Trade-The Application Principle

Trade is an interesting concept with multiple layers of definition and application

In fundamental economics trade is defined as the action of buying and selling of goods and services.

In educational terms it is a skilled job, typically one requiring manual skills and special training

In terms of the market, trade gets a slightly more complex definition but it equates out to the pursuit of making a profit and building a sizable income stream whether that is earned from the Stock Market or the Foreign Exchange Market. Little

Finally, from a personal view trade could be defined as putting old things down in order to acquire newness.

What do we mean by this??

In reality the best way these can all be understood is to combine the definitions themselves as well as employing the use of the first two pillars of learning and investing as well. So, let’s paint this picture together.

In order to begin learning how to trade in the stock market or forex market one has to prioritize your time and instead of doing other things like watching tv, social gatherings, or just time spent doing nothing productive you may begin to trade (swap) the habit of laziness out for productivity.

As time progresses and you invest that time into developing your skills, training and aptitude in the art of trading. Naturally creating habits of productivity in other areas of your life because you chose to trade old things in order to acquire something new.

One of the biggest trading points that a large majority of us can relate to is the time for money trade made at jobs 40+ hours per week. We are fairly confident that 3 out of 5 people at least would love to make that particular trade end so that they could spend more time with family, traveling, more trading or doing whatever other activity it is that they love. Ultimately, now that you have decided to make that habit trade look at yourself now and realize that you learned the skill of trade that derives from the educational perspective giving you the ability to trade as it relates to the market definition and you have accomplished this from trading your old mindset for a new mindset resulting in earning yourself a new income stream compounding dollars all from making a decision. The benefit of all of these new-found aspects of trade is having armed yourself with the fresh financial flexibility.

Conclusively I would like to leave you with this quote:

“A man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.” -Frederick Douglass, The Portable Fredrick Douglass

You will define things in your life as you go as well those same things defining you so be mindful of what you do with and for yourself daily, you do not have to reinvent the wheel but you can customize your tread on it.

We will never make you do anything, we cannot but we will continuously offer our sincere and researched methods of improving your life as we strive to improve our own.  We must lift as we climb. So, if you are universally somewhere in life that you do not want to be first a decision must be made to change. Then consciously grasp that mentally, emotionally, financially it is within your capability and obligation to begin those changes learn what it takes, invest the time/money into crafting those changes and watch your new trade gain new profits in intellect and dollars.   Learn. Invest. Trade

Investing- Part 2- Planting The Money Tree

 

Investing-   

expend money with the expectation of achieving a profit or material result by putting it into financial schemes, shares, or property, or by using it to develop a commercial venture.

 

One of the most important things that you can do as an investor is to get an early start on investing. The old saying “the early bird gets the worm,” certainly applies to investing in a big way. Investing is defined as making an investment in order to earn a profit and earning that profit will be much easier to do if you get an early start. Investing at a young age isn’t always easy, but the benefits are numerous and can’t be overlooked, but just because you may not have started investing at a young age does not mean you cannot start today. Thankfully there are no age regulations or requirements when it comes to that.

A few of the most essential and beneficial reasons to invest is residual income and compounding returns which are extremely powerful over the long run, and the sooner you get started the greater your chance is to take advantage of this. Put more simply this is the power of the time value of money. Regular investments in an investment portfolio or a retirement account can lead to huge compounding benefits. Additionally, when you begin to invest you are putting yourself ahead in the world of personal finance as a whole. By growing your investments over time, you will be able to afford things that others can’t. Your personal finances are bound to get tight at times throughout your life as most of us well know and investing can help in those tight times.

*Golden Nugget* Investing definitely helps develop positive spending habits. Those who invest early on are much less likely to have issues with overstepping their boundaries in spending over the long run. Investing teaches important lessons and the earlier you are able to learn those lessons the more you can benefit.

The younger generation is a tech-savvy one, so the benefit of that to everyone is that we are able to study, research and apply online investing tools and techniques. Getting started has never been more accessible than now online trading platforms provide countless opportunities for both fundamental and technical analysis, as do chat rooms and financial and educational websites. Technology, including online opportunities, social media, and apps, can all contribute to a new investor’s knowledge base, experience, confidence, and expertise.

