Welcome our beloved sister. What is your name sister? Lisa. My sister's name is Lisa and she is our sister. Allah SWT shows in this moment the last Juma Ramadan to welcome our beloved sister to our community. You've always, this is your home. We are your brothers and sisters, your aunties, everyone here sincerely loves you for Allah. So we're going to practice the Shahada together and we'll say it together. Insha'Allah everyone will say it with you because we always renew our faith. Even in our Salah, you'll see us lift our finger and we, you know, and so we'll do it together. Everyone say it together. So we're practicing with you and then we're going to do it one more time. We're going to do it together. Everyone together.  I know we're all fasting but we're not fasting from words. Allah, ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah. One more time so we can practice with you and we'll do it with our sister Lisa, beloved sister Lisa. Ashhadu anna ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah. My beloved sister, are you ready? Insha'Allah they'll say it with me. Ashhadu anna ilaha illallah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah. Muhammadan Rasul, Allah, Allah, everyone takbir, takbir, takbir. And now we'll do it in English. I bear witness that there is no God worthy of worship, worthy of worship. Except Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Everyone, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar. In my part of the world when this happens we do takbiratul eid. So if you guys, eid is coming up so we might as well practice, okay? Ready together? Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, la wa lillahi alhamd. Two more times. Allah, wa lillahi alhamd. One more time. Remember guys, eid is coming. Allah, wa lillahi alhamd. Sister Lisa. And then sister Lisa, in this moment we believe what our Prophet ﷺ said that if there's any sin that you have ever done, it's quite clean. Everybody else, all of us, we have a lot of baggage, we have things that we are accountable for. But you're very clean in the sense that every good deed that you've done, it's with you. Everything else is quite clean. So you're going to have a lot of sisters and brothers to ask you for prayers right now because your prayers are very dear to Allah at this moment, especially on a day like today. So welcome to the community. You're part of this community. You were our sister in community before. Now you're our sister in faith as well. JazakAllah.


I'll go box clips So the speed right now the reason I'm not taking any of this right now look at my speed my speed right now is at 22 Hey, if I'm below 30 and really because I'm on the ones this needs to be over 50 75 The speed is not playable right now. Do you understand that if I if but at the speed if we have an impulse leg Grind do not rewind write that down We're gonna grind to do not rewind. So am I gonna take anything short right now? No, this is the impulse leg up and out. We are grinding. I am not going to be taking shorts We are going to go in the direction of the impulse leg when it is this speed now This thing gets some speed on it. That's different different story. We talked about the racquetball plays, right? Well, I want to be looking to the long side I could toe in the water long right here and there's a nice little target juicy target up in there Or a two-try rule, but on a DCDM is this inside of an accumulations With everybody tell me is this a DC inside of an accumulation zone And yes, that's a gold star. Why would you reverse that? Could I get that for an easy 10 reversal? Yes I'm gonna draw it here. It is No double cross in accumulation zone. Yes, so first thing I want to do reverse it So leg is up in it. I want to take a reversal Same thing here that we had me double top tier. Yep. Oh, that means this whole zone can be So the first one should reverse it. Yes about the second one. Yes, I'll reverse all of them all of them I'll reverse inside of But what direction do I want to go I want to go to the long side the best place We're as of right now gonna be long side. Why cuz MacVe ultimate. There's a cluster play. We could get in here long I'm gonna go ahead and back in long here. I'll put a runner out if she goes target one Nope close so come to a cross no problem easy money made another hundred bucks not too bad Press the like button share subscribe and comment below with your thoughts and what you learn


Ukraine's counter-offensive not to stop for winter, US general. Ukraine will continue offensive operations in the winter period, despite the adverse weather conditions. This was stated by the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown, who, for the first time after being appointed to the post, took part in the meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group this time held in Brussels. According to Brown, he became convinced of this after speaking with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Defense Minister Rustem Umarov. As we listened to President Zelensky and Minister of Defense Umarov, I don't see that their plans regarding continuing the offensive operation into the winter will change, said Brown. The general assured that the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee under his leadership will continue to work on providing Ukraine with the required assistance, noting that the US mission and objectives as well as support for Ukraine remain unchanged. Brown noted that the Russian leadership miscalculated when they decided to invade Ukraine. Russia came up against the unshakable resolve of the free people of Ukraine as they stood against being drawn back into the shackles of oppression. The general expressed his belief that the constant collective support of Ukraine with weapons will enable it to protect its people and regain its territory.


