I am reading the chapter that talks about investment strategies to make money s-l-o-w-l-y. It includes brief explanations of types of strategies - a plan that helps you determine what stocks to buy or sell. I think I may have discovered my investment style - but really at the end of the day it is trial and error to know what works for your lifestyle in practical terms. And, as we know, there are no guarantees of making money through the stock market.
One of the strategies is "Buy and Hold", simply meaning that if you buy stock in a fundamentally sound company and hold if for the long term, you will realize a profit. This strategy seems to have worked pretty well for Warren Buffet, one of the most successful 20th Century buy and hold investors!!!
Next chapter - how to make money fast!!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
understanding stocks
I couldn't have asked for a clearer introduction to the stock market. It is one of those books that gives you the instantaneous "ah ha" moments. The author hits the necessary points for a general overview of stocks, the stock market, and how to invest. I would recommend this book to anyone that has had limited to no exposure to the world of NYSE, Nasdaq, Wall Street, Bear, Bull, Mutual Funds, Bonds, and so on...
The stock market is a new way of seeing and understanding how the world prospers or flounders.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
More than one at at time
I am reading three books and, surprisingly, liking each one of them for different reasons:
1. Jane Eyre - It's a classic, thought provoking & insightful
2. Under the Tuscan Sun - Descriptive, enjoyable (how do you say - delightful to read), and inspiring
This book is somehow soothing to absorb. The way Mayes describes her experience thus far in Italy and the process of deciding on a home to purchase is realistic and interesting. She describes her observations and interactions with Italian people with such love and affection. I am so curious to learn what comes next.
3. Understanding Stocks - Informative, provides the feeling of "I finally understand how the stock market works".
I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a clear, concise understanding of the basics of the stock market. It is a great starting point. Stay tuned for more posts on this book. So, do you know how the term "Wall Street" evolved? I do!
1. Jane Eyre - It's a classic, thought provoking & insightful
2. Under the Tuscan Sun - Descriptive, enjoyable (how do you say - delightful to read), and inspiring
This book is somehow soothing to absorb. The way Mayes describes her experience thus far in Italy and the process of deciding on a home to purchase is realistic and interesting. She describes her observations and interactions with Italian people with such love and affection. I am so curious to learn what comes next.
3. Understanding Stocks - Informative, provides the feeling of "I finally understand how the stock market works".
I would recommend this book to anyone who is seeking a clear, concise understanding of the basics of the stock market. It is a great starting point. Stay tuned for more posts on this book. So, do you know how the term "Wall Street" evolved? I do!
Monday, April 12, 2010
Jane Eyre
chapter 3 & 4
The girl is starting to stand up for herself - way to go Jane! There is really only so much resentment, pain, anger, hurt, sadness one can harbor, sooner or later it starts pouring out, and from Jane, it has started spewing.
What I find interesting, or almost as a disconnect, is that the novel is written in first person, through Jane's eyes, and Jane, at the moment, is about 11 years old. For an eleven year old she has incredible insight, here's a sample of her understanding of childhood and her inability to express the injustice of adults taking advantage of defenselessness children:
Context: Jane was asked why she was unhappy and her inner dialogue progresses as follows:
The girl is starting to stand up for herself - way to go Jane! There is really only so much resentment, pain, anger, hurt, sadness one can harbor, sooner or later it starts pouring out, and from Jane, it has started spewing.
What I find interesting, or almost as a disconnect, is that the novel is written in first person, through Jane's eyes, and Jane, at the moment, is about 11 years old. For an eleven year old she has incredible insight, here's a sample of her understanding of childhood and her inability to express the injustice of adults taking advantage of defenselessness children:
Context: Jane was asked why she was unhappy and her inner dialogue progresses as follows:
"How much I wished to reply fully to this question! How difficult it was to frame my answer! Children can feel but they can not analyze their feelings; and if the analysis is partially effected in thought, they know not how to express the process in words..." ( p. 19)Can you remember when you were a child and "felt" injustice? Was it possible to protect yourself with words and confidence?
