Money Flow Trading Method along with Risk Management

Happy Holiday to you BenJ

I really appreciate your thread and the time you put into it !!

your a mad man !-- and a very prolific writer - much appreciated

From a fundamental standpoint - I have been able to benefit from your thread a great deal-- may you prosper for the new year.

Thank you very much. I have a tremendous passion to give back and I really enjoy helping good people. I appreciate the feedback and we all can help each other to make money trading Forex. I am going to spend some time over the next few days talking bout Support and Resistance and the Technical Indicators that help my Forex trading.

Do you use SAR and or Fractal and or Awesome Indicator ? Please let me know.

The best for you and your loved ones. Health and Prosperity for 2017.


Benjaminis

http://schiffgold.com/videos/feds-fa...25bb-192661409

Snippet:

In her rate hike announcement last week, Janet Yellen said the Fed was so confident in the health of the US economy that it was raising the Federal Funds rate by a paltry quarter point. Investors are on board, with a wave of irrational exuberance sending the Dow closer to its 20,000-point milestone. However, the Feds decision suggests the need for a strict comparison with its statements last December: a time when a similar expression of economic confidence would prove to substantially miss the mark for rate hike expectations and GDP growth.

In a special episode of the Schiff Report, Peter Schiff shows how the Feds economic optimism is a ploy to maintain credibility with the markets and to cover up the fact that significant rate increases are impossible.


The only reason the Fed raised rates this December is the same reason they did so last December: they did it despite having no confidence in the economy, but they didnt want to send a message that they were that worried. They raised interest rates by the smallest possible amount. They also did it to try and preserve their credibility when it comes to talking about future interest rates.

Highlights from the show:
After 2 years of tightening, the lower bound of the Feds range has gone from 0 to one half of one percent. Janet Yellen said the Fed made this decision to lift rates because of its confidence in the US economy. That is complete nonsense. If the Fed was confident in the US economy, rates would be much higher than a half a percent. The Fed would have raised rates a long time ago and by much more than this. In fact, they could have lifted rates by more than 25 basis points on Wednesday, yet they had so little confidence in the economy that this is what they did.

The Fed is now posturing the same way it did last year. They had forecast GDP growth for 2016 to be 2.4%, but the economy is going to end up growing below 2% per official numbers. I dont think the economy is growing at all because I dont believe the official GDP numbers. They understate inflation, and therefore overstate growth. Even with that built in, we are not going to achieve the 2% the Fed anticipated. Itll be south of 2%.

Janet Yellen indicated that she believed that next year in 2017 the economy would grow by 2.1%. So, the Fed is less optimistic about GDP growth now than they were a year ago. Given that, if the Fed was unable to deliver more than one rate hike in 2016, despite being more optimistic on 2016 than they are on 2017, why do people believe the Fed is going to be any more successful in raising rates this year when they failed last year.

Its interesting that stock market investors and currency traders are more optimistic on US economic growth, far more optimistic than the Fed.
The Fed overestimated what they thought the growth was going to be for 2016. Im sure theyre over-estimating it again for 2017. What the market has now that it didnt have then is it has to deal with the headwind of rising interest rates. Interest rates have already risen much more than the quarter point hike to the federal funds. If you look at the yields on 10 year or longer maturities, they have moved up sharply. Look at the increase weve already had in mortgage rates.

Stock market investors are dismissing the increase in interest rates because theyre counting on all this extra profit that is supposedly going to be coming as a result of faster growth that the Federal Reserve doesnt even see and hasnt even built into its forecast.
The market wants to have it both ways. They want to pretend were going to have all this economic growth, but they want to ignore the factthat we would have an even greater tightening than we would if growth was slower.

Comments from Benjaminis: Ladies and Gentleman and Boys and Girls.

This ONE ARTICLE makes the whole point of research and understanding the TRUTH of the World Economy and especially the US Economy.

That is how and why I have developed just 4 Trade Plans for the next 3 months until March 31, 2017.

I will only trade these currency pairs because each is unique and they correlate to each other,

I KNOW the Dow will go down and The Trend is your Friend. So I am going SHORT US30. Then my second trade plan is SHORT USD/JPY since MONEY FLOWS to USD/JPY when there is Risk Off.

I go LONG Gold and LONG SILVER.

I use Money Flow between the Asset Classes and combine that with Risk Management.

All comments and discussion is welcome.

Happy Holidays Everyone !!!

Information from post 91 from page 5 of this thread.

http://www.goldcore.com/us/gold-blog...inance-market/

Snippet:


The AAOIFI, in collaboration with the World Gold Council (WGC) and Amanie Advisors, has approved what will become known as the Shariah Gold Standard. This is a set of guidelines that will expand the variety and use of gold-based products in Islamic Finance.
As many as 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, 25 per cent of the population, will have far greater access to the gold market than they have since the birth of modern finance, which has been primarily structured towards Western ideals.
More details were announced at the World Islamic Banking Conference including details of the gold products that are likely to be permissible.

The sharia gold standard announced yesterday allows the over 110 million investors in the Islamic world to invest in
a) vaulted gold
b) gold savings plans (such as GoldCore’s GoldSaver)
c) gold certificates
d) physical gold ETFs including “probably” the SPDR Gold Trust, the biggest exchange-traded gold (GLD)
e) gold mining shares (within certain Shari’ah parameters)

We know three things that the new Shariah gold-standard will achieve:

a) Increase diversity in the number of available Shariah gold compliant investment products

b) Greater emphasis on the role of physical gold in gold transactions

c) Islamic finance will have greater say in the setting of the gold price
To some, this may appear to be an unnecessary formality taken by the body whose guidelines are followed by Islamic finance institutions across the world. After all, physical gold is Shariah-compliant and holds a unique status for Muslims.
AAIOFI states, “From the perspective of Islamic Fiqh and the Islamic economic system, gold has its specific significance. This significance arises from the specific principles provided for gold and silver as Thaman in Shari’ah.”

According to Islamic texts, gold is a ribawi item, which means that it must be sold on weight and measure, and cannot be traded for future value or for speculation. In order for a gold instrument to be Shariah-compliant, the precious metal must be the underlying asset in related transactions.
However there has been a need for clarification for how gold bullion can be used for investment purposes by Muslims, for a long time.

This uncertainty has kept Shariah-compliant offerings at a minimum and many investors restricted by the type of gold bullion transactions they are able to partake in, with most focused on jewellery and coin offerings. Daud Bakar, chairman of Amanie Advisors, agrees, “.the existing Islamic standards for gold are fragmented, hampering product development and market demand.”

Currently in the gold market, the majority of activity regarding gold financial instruments is based almost entirely on speculation. This is due to the overwhelming size of both the London and COMEX (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) gold markets, which together have the greatest influence on the spot price of gold.

Whilst Islamic investors have always had access to the gold market through jewellery and coins, this guidance will vastly increase the number and diversity of investment products available. There are very few Shari’ah-compliant gold offerings today. Using its deep sector knowledge, GoldCore, and its Islamic partners, have been working on a comprehensive solution for two years and will provide the solution to qualifying Islamic financial institutions in early 2017.

With gold investment platforms such as GoldCore able to offer segregated, allocated gold bullion accounts with the option of physical delivery, Muslims are now able to invest in gold bars and coins.

The new ‘gold standard’ will affect the gold market globally as 1.6 billion people will be able for the first time to use gold bullion products and platforms that offer physical delivery, allocated and segregated gold ownership.

