What I must remember from this book is the difference between a gambler (in it for fun) a better (in it to be right and protect his ego), a trader, a What I must remember from this book is the difference between a gambler (in it for fun) a better (in it to be right and protect his ego), a trader, a Speculator and an investor. A speculator is a person who thinks and reflects before acting. He chooses a path, imagining all kinds of scenarios, good and bad and knows before hand what to do before something good or bad happens. What you need is a plan and an escape route before entering a trade. When you analyze the data, give it a meaning, incorporating it into your view, your plan, your goals, your time frame for the trade, and knowing your life goals, committing to it by writing it down and reviewing it periodically, you are on top of your game as can be. Otherwise you give in to crowd psychology by being 1- hypnotized by market sentiment and the action of others, loss of critical and personal thinking and increased susceptibility to external influences. 2- then by falling prey to suggestion, be it others, market, analysts, financial news or peers. This means acting on emotion rather than well thought out plan 3- then following blindly a path or the crowd, rationalizing your decisions and starting to show signs of poor judgments, and exposing yourself to all kinds of deceptions. You should read The Crowd from Charles Le Bon. Seems a very good book. I have learned more about crowd and market psychology in this book then all other books announcing they are about market psychology, which they are not at all. When you search, plan, analyze and make decisions on your own observations, you are doing your homework, you are a speculator in the good sense of the word. So plan your trade and plan your exit from the market to reduce the amount of money losses and especially to avoid being wiped out. Being one more day in the market is the only way to stay in the market to continue making profit. ...more
Overall a good book. Here are the main ideas: focus on things you can actually control, add a margin for luck and risk. There is a major difference beOverall a good book. Here are the main ideas: focus on things you can actually control, add a margin for luck and risk. There is a major difference between wealthy and rich. The rich spend money on luxury items, they don't go unnoticed, but in spending their money in flashy fashion they are on the road to become poor again. The wealthy plan way ahead, living under their means, they prefer humility and frugality to boasting egos and impressing the neighbors. Being wealthy is more about a certain outlook than an exuberant lifestyle. Manage your money in a way that helps you sleep at night. The single best thing you can do in investing is expanding your time horizon in the market. Nothing is more powerful than compounding interests. Always keep an eye on your overall portfolio. A lot can go wrong, but it suffice that a small minority of things account for the majority of the outcomes. Use money to gain control over your time. The ability to do what you want with whom you want for as long as you want is really the ultimate freedom you should be striving for. Building a habit of saving is the mindset of wealthy people. Being in the market has a financial cost like having a business. You will have uncertainties, doubts and regrets. Your losses are fees not fines. Losing some money, some of the time is part of the game. It is the price to pay for the learning curve. Don't avoid trying strategies to avoid risk or losses. Give yourself plenty of room for error. Endurance in the market is the single most important thing. To stay in the market, you must preserve your overall capital. Avoid being wipe out at all costs. So take some risk, it's part of the business, but no ruinous risks. For me the single most important part that resonated with me was this: define the game you are playing, day trader, swing trader, long term investor ? Define your goals: saving for car, house, retirement, helping your kids ? Set your strategy according to your goals, your outlook and your risk tolerance. The answer to all of this will be unique. Then make sure your action are not influenced by people playing a different game. They my look richer, bigger, they may take opportunity to higher levels, they may be better positioned, but you don't know their goals or where they come from. So build your plan according to your vision, your strategies and your needs and don't try to emulate what others are doing, they may have tighter time frame, more risk tolerance, they may be on a path of bankruptcy and so on. Don't be envious and leave your FOMO alone. Have fun! If you are smart, reasonable, and informed, give yourself space for mistakes and save on the long term, you can be doing something very different from the neighbor and that is fine. There is no single right answer, just the one that works for you....more
Very instructive reading for serious investors. I have learned alot on basic competences that I never heard of before, some chapters were over my headVery instructive reading for serious investors. I have learned alot on basic competences that I never heard of before, some chapters were over my head like when talking about the warrants. I have taken a lot of notes and will make a list of things to keep in mind when buying securities. A foundational book for anyone interested in the market operations....more
**spoiler alert** This story is so rich! It's an illustration of "Memento Mori", a motive going back to Antiquity, and meaning "Remember that you are **spoiler alert** This story is so rich! It's an illustration of "Memento Mori", a motive going back to Antiquity, and meaning "Remember that you are mortal". You can find skulls in painting during Middles Ages there many paintings and pictures, even to this day, representing a young women with a half of her in plain flesh and the other half as a skeleton. It's always the same idea : "Remember, you are dying". In the Middle Ages, Death was way more prevalent as famine, plagues epidemies, wars and harsh conditions took their toll on the population. The front page of the book is an illustration of Memento Mori with the little girl full of Life and Death itself.
