You know…it’s sad because I’ve never been able to relinquish control. I hate ambiguity. It frustrates me. I’d rather receive bad news than no news because then I can use the information to proceed. Life was just one big impatient moment hurrying on to the next.

But recently, I’ve realized that I can’t control my existence. I can’t control those around me. I can’t even control whether or not I’m going to choke on my scrambled eggs tomorrow. Well…at least not completely.  The energy that exists in the world is fluid…it’s conserved, but more importantly, it’s balanced. So, within this finite system of non-linear, chaotic equations, we can only hypothesize one instance of the very many possibilities that could undoubtedly happen. And instead of trying to coerce a situation or expedite the moment, we should interpret and infer from the patterns and decisions of now.

But how do we do this? How do we accomplish this? Easy. Perception. You are who you are, and you or anyone else should never change that. But the power of perception is built off of guidance. It’s why parents want their children to marry doctors, and why men want to drive nice cars. But the power of perception is not about control. It’s about advisement. Parents over-disciplining the prodigal child will only either suppress the child’s spirit or result in mutiny. The same goes with a relationship. The controlling spouse will only increase the resentment that exists between the two. The reason being is that we ourselves cannot control our fate. Excitement is a chemical release of endorphins through external stimulation of which there is no rhyme or reason EXCEPT that which exists based upon the decisions and associations that have been made from past data. Furthermore, the fact that one would encounter something that would get one excited, in itself, is a highly random occurrence. So, how, thus, can we even begin to deterministically fit our pre-conceived circle into this amorphous square.

Instead, advisement, guidance and associative mapping are the only way that we can even begin to control any facet of our lives. But this control is not absolute. It’s not even relative. This control is unbiased. It’s non-linear. It’s…for lack of a better term…unpredictable.

This is where the power of perception comes into play. You see, I never truly understood how powerful sales, marketing & branding truly is. And that’s probably a short-sightedness that has definitely hindered my growth as a person. Becoming a well-rounded person isn’t just about being the most talented, skilled or proficient person, but also about enveloping yourself within your own memorable character. Whether your character is the drunk couch potato or the flamboyantly, straight fashion designer, the power of perception can guide you to your true potential. By embracing your own brand…that which makes you unique…you now allow people to embrace that side of you too.  Thus, even though life is unpredictable, understanding who you are and how you interpret information helps to navigate you through life’s trials and tribulations.

Anyway, right now, I’m just rambling…but the point is that we can’t control our lives or anyone else’s. Instead, we can only rely upon how we refine and guide ourselves (as well as others) based off the information we process  such that that we can build a better perception. Only, then, will we find a little control…

In my family, I was raised with the idea that “B or better” in school was good enough, and that if I won or loss, it didn’t matter as long as I made an effort and learned from my mistakes. And while both of these concepts of making the effort and learning from my mistakes were key to becoming a better person (side note: I am a firm believer that only when you do lose, do you really learn anything), the fact that there was a lack of “fire” in me to actually “need” to win made me extremely passive in the way that I approached school, business and life.

Most kids in their lifetime should know that winning isn’t everything, but they should also know that to survive in the real world, you need to be damn good at what you do if you ever want to separate yourself from the pack. And to continue to separate yourself from the pack, you need to be able to keep on “winning” to do it. As parents, supporting your kid when they lose or get a less than awesome grade on their report card is definitely a must, but the “it’s ok, get it next time” attitude shouldn’t come before they even get the grade.

The same thing goes from when you are about to trade or invest your money. Knowing that you might lose, or having some risk aversion, is definitely a good attitude to approach every trade, and thus hedging your trades is always a good thing. However, never go into a trade or investment thinking you’re going to lose it or that “its ok if I lose it”. If you feel like you’re not experienced enough in a particular technique or facet of investing, or maybe you’re not confident that a particular trade is the best one for your investment goals, don’t do it. Go into every trade and investment with confidence that you’re going to win. And if you don’t, just remember to learn from it, and do it better the next time.

It all starts with your outlook and strategy…if you don’t think you’ll win, you won’t. And in order to keep winning, you need to be the best. So, go out there and try to be the best…

Visit www.marketheist.com for more tips on investing and life.

One of the most interesting thing that I’ve seen in this world is the fact that most people spend (8 hrs at work + 2 hrs driving) * 5 hrs / day = 50 hrs / week working at a job that they most definitely do not enjoy, making barely enough to scrape by in this ever-increasing over inflated economy where the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is getting ripped off, and the rich are getting more and more sneaky at how to evade paying off those ridiculous taxes. There are only 168 hrs per week, and if you listen to the experts that recommend 7-8 hrs / night of sleep, that leaves a little less than 1/3 of your week to do something you actually enjoy. Not to mention the fact that you may not enjoy things such as grocery shopping, bills, cleaning, cooking, health checkups, and other regular maintenance type activities that burden your life. This probably reduces your personal disposable income…err…lifespan…(we’ll call this PDL, that’s right, we’re acronym designers too folks!) to something like…20-25 hrs per wk for a good 40 years of your life (the retirement age is around 62 right now and people get out of college at 22). And then when you retire, you get to “enjoy” your time dealing with HBP, memory loss, decreased physical activity and the monotonous boredom of not being able to 1/4 of the things you could at 25…

Sorry, a little more gloom than I was trying to make this…

Still, the most conventional reason that I see most people use is the “fear” or “security” reasonings. These types of jobs provide stability of barely enough income to provide for your family, “rent” a piece of land or two for you to build your house (because of course when you die, you can’t take that land with you, so you’re really just renting), and then inevitably bring a few un-lucky souls into this world to repeat the morbid process of sub-mediocre life.

