Thursday, July 19, 2012

Thank God I bought DBA

Yesterday, I switched out of CORN which is a fund that only buys corn futures and got into DBA which is a fund that invests in all agriculture. My positions went up and corn went down. I also bought more, out of the money, calls. I'm in position to make a lot of money if the grains and meat keep going up. I think they will.
I'm reading 2 books, now. One has a title " If Success were a game These are the Rules". The other one is about "Creative Visualization". As usual I'm trying to improve my lot in life. They both have me thinking about what I really want in life. After all, how will I know that I'm a success if I don't have a sensible goal.
In Harvey Eker's book I told myself that success is having 2 million dollars, with an income of $200,000/year. That still seems sensible to me. I do think that a person should be comfortable during their declining years. I may have set my goal a little out of reach. My subconscious may be rebelling. I don't know what I would really need all that much anyway. I just need a nice condominium on the west coast of Costa Rica. I could probably get there with $100,000 and a nice income from my bonds would be adequate as well.
If Delphi starts paying on the bonds I could get $36,000/year on them alone.
That should be enough to get by. Maybe I should set my sights lower?
Later

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Sunday night at Culvers

Well, it's Sunday night and I'm eating ice cream at Culvers. It's a chain restaurant in the Mid West that specializes in something called the "Butter Burger". It's a burger with extra butter on the bun.
I'm a little anxious because I'm betting on corn going up. I made $400 last week and I bought more options. So far, the price seems to be heading up. The market in Asia shows corn being up by $ .26. I'm hoping to make $1000, tomorrow.
My car is giving me troubles. If the market for corn still looks good tomorrow morning, I'll take it to Dan's and use my credit card to have it fixed. That probably means that I'll be waiting at Java Johns to hear what is being done with my car. Here is a picture of the staff at Java Johns. Mary is on the left, then Clare, then Kristin. Kristin doesn't work there much anymore. I think she was just filling in for Meg.
That's about all that's happening. I'll spend a sleepless night hoping that corn prices in China transfer to the USA and I make a bunch of money. My car is broken again and tomorrow I'll overdose on coffee at Java Johns. Nothing new.
Later

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Delusions and Trading

It's a hot Sunday at the Co-op and I'm just thinking about whether or not I can justify my trading. I'm afraid that I might be trading based on delusion rather than sense. My only good time for trading, late 2010, was during a time that the market moved up and I would have made as much as I did by simply having it in an index fund.I do myself the most harm by bouncing in and out of the market. Macro events move me around and I get greedy, trying to take advantage of the latest fad like Facebook.
I'm now hoping that oil goes down and corn goes up.Until last Friday, oil was in a down trend and corn may be facing a drought.If I'm wrong I could lose another $500 tomorrow. I can't afford this crap any more. Maybe I should just get out and forget about it.
One of the problems is that I have poor sources of information. Most of the time, the market makes a big move and I find out why fifteen minutes to half an hour later. I just don't have a good track for inside information that others have. I also use tainted info. The media sensationalizes everything so I may have a tendency to jump into things that I should stay out of, like corn and Facebook. I also don't have to resources to diversify my portfolio enough to be relatively safe. I don't know if there is a way to diversify enough to be safe from a European- based down turn. Everything seems to move in lockstep, anyway. Maybe I should just find a woman who can support me in the manner in which I've become accustomed. Since I'm used to poverty, that shouldn't be that difficult.
Ingrid just left. Boy has she blossomed. I remember when she was a skinny little girl. Now she has filled out and turned into a Nordic goddess. I look forward to seeing her every time I'm at the Co-op. There is something about the girls at the Co-op which is just better than elsewhere. They seem a little healthier.Maybe it's the organic food.
I read something on the Internet, today, that said that 20 minutes of wind sprints,twice a week were better for weight loss than hours of walking. I might try it. It doesn't involve to much time and it seems like I could get a lot out of it. I just have to find a place for it. I think I'll go to the bike path by the fish hatchery. It's a bit hot today so I might not do it now.
Later.