Looking Ahead

Happy New Year! 2008 is the year of 1 in numerology. 2+0+0+8 =10 ; 1+0 = 1
1 signifies new beginnings, new outlook, leading, goal seeking and reaching. So it is a good year to start assessing your outlook and set new goals for growth. Doesn't mean you throw out the past or the old, but it means you build upon what you have already accomplished moving on from it; and yes, some things have finished and are over and those you let go as you keep what is good and necessary for your onward path.

For me this has always been a hard time of the year, for what it signifies, I have lived from a young age. Dec 25th was the date my family escaped from Hungary. I remember every step of that day and night, too young to realize what my parents had to leave behind, just feeling the adventure not the danger of what I was living. I remember the 1st cup of hot cocoa upon our safe arrival at a Red Cross station and from then on, I remember new wonders, adventures, friendships, sights, tastes and sounds throughout our 2 year stay in Austria thanks to the generosity of a world of people from lands previously unknown to me. Every few months or so we had to leave for another camp enabling me to enjoy living in places others only dream of: Trauskirchen, Steyr, Ried-im-Inkreis, Salzburg, Wien, Innsbruck. From each I took something and brought with me to the USA and from each I had to leave something behind: the meadows in Ried, the beauty of Vienna, the view from my room of the mountain in Innsbruck, and of the Enns river in Steyr, to name only a few. Also many friends fleeting as they were, as we moved on to different locations, lost and some found again. (My dance teacher from Innsbruck arrived in Berkeley year after my arrival.)

I am thankful for those days for they have taught me that change and adventure lie ahead, no matter where we are; and I need that reminder from time to time for I tend to be somewhat of a clinger for the same reasons. I like to hang on to the good not because I'm afraid to let go but because I know some beauty has to be left behind. Yet we need to move on for life lies ahead not behind and staying too long in one place can make us complacent, lazy and unappreciative of what we have or achieved.

Our outlook on life brought forth by our experience tends to rule our style of trading, good or bad. I am optimistic by nature so it's hard for me to enter a short trade; even as I watch it go, I hesitate. The dangerous flip side is that I sometimes hang on the long side too long. Clinging to a trade because I forget that the next trade can offer similar satisfaction if not something better. Trading takes discipline over what we know our weaknesses are and using our strengths that we have brought with us to overcome complacency.

Moving ahead requires something to be left behind; it's a natural law and as a good friend recently told me: Your future is ahead of you not behind you. I've often wondered if I'd have the strength my parents had that long ago, if faced with the same situation. I would hope so, but regardless, I admire and thank them for what they enabled me to experience, enjoy and learn as the result of their courage.