“For a number of years we have been working on an institutional gold platform and indeed a Sharia compliant gold bullion solution for the institutional market. As a market leader in precious metal storage, we have been consulting with major institutions and our strong partners to deliver allocated and segregated gold storage services to investors throughout the world”, said GoldCore CEO, Stephen Flood.

If Islamic Finance institutions were to allocate just one per cent of assets into new gold products then we would expect to see demand climb by about 500-1000 tonnes, per annum. Given that recent demand and supply figures showed a surplus of just 172 tonnes of gold in the market, we could begin to see some tightening with the increase of Shariah-compliant gold instruments, which will have a positive impact on the price.

It is not unreasonable to expect a minimum one per cent move of Islamic finance assets into gold, especially when you look at how it has performed. WGC data shows that in the last eight years the major Islamic asset classes (including REITs, the Takaful index, the Dow Jones Islamic Equities Index and the Dow Jones Sukuk Index) have all underperformed compared to gold, as have the major currencies used in the Islamic world.

Comments from Benjaminis: This is why I also am looking a my Gold long Trade Plan.

Information from post 92 on page 5 of this thread dated December 11, 2016.

HEADS UP - COMING TO A COUNTRY THAT YOU LIVE IN - India and now Venezuela.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:

Having observed the economic chaos to emerge as a result of India's shocking Nov. 8 demonetization announcement, and perhaps confident it can do better, today president Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Latin America's most distressed economy, mired in an economic crisis and facing hyperinflation, likewise shocked the nation when he announced on state TV that just like India, Venezuela would pull its highest denominated, 100-bolivar bill (which is worth about two U.S. cents on the black market), from circulation over the next 72 hours, ahead of the introduction of new, higher-value notes, as large as 20,000.
"I have decided to take out of circulation bills of 100 bolivars in the next 72 hours," Maduro said. "We must keep beating the mafias."

http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...20teaser_0.jpg

To this we would add "and cue economic chaos", but since this is Venezuela, that's a given.

The surprise move, announced by Maduro during an hours-long speech, is likely to worsen a cash crunch in Venezuela, and lead the largely-cash based economy to a state of paralysis. Maduro said the 100-bolivar bill will be taken out of circulation on Wednesday and Venezuelans will have 10 days after that to exchange those notes at the central bank.

Critics immediately slammed the move, which Maduro said was needed to combat contraband of the bills at the volatile Colombia-Venezuela border, as economically nonsensical, adding there would be no way to swap all the 100-bolivar bills in circulation in the time the president has allotted. Indeed, if India is any example, Venezuela - whose economy is far worse than that of India, the world's fastest growing emerging market - may have just signed its own economic death warrant.

According to central bank data, in November there were more than six billion 100-bolivar bills in circulation, 48 percent of all bills and coins. In other words, Venezuela just eliminated half the paper cash in circulation.

Authorities on Thursday are due to start releasing six new notes and three new coins, the largest of which will be worth 20,000 bolivars, less than $5 on the streets. No official inflation data is available for 2016 though many economists see it in triple digits. Economic consultancy Ecoanalitica estimates annual inflation this year at more than 500%, close to the IMF's estimate.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...%20hyper_0.jpg

Comments from Benjaminis: Keep your eye on EUR/USD

http://finviz.com/forex_charts.ashx?t=EURUSD&tf=m5

HEADS UP - IMPORTANT !!!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:
So far, so expected. After earlier announcing the failure to attract any anchor investors for a private capital raise, Monte Paschi has announced that it will officially ask the Italian government for a "precuationary capital increase" - in other words a bailout. The funds will come from the newly decreed EUR20 billion bailout fund, and as Bloomberg reports will not trigger a "bail-in."
This is the third bailout in three years and reportedly the biggest nationalization in Italian history.
As Bloomberg reports, Italy will plow as much as 20 billion euros ($21 billion) into the country’s banks after Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA failed to secure its future by raising funds from investors, and other lenders could follow.
Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Rome that he expected Monte Paschi to ask for aid.

"We will see if other banks ask for aid,” Padoan said at the press conference. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said EU officials agreed with Italy’s plan to provide support to the country’s banking system.
And sure enough, once the bailout decree was approved, Monte Paschi, the world’s oldest lender, late Thursday abandoned plans to raise 5 billion euros from the market.
The bank said it was scrapping the entire capital plan, including the sale of bad loans and the debt for equity swap, and confirmed in a statement that it will ask Italy for a “precautionary capital increase.”
The FT notes that Italian officials hope government intervention will put an end to MPS’s woes and restore confidence in other struggling financial institutions.
Due to EU rules designed to limit the hit to taxpayers, the government rescue will impose losses on MPS shareholders and junior bondholders, making them share some of the financial burden. As Bloomberg confirms:

1. *ITALY GOVT SAYS PRECAUTIONARY RECAP DOESN'T TRIGGER BAIL IN
2. *PASCHI TIER 1 BOND CONVERSION AT 75% OF NOMINAL VALUE
3. *PASCHI TIER 2 BOND CONVERSION AT 100% OF NOMINAL VALUE

With Junior bonds already trading at extreme distress the modest-to-nothing haircuts imposed are likely a relief to some as Italy noted "the burden-sharing principle will be respected but we will try to limit the damage to savers as much as possible."
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau..._MONTE_1_0.jpg
"A nationalization should have been done five years ago,” said Francesco Confuorti, the CEO of Advantage Financial SA, a Milan-based investment firm. “The bank lost time, money and credibility seeking to keep the patient on life support when he was in an irreversible coma.”
The bigger problem now for Monte Paschi, as we detailed earlier, is the recent plunge in deposits, which as reported yesterday has suffered a €14bn rush of deposit outflows in the nine months from January to September this year – 11 per cent of its total deposits, as shown in the following FT chart.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...deposits_0.jpg
Should the nationalization fail to stem the bank run, either at Monte Paschi, or other Italian banks, more bailouts are imminent.
And finally, as The FT points out, there is always Germany to mess up these plans...
One of the big concerns associated with Italy’s banking rescue is that it will worsen the country’s fiscal outlook at a time when it already has one of the highest ratios of debt to gross domestic product in Europe, at 133 per cent.

Assuming all of the €20bn is used during the coming year, that would amount to about 1.2 per cent of GDP, making it highly unlikely that Italy could meet its commitments on managing its debt under EU budget rules.

Italian officials have insisted that the rescue would be a “one-time” effort, which was temporary and therefore would not impact the structural balance, which is one of the key fiscal measures used by the EU.

The European Commission said it “takes note” of the changes to some public finance targets.
And by "take note" we pre-suppose they mean extract some pint of blood from some unsuspecting taxpaying public.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...chi-plan-fails

Snippet:

1. Monte Paschi recapitalization effort misses bank’s target
2. New state fund seen plugging any Paschi recap shortfall

Italy will plow as much as 20 billion euros ($21 billion) into the country’s banks after Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA failed to secure its future by raising funds from investors, and other lenders could follow.

Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told reporters after a cabinet meeting in Rome that he expected Monte Paschi to ask for aid. The Siena, Italy-based bank confirmed in a statement that it will ask Italy for a “precautionary capital increase.”

