

If you say might last a year, no fear, we silently implement. We’re liquid because the model creates liquidity in good times. Two years? Still no fear. Liquidity might run out after 18 to 20 months, probably, but that’s the whole goal, to be fully invested, as per a model in which one has high conviction. Three years you say? We say still no fear.

The biggest money is made by…

…sitting…

…and we didn’t say this first. Someone you look up to did.

We’ve learn’t how to sit. Sitting is an integral part of the model.

While we sit, we do many constructive things. Since we’re investors, while we sit, we invest heavily…

…in OURSELVES.

Do the math.

Fool?

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I don’t mind.

What?

Being called that.

Why?

For me, it’s an indicator.

How?

When someone in my environment expresses that he / she considers me foolish, this acts for me like a guage.

Where?

In order formulation.

Which?

Good till traded orders.

Explain.

Ok. Let’s say someone considered my 787 GTT HDFC Bank entry foolish. With price having fallen to 745, and still not showing signs of stability, someone might consider me foolish for having entered ‘early’ at 787. I want this to happen. I want to sense this attitude in another person’s behaviour.

Then?

Simple. Formulate and enter next GTT for HDFC Bank at 690.

What’s the logic?

That’s just the way I use this indicator.

Position-sized small quantum?

Absolutely.

Considered bulk-entry at bottom?

What’s the bottom? Who claims to know the bottom?

499?

No idea. How do you know you’ll catch the bottom? What if you miss entry altogether?

What if I get full entry in lumpsum, at 499?

What if price stays below 400 for a month after that? Your lumpsum entry will hardwire you to your terminal, and it’s one month of sleepless nights, I can promise you that. Neurosis. Psychosis. Freeze. God knows how long it will be before you can take another rational decision.

And your staggered full entry with a higher buying average will not cause all these things?

That’s the whole point. It will not.

It will not? How?

Market psychology is counter-intuitive. When are you going to understand this one basic point? Going in, let’s say ten times, between 800 and 499, over three months, at every new entry, the nervous system forgets older price. It focuses on newer price, not even on buying average. It actively registers one small quantum entry at 499 as per this strategy, and forgets other entries above, at least forgets them well enough to suit the purpose. Bottomline – such a nervous system is poised to avoid neurosis, psychosis and the like.

You’re just making this up.

Try it out. This is what works for me towards full strategy implementation. I am able to successfully fool my nervous system into buying maximum units without setting it up to hurt itself, should the market fall more, and stay lower for longish periods. This is my win, and a cornerstone of my lowering the buying average strategy in high conviction stocks during crises. Tested successfully during CoViD. No more testing. Current crisis is about full implementation. Will keep this buying strategy on through the entire crisis, or till fully invested, whatever comes first.

Why put in everything?

This is money sidelined to go in. It’s not daily resources money, or college fund money, or family expenses money. It is investing money. It’s supposed to go in. What’s better for it than to go in low?

Where is the courage coming from?

High conviction is a state of mind. It’s a reflex. Over time and over many, many studies, observations, behaviour analyses etc., you develop it for a stock. Once you have high conviction in a stock, nothing should come in between you and full entry, if price allows.

Am still trying to decided whether you look foolish or intelligent?

Though I don’t care for your opinion, I don’t mind it either if you give it to me, for I will use the encounter as an indicator.

Is that what you’ve gravitated down to, using ridiculous and self-concocted indicators to navigate the markets?

Doing things which no one else has before sets me up for vindication no one else has gotten before. No more questions, do the math.

Flow

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Everything…

…flows.

It’s just that …

…at most times …

…we don’t see it …

…like that.

Mediocre vision …

…leads to lack of clarity.

Confusion.

Freeze.

Inability to recognize opportunity.

And / or …

…inability to act upon such recognition, even if it eventually comes.

What then come are the numbers.

Is it a surprise that one’s numbers are then also …

…mediocre?

Remedy?

Getting into the flow.

How?

Devise your own way.

Some meditate.

Others read.

Discuss.

Call.

Travel.

Workshops.

Conferences.

Study.

Analyze.

Speak.

Etc.

You..

…need to do your thing …

…to experience …

…and harness …

…seamlessness.

Oh me?

I do some of the above stuff, at times, …

…study and analyze a few times a week, …

…read more regularly, …

…and …

…I write.

Loops

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There comes a day…

…when…

…even scum…

…meets its match.

On that day, or from that day onwards, …

…nothing seems to work out for even the worst evil entities.

How does one get to being…

…the worst of the worst…

…or, perhaps, the best of the best?

It’s all about loops.

Positive loops.

Negative loops.