Spoiler Alert! I read no interpretation of this story in the comments so far, so here's mine. The little girl in running from a great danger never mentioned in the tale. On the second level, I guess this little girl has died one night and her soul crossed the forest, called by Death. She arrives at this castle and meets a skull and befriends him. Why is she not scared of it ? Because she herself is dead too. Her friendship with death is her soul accepting her new state. She protect her new friend from the macabre aspect of death by pushing the skeleton down the tower, smashing the bones and burning them, affirming symbolically, with emphasis the natural ending of every living thing, telling us in fact we should not be scared of death. She then proceed to accept her final fate by staying with her new friend without being afraid of anything, simply enjoying her new friendship and the state that will be hers for eternity. This story represents the high maturity level of those who wholly accept the natural cycle of life with no religious blinders. I could be wrong! Tell me your interpretation! ...more
Being persuaded that there is no such thing as essence, that everything is transitory, that we are mere interchangeable processes and that my ego is nBeing persuaded that there is no such thing as essence, that everything is transitory, that we are mere interchangeable processes and that my ego is not something I’m trying to cultivate, makes me naturally way more detach from my money than the author has ever been from his in his life time. So this author tries to explain in great details, some basic psycho-pop logical stuff in the first half of the book. The main ideas that I take from this book are: you are 100% responsible for your action, your decisions, your gain and your losses. The market is not after you or against you. It contains information and moves in unpredictable ways totally ignoring your hopes of becoming rich. The pain and suffering is in your brain only.
Be aware of your reactions when you lose and when you win. Fear and elation are two powerful emotions that can act has blinders and skew your interpretation of facts. Don’t try to win or beat the market or impress your neighbor, just stay available and take advantage of perceived opportunities. Do your best without being affected by good or bad outcome. Stay focus and alert. Predefine your risk, cut your losses and take profit systematically. This books makes me realize that I don’t think about my bad positions enough. I need to focus on the positions that have gone down and won’t come back up anytime soon. It’s time to take a good hard look at them and liquidate them once and for all. This is my blind spot and I need to be more aware of it in the future.
The 5 Fundamental Truths of Trading:
1. Anything can happen.
2. You don’t need to know what is going to happen next to make money.
3. There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge.
4. An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another.
5. Every moment in the market is unique.
The 7 Principles of Consistency:
1. I objectively identify my edges.
2. I predefine the risk of every trade.
3. I completely accept the risk or I am willing to let go of the trade.
4. I act on my edges without reservation or hesitation.
5. I pay myself as the market makes money available to me.
6. I continually monitor my susceptibility for making errors.
7. I understand the absolute necessity of these principles of consistent success and, therefore, I never violate them....more
All in all a good introduction to the concept of nonduality for me and many interesting tidbit about self realization. The following are reflexions anAll in all a good introduction to the concept of nonduality for me and many interesting tidbit about self realization. The following are reflexions and is not in anyway an outline of the book. Saying the Self is eternal and immutable is in contradiction with the first of the three marks of existence in buddhism. For Ramana, there is nothing else than the Self. He equates the Self with Being, and the God concept (which is a carryall concept, especially when it is not defined). His philosophy is a kind of subjective idealism (solipsism) applied to the universe considered as a whole. This idea is repeated over and over without much deepening. The Self is Being, it can be said to be eternal in the sense that since there is something, there is always a being in existence. Being, no more, no less is a facet of Oneness and therefore eternal, always present. In this aspect, you can realize you are without form and unlimited, just because you are. Being, you are just like anything else that is being. This beingness is the Self, the mat on which your body and mind are wagging and rattling all day. The Self is reified in a metaphysical concept by this explanation. Ramana equates the states of realization or only being with dreamless sleep: no ego, no desires, just being. But how can you experiment no separateness when the language is based on dual thinking ? Non duality must be experimented alone, without words. The I thought implies duality, therefore by uprooting the I thought, all other thoughts are uprooted as well. (Looks simple but…). Question the I thought. Who am I? Find the source. Nonduality is without opposition, there cannot be anything separate from it. The I is the Self, there is no such thing as the I. When the mind has reached a certain state of abidance living, the I is extinguished. Even seeking denotes duality. You must realize the pure undifferentiated being of the Self or Absolute. But according to Buddhism, there no essence, no inherent existence, everything is dependently originated, and void in itself, even time, even gods. So what is this Self? So how is this “Self” standing out and being “eternal”? Nonduality stems naturally from everything being dependently originated, without god, without Self, without any vague concept. Being allergic to metaphysical concept, I had a hard time with this “Self” thing. The fundamental elements of the Dharma, namely dependent origination, emptiness and impermanence already explain pretty much all there is to understand. Nonduality can be an interesting tool to work selflessness in trying to abide without the I concept. “The perception of the Absolute, the substratum, will not be obtained until the perception of the relative – which is a superimposition on the real Self – is viewed as unreal. Only the Self is everlastingly real.” In my perception, the body and mind are very real, it doesn’t mean one must identify with them. If everything is dependently originated, a flower is not full of flowerness, it’s full of water, sun and gardener’s care, but you can search flowerness all over it without finding it. The flower is still there, an emanation of other stuff. So without perceiving any metaphysical concept, you must understand body and mind are not you, because “you” is an emerging property, a concept to facilitate exchanges with other human beings, a result of different forces and causes. There is no human essence in humanity or in people, or in me because there is no essence at all. If there is no essence, all matter is undifferentiated. Even the Sun, even time, even God. So out the Absolute, out the Self. At one point in the book, the author talks about picking a flower apart, saying that you won’t find “flower” in any parts of the plant. No one parts makes it a flower. It’s just a conventional label, there is no flower soul, metaphysical flower or whatever. It makes me all the more appreciate Life, and my life.