If you do not believe investing works for whatever reason or have doubts about getting started maybe you should take a look at this individual. “The Oracle of Omaha”

Before we depart today we want to leave you with a fun tool to play around with to see what it would be like to start making some investments and experience for yourself the power of this skill.  Also, we want to impart you with a few more advantages of taking a step to learn/start investing.

Conclusively, we hope that today you will be able to take something away from the learning of investing, so if you read part 1 and now have part 2 combined you should be well prepared for our next step in this journey which is to Tradethe Application Principle..

As always we thank you for your time with us. Invest in yourself and invest some money into something beneficial just to see what might happen…See you next week.

 

Invest-The Manifestation Principle

Pt.1-Personal Development Investing

Invest (verb) – To devote (one’s time, effort, or energy) to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result.

To invest in this is to bring reason, manifestation, and purpose to the first pillar of Learning. Development investing is the art of spending time with a newfound knowledge or skill in order to expand your cognitive activity and abilities.

The factual reality of this concept is that we all invest in our development daily in one direction or another. Throughout your day you invest to your betterment or your detriment depending upon the decisions you make. The choice is 100% in your hands. You as an individual may not truly grasp the power of influence that you contain and its origin from your initial investment as you move through the day.

Your life, outcomes, and results are a congruent reflection of how you invest in yourself and the types of environments you allow yourself to be part of. The statement that we hear of “Becoming what we are around” is very true for the majority of us because the human mind is naturally patterned to seek routine and stability as well as conforming to the subconscious influence of societal norms. That means the things our parents tell us “go to school (do good), graduate, get a good job” is the regularly followed path and so we tend to flock around people that are doing the same thing and that is what you invest in.

If parents and influential people had continued to nurture and encourage the same message from childhood into adulthood; that “you can be ANYTHING you want” I believe that the entrepreneurial percentage in many places would be much higher. That is the beauty of coming into a place of understand on your own as young adult.  You are now aware of your comprehension and are able to make your own choices in order to develop yourself into who you want to be.  Re-apply the “you can be ANYTHING you want” concept. If you want to, you can be an investor, powerful trader, lawyer, business owner, engineer, philanthropist etc. You as a young adult are able to make that choice for yourself particularly with the plethora of technology-based resources we have today. There should be no reason for you to accept less than what you know you are capable of.

Put the effort, time and dedication forth into development investing and see  just how truly spectacular your intellect can become. That self-empowerment will translate over into how you take care of things outside of yourself as in your financial investing.

Insider clue: The way you take care of yourself is a precise sign of how you will handle other things.

Go grab a snack, drink or a breather and come back…

Pt. 2 of Invest-Financial Development Investing.

Ready, Set, GO!!!

Good morning everyone,

This morning, we would like to recap everything that we have covered before we get more in-depth with where we want to take you as an investor/trader and more importantly as an individual. Let’s review the past three weeks and solidify our understanding of the foundation we are building to transform our intellect, emotions, physicality and, finances.

Week 1. Spend Thrifty

We recognized that as individuals have an obligation to figure out our personal emotional road when it comes to our spending habits.  We must become confident in the ability to not get stuck between the fork in the road of frivolousness and purposeful expenditures. We have to remember and realize that money is not a living-breathing organism and we can truly control it with first learning to control ourselves and making wise decisions with our investment choices. When the time to invest in the market comes, emotional stability is of the utmost importance and can be one of the most prominent deciding factors in how your portfolio can develop or crash.

Week 2. Let’s Get Physical!!!

Next, we explored the importance of exercising and making sure to give your body the proper activity daily to increase your overall fitness and intellectual strength. We were able to see how a simple 30-minute stroll around the block or a simple bike ride could boost your brain power and reduce stress, which is only two of the ten benefits that we were able to discover. The amazing thing is the ten we covered are only a fraction of the endless benefits that exercising induces. Remember, that when you look good, you feel good and when you feel good, you continue to make yourself look good. This translates to other areas of our lives as well. When you exercise your physical body properly and stress less, you are able to lift those financial weights, bench pressing trades against big boys with ease and running money marathons with your portfolio. Just like with physical exercise, the more you do it, the better you become.

