Author: Lawrence Chan

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TLC Weekly Update October 29, 2021

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This week has been the most peaceful one I’ve experienced since August. From total chaos all piled in a few short weeks to now that everything seems to go back to normal, it feels surreal.

Watched this interesting video on blood viscosity. Timely video for those of us living in very cold region. This winter if flu and covid make a big wave here, just being more prepared will improve our odds of a safe and healthy passage over the next few months.

This year we have a late daylight saving time switch over by November 7 due to the fact that Halloween happens on this Sunday. I wonder how this Halloween will be celebrated given that I do not see many houses in my area decorated for the event … what a difference from two years ago.

RT did this clip of Putin’s speech about the current issues faced by many Westernized countries. This makes me think deeply on how much the world has fallen that it takes Putin to point such things out? Yet, these people deep in their psychosis will never be able to snap out of it because I rarely seen anyone nowadays willing to admit “they are wrong”.

Someone sent me this video that exposes a very serious problem with the the current covid vaccine companies. The way they leverage their power over the countries with terms that indicate something must be very wrong with their products is beyond evil. Yet, many countries chose to sleep with the devil. I now seriously worried what these companies know that they have to structure the terms this way.

Time to stop worrying about these things … so much is going in the world and that my close ones are all doing alright makes me more grateful everyday.

Happy Halloween!

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TLC Weekly Update October 22, 2021

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What a week for the stock market to challenge its all-time-high right by the end of the week and only to be disrupted by Fed chair Mr. Powell’s comments. Seriously, do these government officials time their statements right at these critical price levels? Conspiracy theory anyone?

Someone sent me this video about Bonhoeffer’s Theory of Stupid and told me he is thankful that I did not give up on him years ago as suggested by the video. To me, it is really him who determined that he could not live the same way anymore that induced the transformation. However, it takes a lot of courage for those who have this realization to take the steps necessary to turn around their lives …

I could not believe that there is a YouTube channel called Canadian Prepper. I was looking for backup power and emergency items in case of power outage this coming winter. And it is very amusing to see how far preppers can go to prepare for survival. This video talks about storing dry food powder that can last for 20 years.

Bought my son a compact hunting knife as birthday gift and taught him some basics on using one. Basic survival skills are rarely taught anywhere these days. In an emergency, they put the odds on your side. I am grateful I got the chance to learn them when I was young.

For those of you astronomy fans, I found this stunning video of Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.

Right on the last day of Mercury retrograde, my VPN server completely broke down and I have to replace the computer. I thought my nightmare was over until the next morning I found my stock market historical data server frozen. Although I have full backup of everything, I still need to get the machine working again. After days of observation, it is now clear that it is a hardware failure issue as the computer just freeze up randomly. So my other projects have to be put on hold until I setup a new server to replace this computer too.

I agreed to do a podcast with Better System Trader coming Monday night. For those of you interested in trading, tune-in by then or wait for the video on YouTube. Actually I don’t know if you can tune-in live …

Back to my painfully slow process of setting up a new server here.

Have a great weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update October 15, 2021

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We’ve got an early option expiration week due to the first of the month landed on Friday. No one seems to care about China’s potential financial crisis nor the skyrocketing gas prices as the stock markets have recovered much as of today. The earnings of the major companies, however, are lined up next week. So expect volatility to return then.

Watched this disturbing news regarding Biden’s mental health. What’s most disturbing is not that Biden looks completely disoriented and can’t even speak coherently.  The most disturbing issue is that none of the mainstream media and major media platforms have any reporting about this in US and Canada. I thought China was the evil communist country that sensor this kind of news …

Imagine a world with tires that do not require pumping. I will definitely replace my car with these tires when they become available.

A lot of people do not know that they are lactose intolerant. The reaction to drinking milk is not always that serious for many people if the amount they drink is small. Many people have low awareness of their bodies’ internal reactions to food. Hence it is difficult to help people understand this issue which has huge impact on their overall health.

In Toronto, the Autumn season is real short. Sometimes it is just a few weeks and the temperature will drop to below zero. The street I walk by has this interesting scene where trees growing on one side of the road are still green and on the other side, all turned yellow.

Hopefully this winter we don’t need to deal with too much snow.

Have a nice weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update October 8, 2021

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Another Non-Farm Payroll week gave the world a head scratching rally while the media bullshit with all sorts of explanations. This is how funny the world has become – fewer and fewer people have a brain on their head thanks to continuous feeding of sensational news and information. Is there a thing called detox your thought process?