Downwards spirals.

Betterment cycles.

Let’s break it down.

Action. Let’s say good cause created.

Positive effect.

Felt by one’s environment as well as one’s body, mind and soul.

Biochemistry of positivity secreted.

One’s system feels great, like a billion currency units.

Sleep quality great.

Feeling of contentment – priceless.

One psychologically wants to recreate this loop forever.

Wonderful. Please let’s keep doing this only.

Flip side.

Negative cause created.

Corresponding negative effect on environment and one’s entire system of body, mind and soul.

Biochemistry of negativity secreted.

Neurosis.

Psychosis.

Sleep quality horrendous.

Digestion compromised.

Immune system compromised.

Invitation for disease to seep in.

On-edge and worsening state of body and mind makes it very easy for more and worse negative causes to be created, within the same cycle, as wild-oat add-ons.

Even though one hates the idea of it, one has dragged oneself into a snowballing negative loop, out of which one needs to pull oneself out with full force, before it’s too late and before the burgeoning avalanche of adverse Karma drowns one into oblivion forever, erasing any trace of goodness or its footprint that ever existed in one.

It boils down to what we choose to do with our lives. Choices.

It boils down to the causes we create. Good karma. Accumulation. Non stop. Do good. Move on. Repeat. Loop it.

It boils down to this moment in life.

Let’s make it and all following moments the best ever possible moments for us and our environments.

Let’s let our positive loops carry us onto higher and higher, better and better trajectories. In life. In investing. In CSR. In society. Everywhere.

Cheers. 🙂

Doctrine

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Europe’s feeling it.

Feeling what?

The stab.

Stab?

Ya, in the back.

They’ve realized it…

…now.

A tad late…

…felt a known figure, lately, presumably.

European media had tried to take this personality down recently, with jibes, verbal attacks and what have you.

Thing is, you can’t take a truth down.

That’s the thing about truth.

A half-truth can be taken down, though.

The half-truths that Europe was sold, ya those kinds, they don’t withstand much scrutiny. They’re exposed after only a few thought processes.

What’s incredible is…

…that the gullibles took three quarters of a century to realize that they are being…

…stabbed.

Currently, their leaders are scrambling for safety.

Highest level delegations are in India and Russia, in in effort to form new alliances.

Alliances that promise more safety? Will the ire of the stabber relent?

New deals with India will be win-win. That’s India’s style of doing business. Economic proximity to India will benefit Europe. Besides, India’s vision is long-term, and it targets a prosperous business future with its partners, whilst ignoring their hypocrisy, if any. A long-term business partner will need to let go of double standards and racial mindsets. If not, lucrative nations will look beyond, seeking other more balanced avenues with diverse partners a plenty.

The discussion about India here is not a biggie, to be honest.

Let’s now address the elephant in the room.

Scrambling to Russia?

Yes, one hears that right.

The same Russia… ?

Yes.

Why?

No other options. Need to secure themselves.

They should’ve just agreed to what VP was saying till Jan ‘22. What would that have cost them?

The ire of the stabber.

Oh ya, I forgot. They were so scared of the stabber, and obeyed every word to an exponential level. How can one behave in such a manner?

Well they are paying for it. Mostly, they are empty. Nothing much working. Manufacturing shutting down. Energy supply dwindling, though that was an own-goal.

Ask that South American football player the price of an own-goal.

Don’t bother him, let his soul rest in peace. Coming back to our discussion, there’s poverty in these nations. Right radicalism is either ruling, or is set to rule. Unemployment is rising. Life is getting more and more difficult for the common person. With AI set to go ballistic, most citizens will be jobless. Unless leaders take drastic measures right now, we’re looking at a civil-war kinda situation in the near term.

What’s the moral of this whole story?

I’m going to leave you with just two words. These two words are the moral of this story. These two words are what’s working today to ensure the successful implementation of a nation’s geo-political policy.

And these two words are?

Jaishankar doctrine.

Winnings

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Not all…

…winnings…

…are tangible.

Intangible winnings…

…can be far greater…

…in stature.

One can carry these with…

…anywhere.

Don’t need to know more.

They’ve won their case already.

Let’s break this down, using a concrete example.

Let’s take this blog.

First, the losses.

Subscribers?

Hardly.

Financial loss?

A few pennies a day, equalling domain charges plus plus divided by 365.

Effort loss?

Yes, a lot of effort goes in. However, it is rewarded heavily, though indirectly. Since there are no more losses, let’s talk about winnings.

Sharpening of skill – maximum.

As words flow, ideas are elucidated, take greater shape, and are cemented into a system.