Week 3. Intellectual Feng Shui

In conclusion, we urged you to thoroughly “know thyself”; know your strengths, flaws, interests, and non-interests and telling ourselves, at the end of the day, to accept all of the above or change them from within. We encouraged you to make a plan for yourself in areas you want to improve and to not sway from that plan no matter the cost. We learned to evaluate ourselves in our entirety, to look at our own lives objectively and not to cast our own opinions and thoughts of othesr onto them or to turn comparisons into intrinsic blame. We must remember at the end of the day WE DO NOT CONTROL ALL but we can influence outcomes by perspective and finding our best internal harmony. Remember, that the market trades TRILLIONS daily so while no one will ever nail 100% of the rises and falls, you can earn your cut of the share by first knowing yourself and applying the Dollars and Decisions Golden Rule “Treat the market as you would have the market treat you”.

Now that we have our emotions in-check, have exercised, and found our balance, let’s have some coffee or tea and open our textbooks over the next three weeks as we dive deeper into the 3 Cardinal Principles of Dollars and Decisions which will be the building blocks for new horizons. 

Learn

Invest

Trade

 

 

Know Yourself, Know Your Worth

 

  • Critical because self-awareness plays into objective view of self
  • Plays into objective view of your personal narrative
  • Know what you want and write it down
  • STICK TO PLAN-
  • Be able to reevaluate your performance

“Know Thyself”. This concise yet impactful quote was written on the walls of the temple of Apollo at Delphi over 2000 years ago. Despite being written before the market as we know it today existed, this simple statement absolutely impacts the investments and applications we commit ourselves to today. What does it truly mean to know yourself? Does it mean to know what your name is or what you look like in the mirror? If we relegate this saying to such shallow terms, we strip it of its intended meaning. Knowing yourself is having the self-awareness to understand your actions and the ability to look at yourself objectively.

(What does looking at yourself “objectively”  mean?) -To truly look at your inner-self and reflect upon your individual strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities within yourself that will extract/demand personal growth over time This is a very simplified definition but it encompasses the overall theme.

“How does my own behavior come into play when I’m investing and the things I invest in?”, you may ask. The answer may be more profound than you originally thought. When we look at spending/investing situations, we apply our own “filter” or personal interpretation to what we see and this can be a poor habit. We have to understand that when it comes to making sound financial decisions, we have to treat it as if it were a living breathing entity.  When dealing with it, we have to listen and watch it, instead of layering our own values and systems to it. For example, think of the trading market as an actual person. Would it not be rude of me to apply my own sense of what’s right and wrong to him without once listening and understanding what he is saying? This is what happens when we try to add our self-indications and assumed values and bend the market to make it conform to our individual assessment/opinion. The forex market (Foreign Exchange currency marking) alone is a $5.3 trillion dollar a day industry. It will not be dictated or control by any one person, regardless of what their name, title, or status is. Trying to control that market or anything else and shape it to your will is a quick way to be washed away and disappointed.

I have just painted a fairly grim picture but all hope is not lost!

In a nutshell, Knowing Yourself goes like this according to our last two posts….

Step 1. Admitting your weakness

Know that you spend money in terrible ways, or that I always say “the love of money is the root of all evil”  realizing that you are not taking care of yourself physically like you should be and that you have made excuses about it.

Step 2. Reminding yourself of your strengths

Truly acknowledge and empower yourself with a precise and calculated change of mindset and put together a plan to correct your downfalls while solidifying your strengths.

Step 3. STICK TO THE PLAN

Do Not Get allow yourself to deviate from self-improvement. Go against your normal and easy path.  Write things down, make a collage, pictures, notes or whatever may be good enough for you to constantly remind yourself of the growth you are committed to making.

