Tolerance

I was reading the posts at a website regarding the whole Jon Stewart/Cramer face off and by the time I got to the end of all the partisan bickering between commentors, I decided to leave a post of my own. Here's an excerpt:

I am an independent and it always amuses me to watch extremists on both sides try to convince each other their side is right. Here's a hint... when someone is set in their viewpoint, your best arguments will have no effect, so don't waste your time. This is the partisan crappy world we've created for ourselves, now we have to live with it. The age of reasonable and respectable debate disappeared with the arrival of the 24 hour news cycle.

Both sides are always sure they are right because otherwise they would believe something else. No one sets out to believe things they think are wrong.

I tend to follow people who merely LEAN one way or the other because they tend to base their arguments less on emotion and more on reason. I tend to watch people who don't take themselves too seriously or whose sole agenda seems to be to spread hate and divisiveness(ann coulter, anyone?)

Therefore, I watch both Scarborough and Stewart. I watch both Maher and Huckabee. Whether you agree with their views or not does not make one or the other wrong. No one can define wrong as long as there are two sides... you can only define your side. The truth and the answer for everyone lies somewhere in the middle. This is called consensus. Something our society has forgotten about.

If conservatives are upset they have no one funny to defend their side, watch Dennis Miller. Since 9/11, he's all for you.

I realize that my post could also be wrong. Maybe the liberal is right... maybe the conservative... The point I was trying to make is that 'right' and 'wrong' are, for the most part, subjective. I try to live by the golden rule, i.e. "Do onto others..." etc. I TRY! But I don't even consider that rule an absolute. Obviously, I believe the world is gray. Black and white thinkers tend to drive me crazy. The best I think we can do, as a society, is to come to a consensus about the rules we want our society to follow, but still allow for the rules to be changed when they no longer serve the common good. Why is this so hard?

Well, for starters, too many people in this country have bought into the 'my way or the highway' thinking that, quite frankly, the previous administration aggressively promoted. We've forgotten how to 'respectfully disagree' and instead attack each other as 'absolutely wrong!' We love watching shows where two people with opposing viewpoints tear each other apart. Or we only watch shows that promote our own viewpoint and reinforce our beliefs without hearing a fair representation of the other side.

I understand why this occurs. Hearing someone parrot our views makes us feel good. We like to feel 'right.' But our views, remaining unchallenged, turn into mental tablets of stone, clouding our thinking until we are sure our way is the only right one. This is part of what is destroying the fabric of our society. It is the kind of thinking that caused this -- intolerance for someone else's beliefs, fueled by anger, and acted out in hate. It causes Republicans to go after Dems when they are in power instead of working with them, and vice versa. It causes chaos instead of unity.

How arrogant is it that we deny someone else the right to have an opposing viewpoint? How ridiculous is it that if someone's viewpoint is different, we have to label it as 'sinful' or 'liberal'(usually said with a sneer), or 'traitorous.'

I have been guilty of this kind of thinking myself, as I have a low tolerance for those with a low tolerance of others! Fundamentalist Christians, in particular, drive me crazy. I've been guilty of labeling them 'irrational hypocrites.' They anger me when they try to push their beliefs on me and I react badly to that.

So in the spirit of trying to follow my own advice, I will post on people in the public eye who I like because of, or in spite of their belief systems and I will also post on those I don't like, but I will present the reasons why in a respectful and reasonable manner.

Stock P.S.

I kept most of my gains this week, although I did shave some off today with a bad FAZ move. I really suck at trading that one! I've decided I'm not allowed to trade it again until I paper trade it correctly at least 10 times in a row. My discipline slipped today, which is why I lost. I don't want to restrict myself from trading Fridays, cause last week I did well. But I need to make some kind of change. Whether I'm ahead on the week or behind, something goes on in my head by the end of the week that I haven't quite figured out yet. Last week I had three days off before Friday, so maybe the answer is to not trade one day in the middle of the week for awhile so I can give myself a break and reflect on the trades I've made, thus far. At any rate, other than my lapse today, I improved quite a bit this week with regards to discipline and over trading.

I didn't go into all cash for the weekend, but I positioned myself in both directions. My share size is so small, tho, that if I lose, I lose small.

So Far...

The week isn't over yet, but so far I am in the green. I took my profits early this week, maybe too early, but it is a bear market and I wanted the successes. Needed the successes, is more accurate. After losing several trades in a row, having several successes in a row has really given me a much needed confidence lift. I cashed in my GE Wednesday, then mostly sat on my hands while the market continued to rise! I didn't trade Wednesday's chop because I am not confident yet in those type of tapes. Instead, I spent the time 'mentally' entering and exiting positions to get comfortable with a new trading style and to learn without the pressure of money being on the line. I'm used to trading a certain kind of market; a very forgiving type of market. This is a much harder market to trade, but I am determined to sharpen my skills so I can trade it. Today I slept in to catch up on some needed sleep. I watched the market, but didn't trade it. Tomorrow I'll be watching for a possible end of day FAZ play.

Tonight I caught Jim Cramer's appearance on the Daily Show. Man, did Jon Stewart take him and CNBC to task!! I almost felt sorry for Cramer as Stewart pulled up clips of him talking about market manipulation and accused him, and everyone at CNBC, of being in cahoots with the manipulators. I have to give Jim Cramer a lot of credit for going on the show, but I wonder if he agreed because he expected banter and jokes from Stewart about their feud instead of the grilling he ended up getting!

