IngramSpark and the Run Around

     If you know me, you know I am an author. I auth. It's what I do. I write to be writing. My plans have plans, and my words have words. I've been writing before I could spell; I would tell my mom stories and fully expected her to write them down for me. Imagine my little teeny-girl surprise when I found out that none of the original stories I told her were ever actually written down. Well, you can't cry over it; so you do what you can do, and that's write them and rewrite them yourself (myself). You just keep working and pushing until the words stop, which, of course, they haven't.

    I'm never really alone. The voices in my head make sure of that. Unlike some people, who have voices telling them what to do, mine tell me what to say, write, and create. If I have any doubt whatsoever about what should happen in the next few chapters, or even paragraphs, of the book I'm writing, I'm reminded that I have five or six more books to go, so I'd better get a move on. Chop Chop! I'm not allowed to stay dormant; I wouldn't even know what that felt like. 

    Some people have a song stuck in their heads; I have two detectives unearthing something or someone. I have a deputy sheriff trying to decide whether to call in for assistance or storm the building himself to try to save the day. I have women drinking lattes, unaware of the danger waiting for them when they skip dessert and take a train uptown to see a friend. If one book isn't unfolding in my head, another one is stirring in its own soon-to-be first chapters. I am never, and I mean never, bored.

    That's where IngramSpark comes in. I produce my books on their website. I have twenty or more books on it, most with both print and EPUB editions. When I upload a book, I upload the interior as one PDF and the cover as another. The cover and the interior must be in PDF, which was my problem this past week. I completely forgot that they had to be, must be, will not be accepted unless they are saved in a PDF! (I won't forget again.)

    So, last week, when I had two books to upload, I saved both interiors correctly, but I saved the covers as PNG because the site where I created them said PNG was suggested and preferred for printing. Well, too damn bad, apparently. Because IngramSpark gurus (I have other words for them at times) wouldn't process my books, they came back time and time again without being produced because of an error. It was a cover error on both books, and both times the only message IngramSpark sent was that I needed to fulfill their suggested size requirements. They sent me a link to the template maker.

    OK...over and over again, I opened the link. I followed the instructions. I did EXACTLY what it requested, and NO...nothing happened. My project was rejected again and again, and always for the same reason. The reason was NOT that I had saved the cover as a PNG; no, they kept saying the sizing was off. I beat my head against the wall a few times. Haven't I done this about 20 times? So why would I suddenly NOT KNOW what size to use when creating my book cover? I was furious with IngramSpark, who, if you didn't know, WILL NOT HELP YOU. It is the epitome of learning on your own, trial and error, DIY, and they mean it. NO HELP AT ALL --- but it is a free service.

    OK, OK. I took a breath, looked, thought, and rammed my fist into the pillow. I screamed a little. I ate a lot of chocolate, and then I decided to Google it. I use Gemini. It was a little help. It asked me if the PDF file was fitted using their pre-measured template...the PDF file, not the cover file. OK...wait, maybe the cover file MUST be a PDF, even though I couldn't find anything on their site saying it must be. It must be! MUST...and you should know that it MUST be. (If it doesn't have to be a PDF, someone will need to show me where they found that information.)

    So, I went to my cover on Canva (where I make my covers) and saved it as a PDF...not suggested, not recommended by Canva, but I did it anyway. I sent them up for production, and get this... they were PRODUCED!!  The only problem is, when IngramSpark sent them back to me to approve, they sent one of my books back with the wrong cover (it was a previous one, and a PDF), and I didn't want THAT cover; I wanted my new cover. I sent up the new file again, the new PDF, and now I'm waiting for them to say it's done.  The other book, the one they got right, was produced without a hitch.

    Without a hitch! All they had to tell me about two weeks ago, about six attempts ago, was to save the file as a PDF, but they don't do that. They don't help you. They do not answer your questions. They send you a link and expect you to figure out their methods on your own. It's a terrible way to do business, but it is free -- so I can't complain too much.  I mean, maybe I can, but I won't. It's free, and I do like free. I like free a whole lot.

    When the books come back, and I'm able to do all the corrections and send them back up for their final, the cover and the interior will be PDFs, no problems, and no issues. All will be done -- if you have issues with IngramSpark, please do yourself a favor and Google; don't expect them to answer you. They don't. Then they send you a survey asking how great they were...they weren't.  Will I keep using them? Yes, I don't pay for books to be produced. I don't need to. I just need to slow down, breathe, and stop overthinking. I've been this way for a while, so I'm not very hopeful it will change anytime soon.

TradingView Disaster

     Earlier today, a very important trading day, I might add, the site for trading called TradingView had a major issue. It literally glitched out, and the screen where you see all the charts with the candlesticks, the market price, etc., just disappeared. At first, it faded. It was strange. I clicked the 5M time frame from the 15M timeframe, and the page faded and locked into a long, long glitch that eventually came back; then it happened again. Finally, after a few fade-and-waits, it stopped showing the charts altogether.

    The thing is, if you're trading on the site and that happens, you can't see where your trade is or how it is working out for you or against you. You can't see price; you can't see anything. The lower half of the screen, the part that shows the positions and orders, was working, so at least you could see how the trades you were in were performing, but if you needed to flatten it, or if you were unable to put in a stop loss before it happened, you were toast!