An interesting talk about the supplement N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). It is something useful to keep ourselves healthy in this era of everything shortages. One thing I don’t understand why US chooses to ban the supplement. Well, I guess I know why but I can’t sa it out loud …

One of the biggest news this week is the release of the Pandora papers. Very interesting peek into the world of hidden wealth.

Found this old video from Ben Greenfield that allows you to exercise your whole body in one move. Nice exercise to start your day!

This week we have twice experienced data outage in the middle of the trading sessions. Just this morning our eSignal feed got a crazy level delay of 20 seconds before it catches up again. Not that I like to promote superstition but seriously, Mercury retrograde ends on 18th. So 2 more weeks of technical problems like this will get me on the edge!

I’ve got lots of paperwork to catch up with this week. Someone asked when will I write another post for the trading automation series. I will try to fit that into the schedule this week. Don’t hold me on that though.

Have a nice weekend all!

For my fellow Canadian, Happy Thanksgiving and have a wonderful long weekend!

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TLC Weekly Update October 1, 2021

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What a quarterly end we got this Thursday! The congress tug-of-war sideshow is really getting old – deal or no deal based on lies and deceptions. It is still a budget to spend the future money they will never have. Bots acting on the no deal b.s. hammered the stock markets lower before open and then the stock markets magically rally all the way back up thanks to Powell and gang’s hardworking team.

Can’t help with the sarcasm. Maybe I have been trading for way too long.

Here is an interesting comment made by South China Morning Post’s editor. Maybe, just maybe, that the younger generations no longer care about the “real world” out there anymore?

Nassim Taleb taking a jab at a psychology research paper referred to by Adam Grant. It is a good lesson to learn from because Nassim pointed out an important point in statistics that is often ignored by people applying statistical analysis. Again, the lack of understanding the probability world led to conclusions that are obviously wrong.

An interview of Jordan Peterson on current matters. It is an hour long discussion so plan ahead if you intend to watch it. His take on the current situations around the world really worries me much. How low will the Western politicians sink before we see common sense and responsibilities return?

Mercury retrograde started this week and has already claimed casualties against our computer network. One of the major components of our servers is the tunneling through PureVPN. Our dedicated IP server suddenly went offline during market hours. Took us a while to figure out what happened. And then reporting the problem to PureVPN led to more frustration because they said it would take 12 hours to get the server up and running. This has never happened before …

If you are a long time reader you may recall that the start and end of Mercury retrograde can be a great time for research breakthrough. Since I am well prepared to utilize this opportunity, I managed to solve the final piece of the puzzle to my price discovery theory. We are talking about decades long journey that comes to an end. Since I feel so great that I will celebrate this with a short break over the weekend.

Have a great weekend all!

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Maximum Chaos with Many Planets Going From Retrograde Back To Direct In October 2021

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With Mercury turned retrograde September 27, we now have quite a number of planets in retrograde, a rare event by itself. However, it is even more rare that quite a number of them will go direct in October. This signifies potential drastic changes to the world. Buckle up for the ride.

Pluto is the first one going direct on October 7.

Then Saturn will go direct October 12.

Jupiter is next on October 18.

Mercury will join Jupiter going direct the same day.

These days are not that precise and various camps of astrology use slightly different definitions.

The point is that when a planet is in retrograde, its influence will be messed up or weaken.

When a planet comes out of its retrograde, there could be a sudden surge in people’s emotions and energy on the specific areas in their life affected by the planet.

Compound that with new moon happening on 6th and full moon on 20th, both near a planet going direct, will magnify the effect even more.

So do some house keeping by listing out what is bothering you at the moment. Learn to not act on your impulse or your emotion for these troubling areas in this coming October. Things will be easier to deal with after the changes settle down.

I am not those “sky is falling” people who proclaim that October will be very bad, or very good, depending on your belief. Call me eternally optimistic, I believe awareness is the key to handle life as it is. If you haven’t done so, you may start by learning some breathing exercises to improve your awareness.

Good luck!

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TLC Weekly Update September 24, 2021

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Canada has turn colder since the Mid-Autumn Festival. Some even say that this year we may encounter extreme coldness this winter. Hopefully it will be just another year with normal winter. It is hard to deal with extreme coldness here …

A lot of talks about “gamma squeeze” over the past few months. I was asked about it several times too. If you do not understand what it is, check out this short article. Someone already wrote a good piece explaining the concept, why write it myself?

We can’t stop talking about covid these days and here is a nice clip on how people are so out of touch with reality. I am not sure if this clip will be removed for spreading misinformation. Check it out and you may be surprised what was said in the clip.

