Here's what to remember to succeed at this market today:
The dedication and commitment of one's own life to stop mad dogs like Hitler and Mussolini and Kaiser Wilhelm and Hirohito and to fight North Korea and Iraq and North Vietnam, not necessarily with ideal outcomes, but with the exact same levels of courage and self-sacrifice.
The recognition that our losses demand of us mere money, which is replaceable as long as we have breath, while many millions of men and a goodly number of women gave up families and marriages and homes and comfort, because they found this country worthy of defense, and stood up to become heroes, as fine as any that ever existed.
There was no glory in the mud and frostbite and blood and tears that they would know. There was horror, and deprivation and sights no one should ever see and pain and fear and camaraderie gained and lost.
To succeeed at this market and, indeed, at this life, it is most important that we understand how trivial are the pursuits we now engage in, by comparison. And understand that every last penny we can make now is due to heroes whose many million lives were invested into equities like freedom and civil liberty and democratic principle, whose dividends we now collect.
These were not John Waynes and Rambos; they were the same sort of men and women tending every kind of business you visit each day: tall, short, black, white, skinny, fat, bespectacled, beefy, gaunt, all types, sizes and shapes. And every one of them in a starring role that was not preserved on anything more than the celluloid of faded memory.
They were not unlike us. Their hopes and dreams and joys were not much different than our own. And they set them aside for something far more important than a quarter point. Many of them knew too well where the bottom was and many rest there now. There is no bounce for them.
To trade successfully now, we must recall these works of heroes and what they stood for. We must know when to trade and when to walk away and how to share our gains and how to uphold life. We must act in ways that do not dishonor the heroes who invested in us, because this is the very least they deserve.
Memorial Day is upon us and yes, while it's a day many will use to remember loved ones who were not lost to war, let us not forget these others, some living, most dead, and reinvest some honor and gratitude for the common gain of all.
To succeed in this market, we must have the perspective to not demean the meaning of Fear by labelling our worries with that f-word.
Instead, let us measure our blessings. Let's take time to say "thanks" to some veteran who put far more on the line than we do here. And let's set aside a little time to remember and give thanks to all those ears that no longer hear because they invested in the greatest stock of all time: Love.
Crazy as that may seem to those of us who possess the luxury to claim we are pacifists, those heroes did not stand up out of hate, but out of love. They defended the people and principles and land that they loved.
Weigh that against your measures of gains and losses as you trade. Then conduct your business with honor and love. When you can do that, you can leave the marketplace each day with greater or lesser amounts of money without diminishing the wealth you possess simply by loving, and by living honorable lives.
You will be a better trader then. You will have returned a little bit of all that those heroes invested in you.
If you don't bankrupt those heroes by forgetting them, or by failing to give them thanks, you will succeed in every trade you make. Because then you will know how to measure the value of everything, in the exchange that never closes.
(If you are a veteran or in service now, "Thank You.") |
