Category Archives: Society

Plusses & Minuses of a Cloud-Society

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Where do we stand today?

What’s changed compared to yesterday?

Are we better off?

What’s not better off?

Where is all this heading to?

Lastly, what’s your takeaway. 

People, questions, questions and more questions. It’s good to ask questions. Those who don’t, well, they don’t evolve. Stagnation in today’s day and age is owing to being late for a bus because nobody was there to put your shoes on for you, so that you could catch the bus. You didn’t attempt to put on these yourself, and you didn’t attempt to run-off bare-feet either. You kept waiting for someone who would put your shoes on for you. People, forget it and wake up. This party’s hot, and it’s moving very fast. Keep moving with it. It’s a hell of a ride. 

The word “Cloud” is very big today. 

“One needs to be in the Cloud, blah blah blah” etc. is heard at parties. 

Humans have realised the vulnerability of hardware. Data in the cloud is probably safer. Yes, Cloud it is . Cloud is the future. HOWEVER…

a). Keep multiple backups on your own hardware also. Accidental deletion on the cloud could sync across all your devices. Where do you stand then? Most cloud backup softwares throw in backing up to additional hardware for free. Use this. It’s a legitimate freebie. You’d be a fool not to use this. Btw, of course you’ve got your time-machine or similar backups going on the side too. BE WELL BACKED-UP.

b). Don’t necessarily keep sensitive data on the cloud. You can very easily manually back up your password-bank (for example) across multiple devices. Sensitive data needs to be password protected. Period. Music and photos can fall into different categories here. Depends on you. 

c). The norm with contacts is that they start backing up to your main email ID. Great. Losing one’s contacts becomes that much harder. Don’t store sensitive stuff in your contacts. 

d). Your main email ID becomes hugely important. Make sure it’s not hacked. Keep changing it’s password. Remember it’s password. Update it in your password bank. Use your email ID to search. Old emails, files, attachments, photos, anything. Today, the whole repository goes along with your email. 

e). Have a balanced approach towards social media. Don’t upload stuff you’ll regret. Try and circulate your family photos within controlled circles. Be wary of social media, and teach your kids of its dangers. 

f). THEN, Cloud is one thing, and accessibility to it and being well-organised on it is another. You could be fully in the cloud, but what use is your stuff to you in the cloud, if it’s not accessible across all your devices seamlessly, at a button-click. There are many software-services doing this for you. Your software-service needs to have a lightning search-functionality, which goes through your search-words and hashtags at a super speed [((btw you are not functioning without hashtags today, so that you can easily sift through your stuff, and call up something in a flash))]. Of course the whole thing costs. Just pay and BECOME SEAMLESS. What’ll you be set back by? 50 USD pear annum? Don’t be penny-wise pound-foolish. DO THIS. 

g). Please don’t forget your Internet-Security along the path. Use a pay-service, on you mobiles and your computers. People, why do we forget the basics?

h). Guard your eyes. Wash them. Use a moistener. Use Ayurvedic eye-drops on the side. Do eye-exercises. 

i). Guard agains neck pain (back-pain). Swim. Walk. Posture. Don’t overdo media. 

j). Guard agains index-finger pain. Mobile and desktop typing and touch has made the index finger of supreme importance. However, it is susceptible to pain and disease if you are not careful. 

k). Guard against heart-attack. We are a sedantry lot now. Almost all day, we vegetate. Most of us, that is. Get a band. Programme it to buzz every hour that you are in your seat. When it buzzes, move. Follow your daily steps. 10-15,000 steps per day is the need of the hour. Couple the band to your diet. Follow its calorie-burning module. Teach your band, till it comes out with intelligent suggestions. A band is like a pet. 

l). Guard your karma-balance. Be a contributor. Don’t only be a free user. Contribute freely on the web. Add to the world. Take the world forward. You are using so much stuff off and on the web, for free, that if you are not on your guard, you might end up exhausting a lot of karma. Thus, generate fresh positive karma too, to keep levels up. 

m). Lastly, it all depends on the internet connection you have, and how much you remain connected as you move. Spend well here, have access to more than sufficient data allocation and speed, both on your computer and on your mobile. An adequate internet connection with ample data-allocation is the lifeline of being in the Cloud. 

YEAH, use your Cloud well and optimally. Fine-tune your Cloud-effectivity. Keep in good shape. Be Cloud-proud! 🙂

IUCS – Investing Under Controlled Stress

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Let’s assume there are funds waiting to be invested. 

In what form do you keep them?