I’ve often spoken about the fact that this blog can also be seen as fundamental / critical / what have you research towards developing a 360 degree unified market field approach. I think I’m there.

Let’s look at the system that has evolved over the last fourteen years – specifically, let’s look at modules incorporated.

Small Entry Quantum.

Non-Linear Position-Sizing.

Cost-Free-Ness.

Long-Term-Hold.

Positional-Hold (culminating in trade booked with cost-free-ness generated).

2 Demat Approach.

GTT incorporation.

Buy Low.

Sell High.

Entry.

Sitting.

Letting Profits Run.

Exit.

Averaging Down.

(Stop-)Loss attenuated by Cost-Free-Ness’s capability to rise by…

…’Banking on Infinity’…

…in a Non-Linear Long-Term Growth-Market.

The Zone.

The Line.

Fitting.

Market Forces.

Market Presence.

List goes on.

Bottom line is that what has emerged is a decent-size double-digit list of modules incorporated into one clear-cut, multi-level and dynamic wealth-creating strategy…

…with results that make ‘losses’ due to lack of subscribers statistically too small to even mention.

I write to create a magnificent system, and to keep fine-tuning it.

My system creates wealth for my family.

I donate a small part of our wealth to charity.

Hence my writing facilitates pro-bono work.

Some of the few readers of this blog might one day choose to implement a few modules, or perhaps the whole approach. I’m happy for them. God bless them. Magic Bull is completely free, and is part of my give-back to society.

I create good causes with my writing.

While writing, I feel buoyant, sharp, and fulfilled, carrying this combination of feelings into the day, spilling them over into other good causes created over the whole day.

Am thankful for this avenue, since it gives my creativity an outlet.

🙂

Constriction

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Nobody likes constriction.

It …

… limits, …

… suffocates …

… and tries to lower one’s self-esteem.

Have been constricted.

Circumstances all around border on criminal society, fascism and unnecessary limits applied to everyday life, even home life.

There’ve been two ways to go.

One is to crumble.

The other is to find pathways.

In alleys.

Corners.

Cloud.

Navigation.

Codes.

Systems.

MultiTasking.

Covert efficiency.

Knowledge acquisition

Application.

When nothing works for one on the outside, we go into achievement mode on the inside.

I speak for those who decide not to crumble.

Times will change.

They always have.

It’s dictators that have crumbled.

They’ve not been able to conquer time.

We keep ourselves functional till our time comes.

When it does …

… and it will, …

… our added soft assets will shine forth …

… not only with a vengeance, …

… but will be impossible to ignore.

Achievement is just an add-on.

Survival is a far more precious memory.

Give Me My Table & I’ll Undetach

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Detaching…

… .

My work is done for the day.

Enjoying the remainder of the day is now a priority. 

Would that be possible without detaching from the workplace?

No.

Is it that easy…

…to detach?

No.

Am I successful in detaching?

Reasonably.

Just like that?

No.

Meaning?

It’s taken me fifteen years to learn to detach reasonably well from the markets, …

… and, there are still times when external factors cause unwanted and untimely re-attachment.

The next time I wish to undetach (yeah, just made up this word!) is the next time I wish to engage. 

To undetach, all I need is my work-table. 

Rest follows on auto. 

However, when I’m not on my work-table, mostly, I don’t wish to undetach, …

…and surely enough, someone will want to discuss markets, …

…or someone switches on financial TV, …  

…or one catches a headline in the paper, …

…or a tip can’t be refrained from being given, …

…or, well, use your imagination.

Getting around peoples’ free-fund-attitude is the biggest challenge for a market-practitioner, in my opinion. 

You might master market-etiquette, and you might learn how to detach in isolation. However, people won’t spare you. 

Detaching despite people while living and thriving amongst people is one huge win. 

Getting there…

… 🙂 .

What do you Want?

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Is this one easy?

What do you think?

If this one were easy, we’d probably have no wars.

We’d sail from one fulfillment to another, without squabbling.

Life would be a breeze.

However, things are different on the ground.

We don’t talk to ourselves.

That’s why, for the longest time, we don’t know what we want.

Open the intrinsic dialogue.

Why is it not opening?

We’re so busy addressing the outside world.

We don’t even know perhaps, that a much more meaningful world exists – inside.

That’s the one more worth discovering, actually.

It contains the information about what we want.

We need to extract this information.

How does one do that?

Everything starts with a first step.

So, open the dialogue, yeah, the intrinsic one.

See where it goes.

You like exploring conversation on the dinner table, right?

Why don’t you try exploring conversation here, inside of you?

Next step is hit and try.

You’re in a new world.

