We Have a Long Way to Go to be Smart

The market opens with a count of 7 to the call. Over the past up market days rebounds and efforts have led this market to a 5 to 7 to the call, but always a waning option cycle strength.

The Dow again reached 9690 as a high, and 9531 as a low. Compare these to our Dow projections which have been "in process" for going on three weeks, showing a market now stuck in a range, hesitant to advance, and every other chartist talking about a fall.

Being on vacation I see an obese America (80% of all people I see on the beach) all reading the same murder mysteries bought at airports, and the majority driving large SUV's or large cars. These are the "moderately affluent to affluent" Americans able to afford to enjoy an exclusive island.

It reminds me of Joe Wlson at Congress with his "you lie," and furthers my thinking that our nation is obese, does not "read," studies soundbites and believes them, and still mostly think hybrid cars are electric plug ins.

We have such a long way to go to be smart.


I am on vacation on an island off Florida. I see the island as "tween the waters," and years ago named my journal for business thinking "tween the waters" because it is true.

We always are. From a psychological point of view the human being is "preparing for a crisis, in the midst of a crisis, or in the aftermath of one." This is "tween the waters." We think we have the answers, and many of us believe in "absolutes," while others work with facts and logic, but only the facts and logic that we KNOW so far. We do not know what we do know. It is this we must learn.
I have had good "face time" with Floyd as I wander beaches, thinking about our financial service businesses, both OEX and Blue Chip Options and what I read in the many emails I receive from subscribers.
Human nature if built around fear and greed, just as the art of negotiation is led by these influences. The more time you can spend thinking about how you, and the market, reacts with FEAR or GREED, the better chance you have of trading successfully.

One of my favorite questions, or comments, from subscribers is: "I sold at 22% and missed out when the option went up 45%."

I'll let you just think about this statement.

This week I plan to be reflective in my comments to you, as I find myself a calm man at 58, trading well, and feeling as if I am helping others. I love my family and my dog. I want to contribute, and find that the articles and blogs on www.bluechipoptions.com continue to offend, argue, and generally act as a provocateur. I am calm by my own training, but relentless and blunt in my opinion. Years spent as the President of a business consulting company that specializes in family business restructuring, and bankruptcies to business development, I've become convinced, for example, that 90% of new small businesses have a great chance of failure (my guess at the %).

I also see what good business can be, and that the art of trade must somehow enter business again. There is so much information now available that we are able to project projections, and it's amusing to watch.