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Wealth Principles

  • Your income can grow only to the extent you do
  • If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots.  If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.
  • Money is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result, illness is a result, your weight is a result.  We live in a world of cause and effect.
  • Thoughts –> Feelings–>Actions–>Results TFAR
  • When the subconscious mind must choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will almost always win
  • If your motivation for acquiring money or success comes from a non-supportive root such as fear, anger, or the need to “prove” yourself, your money will never bring you happiness
  • The only way to permanently change the temperature in the room is to reset the thermostat.  In the same way, the only way to change our level of financial success “permanently” is to reset your financial thermostat.
  • Consciousness is observing your thoughts and actions so that you can live from true choice in the present moment rather than being run by programming from the past.
  • You can choose to think in ways that will support you in your happiness and success instead of ways that don’t.
  • Money is extremely important in the areas in which it works, and extremely unimportant in the areas in which it doesn’t.
  • When you are complaining, you become a living breathing “crap magnet”
  • There is no such thing as a really rich victim!
  • If your goal is to be comfortable, chances are you’ll never get rich.  But if your goal is to be rich, chances are you’ll end up mighty comfortable.
  • The number one reason most people don’t get what they want is that they don’t know what they want.
  • If you are not fully, totally, and truly committed to creating wealth, chances are you won’t.
  • The Law of Income:  You will be paid in direct proportion to the value you deliver according to the marketplace.
  • “Bless that which you want.”  -Huna philosophy
  • The secret to success is not to try to avoid or get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than any problem.
  • Money will only make you more of what you already are.
  • The true measure of wealth is net worth, not working income.
  • The habit of managing your money is more important that the amount
  • Either you control money, or it will control you.
  • The Rich see every dollar as a “seed” that can be planted to earn a hundred more dollars, which can then be replanted to earn a thousand more dollars
  • Action is the “bridge” between the inner world and the outer world
  • It is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed
  • If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard.  But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy
  • The only time you are actually growing is when you are uncomfortable
  • Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success

Happiness and Trader

“Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind’s fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions. Just as I support my life, neither by robbery nor alms, but by my own effort, so I do not seek to derive my happiness from the injury of the favor of others, but earn it by my own achievement. Just as I do not consider the pleasure of others as the goal of my life, so I do not consider my pleasure as the goal of the lives of others. Just as there are no contradictions in my values and no conflicts among my desires—so there are no victims and no conflicts of interest among rational men, men who do not desire the unearned and do not view one another with a cannibal’s lust, men who neither make sacrifices nor accept them. The symbol of all relationships among such men, the moral symbol of respect for human beings, is the trader. We, who live by values, not by loot are traders, both in manner and spirit. A trader is a man who earns what he gets and does not give or take the undeserved. A trader does not ask to be paid for his failures, nor does he ask to be loved for his flaws. A trader does not squander his body as fodder, or his soul as alms. Just as he does not give his work except in trade for material values, so he does not give the values of his spirit—his love, his friendship, his esteem—except in payment and in trade for human virtue, in payment for his own selfish pleasure, which he receives from men he can respect. The mystic parasites who have, throughout the ages, reviled the trader and held him in contempt, while honoring the beggars and the looters, have known the secret motive of the sneers: a trader is the entity they dread—a man of justice.”

Dealing With Losses

A few quick caveats:

  1. There is no place for denial in successful investing.
  2. Don’t blame your losses on bad luck or outside manipulators.  Accept the responsibility yourself.
  3. Don’t be dependent upon trading for all your fulfillment and happiness.
  4. Focus on opportunities, not on regrets.
  5. Proper risk control and discipline is non-negotiable for every trade everyday.
  6. Revenge trading – trying to make back a loss – carries with it far too much emotion and is always costly.
  7. Poor money management skills are the number one reason that novice traders wash out.
  8. Learn to recognize your impulsive state of mind and take action to stop it.

Even the best traders in the world book small losses on a regular basis.  If you manage your emotions with consistency and if you strive for a disciplined trading mindset, then you should have no problem surviving a string of bad trades and showing profits at the end of the year.

Trading Wisdom – Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones
Turned $1.5 million into $300 million in five years
“That cotton trade was almost the deal breaker for me. It was at that point that I said, “Mr. Stupid, why risk everything on one trade? Why not make your life a pursuit of happiness rather than pain?”
I had to learn discipline and money management. I decided that I was going to become very disciplined and businesslike about my trading. I spend my day trying to make myself as happy and relaxed as I can be.
If I have positions going against me, I get right out; if they are going for me, I keep them. I am always thinking about losing money as opposed to making money. Risk control is the most important thing in trading. I keep cutting my position size down as I have losing trades.

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6 Random Thoughts

1) Everyone needs a “mental break” from trading once in a while. The best time to take one is during corrective markets. It helps you protect capital and confidence.

2) If you have a -50% loss, it takes a +100% gain to get it back. In other words, CUT YOUR LOSSES!

3)  If you have trouble with discipline and staying away from the market, turn off your computer and get out of your chair. If you sit in the barbershop long enough, you’ll eventually get a haircut.

4) The “fear of missing out” is the downfall of most traders.

5) Whoever said that money doesn’t buy happiness clearly didn’t know where to shop.