Italy’s banks are reeling under a 360 billion-euro mountain of bad loans, a plight that has eroded profitability and undermined investor confidence. A nationalization of Monte Paschi, the biggest in Italy since the 1930s, could be followed by rescues for lenders including Veneto Banca SpA and Banca Popolare di Vicenza as part of the 20 billion-euro government package.

"We will see if other banks ask for aid,” Padoan said at the press conference. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said EU officials agreed with Italy’s plan to provide support to the country’s banking system.

Monte Paschi, the world’s oldest lender, late Thursday abandoned plans to raise 5 billion euros from the market. The bank said it was scrapping the entire capital plan, including the sale of bad loans and the debt for equity swap.

“A nationalization should have been done five years ago,” said Francesco Confuorti, the CEO of Advantage Financial SA, a Milan-based investment firm. “The bank lost time, money and credibility seeking to keep the patient on life support when he was in an irreversible coma.”

Monte Paschi Chief Executive Officer Marco Morelli had crisscrossed the globe looking for investors to back the bank’s reorganization plan, which included a share sale, a debt-for-equity swap and the sale of 28 billion worth of soured loans.

Qatar’s sovereign-wealth fund, which had considered an investment, hasn’t committed to buying shares, people with knowledge of the matter have said. Other institutions that were considering buying shares had indicated that they would put funds in the troubled bank only if it’s able to raise 1 billion euros from cornerstone investors, according to the people.

“The recapitalization plan was too complex and unappealing, and the timing too short,” said Renaud Champion, head of credit strategies at La Française Investment Solutions.

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. LEARN MORE

http://carnegieendowment.org/chinafi...lmarkets/66485

Snippet:
A U.S. Retreat on Global Trade Will Not Lead to a Shift in Power

1. MICHAEL PETTIS

Rejecting the Trans-Pacific Partnership should not mean the rejection altogether by Washington of the very idea of a stable, rules-based trading system. The world is better off with such a regime.

1. December 16, 2016
2. Comments (13)

The very first on the list of executive actions that his administration would implement from “day one,” according to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in his November 21, 2016, video clip, involved a U.S. retreat on trade: “I am going to issue a notification of intent to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a potential disaster for our country. Instead, we will negotiate fair, bilateral trade deals that bring jobs and industry back onto American shores.”
Three days after the video came out, the Wall Street Journal published an article I wrote in which I explained why I thought many analysts were wrong about the implications of a U.S. retreat from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In the next two weeks, I received a lot of queries about my article and the reasoning behind it, and so I thought it might be helpful if I set it out at greater length.
Before jumping into the full argument, I think the main points can be summarized in the following seven statements:

1. If the United States withdraws from its central role in global trade and capital flows, most analysts seem to expect a major global shift from a U.S.-dominated trading regime to one dominated by China. It is virtually impossible, however, for this to happen because the U.S. regime is built around large trade deficits, making it incompatible with a China-centered regime for which large trade surpluses at its center are a structural necessity.
2. In a world of capital scarcity and high investment demand, membership in a trading regime built around large trade and current account surpluses is rewarded by access to equally large capital exports. In a world of abundant capital and weak demand, however, trade benefits countries if it creates additional demand in the form of a rise in net exports.
3. The five decades after World War I, from roughly the late 1910s to the late 1960s, were dominated by the devastation wreaked by two world wars. These left the global economy with both a scarcity of savings and a great need for investment. The United States during this period ran large trade surpluses and capital account deficits as it exported its excess savings to fund its net exports while the growth of its trading partners was constrained by their urgent investment needs. Because they benefitted from access to U.S. savings, it is not surprising that large American trade surpluses and capital exports made it the indispensable center of global trade.
4. After the belligerents had been substantially rebuilt, the next five decades, from roughly the late 1960s to the present, have been a period of abundant, and even of excess, capital, driven by high savings and weak demand. What is more, unless there is a major war, or a technological breakthrough that requires investment on the scale of the railroad manias of the nineteenth century, abundant capital will probably characterize most of the rest of this century. During this period, the United States has accommodated the excess savings of the rest of the world by running large capital account surpluses (that is importing capital), which has meant of course that it also has run the corresponding trade deficits. Because economic growth among its trading partners benefitted from trade surpluses to grow, it is not surprising that the large American trade deficits of this period have allowed the country to continue as the indispensable center of global trade.
5. The Chinese economy is structurally incompatible with what is needed to replace the U.S.-centered trading regime of the past five decades. Members of the U.S. regime have been rewarded with the higher growth associated with trade surpluses, whereas members of a China-centered regime will be penalized with lower growth. The impact of shifting from one regime to the other is the equivalent of a demand contraction on average for every country of 2.0–2.5 percent of GDP.
6. The consequence of a U.S. withdrawal from global governance, in other words, is unlikely to be an orderly, rules-based global trading system in which leadership has shifted from Washington to Beijing. Far more likely is a return to the pre–Bretton Woods days of trade conflict and beggar-thy-neighbor policies.
7. The only way for the world to avoid devolving into an unstable global trading regime is if leading nations gather to design and enforce a new system for global trade—effectively a new Bretton Woods—but this time more like the sustainable system proposed by John Maynard Keynes rather than the unsustainable one around dollar centrality proposed by Harry Dexter White.

IS THE UNITED STATES IN RETREAT?
TPP is a trade deal signed in 2015 between a dozen countries that together account for around 40 percent of the global economy. Although TPP is often seen as another in a line of treaties aimed at liberalizing trade further, a more important goal may have been to “raise the bar” on trade, and to set up a body of rules, including on environmental and labor issues, with which to create pressure for countries like China to comply. The agreement has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, and it has often been described, especially by the Chinese press, as the economic component of U.S. President Barack Obama’s pivot to Asia and hostile to Chinese membership. That certainly may be part of the TPP strategy, but no more so than to create a more level playing field for countries like the United States whose manufacturers are often forced to comply with stricter domestic regulations while competing with manufacturers abroad who are not.
http://carnegieendowment.org/images/...lor_medium.jpg
Michael Pettis
Nonresident Senior Fellow
Asia Program
More from this author...

1. China’s Many Economies
2. The Gentrification of Beijing’s Hutongs Is Evident in Music
3. How China’s ‘Currency Manipulation’ Enhances the Global Role of the U.S. Dollar
4. Why China Won’t Devalue the Yuan

Donald Trump has nonetheless made very clear that he regards TPP as part of a complex of arrangements that together hamper U.S. growth, and he seems determined that Washington withdraw from setting and enforcing the rules of the global trading regime. For most analysts and policymakers, Trump’s message spelled the end of TPP, or at least a significant rewriting of the agreement. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned just before Trump’s video aired that without Washington’s involvement, TPP “has no meaning,” pouring cold water, in the words of the Financial Times, “on proposals for the other eleven members of TPP to go ahead without the US.” Japan went on to ratify TPP later that week anyway, mostly, as the Wall Street Journal characterized Abe’s words, for symbolic purposes, in the hope “that parliament’s ratification of TPP would send a message about the importance of regional free trade.”
The real meaning of Trump’s announcement is almost certainly not limited to TPP. It represents a rejection of the central role played by the United States in the governance of the global trading system. It has always been a fundamental, albeit highly controversial, part of Trump’s campaign platform, and one that resonated with a substantial portion of his supporters, that this system has been gamed by participants and creates significant costs to the United States in the form of lower growth, higher unemployment, more debt, and devastated industries throughout the country.
Unfortunately, the debate over trade is highly politicized and is almost never concerned with specifying the conditions under which interventionist policies can be helpful or harmful to the economy. Much of the controversy is fought along ideological lines, which is why the reaction to Trump’s announcement was fairly predictable. Traditional free-traders immediately condemned his statement, and traditional interventionists praised it.
There was, however, little disagreement among analysts for whom geopolitical affairs take precedence. Trump’s decision to withdraw from TPP was widely seen as detrimental to the United States both because it would lead to a reduction in Washington’s influence globally and because the dramatic reversal of a policy pursued energetically by the past administrations, Republican and Democratic, would likely reduce American credibility among its allies.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:

