Progress & Setbacks

A fantastic quote from a great book:

“Progress happens too slowly to notice, setbacks happen too quickly to ignore.”

— Morgan Housel, Psychology of Money

Video Interview: How To Invest

Highlights:  

"When you're 21, you don't know a lot about investing."

"If you don't understand the numbers, you should not be investing."

"Everybody wants to be rich this week."

"There's more than one way to be a good investor."

Short Story: School & Life Teachings

A very interesting short story from Matthew Kobach:

School: “Here’s the answer. Now tell me the answer.” 

Life: “There might be an answer. There also might not be an answer. Go find out.”

Seven Investing Rules

 

Do your research. Invest in what you know. Embrace change. Stay away from hot investment tips. 

Watch the video to find all the seven investment rules! Learn to become a successful investor. 

Paradoxes of Trading

"Paradoxes of Trading. The more money you make, the bigger your drawdowns will become. Paradoxically that fear of those bigger drawdowns holds many people back from getting bigger."

-- Steven Goldstein, Trader Performance Coach and host of the The AlphaMind Podcast

Greatness Takes Time

"You can't force experience... that takes time. Be patient with yourself and stay the course. With a good plan and persistence, everyday you take step in the direction of your dreams, while those who want it fast without putting in the work give up and quit.

Greatness takes time... stay the course."

-- Mark Minervini, momentum stocks trader profiled in the The Stock Market Wizards

The Secret For Success

My secret for success: When someone has more success than me, I pull up a chair with pad & pen and shut my mouth while I listen and take notes. I'm willing to put my ego aside and learn from success instead of envying it. No matter how successful I get, I maintain this humility.

-- Mark Minervini

PS: Mark Minervini was profiled in the Stock Market Wizards book, the third book from the Market Wizards books written by Jack Schwager. Jim Rogers was profiled in the original book, Market Wizards. 

Bitcoin & Investing Mistakes

 Sharing some interesting reading on Bitcoin:

Bitcoin: A New Kind Of Bubble?

Roubini: Bitcoin Has No Role In Portfolios

The Bitcoin Mania On CNBC

Investing quote of the day, 

“A mistake is not something to be determined after the fact but in light of the information until that point.”
-- Nassim Taleb

Thought of the day,

"When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you."
-- Lao Tzu

One Very Important Skill Great Traders Have

"One very important skill great traders have is the ability to gauge when to step on the gas and get aggressive and when to ride the brake or even sit out completely. Most of the time you should not be trading very aggressively. Trading requires a lot of patience and stalking."

-- Mark Minervini, momentum stocks trader profiled in The Stock Market Wizards book

Jim Rogers: Technology and Communications

The world works better when we are open & willing to work together.

China is ahead of us in digital money and innovation in general. 

Markets: Biggest Risks in 2021

 Latest article on Reuters: U.S. debt, Fed easy money biggest risks in 2021: Jim Rogers

Topics covered: 2021 biggest risks, the new Administration, the U.S. Dollar and Janet Yellen.

Investing: How You Become Successful

Everybody watching this knows a lot about something whether it's sports, cars, fashion or something else.

You look at it every day, you go on the internet, you read about it because that's what you love. 

When you see a change taking place that you know is going to be successful because you know a lot about that, then do more research and make investments. That's how you become successful!

History Is Clear On What Happens Next

Every central bank and every government is spending, borrowing and printing as much money as they can. Markets love it! I'm not sure what the world is going to think about it in a few years.

The Next Bear Market

Arcticle on Market Watch, The next bear market will be the worst in at least 78 years, warns co-founder of Soros’s legendary Quantum Fund 🐻

 - Highlighted quote from the article: 

🗣   ‘It’s good to be old. Young people have a very bleak future ahead of them.’

Article on Daily Mail UK,  Hedge fund millionaire's dire prediction that Australia will suffer a downturn WORSE than the Great Depression - so what should you buy to survive?

 - Highlighted quote from the article: 

🗣   "One notable feature of this latest crisis was both how sharply market conditions deteriorated and how quickly they recovered. The actions by central banks and governments around the globe doubtless contributed to this rebound."

America Should Focus More On Long-Term Growth

 

History tells us competition and openness make us greater. Check out this fruitful dialogue with international investor & author Jim Rogers.

Video duration: 7m08s

Highlights: 

America should focus more on long-term growth.

