Trading: Everyone’s Gotta Start Somewhere

Following last week’s introduction to trading. It couldn’t be a better time to get momentum.

We talked about acquiring skills in wealth creation, adapting to dynamic markets, entrepreneurial mindset, risk management, developing analytical skills and critical thinking, emotional discipline, and psychological resilience.

Now, to connect to present market conditions...

This year, we've had seemingly endless negative rhetoric in the headlines. From inflation concerns to a banking crisis, supply chain issues, US debt ceiling concerns ($31.4trn and running), a mortgage crippling interest rate hiking cycle (The US has now hiked rates 10 times since 2022!), the ongoing trade and geopolitical impact of the Russia and Ukraine conflict, energy supply/price concerns, recessionary fears and to top it off the US government is now cracking down on crypto…

But wait, now look at where asset prices are:

US stocks (SPX 500) are officially in a bull market. Defined as a +20% rise or more from recent low in October 2022. GBPUSD has rallied over 20% in the same period. Bitcoin is up +60% YTD, and AI related stocks like NVIDIA are up +192% YTD. These are just a few examples that paint a very different picture.

It should be clear that opportunities to trade are everywhere if you are looking for them… not blindly following news rhetoric.

That’s not going to change. Markets will continue to be volatile. Here's another reminder to look at where we are in the market cycle and what that means for price action and volatility:

Where We Are in the Big Cycle: On the Brink of a Period of Great Disorder:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-we-big-cycle-brink-period-great-disorder-ray-dalio/?published=t 

This leads me to the question: “Has your bank balance changed as a result of this year’s moves? And if not, then why?”

So that’s the theme of today’s post.