The difference however, is that Poker is more about figuring out the personality of your opponent.  Trading is more about figuring out your own personality.

What this book did for me was to help me figure out my personality and how I can apply that to my trading.  I actually read it back in college, when I was still searching for an identity.  After reading this book , I discovered that I was a “Counterphobic Reflective” personality.  What does that mean?  I’ll get to that in a minute…

The more important question is: What makes the author qualified to teach me about personalities?  This is where it gets interesting.

I’m not usually too impressed by books who try to put people into categories because they are usually written by ivory tower types who just make shit up so they can write a book.  Juel E. Anderson however, has some street cred.

The title comes from the three occupations that he had in his lifetime that taught him the most about people.  The first was a Dating Service Operator, the second was a Funeral Home Worker and the last, of course, was a Professional Poker Player.  These are three situations where people’s emotions are at their highest and their true nature comes out.

Based on his observations, Anderson put people into several basic categories.  You will have to read the book to get a deeper understanding of the personality types, but many times, I found myself saying: “I know someone exactly like that!”

Then of course, it came to my personality type.  Anderson writes that the “Counterphobic Reflective” is basically a person who is very, very introverted by nature (Reflective) but makes a conscious effort to succeed in spite of their nature.  They continually thrust themselves into situations that they find uncomfortable (Counterphobic) in order to overcome their fears.

It is a spot on description.

So if you are looking to figure out your own personality or maybe become a better Poker player, Trading, Sex and Dying is a must-read, in my opinion.

So I decided to download the audio version…of course.  It is a story about Robert and his son Chris who are traveling cross country on motorcycles with a couple, John and Sylvia.

Robert prides himself in knowing everything about his bike and how to fix it.  In contrast, John has bought an expensive motorcycle and just crosses his fingers, hoping nothing goes wrong with it.

This primary difference is then expanded upon, explored and related to social phenomenon like how technology has made us feel more disconnected from other people.

That is where I stopped listening…

I love a good philosophy book that can tell a good story but also gives me something to think about in terms of how I view “reality. “  To me, this book wasn’t it.

What I don’t like about the book is that the main character is a know-it-all.  He takes every little detail of the trip and examines it ad nauseam, trying to prove to you how smart he is.

You remember these types of people from school.  If you ask them what color their shirt is, they will tell you about how the color you are seeing is actually the wavelength of light that is being absorbed, how you couldn’t see the color of the shirt if you were colorblind or they will attempt to compare it to their favorite crayon color.

Your shirt is blue man, just say it’s fuckin’ blue.

Yes, I guess it could be said that this is the nature of all philosophy books and is what makes them so good.  They break things down, sometimes to almost a ridiculous scale to argue an idea.

Not that I have read so many philosophy books, nor do I fancy myself a great philophizer, but the other books that I have read generally come up for air every once in awhile.

So, needless to say I didn’t like the book and would not recommend it.  Maybe it was just the way it was read on the audiobook?  Possibly.

But for now this book is going back on the virtual bookshelf.  Who knows, I may end up liking it one day…yeah right.

On this premise, I think it is important to read books that are outside the realm of trading formulas and indicators to get a fresh perspective on my trading, especially when it comes to refining my trading style.  There is quite a bit of creativity and intuition involved in the process.

To this end, I just finished a book called The Artist’s Way by Juila Cameron.  She specializes in helping artists get “unblocked” and feel the creative flow again. This book is a culmination of her experience in teaching seminars and doing one-on-one consulting.

I thought it would be interesting to see what she would have to say. It was rated very highly on Amazon, so I thought I would check it out.

As you probably know, I prefer audio books and this was no exception.  Within the first two minutes of the book starting however, I thought I was going to be in trouble.

“Oh shit, this is going to be another free-range, organic-granola, Hippy-fest that is probably going to be a waste of money,” is the first thing that came to mind when I heard the intro music and the narrator’s voice. I was expecting a sun god prayer to drop at any moment.

If that happened, I would be soooo out of there.

In spite of my first impressions, the book actually struck a good balance between philosophy, spirituality and practical exercises.

The exercise that I found the most useful is what she calls “Morning Pages.”   When I get up in the morning, I get out my notebook and just write three pages of whatever comes to mind.  No filter, no stopping.

