The Most Important Thing To Know When It Comes To Trading and Investing Markets

September 21, 2023

When it comes to trading and investing markets, I’ll tell you a secret. The most important piece of data you’ll ever hear about it.

As traders we go long and short. But markets, and the instruments that compose them i.e. stocks and ETFs, trade Long 90% of the time. (Meaning Calls) Because institutions, who do 99% of the investing in markets, always go long, i.e. they are always buying. Not selling or shorting. (Puts)


Think about it: young people go to their local institution and say we’d like to invest our small savings. Meaning BUY. Meaning LONG. Meaning Calls. They don’t go in and say we’d like to take our small savings and go short. Hah! So shorting is a precise skill. Because it can only succeed a mere 10% or less of the time in terms of general markets and their activities.

Of course one can become an expert in shorting (Puts) looking for opportunities to only short (puts) markets and stocks and ETFS. And they can do just as well. But this involves precision and daily attention and activity. Because markets traditionally and in general are always going up.

More later.

The United States National Debt Hits 33 Trillion Dollars

September 20, 2023

The United States National Debt Hits 33 Trillion Dollars for the first time. This is the highest national debt a country has ever had in human history. A staggering sum never fathomed or contemplated.

Read more here:

Of course this could be perfectly fine if the entity, in this case a country, has a strong economy and GDP — how much revenue it collectively produces per year — that could easily pay the debt off at any time. This is expressed as Debt to GDP. It’s a simple ratio that measures an entity’s debt compared to how much it produces in revenue per year if it were to start paying that debt off now. The smaller the number, the better. The larger the number the more difficult it will be for that entity to pay off this debt.

Traditionally when a country reaches a debt to GDP ratio of 50%, lenders start to take notice and become concerned. Greece and Italy are prime examples because they are consistently in the news for flying much higher than 50% and getting into trouble with the EU and their lenders. Germany being the economic powerhouse of the EU — just as the High Command of the Third Reich planned it once World War II started to turn toward an Allied Powers victory (study this; the information is out there — they meticulously planned out how to create a “Fourth Reich” thinly disguised as a unified Europe controlled by Germany. Of course they never foresaw the behemoth the United States would become post a nuclear world… ) — is always left to pick up the debt payments of Italy and Greece and any other European country who falls behind on their debt payments and agreements.

For some reason Japan is allowed to run a debt to GDP ratio of some 250% and nobody seems to mind. [research].

The United States’ debt to GDP is now 129%. The highest it’s ever been is 134% during the Covid Pandemic Recession. This corresponds with other periods when the federal government ran large budget deficits: the Reagan-Bush years of the 1980s and early 1990s; the G. W. Bush years during his “War On Terror” and the 2008 financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession; and the pandemic-caused recession of 2020 during the Trump years when federal debt spiked to an all-time high of the aforementioned 134.8% of GDP.

In terms of the current fiscal year, the United States is as always addicted to spending, with no real feasible plan in place to bring down the debt.

“A Treasury Department report last week showed that the deficit — the gap between what the United States spends and what it collects through taxes and other revenue — was $1.5 trillion for the first 11 months of the fiscal year, a 61 percent increase from the same period a year ago.”

Understanding the Myths of Lost Tribes Of Israel

September 18, 2023

Interesting starter information about the mythic lost tribes of Israel here for those who are curious about it. This subject is necessary to know about only for a contextual understanding of human conversation and historical reading, or for a study of religious folkloric literary devices. Completely unimportant for any other reasons.

Was There A Historical Jesus?

September 17, 2023

Was there a historical Jesus? Well as it turns out, barely. More has been written about a person who we know less about than anyone else in human history.

As historians will attest, we know approximately 3-5 things about the man commonly known as Jesus historically: he was Jewish, he was the brother of James, he lived and died during the first century CE. From there historians are almost unanimous that he was born in Nazareth, not Bethlehem. And that be was executed for sedition by Roman authorities. After that it’s all myth and legend as told by a very large assortment of so called gospels, some approved by the authorities of the christian church presently and some not.

For more check out this video….

On the New Rolling Stones Song “Angry”

September 10, 2023

You can hear the song ”Angry” the first single from the Rolling Stone’s new album in 12 years here.

Chatting with a friend about it… “Fucking a Bob I agreed with everything you felt and said myself. I am sure the Stones tried hard with this one. It’s been 11 years since their last single. The pressure must be enormous. And at 80, they’re taking in something that’s never been done in our rusty rock world. Though one might observe that we are all more than ready for it. Concerns about age, no matter what the reasons are so last century.