Free?

Bound?

What?

Investors have the luxury of time. Traders don’t. 

I’m really telling you, an investor’s funds need not be kept in free form. 

Traders need to pounce, not investors. 

If you don’t need to pounce, don’t keep your funds in free form. 

Keep them bound. Semi-bound. Let’s call it stressed. Keep them stressed. Stress that is under your control. 

What are we talking about?

Also, why are we talking about whatever we are talking about?

Free funds are open to whims and fancies. 

Whose? 

Yours. Your bankers’. Anyone’s, who has an eye on the funds. 

Plush with free funds, you take liberties. Your defences are down. You are liable to make mistakes, perhaps big ones. 

Bound funds, on the other hand, are subject to activation barriers before release. 

You think twice before releasing them, or perhaps thrice, if the locking is tight. You win precious time. During the extra time, you can well scrap an investment with a faulty premise, or you can discover hidden agendas or angles which cause you not to follow through. You get saved because of controlled stress. 

Furthermore, bound funds don’t reflect on your banker’s system as funds waiting to be invested. He or she won’t bother you or incite you to make a mistake. You’ve knocked him or her out of the equation. Bravo!

Controlled stress can be of different degrees. When funds are irreversibly locked-in, then we cannot talk of control anymore. Anything below that is under our control with varying levels of effectivity. The stronger the (reversible) lock-in, the harder you’ll think about the new investment, because the activation barrier for making funds free again to invest is large. 

Let’s not get too carried away. We can just make simple fixed deposits. These are completely within our control. You can break them with a letter to the bank manager. The activation barrier to free them is relatively small. However, you do think twice before freeing them. The’ve disappeared from your banker’s horizon. They’ve also disappeared from any online fraudster’s horizon, who was perhaps looking to clean you out. 

Also, actually, you don’t really need to break these fixed deposits to get into a new investment, since breaking goes with a small interest-penalty. If you’ve got fresh funds coming in at a later date, but wish to invest now, you can borrow against a fixed deposit. This will again make you stop and think, because borrowing comes with a cost, i.e. interest. You will only get into the fresh investment if you really, really have to / want to. You will discard any half-baked investment idea. It’s still worth it, despite the interest. You might find this a bit crazy, bit I like to do it like this. For me, the biggest win here is that I am not breaking a former structure. Add to this the extra safety. Plus the extra thinking-time to ward-off bad investments. Add everything up, and you might also think that the borrowing cost is peanuts when compared to the benefits. Don’t forget, since you’ve got fresh funds coming in soon, you’ll soon be releasing the fixed deposits you are borrowing against from their overdraft mode. This is a meta-game strategy. 

Yeah, keep investible funds in fixed deposits. It is really as simple as that. 

The best things in life are really very simple. 

Complication and sophistication are facades used by humans to hide their mediocrity.

A successful person does not need to hide his or her simplicity. 

Simplicity is one of the biggest precursors to mega-success. 

You Might Think I’m Crazy

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you might think i’m crazy

to hang around with you

maybe you think i’m lucky

to have something to do

…

you might think it’s foolish

or maybe it’s untrue

you might think i’m crazy

but all i want is you

The Cars

Some years ago, we went to see “Cars 2” with my daughter and her cousins. Yawn, I thought. Animation movie, blah blah blah, but anything for the kids, when suddenly, above song started playing and took me back to school. How appropriate, a song by the Cars in a movie called Cars. Actually ended up enjoying the movie.

Anyways, something about the lyrics caught my attention.

What do you read in this space?

Words, words, words.

No graphs. No images. No math. No numbers, really. 

And this blog is supposed to be what? A commentary on applied finance?

So am I crazy?

Maybe, …

… but, this is exactly how I want to do it. 

No hocus-pocus. 

Here, we break it down to the bare minimum. 

Words. 

We talk. 

It’s all very light. 

You read through in a jiff. 

There’s a powerful flow which you might not even be aware of. 

And, as the lyrics say, all I want is you.

Yes, I want your attention, and I want to keep it riveted. 

How am I to achieve that in an age of very short attention spans?

We keep it simple. Bare minimum stuff, wrapped in enjoyable words. Stories. Analogies. Parallels. Bridges. As seemingly non-finance as possible, but still not missing the point.

Sure, I still could be crazy.

What do I hope to achieve?

So much time involved.

All this for free.

Yeah, I really must be delirious.

Stop. 

It’s deep. 

I enjoy writing. 

It relaxes me. 

