Happy Hanukka and Merry Christmas to everyone!

Everything went really well with the wedding and I’m slowly getting back to routine. Looking forward to resuming work in January 2009.

Just a quick update. I’ve been on tourist duty for the past week doing all the usual visits around the city, temples, floating market, shopping malls etc. while at the same time putting finishing touches on both ceremonies (Thai and Jewish) ahead of a really long Saturday (the Thai ceremony starts at the ungodly hour of 6am). Next week I’m out of town on vacation so expect regular service to resume mid/late Dec.

The mind is the root of all our experience, both of ourselves and of others. If we perceive the world in an unclear way, confusion and suffering will arise. It is like someone with defective vision seeing the world as being upside down, or a fearful person finding everything frightening. We may be largely unaware of our ignorance and wrong views, yet at present the mind can be compared to a wild tiger, rampaging through our daily lives. Motivated by desire, hatred and bewilderment this untamed mind blindly pursues what it wants and lashes out at all that stands in its way, with little or no understanding of the way things really are.

Akong Tulku Rinpoche - Taming The Tiger, Tibetan teachings for improving daily life.

There are many great lessons on life in this book, and of course lots of parallels to trading psychology and the mental strength.

Tags: buddhism, learning to trade, lessons, Living, mental, tibetan, trading mindset, trading psychology, zen

Good advice and observations, as usual, from the Financial Philosopher.

THE FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHER: Why it’s time to move on…

If you do anything today and this weekend, please take a moment to recognize your greatest priorities.

Would you rather have health or wealth? Would you rather have strong personal relationships or strong personal finance?

We were born with nothing and we will die with nothing. Now go hug someone you love, embrace life Giving.mother.child.flower and thank God for the opportunity to realign your priorities today. Do it now.

Turn off the media noise and tune in to your life…

I’m going to take a break from the screens and just chill out this weekend. Not that I was overly anxious or doing anything unusual in the market this week. But I was watching things closely out of fascination and realization that these are events of historic magnitude which will be remembered and then studied for generations.

This is a good talk worth listening to. I especially liked the last couple of minutes where he answers Q&A. H/T to DehTrader.

It’s been a while since I wrote anything here. August has come and gone and was quite busy both in terms of trading and personal side of things. Trading is still hard going and I’m finding the environment tricky. I need to put some extra effort into it to catch up and get back on track. With several important milestones behind me I should be able to focus on it better.

What else is going on - I just completed 1 year since I left my old job and Singapore. It’s been an extremely interesting and eventful year. At times it’s been easy and fun and at others it’s been tough and challenging. I think I’m still adjusting in a way.

Finally, on a personal note, an announcement is due. I’ll be tying the knot end of this year, so more change and excitement is coming my way :-)

I’ve not been too happy with my chair recently, shown here, and started feeling my lower back every now and then. So I decided to get a new computer / task chair, this time with the best ergonomics I could find. I remembered that Andrew from HumbleMoney mentioned the Herman Miller Aeron that Kirk uses so I researched that, I then found out also about the contender to the crown SteelCase Leap. So I looked them up in Thailand and actually managed to find them at local distributors. Not surprisingly though they cost a bomb here, the Aeron is about $1,500 and the Leap is about $2,500! Way over their prices in the US to the point where I thought that if I really liked the Leap I’d import it myself. Anyway after checking out the chairs in the showroom I actually went for a different chair, a Korean brand called Sidiz. The T50 model was the most comfortable, adjustable-everything chair I could find. Height, tilt position, tilt tension, lumbar support depth, lumbar height, seat depth, seat angle, arm rests height, arm rests tilt and head rest. And it was only $470 (in true Thai fashion about double the price it retails for in Korea). Besides being able to completely adjust it to fit my body it has the best of both worlds in terms of materials - mesh back and a sitting cushion unlike the Leap and Aeron. Now I just hope the quality will last for at least a couple of years :-)