Monday, January 11, 2010
ACCESSIBLE TERRAIN
HALF A FOOT
It is football season so I thought you would get a “kick” out the following trivia question. Who holds the NFL record for the longest field goal? Before I give you his name a few facts. This gentleman kicked the record setting 63 yard field goal on November 8, 1970 to give his team, the New Orleans Saints a 19-17 win over the Detroit Lions. His name is Tom Dempsey and while the feat is amazing in itself, what is really amazing is that Tom Demsey kicked it with half a foot! For your see, Tom Demsey was born without toes on his right “kicking” foot AND no right hand. That’s right, Tom Demsey holds the record for the longest NFL field goal in history and he did it with a handicap-half a foot! The record has since been tied but not beaten. I wonder, when Tom was young and dreaming of becoming a professional football player, how many people laughed at him and told him he could never play football or any other professional sport for that matter. “Tom” they would say “how can you play when you have no right foot and no right hand?” He did not listen and he did it anyway. Dempsey described the kick this way: “Everything was perfect for me that day: I got a perfect snap, I got a perfect hold, and I got a lot of protection. No one ever accomplishes anything alone in football. We all like to think that we can, but that’s just not true. It’s always been a team game, always will be. So everything went well, and everyone else did their job. The last thing was for me to try to do mine.” [READ FULL STORY HERE]. Did you catch that? After everything was set up for him, he still had to do his job, which was to kick the ball through the goal posts 63 yards away. Dempsey was prepared for the game and prepared for the kick. His team was prepared as well. Handicap? What handicap? I speak with traders everyday, both amateur and professional, and I can safely say that there are two mutually inclusive attributes that stand out above all others: confidence and self-trust in the face of uncertainty. Let’s face it, the market is a place of uncertainty but as traders we can all overcome the uncertainty by exhibiting confidence and believing in ourselves. If we trust ourselves to follow predetermined rules then success will surely follow.
A WAIT AND SEE
Earnings season started today after the close with AA. Reaction thus far has been negative. Let’s see what it will do for the market as a whole tomorrow. Earnings plays out this way every quarter. As companies report the market reacts one way today, another the next. On top of all that this is options expiration week. Could be volitile, so we have to keep our head about us. Entered one new trade today and two of our picks from last week hit our PROFIT TARGETS. The year has started off well (the best since 1987) but we have to keep our focus and be prepared for whatever happens. Although 1987 started off with a roar it ended in a whimper.
BATTLES WON (PROFIT TARGETS HIT): CNX, DE
BATTLES LOST (LOSS TARGETS HIT): NONE
SURRENDERED (TRAILING STOP HIT): NONE
ONE (1) NEW ENTRY TODAY.
