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DAY 55

Update: Thursday, 14-Apr-2005 3:39 PM

Key to success in life is to WANT SOMETHING, after you GET IT. I hope you get what I am talking about.

The first part of this blog's exercise is to make sure that you want what you hope for.

Most people don't. That accounts for the fact that most people dwell all of their lives in a relative "wish I could have done that" kind of philosophy.

I don't. You don't. Society is better off IF/when most don't. However, this is human nature and most will go on.

This same type of "wish" activity goes on with stock trading. Often it's easy to say "what IF I had done X" or "Y" or "what ever".

The reason that I am mentioning this is that I used to do that. Then came a plan of action to trade and invest in the stock market. Now I stick to the plan and my wish list does not exist in relation to the market.

Now going back to the original idea of the discussion: Wanting something after you get it.

This is a true test that I use for material things that I have. Often we dwell on material things that once you get them, and they sit in the garage for a month or year or more, then you wonder "why did I get that?"

That sort of thinking effected my first few weeks and months at P31.com.

Then my focus kept getting stronger. My direction kept getting clear and my plan kept getting perfected.

Now that plan comprises the first paragraph of this site.

That is the basic premise of what I am doing, and my goal in this project.

As for the material things, I am very careful not to waste funds on things that later I wish I had carefully thought about.

Of course, I say this after making plenty of mistakes, especially in my early 20's when I made several foolish mistakes. The money was easy, the credit even easier and off I went in the wrong direction.

Now those lessons are very much engrained and I am very careful about the situation.

This type of thinking also helps with stocks.

It's very easy to drop a thousand here and a thousand there on stocks. The online brokerages have made it VERY easy. Just a click or two and there it goes. SOLD!

However, sit back and think for a bit: What did you buy? What did you sell?

The basic premise of the market is that it is an "efficient market place for companies to raise capital". However, the buying and selling gets to such a level that at times many don't think about WHAT they are buying or selling.

I see a lot of day traders are in this boat.

Today I read that many people are buying Apple options that are the $50 call expiring in April. That means that by this Friday, the 15th of April Apple has to be near that to really cash in or above that.

What were these people thinking? Am I missing something?

Let me just move on to what I did and why. The "what" I mostly discussed above. Why? Because I am NOT trying to make a killing in the market in such a short time. If you do that day in day out, you may get lucky once or twice, but in a few weeks or so, you will be sitting at the sidewalk and wondering what the hell happend!

But, day in day out, there are those people trying to do just that. These same people are better off going to the blackjack tables at the nearest casinos. The odds are better there.

The best options approach is to work with stocks that have a good history, the market directions is trendy and in your favor and you are in it for the gain, in the short term.

Anymore and the market will make you regret it. Promise. I've done it. Twice.

But, that was about the time I had that car. So, that was a while back.

Wisdom takes a while I suppose.

DAY 54 | TODAY is DAY 55 | NEXT DAY 56