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Expectations vs Reality

expecˈtationnoun

1. belief about (or mental picture of) the future
2. anticipating with confidence of fulfillment
3. the feeling that something is about to happen

I think all of us initially come to this subject with expectations (or as stated above, confidence in the fulfillment of our mental pictures of the future). Obviously having goals is one thing, but expectations are another – the problem is the time lines we set and the source of our expectations.

For instance, what if you expect to make money trading in two years, but in actuality (and unknown to you) it will take five? Surely after two years a thought will enter your head such as “this is not working out how I hoped…”

No wonder – your hopes had no connection to reality.

Even more bizarre, considering the above, is that I imagine almost everyone that gets involved in this subject expects to make money immediately. If you expect to make money immediately, but in reality it takes five years to learn to trade with consistency, then of course blown accounts and negative emotions are virtually guaranteed.

Non of us that wash out are smart – we are dumb. If we were smart, we would demo trade (or make use of facilities such as micro accounts) UNTIL we could actually trade profitably, no matter how many years it took.

Are you able to demo trade for five years? I can hear you now – “no freekin’ way!!!”

Why not? Of course, because you have PLANS don’t you? You have OTHER THINGS that you need to press on with that are dependent on your success in trading; in fact these plans of yours are already LATE due to the unexpected delays you hit with this little ‘ole thing called the Stock Market.

What was it? Quit your job, pay off a debt, new car, beach house by the sea, exotic holiday, help your parents in their old age, total financial freedom from the wage slave arena?

These two things combined, unrealistic expectations + unrelated desires are pure poison to any chance of success you have. I can see that now – I have actually looked within and SEEN the cobwebs of unrelated desires and unrealistic expectations that in fact have nothing to do with the reality of trading. Thats the truly amazing thing; these issues are actually NOT CONNECTED to the subject, they are things that are hanging around it in your head like moths around a flame.

So what to do? Somehow, this subject and this practice of trading needs to be mentally separated out into its own space and be unconnected to anything else, otherwise we are dragging all of this dead weight behind us. The term “mental purity” was a phrase coined by the West Coast trading desk by the Enron traders used to describe the state whereby they have nothing unconscious infecting their trading decisions (such as morals and a conscience in their case! See the book Smartest Guys in the Room – a brilliant read).

Its a good term – somehow we need to achieve mental purity (be free from murky motives and unconscious unrealistic expectations).

14 Words That Are Their Own Opposites

Here’s an ambiguous sentence for you: “Because of the agency’s oversight, the corporation’s behavior was sanctioned.” Does that mean, ‘Because the agency oversaw the company’s behavior, they imposed a penalty for some transgression’ or does it mean, ‘Because the agency was inattentive, they overlooked the misbehavior and gave it their approval by default’? We’ve stumbled into the looking-glass world of “contronyms”—words that are their own antonyms.

1. Sanction (via French, from Latin sanctio(n-), from sancire ‘ratify,’) can mean ‘give official permission or approval for (an action)’ or conversely, ‘impose a penalty on.’
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2. Oversight is the noun form of two verbs with contrary meanings, “oversee” and “overlook.” “Oversee,” from Old English ofersēon ‘look at from above,’ means ‘supervise’ (medieval Latin for the same thing: super- ‘over’ + videre ‘to see.’) “Overlook” usually means the opposite: ‘to fail to see or observe; to pass over without noticing; to disregard, ignore.’
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3. Left can mean either remaining or departed. If the gentlemen have withdrawn to the drawing room for after-dinner cigars, who’s left? (The gentlemen have left and the ladies are left.)
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4. Dust, along with the next two words, is a noun turned into a verb meaning either to add or to remove the thing in question. Only the context will tell you which it is. When you dust are you applying dust or removing it? It depends whether you’re dusting the crops or the furniture.
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5. Seed can also go either way. If you seed the lawn you add seeds, but if you seed a tomato you remove them.
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6. Stone is another verb to use with caution. You can stone some peaches, but please don’t stone your neighbor (even if he says he likes to get stoned). (more…)

10 COMMANDMENTS FOR MAKING MONEY

1.  BELIEVE IN THE DIGNITY AND MORALITY OF BUSINESS:  Making money is much harder if, deep down, you suspect it to be a morally reprehensible activity. 

2.  EXTEND THE NETWORK OF YOUR CONNECTEDNESS TO MANY PEOPLE:  Befriend many people who are a rung or two above and below your financial level, then find ways to help them achieve their desires.  You will have discovered the secret of Partnership Power. 

3.  GET TO KNOW YOURSELF:  To change the way others see you, first you have to learn to see yourself as others see you. 

4.  DO NOT PURSUE PERFECTION:  Neither neglect the imperfect nor expend yourself on futile pursuit of perfection, while failing to make the most of less perfect circumstnaces. 

5.  LEAD CONSISTENTLY AND CONSTANTLY:  Learning to lead is important, but it may not be what you think it is.  Leadership is not a noun; it is a verb.  It is not an identity; it is an action.  Don’t try to become a leader, just do it. Just lead.

6.  CONSTANTLY CHANGE THE CHANGEABLE WHILE STEADFASTLY CLINGING TO THE UNCHANGEABLE:  Convert change from enemy to ally by understanding when to enjoy the exhilaration of change and and when to fight it and steadfastly defend the unchangeable. 

7.  LEARN TO FORETELL THE FUTURE:  Who is wise? One who can tell what will be hatched from an egg that has been laid. Not he who can see the future-that is a prophet.  Wisdom is seeing tomorrow’s consequences of today’s events. 

8.  KNOW YOUR MONEY:  Your money is a quantifiable analog for your life force-the aggregate of your time, skills, experience, persistance, and relationships.

9.  ACT RICH: GIVE AWAY 10 PERCENT OF YOUR AFTER TAX INCOME:  Through the mystical alchemy of money, giving charity jump-starts wealth creation. 

10.  NEVER RETIRE:  Integrate your vocation and your identity by thinking of life as a journey rather than a destination. 

If you have not figured it out yet you soon will: learning to trade inside the charts finds its firm foundation outside the charts.  It is all in the way you think and in what you believe about money and wealth creation. 

Great Trading is Great Technology

tech·nol·o·gy [tek-nol-uh-jee] noun
1. the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment, drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.
2. the terminology of an art, science, etc.; technical nomenclature.
3. a technological process, invention, method, or the like.
4. the sum of the ways in which social groups provide themselves with the material objects of their civilization.

Life Insights From Great Inventors


* “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison.

* “The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” – Nikola Tesla

* “Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” – Alexander Graham Bell

* “A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.” – Charles Kettering

* “The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.” – Thomas Edison

* “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

* “A successful person isn’t necessarily better than her less successful peers at solving problems; her pattern-recognition facilities have just learned what problems are worth solving.” – Ray Kurzweil

* “It doesn’t matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.” – Charles Kettering

* “What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are.” – George Eastman

* “God, to me, it seems, is a verb not a noun, proper or improper.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

* “Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.” – Thomas Edison

* “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” – Alexander Graham Bell

* “We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently… to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.” – Charles Kettering

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