We must analyze ourselves in order to decipher out the bad from the good. We must train our subconscious to move our conscious being and be ready to move. The only way to control and tame this beast is to train it to take you where you want to go. This article is definitely deeper in the “finding yourself” element but that is exactly what we want for you because when we speak next week were are really going to begin diving into the financial realm of taking your money to a different place…

As always thank you humbly for reading and take your time, when you could have been doing so many different things and remember…

Learn. Invest. Trade.

 

Financial Fitness

Exercising is an essential part of the daily routine most resources say that we as humans need at least thirty minutes of physical activity (exercise) per day. When you really put things into perspective taking half an hour to maybe get on a machine, lift a few weights, take a walk or whatever may be your workout of choice really will not take that much time out of your day and the greatest part about it is that it improves your mental state and keeps your mind sharp. In addition, when you go look in the mirror and see those baby abs start forming, or muscle gains increasing that truly triggers the activity becoming habitual and will boost the frequency of optimistic outlooks throughout the endeavors in your day. 

There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Below is a list of a few specific ways that exercising improves mental health and can truly translate to improving your financial decisions.

1. Reduce stress.  Take a walk or head to the gym for a quick workout. One of the most common mental benefits of exercise is stress relief. Working up a sweat can help manage physical and mental stress. Exercise also increases concentrations of a chemical that can moderate the brains response to stress so that you will not make spontaneous purchases or waste money on unnecessary things. So go ahead and get sweaty—working out can reduce stress and boost the body’s ability to deal with existing mental tension. Win-win!

2. Boost happy chemicals. Slowly making it through a few miles on the treadmill, but it’s worth the effort! Exercise releases endorphins, which create feelings of happiness and euphoria. Studies have shown that exercise can even alleviate symptoms among the clinically depressed. For this reason, doctors recommend that people suffering from depression or anxiety (or those who are just feeling down) pencil in plenty of gym time. In some cases, exercise can be just as effective as antidepressant pills in treating depression. Don’t worry if you’re not exactly in the shape you want to be yet, it is all a process. Getting a happy buzz from working out for just 30 minutes a few times a week can instantly boost overall mood.  

3. Improve self-confidence. Hop on the treadmill to look (and more importantly, feel) like a million bucks as well as earning a million bucks. On a very basic level, physical fitness can boost self-esteem and improve positive self-image. Regardless of weight, size, gender, or age, exercise can quickly elevate a person’s perception of his or her attractiveness, that is, self-worth. So you will begin to truly love yourself and value yourself monetarily much more. 

4. Enjoy the great outdoors. For an extra boost of self-love, take that workout outside. Exercising in the great outdoors can increase self-esteem even more. Find an outdoor workout that fits your style, whether it’s rock-climbing, hiking, renting a canoe, or just taking a jog in the park. Plus, all that Vitamin D acquired from soaking up the sun (while wearing sunscreen, of course!) can lessen the likelihood of experiencing depressive symptoms. Why book a spa day when a little fresh air and sunshine (and exercise) can work wonders for self-confidence and happiness?

5. Prevent cognitive decline. It’s unpleasant, but it’s true—as we get older, our brains get a little…hazy. As aging and degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s kill off brain cells, the noggin actually shrinks, losing many important brain functions in the process. While exercise and a healthy diet can’t “cure” Alzheimer’s, they can help shore up the brain against cognitive decline that begins after age 45. Working out, especially between age 25 and 45, boosts the chemicals in the brain that support and prevent degeneration of the hippocampus, an important part of the brain for memory and learning.

6. Boost Brainpower.  Various studies have shown that cardiovascular exercise can create new brain cells (aka neurogenesis) and improve overall brain performance. Studies suggest that a tough workout increases levels of a brain-derived protein in the body believed to help with decision making, higher thinking, and learning. (CH-CHING-$$$!)

7. Sharpen memory. Regular physical activity boosts memory and ability to learn new things. Getting sweaty increases production of cells responsible for memory and learning.  Working out can truly boost memory among grown-ups. A study showed that running sprints improved vocabulary retention among healthy adults.

