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Sun Tzu – The Art of War Explained In 5 Minutes

The Art of War is the most influential treatise on war ever written, consisting of 13 chapters each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has shaped the way in which conflicts have been fought for thousands of years from the Japanese samurai to the Napoleonic war. Not only has the book influenced military commanders and generals all over the world, it has had resounding effects on politics, sports and business to this day.
In this video we give key examples of Sun Tzu’s most influential philosophies and strategies. These range from the Vietnam war to the coasts of Normandy in 1944.

Beijing To New York In 2 Hours: Chinese Researchers Reveal Hypersonic Plane

The era of hypersonic tech has arrived. Unbeknownst too many, a race for hypersonic aircraft and weapons has flourished among global superpowers (China, Russia, and the United States), who realize that the first to possess these technologies will revolutionize their civilian and military programs.
In Beijing’s bid for the first place, Chinese researchers have revealed a novel design for an ultra-fast plane they say will be able to take dozens of people and tonnes of cargo – “anything from flowers to bombs, and likewise, passengers could be tourists or military special forces” – from Beijing to New York in about two hours.
The plane would travel around 6,000km/h (3,700mph) or about five times faster than the speed of sound, according to the team, which is also “involved in China’s top-secret hypersonic weapons programme,” according to the South China Morning Post. Today’s current journey from Beijing to New York depending on the jet stream is roughly 13 to 14 hours. An 80% reduction in travel time is a game changer for civilian aviation, but also a red flag if the aircraft is converted into a hypersonic heavy bomber.
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The Psychology Of Speculation – The Disconcerting Effect Of Sudden Losses And Gains

Time for another classic trading book excerpt.   It is about limiting losses and ultimately becoming a better trader if you are willing to embark on that never ending journey to better understand yourself. James L. Fraser from Fraser Publishing clearly understood that. The introduction he wrote clearly shows his deep understanding of human psychology, trading and speculation. Human behavior never changes. That’s why I am a huge fan of old classics. Buy those books. Read them. Apply the wisdom imparted.

Henry Howard Harper: ‘The Psychology of Speculation – The Human Element in Stock Market Transactions’

Introduction
First privately printed by the author in 1926 and only found in secondhand stores at rare intervals this classic deserves a more wide spread audience. Harper’s human behavior material gives us insights into the handicapping prejudices that ruin our stock market theories and sound resolutions. Especially in our computer oriented age does the average investor seem incapable of calm reasoning , with the result that he often does precisely the opposite of what he had intended doing.

Moreover, Harper’s easy writing style clearly shows you how the correct ideas of theory are turned into the wrong formulas of practice, and how tickeritis, though mentally intoxicating, leads on to poverty. In a contrary way, we seldom see the favorite caprice of the stock market which is to violate precedent, and do the thing least expected of it. You had better believe it for there are no certainties in this investment world, and where you have no certainties, you should begin by understanding yourself.

James L. Fraser
Wells,Vermont

The Disconcerting Effect of Sudden Losses and Gains, page 17 – 19

There are but few things more unbalancing to the mind than the act of suddenly winning or losing large sums of money. A few years ago at Monte Carlo I was in company with a friend, a well known man of affairs who while there played at roulette nearly every day, merely as pastime. He was of mature age, naturally methodical, conservative, temperate and cool-headed. He made it an unalterable rule to limit his losses to $200 at any one sitting, and on losing his amount he always stopped playing. His bets were usually limited to two dollars on the numbers, and never doubled except for one turn of the wheel when his number won. He generally played three numbers at a time; never more than four. For ten consecutive sittings luck was against him and each time he had lost his stake of $200. I saw him get up and leave the room, apparently in a state of disgust. An hour or so later I discovered him at a roulette table in another room stacking his chips in piles on a dozen or more numbers. Now and again when he exceeded the limit the watchful croupier reduced his bets and pushed a few disks back to him. In addition to betting on the numbers he was staking a thousand franc note on one of the three columns, another thousand on the colors, and a like amount on the center dozen. In one run he lost seventeen consecutive bets on red, of a thousand franc each. His eyes were bloodshot, his fingers twitched, and plainly he was under the strain of great agitation. He continued to play for three hours or so, when all of a sudden he got up, stood for a moment looking dazedly about, then left the table. He afterwards told me that he lost twenty thousand dollars; and that he hadn’t the slightest recollection of anything that happened during the play, nor did he realize the amount he was betting. In this connection, it is a fact not generally known, that many rich men sing printed cards of instructions to the proprietor of a certain well known gambling club in the South, directing him to stop their play and refuse them further credit beyond a certain specified sum on any one day or evening of play, and refusing to become responsible beyond that amount. If men who trade in the stock market were to impose like restrictions upon their transactions the losses would in many cases be greatly minimized.

