MartinKronicle

Trading profitably is a choice you make and you can make that decision right now, without anyone’s permission.

Does this goal show up on your list of goals? What are your goals? When you take a 30,000 foot view of all your goals for 2011 and beyond, what do they add up to?

Unless you state it specifically and publicly, they are vague and closeted goals. Here’s an example of what looks vague in the eyes of the universe:

1) I want to understand fundamentals better.
2) I want to learn about systems.
3) I want to make at least 1 great trade that doubles my money.

Goals 1 and 2 have nothing to do with trading profitably. If you understand that, you know where I’m coming from. Hint: think literally. Goal 3 may occur, but it may be random. And, you might need to include it with 8 other trades that cost you 10% or more each.

Your goals need to be specific, clear, and also include what you don’t want.

Most importantly, you need to put dates on them.

“A goal is a dream with a deadline,” said Napoleon Hill.

I just almost spit out my dinner after reading this headline at Yahoo!:

“US gas demand should fall for good after ’06 peak.”

It’s amazing how people love to predict things. It’s a pastime unto itself. Here’s how the article starts:

“After seven decades of mostly uninterrupted growth, U.S. gasoline demand is at the start of a long-term decline. By 2030, Americans will burn at least 20 percent less gasoline than today, experts say, even as millions of more cars clog the roads.

By 2030? That’s great…only 20 years from now. If you believe it…The main currency for a fundamental analyst are their predictions and opinions. And they ain’t worth much.

Want to know how hard it is to predict? Look back over the last 20 years and see how not only how much things change, but how unexpectedly things change. That will take you back to 1990. Have fun.

Gold is to hyperinflation, as Davos is for name-dropping.

Check out his new book.

Some interesting insight over at Big Think in a special series called The Future of Capitalism.

Check out the videos from Peter Thiel, CEO of Clarium Capital called Regulation Stifles Innovation.

Victor Sperandeo has penned an editorial in today’s Barrons, “Lessons From History: When Governments Cannot Borrow, Hyperinflation Is Frequently The Result.”

Here’s an excerpt:

Without the support of foreign buyers, government spending will have to be paid with newly printed money, and the inflation consequences will be dire. Historically, nations default when the bulk of the debt is owed to other nations, but the U.S. still owes most of its debt to its own citizens.

Gold trading at more than $1,350 an ounce, despite no appreciable increase in the consumer price index, is much more understandable when you realize that in periods of hyperinflation, gold tends to appreciate by 2,000% to 50,000% against a hyperinflated currency.

Do the gold bugs know something we don’t? In time, the markets will surely say whether this is so. But unless drastic measures are taken to change the trend of deficits, or unless purchasers of U.S. government debt ignore all rational measures of risk, a psychological breaking point is approaching. When this happens, history tells us that hyperinflation is not far behind.