8. Get more done. Feeling uninspired some days? The solution might be just a short walk or jog away. Research shows that workers who take time for exercise on a regular basis are more productive and have more energy than their more sluggish peers. While busy schedules can make it tough to squeeze in a gym session in the middle of the day, some experts believe that midday is the ideal time for a workout due to the body’s natural rhythms.

9. Tap into creativity. Most people end a tough workout with a hot shower, but maybe we should be breaking out the colored pencils instead. A good blood-pumping gym session can boost creativity for up to two hours afterward. Supercharge post-workout inspiration by exercising outdoors and interacting with nature. Next time you need a burst of creative thinking, hit the trails for a long walk or run to refresh the body and the brain at the same time.

10. Inspire others. Whether it’s a pick-up game of football, a group class at the gym, or just a run with a friend, exercise rarely happens in a bubble. And that’s good news for all of us. Studies show that most people perform better on aerobic tests when paired up with a workout buddy. Pin it to inspiration or good old-fashioned competition, nobody wants to let the other person down. In fact, being part of a team is so powerful that it can actually raise tolerances for things. Even fitness beginners can inspire each other to push harder during a sweat session, so find a workout buddy and get moving! Because we want to inspire you to be the best you in your daily decision making translating that into the best monetary gains you can accumulate as well.

Regular exercise changes the brain to make an overall better you, so you will begin to make better decisions regarding the way your finances are handled as well due to the overall theme of “taking better care of things”  stamped in your mind. So when it comes to spending as we covered last week you will hopefully choose to spend more wisely (reference first article Money Mindset). Now that you have made up in your mind not to buy those $300 sneakers or $1000 pair of heels you can take yourself to exercise(remembering all the aforementioned benefits above) and then take that same amount of money and make a wise investment such as finding a new skill to learn like beginning an exploratory fundamental education about how to start making your money work for you. 

Learn.Invest.Trade

Money Mindset

To those of us that have for years watched news channels, seen little letters beside bright red and green numbers and heard crazy jargon about “The DOW/S&P500/NASDAQ lost XYZ points today” and wondered “What the heck does all that mean?!?!?”, welcome to Dollars and Decisions.

Dollars and Decisions is a product of the minds of traders spanning across different ages and ranges of experience. We aim to create a more user-friendly environment for learning, teaching, and experience about charts and other investment jargon while using day-to-day conversation and understandable language. As you continue to follow us, we also will want to follow you as we trade together.

Money is a sensitive subject for most people because of the infinite range of possible financial situations.  Rather than attempt to address each situation individually, we want to help you obtain a correct view of your finances and keep your emotional intelligence (EQ) in check.

Consumers are powerfully influenced by their emotions and environmental cues, as well as how options are presented to them. By becoming aware of these biases, we could develop a better pattern of thinking and decision making. On a daily basis, consumers spend billions of dollars for different reasons and make trades on the individual stocks/forex markets/mutual funds etc. based on what they think they know, information they’ve read, past market rises and falls as well as their emotional state, which unfortunately often accounts for the biggest portion of decision making. It is important to determine if you’re spending with your heart or your head at the supermarket and especially when investing and trading.

We at Dollars and Decisions understand the significant role that emotions play in any money venture. Our goal is to empower and enlighten you on the trading and investing processes while strengthening the mental aspect that comes with it, resulting in sculpted minds and habits leading to becoming better and more profitable investors/traders.

Before entering the market I took some time to research topics involving ways we spend our money and controlling that, I was able to discover ways to improve my emotional state by first, figuring out what type of spender I was then secondly, getting a grip on that so that I would begin to practice better financial habits.

Once those two key factors were understood and more in my grasp I was then confident enough to begin my trading and investing education. Like you, I had to start somewhere as they always say, because like many of us earning a salary these days is just simply not enough. So, with all of that said let’s get your mind right first and the next time we talk we may begin to talk about your dollars and decisions.

Grab a pen/pencil and some paper/notebook, write these things down so that you have the information in front of you.

  1. Find out what type of spender/consumer you are. (Spender)
  2. Figure out which method would be best for you to begin forming new habits. (Grip)