Short Update

Exited GNK and WFC for a profit today. If I'd had more shares of WFC, I'd have only sold half and left the rest with a break even stop, but I'm still making myself trade only small positions and wanted to take what was given. I was up 2 points from where I got in last week. Still in GE, as of now. We will see what happens tomorrow.

Trading -- First Week of March

This week I didn't trade much. I traded once on Monday and lost money on a bad FAZ entry. Probably the only person to lose on FAZ all week, lol. I worked the next three days, so I wasn't able to trade, but I opened some small swing positions in GE and GNK. This morning I nibbled on a little WFC. So far, I am up in WFC and in GNK, but I am down a little in GE. I'm keeping them over the weekend. Low risk for me, as I don't have that much on the table. I was tempted to get into a little FAS in the last hour of trading before it ran up, but I took a phone call, so it ran up without me. We'll see what happens next week.

Did manage to catch this on Wednesday, tho.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

Way to call 'em out Jon!

Political Rant

It's so great being a registered Independent. I get to praise and condemn both parties based on how I truly feel, not because I need to tow a party line. So many people get caught up in BEING Republican or BEING Democrat, they stop thinking and become defensive when it is clear there is something wrong with their party's ways.

Which brings me to the issue I have with Republicans right now. Are they NUTS? From things I've heard come out of the CPAC convention, it doesn't seem like they've learned anything at all from losing last November. Bear with me, cause I realize I'm generalizing here. I'm speaking mainly to the partisan sore losers who can't seem to realize the country voted against them because they want a new way of doing things. Will Obama deliver that? We have yet to see. But the man has only been in office a little over a month.

In that time, with the exception of three congressmen and some governors, most Republicans have adapted a 'screw you' stance on whatever the President tries to do. Seems to me, if the President compromises on his OWN bills and reaches out to include Republicans in the process when he doesn't have to, the least Republicans can do is meet him half way. Bush never gave anything to the Dems. Bush's policy was, 'my way or the highway.' If you disagreed with him he sent his attack dog, Rove, to crush you. That way of doing things led to Republicans being ousted left and right last year, but they haven't learned, apparently.

People are TIRED of Bush policy. People want consensus and bi-partisanship. They want the leaders they elected to put aside political bickering and sniping and to get serious about working on the problems we have today. And we have a lot of them. So it galls me when I hear people say they wish Obama to fail. I expect that lunacy out of Limbaugh, but Rick Santorum recently hitched his wagon to that not so bright star. Has he lost his mind? Does he even realize the consequences of failure at this point in time? Does he really want to be back in power so badly that he doesn't care if his country suffers? Are Republicans only patriotic when they are in power?

I remember when I heard a few Dems say the same thing about Bush when he was first elected. They hoped he failed. Guess what? He did. Numerous times. And here we are in the middle of a global economic meltdown. Is this what they wanted? It was wrong sentiment then, and it's wrong now.

The bottom line for Republicans is this: Get your S#@% together! Stop wishing failure on the other side, because they are, in the big picture, YOUR SIDE. Stop focusing on how you can screw the Dems so you can get control back of Washington. You had eight long years to prove yourselves and you failed miserably. It's the Dems turn now. If you want another chance, then a little introspection wouldn't hurt. Figure out where you went wrong. I have a few suggestions if you can't think of any.

And finally, lay off the Obama citizenship crap. That paranoid propaganda didn't work in the election, it's not going to work now, and it's GETTING OLD! People have gotten wise to your (Karl) Rovian ways since being bombarded by all those yellow and orange terror alerts before the 2004 elections.

Phew... glad that's off my chest!

Trading Decision

Well, this last week was pretty poor for me. I made a bad decision in POT on Monday and it colored my trading performance for the rest of the week. I am still working on trading emotionless, obviously.

I shouldn't have traded on Monday. I'd found out over the weekend that a long standing issue preventing me from getting as much work as I'd like, had failed to be resolved AGAIN! So I spent the weekend frustrated, feeling financial pressure, and unable to get appropriate sleep on Sunday night. Trading while overly tired is not a good idea.

I am also restricted in my trading account because it fell below 25,000 last year when I was slow to adapt to the new bear market. I get only three day trades a week before my account will freeze unless I make up the shortfall. I have the money, but I am not putting any more money into the trading account until I master my trading mistakes. One of which is harping on the past. I continually beat myself up over losing the money I did last year, an amount that I've never lost before. Join the club, right? There are many people who lost money last year, including professionals. But I should know better... that's the psychological baggage I am working on.

So, financial pressure, grogginess, and worrying about only having three trades caused me to lose money. I plan to fix that. I'm changing my mental game NOW. I get three trades. That's it. I am not going to trade this next week thinking that I'm going to make up for last week. I'm not going to trade anymore thinking about all the money I've lost in the past. When I've used up my trades for the week, I will spend the rest of it watching charts and improving my skills. My friend, Billy Mays(who doesn't blog as much anymore), has been very helpful teaching me new ways to trade. I will continue to scale into small swing trades and I will work on controlling my emotions. And finally, I will not beat myself up if I slip back into old habits occasionally. Learning is a process.

These are the goals anyway.

When I need a reminder to ease up on myself, perhaps I could play this: