So I fell...

...Out of a plane!! I did it, finally went sky-diving! After all the years of saying one day I'd do it I now can say I've done it. Really, there are no words to accurately describe it. Its amazing, surreal, adrenaline-pumping, but peaceful all in one. Literally heaving my body out of an airplane at 14,000 feet is something I'll always remember and I got to do it with one of my best friends, Kevin.




The wind rushing up at your body is the first real sensation. Its like putting your head out of the car window while driving down the highway x10. Its so loud as the wind rushes by that I couldn't even hear my own yelling. Then after what seems like forever (really 50 seconds) the chute is pulled and the real G-forces kick in. The actual fall didn't really have any G's, quite peaceful. But after the parachute came out it became a roller-coaster like sensation as I started flying it around. I had a good instructor who remained calm through the whole thing for me. Steering the parachute really allows for some massive G's, though, after landing I was glad I didn't pass out, seriously. They told me lots of people do from the G's after pulling the chute.
Scariest plane ride EVER, such a tiny plane with no seats so we're all just laying down. The ascent was like the worst roller coaster "click-click-click" ever. Kneeling on the edge of the door right before the jump was ... insanity at its most beautiful. You're first thought is, "Whoa, beautiful view"...quickly followed by "No way am I actually going to fall out of this door," ....followed by "AHHHHH---ahhhh----WOO". That was pretty much my thoughts. Needless to say I prayed almost the whole time on the plane ride up, haha. Best answer to prayer ever (I lived).

Investing Lessons that HURT

I've always had an interest in business, finance, and economics. I was an economic major at UGA, I've interned at Morgan Stanley/Merrill Lynch, and my dad has been a financial advisor for almost thirty years. Needless to say I've already "learned" a lot about the subject; however, I'd say that my real learning started happening when I started using my own money to invest.

I saved up a lot of money from my sales job at Mattress Firm and since I benefited from a nearly zero fee account with my dad, I began investing. Well those "lessons" were paid for with my own money. Sometimes I'd make huge profits. Sometimes I'd make HUGE losses. I'd make plenty of dumb mistakes that could only be learned from actual experience. I decided that since these lessons were expensive (some of them too expensive in my opinion...) I should write them all down so that I wouldn't forget them. All of them I can honestly say that I've either learned after prayer (from God), or from mistakes (from me). So this post is really for myself, however I do hope that these may be of some benefit to anyone who invests. Hopefully you can avoid some of the dumb mistakes I've made.
Disclaimer: This list will probably be continually updated as I am always continuing my investment education. Now in no particular order:

1. ONLY use OOM calls with a clear catalyst trade. Out-of-the-Money and At-the-Money Covered Calls are made up of a huge % premium. These then lose their value everyday as the call approaches expiration. I've lost WAY to much money with these, being right on my prediction, wrong on timing. ONLY use these for a catalyst and only right before (1 day max) the catalyst; so that the premium time problem doesn't affect the trade.
   
   However, if playing a good catalyst like Earnings Announcment, its much better to use these than Deep-in-the-money, because they give more bang for your buck. You can have less exposure with more potential upside. Because a catalyst trade is a bit of a win/lose trade. In past experiences I've found that even with ITM calls I pretty much lose all if I'm wrong, so with that in mind, I might as well leverage the potential upside with an OOM call (not too much). That way on a win I'm leveraged much better.
   
   
2. Instead of buying stocks, buy a deep In-The-Money call options. This gives much more leverage, you get 3 to 1 and sometimes up to 5 to 1 leverage because each call represents 100 shares of stock. Buying deep in the money makes it so almost the entire price of the call is made up of intrinsic value- so the option trades 1 to 1 with the stock. The premium can't eat up the option over time, so its basically a stock replacement system (thanks Jim Cramer).You buy these one month out (lowest premium..remember premium = bad) and deep enough in the money that there's not much danger of being stopped out to zero. Remember this is a replacement for stocks, not a speculative bet. If stock A is currently at 100, and I buy the 70 calls, I get stopped out at 70. To zero. So make sure to go deep enough, don't get greedy and confuse this strategy with speculation.
   
