We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are – ANAIS NIN US (French-born) author I was having a conversation with one of my clients yesterday on the subject of whether good traders are born or whether they can be taught. I brought to his attention that this was the [...]
The world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed – SEAN O’CASEY, IRISH DRAMATIST Do we really have a clear understanding of raw talent? Is there such a thing as a natural born trader? I think there is innate talent, but I also think it plays much less of a role in [...]
Someone stole all my credit cards, but I won’t be reporting it. The thief spends less than my wife — HENNY YOUNGMAN Milton Friedman was a great American economist and statistician among other admirable things. He is best known among scholars for his theoretical and empirical research. Friedman’s philosophy was basically opposed to government [...]
While everyone has a right to his or her opinion, the people who are informed have more of a right – BILL DIXON, JAZZ MUSICIAN My experience is that most people who trade options do not do very well. A major reason is that most option traders don’t know how options are priced. Without [...]
Some will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon – THOMAS BLOUNT I was having a conversation with my partner Martin yesterday, and he was telling me how a mutual friend of ours, a commodity trading advisor, was losing some accounts lately. I was quite surprised by this since the program was [...]
Painting can’t be taught, only found – PICASSO I was watching the New England Patriot/Buffalo Bills game last night, and it dawned on me just how good professional football players are at adapting to unforeseen changes to their game plan. When necessary, professionals (in any game) will act out of instinct without hesitation. They [...]
According to US Treasury Direct the US debt has reached $11,046,247,657,049.48. CNBC says, “If denominated in $1 bills, the cash would stack as high as the tallest building in the world, the 2683.7 foot Burj Dubai skyscraper… 1,474,918 times. At this height, it would create a block of bills with a base approximately twice the [...]
Doubt is uncomfortable, certainty is ridiculous – VOLTAIRE What if we knew for sure that the Philadelphia Eagles would beat the Carolina Panthers yesterday, and that we were also certain that they would beat the betting spread? Any wager we made would pay off. Betting on a “sure thing” would be equal to a [...]
To go too far is as bad as to fall short – CONFUCIUS Sometimes when the media talking heads throw numbers at us, we lose perspective of what these numbers actually mean. We are practically numb now, a billion here, a hundred billion there. Well, I found a great picture that does put it [...]
What we see depends mainly on what we look for – JOHN LUBBOCK In his book The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama notes a Greek fable on perspective. Once there was a disciple of a Greek Philosopher who was commanded by his master for three years to give money to everyone who insulted [...]
