EUCOM Economic Analysis - Part I

[Firn]

Equities are fun and familiar, yet it's always good to gain additional perspective. Sheldon Natenberg's book Option Volatility and Pricing has been/continues to be a very thoughtful/exceptional look at things. Derivatives are an exotic & theoretical tool for me at this point, even after a number of years of thinking about them. Bonds are an even further bridge. I still rely on bond index funds for diversification. Any suggestions regarding bond books? Perhaps I will have to look at the FT Guides for bonds...I have some on finance, risk modeling, options, and forex and find them all to be insightful and helpful for my equities focus. School is always good...but i find that i still gotta keep exercising my brain cell in order to survive out here in the retail trading & investing world. Successfully running money out in the professional world has to be another order of magnitude leap...

Going back to the coffee analogy, overall I think much of life is about quality, timing, and a bit of luck. 08' - '12 has been very educational and I made a profit for that time period, primarily on quality Euro stocks. I hope to continue to do so.

"Live is about Quality, timing and a bit of luck". I think Kahneman got it right when he stated that success = talent + luck and great success = a little more talent + a lot of luck. One of my profs teaching sociology opened once his lecture by stating that he was glad to see such a bunch of winners of evolution. (Had to write a paper about the selfish gene ) And indeed we are just the last in a long line of organisms who arguably had overall a little more talent and a massive lot of luck. If you are an American or a Westernish European all the luckier.

The situation for many in Europe is indeed worse then in the last decade and the Italian South lost just last year, IIRC over 100.000, mostly young. I hope they will have a better future here in the North or elsewhere. It might be heartless but this mobility is needed to make the idea of of a Eurozone (or Italian state) work.

I hope you too will continue to do well and enjoy the mental fun. My maternal grandfather was mentally sharp till his death by swimming his ten km a week and by following the markets. There are worse vices for your brain cells.

In a strange way this song pretty fitted in his case. The name of course especially. This song does so only partly, luckily. For those who were not so lucky I will raise the last beer.