    TradingView is recovering now, it's 9:40 a.m, but around 7:12 a.m. they started their decent. The thing is, the US government had a major announcement today that was scheduled to be released just 18 minutes later, and of course, it was released. It was the CPI, or the Consumer Price Index. It is the monthly economic report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics that measures the average change over time (month over month) and tells the world what prices are like here in the US. In other words, a huge announcement is about to drop, and the market site that millions of people use went down!

    Now, if you were already in a trade, it meant you couldn't flatten or stop it. If you didn't put in a stop loss, you could have lost your shirt! I never, and I mean NEVER, trade without setting the stop loss. It's the first thing I do! You have to know what you can afford to lose. If you don't use a stop loss and hope that you'll hit your target, it's just that- hope. There is no safety net. It sounds far too scary to try, and I will never do it.

    The CPI reports things like housing, rent, shelter, groceries, dining out, gasoline, electricity, medical care, apparel purchases, and transportation. The report discusses billions and billions of dollars, if not trillions. Today's CPI report was favorable to the USD and made a huge splash. It was hotter than expected, and when it hit, the market flashed!!  I was in a couple of trades, and one of them won bigger than Dallas, but the other failed. I had a stop-loss, so I only lost what I risked: $862 (fake). I won $ 1,181 in fake dollars.

    I immediately got into another trade, riding the high on the gains, when the charts came back on momentarily. I got in another trade before it went down again, and I won a second one based solely on the CPI report. It flattened or consolidated later, but I hit the curve! I won another $1181, so all in all, I won $1500.00 fake dollars today. Woot! I'll take it.

    Like I said, it's back up now, and tons and tons of people will jump into the market to make up for what they lost today. I'm walking away with my two wins and one loss. Some people will walk away because they don't need the money, but I'm not one of them. If this happened to me on a live trade, I would have had reason to down a few Butterfingers and probably run the shower a little hotter than I need to just to get my head straight. I don't deal well with chaos. I look like I've got it all together, but yeah, no.

    I'll post what the site looked like. For over an hour and a half, it looked like this, and there is still (9:51 a.m.) no word from the site to tell us what happened. According to Google Gemini, it has never happened before, but they have had glitches. This was big! I wonder if it was intentional? Wow...trillions of dollars run through the Forex every single day—can you imagine? (Just so you know, if you had a backup trading site, you could use it.) My broker is Oanda, so I could have watched my trades there, but if you don't have a backup, it could be disastrous.) 

Photo Credit: TradingView.com

NDA Trap!

   When I say I fully understand why a company would ask its employees to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), I mean it. Businesses have proprietary processes, trade secrets, and client lists they need to protect. They don't want the world to know the exact recipe behind their secret sauce. In most cases, signing one once you’re hired—or even when you're deep into final-round strategy discussions—is a total gimme.

    But asking a candidate to sign an NDA before even discussing the job description, expectations, or compensation? That's just suspect to me. I don't say "sus." I’m not cutting the word down.  It doesn't feel right.

    Today, after applying for a 100% remote claims adjuster position, I hit this exact wall. The owner of the firm refused to discuss the role, the day-to-day details, her expectations of me, or even a ballpark figure for my pay until I signed her Non-Disclosure Agreement. Curious—and a little skeptical—I told her to send it over so I could review it.

    Now, when I tell you this woman is so far out in left field she’s practically in the parking lot, let me start by saying she genuinely believes her document is both legal and binding. That alone is enough to make any seasoned professional laugh.

    If you’re out there job hunting, especially in remote or specialized fields like claims adjusting, keep your radar up for this kind of gatekeeping. Here is why demanding an NDA before a basic conversation is a massive red flag:

• You can't protect secrets you haven't shared. Standard job descriptions, pay scales, and basic workplace expectations are not proprietary trade secrets. If a company treats its base salary like classified government intel, they are usually trying to hide low pay, high turnover, or disorganized management.
• Contracts require "consideration." For a legal agreement to actually hold up in court, both parties generally have to get something of value out of it. If you haven't been offered a job, paid for your time, or even given actual confidential data, a blanket agreement shoved in your face before a 10-minute phone call is often legally toothless—no matter how intimidating the legalese sounds. WHAT DO I GET from the NDA? Oh, you're going to tell me about the job? Well, yeah, no.
• It sets a terrible precedent. Hiring is a two-way street. You are interviewing them just as much as they are interviewing you. Starting a professional relationship with an immediate demand for silence and compliance tells you everything you need to know about what it would be like to work under that leadership.

    You have to trust your own gut about these things. There is a massive difference between a company protecting its legitimate business interests and a business owner on a power trip using scary paperwork to control the conversation. When someone demands your signature before they’ll even tell you what the job pays, they aren't protecting their business—they're testing to see how easily you'll fold.

    After telling her I wouldn't sign her NDA, she wanted to know why, so I told her. I told her I am a professional adjuster with decades of industry experience. If I can't be trusted to have a conversation, an interview, and allow me to ask a few questions, there's no reason to assume you can hire me. 