My thoughts get organized. Concepts get strengthened. I focus. Many mistakes in my approach get nullified. I don’t want more from this. 

Also, it’s my giveback. I use a lot of free stuff from the net. I give this for free. It’s all a give and take. 

So, just bear with me. 

Read if you want to, it’ll make me happy. 

It is definitely a different way to learn about finance, with all the jugglery left out. 

Well, why not?



 

 

Are There amy WMDs in the Markets?

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What’s a weapon of mass destruction in the markets?

Well, practically anything that the masses don’t know much about, and are being handed on a platter in a repackaged form, to savour. 

Sure, I’m using one of Warren Buffett’s analogies here. Loosely requoted, Buffett once warned, that futures and options were weapons of mass destruction (in the hands of those masses, who didn’t know much about them, but still used them). 

Yeah, I will stand upon the shoulders of giants if required. 

As long as I quote them, I’m good. 

The view from their shoulders let’s one think from a height. That’s an ideal situation for fresh thinking. 

Supposing something new comes up. That would be a contribution from my side. And why would it have happened? Because I took the liberty to stand upon the shoulders of giants. 

Bottomline is, that everything can be classified as a WMD if one is handling it and doesn’t know much about it. 

Equity is a WMD for newbies. For someone who spends many hours a day for many years, delving into Equity, the scene can be quite different. 

Rome wan’t built in a day. 

You don’t become a PhD in a day. 

You can’t master Equity in a day. 

Or anything else, for that matter. 

Do your homework. 

Put in the hours and the years. 

Burn the oil. 

Take what you do seriously. Not casually. If you’re casual about any professional line, drop it now, or start pursuing it seriously. 

Why do you want to give something the power to become a weapon of destruction?

You don’t. Period. 

Whose Game Are You Playing?

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Are you playing your game?

No?

Why not?

Why do you play someone else’s game?

Do you think that’s going to make you happy?

Just for the record, working for someone doesn’t necessarily mean you’re playing that someone’s game. You’re walking a common path with someone. Could be your boss. Spouse. Parent. Sibling. Whosoever. You could still be playing your game.

Life’s a game too.

A game doesn’t mean you have to rule over someone, or something. Wherever there’s a lesson to be learnt, a game is on. When we talk about your life-lessons, we talk about your game.

If I’m not mistaken, life is about learning. For some of us. There are souls who come to spend surplus Karma. Once this is exhausted, their game changes by default, since the lessons start again.

We come face to face with people and situations… to learn. The same people and / or situations keep reappearing till some learning is fully learnt. They can appear in an overbearing role, but you’re still playing your game. You’re learning your lesson. Or not. These people and / or situations cause you to behave as per a groove which has encompassed your life. The lesson is to learn how to break out of the groove. If you’re learning the lesson, you’re playing your game. If not, you’re playing someone else’s.

Play the market. Play your game with the market. Someone else’s successful market game might lure you. It won’t give you lasting succes. Why?

Someone else’s successful market game caters to someone else’s psychology. In crux situations, you will falter in that game. You will lose it all. That someone will succeed. He or she has spent years devising a game which caters fully and totally to his or her psychology and risk profile. Not to yours. He or she cannot know as much about your own psychology and risk profile as you do. Therefore, devise your own market-play. Then, play it.

It takes years or perhaps a decade to discover and understand your behaviour, psychology and reactions to varied market situations. Be there. In the market. Make small mistakes. Learn your lessons. Understand your grooves. Devise a comprehensive strategy around this.
That’s your game.

What are you waiting for?

Play it.

🙂

Take that –>@&%# Mr. Peer Pressure

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Dear Mr. PP,

I don’t give in to you, never have, never will.

You’re not that important.

I don’t spend my time thinking about you.

I don’t respect any entity without a backbone, and you certainly don’t have one.

I’ve met you many times.

At first, I felt you, and was taken aback. You wanted me to do something I didn’t wish to do. You were strong.

I was stronger.

When you don’t know anything about the reputation of your opponent, frankly, you don’t give a d*m*. You fight. Till you fall or till the other fellow backs down.

I won my first head to head with you. Thank my stars.

After that I found out who you were. Yeah, who was it exactly that I didn’t succumb to?

After I’d grown up and all, and fully realized your devastation potential, I always leaned back on my first head to head. I mean, you were beatable. Period.

Yeah, I was lucky to have beaten you first up. It’s been a huge psychological advantage.

I’ve carried over this advantage into my market life.

Take a hike, Mr. PP.

