Extension Course in Trading Commodities

This is a great book to read...it is classified as a MasterClass Series.





There will be sections that you think you already know about , and yet come out of it and say, how could I have missed that?

Some of the points I have many an "aha!" moment...

(1) PRICES
     When inflation sets in, holding cash is the worst possible option. Buy property in a good area, buy good blue chips, buy commodities... but stay out of cash. I guess Robert Kiyosaki knew about this much earlier than the rest of the world. Truly, a mentor with many years of experiences will tell you that holding real estate in good  areas will keep your real purchasing power intact. And government loves to inflate prices to reduce their own debt. When prices go up, they collect more in taxes ( even if the percentages of tax is the same!), and they can pay off their earlier debts must faster. No wonder Ben Bernarke is insistent on relying on the printing presses to solve his bosses problems. The smarter guys around the world should have switch into properties or stocks to maintain their real wealth!

(2) Effective demand and supply
     It is pure economics how prices come to an equilibrium. Charts are there to help traders see a more complete picture.

(3) Dow Theory
Make sure you know on your charts which lines are the PRIMARY, Secondary, and Tertiary. The authors recommend that you stay out of the Tertiary ( ie intraday charts ) as they can be easily manipulated. Stick to PRIMARIES!

Buffetology

 



















(1) What to buy
(2) At what price to buy

Get this right and you will be on the way to financial freedom...

Is is that simple? The author seems to think so.

Simple things are easy to learn .. but difficult to master.
Can ordinary people actually buy and hold forever?
And can they be so convinced to buy a company with say 10%-20% of their net worth?

Before you put in the money for the long haul, make sure you have the frame of mind to be a Buffettologist....

Inspiration from Mencius

 


 Confucius came and taught...
Mencuis learned and thought....

And his words continue to inspire and hold court!

Some examples...

(1) ren wu you bu shan, shui wu you bu xia
   The goodness in human nature is like the downward flow of water

(2) zi jiang lun yu, neng yu ren gui ju, bu neng shi ren qiao
    A teacher can only guide us through the basics  but its practice would depend on ourselves.

(3) yang xin mo shan yu gua yu
   To nurture the heart, there is nothing better than to have few desires

(4) ren bu ke yi wu chi. wu chi zhi chi, wu chi yi
  A man must no be without shame. The shame of being without shame is indeed shameful.

The Battle for Investment Survival

 


















If you have read too many Buffetologies, then this book is  a refreshing change.

It advocates trading as an alternative to the Buy-and-hold strategy.

Both method makes sense. Just do not switch from a trading stance into a Holding stance when the market forces a hand on you. You need to just chop, and move on. Can we just chop?

Crash of the Titan

A revealing book of the rise and fall of the thundering herds, Merrill Lynch....

Looks like the Investment Banking community has learned nothing new from the Barings collapse a decade earlier.

The CEO do not know what the downlins were doing... and allowed one division to bring down the house. And eliminated all the smart people along the way.

The emperor has no clothes nor brains.. and people who highlighted this fact were shot immediately.

And soon , the emperor went around naked... but left the palace with one fat severance pay. They did not even have to give back their pay, let alone go to jail .With such " win I take, lose the shareholders bear" situations, isn't it hardly surprising that the scandals keep surfacing in the investment banking world?

Alas... will it ever change if the same people are still running the show despite nearly bringing the whole banking world to a stop?

Look forward to more books being published as scandals continue, CEO keep getting fat paychecks, and the US government keeps bailing them out!