3. Getting back to Even doesn't work. There have been many times when I made a bad trade and my security went down. The worst thing to do here is to hold onto that security and wait until it "goes back up" to break even. First off the market doesn't understand or care about you breaking even. It might never go up; and holding onto it hoping it does it more an emotional denial to accept the loss. The reality is that when you're security drops in value the loss has already occured. You aren't "holding it off" by keeping the security. In fact there have been many times I could have made it back by switching the funds into a different security. Here is the rule: At all times, make sure to own investments which should grow the fastest in the near term and forget the emotional ties to "getting back to even" from previous mistakes.
   
   Example: I'm watching security A, B, and C. I buy security A before a catalyst. It drops significantly. Afterwards I need to start over mentally and think, at this point in time is security A, B or C more likely to grow quicker? Many times the answer is B or C, in which case I need to sell the remaining A and shift to one of them. Always be on the fastest train. (self note: remember bidu at 65)
   
4. BUYING and SELLING should almost always be done with emotion. How does this make sense? Well when I feel ECSTATIC about a huge rally I should be selling. When I feel SCARED about the depth of a pullback and my sentiment is reflected in mainstream thought...I should be buying. When I look back at every trade I've made. I always see that when the market or stock topped out was when I felt the best (think bidu after split). When I could have made the best buys were when I was super scared, not just worried, and the talking heads on CNBC were even more scared than I was (think flash crash or S&P 1010 in july). At that point it's so hard to buy because I'm scared to death that the market will fall even more...so is everyone else... I remember at S&P 1010 I heard the talking heads saying how we'd probably fall down to 900 at this rate and head to a double dip. It was a bottom. While I'm not a bottom fisher, I do think its wise to buy STRONG trend-stocks when the market is down here. Rule of thumb: When No one is buying, I should buy. When no one is selling, I should sell.
   
5. Diversify with at least 7 securities. AT LEAST. Far too many times I've lost money putting all my eggs in one basket. Painful note to self: Netflix back in July earnings....ACK. But diversifying to seven puts the odds in my favor since I only use great stocks. Putting too much % in any one stocks is GREEDY. And pigs get slaughtered right?
   
   
6. Only use the best stocks. I've made the most money using HOT stocks instead of bottom fishing for possible reversals. The market is never logical in my experience, so why vote against it? Why try to bottom fish a stock that represents a good company thats been hammered by the market because I think it should go higher? Instead, I need to find stocks that represent AWESOME companies that the market LOVES with strong charts!
   Then I have not only good fundamentals, but a great strong trend behind me! Forget trying to predict bottoms (or tops for that matter) because I'm not very good. However I am great at finding trends and hot stocks.
   
   
7. PEG. This ratio has really helped me see when a stock has become too expensive. What is a stock? Actually I've found that the stock price more represents Earnings per Share and Percieved Growth than the actual company. Well EPS can easily be measured, but I've found the traditional P/E ratio to be useless because it fails to account for growth. People pay LOTS for growth! So we have to divide the P/E by the Growth to get the true valuation. Logically a perfect PEG should be 1. I've found in reality that hot stocks can (and do) go up to a PEG of 2 before the market really pulls back on it. Thats paying a P/E multiple of twice the growth rate. The sweet spot here really seems to be between 1 and 2 for some reason though. I originally thought it would be below 1 because it means the growth is undervalued, but I've found that stocks with PEG between 1 and 2 are usually the winners. I theorize this is because these stocks are usually more popular and have a broader market exposure after passing 1.
   
   
8. EARNINGS...I've been burned bad holding an option through earnings, I've also made a huge profit. If you plan to hold an option through earnings conference call, know that you're making a speculative play that could shoot you in the foot even if the call is good. Sometimes I've seen great stocks fall off a cliff after a GREAT conference call. This is a good buying opportunity but a danger of holding thru earnings. Its best to diversify among different company earnings (7 at least) not all on one. Also consider, after earnings announcement you're in a MUCH more knowledgeable position about the health of the stock. If guidance is good, estimates are beat, and the stock rallies then I know the stock is still a good buy. Repeat situation with a stock sell off, EVEN BETTER BUY! But bad earnings and/or poor guidance and I put the stock in "time-out" until maybe next quarter.
   