It's one thing to be able to read a Theodore Roosevelt biography about the life and history of the nation's 26th president, but soon you'll be able to read through documents written and received by Roosevelt himself. In the documents themselves, many of the things I'm finding are things I might have read in a biography of Roosevelt, but they're summarized in the biography and in the documents themselves I'm seeing what he actually wrote. Roosevelt donated many of his records to the Library of Congress in 1916. 93 years later, Sharon Kilser is sifting through the largest collection of TR documents available. As project manager of Dickinson State's Theodore Roosevelt Center, she's cataloging these documents so that the public can have access to them too. She says it's not uncommon to find a Roosevelt reference to North Dakota and the Badlands. She recently read a letter from Roosevelt to his good friend Cecil Spring-Rice, then ambassador to Great Britain. Here's the story in short. Roosevelt is commenting on wealth and its benefits and advantages and also its limitations. And he goes on to state that from the standpoint of real pleasure, I should selfishly prefer my old time ranch on the Little Missouri to anything in Newport. Kilser says going through the Library of Congress's TR documents is a unique experience and DSU is just steps away from forming a collaboration with Harvard University to upload and log their collection of TR documents. Harvard houses the second largest TR collection and Kilser says that will make DSU's collection the largest and most comprehensive one in the upper Midwest. She says this is a chance to make DSU the hub of Theodore Roosevelt studies and to open the door for scholars and the public to have the opportunity to experience Roosevelt right at their fingertips. From Dickinson State, I'm Andrew Keller, NBC North Dakota News.


What's up everyone, Takedown here. Welcome back to another video.  In the past, recently I did make a video where I shared some video games that kind of ease your stress. So I decided to take a twist on that and make this video today. Now some of the video games I'm talking about in this video, I did talk about in the last video sharing ones that ease your stress. This one's here, it's kind of in a different situation as to why they might raise your stress. So let's just get started here. Up first is the overcooked games. Whether or not you play on PlayStation, Xbox, or the Switch, these games here can become extremely stressful, especially if you're playing them solo by yourself and not playing with a friend or even a rando. These games here, it's a simple concept game which makes a lot of people interested in purchasing them and trying them out because they are a fun party game. However, there is an evil twist to them because they are extremely, extremely challenging at times, a lot of fun, but can become very stressful. Simple concept of the game is you are going in as a chef, you have to cook, prep, and serve your meals, do the dishes, watch out for fires, and basically run a kitchen in a very animated way.  Now these games here are easy to plan them and easy to go through the levels and try to get three stars on all the levels. However, after a while it is very stressful because you are timed. You have to serve so many dishes to be able to get the three stars in a short amount of time and it can become very, very difficult. Whether or not you're playing the first one or Overcoats 2 or even the newer one, it is stressful for all of them. So keep that in mind if you're going to attempt these games, they are a lot of fun, but it can become very stressful. Next up is a game called Little Nightmares. The first one and the second one, both of them in my opinion are a lot of fun. I absolutely love them. They're one of my favorite games. That's why I continue to purchase them every time that they do have a new game come out. And it's just you are the small little creature and you go among all these monsters in this big atmosphere and it's just a lot of fun, kind of open worlds but very basic of what you have to do. What is stressful is sometimes you'll hit the button or you'll do what you're supposed to do but your character, it'll glitch or the mechanics aren't 100% so you'll get caught by the bad guy, the monsters and get eaten or something and you have to start over from your last checkpoint. So it can become very stressful especially whenever you're repeating, repeating, repeating steps and even checking your walkthroughs. A lot of times they might just happen to hit a button at a perfect time and time it right. It gets in the next spot so it's not something that they specifically did different than you to be able to advance but even watching a walkthrough you still might struggle because it's not really something that can be addressed and mentioned of how you passed the next level. So it is something that's does after a while take a toll on you and it is stressful so it's another one that I can only play for a limited time. Next up we have Crash Bandicoot, one of the most iconic PlayStation games and again it is a lot of fun, highly recommend it but some of the time you do have to press the button at a specific time to make it perfect, to make your jump perfect and actually count.  So even if you time it right sometimes it's a little delay and that's what can become stressful. You know you pressed it at the right time, you know you should have cleared that jump but for whatever reason it did not happen and you did not clear the jump. That is what is stressful at times but it is still a blast to play these games. Next up is Apex Legends. This is actually one of the games that I included in the last video because it is fun just to relax, sit and play this game but what is stressful is whenever you have terrible teammates and you are going and number one what is stressful is whenever they're stealing all of your loot but number two is whenever they're terrible and an enemy, you guys do come in contact with an enemy and they just run. This is something Jack used to do all the time and at times still does which is very stressful because I'll be engaging with an enemy, he'll be running the other direction. So it can become stressful in different situations but also a lot of fun in other situations with this game which is why I'm including it in this video and in the last video as well. Next up is going to be Grand Theft Auto Online. This is one of my favorite games and honestly I've been burnt out on this game in the past. I did pick it up recently again but I've