In Memory of My Beloved Grandmother

Welcome to Part III of this five-part series. My Grandmother indeed inspired me a lot because she and my Grandfather separated for many decades and she took the responsibility of bringing up my father, my uncles and my aunt (six in total).  As a single mother, life was not easy for her. Facing such a daunting task, what did she do? She took it up and gave her 100% to bring up her kids. From what my father told me, my Grandfather honestly was not involved in this process at all. I imagine that if I had to bring up my three kids without my wife, I might have given up long ago. Raising kids is not an easy task. I trust many parents will agree with me.

So, life is like a box of chocolates, as suggested by Forrest Gump. One thing I did not agree with him, though, is to let the event control us. Very often, our mind is set in such a way that if something happens, our typical response is “it depends,” or “we''ll see how it goes.”  I have not used such response for almost six months. I don’t let an event dictate what I must do. Instead, I take charge of my life and decide the outcome for myself. It’s just like my Grandmother. She did not complain the difficulties in raising six kids. She just did it.

Let me ask you this question – we all know that we are in a bear market. The volatility is something almost every single trader will claim never happened before. Some of my trading buddies decided to stay away from the market until it is settled down (or until the normal volatility comes back).  I would say that it’s their choice to do so and they gain respect from me, of course. However, there is a group of people who will curse and swear the market in the crazy mode, so that they cannot participate in the financial market at all. Hey Guys, please stop thinking this way if you fall into this group of people. I know there are traders who continue to make money in this kind of volatile market. I am one of them, actually.

While traders have fear but no clue about how to trade the equity and index market due to their unprecedented volatility, the only thing they can do is wait until the ‘normal’ volatility returns. Meanwhile, they may be holding cash, thinking that cash is king. However, in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, don’t forget that we are still in a high inflationary environment. While cash is king you may say that its value will deteriorate as a result of inflation. So, the proper response, in my opinion, is to accept firstly that the market is very volatile and, secondly, it continues to provide opportunity for us, the traders, to make money.

I spoke to some of the participants recently in the two-day intermediate seminar in Singapore who told me that they had no clue how to trade in the equity market due to the volatility. Some of them were inspired by me telling them that there is still a market that offers tremendous opportunity for us to make money – the forex market.

As a faithfully follower of Mr. Donald Trump, I learnt many times that it is important to plan ahead and design contingency plans, too. So, almost a year ago, I diversified my time to get education on trading forex. After a 10-month hardship, I finally see the fruits. While I do not make any money in the equity market at this point of time, I have been making decent money from the forex market. In fact, at the time of writing this article (i.e., 27 October 2008), my forex portfolio has been up by 27% since 1 October.

So, the lesson to learn from my grandmother here is to accept that life is life but we must take charge of what we want to see in our life. I had made a shift by foreseeing that my trading techniques and skills need to be diversified almost a year ago. That’s why even if I am not actively trading options right now, does it mean that I have to wait for normal volatility to come back before making money again? Some of us may say “yes, we have no choice.”  Well, based on what I said, do you still think there isn’t any choice?

To access previous articles written by Jack Wong, please click here.


Jack Wong 
Staff Writer and Instructor
Optionetics.com ~ Your Options Education Site

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Recent Articles by Jack Wong, Optionetics.com

• December 1, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part V: The Choice Is Yours
• November 24, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part IV: Respect Yourself and Others
• November 17, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part III: Taking Charge of Your Life
• November 10, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part II: Dealing With Loss
• November 5, 2008
  Lessons from My Grandmother, Part I: Never Give Up