[As far as market related activities go, I follow and advocate an unbiased, singular and customized path which doesn’t follow any crowd or any myths as such.

This path certainly does not let me invest under any kind of pressure.

Where there’s pressure, there are vested interests.

Please beware of investments which don’t suit your risk profile and are touted to quench vested interests].

Breathing Time

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Ideas…

… make the world spin.

At the core of any genius achievement is at first… an idea.

Ideas don’t come for free.

A certain degree of evolution translates into a corresponding idea.

Evolution costs.

Pain is a precursor to evolution.

Not every good idea is lucrative. Lots of bad ideas emerge too.

We’re concerned about sifting through the noise.

A potential candidate emerges, let’s say.

You feel you’ve got something.

What’s the next course of action?

Sit.

Don’t jump.

Let it breathe.

It will either continue to breathe, becoming stronger day by day, until it is so strong, that it coerces you into expression. Or, if it’s weak, it’ll die. It might even transform… … into something stronger.

Let the idea make you want to jump. Yeah, let it become that strong, inside of you. You’ve been sitting, remember?

Why?

Why this whole rigmarole?

You want a high success translation percentage.

Why not? It’s human nature.

And that’s why.

Strongly evolved ideas translate more easily into systems of success.

Even if you don’t remember me, remember this line just above.

Thanks.

All I Need – Is One Look In Your Eyes…

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All I need is the rhythm divine
Lost in the music
Your heart will be mine
All I need is to look in your eyes
Viva la musica
Say you’ll be mine


With due respect to Enrique Iglesias, to whom the above lyrics belong, he’s not the only one. 

We all need motivation. 

Many of us are self-motivated. 

What drives us from within?

A goal.

Sometimes, we stolper. Our drive takes a hit. Self-motivation dips. 

Reasons could be many. Sheer exhaustion, repeated failure, being a square box in a round hole for far too long, what have you and blah blah blah. 

We’re not bothered about the reason here. We’re bothered about the fact. Sometimes, we get demotivated. We stop performing. 

Who needs to step in here?

Our closest ones.

Yeah, they live closest to us, and if they possess an iota of sensitivity, well, they should sense our emotional graph going down. 

Mostly, they do. And, upon recognition, they step in. We feel wanted, loved, and our motivational levels start to go up again. 

Sometimes, our closest one is not sensitive enough, for whatever reason.

Maybe we’re too “strong” to let it show. Maybe our closest one has other, bigger issues to deal with. Whatever. That’s not the important rumination.

What’s the important question here?

Yes, how do we get it back? Without a hand to hold. This one’s big. 

No hand to hold – whoahh – it’s tough. 

Is there a way out?

Do we change our closest one?

Is it that simple?

Sometimes, children are in the equation. Changing isn’t an option we’re discussing here. 

Firstly, we need to shut down on this one want from our closest one. 

Ok, now what?

Motivations’s got to come – from within. It’s a funny thing. It just does. Wait for it. To come from within. 

It needs a catalyst – an event – a trigger – the crossing of an activation barrier – something like that. 

Wait for the catalyst to occur and have effect. 

What do you do meanwhile?

Other things. 

Chant. Meditate. Travel. Play with your child. Take up a temporary assignment elsewhere. Do stuff. Life’s big. So many things are happening. Do something – else.

The catalyst occurs. 

Motivation starts to ooze. 

You’re back in business. 

You didn’t break your sacred environment. 

Maybe your closest one will realise, and will be sensitive next time.

On the other hand, maybe he or she won’t. 

Does it bother you now? You’ve discovered a way out after all.

It probably pinches just a bit. 

Let it. Things could have been much, much worse, which they’re not, so count your blessings, and just let it flow. 

🙂

Loneliness of the Successful Investor

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Walked alone?

No?

Please try.

Success needs original ideas. Original ideas need solitude.

Successful investors walk alone.

Sometimes, they’re lonely.

Investing is more about sitting than action.

Sitting around inactively breeds loneliness.

The antidote is activity – other activity. Not market-related.

Successful investors do other stuff to tackle this loneliness.

Buffett plays poker.

Branson is breaking into some virgin territory or the other.

Gates is busy souping up his home.

Trump trumps.

Jindal plays polo.

Mallya’s sole focus has been other stuff, so much so, that he’s become unsuccessful.

Mahindra loves to tweet.

Tata walks his dog.

Sachin watches Wimbledon live.

Mr. Bean is seen on the F1 circuit.

You get the gist.

