This one never gets old…..
Why Russian Billionaires Beg On The Streets Of Moscow
Continuation from Friday…..(How To Beg People For Money)
At the same, time understand something very important. Raising capital is not only hard for you. It is a hard and a humiliating process for 99% of people seeking capital. Here is what you have to do. Accept the fact that, “Yes, I am a beggar now, but this begging will lead to the promise land of wealth and freedom”. If you can accept this and say “The hell with it” you are already 50% further down the road than most of your competitors. And if you are still having a difficult time with the process, please try the following approaches. When applied properly, they should work wonders.
Imagine for a second that you are a scientist. Approach the process of raising capital as a scientific experiment as opposed to a part of your daily business routine. All you are trying to do is determine how many people will say YES and how many people will say NO. When you do this, you become completely independent of the outcome. That protects your fragile ego and allows you to become an unstoppable fund raising machine. Basically, you no longer really care about the outcome of any one conversation or capital raising attempt. It becomes a numbers game, which is exactly the way that it should be viewed.
Another way to avoid all of the negative connotations associated with the process is to create a game around it. For instance, there is a service in Russia that offers Russian Billionaires unique experiences. One of such experiences is dressing up Russian Millionaires and Billionaires as homeless people and taking them to the streets of Moscow so that they can beg people for money. And apparently, it is a popular package. You can approach your capital raising efforts in a similar fashion. You can easily do so by assuming that you are already wealthy, do not need the money and simply doing it as a part of a game.
Now, back to raising capital. There are also a few illegitimate ways of getting it and it is the purpose of this book to caution you against it. They include stealing money, winning money and/or marrying into money. The outcomes associated with each one are fairly simple. Steal the money in question and you will end up looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life. In the best case scenario it will come back to bite you. In the worst case? You will probably get whacked Sopranos style just as you business begins to legitimately take off. Maybe you are, but I am not smart or lucky enough to win any money. Finally, marrying into money is never free. One way or another you will end up paying for it.
Plus, there are a few other ways that we cannot control. They include inheriting money, receiving it as a gift or having a trust fund. If that happens to you, you are one lucky SOB. Count your lucky stars and give a lot thanks to the people who have set you up. Of course and this goes without saying, but I hope you didn’t have to kill anyone in order to get your inheritance.
When it comes to legitimately getting money for your new business venture, there are only a few ways. They include…..
- Self Financing
- Borrowing It
- Friends & Family
- Crowd Funding
- Angel Investors
- Venture Capitalist
To Be Continued Tomorrow….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)
Why Russian Billionaires Beg On The Streets Of Moscow Google
Why Short Selling Is Important
Continuation from Friday…...(What You Ought To Know About Short Selling)
In terms of your short stocks appreciating over time….if you apply proper trading rules, this shouldn’t be a problem at all. Just as you should have trailing stop losses with all of your long positions, you should exercise the same discipline when going short. If the marker proceeds to move against your short position, the stop loss will take you out when the time is right. Either realizing gains or limiting losses in the process. Just as it would if you where holding a long position.
In conclusion, outside of seldom “God Event” occurrences in certain stocks, equities that you shouldn’t be shorting to begin with, short selling is about just as risky as going long when proper investment rules are applied.
- The Maximum Gain Is Only 100%.
It is true, the maximum gain you can achieve when going short is just 100%. Yet, that type of a return is unusual as well. For that to happen, the underlying stock price must hit zero. An occurrence most typically associated with the underlying business filing for a bankruptcy or otherwise being delisted from the exchange.
The financial crisis of 2008 presents us with a perfect opportunity to illustrate just that. In the darkest days of summer of 2008, stock prices of many of the subprime lenders collapsed in a matter of 2-3 weeks. In many instances going from $50-60 share to $1-2 a share before filing for a bankruptcy protection and being delisted from the exchanges. A rare occurrence, indeed.
And while your gains are limited to 100%, it is not a bad thing when you consider what our primary objective in this case is. Remember, we are not trying to identify stocks that will appreciate 1,000% or more over the next 5 years. We are simply trying to protect our existing long positions while generating extra returns on the downside. Essentially, we are trying to minimize risk while moving with the overall market or the underlying security. Short selling allows us to do just that.
- Most Stocks & Markets Are Long Centric.
Indeed, they are. However, this means very little to an investor who is going through a pro-longed bear market or a significant decline in one of his or her securities. For instance, this idea becomes meaningless to someone who was fully invested in 1929. As by 1932 that portfolio had lost 90% of its value. Or to someone who had to endure a 16 year bear market between 1966 and 1982. Or to someone who had seen miniscule results since the 2000 top. As outlined earlier.
