Christmas Gift Suggestions & A Recipe for a Happy New Year

Christmas gift suggestions:

To your enemy: Forgiveness. 
To an opponent: Tolerance. 
To a friend: Your Heart. 
To a customer: Service. 
To all: Charity. 
To every child: A Good example. 

To yourself: Respect.  

- Oren Arnold 

Recipe for a Happy New Year 
Author Unknown

To leave the old with a burst of song
To recall the rights and forgive the wrong;
To forgive the thing that binds you fast
To the vain regrets of the year that's past;

To have the strength to let go your hold
Of the non-worthwhile of the days grown old;
To dare to go forth with a purpose true;
To the unknown task of the year that's new,

To help your brother along the road
To do his work and lift his load;
To add your gift to the world's good cheer,
Is to have and to give a Happy New Year.

Ask Yourself Questions

For true success ask yourself these four questions: 

Why? Why not? Why not me?  Why not now? 

James Allen

It is said that somewhere in that super-computer we call our mind; everything we have heard, seen, felt, thought, touched, and tasted is retained. When we ask ourselves questions, we direct our subconscious mind to search that vast database, attempting to find a solution to a genuine problem, instead of trying to accept self-imposed limitations. Often, the answers are right there, all you have to do is ask! But the way you ask will be telling of the results. You must ask the question as a positive, genuinely and sincerely, while fully expecting to get an answer. 

Be very aware of how you speak to yourself. Learn to change recriminating and reproachful conversations with yourself into questions that direct your focus towards positive change. Beware of questions like "How can I be so stupid? Why is the world so unfair? Why can't I be rich, too? How can anyone treat me so badly?" If you ask questions in this manner your subconscious may well provide answers that have nothing to do with reality, like "Because you are undeserving. Because you were born to lose. Because you are ignorant, worthless, and undeserving." 

If the questions are loaded, they imply acceptance of a negative belief that needs to be

challenged, not reinforced. Questions are so useful in changing the direction of your focus and they are also an essential element of evaluation, and evaluation is the way to get to the root of limiting values and associations that hold you back from achievement. 

If you are aware of how you talk to yourself, what you ask yourself, and what you demand of yourself, you can shift the focus of your mind away from negative associations and toward positive associations simply by consciously changing the tone and focus of the statements and questions you ask yourself. 

Changing Your MindSet

If you don't know where you are going,  you'll probably end up somewhere else.

- David Campbell

To be a successful trader over time, you must obtain the mindset; following the rules of your plan is pleasurable and breaking the rules is painful. When you follow the rules, you will still lose money sometimes, and losing money is always a little bit painful. You must convince yourself and understand that the pain is normal and natural; just like the occasional cut you receive. You must become able to accept, on an emotional level, that the pain is unimportant, that it will pass. Success is a process of change, and pain is part of that process.

The essential element of being successful is mastering the art of managing both our mental and physical states. Given adequate knowledge; the problem of changing, of taking effective action, depends on having the right motivation, to act upon our knowledge. Since we know the lack of

motivation; is the result of limiting associations, values, and beliefs, then it follows that in order to begin the process of change, we should examine the content of our minds and isolate those limits?

The objective is to achieve a mental state in which the pursuit of our goals is pleasurable and not pursuing them is painful. The way to change is to unlock your subconscious and discover your limiting associations and beliefs; then to replace those limiting associations, beliefs, and values with new ones that will put us on the path of our choosing. All of the Technical and Fundamental knowledge of the Stock Market will not make you money; if you have deep down inside you - limiting beliefs and values. Those limiting beliefs and values will eventually come to the surface and force you to deviate from your successful plans.

To achieve the changes you desire, there are three basic tools: the physical body, the conscious mind and the automatic workings of the subconscious mind. These three are already working all the time and they behave interactively, either supporting or destroying one another. This is not any easy task by any means. If you are serious about changing, I suggest you seek out other sources, much has been written and spoken about this subject and is available to you if you have the desire to change.

Want More? Then Give More

The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. 

The more you help others, the more they will want to help you. 

Brian Tracy

Have you ever met anyone who wanted less - Less wealth, poorer health, fewer friends, or a reduced status? Everyone wants more satisfaction, more of the good things in life, more wealth and more enjoyment. We want the feeling of knowing, "I am moving ahead. I have more this year than last year."

