Eyes wide open

Hello Readers

 I hope you all are doing well.

 My soul is not asleep, it is awake, wide awake. It neither sleeps nor dreams, but watches, its eyes wide-open far-off things, and listens at shores of the great silence. 

 -Trou Aikman

This piece was lying in my drafts for almost a year now though I would finally write about it today.

It is one of the simplest things to understand, and it is very accurate and happens in our lives often.

From the time you jump out of your bed, many personal and public incidents happen in a day in your life.

 Some may be your routine, and many more pleasant and some unpleasant ones.

Of late, I am not labeling incidents as good, bad, and ugly; what I feel is the truth, and we must learn to face it.

Conversations are an essential part of our day. We reach one step closer to our goals.

Each successful conversation is a good thing; it opens new opportunities, learns new things, or even builds new relationships.

Courtesy Google images

Sometimes, we fail to see the larger picture of a conversation and jump to conclusions, and eventually end up in fights and arguments that can be avoided.

Even you can win the toughest of conversations with people. You forgo your ego and biases in exchange be open-minded; half of your issues are resolved.

I see many tussles go on due to miscommunication picking wrong lines in a conversation, and sometimes pushing the pencil on others because it was a bad day.

We need to keep our eyes wide open all the time and smile; please realize we have one life, let us make most of it and do some good to this world and pass it on to the next generation.

Think macro, leave the micro dejections, frowns, and disappointments.

Connect with your friends, have a great time, make your life simple and a happy one!

Thanks for your time. Have a nice day!

Helios.

Markets and Emotions

 Hello Reader

 Hope you all are doing fine.

 The stock market is a device to transfer money from the impatient to the patient.

 -Warren Buffet 

 This one is one of the topics which excites me to discuss.

 I thought about sharing some epiphanies of the stock market, I will try to make this as less boring as possible. Also, I would like to make it clear this is my opinion and it is realistic. disagreements and discussions are welcome!

 Okay, let us start with a fun fact now Indian stock markets are considered the most expensive ones to trade.

 Why do analysts say that? If you look at bigger markets like NASDAQ or the London stock exchange, they have a lot of options to fund a trader like, they believe in collateral management, extensive margins.

 But in India, as the years of passed by the securities exchange board of India (SEBI) has brought a ton of rules curtailing the margins that can be given to traders from sub-brokers: the reason being they want to flush out all the small fish from the tank and only keep the big trading bulls and bears in the ring!

 Starting September 2021, the futures and options market must be traded with a 100% margin which means all cash. The channel partner licenses are no more given to new entrants. (Channel partners are people who register with SEBI who are allowed to pump in the margin to traders who can't afford the whole value of the trade) 

 Critics of YouTube like MR. P.R Sundar, Vikram Prabhu who believe and earn huge in option selling have commented saying indeed Indian stock market is the most expensive one for trading.

 SEBI justifies this by saying they implemented the zero-margin rule to protect investors money and safety collectively called investor protection.

 So now the question is can we do not trade anymore? when I say trade I mean intraday trading, Of course, you can have two ways to do it either load your DEMAT with the amount required to trade or build your capital by investing in  shares which can be pledged  to pledge this as collateral and can get margin incase you want to start trading.

 Losses and Emotions:

 After throwing some light on the current situation, let us understand what the right thing is to do in my opinion.

 How to start this journey in the creation of wealth as it is described by the “gurus” how can you get a stable income or increase annual gains by investing money in markets?

 Some myths that people should strictly remove from their minds:

• The stock market is not, and I repeat is not gambling.
• You just don’t lose money if you invest in the market there are no thieves in there who just steal your money, it's your wrong move.
• There is a clear distinction between a trader mindset and an investor mindset.
• All traders are not good investors and vice versa.
• You cannot earn stable profits by just watching DIY (Do it yourself) videos on the internet.
• The stock market is seriously just not just a trend it is an emotion that leads to either a profit or a loss and it is a field that requires a lot of understanding and research.

 Why I felt the urgent need to write this nonfiction is, I see a lot of young people who want to enter the markets but are not getting guidance from people who are well established in markets or anyone for that matter.

