Started to read the Andrew Carnegie biography by David Nasaw. I've already read his auto-biography some 2 years ago, but this one is probably the most unbiased and holistic biography.
For the next time I intend to get a bit back into successful-people-research mode.
Also continued to read Macro-Economics for Dummies, for the longer term goal of getting an understanding of the economic machine.
Haven't looked at the market for over a week now and it feels good. Probably no look for the entire April and that's also good!
Gone over the Cornelius Vanderbilt quotes a few times this week.
The quote that stuck with me when I did my first-time research about him was: "You have undertaken to cheat me. I won't sue you, for the law is too slow. I'll ruin you."
Interestingly a new quote kinda opened up lately which I didn't notice until now: "I have always served the public to the best of my ability. Why? Because, like every other man, it is to my interest to do so."
Illiterate and boorish they called him. But had he learned too much education, he wouldn't have had time to learn anything else!
"Who is John Galt?"
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First small itch for coming back to the market, but from a rational look it's still too early and I'll abstain.
Continued with the Carnegie biography and my "discovery" that they didn't do it for the money seems to get confirmed in his case.
In his mid-thirties he already had a large enough fortune that he theoretically could have leaned back for the rest of his life, but at this point he took a bit of a business brake for the matter of getting his (self) education really going.
The confusing thing is, that the generation before, which consists for me of Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew seemed more of the shrewd, street-smart type without much education, and as far as my research goes, the generation after them like Carnegie or Jay Gould were more of the men who spend much time in their libraries.
"Who is John Galt?"
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Finished Commodity Crops & The Merchants Who Trade Them.
This was very good to get a bit better insight into the trade of the actual physical commodities and to get a better grasp on how big boys like Cargill, Bunge or the like impact the Ag-Markets.
Basically there was one chapter for each commodity with useful (and actually up-to-date, even including Covid) information about it, with a subsequent interview with an experienced trader in that commodity.
The itch is there, but still to early to think of getting me back into the "vortex of the market" again.
"Who is John Galt?"
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Started to read "Commodity Trading Advisors - Risk, Performance Analysis and Selection".
This book is from 2004, so it's not the most recent one, but I think it's a good starting point to get a look into the business aspect of CTA's.
Goal is to get a better grasp on:
- What my "product" actually is. I know that from a human values type of view and I have people with a certain way of thinking/seeing the world in mind, but I don't know it in relation to the professional, finance type
of view.
- How to track my results and to which parameters I measure them against to get an idea of where in the entire market I actually am.
- The advantages and disadvantages of managed futures in relation to long-only funds, hedge funds, bonds etc.
I see the "How do I trade" and "What do I trade" - chapter of the story as completed for the most part. I'm still confident that the patterns will work out, as well as excitement for the Ag's is still present.
The question now is basically, how to get that into a type of compact package.
Taking the first baby steps back onto the battlefield.
I actually opened a brokerage-account at one of Austria's biggest and oldest financial institutions. So it's not a discount broker for quick trades, but more a place where people presumably tend to hold their positions for years with an overall different mindset and the security of a highly respectable institution in the back of their mind.
Even the act of putting the order in tends to feel more like "buying something" and not so much like "betting on something".
I put in an order for 10 shares of the WisdomTree Ag ETF. I intend to kill two birds with one stone here:
- See (and watch fluctuating) the market-investment more through the eyes of the non-professional, but smart and interested person (as opposed to the "stock-jobber")
- Having a benchmark to compare Grant Liberty Fund to, when I start to trade again
Structure
Chart
I can't deny the dumb feeling of "buying at the top", but I'll probably hold it for at least 3 years, so who cares?
The interesting thing will be, since this is basically an ETF based on the Bloomberg Ag-Index (and to see as a long-only fund), how the performance will deviate over time since I'll be long and short.
Also "nice" is the fact, that for my ~€70.00 position, I pay 15% commission. Of course that's largely because of the samll size, but someone pockets those percentages.