Once more, short positions should not be viewed as a long-term investment. They should be viewed in the light of hedging and maximizing returns when the market is not cooperating with its overall “long centric” premise. As was outlined and explained in one of my earlier books “Timed Value”, the stock market tends to move in 17-18 year alternating Bull/Bear market phases. And while it would make perfect sense to remain fully invested and 100% long during bull markets, it would make very little since to continue on with the same strategy in a bear market. After all, doing so would lead only to frustration and losses. Short selling helps us avoid both problems in the proper market environment.
To Be Continued Tomorrow…….
Meditation
Continuation from yesterday…..(What Falling In Love With Stress Really Means)
Thus far we have covered traditional tools and exercises that have the ability to minimize your daily STRESS levels. And while you will see a significant improvement in your life, the tools above will never free you completely. They are best viewed in the light of being a medicine as opposed to being an outright cure. If you desire an absolute solution and would like to completely remove STRESS from of your life, on all levels, the approach below is the only cure.
MEDITATION
That’s right, meditation. If you live in the Western Society it is highly probable that you have a highly distorted view of what meditation really is. Generally, people living in the West fall into the following categories.
- People who have never hear of meditation. Period. They are completely oblivious to what that even is.
- People who have heard of it, but believe it is a useless exercise. They see no point in the subject matter. They would rather do Yoga then to meditate.
- People who know exactly what meditation is, have tried it before, but have failed to gauge the benefits of it. Quitting shortly thereafter.
- People who have made meditation their daily practice. Typically, they see the benefits of it, but they can’t stop themselves from having the latest and the greatest when it comes to meditation. They have the most comfortable mat, the best “meditation music” and they constantly join various meditation groups.
- Finally, we have hard core mediators. These are the people who make meditation their primary concern in life.
What’s interesting is that most of the people above miss the mark. No matter to what category you belong to, chances are, you have missed the true purpose of meditation by at least a mile. Let’s start at the beginning while being as blunt as possible. That is without using all of the “mystic” mumbo jumbo found in most religions and spiritual texts.
Yet, as the warning in the beginning of the book suggested, there is no way to verify any of this. The only way to verify is through your own experience.For instance, no one can explain to you, no matter how vividly, what it feels like to be hit in the head with a baseball flying at 100 MPS. The pain associated with such an incident can only be experienced when you are actually hit with a baseball flying at such a speed. Same thing applies to mediation and its eventual outcome. It must be experienced, not talked about.
Meditation has been a key part of most Eastern Cultures, particularly those in India, long before the first page of the Old Testament was written. Perhaps it has been with us longer than the latest evolution of the human being. Some apes are known to exhibit meditative behaviors, although that has never been proven. Well, it cannot be proven. Either way, key questions remain. What is the purpose of meditation, why has the practice survived for tens of thousands of years and how does it really work?
Let’s attempt to find some straight answers.
To Be Continued On Monday….(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)
Forrest Gump Predicts The Market
9/5/2014 – An up day with the Dow Jones up 66 points (+0.39%) and the Nasdaq up 20 points (+0.45%).
If you haven’t noticed, the market has been stuck in a very tight trading range over the last 11 trading days. The Dow has been oscillating between 17,000 and 17,150 during this entire time. In other words, the market is distributing/consolidating and accumulating energy for a powerful move. The only question is…..which way? If you would like to find out, please Click Here. And as Forrest Gump says……”That’s all I have to say about that”
(***Please Note: Due to my obligations to my Subscribers I am unable to provide you with more exact forecasts. In fact, I am being “Wishy Washy” at best with my FREE daily updates here. If you would be interested in exact forecasts, dates, times and precise daily coverage, please Click Here). Daily Stock Market Update. September 5th, 2014 InvestWithAlex.com
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
How To Beg People For Money
Continuation from yesterday…..When It’s Time To Dump Your Business Idea
Back in 2003 I was at the most nerve wrecking meeting of my career up to that point. I was sitting across the table from a Billionaire. This guy was a founder of a fast food empire that he sold for a large amount of money in the late 1990s. By my estimate he was worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $1-2 Billion.
I was nervous. I have never met or talked to a Billionaire before. After all, this guy can put my investment business on the map by writing me a $10 Million check today. For him that was nothing….. or so I thought. After having a nice lunch at Rancho Sana Fe Inn he told me, in no uncertain terms, that I must have at least a 10 year track record before he would even consider investing with me (at that time I only had 1.5 years).