 Eventually, they get misguided or take their own decisions and enter sectors of the markets which they are not familiar with for example the future and options market which is very volatile money and lose their hard-earned money!

 Also, I am seeing some successful people are posting videos on YouTube luring people to join their training where they make you feel index options trading or trading in futures is just like eating a pie? it is for them because they don't show you how they reached it, please realise they posted these videos after they reached the summit of success! so you are just being made to watch success stories, so don't you feel the building blocks of this success is not shown? 

 Guys imagine we are entering a stock market with a market capitalization of $3.4055 trillion! the sixth largest in the world and we are thinking just knowing to taste some small glass of wine makes us official wine tasters to the queen of England!

 Therefore, all we need is a structured approach.

 Start your journey with a simple investment in a good and healthy NIFTY 50 stock do discipline and monthly investments from your primary source of income, like Mr. Warren Buffet, says "buy and forget and don't buy a stock if you don't want to hold it!"

 This will help you build your capital, also make it possible to buy some margin by pledging these shares.

 Meanwhile, learn the various strategies which are used to trade do your self-study or enroll yourself for a course, MOST IMPORTANT please do virtual or paper trading for at-least a quarter before you put your real money in the market.

 Well, I would like to give it a pause there for today, I hope I could give you some insights which would help you build your portfolio and start your amazing journey in the market!

 All the best to you.

 Gold mines do have gold! But do we know how to differentiate gold and stones in the mine?

-Thomas Fallon

Courtesy Google images

 Thanks for your time, have a nice evening.

 Helios

Hatchway

Dear Readers,

 I hope you all are doing fine and safe. 

 The remedy for weakness is not brooding about it but thinking about strength.

-Swami Vivekananda.

 Finally, we see some dip in the corona Virus cases in India, and I think the Bell curve is flattening up, great we could achieve a billion doses of kudos to all the people involved in it. 

 Today want to discuss an all-important topic.

 We all know what we mean by “door” it is a piece of furniture that protects a particular place from trespassing and helps maintain privacy.

 On the contrary, doors are entry points to a new place that is ready to explore.

 That was a material aspect of doors; let us think a little bit from a literary element.

 I mentioned doors are gateways to explore new places.

courtesy google images

 Similarly, now, if we consider our life as a journey and in this journey, we enter many places, and each of these places has boundaries, gates and doors that we need to knock, open and finally go inside.

 Each of those barriers or doors is the problem you face in life, and every time you open that door, you enter a new world which we can call the solution.

 But it doesn’t end there; your new world will have other rooms locked, there you have the task to work upon to unlock those rooms again and explore!

 So the cycle actually continues, you enter a world, you see things there, enjoy them, you suffer from them and move on, and again you move to a different world.

 Many of you reading this would have played the game “Mario” by Nintendo, where he finally clears many worlds to meet his princess.

 Doors matter in life, and as you grow old, the doors will be solid and hard to open, but you need to become strong and competent to open these doors and start exploring the world.

 Unless we do not understand the root cause of our problems in life, we will always open new issues or not close our current ones!

 It is just like carrying the wrong keys to open doors; either you are stuck or may enter the wrong place, by which I mean creating new problems for yourself!

 Just keeping it simple for today, as I see many people are lost and thinking about things which don’t matter. These are times they need to think and work on resolving their issues and move on!

 All the best, practice moving on in life. 

 It seriously helps. It has seriously helped me at times where I needed to! Let it be a job or a person. Once you understand the crux, you need to move on!

 Get busy living or get busy dying!

-Andy Dufresne to Red Redding -The Shawshank redemption.

 Thanks for your time, have a lovely weekend.

 Helios.

Biscuits- A world of Haves and Have-nots!

Hello readers

 

Hope you are all fine and safe.

 

This topic is more of a real-time experience and maybe the same for all of you who live in a metropolitan city.

 

Biscuits have been one of my topics which I have wanted to write about for some years now. The idea behind biscuits is simple the world is full of haves and have-nots, and this one is more about the have-nots.

 

In the initial years of my career, I used to travel long hours by bus. When I peeked outside the windows, there were beggar communities under the flyovers; beside the footpath, as soon as the signal turns red, they swarm the vehicle population to get a coin and run back under the flyover. 