6) “There is nothing new on Wall Street. What has happened in the past will happen again and again and again. This is because human nature does not change, and it is human emotion that always gets in the way of human intelligence. Of this I am sure.” — Jesse Livermore

Words to live by

1. Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
3. Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
8. Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good Evening,’ and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
9. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
10. A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
11. I thought I wanted a career. Turns out I just wanted paychecks.
12. Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, ‘In case of emergency, notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR.’
 
13. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
14. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
15. Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
16. A clear conscience is the sign of a fuzzy memory.
17. I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.
18. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
19. Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
20. There’s a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can’t get away.
21. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure.
22. You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
23. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
24. Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
25. Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.
26. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
27. A diplomat is someone who tells you to go to hell in such a way that you look forward to the trip.
 
28. Hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wish they were.
 
29. I always take life with a grain of salt. Plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
30. When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water. 

The Emperor’s Three Questions & Answers for Traders

Tolstoy’s story “The Emperor’s Three Questions” poses three questions:

1. What is the best time to do each thing?

2. Who are the most important people to be with?

3. What is the most significant thing to do at all times?

In the story, the Emperor traveled far and wide in his Kingdom to find the answers.  One day, he came upon a hermit who lived in a small hut atop a high hill. When asked these questions, the humble hermit replied:

1. The most important time is now, because that is the only time over which you have  power and control.

2. The most important person is the one you are with right now because you never know if you will be with that person again.

3. The most significant thing to do at all times is be happy and share that happiness with the person you are with.

The trading lessons are simple—but not so easy:

1. Be with the trade you are in at the moment.  Stop trying to control anything but your own trade.  The markets are going to do exactly what they want to and when they want to. YOU have the power to control what YOU feel, think, believe and do.

2.  All that matters for you is the trade you are in.  You may never see that trade again.  Savor it, cherish it and be with it for as long as it lasts.

3. Celebrate your victories with yourself.  Celebrate the trade and with the trade.  The instruction is to refrain from boasting or grandiose behavior when you make a winning trade.  The markets will humble you, and pride always comes before a fall. Napoleon said that the most dangerous moments come with victory. Decry and avoid hubris.

Also celebrate your defeats with yourself and the trade because they are mistakes.  Mistakes are our greatest teachers because it is through them that we learn. What do we learn?  Not to make them again!

Constantly strive to look inward, to know yourself, to raise yourself to the highest level of authenticity.  Be rigorously honest about who you are.

Taking personal responsibility for your thoughts, feelings and actions is the first step to true inner peace—both in trading and in life.  Never forget the ten most important words you can ever and always ask yourself:

Am I doing the best I can do right now?

The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give…Howard Cosell

26 Quotes for Trading & Life

1. Don’t try making sense out of it. You’re in an insane asylum – things are not going to make sense, people will do things that don’t make sense, that they cannot adequately explain. People don’t know what makes them tick, only that they tick.

2. Happiness, of course…is all in your head. If you don’t know that, if you haven’t come to that realization, you will never be happy.

3. The Bull Market Syndrome. People, when they are met with success, take personal credit for it (bull markets breed geniuses), and when they are met with failure, blame luck.

4. Actually, luck is responsible for both! If you can only die by being struck by lightning, eventually, you will die by being struck by lightning! Conversely, if a man were to live forever, and bought a lottery ticket every week, eventually, he will win the lottery, with a probability that approaches certainty. Just stay the course, keep doing today what you must do today. As Woody Allen says, “Fifty percent of success is just showing up.”

Luck Trumps Brains. To get luck, keep showing up each day with your shoes on.

5. Creativity trumps money every time.

6. Fortunately in life, you don’t have to succeed at everything you do, only a few things. One success often justifies all prior attempts.

7. You can buy great a education – you can not buy brains.

8. The Oswald Principle: Usually, the best course of action in life, is to take no action (and usually, the best thing to say is nothing!). The guys in jail or there not because they didn’t do anything. Usually, you should just sleep in! If nothing really bad happens today, as my friend Oswald said to me in eighth grade, it’s been a good day!

9. You don’t have the problems you think you do. Actually, the only real problems are health and criminal problems. Everything else is just a frivolous, meaningless nuisance.

10. Never say never. Everyone, however righteous they may claim to be, however upstanding they say they are, will, under the right circumstances commit the crime. A cold morning, wet, hungry, tired, angry….they’ll do things they never dreamed they would! (more…)

Lifestyle & Improvement

  • How to add an hour to your day (Harvard Business Review)

  • The Bucket List lie (Jonathan Fields)

  • Why all happiness and success fades away (Peter Shallard)

  • Why what you believe gets you nowhere (Peter Shallard)

  • How to really shake things up (James Altucher)

  • There are real-life advantages to being a strategic deceiver (New York Times)

  • Don’t let email run your life (CNN)

  • Great idea – change your smoke alarm batteries with daylight savings time (Lifehacker)

  • Yet another reason to get off your duff and exercise (BBC)

  • We make risk/reward decisions every day, all day long (Tech Crunch)

  • Tips from Thomas Edison (Open)

  • It’s looks like it is a really good thing I feel happy while trading (Forbes)

  • Natural approaches to combating the winter blues (Dr. John Briffa)

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