Another great interview by Tom Bilyeu with Dr. Huberman. His work is extremely useful for anyone who wants to achieve better results in life. For many people they are hopelessly addicted to emotions that are harmful to them. The ability to control and manage your emotions is a powerful tool to improve one’s life. I like Tom’s way to kick himself into sleep. Got to give it a try.

Crazy work schedule still dominate my life. Lots of progress on research and development front is making it all worth it. I finally see light at the end of the tunnel and my plan will work out eventually even though it is taking more time than originally planned. But what happen according to our plans lately everywhere?

Have a great weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update September 17, 2021

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Today is quarterly expiration for index options, index futures and index future options. More and more retail traders are engaging in option trading activities. That in turn forced the market makers to create larger and larger hedged positions that has to be unwind by option expiration. The exaggerated price swings are expected. There is really no need for the MSM trying so hard to explain everything …

ZH has an interesting article about covid situation in Sweden. Not that I am a conspiracy theorist but how can we not thinking about this whole mandatory vaccination and vaccine passport mess worldwide being a evil plan or some sort?

Here is an educational video about sex that feels so awkward due to the fear of offending some people. Science is now being robbed of its function and identity in this messed up world …

For those of you who find it hard to engage in difficult conversations, this video from Tim Ferriss is a nice framework to learn from.

I have been very busy all week and I told my friends that I wish there are 28 hours a day. So many things I am trying to get done yet something always comes up that has to be taken care of first. Let’s see if this troubling trend will end next week.

Have a great weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update September 10, 2021

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Rollover week for index futures this week. So far this week volatility picked up a bit but every attempt to move lower are forced back up fiercely. All overnight selloffs are erased so that normal people can’t tell that they ever happened as it does not show in their portfolio. Now that today the markets finally have a weak weekly close, what do you think Powell will do this weekend?

CGP Grey has done another crazy project again. Enjoy the fruit of his work here. This is how research on historical records really looks like.

I found this series of videos the best summary of Charles Mungers life long wisdom. No matter you invest or not, his “techniques” for handling life and everything else is the best self-help advices you can get. It can be easy to just listen to the series and forget about it right after. So I recommend watch it, reflect on each individual mental model and learn to incorporate that into your own decision making process.

Here is a less technical video about virus which addresses a fundamental concept, are they alive? When we discuss about the covid situation, everyone has an opinion but normal people most likely have a completely wrong mental picture about virus. In fact there is no unified understanding of what they are at all because we still know very little about them. Science is still very lacking on this frontier …

Thus I can’t understand why talking about common sense like personal hygiene, exercise, healthy diet and exposure to sun (or direct Vitamin D intake) as first line of defense against covid are banned on YouTube and various mainstream media. I have received many links from others quoting “factcheck dot org” on related materials that they are all “false”. Unluckily, everything I read so far from that site are written in evasive language to misguide people.

Who is going to fact check the fact checker, eh?

As usual, I will focus on my work and hopefully getting more things done. When the world has fallen into chaos, shutout the noises and keep oneself busy really help.

Have a great weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update September 3, 2021

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Last month of the third quarter just started. Another week of all-time-high price actions. Some gurus even believe that the stock market will continue to melt up just like Germany back in 1919 to 1933. If so, I guess we will see S&P500 going a lot higher from here.

For those of you who find meditation not your cup of tea, there are other ways to achieve the same. From my family’s tradition Chinese medicine teaching, we have all these breathing techniques that claim to achieve wonderful results. And now science confirms that the claims are true.

I still find the scientific explanation making things too complicated though. Common sense – use it or lose it.

A video about the rarely mentioned issue with interference on our computers from outer space. I guess blaming the stars for my computer woes has some merit after all. The damn Mercury retrograde is coming back to haunt us from September 27 to October 17. Prepare for machine malfunctions by then.

Talking about computer trouble, one of my trusted Surface Pro 6 got BSOD and it looks like its hard drive died after 2 years of everyday use. I am glad that I bought the full extended warranty on the machine. 3 days after I reported this to Microsoft, the replacement is already at my door. Although I don’t like Microsoft much, this superior customer service is definitely worth mentioning here.

A very good follow-up on the Great Barrington Declaration by Unherd. During this covid crisis, we hear nothing from governments worldwide doing anything resemble common sense. The declaration made by these brave medical professionals was not only ignored but also led to hardship on them for speaking out. This is the ultimate sign that the so-called democracy based systems around the world is failing …

My busy schedule continues to use up all my time. Progress is made but not as quickly as I hope for. That’s the natural of research and development – it takes time to get results.

Have a great long weekend everyone!