A10, Stock Trader Dude

Timeless strategies for successful investing… except the book lacks meaningful strategies unless you consider not investing as one of them. Overall a good book that makes the point, backed by research, just like “The Great Mutual Fund Trap”, that in no uncertain terms the modern concept of investing is a farce, the individual is not going to win, and the investment markets are to be avoided.

Institutions are not beating the market. The institutions are the market. Professionals win points; amateurs lose points.Expert tennis: 80 percent of points are won, amateurs: 80 percent of points are lost.50 largest, most active institutions do half of all transactions in the market.In the 1970s the market became dominated by institutions that were trying to beat the market. In forty years they now do 90 percent of the business.2.85 percent a year in annual fees for fund management (factor in inflation, taxes, and commissions and it’s a loser’s game)

Working effectively is doing the right things.
Constancy to purpose!

To outperform you must be so skillful and so quick that you can regularly catch other professionals making errors – and can systematically exploit those errors faster than other professionals.In the 1960s when institutions did 10 percent and individuals did 90 percent of the trading, large numbers of amateurs were realistically bound to lose to the professionals.

Informationless trading

The 100 largest and most active institutions do 75 percent of trading.Managers that have had superior performance in the past are unlikely to have superior results in the future. Regression to the mean is a phenomenon in physics, sociology and investing.

Market timing
Selection of specific stocks or groups
Changes in portfolio structure or strategy
An insightful, long-term investment concept or philosophy

Qualified personal residence trust
Enables you to transfer ownership of your house to your children and live in your home rent-free for a period of time (such as fifteen years). You save substantially on estate taxes unless you die before the trust matures – while ownership passes to your children.Pg 148

In 1993, the Dow Jones was equal to its inflation-adjusted level in 1928. Sixty-five years was a long, long time to wait to get even.How much of the 95 years gain in the stock market came in the last 20 years? Most of it – prior to the 1980s there weren’t a lot of gains accumulated. And another consideration was that pass-through inflation accounted for a large amount of the perceived gain.

The secret world of banknote printing. A wonderful book, enjoyable for it’s coverage of what currency is and how it came to be… there is detailed coverage of the creation of the Euro currency.Preface, pg 11Paper money was invented by the Chinese. One thousand years later American colonists were the first ones in the Western world to systematically use it, even financing their revolution by issuing large amounts of dollar bills.Private banknote printing is controlled by a few European high-tech companies.Chrometophobia, fear of moneyBanknote printing often involves massive use – and often waste – of public funds.War finance is the driving force behind paper money.John law of Lauriston created the term “millionaire” around 1717.Congress in 1863 enacted the national banking act. A uniform national dollar was born issued exclusively by the Treasury department.1971 – last hurdle to fiat money cleared by Nixon taking dollar off gold standard (essentially already happened but this removed the requirement from central banks). Paper money offers authorities a cheaper way to cheat the people than had already been the case with coinage, stated liberal national economist and Nobel Laureate Friedrich A. von Hayek in essays. The best thing is to abandon it again.Pg 27
Even the health of banknotes, their hygienic condition, is tested continually and in strict secrecy at laboratories. Out of concern about carcinogenic substances, for example, the central banks had the usual animal gelatin for the surface coating of banknotes replaced with synthetic products. This prolonged the longevity of the banknotes – and raised the bacterial contamination of paper money.Pg 28
The manufacture of money consumes money – the money of the taxpayer.Pg 260
Of the 173 million dollars worth of bogus dollar notes replaced by the Fed for the year 2001, only 60 million dollars worth were traced to the U.S. homeland.Pg 261
Supernote, an illegal parallel print. A government had to be behind it because the technical and financial outlays to produce it were not affordable.Sixty percent of the 629 billion dollars worth of notes issued by the Fed are held in the 100-dollar denomination.