The key now is to OWN it. No matter what or who we’re talking about. Don’t try to hide it or mask it or pretend it’s not happening or pretend to be someone or something that you’re not. We’re not in that world anymore. Shit, younger kids feeling lost and left out now are “pretending” to have things to own, just to feel like they’re in the game. Now that’s funny.

I also agree re going on Fallon, hell let’s call it what it is, paying Fallon and better put the Tonight Show Execs to do the grand opening marketing stint on the show was foolish from marketing perspective and extremely uncool from a rock-n-roll perspective. This is the largest collection of short hairs and mainstreams on planet earth and you’re going to choose to try to pimp The Stones?!? To them?!? It screams sold out or worse, never bought in. Definitely not hip or cool. But maybe at 80 that’s where they’re coming from at this point… we don’t know.

We do know they’re old as fuck and still making records. And that’s cool. And sure, the song is just okay and I’d it weren’t the Stones there’s no way in hell we’d be talking about it, let alone even listening to it. So there’s admiration and impressiveness there. For sure. But there’s also recognition that our heroes may never release anything truly good again. And he’ll that’s okay. They gave us enough. And we love them for all of it.

Bored Angry & Unhappy Woke-Obsessed Gen Z’ers Are Intent On Ruining Everything, Just As They Ruined the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final

August 26, 2023

READ THESE PARAGRAPHS FIRST THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK. My comments below. You can guess how I feel.

From the New York Times this morning…

“FIFA, the soccer world’s governing body, said on Saturday that it had provisionally suspended Luis Rubiales, president of Spain’s soccer federation, amid an investigation that he FORCIBLY KISSED the player Jennifer Hermoso after Spain’s Women’s World Cup victory last Sunday.”

“Mr. Rubiales’s kiss at the Women’s World Cup medals ceremony last weekend in Australia — broadcast live to millions — CAST A PALL over the Spanish team’s celebrations, drawing attention away from a proud national moment.”
———————————————————-

[I added the ALL CAPS above over the words I felt were primary to this event.]

Cast a pall?!?! Seriously? Over Spain 🇪🇸 winning their very first ever Women’s World Cup in the Most Beautiful Game?!?! What the heck has happened to humanity?!? How did we get here??? Is this US? All of us?!?! Or is this just Woke-crazed bored-ass Gen Z doing all this??? We’re watching an incredible game, my beloved England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 team gets beat by a better Spain 🇪🇸 and we cannot help but feel as elated as the happy Spaniards!!! It was exciting and amazing and breathtaking!!! Our human spirit filled with thrills and chills and celebration 🎉!
And then a few lonely bored attention-needing Woke-hungry Gen Z’ers who obviously don’t like football focus instead on the spanish director kissing one of the players, a moment that lasted less than 1 second, in all the jubilation, and that’s it…, they’ve completely ruined the moment and event for Spain and the entire world.
A normal everyday thing we see in sport all the time. 2 men footballers win a tough match. They run all over the field screaming and whooping it up, take off their shirts, grab each others sweaty bodies and hug and kiss each other, maybe they make funny faces because they didn’t mean to kiss but they don’t care because they’re celebrating, they slap each others butts, they slide on the ground, they’re celebrating!!! We say nothing. Because we get it. The human spirit has been lifted to other worldly heights.
What the hell happened here that was so “bad” to this new breed of terribly annoying bum-rushing woke a+*holes?!?! How the hell did they miss the whole point of the event? To be that absent from the reality we were all experiencing and instead focus on something so small and insignificant..?
I had to watch video clips of the exact moment 5 times before I even noticed it!!!
And now this poor girl, Hermoso, will spend the rest of her life having to be known for and speak about getting kissed instead of being a good footballer!!! Not because she wants to. But because others will force her to. These fockers have ruined her career, completely changed the trajectory of her life. How sad this is for her.
The spanish director will be fine. He’ll serve his 90 day suspension and come back and keep winning. If he’s smart he’ll rightfully ignore media questions about that 1 second moment and focus his answers on football.
But the girl…. Her name will now go down in Woke history and will only be known for “being forcibly kissed by a dude”. No one will ask about her playing style or her incredible win over England in 2023. Damn that sucks.
What i wonder is… is this all of us? Most of us? Or is this just these bored unhappy little Woke-obsessed Gen Z’ers?!?!
I dont know about you but I am SO over their Woke movement. We were all on board 5-6 years ago. I was in the STREETS and on the PHONES with congress and the White House for MeToo and BLM!!! But they’ve swung this pendulum WAY TOO FAR now.
It’s been ugly, admittedly. And it’s getting more ugly. These little aholes are angry and unhappy with their lives and deliberately trying to ruin other people’s lives. It’s sick and perverted. And yet the media is still running with it, enlarging and exaggerating it even further.

