Hey! I resemble that statement!
Wait...what's a degenerate, anyway?
Well, we could get out the dictionary, but let's just look at the word. De-generate. So it's like the opposite of generate, or to make something. So it'd be like: to NOT make something. But of course, it's used as a noun, so it's someone who doesn't make something, or someone who isn't into creating. Like a generator makes electricity, right? So a de-generator sucks up energy, or something like that. Basically it could be said that to make or to create or generate something is to fight entropy; to go up, not down. So a degenerate goes down.
Clear as mud? I'm a little fuzzy, too, so let's look at some real life examples.
Although there are no hard-and-fast rules (this is not an exact science) I have developed this as a guide to help determine whether or not one could be considered a degenerate, and based upon the results, take appropriate action.
If you yell at (or generally treat like shit) your spouse and/or kids, blaming them for you losing money, you might be a degenerate.
If you haven’t touched a yoga mat or your toes or even done a squat or diddly squat since the mandatory company-ordered stretch-and-flex last time you were on the jobsite at 7:00 am before the pandemic hit, then you might be a degenerate.
If you roll joint after joint and not share and not even trade or doing anything productive while your wife simultaneously cooks, cleans, and home schools the kids and find yourself staring at the tickers and price of one stock on one tab for 5 minutes only to realize it’s not the one you thought, you might be a degenerate.
If you follow cute chicks on Profit.ly so that you can “gain deeper understanding” of their “wisdom” from their trading experience of 0 trades $0, then you might be a degenerate.
If you use a bottle/bucket/can handily placed under the desk of your home office instead of walking all the way to the bathroom so that you don’t “miss anything,” then you might be a degenerate.
If you don’t brush your teeth in the morning and trade with yuck-mouth because what the heck – you don’t have to talk to anyone face-to-face, anyway, then you might be a degenerate.
If you leave a pile of unsorted socks (albeit, clean) right there on your desk in the work area all week without putting them away, then you might be a degenerate.
If you sit on that nice 60-dollar office chair that you bought to be comfortable while being CEO of your own destiny while you work on your way to make your first million, sitting on it straight in your underwear that you slept in last night, you might be a degenerate.
If there is a change in the market and you think you can not change with the market and still be a bag-holder and stick to your addict, gun-slinging ways, you might be a degenerate.
If you are a gunslinger with inherited funds, you’re automatically a degenerate; do not pass “GO” do not collect $200.
If you are a half-a-million-aire from inheritance and you still have never bought a new t-shirt and still wear only thrift store ones, and don’t even shave for a profile-updating selfie (or ever, for that matter), then you might be a degenerate.
If you’re a millionaire from trading and use storage totes for a decorative backdrop for webinars, then you might be a degenerate.
I’m not saying I do any or all of these things, just sayin, some I know from experience, and some I just imagine it to be an accurate assessment. Oh, BTW, one of my other occupations is armchair psychologist, just ask my wife.
This is not a complete list, of course. I’m still kind of a newbie (started trading after the lockdown), and I haven’t watched all of Tim’s videos yet so I’m still unsure as to what all I must NOT do to be considered a degenerate, so anyone who reads this please feel free to chime in and leave your input below, especially if you can think of any other real-world examples as to what a degenerate might do.
But as near as I can tell, this is the appropriate action I would recommend:
All but two or three of the really weird ones: Don’t worry about it; you’ll be alright.
99% “yes” get some help for your fucking self.
All answers “yes” you might want to consider the fate of those who took the sucker way out after they looked at the ticker tape after the crash of 1929 that kicked off the depression: go to New York and find the tallest building with roof access.
(By the way, that's a myth) Dark humor may have also contributed to the myth. The day after Black Thursday, many Americans read the following quip from humorist Will Rogers in their newspapers: “When Wall Street took that tail spin, you had to stand in line to get a window to jump out of, and speculators were selling spaces for bodies in the East River.” 1929 Stock Market Crash: Did Panicked Investors Really Jump From Windows? - HISTORY
Don’t be a degenerate; don’t go down like that.
But seriously folks…..
I think all Tim is saying is basically: Win or lose, don’t be so obsessed with trading/money/wealth/power that you adopt generally bad habits and not lead a balanced life. (e.g. - Study and don’t be lazy, but don’t be sleep-deprived and overload your brain thinking it’ll solve everything. Or for me, it’s simply maybe staring at screens too much and not spending enough outside time to play and exercise with my two sons, 8 and 6 y.o., fully capitalizing on the opportunity that working from home provides for more quality family time. Or just trading alone in a little hole somewhere with no one to associate with.) That's why we have Profitly to learn from each other, also have fun and joke around a little on chat but know it's real money we're messing with (but if it's not fun, then what's the use?), and know that we are real people and not bots or cartoon characters.
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