Sunday, April 11, 2010
New Reading Path
There are a few new books that I have purchased to replace some of those on the existing "unread list". Why the change, what happened? Life happened. Insights happened. A call for change happened.
For the change I want, I need to learn, so here are the new books/items that I bought today:
1. World Map
2. Investing for Canadians (For Dummies)
3. Understanding Stocks
4. Under the Tuscan Sun
5. A new journal that says on it:
For the change I want, I need to learn, so here are the new books/items that I bought today:
1. World Map
2. Investing for Canadians (For Dummies)
3. Understanding Stocks
4. Under the Tuscan Sun
5. A new journal that says on it:
"She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing "yes" in the sky."Who else wants to grasp everything they can from this earth?
Jane Eyre
Chapters 1 -2
Poor little Jane Eyre. I would equate her to Cinderella, step child, wicked step mother and as good as she is, it doesn't hold up towards the evilness of some and so Jane suffers. She isn't connected to the family through blood but through obligation. Jane was orphaned as an infant, both parents dying. Her uncle made a last dying wish to Mrs. Reed (his wife) to take care of Jane as her own. Impossible!
She is abused by her wicked little Master John (a real son of Mrs. Reed) and of course rather than John being punished, Jane endures the trauma and with the latest event she has been cast off to the "red room" for punishment.
Here is how she is treated by even the servants of the home:
"Jane, I don't like cavilers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent." (pg. 1)
Poor little Jane Eyre. I would equate her to Cinderella, step child, wicked step mother and as good as she is, it doesn't hold up towards the evilness of some and so Jane suffers. She isn't connected to the family through blood but through obligation. Jane was orphaned as an infant, both parents dying. Her uncle made a last dying wish to Mrs. Reed (his wife) to take care of Jane as her own. Impossible!
She is abused by her wicked little Master John (a real son of Mrs. Reed) and of course rather than John being punished, Jane endures the trauma and with the latest event she has been cast off to the "red room" for punishment.
Here is how she is treated by even the servants of the home:
"Jane, I don't like cavilers or questioners; besides, there is something truly forbidding in a child taking up her elders in that manner. Be seated somewhere; and until you can speak pleasantly, remain silent." (pg. 1)
the count of monte cristo - quote
Page 923:
Some of the quotes that I post are because the articulation of the point that is being made is so concise and precise that I don't want to forget the message.
Here is one such quote. Caderousse (again, one of the conspirators that caused the Count's wrongful imprisonment) is begging the Count to stay quiet to spare his life (yet again):
Count:
"Do you think that, in order to ensure a living for wretches like you, I should become a party to their deception and an accomplice to their crime?"
Next time, say this to someone who's values are depraved and they are asking for your help (you may have to tweak it just a little).
Some of the quotes that I post are because the articulation of the point that is being made is so concise and precise that I don't want to forget the message.
Here is one such quote. Caderousse (again, one of the conspirators that caused the Count's wrongful imprisonment) is begging the Count to stay quiet to spare his life (yet again):
Count:
"Do you think that, in order to ensure a living for wretches like you, I should become a party to their deception and an accomplice to their crime?"
Next time, say this to someone who's values are depraved and they are asking for your help (you may have to tweak it just a little).
the count of monte cristo - quote
pg. 920
The count responding to Caderousse (one of the conspirators that caused his wrongful imprisonment) on his rationalization of doing wrong:
Count:
"Necessity may make a man beg for alms or steal a loaf at the baker's door, but not come and crack the lock of a bureau in a house that he thinks is uninhabited. When the jeweler Johannes had just paid you forty-five thousand francs in exchange for the diamond that I gave you, and you killed him so that you could have both the diamond and the money, was that also necessity?"
How greedy are your inner thoughts?
While on travels, large euro bills fell from an innocent, unsuspecting Asian man's pocket who was struggling with an ''English-Italian" dialogue at the ticket booth of the Trenitalia train station in Venice, Italy. I walked up with urgency, picked up the Euros and gave them to him. To be a good samaritan? No. I found that the first thought that went through my mind was, someone else has seen what I have seen and they are going to snatch it...hurry!
Is this the ugly view of humankind that I have?