World War III Watch — Breaking: China-Led BRICS Alliance Adds Six New Countries

August 24, 2023

Just announced this morning, The BRICS Group Has Invited SIX new Nation State Members, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, to join its roster, expanding Its reach as an alternative global super power. These six new countries have been invited to join the Chinese and Russian led club of emerging nations, strengthening its role as a geopolitical alternative to Western-led forums. The BRICS group — think an alternative NATO — is already composed of the countries Brasil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Though the group of eleven countries just met in South Africa at the fifteenth annual BRICS Forum in South Africa, the newest member states to be invited have not formally joined BRICS, implying that the United States and its European allies have a chance in the coming months to massage differences and offer incentives to said countries in order to keep diplomatic ties and strengthen relationships between them and NATO allies.

What this illustrates more than anything is how important the next presidential election in the United States is and how much work that person and cabinet will have in order to try to cool things off on the geopolitical scene, and hopefully stopping BRICS from growing any further. No easy feat.

Watch GZERO’s Ian Bremer discuss this potential new BRICS expansion on youtube here: https://www.gzeromedia.com/quick-take/the-new-brics-expansion-and-the-global-south-agenda

Read more in New York Times article below:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/24/world/europe/brics-expansion-xi-lula.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Read more about it on CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/24/business/saudi-arabia-brics-invitation-intl

It Is Vital For the Future Of American Democracy to Ignore the Slave Staters i.e. Republican Party

August 23, 2023

Since even before it’s founding as an independent nation, America has always been two different countries, with two very different populations and two very different sets of morals and values. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Just As It Was 250 Years Ago, It Is Vital For the Future Of American Democracy to Ignore the Slave Staters i.e. Republican Party

A small number of friends have made note that the slave staters are holding a debate tonight and have asked me if I’ll be watching it. But there is not a chance of that. My viewpoint is we, the intelligent educated and compassionate populace of the United States are DONE with the slave state party.

They’re no longer relevant since Donald Trump demolished the Republican Party six years ago and any relevance it had as a viable political party in the United States. And the RNC directors know it. Media outlets report zero interest in any news related to the Republican Party, yet still report on their goings on in order to offer full and fair coverage of both parties.

This, their attempt to run another series of debates to somehow oust Trump from the lead, just like six years ago, is a sham and a circus. And everyone knows it. Their platform which at one point 50 years ago perhaps was valid, but is now so convoluted and muddied that nobody even knows what Republican means anymore. (Though we have an idea… See below.)

The most important thing we the educated intelligent and compassionate of America can do is ignore anything Republican and anyone who professes to be Republican. They have slowly transformed over the last 40 years into an inhumane and corrupt group in intention and practice, even if a few naive and innocent few don’t realize it.

Republicans in practice deliberately allow and support mass shootings every day in the United States — every Republican member of Congress and the Senate accepts annual bribes from the NRA by the millions. Killing hundreds of innocent people a year under the guise of “freedom to buy and own guns”.

Republicans overtly defend and support the genocide of millions of Palestinians by the apartheid government of Israel because they believe that “the state of Israel needs to exist” in order for their “messiah to return a second time”. Regardless of how childish this fairytale sounds, they believe it and support Israel at all costs to both the detriment of the Islamic citizens of Israel and the threat it poses to global peace and stability.

The environment global warming climate crisis

Having overturned Roe Vs, Wade without any safety rails or laws to protect the sick or innocent they are deliberately forcing poor young rape victims to have babies they do not want, even in cases of incest or impending death. They are also notoriously anti-MeToo movement. How could they not be considering their stated president of choice is one of the worst perpetrators of assaults on women..? There is nothing more invasive and inhumane than a government forcing half its population to have their physical bodies under state control. In this practice, sealed by law, the United States is no different than Iran or Saudi Arabia et al. Deplorable.

Republicans deliberately block black and brown skinned people from basic human and equal rights in the country. They are anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-government assistance programs, and despicably diehard defenders of Confederate monuments scattered all over the country.

Republicans do everything in their power to block equal rights progress for LGBTQ citizens because they claim it goes against their religious beliefs.

Republicans refuse to allow any other religion other than their white bread Slave-Stating old fashioned bigoted Christianity into the fold in our great melting pot which once upon a time promised religious freedom for all.

Republicans are immigrants themselves but erroneously believe that any new immigrants coming into our country are somehow not entitled to the same freedoms they benefited from by coming here and making a new life for themselves.