   

Forget WWJD...how about HWJV

Unless you have been living under a rock lately you know that politics, especially with the upcoming midterm elections, is on everyone's mind and tongue. I myself have really been drawn into it thanks to Glenn Beck's show on Fox. I think a lot of other people who usually don't pay attention to politics are getting interested because our country's unemployment rate is staying so high and so many people are out of a job.

I've always been very opinionated about politics, having been brought up on conservative values. But lately I've been trying to approach my political views from a faith perspective and I've been having some trouble... What Would Jesus Do --- or rather How Would Jesus Vote? Now obviously I know that realistically Jesus would want us to focus on spreading the gospels. When Jesus was alive he wasn't involved in politics and when questioned about it (about paying taxes to Caesar) he pretty much responded be a good citizen and obey the laws.

But what I'm trying to iron out is this, if you are someone who tries to follow Jesus example, what would that look like as it spills over into your political views? Now I've been conservative most of my life and recently more specifically libertarian because I want smaller less powerful government and more protected liberties for citizens. I don't like the government getting involved in the private sector and our personal lives. So here is where my internal conflict is... if I believe something is morally wrong, does that mean I should want government laws ENFORCING morality? To me, that sounds dangerous. But at the same time I imagine society would be much better in a situation like that.

To my knowledge from reading the Gospel, Jesus never pushed for right and wrong to be enforced through the Roman Government. It was quite clear he wanted people to decide themselves how to act, not to be forced into it. Does that mean he didn't care? No, it means he wanted them to have the freedom to choose. He wanted them to have the ability to choose life or death through accepting or rejecting him. He never told his disciples to force people to believe in him. So this leads me to think that a government should protect people's freedom to choose right or wrong. Problem with this is if you go extreme, you do away with laws against murder, theft, and all sorts of crime. So where is the line? Conservatives tend to want more government laws that enforce this type of morality. Problem with this is if you go extreme, you start seeing laws enforcing religion. Religion HAS to be a choice. It cannot be forced on anyone.

For example: I don't think the government should EVER have a law that businesses have to be closed on Sunday. That's enforcing religion. God never tells us to enforce our religion on others, but rather, to be an example for them. "A light of the world"(Matthew 5:14-16). There's a huge difference there.

So HWJV? I think he's already voted! God already gives us (humans) the freedom to choose good or evil, right or wrong. While there are consequences for actions, God doesn't strike down people who sin. He lets them choose sin if they want. Why? So that they have the freedom to instead choose him. So God already gives people freedom to do right or wrong.

So with that as my foundation I'll expand on what my views are now. Just as God gives us the right to choose (the freedom to choose), I think the government needs to give people the freedom to choose. However, I do think that people need to be given the right to life and the pursuit of happiness. So in order to protect that life, there need to be some basics. There needs to be laws that enforce no murder, no violent crime, no rape, no theft ect ect. So sure, make laws against actions that hurt other people, but other than that I'd say "Government, leave it alone!"

This would include things that I am against! For instance I am against gay marriage and I believe it is a sin. However, that sin does not hurt another person. The government shouldn't be involved on the morality of it. Is it a sin? YES!! Does it hurt the foundation of marriage? YES!! But people should have the freedom to sin, as long as it doesn't infringe on another person's freedom of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. God gives us the freedom to choose poorly, even terribly. I think the government should reflect God a bit. I'm sorry that this might offend my fellow Christians but sin should be legal. God needs to be the judge of sin, not government (man). If you get all caught up in the fact that not having those laws means we are giving sin the "ok", thats nonsense. Is God giving sin the "ok" when he gave us the ability to choose it? NO, of course not! Well neither would the government be in that situation.

