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"How to Arouse Your Profit-Making Senses"
by Frank J. Sherosky
For the record, the Commitment of Traders Report (CoT) already legitimizes the special position that the speculator has. Speculators, especially the large ones, are not hedgers like the large commercial traders such as those in the food industry. Neither are they small, one-lot traders like the average small investors. They range from large fund managers to large-account individuals.
While the big-money fund managers move markets like four-hundred pound gorillas, the large-account individuals, more commonly tagged as speculators, are so astute that they read those gorillas like a web page, and end up making millions over their careers.
In my mind, though, there is little difference between the words, “investor”, “speculator” and “trader”. Those merely ascribe handles along a continuum of time, cycles, expectations and needs; and the only real difference appears to be trading styles. Speculation is, nevertheless, still the true name of the market game; and, with every thesaurus I checked, never even associated with gambling at all.
Now, I’m sure one of your goals is to make money with as little risk as possible. In my judgment, associating your mind and learning with the ideas of the famed speculators is about the best way to establishing a path toward reaching your goal.
Regardless of your own distinction, though, the “long haul” of speculating is surely not an easy one. In all likelihood, the challenge of keeping profits through cycles of high volatility and bearish tests over time will verifiably increase for everyone, professional and novice alike.
The fact that the investment-selection process already encompasses so many combinations of value, safety and time factors is a testament that even the criteria itself will continue to morph just like the market. A daunting task for seasoned professionals, the process will intensify even more unnerving for the lesser-experienced, independent investors; that is, unless the speculator within you is awakened and cultivated.
So, that leads me now to ask the obvious: What have you done to awaken your inner speculator? Are you even aware that one exists? How about the presence of the power within the speculator mentality? Probably not, but it’s not entirely your fault either; for it is clear that our educational system has seldom taught entrepreneurism, let alone any wisdom that the speculator model and its mental framework might bring.
It is still astonishing, though, considering the degree of education in today’s world, that the trading public is still so susceptible to the conniving marketing ploys of the brokerage and mutual fund industries. All of us may be encouraged to lead our own paths but through the comforting arms of their professional advice and management. Our own judgments, however, are politely encouraged to relinquish to a back seat.
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