Right Trading Mindset

  1. Back test, study charts, and only trade proven strategies: No trading should begin until you know that your system is a historically profitable one through multiple trading environments. There are many ways to do this and the depth of study into your specific trading system is up to you. But if you do not know how what you are currently doing performed historically then you need to stop until you do understand.

  2. Small losses: Keeping your losses small so you can keep your will and desire to trade strong. Nothing breaks a new traders mindset faster than big, painful losses of capital that are very hard to come back from.
  3. Build confidence through having winning trades: A lot of the great traders we get to see on social media have  built up themselves through many years of learning from failure and then hitting their stride with winning months and winning years. Even if your wins are small, wins will help you build the mindset that you can do this and be successful as a trader. Build yourself up through consistent disciplined trading and winning streaks.
  4. Trade with the right principles: Trading with the right core trading principles like going with the trend in your time frame, never losing more than 1% of your trading capital on any one trade, and follow your trading plan 100% can go a long way to solidifying your peace of mind as trader knowing you will not do anything that will really hurt yourself in the markets.
  5. Match your beliefs to your trading methodology: We can only effect trade a system that matched our strong beliefs about the markets. If you believe in the nature of trends you have to find the markets that trend and trade them. If you are convinced that market always revert to the mean then a robust mean reversion is what you can comfortably trade. Swing trading for traders that love trading ranges, and day trading for those that want action and no overnight risk. The question is who are you as a trader and what trading style matches your personality and risk tolerance.

10 Rules for Traders


  1. Always wait for the setup: no setup – no trade.
     Agree. If your strategy doesn’t provide you a good risk/reward trade to make, then your job is to be patient until it does. Ironically, this often requires you to sit out some very good moves in the market and be inactive at the very same times you want to be aggressive.

  2. The best trades work almost right away. Agree, but with one important caveat – this rule greatly depends upon your strategy. Some strategies will require greater patience than others. If trading short-term, this rule is almost always correct, but if your time frames are longer, then you also have time on your side which requires more patience but that patience can pay off if your analysis is correct.
  3. Never take a big loss. If it doesn’t ‘feel’ right. Remove it!Disagree. Sometimes you have to take a big loss to prevent the risk of an even greater loss. Refusing to take a big loss when a mistake has been made can be very costly. I also disagree with the view that “If it doesn’t feel right, remove it.” Actually, some of the best trades you will ever make in your career are those trades that feel wrong and about as far from “right” as you can make it. Don’t believe me? Think over the last month or so about the trades you missed because they didn’t feel right but your strategy told you to hold or buy them anyway! It is also interesting to me that this rule says to trade by feel and at the same time advises in another rule not to trade by emotion. You can’t do one without the other!
  4. Always perfect your craft and sharpen your skills – good traders are constantly learning. Agree. No matter how skilled, intelligent, and successful you have been, there is always room for improvement. Moreover, because of the ever-growing changing nature of the market, what you do now to trade successfully won’t always work in every situation and the next market environment. Only experience and constant dedication to your job will provide you with the weapons for enduring market success. (more…)