Submitted by Robert Gore via StraightLineLogic.com,
The pathetic attempts to undo Donald Trumps victory are signs of desperation, not strength, in the Deep State.
The post World War II consensus held that the USSRs long-term goal was world domination. That assessment solidified after the Soviets detonated an atomic bomb in 1949. A nuclear arms race, a space race, maintenance of a globe-spanning military, political, and economic confederation, and a huge expansion of the size and power of the military and intelligence complex were justified by the Soviet, and later, the Red Chinese threats. Countering those threats led the US to use many of the same amoral tactics that it deplored when used by its enemies: espionage, subversion, bribery, repression, assassination, regime change, and direct and proxy warfare.

Scorning principles of limited government, non-intervention in other nations affairs, and individual rights, the Deep State embraced the anti-freedom mindset of its purported enemies, not just towards those enemies, but toward allies and the American people. The Deep State gradually assumed control of the government and elected officials were expected to adhere to its policies and promote its propaganda. Only John F. Kennedy directly challenged it, firing CIA Director Allen Dulles after the Bay of Pigs disaster. He was assassinated, and whether or not CIA involvement is ever conclusively proven, the allegations have been useful to the agency, keeping politicians in line. The Deep State also co-opted the media, keeping it in line with a combination of fear and favor.

Since its ascension in the 1950s, the biggest threat to the Deep State has not been its many and manifest failures, but rather what the naive would regard as its biggest success: the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Much of the military-industrial complex was suddenly deprived of its reason for existencethe threat was gone. However, a more subtle point was lost.

The Soviet Union has been the largest of statisms many failures to date. Because of the Deep States philosophical blinders, that outcome was generally unforeseen. The command and control philosophy at the heart of Soviet communism was merely a variant on the same philosophy espoused and practiced by the Deep State. Like the commissars, its members believe that ordinary people are unable to handle freedom, and that their generalized superiority entitles them to wield the coercive power of government.

With irresponsible elements talking of peace dividends and scaling back the military and the intelligence agencies, the complex was sorely in need of a new enemy. Islam suffers the same critical flaw as communismcommand and controland has numerous other deficiencies, including intolerance, repression, and the legal subjugation of half its adherents. The Deep State had to focus on the world conquest ideology of some Muslims to even conjure Islam as a plausible foe. However, unlike the USSR, they couldnt claim that sect and faction-ridden Islam posed a monolithic threat, that the Islamic nations were an empire or a federation united towards a common goal, or that their armaments (there are under thirty nuclear weapons in the one Islamic nation, Pakistan, that has them) could destroy the US or the entire planet.

There was too much money and power at stake for the complex to shrink. While on paper Islam appeared far weaker than communism, the complex had one factor in their favor: terrorism is terrifying. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Americans surrendered liberties and gave the Deep State carte blanche to fight a war on terrorism that would span the globe, target all those whom the government identified as terrorists, and never be conclusively won or lost. Funding for the complex ballooned, the military was deployed on multiple fronts, and the surveillance state blossomed. Most of those who might have objected were bought off with expanded welfare state funding and programs (e.g. George W. Bushs prescription drug benefit, Obamacare).

What would prove to be the biggest challenge to the centralization and the power of the Deep State came, unheralded, with the invention of the microchip in the late 1950s. The Deep State could not have exercised the power it has without a powerful grip on information flow and popular perception. The microchip led to widespread distribution of cheap computing power and dissemination of information over the decentralized Internet. This dynamic, organically adaptive decentralization has been the antithesis of the command-and-control Deep State, which now realizes the gravity of the threat. Fortunately, countering these technologies has been like trying to eradicate hordes of locusts.

The gravest threat, however, to the Deep State is self-imposed: its own incompetence. Even the technologically illiterate can ask questions for which it has no answers. Why has the US been involved in long, costly, bloody, and inconclusive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Why should the US get involved in similar conflicts in Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iran, and other Middle Eastern and Northern African hotspots? Isnt such involvement responsible for blowback terrorism and refugee flows in both Europe and the US? Have free trade agreements and porous borders been a net benefit or detriment to the US? Why is the banking industry set up for periodic crises that inevitably require government bail-outs? (SLL claims no special insight into the nexus between the banking-financial sector and the Deep State, other than to note that there is one.) Why does every debt crisis result in more debt? How has encouraging debt and speculation at the expense of savings and investment helped the US economy? The Deep State cant answer or even acknowledge these questions because they all touch on its failures.

Brexit, Donald Trump, other populist, nationalist movements catching fire, and the rise of the alternative media are wrecking balls aimed at an already structurally unsound and teetering building that would eventually collapse on its own. The shenanigans in the US after Trumps electionviolent protests, hysterical outbursts, the vote recount effort, the proof-free Russian hacking allegations, fake news, and the attempt to sway electoral college electorsare the desperate screams of those trapped inside.

Regrettably, the building analogy is imperfect, because it implies that those inside are helpless and that the collapse will only harm them. In its desperation, incompetence, and corrupt nihilism, the Deep State can wreak all sorts of havoc, up to and including the destruction of humanity. Trump represents an opportunity to strike a blow against the Deep State, but the chances it will be lethal are minimal and the dangers obvious.
The euphoria over his victory cannot obscure a potential consequence: it may hasten and amplify the destruction and resultant chaos when the Deep State finally topples. Anyone who thinks Trumps victory sounds an all clear is allowing hope to triumph over experience and what should have been hard-won wisdom.

On the question of gold, this article is something - that helps us to understand. https://dailyreckoning.com/heres-never-buy-hold-gold/

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/w...-is-insolvent/

Snippet:

As we approach 2017, the euro appears far worse than anyone could imagine. The biggest hypocrite is actually Mario Draghi who is outrageously managing the European Central Bank (ECB). To make this as plain as possible, the ECB is the largest individual creditor of the euro countries, and is thus a bank that is undermined completely by the poor creditworthiness of the debtors. If the ECB were to apply its own rules to the banks in Europe that say bail-in, not bail-out, then by its own supervision rules, the ECB is insolvent and should be shut down.

Just look at the data. The ECB has been buying government bonds through its Quantitative Easing (QE) program and the failure of that expanded into other securities that now include corporate junk bonds. Looking at the balance sheet, the central bank currently has receivables amounting to 1,627 billion, of which 1,220 billion are directly attributable to government bonds.