recently stopped playing it once again just because it's not one of those games that I like to play by myself solo. I'd rather play with my friend Jack but he doesn't get on as much as he used to. So this game here I try to avoid now and a lot of times whenever I go on I'm trying to run either my MC business, my agency business or any of my other businesses that I have on GTA Online and one of the struggles is and what makes it stressful is whenever you get in a lobby with a lot of people or even not too many people but there is a lot of kids that just want to go and destroy everything you are doing or just try to kill everybody with a lot of the rocket cars and different things like that that is becoming stressful and especially if you're trying to get on to do any of that stuff and you're trying to find a session that has nobody in it or very limited people in it and you might have to try to keep finding a new session, finding a new session, finding a new session and it might literally take an hour I think the longest it took me to find a session that had nobody in it was an hour and that's just me repeatedly hitting the button to find a new session waiting for it to load in finding out there's a lot of people and then hitting the button again so it can become very stressful the longer it takes for you to find the session especially if you're getting killed over and over again. And the last game we're going to be talking about in this video is a game that I haven't played in quite some time because it was stressful and that is Battlefield 2042 this game here is a game that I absolutely loved the previous two Battlefield games which is why whenever this game was released shortly thereafter whenever it was on sale I did purchase it and I kind of regret it now this one here they took the concept of just having it an online game but you couldn't at the time check your stats which is stressful because stats matter to me and that's how I improve if I see my stats or see my stats a certain way I know what to work on no idea what to work on it's just a matter of going online and playing and the last time that I played I couldn't even get a match through because the servers were just extremely glitchy the weapons just were not firing correctly or working properly and any of my other tech was just not working I loved the idea of the maps being larger but in a way they're a little bit too large and it's not how Battlefield used to be I get the concept of things are changing and it's more futuristic except it's just not the same so with it glitching and not being able to see your stats and everything to me it was extremely stressful game to the point that I honestly stopped playing it now hopefully they are going to have more and more updates in the future and I think in a couple months I might try to attempt to pick it back up because I absolutely loved Battlefield back in the previous two games love them I played them a ton even platinum to battlefield five which was extremely difficult one of the hardest Platinum's to do but it was a lot of fun so hopefully I will pick this game back up but this is my list of the most stressful video games that you can play of course there's a lot more horror games and other things like that those I wanted to kind of leave out because horror games of them own they are stressful because there's a lot of jump scares and things like that that's naturally razor stress but these games here ones that are kind of easy but different scenarios can become stressful and that's what I wanted to include in this video so hope you guys enjoyed this video leave this here comment down below other stressful video games and I'll see you guys in the next one peace


Hello, beautiful souls. This is Ona, and today's topic is twin flames, or more specifically twin flame relationships that feel super, super painful. And if you can resonate with that, then stick with me. I'm going to share my understanding of what twin flames are, what's going on when you have a painful twin flame relationship, and some practical things that you can do to work through this situation and regain more peace in your heart. I had a subscriber reach out to me and tell me about this twin flame connection that this person has, and just basically asking for help, okay? So I'm just going to read to you what this person wrote, and I could certainly relate to it. I think maybe a lot of us can, and then we'll go on from there. So they said, I'm having a twin soul connection problem. Mind, heart, passion were attached everywhere. I literally saw a fine web of silvery strings from my mind, my heart, my everything. They say, I saw our intertwining, interlocking fingers, and we deeply desired to be in sacred spiritual and physical sexual union. It was a soul dance. Oh, so precious. We've been together like that once, only spiritually, and that was after all real life communication stopped. But the love runs so deep. I don't know how or if I should cut what causes so much pain, but what is teaching me so much and what is so obviously divine. We talk telepathically soul to soul, heart to heart via art and music, but she won't talk to me for real. The sexual pull came first, so maybe that's what needs to be cut or transformed so that she and I can have a pure mutually beneficial spiritual connection. What should I do and more precisely how, what is going on? And if that's you, I feel the pain. I have experienced a very similar kind of thing. And so here's what I'd like to share. First of all, let's talk a little bit about twin flame energies and what they are. So I'm just going to kind of tell you like my conception of it. First of all, there's some numerology there, which I'll get into in a little bit. And I'm also, you believe what you want to about twin flames? Okay, I'm here to give kind of practical ground level view of the situation of the advice.  