Happy Halloween

SEASONS

This was an amazing gift from a Friend this morning and I had to share it:

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree's life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it's winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall.

Moral :

Don't let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don't judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.



Thanks Jonathan, it was a much needed lesson for life (^_^)

YOU CAN DO THIS (^_^)

Flow Addendum

It's the Flow, Stupid

Recent Posts

I'm posting now on the corporate blog, recent posts FYI:

A World Of Multiple Reserve Currencies

Vote On Proposed Changes To PMG

Gold Helps Manage Risk More Effectively

RIP Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010)

One Tin Soldier

A LOSS IS LIKE A RATTLE SNAKE

A loss is like a rattle snake, DROP IT BEFORE IT KILLS YOU!!!!!!!

As of late, I have been getting emails from traders who have blown up their accounts. Believe me, I know first hand the pain, desperation and frustration that comes with that experience as I have had it many times. The first time I blew up an account I had to get two jobs 7 days a week to almost cover my bills and I was still struggling.

No matter how many accounts I have blown up, I have always managed to do it the same way every time 'holding on to a loss' that grew up to kill me because I refused to let it go, hoping and praying that the market would come back in my favor.

When I would read other traders info that said cut losses, I thought they were being negative and trying to make me lose my money. Had I listened to that wisdom, it would have saved me many heart-aches.

Let's deal with some hard facts about trading:

#1 YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE MONEY HERE!

This is a big girl's game, if You are afraid to lose money, You should be doing something else with your life, it will be much more profitable.

#2 THE MARKET IS VERY VERY GENEROUS AND WILL ALWAYS GIVE YOU OPPORTUNITIES TO MAKE MONEY!!!!!!

-CUT BAD TRADES QUICKLY AND GO IN THE DIRECTION OF PROFIT!!!!!!

Most of us got into forex with the idea that this is easy money, ignoring everything that told us that 95% of all 1st time traders go broke in the market. We ignored it because we decided that we would be part of the 5% who beat the odds. If You are like I was, You read every book You could get your hand on, every website and attended every webinar to make sure You were part of the 5% who were successful here.

FOREX IS NOT HARD. FOREX IS TRICKY AND WITH THE RIGHT EDUCATION AND DISCIPLINE ANYONE CAN DO IT (^_^)

What we fail to realize is that forex is like any other profession, it take most of us a while to be successful here.

NO ONE WHO IS TRULY GREAT DID IT OVERNIGHT, it took continuous education, practice, discipline and sometimes a little blood, sweat, and tears.

I don't care how brilliant a surgeon is, You don't want him to cut on you without PROPER TRAINING & PRACTICE. Notice how many high powered professions are always practicing, 'Practicing Physician', Practicing Attorney'. Other professionals are practicing to get better and so should You.

You can be successful at forex, but not if You are not willing to do what it takes to succeed.

SUCCESS LIST FOR FOREX:

WAIT for a proper trade set-up before entering the market!

LET GO of bad trades quickly!

ALWAYS TAKE MORE than You give!

YOU CAN DO THIS (^_^)

Gold Bubbles

UK financial writer Dominic Frisby argues “that both metals [gold and silver] are still in a bull-market phase. Any mania is yet to come.” In support, he notes that in 1980 gold bullion went from $400 to $873 an ounce in only 36 trading days, with silver trading from $16 to $50 in 37 days. The current market is not exhibiting those sort of price moves.

He also proposes looking at the value of the US gold reserves compared to money on issue as an indicator of a bubble - “in 1980 … the market value of the 260 million ounces of gold held by the USA in Fort Knox came in at $221bn, yet only some $160bn of paper money was in issue” so if “the market value of the gold held in Fort Knox once again exceeds the number of US dollars the US authorities have issued, then gold will be in bubble territory once again, in that it will be trading at levels above its intrinsic value”.

Dominic closes his article with his definition of a bubble that I think may explain why a lot of financial commentators are consistently negative on gold: “A bubble is a bull market in which you don't have a position”. However, I doubt we will see many of them change their view and buy gold, because these days the internet means all their previous statements are recorded and easily searchable and I can’t see them admitting they were wrong.

Perth Mint Blog

Perth Mint has launched an online bullion selling website and to go with it a corporate blog. After 2.5 years of blogging privately I'm finally going to be able to go legit!

The change in role means I will have more time to put into posts and be able to formally draw on our internal data. I'll keep this blog up for posts that aren't suitable for a corporate blog. For the moment I'll be dual posting as it is a soft launch before they go for a proper launch and marketing campaign. What I'm aiming to cover with the corporate blog can be found here and is pretty much the same as what I've tried to do with this blog.

Prof Keen Compares Bankers To Drug Pushers

Professor Keen presents a dramatic analogy in his recent article on his speech at the American Monetary Institute’s 2010 conference: “banks are effectively debt pushers, and trying to control bank lending at the source is like trying to control the spread of illegal drugs by directly controlling the drug pushers. While ever there are drug users who want the drugs, then there’ll be a profit to be made by selling drugs, and drug pushers will always find ways around direct controls.”

The comments were a response to the American Monetary Institute’s campaign to establish a 100% reserve banking system. While Professor Keen is ambivalent about the proposal, he feels that the issue “is not how money is created, but how it is used. If it’s used to finance productive investment, then generally speaking all will be well; but if it’s used to finance speculation on asset prices, then it will lead to financial crises”.

He therefore feels reforms need to be focused on modifying borrower behaviour rather than trying to regulate lenders. His article is worth a read for his proposed reforms and the civil and mostly intelligent debate of them that follows in the comments section.

High Court Judge Rules Paper Money “Almost Worthless”

In a recent High Court of Australia judgement on the Goods and Services Tax treatment of foreign currency transactions, I note with amusement Justice Dyson Heydon’s statement that:

“Apart from those rights [as legal tender], the pieces of paper had little value. They might have been used to stop an uneven table wobbling, or to jam shut a loose door, or to amuse small children, or to light a cigar. If the currency included coins, the coins might have been used to turn stiff screws or to lay on railway lines for the purpose of being flattened. But uses of that kind, which are very remote from their real purpose, would not prevent both the pieces of paper and the coins from being almost worthless.”

Before you rush to burn your money or flatten your coins, the judgement notes that “because the tokens are currency, the holder of the tokens can use them as a medium of exchange and as a store of economic value. Currency has value only because of the rights that attach to it.”

So relax, your paper money does have value. However, if you are concerned about what high inflation may do to the value of cash, you may wish to consider storing your surplus “economic value” in the form of legal tender bullion coins - sorry, tokens.

Of course, I can’t guarantee that precious metal prices will not fall, but at least you will always be able to use the coins to turn a stiff screw or two!

Open Forum

Gold Symposium Bail Out

I've had to pull out of The Gold Symposium as the Mint's Board meeting (which I have to attend) has been moved to a day of the event. Was looking forward to meeting the speakers and attendees so not too happy. In that case the Board better approve my business case for redeveloping our exhibition area :) or I will have missed the event for no good reason.