    Then, she goes all out and tells me that the job is a 1099 self-employed position without benefits; so what exactly am I getting from this place? I'm supposed to dive in, work hard, maybe get people to pay, and HOPE she pays me what she has agreed to pay some 6-8 weeks down the road? No. I had specifically told her I wanted a W2 position if I took another job, and she understood that. She literally said, "We can discuss it after you sign the NDA." -- No.

    I asked her, "Ma'am, why do you distrust people so badly that you force them to sign your NDA to have a conversation?" She told me where she was from and that it was common practice for people to say one thing and do another —Minnesota. Oh...well, there you go. I let her know I was from the South, and more specifically, I'm from the Great State of Oklahoma. 

    We trust until you give us a reason not to, and then we don't ever let you in again—she said, with her NDA, she didn't have to trust and get burned. I told her her paper wasn't worth squat, and if she ever came to the Sooner State, I'd show her what it means to be honest with a side of integrity.

    I left her with a "Have a blessed day" and ended that conversation.

Photo Credit: IronClad

NEW BOOK!! Yes, Another One! (Paper Trail)

     I'll start by saying "Paper Trail" will make you laugh. It will make you laugh because I'm writing it in a way that leaves you no choice. If I'm anything, and you must agree if you know me, I'm hilarious. I was a stand-up comedian for several years in Hollywood (and Oklahoma City when I came home for holidays and vacations); it was what I did, and it wasn't hard. I wasn't the class clown; I was too smart for that. I was the class smarty-pants. There is a difference. I used sarcasm, and it worked.

    Growing up poor helped; I had to fight for everything I ever wanted or thought I couldn't live without. Being funny and clever helped me achieve just about every goal I ever set. In a true Scorpio way, I often managed to have others do what I needed them to do and thanked them; I let them think it was their idea in the first place. I didn't have to take all the credit. I can share.

    The new new book "Paper Trail" is a murder thriller. It's not exactly a whodunit, but it's along those lines. It's more of a "I freakin' can't believe whodunit," and you'll understand once you start reading it. I'm writing it now, and believe me, I'm having a blast. I am literally pouring my personal stories from way way back into this one. I'm pouring my family history into it, and bringing up old bones that should have been buried and gone, but no, I'm dragging them right back to the surface in a very funny way, and no one will fault me for sharing my personal laundry -- I'm the one who lived it; I know it.

    The book is a pseudo-modern book. It takes place from New Year's Eve 1999 to about June the following year. A lot of quirky people do quirky things in a world that would or should be professional, but if you remember Y2K and how many pop-up ads would somehow show up on your computer without you asking for them, you'll understand. If you're too young, well -- it happened. We were all caught, and when I say with our pants down, I mean it.

    Think Agatha Christie meets Matlock (the original) and then throw in a little "I Love Lucy" for the hell of it. It's the one show I can safely compare my own life to and expect anyone to believe me or understand what happened. I really did drive 1500 miles in an air-cooled VW with a butcher knife for a weapon, no cell phone (1981), and less than $15. No credit cards, no bank cards, just me, the open road, and Western Union. (I never had to pay for a telegram or call; my dad was the Regional Wire Chief.) Things got lit.

    I found bones once that turned out to be Native bones, and the entire area was quarantined. That sort of thing doesn't happen to most people. A bank robber stopped me from going into a bank once; he had plans, and I was a distraction. He told me so. That doesn't happen, but it did. The book will be full of those sorts of things, and the kind of things I dig up about people in the library and on microfiche that they would never have imagined I could find -- I find them.

    It won't take me long to write. I'll have it out by Christmas, and I'm thinking it'll be thinner than my novels because it's a comedy murder book. It'll be about 275 pages, the same 5x8 size, and I'll put it on Amazon as soon as it's written. The Kindle will be three to four weeks later.  I set the price at $18.99 for print and $1.99 for Kindles, so if you can wait, that's best.  I wouldn't pay $18.99 for a book, especially one I wrote. Ha!

    The book takes place in 2000, mostly in Bethany and NW OKC. I lived it. I was there. I know it. I hope to bring back a few memories for friends, neighbors, students, and anyone else who remembers those times.  Murder isn't truly funny; I know that, but the way it gets solved can be! It just takes a little fairy dust, a lot of umph, and my own personal imaginational touch thingyboppy stuff that rattles and rumbles around in the fleshy tenants of my skull.  You're welcome.

Decisions. I Do Make Them.

     From time to time, and sometimes for no reason whatsoever, I make a decision. I do. I use my brainpower, willpower, and stubborn determination to come up with an idea I usually assume is original, and then I decide something. I often think that the decisions I make are good. I assume they are, and I will act on them. I'm not always correct. I have a history of making poor decisions, but I hope that as I get older and hopefully a little wiser, I can change most of the bad choices I've made. If I can't change them, I hope I can blot them out by making better choices that can override the past.

    Today, but this time for a reason, I decided not to buy a VW Beetle (Classic), and that may shock or surprise a few. I'm really sorry, Jeannie; I know it would have been so much fun, but I think the reasons I came up with for not buying one will be smart, wise, good, and/or otherwise the best choice.  I turn 65 in a few weeks, in exactly 22 days, actually. It's not too old to buy a Bug, but I don't want the headaches of keeping up with a car almost as old as I am. I did the math, which can always be painful. It's not worth it.