These people follow one or more “other” activity / activities so passionately, that they forget about their main activity for a while.

Their system recuperates. Time is bridged to the next instance of main-frame action. While traversing this bridge, body, mind and soul have recuperated. System is fresh, ready and waiting for new action.

When you’re walking alone next time, you’ll be able to deal easily with any loneliness on the path.

One might make moderate returns, investing with the masses.

To outperform, though, one needs to walk alone.

The successful investor realizes that he can’t get out of this one.

Therefore, the successful investor creates a way to still come out winning.

This is human capital at peak performance!

The Thin Line

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Have you met the thin line…

…  between ambition and greed?

You see it. You want to cross it without wanting to cross it.

What stops you?

A deadly sin is… deadly. If you’re sensitive enough, you do fear the effects of a deadly sin.

Greed can ruin. It has the capacity to upset an apple-cart.

Sometimes you want something that extra much.

Ambition turns into over-ambition.

You get your something.

You’re a go-getter.

You become over-confident.

You forget your basics.

Next few times around, you cross the thin line repeatedly. The high is addictive. Soon, you’re crossing…

… without even knowing.

Yeah, the vicious cycle outlined above has made you insensitive. You’ve stepped over, don’t even know it, and on you’re going. You’re blinded by greed.

It’s not happened overnight. First the thin line beckoned you to come back. Your over-ambition spurred you on a few steps more. A few more steps wouldn’t harm, right?

Wrong.

You’re not sensitive anymore. You’ve lost normal vision. You’re greedy for your goal. You’re not sticking to your basic tenets. You’re not playing safe anymore. You’ve started to even play with your safety moat, in order to achieve an even bigger goal.

You’ve set yourself up to fall… big.

If you do, I hope for two things.

First up, I hope you don’t fall too big, and that you can get up again.

Second, I hope that this fall is your last one, and that it has made you sensitive again.

Sensitive?

Towards what?

Yeah, sensitive towards the thin line.

I Don’t Want the Cancer

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Are you hurt?

A.

Do you want the cancer?

B.

I do get hurt. Yeah, things hurt me. I’m an emotionally penetrable human being.

Fine. That’s me.

What I definitely don’t want is option B.

Who wants option B?

Can’t think of anyone.

Who gets option B?

Many.

But who?

Those who can’t forget the hurt. Yeah, people who’re unable to move on.

To forget the hurt and move on, simultaneously saving ourselves from the cancer, we need to forgive.

Someone’s misbehaved. Hurt you. Are you going to ruin your future days? No.

Forgive. Forget. Move on.

Just remove the mould in which cancer can potentially set in.

What makes you think it’s different in the markets?

A loss is a hurt.

Need I say more?

You can do the math.

Dealing with “Situation Change”

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When does a situation change?

For example, one could move on to a new field in finance.

Or, a particular goal could have been achieved. Now, one’s approach is supposed to incorporate predefined changes for financial strategy post goal-accomplishment.

Family dynamics could be responsible for situation changes too.

Sure, health. Never underestimate the power of health. It can make you, and it can break you.

Emotion. Fell in love? Going crazy? Outbursts? Hot flashes? Preggers?

Logistics? Moving? New girl-friend in New York?

Night duty?

Looking after your parents in their old age?

Wife wants to party all the time? Lack of sleep?

Promotion? Demotion? Fired? Jobless? Suddenly self-employed?

Gone single? Date-circuit? Got married? Had a kid?

Situation changes come to all. Not once, but many times in life.

Why are we talking about them?

They have an effect on our financial strategy. That’s suffices.

I’ll tell you how I deal with situation change. You can then BODMAS your way to your own approach, using my approach as a broad outline.

My first approach is to put on auto-pilot as many of my financial activity as possible. Going paper-less helps. Trusted auto-bill-pay channels are assets. Fixed-income generators with auto annual-alerts give financial security with zero involvement. SIPs and dividend pay-ins are further examples of having gone auto.

Then I look at what is left. What has not yet gone on auto-pilot? Can it? Ever? If there’s a chance, I go for it. For example, I’m currently developing a software robot to automate my forex trading.

Lastly, I size up what is not pushable into auto-mode. Do I want to keep it? Can I do without it? Weigh, weigh, weigh, scrap A, scrap B, C is something I just have to do, manually, period, so keep C. Eventually, C, G, P, X and Z are five manual financial activities I keep, having scrapped the others (that refused to go on auto) out of my life, since I didn’t consider them burningly essential. C, G, P, X and Z are the ones that’ll weigh me down when my situation changes. I’ve kept them on doable levels. Some are on semi-auto but do require manual intervention. The others are fully manual.