From Dreaming To Waking. This section is a painful explanation of the first part of the book by Robert Wolfe trying to render Ramana’s teaching accessible to all. It’s very repetitive at first. Raman’s teaching was eye opening on the nonduality subject matter. Where there is nothing for me to glean is when he says that the Self or this Being-ness thing is the only eternal and infinite Real thing. A well understood Dharma explains all this stuff without the crutch of any metaphysical concepts which cannot digest as an atheist. If I replace “Self” with “Life”, everything makes sense to me. I have learned to tame the nondual concept and to approach a way of thinking where the egocentric self is not the center of the universe anymore. While I always have the sense of me and I, I’m a part of everything that surrounds me, my neighborhood, the Earth, the universe, and through me the universe or God or the Self is acting, breathing, living. “For the person who has realized, whatever he does is for “others” only.” ...more
**spoiler alert** Stephen Batchelor is like a jeweler whose ambition is to extract the gem of what has been termed “buddhist philosophy” in a secular **spoiler alert** Stephen Batchelor is like a jeweler whose ambition is to extract the gem of what has been termed “buddhist philosophy” in a secular way, away from poetic, dramatic or mythic voices. Instead, in a skeptical, pragmatic and modern voice, he tries to answer the question: what is the dharma today for a secular age ? If we try to extract the dharma from it’s historical, orthodox, canonical, confined matrix, how would it speak to the modern mind? How would its perspective stand out among other discourses in building an ethical, contemplative and philosophical view ? His study and answer to this question is nothing short of exhilarating and remarkable. Firstly let’s put aside all philosophies about the concept of Being which led throughout history to metaphysical concerns and dogmatic answers from Plato to just about all philosophers until Nietzsche. Language and knowledge transmission seems to lead to anchored beliefs and fixed knowledge. Silence, meditation and compassionate action encompass more of the human experience as a whole than just knocking someone out with vast superior knowledge in the way European metaphysics has done in the last 2 millenniums. So let’s put aside all Ultime Truth and Definitive Answers. Essentially, a secular approach of the dharma is concerned with how humans can flourish in this biosphere here and now while cultivating a sensibility to the everyday sublime. Far from a set of truth, the darma asks: What is the wisest and most compassionate thing to do in everyday situations? To help us in this endeavor are the 4 P’s: first, the principle of conditionality, second, practice of the fourfold task: 1- embrace the tragic dimension of life (impermanence of everything, no inherent existence for anything, dissatisfaction with the overall conditions of a fleeting everchanging life), 2- let go of automatic reactivity, 3- behold the ceasing of reactivity 4- cultivate the eightfold path), third, the perspective of mindful awareness, fourth, the power of self-reliance. So basically people go through life mindlessly, repeating over and over again the same behavioral patterns, unable to get out of the rut, seemingly unable to even become aware of their zombi state apart from some brief moments before ending in the grave. They cling to their sutuation, etnicity, culture, nation, city or town, social position and ersonal identity without ever seeing their foundation. Their engagement in this world is a compulsion not a conscious effort. This one dimension is called samsara. The other dimension discloses the possibility of a life no longer determined by reactivity or habitual inclinations, but this requires a constant effort towards stilling of inclinations and fading away from reactivity, which are the twofold ground of the dharma. “Leaving home” means detaching oneself in a way of relating to one's home or situation rather than repudiating it and physically leaving it to go elsewhere. It is the change of heart, the transformation in your fundamental relationship to life itself in the pursuit of a spiritual vocation which is evidence of an entry into the dharma. Your situation in this life is comforting but it must not be establish to the detriment of the foundation. In periods of crisis, your situation becomes visibly fragile. In those moments you can feel the abyss of the ground, the foundation. When the dharma is clearly visible, immediate, inviting, uplifting, to be personally sense by the wise, this is how you know