Republicans deliberately defend and protect police officers all over the nation who torture and murder black and brown people, spending billions of dollars and millions of man hours to assure murderous police officers go free regardless of how heinous their crimes are.

Republicans conflate “capitalism” with “democracy” in order to confuse their party members into believing that any beneficial government sponsored programs such as universal healthcare is “socialism” and inherently “bad” or “dangerous”. Their stated goal is to rid Americans of all social safety nets and gleefully watch as millions of Americans get sick and die in the streets.

Republicans do NOT deserve to be heard nor counted. It is vital that we ignore them so the statistics of anything they do whether on television or radio or podcasts or online show that the viewership is low, that there is no interest in them or what they have to say and that they have no relevant voice in the nation.

This is essential for our future. Just as it was 250 years ago when we mistakenly attempted to reconcile and unite with them to form a country. That plan backfired 100 years later. And hundreds of thousands sadly lost their lives solely because of them.

Americans cannot afford another four years of Trump or anyone else from this wicked group of religious zealots and monsters. The entire world believes this and is terrified of our country once again falling into the hands of these corrupt, unintelligent people. We must protect the country and ourselves and our families by ignoring them. Give them zero attention particles.

People In Severe Pain In the U.S. Should Not Suffer Because of Bad Governance & Cowardly Doctors In the Opioid Epidemic

August 19, 2023

From a FB Spinal Surgery Support Group I’ve been in the last few months, pr

New Post:
6 weeks post op L2-L-5 decompression and fusion. Dr stopped my meds suddenly. Still having pain in thigh, lumbar spine, and swelling on my ankle. How could he do that? Has this happened to anyone else? What do I do? The pain is excruciating still. Help.

Me:
I went through this same thing before my surgery. Mine was L4/L5 Fusion, little more than 2 weeks ago. My orthopedic and pain management doc only gave me Tylenol 3. Which obviously didn’t work. As if i were a 10 year with a tooth ache. He should not be allowed to practice for that. Period.
He knew and stated in writing many times over 6 months that I was in level 8 pain (I reserve level 9-10 for things like torture) in order to get me injections (which the insurance company refused due to wanting me to have surgery). Yet he still only gave me Tylenol 3. And told me point blank he did that because he was “afraid of the state medical board”.
He was the third pain management doctor to tell me that behind closed doors. My first ortho doc closed the door to his office and said “look, with your disease you need opioids. But I’m only going to give you Tramadol, which will be too weak for your level of pain. But every weekend on the golf course we hear of another doctor who lost their license for giving their patients opioids for pain. I dont want to be one of them. So I’m sorry. Go online if you have to.”
I went public with it. And then had people from all over the world sending me their meds, mainly pain meds and steroids. That started in September. I’ll never forget that first day in September. My pain went down to level 4 just from having real medicine. It was a revelation. Once I experienced what it felt like to have real medicine for a disease with real severe pain of that level, I started ordering pain meds and steroids from online pharmacies in the UK Canada and India. This kept me going in order to get through all those medical appointments until the surgery.
Without those pain meds I would not have been able to walk to get to the doctors or surgeons appointments. Not a chance. As the deformity and deterioration progressed Pre-surgery I was limping on both legs as it was and the pain was increasing. So the Tylenol 3 prescription became an afterthought. That doctor became an afterthought. Because he was, quite literally, useless. Only my two surgeons understood.
I do not believe that we should suffer because the government effed up and took the easy way out trying to solve the opioid epidemic. Unlike the EU, congress just banned pain medicine for everyone — all 350 million of us. Even those of us in dire life threatening pain.
It is NOT our fault that the US government was lazy, ill advised and shortcutted the solution and failed in their duty to serve. It is not our responsibility as patients with real life viable pain to suffer because of bad governance or cowardly doctors.
Your doctor is only doing that because he or she is a self-serving coward frightened of losing his or her license. They either stick up for their patients — as they swear an oath to do. Or they torture them by not providing the right medications. And then gaslight us by acting as if we should be happy with Tylenol and NSAIDs. It’s shameful.
In your case he chose the latter. It’s sad and it’s infuriating to read stories like yours. I’m so sorry for what you are going through.
Whatever you do, don’t feel bad about asking for what you need as a patient. Or as a human. You deserve no less than the best healthcare the system has. Which in our case are opioid pain medicines, muscle relaxers and steroids until you feel better. Demand it. Talk to friends and family. And/or order online.
We all need to speak up about this. The NYT just released a major article about this. We are not alone. People care. And they are starting to listen.
Most importantly we all need to be talking about this more to make more people aware of what’s happening. This is a crisis. Caused by dereliction of duty and cowardice.