 

Some say the whole beggars' community is a mafia-run racket; some say they are people who have lost all hopes in life and ended up here!

 

I partially agree that but still should understand the very reason someone chose the profession, if I could call that as a profession, is that they cannot get their daily needs like us. 

 

 Whether they are real beggars or just pretending to be one is a matter of debate, but this is not a balanced society.

 

Each morning when I go for a walk, there are two to three strays that follow me. I feed them with biscuits. 

 

But I realized certain people are even more unlucky than those dogs!

 

They can't afford a square meal and a place to sleep.

 

I have heard people giving me a philosophical touch to this quoting that this is their Karma and all that, alright accepted! But if we had the intention, we would have worked to change it.

 

How many of us treat people in rags who don't have any hope and sleep under bus stations and train stations footpaths as humans? We just pass by them and maybe offer them a coin if they pester us; otherwise, we just read them as tales of a footpath.

 

I belong to a group of haves, which makes me more responsible for fulfilling some needs to my capacity for have-nots. If we don't do that, I feel this societal imbalance will never resolve.

 

There is also another way of looking at this. You will be surprised to know sometimes they haves. Even though they all have the materialistic things in the world, they are poorer than the have-nots.

 

Why do I say so? You may love money, but money doesn't love you back, right? But a person would! So, you are poorer than the poorest there!

 

This takes us to the point that only your materialistic needs are not essential, but your intellectual and emotional are also crucial in life, finally leads to mental balance. 

There are only two families in this world, as a grandmother of mine used to say: The haves and have-nots.

-Miguel De Cervantes

Poor and rich is something man created, but the poorest may be richer in their mindset and qualities.

 

If that doesn't fulfil, then even the wealthiest man in the world wouldn't feel happy!

 

Try to start correcting the imbalance by walking baby steps towards giving and helping people in need.

 

Trust me, you will feel way better!

 

Thanks a lot for your time. Have a great day.

 

Helios

oxytocin

Hello readers

 

Hope all of you are safe.

 

Let go of the thoughts that doesn’t make you strong.

-Anonymous 

My previous blog was about emotions and the support we get from people during times of distress.

 

This one might be a continuation of it and a kind of closure for the discussion. Let's get started.

 

Emotional pillows are people help us lean on them, then we ended up with another question: who do they rely on? 

 

I got good answers from my dear readers for this question. So yeah, the most common answer is that they have someone to lean on. It's an endless chain. 

 

I like biology a lot; oxytocin is both a biological word and an emotional one. 

 

Oxytocin is a hormone and a neurotransmitter that is involved in childbirth and breastfeeding. It is also associated with empathy, trust, and relationship-building. 

 

I have heard many speakers talk about oxytocin that boosts emotional intelligence morale and brings people out of depression.

 

The simple reason why it is used is called a mother hormone.

 

The same hormone makes a child calm when their mother touches the child, increasing oxytocin in the child's body.

 

Do we know that when we touch dogs, they feel we are their parents, and likewise, our brain calms down, and oxytocin gets released in your body, so you get that connection with the dog?

 

Well, that's the biological part.

 

 Compare this to how it feels. It's much different than just explaining it with all the biological terms.

 

Oxytocin as an expression

 

You meet many people in life, most of them just passed by some stay with you and some move on.

 

But do we realise all those who left you, who are staying with you, helped you calm you down at some point in your association with them?

 

Are you wondering how?

 

Even simple acts of kindness like getting you a cup of coffee while you were working, waiting for you to join, and then walking together, helping you when you forgot your wallet are just a few examples.

 

When you say good things to people, congratulate them, appreciate them, and are kind to them when you try to help them, with a small pinch of gratitude, you become a caregiver to them.

 

So, in a short period, we have on this earth how many offices can pledge that you just be kind to the people who live around you don't hurt them if we can't be kind.

 

During these times of uncertainty, what we more need is few good words and a smile.

 

Oxytocin matters in life. Though it is a complex biochemical, I see the human angle in this!

 

Thanks for your time.

 

Helios

Emotional Pillows

 Hello Readers

 Hope you all are safe and well!