Trust God to be the judge, not the government. Know that there are earthly consequences for sinning and its up to each person to decide for themselves. Its not the govt's job to stop people from sinning, it is however, the govt's job to protect people's life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. (not happiness itself) If this ruins your hope that someday the united states would be a perfect...God fearing...righteous...non sinning Nation. Then you need to GIVE IT UP! That will NEVER happen until Jesus returns! Stop depending on the government for what only God can do!

So examples of common conservative topics and where I stand?...

-Gay Marriage: Should be legal
-Abortion: Illegal (babies life needs protecting)
-Murder: Illegal
-Prostitution: Legal
-Gambling: Legal
-Using Drugs: Legal
-Intoxicated in Public (including driving) : Illegal (endangers others' lives)
-Health care/Financial Reform: Do away with it
-Violent Crime/Sexual Crimes: Illegal
-Welfare: Do away with it
-Government Education: Do away with it (let private sector take this one)

This is most closely tied to Libertarian views, so that is how I'll be voting.

Getting Connected

I've really been trying to get connected lately. I really enjoy being around people and lately because of circumstances I've been doing a lot by myself. One thing specifically I want are more christian friends. Its strange to think that pretty much all my life I've only had like one or two christian friends... that just seems strange to me.

Its like ever since I was little whenever I started to really get connected in a church my parents would switch to another and I just became used to never connecting to anyone. Throughout grade school and even through college I really had no friends who shared my faith. And while I have no objections at all to having non-believing friends I realize now that I really don't have many people outside my family I can talk to about spirituality. Which makes me sad.

So I took the awkward plunge recently and I joined a small group at Buckhead Church with a group bunch of guys. Its been really nice talking to people in my stretch of life about God. In fact I feel like I have definitely missed out from not always having this. And now I realize its def no coincidence that I was denied this at earlier times. It was calculated. Nonetheless never too late to start building those good relationships.

I even went to a singles Fusion gathering tonight. I was really worried it would be very awkward but I actually met a lot of nice guys and girls. I'll absolutely go to the next one. Its kind of weird when people ask if I'm new in town (because I don't know anyone) and I never know what to say, because I'm not new to the church, been going to North Point Church campuses since middle school. I'm not new in town, been in Atlanta since I was five...so I never know what to say. Not new. Just tryin to get connected!

I have to confess that lately thoughts of my ex-girlfriend have been floating around my head. Its really hard not to miss her. I still can't look at any pictures of her, too hard. Probably a good thing that she un-facebooked me and cut off all contact. I just hope she doesn't hate me for breaking up. I mean I really loved her but I knew deep down we weren't right for each other. Hard situation, I hope she understands one day and forgives me. And here comes the real shallow part of me -- I hope the next girl I date is at least as beautiful as she is. Can ya blame me? I was with a Russian princess, basically. /sigh Must block out those thoughts....

Science, Math, and God

OK so awhile ago I had thought. Like a really really big thought. I told my mom about it and she thought it was pretty profound and told me to write it down so I wouldn't forget it. Well I've almost forgotten it, so I'm going to do my best to remember it and write it here. Hope it makes sense somehow, its kind of a complicated subject.

Here goes...

So I had been thinking about the school of thought that a lot of scientists have. The universe, the earth, and all creation is random chance. Everything just matched up perfectly in physics so that we exist. I could write an entire blog about that topic alone, but believe me when I say that the mathematical odds of that happening on its own isn't great. You could Google it if you like, its fascinating. Anyhow, scientifically it is possible though.... or is it? Is it mathematically possible? This was my train of thought when I kind of stumbled on what I think is an epiphany.

Statistically....Nothing Should Exist and Nothing Should Ever Happen.

Does that sound absurd? Follow me down this rabbit hole, lets see where it goes. How can I say that statistically nothing should ever happen? I mean we see stuff happening constantly. The Universe is happening. Well let me use an analogy to explain kind of what I mean that nothing should ever happen.

Lets say that you are sitting on a park bench and you decide to toss an acorn. You toss the acorn and it lands somewhere. Lets say it landed exactly 5 feet from you. What were the odds of it landing in that spot? Well this can get tricky and I promise I won't get too mathy on you--- but if we assume that the maximum distance possible given that amount of force applied to the toss is 10 feet and the minimum is zero (say it slipped), then what were the odds of it landing right at 5 feet? 1 out of 10? No, because that assumes there were only 10 spots, in fact we now have to find out how many possible spots there were that it could have landed in. Lets call that "Z". When we find Z, we know that the odds were "One out of Z" right?

