Good morning.
Traders have pushed heavily into tech stocks over the past few weeks, particularly companies with high short interest.
That’s a sign that traders who shorted some stocks may be getting squeezed.  That doesn’t last forever.  That may indicate that the market’s move higher – especially in tech – may slow down or reverse in the coming days.
In the meantime, traders have largely been selling short the energy space.  As last year’s big winning sector, that’s not a big surprise.  And slowing economic data is typically bearish for energy prices.  Traders may want to look at going long in the space – as traders who shorted prices lower may be setting up the next short squeeze higher.

Now here’s the rest of the news:

Are Annuities a Scam?  Here’s What the Numbers Say…
When economic times are tumultuous, like they are now, older Americans generally start looking for more financial security in retirement.  One of the… [Read Here]

Why Is the World Dumping the Dollar?
We are living in chaotic times.  Record inflation, historic U.S. debt, and rising geopolitical tensions only represent the tip of the iceberg.  Right now, as a consequence of of those three forces, there’s a… [Read Here]

February 07, 2022

Good morning.
For years, markets have operated under the assumption of a “Fed put.”  That just means that if the stock market drops enough, the central bank will come in, print more money, and create easy conditions for a move higher.
Currently, the Fed is on track to finally take its foot off the gas after two years of pandemic-era measures.  The market has started its pre-interest rate rise tantrum.  But now, with the labor market looking strong, the Fed is in a position to step back quickly to avert the economy overheating.  That could create a ceiling on how high the stock market could go for several months while the extent of the monetary tightening is playing out.
In short, traders need to narrow down their bullish bets to companies with the best prospects for growth no matter what the economy or inflation is doing, and look to hedge longer-term holdings, as the current market volatility may continue for longer than most expect.

Precious Metals Prices
Price at week’s end (change over last week)

Gold … $1,809.45 (0.9%)
Silver …  $22.59 (0.2%)
Platinum … $1,032.75 (1.2%)
Palladium … $2,322.85 (-3.6%)

Now here’s the rest of the news:

U.S. Debt Soars To The Moon… How Long Till It Comes Crashing Down?
The national U.S. debt is now over $30 trillion.  It’s so bad that one analyst says “trillions are whooshing by so fast they’re hard to see.”  So how will it all end? [Read Here]

February 07, 2021

“Action.  Call.  Follow Up.  Decision.  Just one appointment could lead to changing our lives.  This is fun to do.”

Here’s to a better YOU … and now … Today’s DarrenDaily Recap Sunday.  A collection of the weeks videos from Darren Hardy.  Enjoy!

Naturally beautiful: Woody Point, Newfoundland, Canada.

…home!

February 07, 2020

How’s Your Emotional Capacity Today?

Have you ever considered how robust your emotional capacity is and how critical it is to your health, happiness, success, and significance?  Chances are you haven’t, but don’t worry, you’re not alone.  Emotional capacity is highly overlooked and underrated.

Let’s start by talking about what emotional capacity is … it’s the ability to handle adversity, failure, criticism, change, and pressure in a positive way.  These things can all be tremendous sources of stress, and our inability to deal with them in healthy ways (emotional capacity) can undermine us in many ways.  We end up giving up, breaking down, and engaging in unhealthy behaviors to escape.

Folks with high emotional capacities can effectively manage their emotions — and stress — and process through challenges and difficulties.  Instead of getting bogged down, distracted, and feeling defeated, they thrive and move closer to their optimal potential.

According to John C. Maxwell, there are 7 practices that you can use to boost your emotional capacity:

• Proactively deal with emotions — We should never become victims of our emotions.  That’s not to say that we should suppress them.  We just need to be consciously aware of them and avoid reacting emotionally.
• Don’t waste time with self-pity — We can be our own worst enemies, especially when we drown ourselves in the negative light of the worst-case scenarios we tend to paint for ourselves.  Although it can be tempting to exaggerate our circumstances, face reality, take action, practice gratitude, serve others, and get outside yourself.
• Don’t allow others to control relationships — Consciously or not, people look to pull others to the level where they are most comfortable.  While this can be a positive, often times it’s not, as it takes the form of gossip, criticism, doubt, and negativity.  Emotionally strong people realize that sometimes, they have to let people go.
• Don’t waste energy on things you can’t control — Fred Smith once said, “You must understand the difference between a fact of life and a problem.  A fact of life is something you can’t control or fix.  A problem is something you can fix.”
• Don’t make the same mistakes — John C. Maxwell has often said, “Experience teaches nothing, but evaluated experience teaches everything.”  It’s okay to make mistakes, but it’s not okay to repeat them.  Emotionally strong folks learn from their mistakes by reflecting on them, learning from them, and taking a better course of action.
• Don’t ride the emotional roller coaster — Because no one’s immune to emotional highs and lows, we have to learn to level them out.  Maxwell talks about practicing the 24-hour rule: No matter what happens, give yourself 24 hours to process your response to an event, good or bad.  After those 24 hours, put it behind you and take action on something else.
• Understand, appreciate, and grow through struggles — Life is never going to be all sunshine and rainbows; the sooner we accept that fact of life, the sooner we can boost our emotional capacities.  And the sooner we learn to look at struggles, challenges, and set-backs as opportunities to make us stronger, better, healthier, more robust, and more resilient mentally and emotionally, the better off we will be.

Being an emotionally strong person who has a high emotional capacity is about being able to start fresh every day — and even within a given day — and function with a clean slate.  You cannot hold on to old emotional baggage and remain emotionally resilient at the same time.

To Fresh Starts … 😉

February 07, 2019

Habit #4 — Write Things Down

[Tomorrow — Habit #5]  Day five of our Seven Habits of Recovering Procrastinators.  🙂

February 07, 2018

An Even Spending Plan!

The age old saying “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched” is certainly coming to roost this week.  After a rip-roaring start to the year, the stock market hit some serious turbulence in the first week of February.

The S&P 500 lost 4% last week and has had a rocky start to this week. Before the drop, investors enjoyed a 7.5% gain in less than twenty trading days.  Based on that pattern, the market was on track to jump 158% this year.

Anyone with any money invested in the stock market was probably feeling pretty good in January.  January 2018’s gain is the highest since January 1997 when it rose 6%.  Back then the market continued its upward trend, climbing 31% for the year.  We can only hope to replicate that performance.

REW