"I wish America would not do what it's doing. I wish that America if it's going to spend money it would spend money on developing infrastructure. In America we're just spending it on making sure people have jobs which is great for the people but it's not good for the long-term growth of America."

Jim Rogers Tips Trump Win

This week's press roundup:

Starting with the interview with Financial Review: Jim Rogers tips Trump win, market 'blow-off'

One of the highlights from this interview was when Jim said, "I am not a betting person at all – but if I was, I would bet Trump was going to win."

In another interview with the Daily Mail Australia, Jim Rogers predicts a dire outlook for Australia:
Australia will suffer a downturn WORSE than the Great Depression

Highlights from this article,

'Governments everywhere and central banks everywhere are printing and borrowing and spending huge amounts of money - as long as that lasts, the markets are very happy'

'Australia could be extremely susceptible because your politicians keep making enemies of people that you shouldn't be enemies of - like China.'

Trump Is Better For The Stock Market

If Donald Trump wins, the stock market is more likely to stay higher for a while. If the opposition wins, normally what happens is the opposition comes in, cleans out everything they want to clean out, take the pain now so that they can get reelected next time around.

Theoretically if Joe Biden wins it won't be as good as if Mr. Trump wins. Maybe that's what the market has been telling us recently.

Street Smarts: Animated Book Summary

Here’s an animated book summary of Street Smarts. Enjoy:

The book “Street Smarts” by Jim Rogers is an engaging memoir and also a great source of financial education and investment advice from a person who has traveled all over the world with the purpose to see and understand how the countries’ economies and political regimes have evolved. Learn where the next great place to live will be and which country offers the best investment opportunities at the moment, from a guy who not only delivers financial commentary on TV but walks his talks with great success.

Buy the book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Street-Smarts-Adventures-Road-Markets-ebook/dp/B008WOUFIS

Currencies: No Real Alternative To Invest

I wonder all the time where to put my money and I do not find any place that is really a great alternative to the U.S. Dollar at the moment. The Pound Sterling? Forget it! The Euro currency? Maybe temporarily. The Chinese currency? Yes, but it's a blocked currency! Japan? They have huge problems in Japan.

Central Banks: The Printing Presses Are Running At Unbelievable Speed!

 A few highlights from the video,

"The printing presses are running at unbelievable speed."

"I have young children. America is leaving them a terrible, terrible legacy."

Digital Currencies Are The Future - Jim B. Rogers

Digital currency is the future says Jim Rogers. The legendary investor predicts governments will create their own digital currencies. Unlike Bitcoin, these digital currencies will be controlled by the governments that create them. 

How The Rich People Tend To Behave

Interesting readings on financial twitter today:

"Material possessions shouldn't be the goal, experiences and stories are so much more satisfying."

-- Jim OShaughnessy, Founder, Chairman, OSAM LLC


“I observed at an early age, the rich people around me rarely bought anything, while the poor people around me were always shopping.”

-- Tom Ragland

"The best aren't working for money, it's about the satisfaction of creating something out of nothing."

--Orange Book

On other topics, Adam Grant has a will have his new book out soon,

"Great thinkers don’t boast about how much they know. They marvel at how little they understand. If knowledge is power, knowing what we don't know is wisdom. It gives us the mental agility to rethink our assumptions."

China Selling U.S. Treasuries Will Pressure Interest Rates

China reducing American debt will put pressure on U.S. interest rates, they should be going up. From the Chinese standpoint, it’s a smart economic and investment move, one that would strengthen the Chinese yuan. If they sell US debt, they sell dollars, therefore their currency goes higher.

2020 Election: Biden With Largest Lead

 From Nate Silver's, Five Thirty Eight:

"Really more polls are coming in showing Biden up double digits than not at this point. He's up to +9.8 in our national polling average, his largest lead of the campaign."

-- Biden 51.9%

-- Trump 42.1%

Markets: Commodities Still Get No Respect

Commodities still get no respect most commodities at lest, certainly not now. I mean, there have been
periods, for example crude oil went to $150 a barrel for a minute, or for a day. Things do happen but for the most part people have ignored commodities again. But don't worry they'll be back especially if we keep printing money the way we're printing money.

If economies keep collapsing and nobody can go to work, that cuts demand but it also cuts supply eventually. If they keep printing money the demand will be there eventually too.