    The cost isn't that much, so the original math is fine. I can pay X for a 1968 VW Beetle that's been garaged, restored, rebuilt, etc., but what about the pans? The rust, the engine, the transmission, the fuel system, the 1000 small things that can cause an issue and even leave me stranded. I live in a great community, and I know I could call someone to save me, but that's not the point. I'm a member of AAA roadside, but that's not the point. If I bought a Bug, it would be for fun. I can't have too much fun if I'm waiting on the side of the road for someone to pick me up, or since I don't usually go too far from home, I can't have too much fun abandoning my car and hoofing it back home.

    No, I love the things. I do. I think the world of them, and maybe if I could find a unicorn, one that had a new undercarriage, new engine, new transmission, great interior, and no rust, I'd be OK, but the X I was willing to pay would shoot up to a few more 000s at the end, and again, it would not be worth it. The Bug had me in the 80s. I was smitten! I still love them, still Google them to see them, and I spot them on the road when I can, but I don't need one. I'm not even sure I actually want one. I think I just want to hang out with one now and again.

    When the settlement I'm expecting comes in, I'll do a few things for myself because I think that's best. I think I deserve to be a bit spoiled after all I've been through, but I won't buy myself a VW Beetle. Instead, I'll pay off Stephen (my 2018 Versa), and I'll have him completely detailed, too. I know I could trade him in and, for the same amount I would have spent on a Bug, get a really nice modern car, but I won't.  Stephen has 55,000 miles on him. For an 8-year-old car, that's really good. He's been a great companion, and I think I can stand to live with him a little longer. Why trade something in when it's just getting broken in?

    Instead, I'll use the same amount of money I would have spent on the Bug to promote my books! That's a good decision. I'll let the professionals take a bit of my money, promote the books properly, and see if I can get the authorship off the ground to the point where I can say I'm a paid author, not just a prolific one. Yep, money talks! I will have another profession, of course; I trade now. I'm back into Forex trading, and though it's on a demo account today, I practice my trades every single day. I've hit a 70% average when I am predicting trades, which is amazing. 

    Here's where the math is easy. If I risk $500 to win $650 and do it 100 times and hit my 70% average, I'm bringing in 70 wins at $650, so that's $45,500, and I lose 30 trades at $500 because that's what I risk, that's $15,000, and when you do the math -- I'm up $30,500.  I'll take that every day. I do 20-25 trades a week, and on average I win $650 a day. If that means I'm bringing in $14,300 at the end of the month (because I don't actually lose during trades; if I do, I keep trading until I break even or win), I'll take it.

    I'll have to explain my strategy to you, but I make decisions when I trade. I don't trade and wait to see what happens. If I see it going south and don't believe it will pull back, I get out. I'm not stupid. If I think one will go to the moon, I don't place my target at the top either - I let it go up enough to cover my goal, and I get out. I call it a day. I may go a little higher, but I'm a pragmatic trader, not a greedy one.  Decisions. They help. They not only help, but they also rule. If you don't know yourself, you're lost.

    So, there you have it. I'm over here anticipating a settlement soon. When it comes in, I'll do what I think is best. I'll trade, I'll write, I'll promote, and I'll find someone in the state that will let me drive their VW Bug every now and again on their property. I may pay them to let me drive it around the parking lots. I don't really need to own one to love one.  I will say this: I can't take myself to a city animal shelter just to pet a dog. That would never happen. If you ever hear that I did that, you'll see posts about who I picked up and what I named him or her.  Bugs are different. I can pet one and walk away. I think.

Photo Credit: Streetsideclassics.com 

The Trust - More Than Half Way There.

     I planned to have "The Trust" out by Halloween, but I was terminated, and because of the aftermath, my book was put on hold. I am happy to announce, however, that I am more than halfway finished, and I've shifted the book's central thread to put more emphasis on corporate fraud and deep-rooted corruption than planned. I think I'm making headway on the main events now. I'll find out once it's sold and the reviews return. I'm pretty darn sure it will be a hit. Too many folks like me have uncovered things they maybe should have left buried, but then again, why own a shovel if you're not going to dig something up? I own a few garden tools, but my keyboard does most of the heavy lifting.

    I am halfway through the book; I've incorporated the names of a few old favorites from my other Nick Posh books. Josh Davis returns; the bounty hunter from Stratford. Colonel Kolby Dickerson returns, and very sternly. It's too bad I couldn't bring back a few others I truly trusted before, but I have since realized that my gracious act of including them in my art was met with sad, disruptive behavior. No, I won't go into it, but it makes me sad to think they could have been included from now until the Rapture - but no. Not now. Only friends will be mentioned. Traitors will be dealt with at the Bema. 

    I am halfway through, and maybe a little more. I have 47,000 words written, so if I usually stop around 83,000, I am somewhere around the 56% mark, if I did my math correctly.  Believe me when I tell you that Math is not my best subject. Writing is by far my strength. I've adopted Gemini to help me with the more colorful parts; I can't take credit, and I won't. I always give whomever or whatever needs to be credited their due. I write a chapter, upload it to Gemini, and ask it to rewrite it with flair and color, or maybe I'll say, "make it pop," and let the machine do its best.