But of course you can change that! If stability and fear are what keeps you in your job, then why wouldn’t you spend even a few mintues a day understanding your investments?  Ensure that at least if you’re going to live through this current lifestyle, maybe you can invest well enough such that your children won’t. Or maybe better yet, you could invest yourself into early retirement…?

Oh you don’t think that’s for you? I do. Repetition, basic understanding of investment principles and the grit and determination that you bring every day to a job that you can barely stand can very well be used to benefit you solely in your investments and your life. Just a little help from some trusted professionals can have you bringing home a great “extra” paycheck. Don’t just allow your corporation to benefit from the majority of your hard-work, and make you believe that they’re doing you a big favor in providing a job for you when in actuality the CEO took home most of your paycheck to his multi-million dollar mansion while you go home to your 2 bedroom condo in the borderline ghetto…

Just remember the next time that you sit at your desk at a job that barely peaks your interest, for pay that barely pays your monthly, in a life that barely cracks a smile, that maybe you can make a difference in your own life, and with just with a little extra time, you could dramatically increase your PDL…

Visit www.marketheist.com for investing advice and more tips for your life…

Contrary to popular belief, there’s no difference between us and most other mammals…at least emotionally… We are all driven by stimuli triggered from our inner amygdala that drives our most primal and instinctual motivations and desires. Whether our protective instincts, our uncanny ability to overreact on a bad day, our irreparable nature to empathize with our loved ones, and of course…our ability to fall in lust…

Nurture definitely plays a role in developing the degree to which we react to specific stimuli, but the primal notions already exist. These notions dictate how we react to everything, and at times, it discourages me to think that even the most logical and sophisticated of creatures could become so irate at a logjam of cars piled on the freeway or get so attached to a furry, stuffed bear that resides on our nightstand since we were 4 years old..but it happens…

So the next time that you make a bad decision, have a bad day, step on your favorite childhood t0y and accidentally crack it or “fall in lust” with your favorite stock, just remember that this stuff happens to everyone…the best and the worst…So, the best thing you can do is just pick yourself up, take a deep breath, think of something you’re damn good at, and then go back and analyze the situation so that maybe next time, you won’t be a victim of your primal emoticons…err…emotions…

We are only human, but sometimes we can strive to be a little more robotic…

Visit www.marketheist.com for more information on investing and tips for your life…

The second law of thermodynamic states that within any closed system, entropy never decreases, and thus, in simplest form, systems tend towards higher and higher dis-organization as a function of time… However, after a hard workout at the gym, I find it incredibly interesting that the lockers next to mine are always being accessed at the same time as me. We don’t come at the same time, nor do I take any set classes, yet if I decided to take a Bayesian approach to my decision, I would bet that either the locker to my right, left or above me would be accessed by some other gym patron at the same time that I return from my workout…thus sort of disproving the law of higher entropic systems…right?

Well, not exactly…

The fact of the matter is that most people do two things: (1) take the easiest route possible & (2) don’t like to be the outlier. Furthermore, the locker room system is hardly a closed system, but for arguments sake, let’s stick to the aforementioned reasons. Based on the 2 reasonings above, we can rule out any type of white noise or randomized event generators that would create the purported lemmas to create a probablistic environment necessary for the laws of thermodynamics to hold…

But what this did bring me to is the realization that unlike sub-atomic particles, people will always tend towards decisions that give them comfort, and when possible, make it easiest for them to accomplish a particular task. No one likes to be an outlier or too outside the norm, and when they are, it’s usually at the result of extreme outcasting, ridicule or fundamental beliefs. Furthermore, if there is an easy way out that mostly abides by the rules of the system, people will tend to act in accordance with this too.

So, the next time you invest in a stock, option, future or forex, remember to stick with the trend, and to not over-think or over-analyze the situation passed the market efficient theorem’s basis that all the information you need is readily available at your fingertips because chances are, in this media-friendly world, that what you see is what you get…And in those rare circumstances where you get thrown a curveball, just remember to mitigate your risks with hedging strategies and/or limit losses…

Don’t be the trendsetter, just go with the flow…

Visit www.marketheist.com for more investing advice and tips on life…

Almost everyone at one point or another in their life has dreamed about being wealthy. But few people ever get there, and even fewer of them see it as a means to enact change in this world.  Only the wealthy have the power to make a difference in this world, and that ability to make a difference is an essential part of changing this world…for the better or worse… It’s incredibly difficult, dare I say, impossible, to create any type of a influential movement from the bottom of the wealth chain because the uniting factor is usually a bettering of social, political or economical stature, all of which are usually nicely backed by a hefty funding.

So, what does this have to do with anything? Well, very little…unless you’re one of these people…Making a change through public and/or government channels is often times pointless due to the bureaucracy of the system and the nice pot of private funding that places each candidate into their position, unless a candidate is ready to commit “harry carry” after which case their pretty useless to your cause. But I digress…

To get to my point, there’s always a reason to promote increasing and preserving your wealth based on conventional logical and survival standards such as improved quality of life and social stature, but an added bonus that is often overlooked is the ability and power to influence those around you.

So start now by increasing your awareness of options that surround you for increasing wealth and preserving your assets so that you not only improve your own situation, but possibly those of millions around you.

Visit www.marketheist.com for more information on investing and tips for your life…