6 posts tagged “investing”

My method for staying organized depends largely upon the area where organization is needed.

If it is something that I am very passionate about and I know intuitively how things should flow, organization occurs naturally and easily based upon the most critical factors involved.

I strongly believe in the Pareto Principle where 80% of the success is determined by 20% of the inputs.  Other variables typically contribute only 20% of the success.

Too many people major in the minor things and minor in the major areas of any subject or endeavor and wonder why they are getting the results that they are.  At this point, the individual, team, or organization literally has to force themselves to do the "wrong" things or things that they really do not believe will contribute to their success.

I have seen this within investing up close and personal after observing it within the accounts of investors who clearly sounded as if they knew what they were doing but whose balances and trades indicated that they did not.

After applying the same logic to my own trading and other areas, the victories produced were so mind-blowing that it would almost make you want to quit the endeavor itself since the new paradigm proved how wrong you once were:)

By default and as time progresses, these observations are making me become a turnaround specialist although I am not too fond of the idea yet.

But where I have seen the opportunity for a turnaround, I am able to usually see which tools, levers, and traits need to be pulled and which ones need to be let go.

Winners be, see, do, and have things that losers refuse to and losers justify themselves by turning their noses down on the actions, behaviors, and mindset that the winners repeatedly use time and time again by declaring that "It is too hard", "I've got other things to do", and "I tried it and it did not work for me".

You have to keep doing the simple things over and over again without any short-terms signs of success if you want to experience the long-term success and victories that winners produce.

Small seeds bear big fruit versus large seeds bearing small fruit.

Keep planting the small seeds of organization second by second and make the necessary adjustments as courageously as you can with the hopes that your new level of organization will provide the breakthroughs that you are looking for.

I have even found such a seed within the Holy Bible within Romans 12:11 where it states:

Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord (KJV);

Be not slow in your work, but be quick in spirit, as the Lord's servants (Bible in Basic English); and

my new favorite translation on this specific verse from the Weymouth New Testament where it reads:

Do not be indolent when zeal is required. Be thoroughly warm-hearted, the Lord's own servants.

The answer was there all the time!

Peace!

Around January 14th, I could tell that my focus went deep sea diving and I am in the process of getting it back.

I could tell that I was off because I was making investment decisions and my actions were not in sync with the decisions at all.  Then when I would investigate what was going on, the trades would appear as if someone else made them.

I have heard of the impact of weather, temperatures, and even cycles and rotations of planets and the moon upon both people and the financial markets and there is some truth to it.  Astronomy was once a field studied by those who studied Christianity more than for secular aims and purposes.  But it has become a field that has been downgraded more to 900 numbers or get rich quick schemes.

We must remember that the wise men followed a star in the east.

I am pushing to get to February as the beginning of the months are very strong for me.

In the meantime, I have to make sure that I am not allowing fatigue to guide my actions and ensure that my energy levels keep my head in the game versus getting me benched.

Being February is the month noted for love and lovers, getting my groove back might become easier to accomplish.

I can say that I have been deeply inspired on the political front by presidential candidate Barack Obama to a level that I could not imagine!

Peace!

To start 2008 off, I have been going through a couple of learning curves and my sleep patterns have been blended to say the least.

Earlier today I took what I thought would be a nap that disintegrated into a possible hallucination.  I knew that my stomach was virtually empty as well but the sleep deprivation won its battle first.

I believe that the last learning curve has ended and a new one beginning which will allow me to get more rest breaks but at a shorter period of time.  So it may be a little dicey still but more profitable overall.

But I am having the time of my life:)

Peace!

Right now I feel like I have been whupped (not whipped) into shape like a new recruit at boot camp by a crazed-on-the-surface-but-highly-professional drill sargeant.

Everything has been for my good, but the lessons have me a little too sore to celebrate the long-term benefits today.

Yesterday I reaped a significant windfall only to end up with a loss for the day.

Today I recovered yesterday's loss and advanced everything beyond its original balance but I failed to take advantage of two to three key opportunities to fatten everything even more.

I am glad about not losing but I am slapped in the face about having a blind spot in an area that I was fully aware of that would have advanced my cause further.

Our oldest daughter received a Nintendo DS Lite from Santa for Christmas and lo and behold, I can tell that playing the games is improving my investing skills on an ethereal level.

The same motions, traps, and pitfalls that one encounters while playing video games are the same ones that occur while investing.  I need to seek a grant to further prove it although it is now obvious to me:)

I am not talking about one of the latest games either.  Since my wife and I returning to the world of video gaming, we picked out the Namco Museum game which includes Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Xevious?, Mappy, and a few others for a total of 7 games I believe.

Playing these games that were created in the early 80s showed me how it is so easy to know what is going to happen next but fail to move or click in the right direction at the right time.  Remembering the big picture is so critical as a skill in many endeavors.

But now the lessons have been learned and learned well I might add.

I feel like Orlando Bloom's character within the movie "Kingdom of God" when he was brutally slapped in the face and told to "Arise as a knight".

It is going to feel better in the coming days, months, and years, but today I have tears (and not mist) in my eyes and I am not ashamed to say it:)

I am just glad that my head was not detached from my shoulders!

Peace!

Today's financial markets have been so one-sided that a lot of traders are standing on the sidelines and I am one of them.

The danger in a single-sided market is that you have no clue when things will reverse (usually right after you get in--wink wink) and pull the same magnitude within the opposite direction with breakneck speed.

Until that point is changed and it may take 2008 to get somewhat back to normal, today is a day where I am saying "Better let the big dogs eat and stay on the porch".

I had a little fur taken out of my Bearcat mentality and trading philosophy today and I will lick my wounds until further notice:)

Peace!

This week I have been getting up much earlier than my normal wake up times and it has been consistently profitable thus far.

I have been up so early that I have been wearing shades when I first get on the computer:)  I do not even want to turn the lights on in order to turn down the monitor light level.

Since a lot of activity follows the market behavior in London, working for brief periods on their schedule helped me pick off opportunities (during regular market hours on both continents) that I would have missed the first time through on east coast time.

It feels almost like baseball in watching a pitcher throw to the batter ahead of you in the lineup when your swinging styles are almost the same.

By the time it is prime time to make my own moves, I am feeling fully alert, warmed up, and ready to go.

One funny thing is the short periods (less than 45 minutes to 1 hour usually) are typically providing enough time to allow me to go back to bed for a nice, little, twilight morning nap before my regular wake up time.

One of Denzel Washington's career principles is being understood more and more:

"Be willing to do things that others will not do in order to do things that others cannot do".

So climbing out of bed in order to avoid a lengthy Atlanta commute, insecure managers that just don't "get it" (like on the tv show "The Office"), and other workplace drama that I have paid my dues to overcome, reduce, and eliminate from my life is absolutely worth it.

I finally have achieved an immigrant work ethic to go along with my MBA in finance:)  LOL:)

Praise God!!!

Peace!