Paths have not been defined. Define them. See what works. Discard what doesn’t. From the inside, go outside. If internally you feel that something might work, try it externally.

Keep trying and discarding.

Eventually, something sticks.

That what sticks is what you want.

Once you’ve discovered the groove, you can keep using it to discover more and more of what you want, till the groove stops working.

Then you go about creating a new groove.

Happy Searching!

🙂

Happening…or not happening?

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Is that the question?

Hmmmm. 

Valid question. 

On any particular day, we are confronted with this question. Multiple times. 

Life itself throws this question at us often, at pivot-points or crossroads. 

Well, why should the markets be left behind? You guessed it. They portray this behaviour…also. 

Take the cmp of an underlying. 

Is it crossing resistance? Breaking support? Forming a pivot? Peaking? Bottoming? What have you. 

Is whatever’s happening happening or not happening?

What do you do?

Aha. Got you there. Who said anything about doing something? The question about doing something is a wrong question. 

However, it becomes a practical question, because, well, who has patience today?

Yeah, who’s willing to wait and watch, right?

So, in all practicality, what do you do?

First you try not to ask the question. You just observe. 

Then you get jumpy, and do ask the question, simultaneously answering it by telling yourself to wait and watch. 

Next you’re seen egging the markets on for an outcome. 

That’s not good. 

Markets are not going to behave as per your wishes. 

Ok, so here’s the game-changer. 

Change your activity. 

Yes, do something else. 

Put your system on auto-pilot, and engage your mind elsewhere. 

Like I’m writing this article here. 

What’s happening in the backdrop?

My USDINR trade is going nowhere. 

Couldn’t catch a decent portion of the move on the GBP breakout, and now I can’t seem to get a new trade triggered.

My stock-screener refuses to find me a stock in the agri-sector which is to my liking.

My iPad’s gone all wonky and is acting pricy about photo and music syncs. 

Family-health-insurance-premium due…

… got to get that nomination going on my demat…

… AC gas leak…

… document sorting overdue…

… and so on and so forth. 

Meanwhile, I write this article. 

I’m at peace. Writing relaxes me. It benefits the reader too. It’ll live on after me. It is positivity in action. It gives me a sense of purpose. I forget about all the things that are happening and / or not happening. 

That’s what you are going to do. You are going to find an activity that takes you away, to another plane, for just a while, while your other stuff is still undecided. 

There are some things, though, that one needs to make happen. Sometimes one needs to keep pushing. Non-pursuance would be like giving up. 

In this event, you keep banging your head against a wall. 

Two things are going to happen. 

Either you are going to get hurt and back off…

… or, the wall is going to break down.

Yes, I do admit, that there are some very select areas in life that where one decides to bang full-on. 

We’re not afraid. When push comes to shove, we’re all there and ready for some head-banging. 

However, wrt all the other not-so-drastic things, we’re conserving our energies and going to our happy-and-safe-place till these not-so-drastic things are yet undecided. 

Yeah, we’re happier and healthier that way. 

Holding the Line

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Your systems are in place.

They’re implemented. 

Basics are going. Life basics. Family basics.

Then you’ve got your income basics. They’re safe. They generate income. This income goes towards comfortable upkeep of your family. Some of it is saved. 

Your investment portfolios are firing. Savings have built these up. You don’t touch these, but keep adding to them upon opportunity. 

You’ve just finished implementing all your trading systems. 

Some of these are on auto-pilot. 

The other ones demand a little of your time each day. 

They keep you sharp and all there. 

Nothing much. 

Just fifteen to twenty minutes each. 

Skin off your teeth. 

You tackle them with your bed-tea. 

In other words, you are set as far as being income plus plus plus. 

Good. 

Now what?

Now you need to hold the line. 

What does that mean?

It means everything. 

It means no blow-ups…

…no crazy decisions that impact folios and family…

…basically nothing insane coming from you that will threaten your hard-earned situation or worse. 

Holding the line means making sure basics stay intact…

…folios keep growing…

…and new systems keep developing that add to these. 

It’s really that simple. 

When you hold the line, your next step either maintains status quo or adds to you. Preferably, it adds to you.

However, the simpler something is, the more difficult it is to follow. 

What are the demons that can slay you?

Over-confidence.

Over-ambition.

Hubris.

Greed.

Showmanship. 

Debt.

One-up-on-the-Joneses-ideology. 

This stuff looks pretty harmless at first, but is enough to give rise to cracks. 

Cracks grow… 

…till you’ve either come back to your senses and filled and sealed them…

…or till they’ve destroyed you right down to beyond your basics. 