Here's the problem. Z is infinite. But wait, that can't be right, how can there be an infinite number of spots, shouldn't it stop somewhere in the millimeter measurement or something? No, technically not because lets say we have a perfect machine that can measure from the first atom in the acorn to the first atom in the park bench. In that case is there ever going to be a situation where we have a defined number of possible spots? No, mathematically we can always go halfway from the first spot to the second spot, and make a new spot in between. In essence you can always divide by 2 to get another spot. ALWAYS. So that means between the maximum of 10 feet and us there are INFINITE locations that the acorn could have landed in....

1 out of infinite is undefined...meaning it won't happen. You can't divide a number by infinity, because the answer nonsensical. So actually, the acorn shouldn't land anywhere because any exact spot is statistically impossible. But, we don't ever think that way, we are so used to stuff happening; like the acorn landing somewhere, that our thinking is warped and we always assume it's logical for things to occur.

If that didn't make sense, let me use an easy example. If you win the lottery and you find out that only 10 people played. It's not too surprising. If 10,000 people played, well that's pretty special that you won. If 1 billion people played, well its almost supernatural that you actually beat out that many people. If 100,000 billion people played, its unfathomable. if infinite number of people played, then its impossible that you won. Well that's what we deal with everyday in our existence. Things happen. Anything that actually happens shouldn't happen. You can replace the Acorn Analogy with any known thing happening in our reality and if you go down to the math you realize that it shouldn't be possible. So if an acorn landing somewhere is that statistically impossible then looking at how our planet formed and our brains and the perfect balance of gases in our atmosphere there is no question that it even more so should never have occurred nor should it exist.

Before I go further, here is a common argument to this thinking that seems logical. "Well, something has to happen, if you throw the acorn is has to land somewhere!" I think this logic is actually faulty, but since we are so used to observing it in our everyday experience we accept it. Forget experience, think logically. Just because you threw the acorn doesn't mean it should land in any one spot, because after it lands in that spot it has achieved the impossible. After landing, something impossible just occurred. Why didn't it land in the infinite other spots? How is it that it didn't land one billionth of a millimeter to the left? And we are only talking about a 2d landing spot, factor in 3 dimensions and it really gets crazy. Factor in time (4th dimension and its insane) Is it really logical to think something impossible will always happen? .... Because we all do, everyday only because the impossible DOES always happen in our experience. That's the only excuse.

So if you understand how anything and everything is impossible, then how is it so that we see these impossibilities happening every second of our experiences? Here's my answer, and I actually am going to go into a little Quantum Mechanics to explain it. If any bored scientists have wondered onto my blog and are now reading this sloppy explanation of Quantum Mechanics, please excuse me. Here is an excerpt from Nasa.gov on the subject:

In quantum mechanics, the observer and the system being observed became mysteriously linked so that the results of any observation seemed to be determined in part by actual choices made by the observer.

They have proven through rigorous experiments that someone actually being aware of a subatomic particle, changes its properties. That should blow ....your...mind. What that means is that the things that we consider to be our reality...the stuff that makes up atoms, actually CHANGES due to observation!!! This is not science fiction, I recommend that you pick up a book on quantum physics, fascinating stuff. In fact much of quantum mechanics explain how your Ipod works, so don't write it off as theory mumbo jumbo. Ok so back to Observance changing reality. What is observance? Its Conscience Thought. A rock wouldn't count as an observer. Somehow consciousness actually changes reality on a subatomic level. Mind over Matter isn't just a nice slogan anymore...

Now lots of people took this and ran a crazy direction when they discovered this. They came up with "The Secret" and the Law of Attraction and basically a lot of jargon saying how people can control the universe with their thoughts. While there might be a tiny speck of truth to this (and I do mean a speck), I want to take this much further and in a more expansive direction.