There are two basic approaches to getting more: Act selfishly or behave generously. The selfish individual's thought patterns are dominated exclusively by themselves, their welfare, their benefits, their pleasures. "What is in it for me?" controls their every thought and action. They think the less I give, the more I will have for myself.

Meanwhile the generous individual thinks differently. Their concern is directed primarily at helping others benefit, grow, enjoy life, and overcome obstacles. "How can I help and satisfy others?" influences everything they do. Sure they, too, want more. But the generous individual's actions center on the principle that the more they give of themselves to others, the more they will receive in return.

Just one day spent in the real world will convince you that the selfish dominate in numbers and influence. One need only look back over the last 5 years or so at some corporate headlines. Companies dominated by the selfish, with no regard to their employees, their investors, or their shareholders. I do not need to repeat their names. Those selfish individuals, as it will turn out, received surprisingly little; considering what they now face. More of the good things in life gravitate to the generous!

Decide which group you belong to, and then to which group you wish to belong. Are you one who always says to yourself "What's in it for me?" Is that the group to which you really wish to belong?

Suffer from Analysis-Paralysis?

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.
John Wooden

When your hard earned money is on the line, there's a strong urge to be extremely careful. Why? If you should make a mistake, you could end up taking a big loss, or worse yet, you could find yourself in a major draw-down situation.

It's a natural human tendency to be averse to risk, but if you're not careful, you may be afflicted with a severe form of analysis-paralysis. Although it is often the case that an analysis of all possible alternatives and all possible consequences of one's decisions is the hallmark of good decision-making, too much analysis can be and often is a distraction.

The question becomes; why are we consumed with making a mistake? Throughout our lives, we have been taught to make prudent decisions rather than acting on impulse. Great thinkers, such as Benjamin Franklin, advocated evaluating the pros and cons carefully before making a decision. Research studies have shown, for example, that cultivating a deliberative mindset helps people focus on and consider incoming information and decrease the influence of self-serving decision-making biases.

A study by psychologists Dr. David Armor and Dr. Shelly Taylor suggests that in some cases, it may be wise to just quickly choose an alternative and focus all your energy on achieving an objective. In a well-controlled experiment, participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. In the deliberative condition, participants were asked to decide between two equally effective strategies to obtain a reward, before using one of the strategies to reach an objective.

In a second condition, participants were not given a choice, so they would immediately focus all their energy on using a single strategy to achieve the desired goal. There were clear advantages to focusing on a specific strategy, rather than deciding between two options. Participants who did not have to choose, and did not deliberate, showed greater determination, commitment, curiosity, and confidence than those who did. They also viewed the task as less difficult and performed better.

Many investment/trading decisions must be made quickly before market conditions change. Through experience with the markets, you can analyze information quickly and reach a decision. While trading, it does not help to deliberate too much. It just doesn't pay off. You may not always be right, and you may have a few losing trades, but that's the nature of the game. Through a carefully devised trading plan and risk management, however, you can minimize the impact of a single losing trade, and make enough winning trades to come out ahead. So when you start to see yourself over-analyzing and becoming paralyzed, stop! Just put on the trade already. You'll trade more profitably in the long run.

Enjoy Your Weekend!

Conquer Guilt

Take a chance! All life is a chance. The man who goes the furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The 'sure thing' boat never gets far from shore. - Dale Carnegie

As traders/investors you surely understand profits are hardly a sure thing. Even the "Market Wizards" make mistakes and pay the price. When you experience what you consider to be severe draw-downs, don't feel bad about it. You're not the first person to have this experience nor will you be the last. Understand that psychologically it is almost impossible to avoid feeling uneasy. Facing losses is one of the most difficult issues to deal with emotionally. If you are an active professional, your identity and livelihood are on the line. If you are part-time, it's frustrating to feed your account from your day job, wondering if you'll ever make back the money you've lost. Depending on your personality and experience with the market, you may have trouble handling feelings of loss, guilt, and fear. Unless you get your emotions under control, you'll never be able to get back on track.

