February 8, 2019 - Page 4 of 19 - Financial Occultist

In his latest “What Next in The Global Economy” note, Morgan Stanley economist Joachim Fels passes along the following little story about Mario Draghi:

Who said central bankers have no sense of humour? During a recent dinner at Frankfurt’s Senckenberg Museum (the home of Germany’s most extensive collection of dinosaurs) Mario Draghi told the crowd his favourite joke:

A man needs a heart transplant. Says the doctor: “I can give you the heart of a five-year old boy.” “Too young.” “How about that of a forty-year old investment banker?” “They don’t have a heart.” “A seventy-five year old central banker?” “I’ll take it.” “But why?” “It’s never been used!”

I like the joke, and not only because I consider myself an economist working for an investment bank rather than an investment banker. Mario Draghi’s joke conveys a simple but important message: central banking is about making rational, cool-headed and unemotional decisions in often difficult circumstances. In the 15 years of its existence as the keeper of the euro, the ECB led by Mario Draghi and his predecessors Jean-Claude Trichet and Wim Duisenberg has had to make a lot of difficult decisions in difficult circumstances. A few of these decisions were questionable (though typically only with the benefit of hindsight), such as the rate cut in April 1999 or the rate hikes in July 2008 and in April and July 2011. Most of the other ECB decisions were just right or even hugely successful – just think of Mario Draghi’s announcement in July 2012 to “do whatever it takes” to safeguard the euro. (more…)

The Law of Attraction Explained- VIDEO

08-Feb-19 05:46 pm

Education

Anirudh Sethi

CNBC Lowers Bar Again

08-Feb-19 05:28 pm

Anirudh Sethi

BARTIROMO It’s become something of a custom for CNBC personalities to be silly and/or ignorant, but it’s generally on matters related directly to monetary policy or the markets (except for the Fast Money crew, those guys are cool). It’s rare that any of the CNBC peeps get to flaunt their half-witted chops outside the confines of the network’s rather limited subject matter, but when they do, it’s gold. Such as today, when everyone’s favorite Money Honey displayed a kind of shocking lack of comprehension of what Medicare even is. Pardon the bias, HuffPo never claimed to be objective.

At one point, Bartiromo was critical of the government-managed health care system in the United Kingdom. “How do I know the quality [of health care in the United States] is not going to suffer” with a public option? she asked. (more…)

Floored

08-Feb-19 05:10 pm

Anirudh Sethi

Step into the pit of the Chicago mercantile exchange with the full length movie Floored.

THE SUCCESSFUL TRADER

08-Feb-19 04:45 pm

Education

Anirudh Sethi

douglasquote

There is a reason why so few traders succeed. It is not for lack of study or effort or passion. It is not for lack of education or a Bloomberg platform subscription. It is not because only a select few have access to technical “secrets” (a.k.a. indicators). No. So few succeed at trading for the same reason that so few succeed at living an abundant life.

The unsuccessful refuse to think differently when faced with difficulties believing that luck has passed them by. They do not succeed because the want of instant gratification and its fleeting rewards has replaced the need for sustainable, hard fought, earned rewards indicative of a mindset prepared to tackle failure as nothing but a mathematical equation: here is the problem now let’s find the solution.

The mediocre search for easy answers to difficult problems believing that the right answers to their questions are found somewhere “out there”. The successful make difficult decisions where there are no easy answers, questioning whether their perception of what is out there is a distorted reflection of what is inside of them.

The best traders, according to Mark Douglas, think differently than others because they know that what is most important is “how they think about what they do and how they’re thinking when they do it.”