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17)

Scripture is very clear that God is literally, not figuratively, holding everything together. And now we put all the loose puzzle pieces together. We have consciousness because God created us in his image(Gen 1:27). Just like we are conscious beings, God is a conscious being. So how do impossible things happen every second?... Something is making them happen. Well since consciousness changes reality it could be the culprit... Quantum Mechanics give support to that. But who could possibly have enough Consciousness and Power to support the INFINITE amount of possibilities going on and make everything happen? God. No one else could. God's consciousness allows the acorn to land somewhere even though it statiscally shouldn't have happened. He allows possibilities out of the infinity to be singled out and occur in reality.

So here is where we have arrived. Statistically, nothing should ever happen. Nothing should ever happen in our universe. Quantum Mechanics show us how consciousness changes reality. The bible tells us that God holds all things together, all creation. God's consciousness literally holds reality together and accounts for the reason why we take for granted the fact that THINGS HAPPEN. Science is slowly discovering God.

If you took the time to read through all that, kudos to you, b/c I know I can have trouble explaining it. Now just reflect; isn't it absolutely incredible? God is literally holding the universe (reality) together consciously, as in the same way you can consciously think of a red apple. (bet you just pictured it didn't you!) So its not some far out figurative way in which he's somehow in control of things the way a school principle is somehow in control of the school. No no no, its so much more direct! The same way a baby is literally held up by its mother, God holds up creation.

--Tomorrow I'll write a bit on a scary mind shattering kind of thought I had after realizing this...I'd write it here but I think I'd be pushing on novel length if wrote anymore--

Omelettes are Evil?

Had a good day today, woke up and made some great stock trades thanks to my prayers. There is absolutely no way that I could pick stocks that well if not for God. So made a little bit of money. Then went to meet up with my scene partner, Vivi, from acting class to work on our scene.

Its interesting to me that I'm at the point in my acting career where I can almost completely get into my character and forget myself. Its exhilarating. Especially since its between two young lovers. Without the training I've gotten I don't think I would have been able to kiss someone and be sincerely affectionate without laughing or blushing. So progress is being made!

Had an interesting conversation with her about abortion. As she got me started on the subject I learned something about my views. See--I'm a pretty strong Libertarian and I am completely against the government taking ANY freedoms away from its citizens. I'm all about freedoms of the people, and thus, for a long time while my stance on abortion has been that its morally wrong, I didn't think the government had any place making laws about it. To my defense, I don't want the government making ANY laws about religion except to protect it. The freedom to practice your religion in peace....

BUT -- then i realized, since I believe abortion is murder of an unborn child.... anti abortion laws protect the liberty and freedom of the child. I'm all for that. I think its surprising that in our country its punishable by jail if you destroy an eagle egg but if you destroy a human egg (embryo) its just fine and peachy. (thx for reference glenn beck)

However I will still say that the mixing of religious laws and government laws is dangerous. The only religious laws that should be made into government enforced laws are those that enforce the inalienable rights that God gives us. So then we're left with the obvious ones, aka Bill of Rights.

OLD BLOG!

So today I discovered my OLD blog! Funny thing is I actually had forgotten that I even had one back when I was a hs senior/college fm. Its crazy reading all of my old thoughts. Almost like I was a different person, but not quite.

I must say I was a pretty depressed kid in high school and I was Mr. Happy in college. Makes me want to go back. Hrmmm, speaking of which, I've been half heartily throwing around the idea of going back to Georgia to get a masters degree. Reasoning? I miss college, haha. Not a good reason to acquire more debt. Not even sure how much having a masters degree would even help anything. Its not like I'm actively pursing a job right now, trying to focus on acting and stock trading.

Both are going flat but I'm optimistic that they'll take off soon. Going back to my old blog, I had forgotten how much I loved acting back then. Its actually pretty encouraging to see that this isn't some new interest for me.

For anyone interested, you can click HERE to see my old blog.

Celebrated Steve's 21st bday today at dads. He got a super nice bible and was excited about it. Times change eh? Who woulda seen that coming a few years ago!