My understanding of it here is that the twin flame is actually, it's not so much a person, it's more of an energy, right? And to me, twin flame energy is this energy of masculine feminine coming together. It's this energy of creation, right? Embodied. And first and foremost, it happens inside. This twin flame union happens within yourself. Every one of us has divine masculine and divine feminine within us, okay? And these tend to not work very harmoniously together, okay? So part of the big work of awakening is to learn to identify the masculine, the divine masculine, the divine feminine discern what is actually divine in your masculine and feminine and what's not, right? Because they can have a dark expression as well as a light expression. Then once you've identified or discerned where the actual divinity is in your masculine and feminine, to bring those two energies together and have them work harmoniously, okay? It's a big, big, big work, right? And this to me is first and foremost, anybody who's seeking or believes that they're in any kind of a twin flame union, this is the first work. This is the first work to have that union, reunite those two energies within yourself, okay? So the twin flame energy is that. It's that unified and therefore it also connects with this Christos energy, right? Which is this whole unified self, unifying your lower ego with your higher self, unifying yourself with the divine and ultimately bringing that down into an embodied unification, uniting heaven and earth together in a physically embodied way. So notice these levels. We do that first for our own selves, okay? So we bring the masculine feminine together within ourselves for the purpose of creating something wonderful, right? That's our inner purpose. Once we've achieved a certain level of that masculine feminine divine unification within, then we are able to come into union with another individual who has also attained that kind of union. And out of that comes a lot of creative combined shared purpose, right? For creating more beauty, more joy, more love, more harmony on the earth, right? Embodied. This happens on a spiritual level. It can also happen on a material level, at least in part relating to the financial or material ends of things, right? So a lot of us are here to overcome poverty consciousness. This twin flame mean that you have to find that one person. Now here's where I, my understanding of it really differs from a lot of people. And if this doesn't drive with you, then you're free to not listen. But my feeling is it's all, it's allegorical. And I don't personally believe that there is a particular individual that you're going to connect with that's going to be your, your other half. I just feel like you find that within yourself. Each person finds that within themselves. And when you're ready, you connect with somebody else who already has. Also found that. And then you can both resonate with that in a partnership that you can have a twin flame partnership. So does that mean you can have multiple twin flames? Personally, yes, I think so. Because again, it's the creative potential, right? And what I think is happening when you're feeling that intense twin flame connection, and the other person doesn't want to have anything to do with you. Okay, there's a couple possibilities. One, they could be feeling it too and afraid of it. Okay, there's another possibility that, okay, you probably do have a lot of creative potential together. But for whatever reason, that person is not feeling they're not ready for that, they're not ready for that with you, or maybe you're not ready for that relationship. If you're in basketball and feminine together are not unified and or theirs aren't, there's going to be disconnect somehow. And you may have an intense sexual connection that may involve both of you or one of you. Okay, because the sacral chakra is all tied up in this. A twin flame relationship can be consummated, not just sexually, but through spiritual union through creative work, right? And it doesn't always have to be sexual. The masculine and feminine, of course, is there for creation.  That's an incredibly strong biophysical drive, right, that can get really triggered when you sense the creative potential between yourself and another person. Okay, and especially if it's this kind of twin flame sort of potential. And and so there's this tendency to fixate, right? There's this idea out there that twin flame energy is this intense life changing, earth shattering and cosmic energy. And so a couple of things can happen. One, you know, we can have that intense feeling that comes in. And then sometimes we can fixate on that person, especially if we believe that that person is or may be a twin flame in our minds. Because remember, we are amazing creators, right? And what you think you will create. And if you're starting to think in terms of that, and I'm not saying not to, but if your mind has been fixating on that person and thinking about them in terms of twin flame, you're going to start creating all these amazing, amazing experiences that will be created because of the power of your own creative. You know, remember everything, everything that you experience is a mirror of what's going on with within you. And that includes twin flame stuff. Okay. So I'm not here to discredit anybody's experiences. Okay. I think these experiences are as real as anything else, but you have to really, really understand that the energy has to be within yourself first and that the other person may or may not feel the same thing. You've got to decide, you know, is this going to be something that you just hold onto and live with? And how is it affecting your actual life? Here's one thing to keep in mind. First of all, that sexual drive connected with the falling in love is a very, very potent energy. And historically, it's considered a dangerous energy. If you look at, say, the archetype of Cupid, you know, we think of Cupid as this cute little cherub, right, that shows up on Valentine's, but Cupid actually, if you look back in ancient Greek myths was not, was kind of nasty. And he'd go and shoot arrows into people for fun to have them fall in love. And they'd fall ahead over heels in love and fall into all sorts of terrible situations because of it.   This is throughout history. You hear about this and they used to talk about love spells, okay? There really is such a thing. There's a love spell. And this could be triggered by past life relationships with certain people. It could be triggered by all sorts of things. But keep in mind that one thing that can happen is you can literally fall under a spell and fall head over heels in love with a particular person. Yes, there may be twin flame potential there between you, but if that other person won't talk to you, won't acknowledge you, has no clue that you're feeling this and doesn't feel it on their end, you know, consider the possibility that there is something like that happening, right? And then the other thing is that, you know, there are varying degrees of readiness and this is a free will planet. So sometimes a certain person will progress faster than another person, right? Which is why I don't believe that there's a particular twin flame that you're supposed to connect with. I believe that