Beliefs of Successful Traders

1. The markets provide a constant stream of opportunities.

2. If I miss an opportunity, another will come along.

3. If my position is stopped out, the hypothesis that got me into the trade was incorrect.

4. I take one trade at a time, and stay in the moment with it.

5. I strive for excellence, not perfection.

6. I maximize profits by losing small.

7. I am not my trade.

8. I take complete responsibility for my thoughts, feelings, and actions in the markets.

minyanville.com/index/a/23374/from/yahoo

Déjà vu All Over Again. Once More.
by Bill Bonner
Paris, France - dailyreckoning.com

Rarely has The Daily Reckoning been criticized for understating trouble. But trouble keeps getting ahead of us. We can barely keep up with it. So often have we anticipated 'disaster' or 'catastrophe' that the words now fall like empty shells. We light the fuses; they don't go off. Alas, we have become alarmists with no bell or siren. We break the glass and pull the lever every week, but no sound is heard...except the familiar words whispered with in a hoarse, weary voice...watch out!

Graham Summers
June 12, 2009


Today's essay details the ongoing collapse of the US economy with a focus on why this coming fall will prove the "worst is over" crowd wrong yet again. Earlier this week, I detailed three major developments. They were:

• The US's economic shift from manufacturing to services (mainly financial)
• The massive drop in US incomes
• The bginning of the debt bubble

Today, we're addressing how the debt bubble encapsulated the US government as well as why Obama's Stimulus Plan won't fix anything.

To revisit the above three points, the US began outsourcing jobs in earnest soon after we re-opened trade with China in 1971. As outsourcing spread to higher and higher skilled jobs, this meant fewer jobs in the US market. This resulted in US consumers having to use credit to maintain their standard of living. It also meant more than one parent working to make ends meet.

On a national level, the US government began living beyond its means as well. Adjusted for inflation, gross tax receipts have only risen 40% in the last 39 years. However, over the same time period, total government spending increased 2,600%!!!

To fund this insanity, the US issued debt in the form of Treasuries. Foreign governments... Read the rest.

Six Flags seeks Chapt. 11 bankruptcy protection, says it needs to shed $1.8 billion in debt

NEW YORK (AP) -- The amusement park company Six Flags is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it needs to reorganize and shed $1.8 billion of debt.

Mark Shapiro, the New York-based company's chief executive officer, says the move won't affect the operation of its 20 theme parks in the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

Six Flags says it actually had a great year in 2008. It saw 25 million visitors and posted record revenues. But executives are trying to lighten a $2.4 billion debt load that they say is unsustainable.

Read more.

TOKYO, May 31, 2009 (AFP) - The man who hopes to be Japan's next finance minister envisions an Asia united by a single currency, saying the dollar may no longer reign supreme in future.

The opposition's "shadow finance minister" Masaharu Nakagawa also says he hopes to reshape the world's number two economy into a kinder, gentler place if his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) wins elections this year.

"You can't invigorate society only through... the law of the jungle where the strong become stronger," he told AFP. "The same player would always win if there were no handicaps in golf."

Red more

"If men through fear, fraud or mistake, should in terms renounce and give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of Man to alienate this gift, and voluntarily become a slave."

--John Adams

"It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People, in a great Measure, than they have it now, They may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty."

--John Adams, letter to Zabdiel Adams, 21 June 1776

"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."

--Thomas Jefferson