My situation changes.

My auto-pilot activities continue their smooth run. They are my assets, my stars.

P, X and Z are on semi-auto. I barely gather the energy to look into their manual aspects, just about managing to keep them going with reasonable results.

C and G are bogging me down. Can’t keep up. No energy. No motivation. Situation change has drained me. Relentlessly, I try. C has turned a loser. Beginning to feel sick. I shut down C. Losses.

G is sucking me out. Emotionally. It’s a winner, though. Can’t keep up. Can I turn it into semi-auto? It required constant monitoring till it started winning big. I’ll still need to feed in my stop daily. That’s the manual part. I stop looking at G. Problem with equity orders is that your stop has little technical value overnight. A new day requires renewed stop-considerations. Ok, five minutes daily for G. Open terminal, set trigger-stop 9.99% below opening price, close terminal, don’t look left or right, done.

Phew.

Save health. Don’t fall sick.

If sick, rest.

Recuperate.

Regain health.

Get used to new situation.

Normalize.

Gear up for next situation change, whatever it is, whenever it comes.

Gear up now.

The Cycle of Flow

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Life is riddled with cycles.

Words flow. Then they stop. Lulls can be long.

Doesn’t bother me anymore.

I know that when the flow starts, I’ll be there, milking it completely. You’ve seen me do it. I’ve been amazed myself by the sheer force of flow.

I’m happiest in full flow. At this time, I don’t believe in containment.

Lulls are good too. They happen for a reason. Especially if your situation changes. Your system is busy getting accustomed to the new situation. It is accumulating and assimilating. Respect its silence. Conserve your energy. Let it do its work. Don’t try to get busy just for the sake of feeling busy. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. This is your unique game. No one else is playing your particular game. Wait for your system to finish assimilating. Let it use whatever energy is available. You don’t waste this energy.

At some stage, your system will be ready to disseminate.

It’ll give signs.

Flow will ignite.

Words will emerge.

Many of us block at this stage.

We’re afraid of embarrassment. We don’t want to look silly. We hate awkward situations.

Fine. Block. Fall sick. Your wish. Blocked flow turns toxic inside.

Why do you behave like an unevolved j#ck@#s?

The human being has come to evolve. Devolution is not your purpose. Evolution is.

If you wish to evolve, don’t block.

Just like you respected the silence…

… now, respect the flow.

The Womb in which One’s A-Game is Born

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Simple situations don’t challenge you, and if a human being doesn’t feel challenged, he or she doesn’t grow. 

What would you like your A-Game to be?

Simple? Bread-winning? No surprises in store? Straight-forward? 

Fine.

If you don’t wish to feel challenged by it, that is your right. What ? You want to enjoy your A-Game, though? And you want to keep enjoying it for life?

Let me tell you a secret. If you master something, it becomes boring after a while. Where’s the challenge? You probably won’t enjoy something like that for life…just an opinion.

It’s taken me ten years in finance to actually discover what my A-Game is.

I’ve had a choice all along, I won’t hide that from you.

I’ve chosen two market niche-segments. I find both intriguing. Both fully absorb me. I keep asking questions. My mind feels that it meets its match. I enjoy both segments. 

It doesn’t matter which segments I’m talking about. They are my A-Game, and that’s what counts for this discussion. How did I know this was my A-Game?

Over the last ten years, I’ve tried all market segments. Got knocked around, made mistakes. Lost money. Tuition fees. You can’t really study the markets in college. You really need to study the markets in the marketplace itself. Eventually, an area of specialisation will speak to you. It will exercise a magnetism which will envelope you. Wait for this moment before going all-in. Even after identifying your A-Game, play it small for a long time, and only scale up slowly, according to strict money-management rules. 

The womb in which your A-Game is born can be really complicated. You can be left feeling confused for years about what your calling is. Life does remain a bit boring till you get there. You feel that that something is missing in life. While playing your A-Game, that very feeling is gone. That’s how you know it’s your A-Game. 

If you have a choice, secure yourself and your family financially before your A-Game unfolds. That way, your A-Game won’t necessarily have to yield you money in the beginning. Eventually , it will do that also, and of this there is no doubt in my mind, since complete engrossment into something will make you excel at that something. Treat the money as a bonus as it starts to come along. Focus on the monetary angle alone, forced perhaps by necessity, can make you lose sight of the enjoyment angle, or it can make you choose the more monetarily lucrative but less enjoyable activity. It all depends on your life-situation at that moment. 