    Sometimes I'm happy with what it writes, and other times I scrap it and write it out myself. I like writing; it's fun and therapeutic. I can do anything I want to someone I despise, and if I don't want them to blame me for being mean, nasty, vindictive, or cruel, I change their name. I change the city, the time period, whatever, but I have at least gotten out of my head and spirit what I want to say. I find it refreshing to know I can erase, rewrite, destroy, rebuild, and redo anything I damn well need to, over and over, if I damn well feel like it. 

    I'm retired, I think. I'm not sure. I may go back to work, but right now I'm focused on the legal actions I'm taking, and the writing I'm producing. Both have been eye-opening, rewarding, and informative. I'm learning more about things I never knew, and it gives me fodder to write about. I can research a matter and have Nick Posh or Ralph Ferguson root it out in the book. I can stumble into a situation and ask Chief Ian Moore to arrest someone, or have him lock up the bastard overnight without light, food, or a blanket. Moore owes me. I saved his life in another book.

    "The Trust" is about a land grab organization that turns ugly. It grows out of itself and into something uncontrollable. The monster is bigger than its maker, a Frankenstein of sorts, and like the early twentieth-century monster we remember, The Trust must be stopped before it destroys more in its path of lies and deception.  One of the book's key themes is simple: the good guys win. They go through hell to do it, but they do win.  The ride is the fun part to write. It's never that much fun to live, and I know it. I've been through it.

    The book was going to be about the twisted roller coaster ride I went through trying to buy my house in the country, but it's organically turned itself into that and more. I have now added corporate connections, conflicts of interest, fraud, murder, and a seemingly endless swarm of miscreants whose greed and power struggles leave everyone in their wake injured. It's up to me, the author, to create a stronger force to stand up to their evil, and I have done just that. I like this book. I'm enjoying every bit of it. 

    I think it will be finished by the end of the week. I'll read through it this weekend, and maybe send it up for publishing next week. I'll come back to it in 10 days, go through it again for final proofs, and who knows, maybe by my birthday, it will be published, November 22. A good day to fight your enemies with the strongest weapons on the planet - words.

Photo Credit: Me. 

My Spirit Animal - The Dachshund.

     Before you start laughing, please understand that the standard German-bred Dachshund has been around a few blocks and has many survival stories to prove it. If you've ever had the pleasure of owning a Dachshund, you'll understand exactly what I'm about to tell you, but first, let me say this isn't the first time I've taken an online test about such matters, and the answer was overwhelmingly "The Dachshund." The only difference this time is that it wasn't a test to determine what dog breed I was, no...I was answering questions regarding who or what my spirit animal was or is.

    As a Christian, I don't necessarily believe in that kind of folklore, but I thought it would be fun to answer the questions anyway and see what it said. To be honest, I fully expected the dang thing to spit out either the elephant or the eagle. When it comes to bird breeds, I'm usually a bird of prey; it makes sense. The elephant shows up because it takes a bit to push me to the point of utterly destroying someone or something through my will or might, but it can happen. I don't forget. I never forget. I may forgive, but I will not forget.

    Today, however, the computer AI's choice, then and now, was spot on. It was so close, so intimate, so exact, that I had to laugh. I even copied down some of the more important traits to share with you. If you know me, you'll agree - you'll likely still laugh, but then again, the Dachshund is usually considered a clown, right? (Or is that just a clever cover?)

• Fierce and Fearless: Dachshunds were bred in Germany to fight badgers, incredibly ferocious and territorial predators. They are not intimidated by the size or status of others.
• Never Backs Down: When hunting underground, a Dachshund goes face-to-face with its target in a dark tunnel with no room to retreat; the word dogmatic could have been created for this breed.
• Relentlessly Stubborn: They have an independent will and extreme tunnel vision, so once they set their mind to a task, they refuse to be managed or swayed by outside forces.
• Digs Deep for Truth: "Dachshund" literally translates to "Badger Dog"—their paddle-shaped paws are engineered to excavate deep into the earth to find what is hidden; they will dig as deep as they need to reach their target. Nothing stops them.
• Honest and Loyal: They are fully transparent about their boundaries and don't fake affection; they are exactly who they say they are, and they accept you for who you are.

    The Dachshund is a no-nonsense breed, except for being a constant source of nonsense that makes anyone around them feel happier, healthier, and at ease. They are large lap dogs who double as foot warmers, choose their human immediately, and never change their minds. Once a Dachshund locks on to something, it belongs to the dog, whether someone else claimed it first or not. I'm not quite as bad, but if I want something and believe I need it in my life, it will happen. I won't take it from anyone, but I sure as heck will find a way to make it happen.

    

    There's something else about the dog that, again, if you know me, you'll understand. The Dachshund can change his/her personality to suit whatever situation he/she finds himself/herself in.  They adapt; they fit in immediately, then take over. That's me. I do that. In private, I operate as a fierce one-person shadow, switching easily and seamlessly to a bold center of attention when necessary.   At home, I'm nearly a shut-in. I rarely leave the house unless I need to, but at work - I am the top dog nearly every damn time because being second place was never that much fun.