Lets begin to dive deeper. Of the 19 countries of the Eurozone, the total debt is 9.816 billion. Together, all the Eurozone banks hold 1,695 billion in government bonds. Additionally, there are 1,100 billion in outstanding bank loans. The ECB is already the largest individual holder of government debt as is the Bank of Japan. Neither have anything to show for their QE efforts but failure. Draghi is continuing to buy even more questionable debt to the tune of 80 billion a month, dropping down to 60 billion.

https://armstrongmedia.s3.amazonaws....16/11/risk.gif
The presumptions that government debt is RISK-FREE is built entirely upon this idea that they can tax. But taxes are at their highs and history warns we have a tax revolution on the horizon. Government debt cannot be looked upon as free of risk when there is no further room to raise taxes. Draghi has placed all his eggs in one basket. Governments NEVER pay off their debts, they only spend more and more. This is a major crisis that seems to be out of focus for the majority of the world and certainly the press who are bought and paid for.

The bottom line: this is not going to end nicely. Draghi has no way out and there is only one end result. As the Eurozone breaks apart, so will the assets of the ECB. Under their own rules, the ECB should now be declared INSOLVENT. The Federal Reserve is not in the same position as the ECB or Japan. Nevertheless, it too will be insolvent if it attempts to follow this path. The Fed only has Federal debt, not state debt which would be more like the ECB.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:

How dare Brian Stelter, so called 'journalist' at CNN, retweet an obvious prank by some dipshit named Adam Saleh -- over what he sensationalized to be ISLAMOPHOBIA at the hands of a fine American company called Delta Airlines.

The claim by the very flamboyant and effeminate Adam Saleh was that he was merely talking a barbarous version of Arabic to his Mother, to which was met with an unrelenting form of ISLAMOPHOBIA by the employees at Delta, who quickly ferreted him off the fucking plane for obvious fears that he was about to stage a terrorist event by way of hijacking or shoe bomb detonation.

Little did the plebian employees know that Adam was just an effete member of the youtube theatre, playing tricks on the people, hoping to cash in on his adsense ads on his stupid videos. In other words, he was full of shit. A simply cursory google search would've produced such valuable information, something the CNN journalist named BRIAN STELTER didn't bother to do.

Mr. Stelter didn't bother to do a cursory search on Adam Saleh, instead opting to RETWEET his salacious story, because he's a very dumb man -- a stone aged type of person with savage qualities occupying a very low station in life. Most of the time Mr. Stelter is busy putting out stories about FAKE NEWS, while at the same time creating his own FAKE NEWS. The main stream media today is an active practice of a nonsensical nature, very Kafkaesque for you literary and Orsen Welles aficionados.

Here's Brian making fun of himself.

http://ibankcoin.com/flyblog/files/2016/12/Loser.png
The bow-tie less Tucker Carlson calls out Mr. Stelter, and the media as a whole, for being very stupid, falling for the oldest tricks in the book.


Content originally generated at iBankCoin.com

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38412816

Snippet:

Deutsche Bank agrees $7.2bn penalty with US regulators

1. 3 hours ago
2. From the sectionBusiness

Share
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cps...0_deutsche.jpgImage copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Germany's Deutsche Bank says it has agreed a $7.2bn settlement with US authorities over an investigation into mortgage-backed securities.
The sum, which needs final approval, is far lower than the $14bn the US had asked the bank to pay in September.
That looming fine had caused concerns that a failure of the bank could pose a risk to the global financial system.

The sale of residential mortgage-backed securities played a significant role in the 2008 financial crisis.
Several banks in the US have been subject to investigations over allegations of giving mortgages to unqualified borrowers, then repackaging those loans as safe investments and selling the risk on to others. The probes related to deals done between 2005 and 2007.

Under the settlement, Deutsche's payment will be made up of a civil penalty of $3.1bn as well as $4.1bn in consumer relief that will help US homeowners.
Other banks which have been ordered to pay fines by the US Department of Justice include Citigroup which say its $12bn penalty reduced to $7bn.
In 2013, JP Morgan Chase was fined $13bn following allegations it overstated the quality of mortgages being sold to investors and in the following year, Bank of America paid $16.7bn to settle similar charges.


Goldman Sachs settled for $5.1bn in January this year.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:

Submitted by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/defau...1222_trump.jpg
For years, alternative economic analysts have been warning that the “miraculous” rise in U.S. stock markets has been the symptom of wider central bank intervention and that this will result in dire future consequences. We have heard endless lies and rationalizations as to why this could not be so, and why the U.S. “recovery” is real. At the beginning of 2016, the former head of the Dallas branch of the Federal Reserve crushed all the skeptics and vindicated our position in an interview with CNBC where he stated:

“What the Fed did — and I was part of that group — is we front-loaded a tremendous market rally, starting in 2009.It’s sort of what I call the “reverse Whimpy factor” — give me two hamburgers today for one tomorrow. I’m not surprised that almost every index you can look at … was down significantly.” [Referring to the results in the stock market after the Fed raised rates in December.]

Fisher continued his warning (though his predictions in my view are wildly conservative or deliberately muted):
“…I was warning my colleagues, “Don’t go wobbly if we have a 10-20 percent correction at some point. … Everybody you talk to … has been warning that these markets are heavily priced.”

Here is the issue — stocks are a mostly meaningless factor when considering the economic health of a nation. Equities are a casino based on nothing but the luck of the draw when it comes to news headlines, central banker statements and algorithmic computers. Today, as Fischer openly admitted, stocks are a purely manipulated indicator representing nothing but the amount of stimulus central banks are willing to pour into them through various channels.

Even with the incredible monetary support pooled together by international financiers, returns on equities investments continue to remain mostly flat. It would seem that the propping up of indexes like the Dow has been only for the sake of keeping up appearances. For many people, revenue is barely being generated.

Unfortunately, the majority of Americans do not care to educate themselves on the finer points of finance. Their only relation to the health of the economy is their daily glance at the Dow. If it is green, or at all time highs, they assume that all is well, even if their gut is telling them something is not quite right.
The elites that stand at the helm of the Federal Reserve understand this dynamic very well. They are not stupid. They know that the whole of the global economy could be in a shambles but as long as stocks remain positive the masses will continue to ignore reality until the flames of destabilization are at their very doorsteps.

With this fact in mind one might think that the Fed would consider it in their best interest to keep stimulus measures operating indefinitely; but that is not what they are doing.

In fact, the Fed along with other central banks like the ECB has been slowly peeling back pillars of support from markets that have been in place since 2008-2009 and leaving the system open to a crisis event that should have been dealt with years ago. I examined this process of deliberate destabilization in my article 'The Global Economic Reset Has Begun.'

In that piece I outlined the three major pillars holding up the U.S. market system and certain parts of our economy and how they were being systematically removed.

The first pillar was the use of bailouts and quantitative easing measures. These were diminished through the implementation of the Fed “taper,” which I predicted would happen three months prior that year.

The second pillar was the use of near zero interest rates, which allowed numerous banks and corporations to access low-cost and no-cost overnight loans from the Fed. These companies then used these loans in large part to support a never-ending program of stock buybacks, which reduced the stock pool and artificially boosted the values of the remaining stocks. I predicted in August of 2015 that the Fed would hike interest rates and that this would be the beginning of the end for the stock buyback bonanza. The Fed hiked rates in December of that year.

This process of removing backdoor manipulation through low interest rates should be our main concern right now. Early in 2016 I believed that the Fed would reach a position in which it would finally unleash a series of rate hikes. I did not think they would be so blatant as to wait until right after the U.S. presidential election to do so. I was wrong.

This is why I eventually predicted the launch of a series of rate hikes starting right after the election of Donald Trump in my article 'World Suffers From Trump Shell Shock — Here’s What Will Happen Next.' The Fed has now once again hiked interest rates with assertions that they will be “accelerating” such hikes throughout 2017.