As normal human beings we feel guilty when we break a personal moral rule. Losing money can make almost anyone feel guilty. We want to live by the rules our parents and teachers taught us, and many of them taught us to work hard and save our money. A requirement of trading/investing is that we risk our money in hopes of monetary gains, and risking money may seem to go against how you were brought up. Well, if you want to make huge profits in the end, you're going to have to risk money, and in all likelihood, you're going to lose at least some of it before you develop the skills you need to trade/invest profitably across a variety of market conditions.

Are you going to lose money? Yes. Is it morally wrong? No. You must identify the beliefs underlying your guilt and change them. Ask yourself first; is your guilt warranted? Feelings of guilt are there to protect us; it isn't a good idea however, to rack up so many losses that you can't pay it back easily. If you trade money that you can't afford to lose, or that you will have difficulty paying back; guilt is a natural reaction. You must make sure that your losses are reasonable and are actually a short term setback. It will be hard to control guilt if it realistically reflects losses that will permanently harm your financial security.

If you determine that you can actually afford trading losses, and still feel guilty look at possible assumptions that may underlie your guilt. One possible reason; you may have been taught that money is sacred and that it is morally wrong to risk it and lose it for any reason. If you want to trade actively, you have to change the way you look at money. To a serious trader, money is merely a vehicle to make more money. It is just part of the tools you need to trade successfully. They think of "money" as "points" used to keep score of how well they are doing. A second possible reason you feel guilty; is the need to be perfect. You believe that you must not make trading errors. You may believe that if you do, you are inadequate. Losses are not personal; losses are a natural part of trading. It's possible that you are merely experiencing a temporary change in market conditions. You may need to change your approach, but it doesn't mean that you are inadequate. It just means that you need to explore more options. When you feel guilty, then you mull over about how bad things are. There's no time to mull while actively trading, however. It gets you nowhere. If you want to stay ahead of the crowd, you must actively problem solve. You must find new trading solutions, and guilt distracts you from freely searching for creative, fresh solutions.

The Mindset of the Trader

I think anything is possible if you have the mindset
and the will and desire to do it and put the time in.
Roger Clemens

Way back in the 1960's and 1970's one decision stocks became a popular way to invest. A one decision stock is one you buy and hold on to forever. Along with this philosophy a select group of stocks became known as "The Nifty Fifty". Fifty stocks that were the ultimate one decision stocks; like IBM and GM. If you talk with some people who invested back then you'll sometimes hear them say: "I learned my lesson a long time ago. I put my money in the markets and lost it; Never again!"

They searched for "undervalued" stocks, purchased shares, held them, and waited for them to increase in value. Sometimes it worked, often it didn't. The buy-and-hold strategy often misleads investors. The markets don't go in one direction forever, whether the trend is bullish or bearish. Only by anticipating the twists and turns of the market can you make "significant" profits. If you are striving to become a profitable trader, you must cast aside the buy-and-hold mindset of the long-term investor, and learn to think like a trader.

The buy-and-hold strategy is still viewed as a viable trading strategy even in many business schools. Even in the wild 1990's fortunes were lost when the dot-com bubble burst, by people subscribing to that buy-and-hold strategy. Please note I am not addressing time frame. Had you purchased some of the dot-com stocks in 1995 let's say and sold them in 1998 or 1999 or even 2000, you still traded them. Your time frame just encompasses a much longer time frame than the very short-term trader.

Whether you trade based on technical analysis or prefer fundamental analysis you must try to assess the potential for that company. Are they still growing profits? Does the company have new and exciting ideas they are or will be bringing to market?

We never know for sure what the future holds. Who could have known five years ago the energy crisis was coming relatively soon and what that crisis would do to our domestic auto companies? It's difficult at best to make these forecasts.

Stock prices do reflect the companies' fundamentals most often; however they also reflect market participants perceived notion of what the future holds. Did your holding just report horrible earnings and a not so great outlook? Did their stock price decline? No! Market participants are probably now looking to changing conditions in the not to distant future, hence buying appears in the face of seemingly bad news. Don't be confused by it, listen to the market.

It may be hard to accept at first, but trading requires you to accept risk and uncertainty. It may take time and experience to accept, and you may get hurt along the way, but after a little while, you'll be able to accept uncertainty, and thrive on it.