This really does help clear my mind of all the noise and trivial thoughts that can interfere with the rest of my day.

The book is structured as a 12 week course where you do exercises to gradually free your mind and remove whatever it is that is blocking you.  The whole time I kept on replacing “art” and “artist” with “trading” and “trader” in my head and the information seemed just a applicable.

This is a book that I would highly recommend you check out, even though it is not about trading.

Over the course of a couple of months, I noticed that he is a pretty consistent trader.  So I decided to check out his Twitter profile and I landed on his blog.

His blog doesn’t look like much but I went through it and I found out that he is another Rob Booker student.  I also noticed that he has a book available on Amazon.com.

I checked out the ratings and it looked good.  It was only $9.99 because it only came in Kindle edition.

Whatever, you can get Kindle reader software for the iPhone, desktop and pretty any other device.  So I bought it and downloaded it.

My Book Review of 5 Bullets by Joe Trader

The length of the book was just right.  It wasn’t too long and every paragraph was informative.

He basically goes into the entire strategy that he uses to make a living trading forex.  It may be surprising to some, but he only trades one pair, the EURUSD. He trades short term, mostly on the 1 minute chart.

The best part about his strategy is that it is perfect for backtesting in Forex Tester 2.  There are no esoteric indicators that depend on the moon phase and the way Brad Pitt is wearing his hair today.  They are all standard indicators.

There is also a lot of advice about how to become a better trader gained from his real world experience.  I found a couple of useful nuggets in those chapters.

All in all, I would recommend you check it out.  It is downright cheap and it will give you another strategy to test and see if it fits your personality.

Click here to get it on Amazon.com.  Then follow him on Twitter and watch his live trades: @joe_trader.

I will backtest his strategy in future episodes.

Not even close.  Soros “only” made $1 billion on that trade. Until Paulson, that was considered the greatest trade ever.

According to this book, The Greatest Trade Ever was done by Robert Paulson.  If you are wondering who Paulson is, so were others in the trading community before his monumental trade.

Back in 2006, he realized that the housing market was in some serious trouble.  But to the rest of the world, the housing market could do no wrong.

Being an outsider to the world of real estate and mortgages, people discredited Paulson, saying that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

Everyone from big banks to private investors kept on buying bad mortgages, not stopping to realize that the housing market could not go up forever and lenders were giving loans to anyone who could fog a mirror.

Although this seems like common sense now, at the time people were just too caught in the hysteria.

Basically the same thing that happened during Tulip Mania, the South Sea Bubble and the Dot Com Bubble.

So what did I learn from this (audio) book?

Common Sense is not so common

Even though Paulson and other investors around the country knew that real estate had to fail eventually, so-called experts and CEOs of investment firms were in a state of euphoria about the market.

It just goes to show that you should trust your research and trade your plan.

How come I was in two of the biggest bubbles ever, but failed to make any money?

While I was listening to this book, this thought occurred to me.  I got into stocks during the tech boom in the late ’90s.  Never made a dime.

I also got into real estate shortly thereafter but actually lost money.

What was the common reason?  I thought about it for awhile and I figured out that I was listening too much to other people at the time.

If I thought for myself, I would have been able to make a ton of money.  Now I know…

I should have figured out how to short the real estate market, not buy real estate

What was I thinking?  I was working at a hedge fund that had a CDO trading desk.  I should have learned all I could and figured out a way to get short when I realized that real estate could no longer sustain the move up.

I didn’t have to invest in CDS contracts, I could have bought puts on stocks of companies that held risky mortgage investments.  It would have been a lot cleaner and easier to manage than real estate.

Being right at the wrong time can be expensive

You can be completely right about something and end up completely broke.  I learned that you should ease into these types of fundamental bias trades.  Put on a little at a time.  Then when things are really starting to go your way, then load the boat.

If you shoot your load too early, the market may still have a one last run left that can clean you out.

Sometimes you have to create a trade

When Paulson wanted to short mortgages, there wasn’t really a way to do it.  So he worked on a way to buy CDS contracts, which were insurance policies on certain grades of debt backed by risky mortgage pools.

This is what allowed him to build such a huge position against mortgages because these contracts were so cheap.  I guess sometimes the answer is not so obvious.

Final Review

Overall, I thought the book was very interesting, from a historical point of view.  The writing was a little dry though and told the story matter-of-factly.  The narrator was not the most exciting either and there was a lot of technical jargon.