it's up to us within to balance those energies. And when we're ready, just like in nature, when a female animal comes into heat and she's ready, she'll attract the right mates. You will attract the mates to her, right? Or when the male animal is ready, he will know and sense where the females are, but it's not going to happen until he's ready or until she's ready. This is the way of nature. Sometimes these may be legitimate, like potential, the spiritual flesh romantic partners. Other times it may not be a good fit at all, right? And that it may just be your feeling this. And so I want to get down to the practical. So first of all, it comes down to self love. Part of balancing these energies within yourself is coming to a place of divine love for yourself. And especially working with that divine mother and feeling that unconditional love, both from divine mother and divine father, and feeling your worthiness, because honestly, a real twin flame relationship is not painful. Once you get to this point of balance and harmony, that's what it's about. It's about balance and harmony and love and pleasure and joy and experiencing heaven on earth, right? This is what it's about. If you're feeling intense pain, that's not a real twin flame, feeling. Think of it this way. There's this phenomenon of falling in love, and that's a natural thing. Nature does that so that we come together, right? Animals have to feel that incredible, intense attraction because otherwise they might just either ignore each other or eat each other, right? A lot of times. So it's built into the physiological experience of love. So sometimes when we first meet somebody, it feels like we're on this roller coaster, right? And it can be intensely pleasurable to be on that love roller coaster. It's supposed to be. But if you think about being on a roller coaster, it's really fun for the few minutes that you're on the roller coaster, but then you get off, right? So there's this thrill. It's adrenaline pumping and it's thrilling. But imagine if you were stuck on that roller coaster for a year, for three years, for five years, right? It would be intensely painful and horrible. And that's what happens in these relationships. When you have one that works, you settle into this beautiful, more like a waltz, ballroom waltz where it's smooth and it's gentle and it's harmonious and it's beautiful, right? And it feels easy, okay? And so if you don't settle into this beautiful feeling of waltz, of dance, of smooth, beautiful, harmonious dance, and it still feels like a roller coaster after, you know, after six months, after a year, after five years, it's time to reconsider this relationship.  And so what this is, is the shadow side, right? Of romantic love, which is narcissistic romantic love, right? The shadow side of this, the Christ is narcissism. And we go into these, you know, codependent or whatever relationships. And that doesn't mean that the other person is a narcissist, it just means that we're kind of experiencing this codependency where you're feeling incredibly entangled and attached to this person and you can't let go. And so that, if you're just feeling stuck in this kind of thing, that's what's happening. And so the first thing to do is to actually acknowledge this is a painful relationship. This is really, I'm not having fun anymore. And to also acknowledge, I can't let go of this. And so the first thing is to be willing, to be willing to let go. And even that, that may just be your first step is to learn to love yourself enough to be willing to even attempt the work at letting go. Okay?  It feels divine. And there's a divine part of it that's, that is divine, right? But it's gotten hijacked somehow, right?  That's what you're here for. And what can happen when you get sucked into these relationships, it sucks away at our life force energy. It's diverting our life force energy, our creative energy into fretting about the twin flame relationship. Okay? You have to make that decision. Is this something that you want? Is this what you want to be putting your energy into? Or would you prefer to bring your energy back, come back into yourself, find that wholeness within yourself, find that love, that peace, that joy within yourself, legitimate twin flame unions, they can be, you know, with a flesh and blood person, they can actually also happen on the spiritual, right? So the first thing is to find that place of self love and really being, you know, I'm fine with myself. I love myself. And even if I never have a partner, I'm wonderful and I'm happy. Okay? That's where you want to be. But the steps to that can be really long. Okay? First step to that is to be willing to be happy, to be willing to be happy and to be willing to let go of any relationship that is standing in the way of you being happy. Then it's going to be cord cutting and learning to release. And at the same time, learning to love oneself unconditionally and learning to work with those masculine, feminine energies and harmonize them. If you're experiencing something like this, big hugs because it's not easy, but one thing to keep in mind is that whenever we're really committed to ascending to to improving ourselves, right, it's life is going to test us. And if you are really feeling this twin flame thing, that means that you have this capability to have that twin flame relationship. You wouldn't have the desire for it if it wasn't within your ability to have that kind of relationship. Okay? So if that's the kind of relationship that you really, really want, a relationship that is wonderful and beautiful and sweet and mutually, you know, we're mutually loving, you can have that. You really can and you totally deserve it. But you've got to be willing to see the truth because a lot of times you're working through this and it's not necessarily going to beat that person. You've got to be willing to withdraw your fixation on a particular individual and really work on the energy itself. Sometimes it can be really helpful to work with people and there are so many practitioners out there that can help with this. I do offer work like this, but your heart will guide you to the right person. Once you're willing, then things are going to start to fall into place to bring you in contact with the right people, to help you with the right spirit guides, to help you with the right situations, all that stuff, the right knowledge, anything that you need is going to come forward, but you've got to be willing. You've got to ask for help. Okay. Many, many blessings to you. Remember that you were born to be free.


