Another concept that I found revealing was that the market moves up and down every day. There are many opportunities for profit on a daily basis. As a trader, you earn from the market exactly what you think you’re worth. If you aren’t earning much, or worse, if you’re losing, then you probably need to spend some time study the market, AND determine what’s going on within you that prevents you from seeing the opportunities. In other words, you have exactly what you want to have. And if you want to change the outcome of your trading, then you need to change something about your trading habits. Introspection will help.

He then moves into explaining his view of psychology, showing his view of how past experiences reinforce some behaviors and discourage others. This is the section where he becomes hard to follow, but its useful for understanding the last section of the book.

Finally, the third section is the smallest, but I thought this was the best of the book. Douglas encourages new traders to begin with a small amount of money, and just expect to lose. Don’t focus on the amount of money in your margin account, focus on learning how to read the market. And document everything. If you win, write why you believe you were right. If you lose, analyze the signals you were looking at and determine if there was something that you overlooked or misinterpreted. Take the mystery out of the market by taking the time to learn.

In just about every endeavor you undertake, you set aside a time to learn. For some reason, when it comes to the stock market, many traders expect to earn money right away and yet become discouraged when they lose money. By taking a disciplined approach and taking the time to actually study the market, they can learn how to read the market and profit from it.

I’m not to the point of trading in the market. Between school and work I have my hands full, so now is not the time for me. But, I did enjoy this book, and I hope to put some of these concepts into practice in the months after my graduation. If you’re also interested in trading in the stock market, I recommend that you read this book.

Somaticise is to believe mistakenly that an emotional pain is a physical sympton. This occurs often in alexithymic individuals who are devoid of emotion because they are functionally unaware of their feelings – therefore symptoms such as palpitations and butterflies in the stomach may be felt by the individual without them being able to associate them with the concurring emotions!

Yeah, I know, I don’t know what alexithymic means either, but how cool is it that someone from Austrailia stumbled onto my blog! But I digress…

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been wanting to post another vocabulary update, but just haven’t taken the time to type it all in. Now seems like the perfect opportunity. Pull out your pencils, these are words that were invented by the writers of my favorite show.

Beverine:
1 – A coffee-flavored, beverage-like substance.
Useage: Hey do we have any more beverine?

Boneis Eruptus:
1 – A terrible condition where the skeleton tries to leap out of the mouth and escape the body.
You used to see this in cartoons a lot when a character was suddenly scared.

Creamium:
1 – A cream substitute.
Its usually served with beverine.

Crisitunity:
1 – The Chinese have the same word for crisis and opportunity.
Now we do, too.

Cromulent:
1 – Legitimate;
2 – Appropriate;
3 – more than acceptable.
Useage: Crisitunity is a perfectly cromulent word.

Deceleratrix:
1 – The brake pedal on a car.
Useage: Quick! Hit the deceleratrix!

Embiggen:
1 – The action of making something larger.
Useage: A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.

Meh:
1 – Not in favor of an idea, but would go along if necessary;
2 – Oh well;
3 – Whatever.
Useage: Do you want to go see a movie?
Meh.

Electromicide:
1 – The only known cure for Boneis Eruptus.
Severe electrical currents are introduced into the body through the mouth.

Superliminal:
1 – A method of communication using grossly direct persuasion;
2 – The opposite of subliminal.
Useage: Yelling a direct order is an example of superliminal persuasion.

Stabby:
1 – The state or condition of being likely to stab.
Useage: Sit down & relax Jason, and don’t get stabby.

Unblowuppable:
1 – Unable to be blown up.
Useage: The word unblowuppable is thrown around a lot these days, but I think I can say for certain that…(BOOM!).

Velocitator:
1 – The gas pedal on a car.
Useage: If you want to go you’ll have to find the velocitator.

Zuh:
1 – Exclamation used when one cannot comprehend a complex situation or statement.
Useage: You’ll never get stabby over there to agree to electromicide.
Zuh?

I’ll stop now. All of this is a tribute to The Simpsons. I heard on the radio this morning that the word cromulent is making into the dictionary in 2006. The Simpsons have now been on the air long enough to change the way America talks (they reached me a long time ago). Congratulations!

If you can think of any other great words that you’ve heard on the show, post them in comments.

Listening to Coldplay.