Reprint from 2007 Newsletter

Striving for Perfection

Strive for continuous improvement, 

instead of perfection. 

Kim Collins

Lexus advertises the "The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection" and it seems an amiable goal; perfection. Unfortunately we are human and humans are not perfect. Perfection is a pursuit, but we can never really attain perfection. What we really do is strive to be better and better at who we are and what we do. Perfection however is out of the question, especially in our line of work. As traders the pursuit of perfection can be very costly if carried too far.

Some traders are so obsessed with looking for the ultimate opportunities that they spend most of their time looking, rather than actually trading. They don't want to miss that once-in-a-lifetime trade. There's nothing wrong with searching for a good setup, but constantly looking for the ultimate setup is time consuming. Why do some traders spend too much time searching for the ultimate trade? It may be a fear of leaving money behind. They don't want to miss out on a rare opportunity.

We want to believe that if we analyze the markets hard enough and long enough, we'll find the perfect setups and take home huge profits. This however can do us more harm than good. Spending so much time looking for the perfect setups, that really don't exist, will have us fail to trade the "available high probability setups". If you constantly search for the "perfect setup" it will restrict your actions and most often will cause unwanted and unneeded stress. Instead of moving forward; you stagnate.

Many people work under the assumption that they must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and

achieving in everything that they do. Psychologist, Dr. Albert Ellis, claims that holding such a belief produces fear and anxiety, which for traders often produces hesitation and self-doubt. As we grow up, we often face adverse consequences for not being proficient. We begin to believe that we must be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving in everything that we do. It is normal therefore that we come to believe; if we could just be perfect as a trader, we will make the most profits. Ironically, what happens is just the opposite

A more adaptive approach is to realize that it's impossible as a trader to be thoroughly competent, adequate, and achieving all the time. Certainly, you should develop an extremely detailed trading plan and try to account for all adverse events that may go against your plan, but there are limits to what you can do. You don't need to be perfect. You don't need to trade the ultimate setups. You just need to make profits, even if it is just from trading mediocre setups. Searching for perfection can lead to stagnation if you aren't careful.

When The Coach Goes Home..

.So Does The Motivation

Affirmation without discipline
is the beginning of delusion.
Jim Rohn

All external motivation is temporary. External motivation is the kind that may wake you up, but it will not keep you awake for long. External motivation is motivation that comes to you from the outside. It may, and it often does, influence you to make a change, it cannot however make the change for you. And it cannot keep you from drifting off course, when the motivator is gone. 

Many of you in your school years played sports. If you played and were fortunate enough to have an exceptional coach, you knew that he expected a lot from you but he also gave you lots of encouragement. He picked you up when you were down, he made you believe that you could win, and he let you know when you did a good job. He was a great motivator and he took your team all the way to the top. He was your friend, your ally, and your strongest supporter. You relied on him for your motivation and you got it.

The school year is over and you graduate moving on to college or the work force and the coach goes home. What does he take home with him? Your motivation, that's what! He was your motivation. Now you must receive your motivation from somewhere else, because the motivation was external and now it is gone. All external motivation works the same way. Keep giving us motivation and we will do better, take it away and we will gradually move back to where we were before the motivation began.

That is why so many of the hopeful at so many motivational talks get so excited, full of energy, and then slow down or stop dead in their tracks within a few days or a few weeks. The inspiration is no longer there, because the speaker has left town. It takes more than a great speech to erase and replace those internal programs, which tell us we should know better than to believe that we are powerful champions of success.

An hour or two of someone else telling us the "we can do it!" simply does not have a chance. The intentions were great, the talk inspiring the ideas incredible. But when the coach goes home - so does the motivation.

I am not saying, or even implying that one should not to attend those seminars, or buy the books, or listen to cassettes. They all help, they all generate ideas, and this one may begin to move you in the right direction. Just do not overestimate the outcome unless you have truly unclogged your mind of most all of your previous negative thinking.

Reprint; 2007 Prudent Trader Newsletter

Taking on Greater Levels of Risk

Risk comes from not 
knowing what you're 
doing.
Warren Buffett

Education never stops. No matter how long you've been an investor you know and understand that your education is a never ending process. You purchase and read books, newspapers and magazines, to continue your learning and to continue to prosper. While continuing our education you come across books and articles about some of the elite and brilliant traders who have a rare talent for making huge profits in a field where few can excel. "Market Wizards" is how we refer to them and being human we can't help but dream of being just like them.

