It seems that so many people these days are chasing after something and they don’t even know what that something is.

Stop a while and look around is the message I take from this. Look around at what you have in your life today that makes you happy because today is never coming back. Today is all you ever really have. Tomorrow is something you hope you’ll have and yesterday is what you had but is now gone.

Its a powerful and salutory message suggesting we step off the mousewheel now and again and look at what, in our lives, is what really makes us happy today.

The Cycle of “IT” by Sam Seiden

I’ve been in the trading and trading education world for many years. This has allowed me to watch traders grow at different levels and reach different levels of success, and failure. I have often wondered and speculated on the difference between those who achieve success and those who fail. For me, the answer lies in the proper definition of success when it comes to trading, or any occupation for that matter.

Let me explain a scenario that I have experienced hundreds of times with individuals going through trading education. There was a gentleman back in 1999 that I met at a trading seminar. He walked up to me before it started and introduced himself. He had been reading my daily trading advisory letters and was very excited to meet the face behind the letter and take the seminar that I was giving. He explained that he had a family and that trading was going to be “IT” for him. He wanted to make lots of money at it and do it for a career. After the seminar, he thanked me and could not wait to get home and get started on his quest for “IT”. A couple weeks after the seminar, he sent me an email and said he was doing well but he said “Sam, if I could only take all my stop losses according to plan, I would really make IT”. Time went by and I contacted him and asked him if he made “IT”? He said yes. I said, “How is IT”? He said “IT” was good. He then said that if he adjusted his rules a bit and added a moving average for a trail stop, he could hold on for larger gains and really make “IT”! More than a year went by before I heard from him again and when I did, I asked him the same question, “Did you make IT”? He said he did. I asked him how “IT” was and he said, “IT was good”. He also added that his marriage was falling apart and he did not know where things were going in his personal life. He said that he only needed to make a little more money from trading than he did from his day job to quit the day job and that this would be “IT”, this would save his marriage, his family.

Let me let you in on something I realized long ago: “IT” is never “IT”. The “IT” cycle will have you chasing an illusion of happiness your whole life in many forms if you let it. If you are looking for “IT”, it only exists in a much grander vision. This grander vision will meet all your needs and become “IT” for you. I want to invite you into a simple reality that most consistently profitable market speculators share. They are not looking for trading to be “IT” for them. They have a much grander vision. The best traders I know spend very little time trading and spend less time talking about trading. They make plenty of money trading and they use that money to feed the grander vision. One person I know has done very well in trading and has bought three vacation homes on a lake all next to each other. He has a family with many kids and invites families who would not be able to afford to do this to stay at these vacation homes in the summers. His life is all about his family, which has always been his grander vision. Because of this, he is not looking to change or improve his trading strategy, he does fine. In fact, he never talks about his strategy; he would never waste the time as he is too busy with his grander vision. I know his strategy and let me tell you, I see many people come out of the Online Trading Academy classes with better strategies that don’t make money because they are always looking to improve the strategy so they can really make “IT”. People who keep changing their trading strategy and keep taking more and more seminars never make it in trading. They are always looking for “IT”. From what I see, the successful people at Online Trading Academy become passport members, take the classes, and then go and run the strategy they have developed from the education. They don’t rush off to take more and more seminars and courses. The group that has taken every trading course around the world and has read every trading book written is not the group that makes money trading. This is the group that typically pays those who have a grander vision.

In trading, the best outcome each day is more money in your account. If you keep striving for more money, you will never be happy because you will never have all the worlds’ money. How many times do men and women get into relationships because they think that partner is “it” for them? They are counting on that partner to make them happy and fill all their needs and voids. These relationships always fail because the other partner will never meet these expectations. So much pressure is put on that partner to be “it” for that person. Trading is not all that different. The pressure people put on themselves with unrealistic expectations is simply setting you up for failure.

Why do I trade? The focus for me is the grander vision, not attempting to attain all the worlds’ money. THIS is what allows me to run a simple and successful trading strategy year after year after year. I have not changed one thing about how I trade in many years. The income from trading allows me to feed my grander vision. I have played hockey all my life and still play in the most competitive leagues around. I also coach kid’s hockey and that has been great for me. Many of these kids can’t afford to do certain things that will benefit them. Trading allows me to dive into these kids’ lives and expose them to things most of them could not afford to do on their own. I don’t have an I-Pod. I felt much better buying these kids one-year family memberships to the fantastic museums in Chicago. Hhmm, loud music in my ears or exposing a child to some of the best science, art, and history museums in the world? If I wanted the I-POD, I would also want the I-Phone, and the I-Car, and the I-life… You see, “IT” never ends and in the trading world, this thought process will drain your account. Instead of buying the latest power computer, my grander vision had me buy the Dr. Seuss series of books for a local school in the area that didn’t have a budget for new books. My grander vision is making a difference in the life of children that will end up making a positive difference in the world. That is what I spend most of my free time doing. This just so happens to also allow a successful trading strategy to run, there is no pressure of better numbers and more dollars.

