It's almost like America has become a reality TV show.
Every week there's something new … Did you see Pepsi's new ad? It got a lot of backlash for showing Kendall Jenner saving the underprivileged with a well placed Pepsi.
JP Spears is famous for his humor. However, before he found this "character," he made his money as a spiritual coach. One step under the surface, I believe there are a few consistent hidden messages in his humor.
The first hidden message is to let go of what served you that no longer serves you.This is also a key to profitable trading. The market doesn't care what your favorite trade looks like. Nor does it care whether you're comfortable, or how you made money in the past.
You have to be more committed to your results than you are attached to your process.
Many times, your favorite practice is more beneficial to you as a nightlight, which keeps you comfortable, rather than as an alpha-generating strategy, tactic, or technique.
The second hidden message in JP Sears' humor is to look for happiness where it is, not where it isn't. This also is a key to trading. It doesn't make sense to look for a good trade in a bad market. The key is to understand where your edge is, and to use it where and when it exists.
In the video, JP says that we should all stop using our "analytical minds" to trade, and instead use our third eye – and while I don't think my third eye is the answer, I do think our analytical minds can confuse us instead of help us.
Look at it this way: Less than 10% of active traders beat the S&P 500 any given year; and if they beat it one year, the chance is less than a coin flip, that they beat it again the following year.
Most traders understand that analysis and knowledge isn't enough anymore.
So what's the answer?
Well, if you watched the video, I'm leaning towards algorithms and artificial intelligence.
That doesn't mean looking for the "Holy Grail" – or a good set of three to five trading systems either. First, there's no Holy Grail, and it isn't realistic to believe a few systems can handle the chaos of modern markets.
There's always something working in the markets, but there isn't something that works all the time.
There's something to be said for knowing when to switch it up and try something new.
JP Sears was, and is, an emotional healing coach, and licensed "Holisitic Coach Advanced Practioner," but he found then when he posted a YouTube video he was excited when he got a couple hundred views (you can see his more serious origins in this video from four years ago).
He added the funny/satirical aspect as a complement to what he already knew, and it took him to the next level. He now gets millions.
It's Final Four time. So, it's a big pizza weekend.
Apparently, it has been a big pizza decade.
Apple, Google and Facebook get a lot of press …
But, check-out pizza giant, Domino's performance.
Domino's has outpaced the most successful tech companies in the world since 2010 (when they changed their recipe). In fact, an investment at the start of 2010 would have grown by more than 2000% … Leaving "Big Tech" in the dust.
My youngest just got his first post-college apartment.
I sent him this, yesterday, as a grown-up advice primer.
Get drunk. Sleep in. Surf the net. Get lost on Facebook. Go down rabbit holes. Talk poorly of others. Procrastrinate. Ignore spell check.
April Fool's!
Don't do those things! Instead… Focus on your future, stay connected to higher circles, overcome your ego, ask for help, and keep learning and improving because you are here to do something that MATTERS!!
Speaking of April Fool's, for some of the more involved "pranks" check here. And, then there was this …
He's not so young anymore, and it feels like these two toddlers aren't either. If you haven't seen this yet, watch … It's a fascinating and funny time-lapse.
By the way, Beauty and the Beast was pretty good. It's a faithful representation of the original cartoon, and a reminder that while children get older and technology changes, some things don't.
What I found most interesting, was South Carolina's second largest religion being Baha'i (followed by my surprise that Judaism was the second most popular religion in Tennessee).