 The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

-Ernest Hemingway

 When I was in college, I faintly remember reading, even though success is measured in your assets, positions, and various things, your attitude and emotional balance define your true success.

  Always wanted to write about this aspect of looking at life, but I guess I had to undergo situations to arrive at what I wanted to tell.

 The time feels right now to spill some beans on what's on my mind.

 Life is a sum of experiences, and these graphs of your experiences, even though they don't arithmetically progress, will increase in volume as we age.

 To be even more straightforward, each day in your life is an event.

 I am a bit of a stock market buff I follow the markets rigorously; do we know what the most challenging thing for a person who wants to book positions is? It is maintaining emotional balance.

 Emotional balance is simply being in composure come what may, even if it is the worst of situations in front of you and breaking into pieces.

 You should not break alongside the broken situation; instead, you bring up the tape of hope and positivity and stick those chunks together.

 You control your emotions and channel them in the right direction to achieve what you desire in life.

Courtesy Google images

 Emotional Pillows:

 They are not any memory foam or a high-priced cotton pillow available in the market.

 They are people, whose shoulders you put your head on when you are really stressed out or see a way out of a problem.

 I think, for most of us, it is our mothers’ as they have the power to observe our stress and make us breathe easy.

 For some, it is their siblings elder or younger doesn't matter, and for some, it is their best friends.

 But I have a question for all of you, who do emotional pillows take support from? Do they also have some way to release their stress or emotional load?

 Well, that is an open question; I really would love to hear your answers.

 My answer would be that the bolsters do not get any other support. They just pray to the stars to give them more strength to withstand! Yes, they get blessed from above most of the times I feel.

 Looking forward to your answers, Thanks a lot for your time.

 Have a great week ahead.

 Helios.

The Olympics - An event with different meanings.

 Hello Readers

 Hope you all are safe and fine.

 

“The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.”

- Pierre de Coubertin (primarily responsible for the revival of the Olympic Games in 1894)

 

The Mood of this blog is jubilant and cheerful.

 

That is what I feel; after enjoying a visual treat this past week, yes, some of you would have guessed it already. The Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020.

 

The various sports and their brilliant contenders.

 

When you see a sporting event, there are different ways of interpreting the same. We would enjoy the event, that’s obvious!.

 

When I was enjoying the spectacle, I was viewing this differently.

 

First, I could see the excitement among all the participants in all the sports they participated in.

 

Their raw emotions of happiness or sadness in each moment while they played.

 

The burdens and hopes of their countrymen which they carry.

 

Finally, their trainers constantly trying to motivate them, whenever they can, whether a team event or an individual sport.

 

I think the Olympics is one such event the world comes together forgetting their borders, race or Colour and speaks the only language which is a sport.

 

Imagine the synergy and the positivity present there!

 

An actual demonstration that we all can live with differences yet come together and acknowledge the victory of each other after a fair competition.

 

We can learn a lot from sports; it can measure a person’s determination, goal-seeking ability, and true grit to achieve what they desire to succeed.

 

Finally, the trust between teacher-student or a trainer and contestant in a more sporting sense.

 

That is, a bond of trust which exists between them is unique. Do you know why? Whenever their pupil fails to lead the competition, the coach will go to a different level to motivate their student.

 

They trust each other to the core; that is the gift of the Olympics. When you know someone in your life and decide to become their well-wisher, a teacher, or a simple guide to them, I feel when you know someone in your life. You need to build trust in them and support them.

 

That is the identity of a mature guide.

 

Can you be one? Well, try to do it starting today!

 

“It is the inspiration of the Olympic Games that drives people not only to compete but to improve, and to bring lasting spiritual and moral benefits to the athlete and inspiration to those lucky enough to witness the athletic dedication.”

- Herb Elliott (Australian middle-distance Runner)

 

Hearty congratulations to all the winners of the Indian contingent and the other countries part of Tokyo 2020. who proved that it is possible to come what may! Their success stories are unbelievable and heart touching!

Courtesy Google images

Let us all learn from such joyful events and apply some of those principles in your life! Starting with believing in ourselves!

 

Thanks a lot for your time. Have a great week ahead.

Helios.