Hi friends and welcome back to The Intermediate Trader Blog.
I had kind of a shit week and took a few losses that were larger than I wanted. I was hoping we would break out of this range, preferably to the downside since I’m a perma bear… but alas, it’s been choppier than a fishing boat in a hurricane. There have been quite a few times this week when I actually felt kind of panicked and wish I’d taken the day off. I think some of it is growing pains. I’m out of the beginning stages of trading, and with that comes bigger size. It’s thrown off my max loss limit a little bit. I’m going to focus on that next week.
There have been quite a few updates on the Place Your Trades Website this week. My favorite update is a larger chat where the PYT team can talk throughout the day. It’s nice to hear from Pax when we are coming into a flatten zone or from OG about when to get short at resistance. I highly recommend keeping it open throughout the day. It’s helped me grab a few Event Contract trades I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Team work makes the dream work.
This week on the internet I learned there was a Cadbury Egg heist in Europe, at least one person a day drives into a storefront (usually a gas station ), and Chick-fil-A is testing a new vegetarian sandwich. As I outlined the blog, I kept going back to the idea of a UFO invasion, and therefore scrapped the aforementioned titillations and did a deep dive on aliens. I’m just doing my part for the trading community. Obviously.
In an effort not to alienate people, I’ll admit I’m no UFO expert. Sure I watched a few X-Files episodes late night in college, and more recently my son and I have gotten into UFO documentaries. That being said, I wouldn’t claim my UFO knowledge is any more extensive than your average Joe’s. I do, however, LOVE a conspiracy theory, and a Chinese “spy balloon” randomly floating over the US sounds sketchy as hell. While I can’t overtly blame the Chinese for creating Covid in a lab and releasing havoc on the world, I don’t believe they have our best interests at heart.
This begs the question, was the “balloon” of Chinese origin, or was it, in fact, other worldly? It’s hard to say. I read at least three or four articles on the matter (some may call that a deep dive), and the only concrete facts I found were that the US government isn’t giving us any straight answers. Shocking.
It seems fitting that if we were actually being attacked by UFOs the government would defer the blame, because when in doubt – blame China. That’s a much easier pill to swallow than aliens, but let’s imagine for a second that the “balloons” were of extraterrestrial origin. Here’s a look at the facts:
- The initial “Chinese Spy Balloon” was shot down on Feb. 4. It was the size of three buses and was at an altitude of about 60,000 feet.
- The downing of the Chinese surveillance craft was the first known peacetime shootdown of an unauthorized object in U.S. airspace (directly quoted: source)
- On Feb. 10 an object was shot down in Alaska and broke into pieces upon impact. It was flying lower and was around the size of a car. Tracking prior to the take down showed it was en route to the North Pole. Insert Santa Joke here.
- Feb. 11th an object was shot down by an American fighter pilot and landed in the Canadian Yukon territory (which is all strange but explained away by NORAD).
- Feb. 12th an object is shot down over Lake Huron off Michigan. It was octagonal in shape and had strings attached to it.
- President Biden ordered the “balloons” be shot down out of an “abundance of caution.”
- In a political jab, the Biden administration took full credit for the discovery and claimed the “balloons” were flying over the US during the last administration as well, but that administration was not able to detect them… which I’m sure fills us all with and hope and optimism for the future of the two party system, but I digress.
- Unlike the initial “balloon” the last three did not have any propulsion system, which is the number one identifier of UFOs according to my documentary knowledge.
- On Monday the White House held a press conference where John F. Kirby of the National Security council said he did not know the source of the latter three objects nor what their purpose was.
- The three objects shot down over the weekend flew lower than the initial “spy balloon” and posed a risk to US airspace.
- No government, private citizen or company has come forward to claim ownership of the three “balloons.”
- The press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the White House does not believe aliens are involved in the U.F.O.s being shot down by the U.S. military. “There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns,” she said. (She also said she loved the movie “E.T.”) (directly quoted: Source)
- As of Biden’s press conference at 2pm today, the American public has no more clarity on the issue, although he did refer to the latter three “balloons” as “benign.”
My deep dive and fact finding has left me just as confused as ever and still pondering the question made famous by the great Reba Mcntire, “Is there life out there?” Suffice it to say, the government knows more than they are telling the public, but that’s nothing new. I don’t know if I believe in Aliens or not, but I do think its hubristic to believe we are the only life form in the universe. Stay vigilant folks… “The truth is out there.”
Last week I introduced my first trading playlist, and if you haven’t listened yet, it’s a real romp through all the trading emotions. 10/10 would recommend.
Stay safe out there friends, and I’ll see you back here next week.
Penny/Blayne