Jack Schwager: Psychology Is More Important Than Technique

 Listen to the latest video interview of Jack Schwager, this weekend at the Traders Summit 2020. In this interviews Jack addressed several different topics including his new book Unknown Market Wizards:  

The world-famous author Jack Schwager gave a fantastic interview and took questions from panelists and guests. He revealed his new book “Unknown Market Wizards”, adding that it’s a collection of interviews of highly successful traders who are relatively unknown to the world. He said that stock traders and futures traders are usually quite different and closed with a pearl of advice: “Psychology is more important than technique”.

Tech Stocks: A Ticking Time Bomb!

This bull market is getting very old. Several hyped-up stocks are likely to crash when the next bear market comes. A time bomb is ticking in the technology space. 

People are thinking that stocks like Amazon (AMZN) and Alibaba can never go down. I advise investors to read market history that they can go down and they will go down. We will have more bear markets!

When the bear market comes, emerging markets like India will go down a lot. India has been building up debt, and I don’t like that!

Jim Rogers On China, Technology & COVID

 Jim Rogers speaks about China, global trade, technology and how things will work out post-COVID. A must listen video interview.

"At the moment you know there are problems between the United States and China. Whenever in history politicians have problems they blame foreigners and the Americans are blaming China right now!" 

-- Jim Rogers, American investor

Books Written By Self-Made Billionaires

Here’s  a list of nine books written by self-made billionaires. They share ideas and concepts to help you succeed in business and in life.

Some of the books on the list are,

• “Principles: Life and Work”, by Ray Dalio
• “Shoe Dog: A Memoir By the Creator of Nike”, by Phil Knight
• “Business @ the Speed of Thought: Succeeding in the Digital Economy”, by Bill Gates
• “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead”, by Sheryl Sandberg
• “How to Win at the Sport of Business: If I Can Do It, You Can Do It”, by Mark Cuban
• “Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future”, by Peter Thiel

You can read the complete article on CNBC.com, 9 books written by self-made billionaires to help you succeed in business and in life

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin

 

COVID: Politicians Are Overreacting

On the newswires right now:

SCOTLAND BANS PEOPLE FROM VISITING OTHER PEOPLE'S HOMES

We’ve had worldwide epidemics before but never before have politicians reacted the wrong way.


"In 2009 we had the H1N1 virus in America. Well, they didn't close McDonald's, they didn't close the airports. This time for whatever reason politicians, academics and journalists seem to have overreacted and said we have to close the whole world.

We've had many epidemics and never before have we closed the whole world. So in my view, they made mistakes and that's what has made this so horrible." - Jim Rogers, September 2020

Ray Dalio Sets Up Tent Offices In The Woods

This is an interesting move to protect workers from COVID:

"Ray Dalio's Bridgewater hedge fund has set up tents in the woods near its headquarters so traders and other staffers can breathe fresh air while they work during the pandemic": Hedge fund Bridgewater set up tent offices in the woods to beat COVID-19

Gold Will Continue To Do Well

I expect gold to continue to make new highs; silver is down about 45 per cent from its all-time high. I would expect silver to make all-time high too, before this is over. Silver is certainly cheaper than gold on a historic basis. I would expect both to continue to do well, because the world is going to have problems in the next few years.

Investing: India Is Hot!

There is so much money being printed nearly everywhere and spent. So it has got to go somewhere. Emerging markets were also beaten down a lot. So we are seeing them rally. Look at what is happening in India. Everyone is investing there now. It is hot!

Precious Metals: Silver Will Make An All-Time High Too

I expect gold to continue to make new highs; silver is down about 45 per cent from its all-time high. I would expect silver to make all-time high too.

Related trading instruments and tickers: SPDR Gold Trust ETF (GLD), iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV)

Investing: I Do Not Remember A Time Like This

 

Highlights:

- How COVID has changed investing

- Countries have overreacted when they closed their economies

- Japanese monetary policy

- Declining population plus debt is an explosive combo for Japan 

COVID: Closing Economies Was A Mistake

We’ve had worldwide epidemics before but never before have politicians reacted the wrong way.

In 2009 we had the H1N1 virus in America. Well, they didn't close McDonald's, they didn't close the airports. This time for whatever reason politicians, academics and journalists seem to have overreacted and said we have to close the whole world.

We've had many epidemics and never before have we closed the whole world. So in my view, they made mistakes and that's what has made this so horrible.