The count responding to Caderousse (one of the conspirators that caused his wrongful imprisonment) on his rationalization of doing wrong:
Count:
"Necessity may make a man beg for alms or steal a loaf at the baker's door, but not come and crack the lock of a bureau in a house that he thinks is uninhabited. When the jeweler Johannes had just paid you forty-five thousand francs in exchange for the diamond that I gave you, and you killed him so that you could have both the diamond and the money, was that also necessity?"
How greedy are your inner thoughts?
While on travels, large euro bills fell from an innocent, unsuspecting Asian man's pocket who was struggling with an ''English-Italian" dialogue at the ticket booth of the Trenitalia train station in Venice, Italy. I walked up with urgency, picked up the Euros and gave them to him. To be a good samaritan? No. I found that the first thought that went through my mind was, someone else has seen what I have seen and they are going to snatch it...hurry!
Is this the ugly view of humankind that I have?
the count of monte cristo - quote
pg. 788
Passage between Maximilien (faithful friend to the Count) and Valentine (Maximilien's love) when Valentine has expressed that she may go ahead with the marriage that has been arranged for her:
Maximilien:
"I am selfish and an egoist, as you say; and, as such, I do not think of what others would do in my position, only of what I intend to do. I think that I have known you for a year; that, on the day we met, I wagered all my chances of happiness on your love; that the day came when you told me that you loved me; and that from that day forward I have staked all my future on having you. This has been my life. Now, I no longer think anything. All I can tell myself is that fate has turned against me, that I expected to win heaven and I have lost it. It happens everyday that a gambler loses not only what he has, but also what he does not have."
Melodramatic? Or appropriate? When you stake your deams in one person, this is the trauma that results. Is the lesson not to stake such greatness on the actions and choices of another human being?
Passage between Maximilien (faithful friend to the Count) and Valentine (Maximilien's love) when Valentine has expressed that she may go ahead with the marriage that has been arranged for her:
Maximilien:
"I am selfish and an egoist, as you say; and, as such, I do not think of what others would do in my position, only of what I intend to do. I think that I have known you for a year; that, on the day we met, I wagered all my chances of happiness on your love; that the day came when you told me that you loved me; and that from that day forward I have staked all my future on having you. This has been my life. Now, I no longer think anything. All I can tell myself is that fate has turned against me, that I expected to win heaven and I have lost it. It happens everyday that a gambler loses not only what he has, but also what he does not have."
Melodramatic? Or appropriate? When you stake your deams in one person, this is the trauma that results. Is the lesson not to stake such greatness on the actions and choices of another human being?
Monday, April 5, 2010
the count of monte cristo - complete
I completed The Count of Monte Cristo yesterday on a plane returning home from Italy. I just wanted to cry and clutch the book tight. Sounds dramatic I know. This book is deeply philosophical. It makes you examine your own life, your own past, your own choices. Am I good? What is good? Good for whom? What are my virtues/vices? What role, if any, does god play in my life?
The story takes you on a journey and follows the complicated life, goals and pursuit of vengeance of one extraordinary human being. How life can change for someone from one single event and the successive chain of events that unravel from it.
There are a number of great passages that I want to quote and will do this in separate posts to follow with my comments attached. There are quotes that I will want to return to as they articulate thoughts so precisely.
Good-bye Count.
I feel today that it must have been difficult to end the story for the author, Dumas, to say goodbye to the life of the count, or to find the appropriate ending and return to reality. It is such a fulfilling journey of life. As the Count says, all human wisdom is contained in "hope" and "wait".
The story takes you on a journey and follows the complicated life, goals and pursuit of vengeance of one extraordinary human being. How life can change for someone from one single event and the successive chain of events that unravel from it.
There are a number of great passages that I want to quote and will do this in separate posts to follow with my comments attached. There are quotes that I will want to return to as they articulate thoughts so precisely.
Good-bye Count.
I feel today that it must have been difficult to end the story for the author, Dumas, to say goodbye to the life of the count, or to find the appropriate ending and return to reality. It is such a fulfilling journey of life. As the Count says, all human wisdom is contained in "hope" and "wait".
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