Actually, come to think of it, whatever one does in life can be approached from a commercial angle only, blocking the enjoyment angle out totally. If your bread and butter depends upon it, I fully understand your choice, but if you’re already financially secure, then … go for growth, challenge, enjoyment… and money will follow too. 

Speed of Rise vs Speed of Fall

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Specifically, equity markets have this one repetitive characteristic.

Their average speed of rising is lesser than their average speed of falling. Much lesser, I would say. 

Why?

Falling has to do with selling pressure being more than buying pressure. Selling pressure is connected to fear. Add caution to fear, and one has already sold out. 

Rise has to do with buying pressure being more than selling pressure. Buying pressure is connected to optimism. As markets keep nudging higher, slowly, optimism turns into euphoria, with a hint of caution. This caution slows the speed of rising, till greed takes over in the last stage of the rise, and one fails to see any caution anymore. At this time, the speed of rising is the highest, but is still lesser than the speed of falling at the nadir. Why?

What is the prevalent situation at a nadir? There’s blood. People are running for their lives. They take action before asking questions, and before looking here or there. 

Many times, you come across someone holding a stock which he or she has inherited from a parent. This someone comes to you with the ubiquitous query – what to do, sell it now? You look at the chart. Whoahhhh! You see the buy price, one and a half decades ago. You look at the current level. You calculate the profit. Along the time axis of the chart, you also see that the stock fell back to its buy price or below in a market crash, all within a month and a half. After this, the stock has recouped its losses of the crash, and is showing a healthy profit again, six years after the crash. During the crash, how long did it take the stock to fall below the buy price of one and a half decades ago? A month and a half. Holy moly!

That’s the equity playground for you. 

It’s directly connected to human emotions. 

Anything can happen on this playground, so keep your eyes and ears open, and…

… be prepared. 

Learning to be Blunt

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Don’t like something? Is it causing you harm? Is someone bothering you? Is something draining your energy? Are you unhappy with a situation?

Get a grip. 

Get that something or someone out of your way. Now. Be blunt about it.

It pays to be blunt. I’m really learning this the hard way, but today I feel there is a lot of truth in this. 

I’ll tell you how I’ve benefited. 

All uselessly energy-depleting people and situations are now out of my life. With the surplus energy saved, I am able to create. 

Stonewalling is for bankers, private investigators, cops, crooks and what have you. 

Diplomacy is for diplomats. Let them do their jobs. 

I’ll do my job. I wish to conserve maximum energy for activities I enjoy and which are beneficial to my surroundings. To achieve this, I have learnt to be blunt. 

Who was my teacher?

Ever wondered?

I mean, do you ask such questions?

Do you use your imagination?

Do you grow?

Are you doing justice to your incarnation as a human?

Ok, enough provocation. Who was my teacher?

None other than…

… Mrs. Market.

I take my stops.

I’m blunt about taking small hits. Very, very often. 

So often that…I’m numb to their pain. 

This puts me in line for…

… fill in the blanks…

… big wins …

… provided …

… fill in the blanks …

… what, you thought this would be a spoon-feed… ? …

… well, … provided…

… provided I let my profits run. 

When a Model collapses…

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… that’s when you shouldn’t collapse.

A model is something temporary. You use it. Successfully. For a while.

Then it starts to play up. You tweak it into yielding successful results.

You keep doing this, till the model is representable. Ultimately, it collapses.

You don’t grieve or look back. Construct a new model.

Tweak it into success.

Move on.

Construction of a market model requires you to use common-sense and your observatory powers.

How do you mould a market into your daily usage without tipping any other balance in your life?

Right, we are only going to be discussing holistic models. Such models should not make you a worse human being. Otherwise, find a better model.

You’ll also need to create some vacuum in your system to attract the required energies for the construction of a new model from scratch.

Use your imagination. Move stuff around. Donate. Write. Help. Be kind. Do good. Pro bono. Create a vacuum in your system.

Soon, your vacuum will attract what you deserve and require. A missing link might flash as a brain-wave. An obstacle might get removed. A vital family member might become kinder. Nature’ll give it back to you.

Before you know it, you’ll be working with your new model…

How to Swallow Small Losses…

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… as if nothing has happened … is one of my biggest trading goals.

You see, our society teaches us not to lose. 

It doesn’t teach us that we can lose a bit 5 times, and after that we can win big, recovering all our losses and making money overall.

No. 

