Okay, I know the mid-western and the eastern parts of this country have been and are being hammered with bad weather, so I won’t tell you the sun is shining here and the temperature will hit 70 degrees today. No, that really would not be fair to tell you, so I won’t. It is Christmas Eve, and my keeping quiet about the beautiful weather here is my gift to you, that is if you reside in the Midwest or the eastern part of the U.S.. If you live anywhere else in the world, you may or may not be experiencing bad weather. In fact, many of you might be experiencing weather such as I have not spoken about, and you may want to keep that to yourselves …
Weather aside, it looks to me as if we will finish this year on a strong economic note, which bodes well for the markets, as far as January goes. We will know more next week, but today is today, and I am happy where we are (the global economies), especially knowing where we were. I will talk more about this next week …
I have covered some ground since I started writing this column, and much, much more will come, but it occurs to me I have neglected an issue I should have explained some time ago, and that is the tag that follows each and every column I write (See below.). To me, the tag explains itself, and perhaps it is the same for you, but given that today is the eve of the day that much of the world sees as a day for giving gifts, I will give you another gift (aside from me not telling you how beautiful the day is here in California). It is a small gift, to be sure, but the size of a gift is not important; it is the meaning of the gift to the recipient that is truly counts.
Yes, I want everyone to become successful at trading, but not everyone will. And so here it is … When all is said and done, when the moment arrives for you to reflect on the totality of your life, will you want to focus on your success or failure as a trader? If not, then my advice (gift) to you is take trading as seriously as you need to in order to achieve success, but don’t for one minute put it above a single thing in life that brings you even one second of joy. If you do, and you miss that one second of joy, the price you will pay will far exceed any profit you might have made at the moment you passed on the joy. If you embrace that instant of joy, at the expense of trading, whether it is in a moment in your trading career or it is the moment ending your trading career, the reward will far exceed any profit you might have missed–invest in your life as well.
May good things come the way of all us …
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
