Following the Herd

Cramer’s strategy for making money by following the herd is based on the phenomenon of people chasing top-performing mutual funds. When people pour their money into top-performing mutual funds, said fund managers tend to put this money in stocks they already own. Money tends to come in during the weekend, and the stocks will show gains on Monday, which Cramer calls “Mutual Fund Monday”. So here’s the strategy.

1. Identify top performing mutual funds for the past quarter

2. Look up largest holdings of such mutual funds

3. Buy in anticipation of rising prices

However, be aware that when these mutual funds stop performing, money will pour right back out, so you should quickly sell those stocks before the cash withdrawal occurs.

Christmas Dinner

Dinner was Epic.

As of 24th December, the dish line up was to be: Honey BBQ Baby Back Ribs, Aglio Olio with Shrimp Scampi and Mushroom Soup. Xiaowei would cook desserts – Red Velvet Cupcakes – and a veggie dish – sweet potato.

Preparations started yesterday. The Baby Back Ribs were marinated overnight, and Xiaowei completed her cupcakes on the 24th.

Started cooking at 4 today. Chopped up mushrooms, parsley and onions, put the ribs in the oven at 4 PM, made soup stock, and all that jazz. Xiaowei decided to add another dish of chocolate covered strawberries. After completing the strawberries, she started cooking the sweet potatoes with soy sauce and sugar. I concentrated on my mushroom soup, which was super tedious as I even had to make the stock myself. Xiaowei suddenly decided she wanted to cook another dish of cabbage with sausage. Great! More food. After she was done with that… it seemed she was on a roll and said to me, I wanna cook another dish. I was like… “Xiaowei, we already have 7… no 8… no 9 dishes!!” But she’s right, the more the merrier on Christmas!

Here’s everything we had:

• Honey BBQ Baby Back Ribs
• Aglio Olio with Shrimp Scampi
• Cabbage with Sausage
• Tamagoyaki (some sort of eggy thing)
• Sweet Potatoes with Sugar and Soy Sauce
• Leek and Mushroom Soup
• Red Velvet Cupcakes
• Chocolate-Covered Strawberries
• Bubble Tea

Everything turned out so awesome. The Shrimp Scampi with Aglio Olio was sooo yummy, and the meat of the baby back ribs just fell off the bone. All the main dishes PLUS dessert made us super full. We even made bubble tea, which was sooo yummy. I cooked half the bag of bubbles, and there were so many many bubbles, yay.

Cooking makes me so happy. But beware of the perils:

1. After peeling shrimp and chopping copious amounts of garlic, the smell stays on your fingers like a little souvenir, refusing to leave no matter how many times you wash or try to cover it up.

2. Your house will also smell like a mixture of honey bbq sauce, garlic, onions and mushroom for the next three days.

Pictures found here!

Trade-Off

I wish I was happier and more content with life. I wish I didn’t have to want so many things and try so hard.

I think I have quite a good life. I have arms and legs, my eyesight, friends, food, my dad’s money, good grades, and co-curriculars that match my career interest. But I’m not happy! I’m so stressed all the time with a million worries and commitments. And it’s born from this innate dissatisfaction with things, some drive that keeps pushing me to want more and do more and learn more. While I can see how this motivation is so vital for ’success’ in life, I’m not happy cos I’m always wanting more!

I realize its a trade off. You want more, you do more, you get more, at the expense of contentment and happiness. Most of the people in finance, people whom society deems successful – with power and money and status – don’t seem bursting with joy. Unlike so many people I’ve met, who probably didn’t choose such a career path but are so happy and smiley all the time. I met Eleni today, a public-speaking coach, and she just seemed bursting with passion for what she did. So bright and sparkling and encouraging and warm. I wonder what makes these people so joyful from the inside.

Zip. Zoom. Off to read more articles on China’s economy and Microsoft’s war on Google. Yawn. After a while all this information seems so dreary. I’m excited to learn about the way the world works, about huge macroeconomic trends and everything about the world. Its an insidious rabbit hole that consumes my mind and seals off any joy or frivolity. I want to go back to the days when ou3 xiang4 ju4s are the highlight of my day, when I’d look forward to 8 PM every Wednesday to watch Charmed, when I understood what simple pleasures meant. Now there is no more pleasure and no more joy. Just more to learn and more to understand.