Welcome to the After Hours podcast, hosted by Harry Haas and James Friedlender, presented by My Investing Club. What's going on guys? We're back with another episode of the After Hours podcast. Today, we have Chris, who is a long-time MIC member. So Chris, thank you for coming on, man. This has been a long time coming, I feel like. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's been quite a while over a year since I joined. Yeah. Been away.  Like I feel like all the members here, like I've known them for like three, five years or something like that, but it's really only been like a year plus. Bizarre. Should I spend so much time here? Yeah, time has stood still. I know, it's not getting any better, but so we'll start off like traditional fashion. So how did you get into trading? How did you find MIC? Kind of give us a little insight into your journey. OK, well, long story, I'll try to cut it down significantly, but was in college, I guess I'm around about age. So yeah, was in college late 90s.  I worked on a yacht and a friend of mine was a broker. That one that owned the boat was a broker. And he just talked about, you know, the money and all that stuff. And that's what perks your ears up. And then I was in college in Charleston, South Carolina. And I had a friend whose father was a commentator on CBS News about the markets and, you know, talked about it. And then fast forward, I had a degree in accounting and was like, all right, I want to go for the big money. So applied to a number of jobs, a number of firms. And it was funny, I actually got a job at that guy's firm. And then got laid off in the tech crash in 2000, I believe. And then got a job as a clerk on the American Stock Exchange in 2001, April of 2001. And if you watch Wall Street Warriors, the first couple of episodes, that guy that works on the Amix, you could see my former booth over his shoulder. Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. So I was, I was, I say trading options, but I was just executing options. You know, we would find, have a buyer, try to find a seller, et cetera. Yeah. And that was 2001. And that American Stock Exchange is three blocks from the World Trade Center. And I would, every day I would leave, we had a queue in the triple queue pit. We had a booth and I would just leave from the door, from the back door of the Amix, which is on Greenwich Street every day. And normally I would turn right to go to the Trade Center to go home. But on that morning, I called my parents and I'm like, all right, I'm going to leave. They closed the exchange. And that was at 10 o'clock. And I turned left instead of right. And that's when the building started to come down.  And I hid in number two, Rector Street. If you look on a Google map, you'll see Rector Street and ran in that building because a guy was behind me screaming at the top of his lungs to get in a building, get in a building and that's what I did. But I don't want to get into that because I don't want to end up crying, full-body crying on the floor. Jesus, dude, that is a story and a half. Yeah. It was obviously 2001, so we're talking 20 years ago. That's crazy. Yeah, basically, yeah. It seems like yesterday, but seems 20 years ago seems so long, far away. Yeah. Now did you, when all that happened, I don't want to dwell on it, but all that happened to you. Did you kind of think like, I need to do something else in my life? Like I know obviously it had nothing to do with like markets and stuff, but were you just kind of like all freaked out?    We were off for three weeks because the building had structural damage.  I went back October one and there was a fine sheen of dust all over everything. So weird. I had sinus headaches every day for months just cause, yeah, just all the dust and the smell was horrible. The layers of dust or concrete in the windowsills was probably a foot high. That's great. So they closed the market for more than a, it was one day, they closed it, right? I think it was two or three because that was the first time the market was closed four days in a row. Oh wow. With weekends, but I think they closed it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or something like that, but. Yeah, geez.  Am I going to blow up in a subway tunnel or whatever, you know, that's the failure. So I quit and then I became a high school guidance counselor and you know, you don't make a whole lot of money. I wasn't looking to maybe be a millionaire but you just want to help people and I guess that's the educator at heart. Yeah, my mom does well right now. Yeah, it's, so I was a typical buy and hold investor and you know, just didn't trade, didn't scalp, didn't do anything. So I worked for four years in the United States as a counselor and then I got a great opportunity to be a counselor in Japan at an international school. And that's what I did for, I did three years in Japan and then three years in Shanghai and loved it, achieved so many dreams and then did things I never dreamed I'd ever do but still kind of was paying off debt mostly cause you get into education and it costs money. So it sucked to be able to have to do that. But it was great. Did you still have the itch? Did you still have like the desire to like be involved in the markets or was that kind of like on the back burner? No, I still had a little desire.  I bought it, I remember when I was interning I told the kid to short Fannie Mae at 70 bucks in 2004. Oh geez. And I was like, they were playing that stock market game in the class and I was the guest speaker most days and I just was like, why the hell didn't I put that trade on on my own? But you know, whatever. And then I put it stock crashed to 35 cents or something like that. And I bought it at 35 cents and then sold off at, I don't know, a couple bucks. So yeah, but that's kind of like, I wasn't in it at all. So fast forward to 2015 and I got burnt in Asia, you know, being a counselor and, you know the parents are hardcore. So I got, I got burned out. They go a hundred miles an hour in China and I always had a desire to work on boats. So went back to school for a graduate degree and a Coast Guard license to work on boats. But while I was doing that, I just was like, all right, I'll just trade options. I did it before and I'll do it again just to make extra money. And that was a bad, you know, move. So, you know, I got chopped up and timed to Cade and you know, I made great money in the COVID crash. Cause I was, you know, buying puts on the market. I was, this market's gonna crash eventually and I've thought so since 2016, but until that happens, you're gonna be wrong on your options plays. But, so yeah, I got chopped up but then I made great money in the COVID crash. But, you know, overall, I probably lost money trading those options. And 2019, I was working in Florida and I came across, you know, in my Seon Instagram, I guess. And I'm like, I'm very, you know, education, I'm an educator at heart and I love helping people, but I also, my dad was a detective. So I have that kind of scammy detector and you know, you follow it and you're like, all right, we'll see what this guy says. And okay, you're lured in by obviously the PNLs and that's great.  