Unfortunately, the facts tell us very few traders reach the top. The best most can do is evaluate and accept their abilities, and do their best. Pushing yourself too far and too fast doesn't work. It leads to frustration, and possibly failure. You must work at your own pace. This is especially true when one is attempting to take on greater levels of risk. Depending on your risk tolerance, taking on greater levels of risk can make you feel uneasy. If you want to make huge profits as a trader, you eventually need to learn to effortlessly take on greater levels or risk.

Extending ones comfort zone is never easy. For most people, it is a gradual process. For example, first one must learn to put their hard-earned money on the line, and accept what it feels like to lose it. Taking a loss is disconcerting and a little frightening. Losing a few dollars is one thing, but as the amount increases substantially, so does the pressure. It takes a little practice to learn to risk ever-increasing amounts of money and take it in stride. Some people are natural born risk takers. Most traders however have come to their present state; by learning to manage money wisely. The idea of taking larger and larger risks to move beyond your comfort zone can be difficult. You may have a natural inclination to protect what you've worked so hard to accumulate. It's tough to not be a little wary.

How do you learn to take on more risk? Again, it depends on your personality and the amount of trading capital in your account. You may need to train yourself to take on greater levels of risk. Move up gradually; don't make the mistake of moving too fast.

Taking on greater and greater amounts of risk is fear-provoking. If you do it all at once, you move from relatively little fear and anxiety to terrifying amounts of fear and anxiety. To shocking for many. It's better to work up to it. You wouldn't try to run a 10-mile marathon tomorrow if you could barely run a mile today. You would build up your stamina and gradually work up to your objective. It's the same thing with trading. Increase the amount you risk gradually. The rate at which you increase it depends on your personality. Use your own judgment; if you can increase your risk a little each trade, good then try to keep up that pace. If you find that after a month, you've surpassed your comfort zone, well then reduce your risk. The key is to gradually increase your comfort zone, don't force yourself to go beyond your limits. Work at your own pace. If you try to do too much, too soon, you'll just feel overwhelmed and you may never reach your objective. If however you move up gradually, you will increase the likelihood that you will be able to increase the amount of risk you can handle.

Trading is emotional. Taking on greater and greater amounts of risk is stressful. Instead of becoming overwhelmed, and possibly under mining your long-term financial goals, take it easy, and work at your own pace. You'll eventually be able to take on greater levels of risk, and trade more calmly, logically, and profitably.

Beat Stress Before It Beats You

Adopting the right attitude 
can convert a negative
stress into a positive one. 
Hans Selye

Did news items ruin your plans this week? Adverse events, such as foul weather (think Oil, Agriculture, Shopping patterns), is just one of the many sources of stress an active trader must contend with. If you're not careful, you can become easily overwhelmed. When you are "stressed out", you may not be able to think clearly, you won't read the markets objectively. You must do whatever you can to stay calm while trading.

Scientists have shown that stressful emotions can build up, and if not released, a person can become overloaded by stress. Laboratory animals placed in

stressful situations, for example, die if the stressful events are continuous and

enduring. You can't completely remove stress from your environment, but you can prevent the stressful aspects of trading from making you feel anxious and fearful. Here is a short plan to help you develop an effective stress reduction plan:

• Avoid caffeine.
  Many people believe caffeine keeps them alert. The downside of caffeine however, is that caffeine will elevate your nervous system to the point that you feel on edge and ready to panic? Trading and life is stressful enough; you don't need to pre-elevate your nervous system.
• Exercise regularly.
Many successful traders view exercise as a key component to creating a calm and relaxed mindset. You don’t need to go to a gym, take a brisk walk around the block; it will clear your mind and give you new and fresh perspectives. We must all regularly release tension that builds up each day.
• Minimize background stress.
Daily hassles, such as minor arguments with your spouse or others, or traffic congestion can, when added together, be as stressful as a major life event (such as the death of a loved one). Don’t ignore these events; don’t pretend they aren’t important enough to deal with now. Deal with the hassles and then minimize them as well as you can. Seemingly minor hassles can accrue and cause you great strain in the long run.
• Don’t attempt to exceed your trading skills.
Do not put extra pressure on yourself by trying to achieve trading goals that are beyond your current skill level. As an example, keep your position sizes relatively small, consider scaling into a position as opposed to an all or nothing approach and have clearly defined risk limits. If you push yourself beyond your skill set in an attempt to achieve an unrealistic goal, you will feel an extreme sense of anxiety and fear. Take your time, you will get there!