Yeah, a full blow-up is never really far away, once cracks start to appear. 

Therefore…

…while holding the line…

… you keep reminding yourself about what you’re doing…

…why you’re doing it…

…and that you’re never going to blow up, come what may…

…and that you’re going to keep holding the line, come what may…

…and that your next step is always going to add to you.

Happy Holding!

🙂

Wealth-Generators often go Contrarian

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You knew that too, right? 

Sure. 

Going contrarian is a buzz-phrase. 

We hear it again and again…

… till we begin to start thinking… 

… that we know what it means. 

Well, try going contrarian. 

Yeah, try actually doing it. 

You’ll see what I mean. 

It’s real hard. 

Going against the crowd takes all the strength you might have… 

… and then some. 

Most humans aren’t able to go contrarian. 

Most humans aren’t wealthy. 

When there’s blood on the streets, there’s no telling how much more there will be. 

Under such conditions, the contrarian investor lets go of his or her hard-earned money into an investment, knowing perfectly well that the Street might even value the investment tomorrow at a huge discount to today’s price.

That’s ok too, says he or she.

Why?

Because homework’s been done.

Underlying is strong.

Debt-free.

Management is stellar.

Balance-sheet is robust.

Projections are paramount.

That the world is pricing the investment wrongly is a problem with its vision.

Underlying is not going under. With above credentials, this alone matters.

Times change. Vision of the majority changes. Investor makes a killing. Cashes out some, principal and what have you. Leaves lots of free-standing shares… forever… or till parameters change.

Wealth-generators repeat this behaviour-pattern many times in their lives.

They’re not afraid of going against the grain.

They know otherwise.

Also, the money they use has been freed up.

Its being out of action for a long time is not going to change their lives even a bit.

They will have the last laugh.

Wealth is the reward of going contrarian. 

The One Basic Difference between Wealth and Income 

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What’s with this wealth vs income series? 

It goes on and on. 

So what? 

Any problems? 

Thoughts are like threads. 

They can be pulled into infinite. 

Also, they are a realm in which one has unlimited freedom. 

The speed of thought is faster than the speed of light. 

Think about it. 

From here to there – anywhere – Jupiter – Uranus – some other universe – in a flash. 

Explore your thoughts. Pull them out into infinite threads. It pays. 

We are trying to understand the meaning of wealth. 

How is it different from income?

What’s the one elephant-in-the-room factor that sums up this difference? 

Is there even such a factor? 

Yes, I feel there is. 

Maybe someone’s come up with this before. I don’t care. We all stand upon the shoulders of giants, as do I. From there, we generate our two pennies. 

So, how is wealth intrinsically and basically different from income?

Income is something you take out of your flow, to finance your everyday environment, including shucking up for nitty-gritties in day to day lives of those who depend upon you. 

Wealth can be generated from that portion of your flow that has not been taken out for mundane use. This flow, which has not been taken out, has then been simultaneously allowed to coexist by you in a different form, over a long period of time. It accrues, compounds and multiplies – over the long period of time – into wealth.

The most lucrative things in life are also the most simple ones. 

Being simple doesn’t come easy to most of us. 

That is why the majority of humans are not wealthy. 

Adding No-Action to your Repertoire

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Action with positive outcome vs…

… no action vs…

…action with negative outcome…

…hmmmm.

Sometimes we become oblivious to actions with negative outcomes.

Society preaches to be active.

We listen.

We feel that doing something means a step forward.

Well, it ain’t necessarily so.

Many times, and especially in the markets, it actually pays to do nothing.

The most successful investors in the world will tell you, that the biggest money is made while sitting. They’ll also tell you, that almost no one has learnt how to sit.

They’re right.

Meanwhile, I’m telling you, right here and right now, that you can sit comfortably upon your investment without jumping only if you’ve bought with margin of safety. Think about it.

Also, the most successful traders in the world will tell you that the number one action that saves money in the markets is no action. Yeah, when markets move sideways, which is about 60%+ of the time, trades tend to get stopped out both ways, and the trader loses money repeatedly. At such times, it’s better not to trade.

What’s vital here?

Recognition.

Recognize that it’s a time for no action.

Then, do something else.

For this to be practical, make trading and investing your bonus activities.

Meaning, that if your bread and butter depends upon another mainstream activity, you can easily switch off from trading and investing for a while, at will, and without any negative impact upon your basics.

Also, you need to be versatile enough to have fall-back activities lined up, which switch on where trading and / or investing switch off. These need to take over then, and keep the mind occupied.

The danger of not going into no-action mode is the continuous committing of actions with negative outcomes.

That’s precisely where we don’t want to be.