    Dachshunds pick and choose. They decide who they will love. They decide who they will spend time with. They decide who they will remain loyal to, and if you ever cross one of these dogs, they don't forget you - ever. Their intense loyalty is absolute, but the fierceness doesn't stop with love; it extends to exacting revenge too. I'm not saying I'm looking to bury anything or anyone, but this badass hound and I share a few traits: we both have rather round bellies, and we're both very capable of giving someone the notorious side-eye.

    They are a natural-born entertainer, for sure. You can't stop looking at them. They figure out pretty quickly what makes a person smile; I do that. I want you on my side. I need to decide whether you deserve to be with me. Because they, well, we lack the gene for fear; we don't hide under the couch when a storm hits suddenly. We're looking out the windows and up at the sky, staring into it for more information. They, we, strut into a room, expecting others to notice and acknowledge us. We typically do it to get a reaction.

    So there you have it - the German-bred Standard Dachshund. I can't say I'd be miniature; not my style. I'm a big gal. I stand my ground, I demand things, I'm stubborn, in your face, and sometimes I don't apologize for it, but I'm also the one you want if things go bad, I think. I have plans. My plans have plans. If you are mine, you know it. If you are mine, I will die for you. It's just that simple. I think the AI made the best choice - it was that or the unicorn, but how cliché is that?  I can honestly say I have been drawn to the breed since I was a baby. We had a dog that was mostly a Dachshund; he had a bit of Beagle in him, too.  It could have a lot to do with how I turned out the way I did - he was with me for the first 15 years of my life.

Photo Credit: BuzzSharer.com

Confusion and Chaos!

     I'll start by saying God is so good. He just is. I have been through the wringer lately, and He's been so wonderful. A verse in the Bible, Exodus 14:14, sums it up: "He will fight for you; be still."  This is so good. I know I have an advocate; that advocate is King, and He is not only King, but He is also God! It just doesn't get any better than God. 

    All that being said, I was trading today, as I do every day, on my Oanda demo account. I have been training, losing, and winning a few, and I'm a bit overwhelmed, but it's nothing I can't handle. I have been in the deep end before. I have been in places I had no clue where I was or who might come out of the woodwork to find me. In every case, I have taken God with me, and when I am finally still and trusting Him, He can and will provide for me. He did it again today.

    In Oanda and TradingView, I took a trade I flat-out knew would be great, but it wasn't, and I lost. OK, I get it. So I entered a 2nd trade to break even, not to win the day, but to reset my funds to where they were. I saw on the chart that I won. I was happy about it, then I looked at the order and realized I'd actually lost. How could that happen? I saw the chart! The green candles went right through the helpful little drawing that keeps you informed, and I won! Why would the computer say otherwise, and why would my account suddenly drop when it should have replaced what I had lost earlier? It made no sense.

    Speaking to Chat (Gemini) I found out that the Paper Trading function of TradingView, not the live version, but the demo version, will sometimes glitch like that. Oh, OK! No, it's not OK; I wanted my money back! I found out how to reset the fields, and I did. Instead of just replacing the money I had lost, I decided to reset it completely and start over tomorrow with my new edge: the knowledge I gained today. I feel so much better.  Trading is not relaxing. It is stressful, and it takes a lot of mental work -- 90% mental, and the rest is price! 

    So, here I am...learning. In the trading industry, the saying goes: you never lose; you either earn or learn. It's expensive, but it's true: every time you lose a trade, you should find out why and learn from the mistakes, or from the path price decided to take. You simply cannot predict it. I like to put little drawing boxes on every possible pair to see whether my thoughts or predictions would have panned out. I take only one trade a day unless I lose; then I try to make that trade up, but I don't try a 3rd trade that day. I walk away. Today, I predicted 10 pairs without trading on them and was right 7 out of 10 times. That's amazing.

    The drawing boxes can be green on top and red on the bottom for a long trade (buy), or they can be reversed for a short trade (sell).  You drag little dots to where you want the target to take profit and where you want the stop loss to stop you if you were wrong about the trade. That way, you don't lose everything; it is controlled.  I drew the box out and opened a ticket. I opened a Market ticket, which activates the trade the nanosecond that you hit the buy or sell button. You have time to set up the trade when you open it. I have mine set up so that when I drag the little dots around, it automatically registers inside the trade order box.

    Today, I did exactly that. I opened the trade order, I set it for 1% risk. That means I'm risking 1% of my entire account. I set the stop and take profit levels, in that order, and double-checked everything to make sure it was correct. There are a few other little things you need to do, but I did them. The blog is about the system screwing me over.  Then, after running the trade as a demo with the same data used in the live trades, I won when the candlesticks peaked through the top of my green box! I won! Except the system showed my trade had been canceled.

    I couldn't find where it stopped, even though the system said it did. I opened the trade order and saw that it had somehow entered a % of price for the perimeter of the field instead of price. I had not touched it. It had an internal glitch. I was furious! But Chat says it only happens in demo mode and won't happen to me in live mode. It couldn't. Can you imagine the chaos it would cause worldwide? OMG, you talk about wars! More than $9T (with a T) runs through Forex daily. If the systems failed -- damn!