The next time you have a few minutes and you are about to tweak that trading strategy because your strategy, while profitable, may not be allowing you to really make “IT”, understand that “IT” is never “IT”. You are likely chasing something that does not exist. You’re walking east and west trying to find the North Pole. Instead, open your mind to the possibility of a much grander vision that has nothing to do with trading. In doing this, you may just find that the grander vision is what will finally allow you to execute your successful strategy with disciplined precision for the rest of your life. More importantly, this grander vision is likely where you will find “IT”.

For those who find “it”, please let me know.

Have a great day.

- Sam Seiden

“A large number of technology companies benefit from [corporate spending]—software, hardware, storage—we’re already seeing it right now because demand has been better than expected for the last couple of quarters,” Wick told CNBC.

“We’re certainly seeing it in the semiconductor industry. Pretty much every semiconductor company has reported upside results in the last 4 to 5 months.”

Wick said factors such as increasing consumer demand in Asia will also help drive the tech sector rally.

“We’re going to have a replay of what happened in 2003,” he said. “2003 was a very up year following a very nasty downturn in 2000 to 2002.”

Wick’s Warning

However, Wick warned that government intervention in the economy and health care reform can increase uncertainty and may deter tech companies from spending and hiring.

“Tax increases that are likely to take effect next year and possible further tax increases could put a damper on the economy,” he added.

And “it looked like the dollar was going to be a tailwind to a lot of technology companies, but as the dollar strengthens, that will turn into a headwind again.”

Wick’s Top Picks:

Synopsys

Microsoft

Symantec

Marvell Technology

Teradyne

This article presents the options in a very useful format and I dont think theyve missed anybody out. At least nobody who doesnt deserve to be missed out.

The leading spread betting accounts.

Dr Murphy is a member of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, the Nomination Committee and the Remuneration Committee.

Dr Murphy is an experienced executive having been chief executive of B&Q’s owner Kingfisher for five years and previously held the same position at Carlton Communications (now ITV), logistics firm Exel and food producer Greencore.

His current day job is with private equity firm Blackstone Group. He represents Blackstone on the boards of United Biscuits, Kloeckner Pentaplast and Michaels Stores.

British American Tobacco said in October that it had performed well in the nine months to the end of September 2009, although total volume growth slowed.

Revenue for the nine months grew strongly in constant currency terms, driven by the continued pricing momentum and volume growth from the acquisitions made in the middle of last year, as well as the acquisition of Bentoel in Indonesia in June 2009.

Note: The latest apparent sale by Domino’s Pizza founder Colin Halpern relates to the previously reported sale of shares in the recent tender offer. Due to an administrative error the family trust only tendered 19,835 shares instead of 190,453 shares. Domino’s has acquired the difference (170,618 shares) at the tender price of 292p a share.

Another administrative error meant that chief executive Christopher Moore tendered 96,733 shares instead of 95,785 as initially announced. No change is being made to this situation.

Top Director Buys

British American Tobacco (BATS)
Director name: Mr Gerard Murphy
Amount purchased: 3,000 @ 1,959.00p
Value: £58,770

Rotork (ROR)
Director name: Mr Ian King
Amount purchased: 5,000 @ 1,170.00p
Value: £58,500

Carclo (CAR)
Director name: Mr Michael Derbyshire
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 128.50p
Value: £32,125

Fidessa (FDSA)
Director name: Mr Chris Aspinwall
Amount purchased: 2,602 @ 1,144.00p
Value: £29,767

3i Infrastructure (3IN)
Director name: Sir John Collins
Amount purchased: 19,215 @ 103.30p
Value: £19,849

The Capital Pub Company (CPUB)
Director name: Mr Clive Watson
Amount purchased: 25,000 @ 66.50p
Value: £16,625

Carclo (CAR)
Director name: Mr Bill Tame
Amount purchased: 10,000 @ 128.50p
Value: £12,850

Top Director Sells

Domino’s Pizza UK & IRL (DOM)
Director name: Mr Colin Halpern
Amount sold: 170,618 @ 292.00p
Value: £498,205

Cranswick (CWK)
Director name: Mr Bernard Hoggarth
Amount sold: 50,000 @ 750.41p
Value: £375,205

Carclo (CAR)
Director name: Mr Ian Williamson
Amount sold: 240,400 @ 128.50p
Value: £308,914

Carclo (CAR)
Director name: Mr Robert James Brooksbank
Amount sold: 205,550 @ 128.50p
Value: £264,132

Sound Oil (SOU)
Director name: Mr Jusuf Rachmantio
Amount sold: 6,250,000 @ 1.60p
Value: £100,000   ]]> http://www.paulalivingstone.com/Blog/TradingBlog/2009/12/top-director-trades-of-the-moment/feed/ 0