the dharma is there in your life. This is nirvana immediately present here and now as a ground to live one life. Nirvana is seeing everything in another light, not discovering an ontological Truth. Gotama compares the practice of dharma to the skill of the artisan. Dharma requires skill. Anyone can experiment nirvana, not just trained meditators. Nirvana can also be the experience of understanding reactivity which thereby gaining control over it. Consciously affirm and valorize those moments when we see for ourselves that we are free to think, speak, in way not determined by reactivity. A sage lives from the fertility of a ground that responds creatively and spontaneously to the conditions of life. What I like about this book is that it separates the Christian views on Buddhism from the actual message of the buddha from another time, another culture with other intentions. Something occidentals, blinded by 2 milleniums of faith into Christianity can’t easily achieve in general. There a lot more to this book and I will let you discover for yourself this secular dharma that anyone can understand and apply in his life, mixed with care and a caring mentality for the greater good of everyone and the bright future of the planet if such a thing is meant to be. Happy exploration!
Écrit juste après la crise de 2008, tout ce que contient ce livre est plutôt intéressant et fort vraisemblable, mais le contenu s'apparente davantage Écrit juste après la crise de 2008, tout ce que contient ce livre est plutôt intéressant et fort vraisemblable, mais le contenu s'apparente davantage à la diatribe d'un auteur sur le bord de la dépression nerveuse qu'à un ouvrage constructif pour celui qui veut apprendre à mieux naviguer les méandres de Wall Street. Pour chacun des 86 mensonges, j'aurais voulu une réflexion positive, une sorte de solution, un autre versant de la médaille, ou un "positive twist" mais non, le livre reste désespérément silencieux à ce sujet. Les marchés sont déréglementés, rien n'empêche un terrible krash, il est difficile de faire de l'argent et impossible de battre les marchés, les emplois sont délocalisés dans les pays en développement ce qui explique la forte progression du marché dans les années 2000 (les profits étant réalisé sur le dos des travailleurs et non à cause de la croissance des entreprises) et la crise des subprimes était prévisible, tou le monde est corrompu des banques aux agences de cotation, aux politiciens et les lobbies des grosses entreprises contrôlent le Sénat et le congrès, la dette américaine est ingérable et le marché ne se relèevera pas de la crise. Un petit chapitre final illustre quelques solutions techniques irréalisables et l'auteur nous enjoint d'arrête de mentir et de devenir honnête. Bon, voilà, je vous ai sauvé du temps, allez lire autre chose!...more
Lu attentivement les 150 premières pages et survolé le reste. Intéressant pour les néophytes qui se demandent s'ils veulent investir en bourse. Je retLu attentivement les 150 premières pages et survolé le reste. Intéressant pour les néophytes qui se demandent s'ils veulent investir en bourse. Je retiens les 5 quesitons à se poser avant d'investir en bourse et les 10 principes d'investissement. Le livre est plutôt axé sur les stratégies de fonds mutuels ou fonds communs de placement, ETF et pas beaucoup sur les plateformes de courtage en ligne pour les investisseurs un peu plus autonomes....more
Guide général pour qui s'intéresse au monde de la finance et des investissements. On y trace un portrait et une philosophie engageante pour rendre pluGuide général pour qui s'intéresse au monde de la finance et des investissements. On y trace un portrait et une philosophie engageante pour rendre plus accessible le monde de la finance, des cashflow, des lois fiscales, des actifs et passifs, de la notion de risque relative et de la manière d'investir en faisant ses devoirs consciencieusement à chaque étape du développement de l'entrepreneur en herbe. La matière aride est rendue vivante par les explications biographiques de l'auteur. Le cadrant E-T-P-I (Employé-Travailleur autonome-Propriétaire et Investisseur) rend les processus et flux de gestion de l'argent clairs à différents niveaux; de l'employé qui travaille dur et qui dépense tout son chèque paie, au milliardaire qui accède à des opportunités réservées à un club sélect. Ce livre ne fera pas de vous un investisseur chevronné, mais il trace les grandes lignes de ce à quoi un parcours peut ressembler pour quelqu'un se trouvant du côté P-I du cadrant. Étant néophyte en la matière, j'ai trouvé cette lecture passionante....more
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