This is a good one. It hit home for me. Hopefully you'll like it too.
Nail In The Fence:
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down.
He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it; and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there." A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.
My Note:
Sometimes I am harsh, and more hurtful than I intend. Anger and fear cause some of it. Sometimes it happens because I want to be funny (even at someone's expense). Other times it happens because I want to help someone — and I choose to be direct — regardless of how they will "feel it" when I deliver the message.
For the most part, I never intend to leave a "hole". This story was a good reminder to be mindful of cause and intent. Hope it helps.
You don't need to be a geek to understand this fun video that offers a simple explanation of the Higgs Boson. But, after watching, you'll know enough to sound like one …
According to popular trading rules, May 1st marked the beginning of a 6-month period of unfavorable seasonality. This is often referred to as "Sell-In-May-and-Go-Away".
Research published by Yale Hirsch in the Trader's Almanac shows that the market year is often broken into two six-month seasonality periods.
From May 1 through October 31 seasonality is unfavorable, and the market most often finishes lower than it was at the beginning of the period.
The period from November 1 through April 30 is seasonally favorable, and the market most often finishes the period higher. (See Sy Harding's book, Riding the Bear, for an indepth discussion of this subject.)
While the statistical average results for these two periods are quite compelling, trying to ride the market in real-time in hopes of capturing these results is not always as easy as it sounds.
Below is the one-year chart that that shows the most recent two six-month periods. It begins on May 1, 2011 and ends on April 30, 2012.
The left half of the chart shows the unfavorable May through October period and the right half shows the favorable November through April period. The green line marks the beginning of the favorable period, the red line marks the beginning of the unfavorable period.
As you can see, the last two seasonality periods turned in textbook performance, with the unfavorable period closing lower, and the favorable period closing higher. However, every year is different and presents its own challenges … and there is no guarantee that any given period will conform to the average.
In addition, Swenlin asserts that bull and bear market pressures override seasonal tendencies more often than not.
With the election coming, we'll see whether things look better moving into the end of October.
Government and business leaders in the United States and around the world are rushing to build better defenses — and to prepare for the coming battles in the digital universe.
To succeed, they must understand one of the most complex, man-made environments on Earth: Cyberspace
It is naïve to ignore the risks of cyber-attacks. For someone to find something valuable, they just have to get lucky once; to stay safe, we have to be vigilant and good all the time.
I was showing my son a web video — and in less than a minute he was texting someone.
Let me make that more clear … it was Less-Than-A-Minute! … while he was standing with me … and he did it without hesitation, apology, or sense that shifting his attention to the phone was in any way a bad thing.
I know "get over it". He was probably texting before we spoke, anyway; right?
You're probably seeing similar behavior more often too.
It is scary to realize how easy it is to focus on a phone, iPad or e-mail rather than a person.
Upon reflection, we spend a lot of time alone together.
There is a difference between physical presence and being present.
Focus can be pretty fragile if it isn't a conscious choice.
To demonstrate this, here is a seemingly easy challenge … simply listen to a favorite song.
The challenge is how you can truly do that without losing focus and having other thoughts intrude (for example, without thinking about your to-do list or other songs that you like, or who you're going to meet with later in the day, etc.)? For me, the answer was not that long.
Sometimes it feels like modern life causes attention deficit disorder.
Attention Deficit Can Be Dangerous If You Aren't Aware of It.
Yet, losing focus while trading, in business, or even during a simple conversation – can have serious consequences.
When you are not aware of your focus, I bet it wanders. Mine does; I get distracted easily.
It didn't take long for me to realize that this happened to me while talking to my wife, while listening to a telephone call, even when ordering food at a restaurant. How can I lose focus on the waitress while I was ordering? Apparently, quite easily.
How about you? When you're listening to someone talk to you, are you really listening to them – or are you checking e-mail, texting, browsing a website, watching TV, playing a game, or thinking about what you're going to say?
Be honest with yourself; how often are you fully present? For me, the answer was not nearly enough.
For some perspective on the European sovereign debt crisis, this chart illustrates the forecasted 2012 debt to GDP ratio for each of the PIIGS (red bars) plus a handful of today's major economies (blue bars).
While the PIIGS are currently enduring relatively high debt loads, it is noteworthy how some of the relatively safe nations/bond markets (e.g. United State and Germany) are not far behind.
These relatively high debt loads are of concern as they could lead to higher taxes sometime in the future and can risk fiscal crises if bond holders sense an increasing risk of default.
The current crisis in Europe provides a clear example of the bond market's reaction (i.e. higher bond yields) to increased default fears.
This leads to a very interesting case study that is Japan. With a debt to GDP ratio of over 200%, the Japanese 10-year bond yield is a relatively low 0.83%. Why? At the moment, the bond market feels that the Japanese have the ability to repay their debts — in part due to Japan's perceived ability to raise taxes. To that end, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiko Noda just won opposition support for the doubling of the nation's sales tax to 10% by 2015.
So it's not just the amount of debt but also convincing your banker that you are good for it.
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