It teaches us to try and win all the time. 

That’s the exact reason 90%+ of all society members actually lose in the markets. They’ve not learnt how to lose small, move on, and take the next trade.

Mrs. Market won’t budge an inch for you. You’ll have to make the adjustment. 

So how does one take a loss in one’s stride?

Only one type of loss is immediately digestible – a small one. Therefore, define your risk in the market. Cut and scoot when required. Don’t get married to your trade.

Then, once the small loss has happened, and has been taken, it will nag you. 

It’ll be there, trying to bite your brain in the background. 

Focus on your next trade. 

Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – Next Trade Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – Next Trade Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – … … [what’s the difference between implementation and entry? Well, you could be implementing the trade through a trigger, which is not equivalent to entry yet].

Don’t let the nagging bother you by keeping yourself busy with Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – Next Trade Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – Next Trade Identification – Implementation – Entry – Management – Exit – … … 

Ultimately the nagging will die out, as your mind starts to revolve around your current trades. 

If you give in to the nagging, it will grow, and will slow you down. You might snap at a family member. You might go into depression. You might freeze. DON’T. Don’t give in to the nagging. Don’t let it grow. Don’t let it slow you down. Maintain your family equilibrium at all costs. Move on. 

The nagging is worst if there’s been a close below your stop, and the market is to open the next day, or after the weekend. You have to deal with this one. If you’re not able to deal with this particular situation, you’ll either need to expose your mental stop prematurely and feed it in intraday (before there’s been a close under it), or you’ll need to follow the progress of your trade from half an hour before next market open onwards.

Yes, this last one’s tough, and you need to absolutely work your way around it. 

You can do it with a bit of practise. 

🙂

The Meaning of Comfort

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Your money is as comfortable as you are.

Why not make it comfortable?

Right, for that you’ll need to be comfortable.

How does one go about doing that?

There are many meanings of comfort. 

You need to choose the right one for yourself.

Mission recap – this is the marketplace, and you need to feel comfortable in the marketplace. 

Firstly, secure your bread and butter. Decouple it from the markets. No matter what happens in the markets, your bread and butter should not stop. In fact, it should not even be threatened. You got it. Enter the markets on a secondary mission. Enter it to have fun first, and success will follow. 

Secondly, where does Jack want to play? The arena is so vast. Does Jill want to do many things, or does she want to master one, or perhaps two segments. What gives you pleasure? What gives you a kick? What challenges you? Find out for yourself. Try out everything if you want. Try things out many times. Ultimately you’ll know where your calling is. Your future field of expertise will speak to you. Do what you enjoy doing in the marketplace. Whatever you do should come naturally to you. Nothing should be forced, or a burden. That’s when you’ll excel.

Before this, you’ve lost small. That’s tuition fees. The best place to study finance is in the marketplace. Embrace your tuition fees. Keep it low. Make a mistake – repeat it if you please, as long as levels are small. Don’t ever repeat any mistake as levels start to get big. Levels start to get big as basic salary pay-checks start rising with age. Mistakes then mean larger losses. 

You are not tense because of your market activity. It won’t snatch your child’s education away. It won’t take food off your family’s table. You are comfortable. That’s when you play the markets best. 

Slowly, your actions will start adding to your income. 

That’s the sweet-spot. That’s where you want to be. At this spot, your comfort-level, along with your confidence, will keep going higher. 

Soon, big wins will come. All because you’ve understood the meaning of comfort.

Go for it. 

 

… … please don’t … … reinvent the wheel … …

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… it’s just a request.

You’ll be doing the world a favour.

You’ll utilize your time to do something new, something unique.

You’ll be doing yourself a favour too, therefore.

Stand on the shoulders of giants who’ve come before you. It’s absolutely ok.

Many giants have come and gone, intellectual ones, spiritual ones, geniuses, you name it. They’ve come, fulfilled their purpose, created something new, helped mankind further, and gone.

It’s your turn.

You have a choice.

You can either choose to do the same old same old, perhaps with a twist, maybe a little better, and can perhaps make an extra buck in the bargain.

Or, if you can afford the struggle, mentally, emotionally, physically and financially, well, then, you can choose to drive the wheels invented by former giants to a new destination.

Please choose the latter path if you can.

Please end your journey as a giant.

Why do I insist?

We are at a crossroads. It’s a make or break situation for Earth. New and innovative contributions will see us through and onto a safer trajectory. Our current trajectory is not looking great, to put it mildly.

If it’s possible for you, please end your journey as a giant.