It Is Only A Game
This is a topic that has been turning over in my head for a week now and the reason why it has stuck in my mind will become apparent. Every now and then I get a cluster of emails from people whinging about how hard trading is and I agree trading is a difficult profession.…
Russell 2000 Under Performance?
It is always interesting to look at how various subsections of a market perform over the long term and to try and ascertain what the implications of this might be. The charts below represent the relative performance of the ETF’s that represent the Dow (DIA) the S&P 500 (SPY) and the Russell 2000 (IWM) over…
Against Self-Criticism
I have thought and continued to think a great deal about the relationship between critical thinking and cynicism — what is the tipping point past which critical thinking, that centerpiece of reason so vital to human progress and intellectual life, stops mobilizing our constructive impulses and topples over into the destructiveness of impotent complaint and embittered resignation, begetting cynicism?…
Dismal Hedge Fund Performance
The appalling performance of hedge funds continues. I have taken the yearly data for the HFR Equity Hedge Fund database converted it to the value of $1 invested and compared it to the S&P500 Total Return Index.
Same Old Same Old
One of the things I have noticed about travel is that being human is largely universal – that would seem to be an odd statement that touches on the banal. But the natural human instinct is to think that people who are not like us are different. The tendency is to split the world into…
A Little Laugh
“AND SO MARGERY… tell me about your three sons”. “Well, Peter runs a brothel in the Western suburbs. John is in prison and only has another 9 years to serve.” “Oh – and what about your other son, Margery?” “Well, we don’t talk about Simon much. He’s a trader.”
Think Ahead
IT’S SO ESSENTIAL to have long-term goals. What were you after when you got started trading? The rent paid next month? That’s pretty short-sighted. Or were you after liberation? Financial serenity? Never having to worry whether there was enough money in the bank to go on that overseas trip… first-class. Think about how you want…
Interesting Thought
HERE’S A GREAT thought by Seth Godin: “There’s a common mistranslation that causes us trouble. We say, “I am afraid,” as if the fear is us, forever. We don’t say, “I am a fever” or “I am a sore foot.” No, in those cases, we acknowledge that it’s a temporary condition, something we have,…
Useful phrases to help overcome your child’s anxiety
SOMETIMES IT’S HARD TO know what to say when our little ones come to us with worries. At this time of year especially, some of our little people can feel on high alert. Yes, they’re excited about Santa, but the rush and break of routine can lead them to dwell on worries, rather than revel…
Cane Toad Narcotics
MY FUR-NEPHEW IS a sausage dog name Wilfred. His hobby? Hunting down can toads. Once he catches one, he rolls it on its side. Then he gently squashes it with his paw and delightedly licks the oozing yellow poison it secretes from its slimy glands. Wilfred then gets an immediate hallucinogenic high, and wins an…
Fortune Favours the Educated Bold
THE MAJORITY OF HIGH achieving traders have big brass balls. They dump them in a wheel barrow just to get around. They need them to combat the arrows of condemnation they experience from family members, work colleagues and 9-5 enthusiasts. This isn’t a gender specific comment mind you. I have just as many hugely successful…
There is a better way of teaching bored Australian students
It’s a cold, blue-sky morning in Windsor, in Sydney’s north-west, and 19-year-old Abby McLeod is in her favourite coffee house. In that mystifying way of the robustly young, she’s wearing just a thin, scoop-neck singlet under her parka as she sips a soy cappuccino. Abby is in the last term of a forensic science degree…