As I have been arguing for most of the past year, the election of Donald Trump was inevitable and would precede the triggering of the final stage of our ongoing economic crisis. I came to realize that the Fed’s timing of their latest rate hike is highly strategic. Not only does it set the stage for a series of hikes that will crush U.S. stock markets this coming year and finally shock the public out of their fiscal stupor, but it also maneuvers the crisis right into the lap of Donald Trump and the conservative movements that support him.

Beyond this, it perpetuates an increasing Left/Right division in America. Think about it — during a fiscal crisis under Trump, tiggered by accumulating Fed rate hikes, liberals will immediately set upon Trump as the culprit, while conservatives will immediately defend Trump as a victim of Federal Reserve meddling.

The Federal Reserve and the mainstream media are already composing the narrative by stating that Trump's potential economic policies and a widening budget deficit would REQUIRE higher rates at a faster pace in order to be accommodated.

I have heard arguments from some that this tactic would simply not work. That people would “never buy” a narrative in which Trump and conservatives are blamed for a market collapse that was at least eight years in the making. I have to say, this view is incredibly naive.

I understand why people would want to embrace the notion that the public is as savvy as the liberty movement when looking at economic events, but this simply isn’t reality. A large portion of the U.S. population identifies with the “Left” end of the political spectrum. We have already seen how they react in the face of a Trump election win. They are predisposed to believe that Trump is responsible for a market crash regardless of the facts. Not to mention, much of the rest of the world is economically ignorant and will likely jump on the anti-conservative bandwagon during a crisis as well.

But the real master stroke of this strategy on the part of the elites is that it creates the perfect platform for the destruction of the U.S. dollar’s world reserve status — the third and final pillar I mentioned months ago that is supporting our economic system.

Imagine that the Fed’s rate hike frenzy sparks an open feud between the central bank and Trump? Some people might say “Good! Shut the bastards down!”

However, this is exactly what the elites want. With the Fed “at odds” with the president of the U.S., faith in the U.S. dollar will plummet. Its world reserve status will be destroyed. And instead of being blamed on central banks, the majority of people around the world will claim it was the fault of Trump.

With a historically sufficient excuse for the end of dollar dominance in hand, the elites can move forward with their great global reset, which includes the replacement of the dollar with the IMF’s special drawing rights as the go-to reserve currency mechanism. The SDR basket is an essential bridge in the formation of a single global monetary authority and a true single global currency.

I believe that the Fed will not only continue hiking interest rates throughout 2017, but that some of these rate hikes may be LARGER than many people expect (50 basis points or more). I believe this will be designed to foster extreme tensions between the executive branch and the central bank.

A few months ago I would have said that Trump may or “may not” be aware of this dynamic and the potential that he is a scapegoat. Now that I have seen Trump’s cabinet picks which include neo-con and Goldman Sachs alumni, I have little doubt that he is fully cognizant of the plan. I will be writing more on the issue of Trump as a "Trojan horse" in my next article. In the meantime I would point out that all of the elements of psychological support for stock markets will also disappear in the face of a Trump verses establishment narrative.

All those leftist media outlets cherry picking economic stats and telling half truths to support the recovery lie now have no reason to continue cheerleading for the economy. I expect that propaganda rags like Reuters and Bloomberg will quickly change their tune with Trump in the Oval Office and begin a consistent chorus of negative financial data. Not only will the Fed remove all support from the system, but the mainstream media will be pounding day traders with the kind of “doom and gloom” headlines that they have been criticizing us for over the years.

Make no mistake, the election of Trump may have some in the liberty movement ready to pack up their preps and forget about any national crisis in their lifetimes, but the truth is, vigilance is needed now more than ever. I said it before the election and I’ll say it today — do not get comfortable; the times are about to get even more interesting.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/4032...r-stock-market

Snippet:

Summary
Central bank rate policy, combined with corporate compensation, has pushed income inequality into unfriendly territory.
Central bank policy is not the only reason for middle-class woe. Wealthier individuals in the upper echelon have seen wages grow handsomely. Middle-class Joes? Wage stagnation.

The way I see it, modest alterations will be branded as tremendously powerful changes. Yet "Mr. Market" will call the bluff.

In recent commentary, I expressed an opinion that President-elect Trump faces numerous obstacles in stimulating the economy via tax cuts, regulatory reduction and infrastructure spending. The incoming administration is looking at an existing deficit of roughly $700 billion, tighter monetary conditions, higher borrowing costs in the near term, highly leveraged households, highly leveraged corporations and $20 trillion in federal debt. In other words, Trump does not have the kind of favorable setup that Reagan enjoyed in 1982.

https://staticseekingalpha.a.ssl.fas...ue_Table-4.png
Nevertheless, I received a fair amount of push-back on the notion that leverage or debt or rising interest rates pose any sort of problem for the bull market in U.S. stocks going forward. Several comment writers attempted to explain that borrowing itself had been "lower" in 1982 with mortgages near 16% and that borrowing activity is much "higher" today with mortgages closer to 4%. Therefore, they claimed household-debt-to-income of 130% in December of 2016 is not problematic for household free cash flow.

If only that were accurate.


Even at 16%, the homeownership rate in 1982 was 65.5%. The homeownership rate today? With mortgage near the 4% level? 63.5%. On a percentage basis, then, there was MORE borrowing to own a home at 16% in 1982; there is LESS borrowing to own a home at 4% here in December of 2016.
How is this possible? Skyrocketing property prices. Back in 1982, home-owning households spent 12% of family income on servicing the mortgage. Today, it is 16% of family income. That's a 33% leap. Indeed, most buyers would be better off paying 1982's 16% mortgage rate and having a more affordable house to own.

There are other factors at play as well. Homebuyers in 1982 had to put down the requisite 20% of the home price. That made it possible to weather the possibility of a recession and/or job loss. The bulk of 2016 homebuyers can put 3% down on an FHA loan, leaving them precious little room to withstand a downturn. Not much has been learned from our previous decade's housing bubble, has it?

We have millions and millions of highly levered households. Nor is it confined to property leverage. Across the indebted household landscape, the average household sits on $16,000+ in credit card obligation. That's near the 2008 peak. Is it at your low mortgage rate of 3.5% or 4.0% or 4.5%? Try 18.76% or roughly $1,300 in annual interest.

Now, $1,300 per year may not matter to wealthy Americans; it may not matter to me. Yet, that debt makes it far more difficult for many households to get by. It may be particularly troublesome, in fact, for the 120 million Americans that are part of a renting household. Why? Back in 1982, roughly 19% of household rental income went to servicing rent payments. Today? 28%. Never mind the unfortunate reality that 63% of Americans can't pay for a $500 to $1,000 emergency. (See Bankrate.com.)

These are the types of numbers that clearly demonstrate why relying on debt for maintaining a standard of living today poses a threat to consumer spending tomorrow. That's a serious dilemma for a service-based, consumer-oriented economy.