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Oh yeah. When I was in my early 20′s I read mystery novels all the time and was always attracted to the damsel in distress. At the time Dean Koontz was my favorite author. My tastes have changed over time, I don’t get in to his work much anymore.

But most recently, I had a crush on Arwen (LOTR). It happened when she told Aragon that her heart was her own, and she could give it to whom ever she chooses. Wow.

The last book you bought is:
The last book that I bought was a 2005 FAR/AIM (Federal Avaition Regulations and Airman Information Manual). I know, I know, not very exciting. But it means that I’ll be a current pilot soon, and that IS exciting.

I think the proper answer to the question is probably Blue Like Jazz. Donald Miller rocks.

The last book you read:
Uh, Blue Like Jazz. I liked it so much that I couldn’t put it down and I read all the way through it in something like four days. If it makes any difference at all, I also finished Ender’s Game recently.

What are you currently reading?
I’m half way through close to fifteen books (literally) at the moment, but I’ll be kind and skip the textbooks.

• Search for Significance – I really like this book because McGee stays very close to the message of the gospel. You can have confidence in yourself because God loves you. He then walks you through finding what motivates your choices and actions. Its been so good to look at this stuff.
• Searching for God Knows What – I really have to be careful about making an icon of Donald Miller. Most of what he writes resonates strongly with me. Its like I already felt most of the stuff that he says, I just never took the time to complete the thought. I’m about half way through this book now, and I really like it. I’m working on a separate post explaining what I like about Miller’s work.
• Six Pillars of Self-Esteem – it has been particularly good to read this along side Search for Significance. At first I thought the psychobabble wouldn’t be able to help me, becuase I’m interested in finding my identity in Christ. Turns out its really helpful. I’ll paraphrase Branden’s words: “There is no way for our mind to avoid registering the choices we make in the way we operate and no way for our sense of self to remain unaffected. If we are children of God, the question remains, what are we going to do about it? If we betray ourselves and our powers, if we live mindlessly, purposelessly, and without integrity, can we buy our way out, can we acquire self-esteem, by claiming to be God’s relatives?”
• Thinking Physics – I started reading this one to help with a physics class that I was taking. I have continued to read through it a couple of times now because its just cool to understand the physics behind our world. Plus, Epstein has a very fluid way of explaining complex concepts, so its like you aren’t even learning, you’re just reading about cool stuff. It really is fun to understand the way the world works.

Five books you would take to a deserted island:

• The Bible (New International Version) – can’t live without this one.
• Ender’s Game – this is one great novel.
• The Chronicles of Narnia – yeah, I know, this is really seven books. I feel that its okay cheat on this one because they come in a boxed set.
• Romeo & Juliet – gotta have some Shakespeare, and this is the picture of love.
• Practicing His Presence – if I’m going to be alone, I don’t want to REALLY be alone. Y,know?

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons), and why?
Um, not all of the people I picked have blogs. I decided that’s okay, I’ll list them anyway.

• FreedomDefender – because he’s a reader.
• Dad – because he reads cool stuff.
• B-Dub – because he has a blog and he reads.

After that I started reading Blue Like Jazz. This is a great book, too. Miller’s writing style is very easy to read, and he breaks complex matters of faith down into simple and tangible chunks. Its very encouraging, really.

Excoriate:
1 – to wear the skin off of;
2 – to censure scathingly.
Usage: The Democrats have excoriated President Bush.

Manumit:
1 – to release from slavery.
Usage: All plantation owners were required by law to manumit their slaves.

Ossify:
1 – to change into bone (??);
2 – to become hardened or conventional and opposed to change.
Usage: You seem to ignore the tendendy of revolutionary movements to ossify and become established institutions.

Vituperation:
1 – sustained and bitter railing and condemnation.
Usage: The vituperation of Winston Churchill has gone on too long.

Ameliorate:
1 – to make better or more tolerable.
Usage: I wish I could ameliorate your pain.

Somaticize:
I didn’t find a definition for this, but reading from context I think it means to physically repress. As in, when feelings and emotions are repressed, the process begins as psychological and then becomes somaticized. If you know what this means, or find a definition for it, please post it in comments.

So I spent some time on Amazon, and I found literally dozens of books that I’d like to read. It turns out that this is a gift that I wouldn’t have asked for, but that I really appreciate. That’s the best kind of gift, isn’t it? I can’t wait for my Amazon goodies to arrive.