My response was simple, “Listen, just let me prove myself to you. Let’s start with $10,000 so I can show you that I am for real and if you like what you see after that you can increase your investment to whatever it is that you want”. I was desperate to get any kind of money into my fund. He looked at me and said “No way, give me a call after 10 years, but not before that”. For whatever reason he didn’t like me. Maybe it was due to the fact that I looked like a 15 year old high school dropout in a cheap suit, asking him to write me a $10 Million check.
When it comes to raising money, there are two general truths. First, if you are not well connected into the right network or come from a wealthy family/neighborhood, raising money is incredibly difficult. Essentially, it is equivalent to being a beggar and standing on the street corner asking people for money. And you shouldn’t have any illusions to the contrary. It is degrading and no matter how you twist it, no one likes to do it. Mostly because of the constant rejection and humiliation one has to face.
Personally, I hate asking people for money. Even if it is an investment into a business or the stock market that could generate significant returns for such investors. Yet, if you want to be successful in business and build a large fortune, you have to start somewhere. You can’t start at ZERO and expect to make millions in a few years. While it works sometimes and under certain circumstances, it is an exception to the rule as opposed to being the norm.
Second, the proverbial truth that it takes money to make money is absolutely correct. While it is possible to start a successful business on a shoe string budget, the amount of time it will take you to grow it into a substantial business will be significant. Assuming a 20% annual business growth rate (which is exceptional) it would take you 13 years to grow your business from a $100,000 a year business to a $1 Million a year business. Yet, it would take you the same amount of time to grow a $1 Million a year business to a $10 Million a year business.
The question is, which business would you rather run? While a personal choice, my advice is always simple. Grow your business as fast as you possibly can without jeopardizing your financial stability and/or overextending/over expanding. As the number one cause of business failure is financial mismanagement. In other words, if you are going to do it full time, go BIG or go home. It is always easier and more profitable to sell a $10 Million business than it is to sell a $1 Million business.
As a result, you have to beg, earn or steal that start up or growth capital. Just accept the fact that it will be a difficult and a degrading thing to do, then move on with the task.
To Be Continued On Monday……..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)
Quiz Of The Day
What You Ought To Know About Short Selling
Continuation from yesterday…..(Buy Low, Sell High, Go Short & Cover)
Wikipedia defines short selling as a practice of selling securities or other financial instruments that are not currently owned, and subsequently repurchasing them (covering) to exit the transaction. If you are not familiar with the process, it is not as complicated as it sounds. Going short or taking a short position is the exact opposite of going long or purchasing stock in anticipation of a price increase. When you go short you anticipate or you bet on the upcoming price decline. The transaction is initiated when you borrow shares of the underlying stock and immediately sell it in the open market. If your forecast proves accurate you will close the transaction at a later date by repurchasing the stock at a lower price and returning it to its rightful owner. Keeping the spread between your entry and exit points. And while it might sound complicated, the entire transaction can be done with one click. Just as if you were going long.
Now, the financial industry has done a fairly good job brainwashing the public into believing that short selling is inherently more risky than going long. Why? For a few primary reasons when short selling is compared to taking a long position. First, the potential loss on a short sale is theoretically unlimited as compared to a 100% maximum loss when going long. Second, the maximum gain is limited to 100% while your maximum gain on going long is theoretically unlimited. Third, most markets and individual stocks are naturally long centric, increasing in value over time. Finally, there are extra costs associated with taking a short position.
Let’s now take a closer look at each one of these points to see if they hold up to scrutiny.
- Unlimited Loss Potential:
When you open up a short position you open yourself up to an unlimited loss. Theoretically at least. Let’s assume that you have done your research and you believe that Apple Inc (AAPL) stock price is about to decline from $100 a share to $50 a share. By going short at $100 and presumably getting out at some point in the future at $50 a share you are planning to generate a net gain of $50 or 50%. As a result, you take a short position at $100.
Unfortunately for you, the next morning Apple announced that it created a time machine, went into the future and brought back technology from the year 2225. What’s more, they will make this technology available over the next few months and by doing so Apple will literally take over the world. As a result, Apple’s stock price surged to $1,000 or 900% a share even before the market opened.
Guess what happened to your short position? That’s right, you just lost $900 a share or 900%. It now becomes your responsibility to close this trade at a massive loss before going and crying to your mommy and daddy. That’s what most in the financial industry mean when they indicate that your losses can be unlimited when you initiate a short position.