In fact, it is hard for me to fathom how there are those who can be so sanguine about debt levels. They dismiss household debt that is crippling so many Americans. They disregard $50 trillion in corporate debt because of today's low interest rates as if the debt will not need to be rolled over to new obligations in the future. They ignore $20 trillion in government obligation because of today's low interest rates as if the ever-increasing interest obligations would not constrain how the federal government pays for the needs of its citizens down the road.

https://staticseekingalpha.a.ssl.fas...n-The-Debt.jpg
Central bank manipulation of rates helped wealthy people get wealthier through the acquisition of income-producing, capital-appreciating assets like stocks and rental real estate. Ultra-low borrowing costs certainly helped me. Yet, they've done precious little for the bulk of American households. Many have been priced out of the American dream or forced to stretch way beyond a "20% down means." Others must rent. Still others, mainly adult children, are living with their parents.

So please, dear commenters tell me again how total debt levels are inconsequential. Trumpet the "achievement" of $90 trillion in asset price inflated household net worth, and how it compensates for debt.

Perhaps those who cite household net worth at $90 trillion as an extraordinary positive are completely unaware of the fact that the overwhelming majority of the wealth belongs to the top 5-10%. Perhaps, they are also unaware of the fact that one of the premier predictors of subsequent 10-year rolling returns for U.S. stocks (91% accuracy since 1952) is household equity percentage, which currently predicts little more than 3% annualized. Household equity percentage tends to be at its highest when household net worth is at its highest, like $90 trillion. And while 3% annualized cannot tell you when the downturn for stocks will come, the fact that the prediction is not near the total return average since 1870 (9.5%) hints at a reckoning or two before December 2026.
https://staticseekingalpha.a.ssl.fas...nce-1952-1.jpg

If one connects the debt dots, he/she can readily identify how low rate manipulation by the Federal Reserve did more than reflate asset prices alone. Reflated real estate prices have caused marginal buyers to stretch for the American dream with token down payments, while simultaneously leaving a larger base of renters struggling with significantly less disposable income than they might have had in the absence of rate manipulation.

Granted, central bank monetary policy is not the only reason for middle-class woe. Wealthier individuals in the upper echelon have seen their wages grow handsomely over time. Middle-class Joes? Wage stagnation.
https://staticseekingalpha.a.ssl.fas...lity-Again.jpg

Central bank rate policy, combined with corporate compensation, has pushed income inequality into unfriendly territory. Bernie Sanders vowed to fix it through socialist redistribution. Donald Trump promises to fix it through the repatriation of corporate cash, shovel-ready infrastructure jobs, reduced regulation for smaller businesses and fair (if not free) trade. As different as both candidates for the presidency were, both individuals convinced voters they'd be fighting for the financially forgotten.

Unfortunately, President-elect Trump has a problem. Even before his administration serves up a greenback on infrastructure or tax cuts, it will inherit a deficit of roughly $800 billion and a 2018 borrowing need in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. Will Congressional Republicans suddenly go super-soft on deficits and debt ceilings? That's a pretty big assumption on the part of buyers at Dow 20,000.

The way I see it, modest alterations will be branded as tremendously powerful changes. Yet "Mr. Market" will call the bluff. Those who fade the Trump rally with some of their portfolio holdings will be far better positioned to put cash back to work at more attractive valuations.
https://staticseekingalpha.a.ssl.fas...d_SPX-GAAP.png

Disclosure: Gary Gordon, MS, CFP is the president of Pacific Park Financial, Inc., a Registered Investment Adviser with the SEC. Gary Gordon, Pacific Park Financial, Inc., and/or its clients may hold positions in the ETFs, mutual funds, and/or any investment asset mentioned above. The commentary does not constitute individualized investment advice. The opinions offered herein are not personalized recommendations to buy, sell or hold securities. At times, issuers of exchange-traded products compensate Pacific Park Financial, Inc. or its subsidiaries for advertising at the ETF Expert website. ETF Expert content is created independently of any advertising relationships.

Time for some sleep now !!! I will be back in about 4 or 5 hours so if you post anything and please do if you have anything to share.


Benjaminis


10 Trading Rules for Successful Traders
1. Limit your losses.
2. Let your profits run.
3. Keep position sizes within reason.
4. Know your risk-reward ration.
5. Be adequately capitalised.
6. Dont fight the trend.
7. Never add to losing positions. Dont average out.
8. Know market expectations.
9. Learn from your mistakes keep a trading journal.
10. Have a maximum loss or retracement in profits.

Morning Thoughts - Daily

I am going to link an article that I just read with a few snippets that go into not only the psychology of trading as it talks about some of the issues.

I have been explaining the same basics through how the Trade Plan should be executed. That is why DISCIPLINE becomes KEY.

Trading Forex needs to become a way of life for accomplished winning traders.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/4032...scipline-focus

Snippet One:

Summary

Human traders often fail through lack of focus, often abandoning a great system.

Our trading models solve this problem, but...
There are plenty of good ideas in various time frames.

No system works unless the human in control understands it and has confidence.


Last week's Stock Exchange was about how emotion and symbols affected technical analysis. Could our charts help us when the picture displayed involved some psychological event like Dow 20K?


This week I turn from the charts themselves to the trader who must interpret them. Successful trading requires focus and the discipline to stick with successful methods - even through a bout of bad luck.


Dr. Brett Steenbarger, the leading expert in trading psychology, puts it this way:

A topic that has arisen in recent conversations with traders is the importance of focusing on what has been making you money and sizing up those trades, rather than taking many kinds of trades throughout the day or week and watering down your edge. So often, the difference between profitability and unprofitability is eliminating marginal trades and trading more confidently with our core strengths. Perhaps most damaging in taking those marginal trades is that we don't accumulate those small wins that allow us to go after larger ones. It's difficult to build confidence when oscillating between winning on good trades and throwing money away on so-so ones.

Dr. Brett writes almost every day about helping human traders achieve their best results. Does this have meaning for our models? Let's start with a look at their current ideas.

Snippet Two:

You must learn to look forward. We can all wonder why we did not take some action in the past. That is a waste of time. It is more important to make good decisions in the future.

Snippet Three:


Conclusion
Human traders are constantly at war with their own emotions. Losing streaks are inevitable - just part of the job.

Our models do not know, of course, when they are in a bad performance streak. Using models is a great way to maintain focus and discipline. That is not, however, the final word. As long as humans remain in control, there will be psychological issues. Is your model still "working?"

We ask if we have Risk On or Risk Off however this being the last trading day of the week and the start of the holidays the quiet direction of the market will tell us that.

First I see what has happened overnight.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-1...ops+to+zero%29

Snippet:

1. Berlin market attack suspect killed in Italy (Reuters)
2. Tunisian Suspect Had a History of Criminal Activity, Extremism (WSJ)
3. Hijacked Libyan plane lands in Malta with 118 on board (Reuters)
4. Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse Settle U.S. Probes as Barclays Sued (BBG)
5. Italy Sets Up Fund to Help Troubled Banks (WSJ)
6. Europe Stocks Halt Drop as Italian Aid Lifts Bonds: Markets Wrap (BBG)
7. Dollar inches lower into Christmas lull (Reuters)
8. Syrian rebels shell Aleppo after withdrawal (Reuters)
9. President Xi Open to Growth in China Falling Below 6.5% (BBG)
10. Trump’s Senior White House Staff Takes Shape (WSJ)
11. Bitcoin Surges Above $900 on Geopolitical Risks, Fed Tightening (BBG)
12. Putin Says He Knew Donald Trump Would Win (BBG)
13. China fines GM venture $29 million for monopolistic pricing: state TV (Reuters)
14. On Nov. 9, Hillary Clinton Voters Ate Their Grief (BBG)
15. Giant Hedge Fund Builds a Management Machine (WSJ)
16. Under fire, Eric Trump suspends charitable foundation (Reuters)
17. 2016 Was Awful for Brazilians and 2017 Doesn’t Look Much Better (BBG)