    I am fine now. I have made back the money I lost this morning on an early trade. I am now trading very early to catch the transition trade trends from when the London Market is running and the New York Market is opening. Lots of trading, lots of back and forth, and if you know what to look for, you can win -- or lose. You can't really control it, but if I'd sat and watched instead of taking a 15-20 minute break like I did, I would have at least closed out with my $400 a day goal. Instead, I let it ride and had a stop-loss in place. I only lost $820, and I made that up immediately by entering another trade on a lower time frame and winning. It's riskier -- yes, but I worked out.

    Since I could start the game over, I did. I will wake up early tomorrow, trade and wait, but I will watch it and not take the break I did. I can wait 30-45 minutes. It just takes me a good slap to figure things out, but thankfully, I did. Let the games continue. I took off the red star and replaced it with a silver star in my calendar, as today was definitely a break-even day. I'll explain.

    I have little foil stars that I put on my calendar each day for when I win, lose, tie, or can't trade for some reason. Green is good, but Gold is better. Gold means I entered one trade and won.  Green means I entered trades and won overall. Red, of course, means I lost, and blue means there was no trade to be had. Silver is a break-even star. Today was a break-even day.   My goal is to win 55-60% of the trades I make, and I can't know my ratio until I do at least 100 or more. It will happen, and I will get better and better, I'm sure. I just have to decide I can do this and, of course, take God with me when I do.

    

Photo Credit: Goodwill Commodities

Faith Walks - Revamp

     I decided after 15 years to revamp the book that needed to be revamped the most. I mean, don't get me wrong, all of my books need, and will go through an entire revamp using AI to correct grammar, spacing, spelling, etc., but there are a couple of my books that I could not redo or get access to because I couldn't find the correct files. That was the case with Faith Walks, about 10 years ago when I wanted to fix it. I couldn't expect the original publisher (Xlibris) to help. They wouldn't send me the file back, and even if they did, I realized it was most likely in PDF format, and I already had that.

    I wasn't aware (either out of technological ignorance or just not thinking it through) that I could change the PDF format back into a Word document. I hadn't saved it as a Word document back then. I thought that was it after I published it. I must have deleted it - and there you go - gone.  In 2023, I was able to force Xlibris to give me the file when I formally closed my account with them, but it was, as I suspected, a PDF file -- I didn't know I could change it until this week. 

    So today, I uploaded the PDF, used Word to convert it back into a Word document, and used AI to make changes. Boy howdy! Let me just say that literally every single page needed to be redone. I didn't have as many mistakes as I thought, but the way I said things and the lack of punctuation were just amazing. I used "like" instead of "as" about a million times. I didn't hyphenate correctly on just about any word combination, like second-grade or well-deserved. I just didn't. So if you're lucky enough to have one of the old books, and you buy the new one, you'll see that I took out the Memorial page and added an Author's Note page. (two pages)

    The book doesn't have space between paragraphs, which is how I write, but because it was originally set up that way, I didn't change that. I did remove two lower-quality photos. I added one, plus a short blurb about Faith's passing and an update for our family. It's been 15 years!! Copeland was literally a baby when the book was published. He'll get his driver's license in about 5 months! Wow...just wow!!

    I've uploaded it, and it will be approved tomorrow and back on sale on Amazon after that. I've not changed the Kindle yet. I still don't know whether I will need to pay for that service. I thought I would have to pay to change the books, but the last two books I've changed or revamped have gone up without me being asked to pay their $25 fee. I'm not arguing with it. If they don't want to charge me, I won't volunteer.  I just hope it goes off without a hitch.

    This book is up, and Murder Book has been revamped. I'll do one or two this week, and keep up the process until they're all redone. I'm starting with the ones someone else edited, then I'll get to my own. Most of the books will be the ones I edited, and I've already regretted doing it without AI's help. I need AI. I mean, you just can't find your own mistakes, but AI can! Let me say that out loud! AI can find things I never realized I said. I can read it three or four times and not catch it, then see it when I apply the corrector -- damn.

    So, there you go - things are getting redone, and that makes me happy. If someone is spending money to read one of my books, they don't need a bunch of misspellings, bad punctuation, or wordy sentences that could be reworded to meet standard novel-writing standards. Sometimes I disagree with the AI, but not as often as I agree with it. I'm amazed at how many small points I missed. I'll give you one more example: I said "so" when the word "still" would have been better. It could be a Southern thing, but the more acceptable thing was to start the sentence off with "Still".

    Even now, you'll never see how many issues AI helped me fix just inside this one blog!

Photo Credit:  Google Play

Explaining the Trade

     OK, fine, I'll explain the trade and why I decided to take a Bearish short SELL rather than a Bullish long Buy position. First, you can make money in the market in an upward trend and in a downward trend. You have three market moves to watch: the upward trend, the downward trend, and trend consolidation. Most of the time, the market isn't moving up or down; it's battling between buyers and sellers out there in the ether, where you can't see them doing their thing. You only see the results after a candlestick prints.

    Candlesticks are either green (bullish) or red (bearish); green ones show the market (or price of something) is going up, and red ones indicate it's going down. When the sticks are shorter and they tend to hover around the same spot, that's consolidation. It's a very general overview, of course, but for explaining this trade, it makes sense.