If you don’t understand these types of investments, it may be a bit of a difficult read.  However, in my opinion, this book is worth getting just to learn how he pulled it off.

Oh, and by the way, do you know how much Paulson’s company made?

$15 billion…and then some because he also reversed the trade after the crash.  This dwarfed Soro’s trade and will forever be remembered as one of the greatest trades ever.

So what will be the next bubble?  Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

Why was he called "Geek?"

This is not a trading book per se, but I did get the recommendation from Market Wizard Linda Radsche.   Rogue Warrior is the autobiography of Richard Marcinko and how he created the elite Navy Seal Unit Seal Team Six and the counter terrorist unit called Red Cell.

The Geek

His nickname when he first started in the military was “Geek.”  He was called this because he not only spit polished his boots on the top, but he also polished the soles too.  This attention to detail could be seen throughout his career.

He always looked for a way to do things better.  For example, when we went to Vietnam, he realized that the US Navy river boat patrols were too predictable and Charlie just waited for the patrol to pass before moving supplies and men.

Marcinko started doing random patrols and pushing his unit deeper into enemy territory than ever before.  This lead to the discovery of enemy hideouts and many successful missions.

After he gained some experience, he then formed Seal Team Six and was appointed to command it.  Six was an elite unit dedicated to anti terrorism, roughly the equivalent of the Army’s Delta Force.

He was eventually relived of command of Six and went on to form the unit called Red Cell.  The job of Red Cell was to expose the security weaknesses of US properties around the world.

What I found most funny about this section of the book was that many of the Base Commanders cried foul when Marcinko’s unit was able to humiliate their base security.  They said that they weren’t ready or were not notified of the exercise.  Of course they aren’t supposed to be ready.

It was a simulated terrorist attack!

Throughout his career he always did what he thought was right, superior officers be damned.  This attitude made him a great soldier, but always made him enemies higher up in the rank and file.  Eventually people got their way and he was put in jail for a period of time.

All in all, it was a very interesting book and I read most of it on a plane flight.  To put it in a trading perspective, it is a good change of pace from trading books and I would recommend it if you need to escape for a bit.

It is chocked full of amazing battle stories and frustrating ordeals with bureaucracy.  Marcinko is truly an independent thinker with battle smarts.

Does it help your trading?

Maybe.  I learned the value of independent thinking and success comes to those who are willing to work hard at it.  Marcinko also valued the lives of his men above all else, after he had one of his men die in his arms.

For traders, we should value our accounts at all costs.  Taking unnecessary risks it the equivalent of getting shot between the eyes.

Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. (better known as Boone) is the legendary founder of what would eventually become Mesa Petroleum, one of the largest independent oil companies in the world.

During his time at Mesa, he attempted and completed takeover bids of other oil companies in order to strengthen Mesa’s position in the market.  During some restructuring at Mesa, the management effectively gave Boone the boot and he decided that he was done with the oil industry.

What he did next surprised me.  He took his knowledge of the dynamics of the oil industry as well has his knowledge of corporate mergers and acquisitions and started a hedge fund, BP Capital Management.  He did well has a hedge fund manager and it was one of his greatest comebacks.

An interesting investment that Pickens made was in water.  He bought the subsurface water rights to 200,000 acres of land in Roberts County, Texas.  That initial purchase of $75 million is now said to be worth $1 billion.  He sees water as another commodity that will be in short supply in years to come.

I really liked this book.  It was just interesting to learn how he made, then lost, then made a fortune.  Beyond that however, are his insights into the energy markets and where we need to be going from here.

He gives a lot of money to his alma mater, Oklahoma State at Stillwater, in addition to many other charities.  I respect his promotion of responsible outdoor stewardship and he has an amazing Quail hunting ranch called Mesa Vista.

That may seem like a contradiction of terms, but he helps to preserve and regulate the quail population on his ranch as well as improve and protect the natural habitat.

The only negative thing that I would have to say about this book is that he sings the praises of natural gas waaaay too much, especially towards the end.  I think he got a little senile towards the end of the book because it seemed like every other sentence talked about natural gas.

Is it a great alternative fuel?  Yes.

Does he have a large stake in it because he believes in it?  Of course!