So You Want to be a Trader?

Unless commitment is made, there are only
 promises and hopes... but no plans.
 Peter Drucker

You have made a decision: you're going to become a trader, master the markets and take home huge profits. Each year thousands upon thousands of people make the same decision. Most often the reason is to relieve them of a boring, mundane job. If this is you, the bad news is that the vast majority of these would be traders fail. Why? They have made an apparent decision to trade but they have not made the more important decision to make the proper commitment. You have to incorporate trading into your life and do whatever it takes to hone your trading skills to the point where you can master the markets.

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back" - Goethe.

In his book, "The Mentally Tough Online Trader," Robert Koppel observes, "Top performing traders are committed to overcome any hardship or roadblock to achieve their goals." Besides capital you also must invest time and energy. It's impossible to digest all there is to know overnight. You just can't do it in an hour a week.

Learning about the markets and developing an intuitive feel requires time and practice. In some cases, it can take many years before you can trade the markets profitably. But to the trader who is fully committed, these are minor setbacks. Once you make the commitment to

master the markets, you'll do whatever it takes to attain success.

Trading is serious business. You cannot treat it like a hobby. If you do not have the proper commitment, you will approach trading lightly. You will begin to feel that you might as well have fun, trade on impulse, and seek out excitement. Why not visit a casino once in awhile to satisfy that need. A casual, uncommitted attitude will prevent you from excelling. In fact a casual, uncommitted attitude will eventually wipe out your account balance. I have personally witnessed the effect of non-commitment, far too many times in my career. Don't make this mistake! Trading the markets requires you to passionately commit to becoming the best trader you can be.

If you want to make huge profits, it's not enough to decide to become a winning trader. You must also make a strong commitment to do whatever it takes to achieve enduring financial success.

If you forget you have to struggle for improvement you go backward. - Geoffrey Hickson

Trading With Discipline

Planning is bringing the future into the

present so that you can do something

about it now.

Alan Lakein

In my decade and a half or so as a stock and commodities broker, I was exposed to many different trading styles as well as trader types. Some were very successful, some only slightly, most however, failed over time. Those that were very successful shared two common traits. First they had a trading plan, that was perhaps revised from time to time, but nevertheless followed religiously; and second they had untiring discipline.

Expert trader John Hayden author of "The 21 Irrefutable Truths of Trading" states: "Without discipline, you will be unable to master your ego, create empowering beliefs, have faith, and develop confidence in your abilities. The lack of discipline will prevent your skill as a trader from progressing."

Making an occasional winning trade, that ignores your trading plan, may provide short-term pleasure, but entering trades unsystematically can adversely influence your ability to maintain discipline over the long term. Why? When you stop following your plan, you are being rewarded for a lack of discipline. You may start believing that abandoning your plan is therefore not a big deal. Then, whether consciously or unconsciously, you'll begin to think: "I was rewarded once; maybe I will be rewarded again. I'll take a chance." Positive outcomes from undisciplined trading are most often short-lived, and the lack of discipline will ultimately produce trading losses.

Who cares if the win is from my plan or not? It's still a win, right! A win that results from following a trading plan reinforces discipline. A win that occurs by chance (deviating from your plan) will increase your bottom line temporarily, but may cause harm to your psyche and be responsible for future unexplained losses. It reinforces undisciplined trading.

Cultivating discipline is essential for consistent and profitable trading. Trading is a matter of getting the law of averages to work in your favor. You implement proven trading strategies, over and over, so that across a series of trades, the strategies work enough to produce an overall profit. You should trade consistently, following a specific trading plan on each and every trade. This will allow the law of averages to work in your favor. If you follow the plan sometimes and abandon it at other times, you throw off the probabilities, and you are likely to end up losing overall.

---