landmines.......................

 Investing would be a lot easier if there were no uncertainty. If someone could just kindly tell you where all of the landmines are buried ahead of time, you could side them completely and go on with your life.

Life doesn’t work like that, unfortunately. Uncertainty is always at all-time highs because no one knows what’s coming next. The hard part is there is this human need for control in life, even if that control is an illusion.

You have no control over what happens with taxes, trade, tariffs, the Fed, interest rates, economic growth, inflation, earnings or stock market returns. None. So it’s really your reaction to the uncontrollable events that determines your success or failure as an investor.

-Ben Carlson, from here

The always interesting..................

............................David Warren chimes in on the state of our world:

As Stalin used to say, “Nuclear weapons are only a problem for people with bad nerves.”

As they say, read the whole thing.

A battle..............................

     Like musicians, like mathematicians - like elite athletes - scientists peak early and dwindle fast.  It isn't creativity that fades, but stamina.  Science is an endurance sport.  To produce that single illuminating experiment, a thousand nonilluminating experiments have to be sent into the trash; it is a battle between nature and nerve.

-Siddhartha Mukherjee,  The Gene:  An Intimate History

One of the finest speeches ever.....

Robert "The Music Man" Preston...................Ya Got Trouble

Grace under pressure..............

"What such a man needs is not courage but nerve control, cool headedness.  This he can only get by practice."
-Theodore Roosevelt

Tranquil courage...................................

     When we aim high, pressure and stress obligingly come along for the ride.  Stuff is going to happen that catches us off guard, threatens or scares us.  Surprises (unpleasant ones, mostly) are almost guaranteed.  The risk of being overwhelmed is always there.
      In these situations, talent is not the most sought-after characteristic.  Grace and poise are, because these two attributes precede the opportunity to deploy any other skill.  We must possess, as Voltaire once explained about the secret to the great military success of the first Duke of Marlborough, that "tranquil courage in the midst of tumult and serenity of soul in danger, which the English call a cool head."

-Ryan Holiday,  The Obstacle Is The Way:  The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

Sentient money....................

Asked recently if money today is smarter, Greg Vilkin, managing principal and president of MarcFarlane Partners, said that, "Money today is more nervous than it has ever been."
-as excerpted from here

One of the problems with...............

............successful investing is that it takes discipline and a willingness to do your own thinking.  To wit:

"In terms of simple profitability, an average investor could have done just as well investing in the stock market if they bought during the panic period," Buffett told the Journal on Saturday. "You make your best buys when people are overwhelmingly fearful."

Read more here about how  $10 billion was earned by investing during the darkest time of the Great Recession.

Continue..............................

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” 
-Winston Churchill

Messing with Mother Nature....

Riding the big waves............


thanks jonco