Rebuttal:
The scenario above is hypothetical at best. In reality, very few stocks open up with gap ups of 5-10% higher, let alone 100% or higher. It does happen on rare occasions, but you shouldn’t be shorting such stocks to begin with. When it does happen, it typically happens to stocks in the Bio Tech industry after their drug is approved by the FDA or stocks that might be acquired in a merger or stocks with upside earnings surprises or perhaps stocks of companies that have just reached some sort of a favorable legal resolution in a big legal matter, etc….. Point being, large overnight gains or gap ups (before the market opens), shouldn’t come out of the blue. If you approach short selling from a well researched position, as you should, you wouldn’t be shorting such stock to begin with.
To Be Continued On Monday……
Sam Zell Is Preaching…..Are You Listening?
9/4/2014 – A negative day with the Dow Jones down 8 points (-0.05%) and the Nasdaq down 10 points (-0.22%).
Over the last four weeks I have covered George Soros building a large short position and Carl Icahn essentially coming out and saying that the stock market is in a massive bubble. Now, Sam Zell joins the chorus. The only remaining question is. Who would you rather listen to….. Soros, Icahn and Zell -OR- some yahoo money manger who is predicting the Dow 40,000 by the end of 2015? The choice, as always, is yours.
This conclusion is further supported by my mathematical and timing work. It clearly shows a severe bear market between 2014-2017. In fact, when it starts it will very quickly retrace most of the gains accrued over the last few years. If you would be interested in learning when the bear market of 2014-2017 will start (to the day) and its internal composition, please CLICK HERE
(***Please Note: Due to my obligations to my Subscribers I am unable to provide you with more exact forecasts. In fact, I am being “Wishy Washy” at best with my FREE daily updates here. If you would be interested in exact forecasts, dates, times and precise daily coverage, please Click Here). Daily Stock Market Update. September 4th, 2014 InvestWithAlex.com
Did you enjoy this article? If so, please share our blog with your friends as we try to get traction. Gratitude!!!
What Falling In Love With Stress Really Means
Continuation from yesterday……(How Human Body Recharges Itself When You Sleep)
That is what I mean by “Fall In Love With Stress”. It doesn’t mean that you should fall in love with things that bring STRESS into your life. It simply means to fall in love with the underlying energy. To understand that the energy within you does not cause STRESS. It is simply energy. It is your unconscious thoughts and filters that turn this energy into STRESS. And once your understand that your STRESS energy is no different from your joy energy, you will fall in love with it. Again, with the energy itself and not STRESS. And that will give you an ability to transform it into whatever you want.
Let me give you an example. Imagine for a second that your boss just insulted you in the worst possible way while demanding that you finish a massive project by tomorrow morning. At this point not only will you be furious, you will also be under a significant amount of STRESS. Your blood will literally be at a boiling point. What happens behind scenes at this stage becomes incredibly important. Due to your altercation with your boss, your energy reservoir will dump a massive amount of energy into your body/mind system. As if the floodgates were opened. You mind, thought patterns, emotions, feelings and other filters will then take this energy and immediately transform it into STRESS. In less time than it takes a speeding bullet to hit its target.
As this energy begins to vibrate at STRESS frequency, it impacts your entire body on multiple levels. It begins to create various negative thought chains and spirals, it begins to increase your heart rate and perspiration, it jams your rational thinking processes and it even changes your entire aura. In short, you become STRESS or STRESS becomes you.
Luckily, there is a simple way to stop the entire process in its tracks. Event to transform this energy into something positive. All you have to do is to follow the exercise below.
EXERCISE #3:
Here is what I want you to do. The next time you become extremely upset, fearful, angry, jealous or otherwise full of STRESS energies, I want you to…..
- Become fully aware that you are in the state of STRESS. That certain energies have been released within you and you are now vibrating at the frequency associate with STRESS.
- Separate yourself from this state of STRESS within your body/mind configuration and become an observer. This step is identical to observing your own thoughts.
- As you observe STRESS try to understand what thought patterns, feelings, emotions or outside factors led to your energy reservoir being released and that energy then converted to STRESS frequency. Go as deep as you can in an attempt to find the trigger point.
- Fall in love with the energy. Dismiss the STRESS part and be grateful for a massive amount of energy surging through your body at the time. Comprehend that you now have the ability to transform the underlying energy into whatever it is that you want. Perhaps into something positive.
- Begin the transformation process as covered in latter parts of this book.
And the result?
Do this often enough and you will notice two things. First, once the process above is executed, you can then use excess energy in your body towards other purposes. Second, over time all STRESS related energies will vanish into thin air. Your constant awareness insures that. Essentially, your mind and body configuration will realize that you are paying attention through awareness and it will stop producing STRESS related thoughts, feelings, emotions and frequencies as there would be no need for them.
To Be Continued Tomorrow…..(Why Am I Seeing This On A Financial Website?)