The low stressed Frenchman is forced to speak German on occasion... whereas us over achieving Americans can learn Spanish at our own pace.
No offence, but doom callers & repeat doom callers are not telling us anything new about the economy or the world. Instead what they are really telling us is all about themselves. They are subliminally speaking for themselves, personally that is, and saying 'I haven't made it in life or I don't think I will make it in life and anyhow the world about me is also going to go to hell in a handbasket.' Agree or disagree?
The character you describe exists but you make money being long when you should be long and short when you should be short. I am short, so presumably that makes me a loser. I would actually rather be operating in a bull market, but I just think the economy's drivers have taken more of a shock than is showing up yet. Recent price action may cause me to change my mind over the next few days as things unfold. They used to say with some justification that "there are no 5th avenue mansions built by bears'. Give me a bull market over a bear market anyday. The R:R dynamics of shorting are appalling and once the early bear market easy shorting is over you have grinding ranges. As someone who was a sales manager I am well aware of the need in the corporate/sales environment for all the positive mental outlook stuff, but it has NO place in the markets. The markets are not a place for this. there are NO half full only glasses in the markets any more than theire are only half empty gleasses, there are just half glasses. In the corporate world objectivity is attacked as negativity, in the markets it is the only viable mindset. PMA has one place in the market, it is used by manipulators to stop the sheep selling before they have finished their dumping. That is not to say we don't use positive thinking as part of our psychology, you won't be resilient enough to carry on trading in the face of the inevitable dissapointments without it. people who trade and run busines successfully are incredibly positive minded super resilient people who know when to be negative e.g looking at the risk of a trade first or the viability of a new business.
I've known some that got the idea of doomsday stuck in their heads and they stopped even trying... I personally knew one that was so convinced that there would not be medical care for his ailing child after doomsday that he starved her to death, not making this up... He did only 4 years.... Probably that is why anybody that talks about doomsday gets attacks eventually, there are a lot of people that just want to stay in denial where they are comfortable and they lose motivation when they do admit that it can happen. It can happen. Personally I recommend hedging... Does anybody disagree with me on 1) it can happen 2)hedging is good?
I hate to say it but I think this is going to come true. The bear stearns collapse is not a good sign. Damn real estate brought bear stearns to it's knees in one week.