So I guess he is going to mention it a lot, but at one point, I was thinking: “Dude, we get the point!”

He does promote other alternative energy sources like wind and water based technologies but his focus is primarily natural gas.

In conclusion, this is a great book and I would highly recommend it.  It is up there with How to be Rich by J. Paul Getty.

Click here to check it out.

In a recent interview I listened to, Tim says that The 4-Hour Body is the book he really wanted to write.  He used the 4-Hour Workweek as a way to get the 4-Hour Body published.  According to the website, this book is the result of 10 years of personal research.

Let’s get one thing straight.  Tim is NOT a doctor, nor is he any sort of medical professional. Oh yeah, and neither am I.  So if you are going to try anything in this book, consult a medical professional.

Tim IS a meticulous experimenter and has tried everything in this book on himself and recorded every last detail.  He mentions how his home is filled with fitness equipment and measurement devices.

The entire book is essentially based on the idea of minimum effective load (MEL) or minimum effective dose (MED).  In other words, what is absolute minimum action required to get the desired results. As soon I heard that, I knew that this book was very promising.

There are basically two parts to this book.

Weight Loss

There are also two parts to weight loss.  In Tim’s system, he not only strives for fat loss, but also muscle gain.

This is not only healthier, but adds to your overall appearance. You could actually lose 10 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle and look about 15 pounds lighter, even though you are exactly the same weight.

Tim’s diet is called the Slow Carb Diet and is the result of his own experimentation.  There is a ton of technical information that I am still trying to digest but there are all kinds of unconventional weight loss methods that he claims will help you lose weight.

One that I found very interesting was the idea of thermal load.  Tim explains it like this:

During some of experiments with a fellow weight loss enthusiast, they came across a statement from swimmer Michael Phelps.  He said that he eats 12,000 calories a day.

They did the math and there was no way that he could be eating that many calories every day and not gain a significant amount of weight.  In fact, they calculated that he would have to be doing butterflies continuously for 8 hours a day to even get close to burning that off.

But Michael only trains for 3-4 hours a day and not continuously.  So what gives?

As you probably have guessed, the answer is the water.  It is an awesome conductor of heat (much better than air) and Phelps was burning additional calories just by the additional heat he was giving off in the water.

Ah-ha!  But how can people without a pool use this information?  Read the book to find out…and it does NOT involve your bathtub.

The weight loss/muscle gain section is filled with many of these great discoveries that I have not heard of anywhere else.  My only minor complaint is that the book gets a little too technical at times.

But Tim admits that he is a geek when it comes to these things.  My opinion is: hey, if his OCD leads to these types of discoveries, then geek out all you want Tim.

Better Sex

I won’t go into too many details here, but suffice to say that Tim doesn’t mess around.  He gets the very best experts in any subject he chooses to study.  In the area of sex, he not only got a notable “scientist” but he also interviewed a famous pornstar.

And not just any pornstar, this is a woman who has been in the business for a long time and views sex just as much of an art as a way to make a living.  There were a couple of tips that were mentioned that I wasn’t aware of.

And I’m not just talking mushroom tips…

I won’t spoil the secrets for you, but there was one statistic that really surprised me.  In Tim’s research, he found that as much as 50% of the female population in the United States has never had an orgasm.

Yeah, never…ever…in their lives…ever.  Not even through DIY.  Huh?  Really?

Obviously, this is most commonly for psychological reasons.  So Tim goes through some exercises that will help women start to feel comfortable with their sexuality in a non-threatening environment and eventually get to the big “O.”

Of course, there are plenty of tips for the guys in here too. The most interesting tip in the book can be summed up in two words: one o’clock.  I’ll just leave it at that.

Overall, this section was very tastefully done and well “researched.”  Although Tim did provide some personal services to some of the women in his experiment, it sounded like the majority of them just received “homework” assignments to try on their own.  According to Tim, they all passed with flying colors.

Rockstar stuff guys. I really liked this section.

How I Am Going To Use This Information

In the coming weeks, I am going to implement the weight loss portion of this book and post my progress here on the blog.  We will see if this stuff really works!

Click here to check out the book.  I bought the audio book, but on second thought, the print book is probably easier to reference.

Happy New Year!

Hugh

P.S. – Yes, I’ll be using the sex stuff too, but you will have to try it on your own to see if it really works.