Overnight Media Digest

WSJ
- The U.S. government struck a $7.2 billion settlement with Deutsche Bank over toxic securities, while separately filing a lawsuit against Barclays Plc alleging more than $30 billion in fraud-tainted sales. http://on.wsj.com/2hxmHsY
- Italy's government has set up a backstop fund to shore up troubled banks, setting the stage for the rescue of troubled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA. http://on.wsj.com/2hxjGJd
- Federal investigators are asking questions about a billionaire New York hedge-fund manager and a Bermuda reinsurer as they examine the alleged fraud by hedge fund Platinum Partner. http://on.wsj.com/2hxnHx7
- Bridgewater Associates LP, the world's largest hedge-fund firm, wants day-to-day management including hiring, firing and decision-making to be guided by software that doles out instructions. The project is the latest bid by founder Ray Dalio to perpetuate his unorthodox philosophy. http://on.wsj.com/2hxmQN2
- Incoming U.S. President Donald Trump rounded out his senior White House team, elevating a set of trusted advisers who helped engineer his surprise election victory and bringing some of the rhythms and spirit of his unconventional campaign into the government he will soon lead. http://on.wsj.com/2hxjz0e
- Uber Technologies Inc is moving a test of its self-driving cars to the friendlier environs of Arizona after suffering a regulatory defeat in California over its use of the vehicles in San Francisco. http://on.wsj.com/2hxk0rg
- Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht's admission to U.S. prosecutors that it paid hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes to win lucrative infrastructure contracts is reverberating across Latin America, sparking a political crisis. http://on.wsj.com/2hxdKQx
- Beijing is considering retaliatory steps after Trump appointed China trade skeptic Peter Navarro to head American trade and industrial policy. http://on.wsj.com/2hxomPr
- Ivory Coast in October became Africa's fastest-growing economy, a sharp reversal from 2011, when a bloody civil war left 3,000 people dead. http://on.wsj.com/2hxjIR6

FT
- Unite called off a Christmas strike action suspending a planned walkout by some British Airways cabin crew after new proposals from management.
- The Italian government approved Monte dei Paschi di Siena's bailout, led by prime minister Paolo Gentiloni. State rescue of the country's third largest bank, saddled by non-performing loans, became necessary after it failed to raise enough capital in the wake of European-wide stress tests.
- Prison guards were working to control a disturbance involving 60 inmates at HMP Swaleside on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent. Prisoners had taken control of a landing on a wing at the category B prison.
- Federal prosecutors sued Barclays and two of its executives over fraudulent mortgage-backed securities the bank issued as the US housing bubble was at its peak. The suit claims the bank "securitised billions of dollars of loans it knew had material defects" and financed lenders that it knew were issuing mortgages to customers who would be unable to repay them.

NYT
- Deutsche Bank announced late on Thursday that it had reached a tentative $7.2 billion deal to resolve a federal investigation into its sale of toxic mortgage securities, capping months of negotiations that weighed heavily on the bank's stock price and reputation. http://nyti.ms/2hf0tOK
- United States authorities have accused British bank Barclays Plc and two former executives of fraudulently misleading the public in the sale of tens of billions of dollars in securities backed by home mortgages. http://nyti.ms/2hf2mer
- President-elect Donald Trump's latest missive on military spending suggests that Boeing Co has perhaps swayed him more than its rival Lockheed Martin Corp. Now, he is preparing to pit one off the other to try to decrease the cost of new fighter jets, military analysts said on Thursday. http://nyti.ms/2heUwkR
- Ikea has reached a tentative settlement to pay $50 million to three American families whose young children were killed after the Swedish furniture company's furniture fell on them, lawyers for the families said. http://nyti.ms/2heUEAR
- The United States economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter, its fastest pace in two years and more than the government had previously estimated. The growth spurt, however, is not expected to last, as consumers and businesses pull back. http://nyti.ms/2heXeqC

Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** A Canadian-developed vaccine for the Ebola virus has proven to be extremely effective in a full-scale clinical trial, opening the possibility that future outbreaks of the disease can be successfully contained. https://tgam.ca/2h8OVJt
** New Brunswick has broken ranks with other provinces and territories to strike a bilateral agreement on health funding with Ottawa, a move that angered other provincial ministers who had rejected what the federal government put on the table earlier this week. https://tgam.ca/2imRd93
** A majority of Canadians support the key planks in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's energy and climate plan - approving a controversial oil pipeline and imposing a carbon tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a poll from Nanos Research Group says. https://tgam.ca/2h8LthU
NATIONAL POST
** Indie telecommunications providers say the federal telecom regulator's landmark decision to classify high-speed internet a basic service will inject competition into the ecosystem - and ultimately lower prices and improve speeds for consumers. http://bit.ly/2hZBuxs
** A former Ontario premier, a current member of parliament, and an ex-Alberta cabinet minister are among those advising businessman and reality TV personality Kevin O'Leary on whether to launch a Conservative leadership bid, according to a member of his "exploratory committee." http://bit.ly/2hinjGH

Britain
The Times
- Bank of England Governor Mark Carney faces a bruising showdown with a group of influential MPs when an investigation into the Bank of England's use of monetary policy since the financial crisis is launched. http://bit.ly/2i0pNcn
- Barclays is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged fraud over the sale of mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis. http://bit.ly/2hYfanZ
The Guardian
- British Prime Minister Theresa May must explain why it took so long for the government to establish that British-made cluster bombs banned by an international treaty were dropped by Saudi Arabia in Yemen, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has said. http://bit.ly/2i0fkh6
- Fingerprints found inside the cabin of the truck that ploughed into a Berlin Christmas market match those of the fugitive suspect Anis Amri, Germany's federal prosecutor's office confirmed on Thursday night. http://bit.ly/2hgp7A7
The Telegraph
- Italy's ministers were in emergency session on Thursday night to thrash out the rescue terms for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, finally ending a financial soap opera that has dragged on for years and done enormous damage to the country. http://bit.ly/2ilcijW
Sky News
- Planned strikes by British Airways cabin crew on Christmas Day and Boxing Day have been cancelled. http://bit.ly/2i71dUG
- London Underground workers are to stage a 24-hour strike over pay from 6 p.m. on Jan. 8, according to RMT and TSSA unions.
The Independent
- Prince Charles has issued a warning over the "rise of populism" in a veiled apparent reference to the election of Donald Trump and increasingly hostile attitudes towards refugees in Europe. http://ind.pn/2h53UnT
- British Ministers of Parliament are considering a push for longer working hours for MPs next year, to give enough time to pass Brexit legislation in line with Theresa May's schedule. http://ind.pn/2hWTXe3

How is your trading going ? You can never lose taking good profits.

Please update me on anything that you think that I should know. Feedback makes it easier for me to assist you !!!

Benjaminis

Reading today from my Morning Thoughts will give you a good summary of what I do when I start my trading day in order to get into the right state of mind to trade.

If for whatever reason you have things on your mind whether business or personal and you cannot focus than just do not trade and take a break and attend to what needs to be done. This is a very important element of trading !!!