    I use two "indicators" when I trade. I also "box" out my trade before I trade each day, and I only trade when the dots connect, the conditions are right, and the indicators confirm whether a trade is worth entering. I'll try to explain, but again, you can't learn the entire game in one session. I can't tell you how many times my big cousin Gene smashed me at Chess before I finally figured it out, but by my 12th birthday, we could play and I could come close to winning. By my 16th birthday, he had an opponent!  Things take time.

    Look at the chart. There is an obvious DOWNWARD trend in the EUR/GBP (Euro vs. the British Pound). I boxed the trade, meaning at 8:00 a.m. I turned on the computer, opened TradingView and Oanda, made sure I was on the DEMO account (not a live account), and set my time frame to 15 M. I drew a big purple box around everything the market did from 3:00 a.m. until then. I raised the top of the box to the top of the tallest candle, and the bottom to the bottom of the lowest candle. That is the box. That shows me where the market was and has been for 5 hours. This is the time when the New York Market opens, and the London Market is about midday. They've all but stopped, but the NY market is just getting started.

    If price moves out of that box on the next 2 or 3 candles while I'm watching the 15-minute time frame, above or below it, I watch the next candle to see where it goes, whether it strengthens or weakens the trade, and I keep watching. Now, however, I switch my gaze to the indicators I use. I use the RSI at the bottom to show me where the market is being pulled; the numbers vary, and it would take a while to explain, but if they're between 30 and 50, I'm ready to strike. They have to be closer to 40 before I pull the trigger on a sell (Bear), and closer to 48-52 before I buy (Bull).

    The EMA is the exponential moving average; it tells you what the last 50 candlesticks have done. You can lower it if you like, or raise it, but I keep mine at 50. The line is a ribbon that drapes over, at, and under the price, and where it is matters before you buy or sell. If the line is above price, you can sell. If it is below price, you can buy. If it is stationary at price, you need to wait - it gets tricky, but this is a general rule. Of course, there are exceptions. There are always exceptions when the market changes literally every nanosecond of the day.

    I saw the market trending down and staying in that trend. I watched the RSI and saw that it was hovering in the 30-50 range. I also saw the EMA above the candlesticks, and it kept bouncing off them, so I had to wait for buyers and sellers to show who was in control. Then, just before I hit the drawing tool to set up my trade, before I hit the SELL button to secure it, there was one more thing to consider: SPREAD.  The ask price and bid price differ; that difference matters. It can make you lose more than you want immediately, putting your trade at risk even if all the other conditions seem favorable. Check the damn spread.

    The spread between the ask and bid shouldn't be more than 20-22 pips, and yes, we'll have to go over pips soon too. You're not actually trading right now, so trust me when I say you'll need to make sure the ASK and BID bars on the right side of the screen are only about 20-22 digits apart. When they are closer than 22, HIT THE TRADE BUTTON!  I hit the sell button and made sure my risk was in the right place. Again, it's another lesson on what risk-to-reward is and how much of your account you should risk. I only risk 1% of my account on each trade. I'm not trying to become a millionaire, and I'm not loose or crazy; I'm being practical and frugal. I treat this as if it really is my actual job.

    When the risk of the trade is 1% of your account, and my account is $92,000 (fake money) I am literally putting $920 on the line hoping that my calculations are correct, and that the market is going to do what I want it to do. I set the drawing tool at 1:1.4, meaning that if I do win, I win more than I lose. I will win $1288 if price shoots outside my target range, and I will only lose $920 if it shoots out the other side. HOWEVER...I watch my trades, and the moment I see it going south, losing me too much before it pops back into the green, I am likely to stop the trade and call it quits. If the lower time frames show the market is reversing, I will stop the trade.

    That being said, I won't stop it immediately. I give it a few candlesticks on the lower time frames to see whether momentum is truly moving away or will spring back in my favor. You trade at a higher time frame, then use the lower ones to gauge the market and its tendency to flex. It can go either way. There is no set pattern. There is no forgiveness. The market is a live, flowing river of pushing and pulling, and there will be no single second of security, only trend. If it is trending and seemingly holding that trend, you have a good shot at making the trade work in your favor.

    That's what happened with this trade. I saw it. I took screenshots with my snippit tool and showed ChatGPT what I wanted and my goals. ChatGPT came back and warned me about getting in too soon, explained why, said what the RSI and EMA were likely to do, and literally saved me from entering too soon about 11 times. Finally, when the numbers matched what could be a good chance, I entered. I watched, I waited, and I won -- but if I had left it alone and gone to lunch or something, I would have lost!  When the lower time frames started to say it was reversing, I got out.

    As it turned out, the market did reverse, then it came back to trail down a bit more, but since I was up $675.00 out of the $1,288 I could have won, I closed it. I closed it and walked away. My goal each day is $400, so after losing $117 earlier in the day and winning a $3.00 trade because I didn't use the right risk-to-reward, I decided ending at $675.00 was the best move. I am happy, and I get to put a big gold star on my calendar. It was a good green day in the world of Trading with Jude!

Photo Credit: TradingView