So, you know, but you watch it and you see it. And then I tested the waters and I joined monthly in what, in June, 2020. But then I was under PDT in that account because, you know, you have separate accounts and I'm, yeah, in my investing. And I went to Vietnam during COVID, I was like, I'm not getting on a boat, that's crazy. Because they're holding people on boats for months and months at a time and I'm like, no way. Yeah.  I was like, all right, I'll take it. I don't care. I've done dumber things in the past. So it was great. I was up at 9.30 at night playing the markets or just watching at least at night. But I was still under PDT. So I was really restricted and that just killed me. And so now I came home from Vietnam, I wasn't going to go back because cases spiked astronomically over the summer.  And I was like, I am not going back there. If I need to get home, I will not be able to get home. So, came back and got on a boat and that's what I do now. I work on a dry bulk cargo ship in the Great Lakes. So we move, you know, coal, iron ore, gravel, sand, concrete, rocks, things like that. And it pays well. And so that's getting me over PDT, but now I have two and a half months off because of ice and winter. And I work a month on month off schedule. So when I'm working off, so here we are. So where's your trading at now? Like, so I guess now that you've been in MIC for like around a year, you said, and what are you, what are you doing now? What are kind of strategies? Are you looking at your selling options? Are you shorting by anything like that? Kind of give us that rundown. In the trade zero account, I am not doing options at all. I'm doing small options plays in my other account, like I'm shorting arc with puts and that's working out nicely because tech is going to lead this crash. But yeah, I'm a short bias trader. So James, I love your videos because they're nice and short and sweet. And I think I'm just, you know, how they give that iceberg analogy where they only see 10% of the iceberg above the waterline and then the 90%. I think I'm right near the waterline because I'm just like yesterday, NXTD and Bau mentioned it. And I'm like, oh, I should short it pre-market at, was it 712 and I didn't take it because I'm trying to follow the rules of starting small.  So I learned that. Yeah. So it's more along the lines of like, I got to follow what you guys tell me. And, you know, there's this notion that like just because I'm older doesn't mean I shouldn't follow the younger guys' rules and that have done this much longer to scalping game much longer than I have. So that's the ego talking. So I got to put that aside. And I think the biggest thing for me is stock selection. I'm trying to hit everything and just build that account to get over PDT-1 and then build it even more. So I was selling credit spreads in Vietnam and I was trying to long some things and, you know, I only had three trades a week. So I was just like, I screwed, I'll just take a small. So I was taking small paper cuts. So that's my problem these days. It's like, what's the best plays? And I got to stick to the watch list and... Yeah, I'm helping, like I mentioned, I'm helping this guy build his account now. And like he's not an MIC, he just watches for YouTube videos and he's eventually going to join. I think it'll be a cool, he'll be someone I really want to get me and Harry to interview. But something that I've been working on with him is when it comes to like short, cause you're talking about shorting small caps and stuff. And for him, I'm really just like hammering this notion you basically have to find the weakest stock of the day. And like I tell him, like he starts in a little bit pre-market sometimes. I just tell him, man, like you are looking as a new trader trying to build their account, in my honest opinion, like you really never want to be looking at stocks that are like moving like crazy. Cause those are the ones that to be, I don't know many guys that can't nail the hot check without taking a few paper cuts. It's like very rare, right? Like you look at guys like Bear, Tom and all of us, we all take like little paper cuts in the way up usually when Harry's squeezing our S's out. So it's like, it's part of it. So you're basically looking for those like weak stocks and how I've kind of helped him grow his accounts like kind of quickly cause he's getting pretty fast with it, which is awesome. It's just like he really does kind of go into it with a consistent risk. And he gets bigger and bigger as the stock is breaking down. He's a scalper at heart. Like he is just trading line to line. He's not trying to fade the stock all day. He's not trying to hold on for hours. It really is just, he gets in as it's breaking down. He's adding, but he's always keeping his risk like very, very similar.  So it really is just keeping that like mindset of like, all right, I need to find the right stock with the right range. And that kind of gives me the ability to add while respecting like a very small, like respectable risk level. And I think that's tough. And Harry, I guess you never really have to do it because you're in Canada, right? So and you're shorting you. I've never had to deal. The only good thing about Canada is that I've never had to deal with any type of PDT restriction or anything like that because we just don't have it here. But I guess, as far as like my question for Chris, I'd say like, where do you find your biggest losses have been coming from? Like if you looked at like your last year trading and you didn't look at the options or like the, you know, credit swaps or like whatever you were doing and you just focused on your small cap trading and you said to yourself like, where are your biggest losses coming from? Like, where do you think that your biggest losses have came from? It's very similar to what I would try with options back, you know, back in 2016 or 17. I'm like, I think it's gonna do this. So I put on an options position and it doesn't work out. It's the same thing with the scalping. It's like, oh, I think the stock, it's at a line. So I think I'm gonna go long or short or whatever it is and it doesn't work out. So it's not going according to a watch list which I should just really do. And then I have that borrow and I'm like, I gotta use it, gotta use it or I have three trades. I gotta use them. It's like, no, you know. You think it's harder coming from that type of like New York Stock Exchange background because like you have this like image of your mind of like the person you're supposed to be, like where you're like, oh, well, I worked at a stock exchange. So I should be a lot better than I am. Like, do you ever kind of get that feeling in your head? Yeah, yeah. And that was, I think that has to do with ego and hubris. It's like, oh, I worked on the exchange and I seen the chaos of 2001 markets crashing and I'm working on a stock exchange. You know, it's like the closest thing to war I've ever been because it was absolutely crazy. Yeah. It's like, oh, I was working four orders and each of those orders was like a $17 million order. It's like, I can do this. And it's like, mm, it's different when you. Yeah, exactly. And I think that like also like for someone like you because I know that I would feel the same way where I'm like, oh, I fucking, I've executed millions of dollars worth of trades. Like I can just kind of step into this. Like I got this, like, you know, and you kind of have that. And it's just, I think normal human nature where, you know, like most people would approach trading and be like, like for like a lot of people like get into trading and are like, oh, this is easy. But when you have kind of had that type of background that you have, you know, it's, for me anyway, I think that it would be a lot harder for me to be wrong because like, because you're wrong and you're like, I should be right. I should be right. I should be right. Because, you know, you have this all kind of experience. But I think with a lot of kind of like brokers and stuff like that, because my uncle used to be a stock broker and my uncle told me like, oh, you'll never be as good as me. You'll never be as good as me. You'll never be this. You'll never be that.   And then he'd be telling me, oh, well, you'll never be as good as me. You'll never be as good as me or this or that. But when I got older and I found out what he did, I was like, well, you're only executing trades on behalf of clients. You're not actually making the trades yourself, right? Whereas, you know, as an individual retail trader, you have to kind of like come up with those ideas and those decisions yourself.  And so I think that was where me and my uncle got wrong because or didn't get along because as I started making money and getting better and getting better, I think there was a lot of jealousy between my uncle and this day, Bill does not fucking, he'll never understand it. Maybe three years ago, he's my mom's brother and this weird dynamic where, you know, the guy just had a really hard time seeing me become successful. And like still, like if he asked me to learn, like I would help him, like even just because I'm a nice guy, but like he never would ask to learn or he'd never asked for help because, you know, he's a successful broker wherever, you know? And I think that that is also kind of, you know, just your ego can get in the way of a lot of things and really kind of harm your growth, you know? Yeah. I think ego and like market-wise too, sorry, I just want to say as well as we're on this topic is like, I have a few friends who trade in like hedge funds and like they trade like obviously like crazy high beta names and like they just manage like one of them works for a huge huge hedge fund and him himself in his basket has like 500 million or something like that, whatever.  And I'm like, yeah, they do. I'm like, you don't understand, like yes they do. It's like, and he's like, no, cause like he says like he's tried it and like he can't do it. And he's, I think it's like an ego thing there. He's just like, he couldn't do it. So it's not possible. Whereas like, you know, like for me, like I see what he does, but like, I think it is all ego because I'm the opposite.  But every, when I see people making money and other things, I'm interested to learn how they're doing it. And like, I'm very curious, but like, if you have that ego that it's not possible, and I find the people who have the ego, usually the people that failed at it, cause they just can't figure it out.   And it's like, I think 99% of people could probably be more successful at this. If they could just focus on the right things and stop trying to reinvent the wheel.    You're not going to find this like secret little like fading stock that's going to go all day. And it's just, it's funny. If ego is like the biggest killer, I think, and I think that's why most people can't do this. But like with, with Harry's story, it's like the student became the teacher and then it's like somebody can't do that. And I mean, that's why I think I'm a, I'm a, I love it one because I'm a, I'm an educator at heart and I love helping people, but as an educator, you're also willing to learn. And look at me, I went back to school at basically 40 years old for a graduate degree, but I'm taking orders from a 22 year old kid on the bridge of a ship sometimes. And he knows more than me. And I don't think of that as a bad thing. I'm learning. I'm trying to learn from anybody I can. Yeah. So I really think that that's the right mindset like that you have because there are so many guys who are like, like who sometimes won't take calls with James or me just because they're like, oh, well, you know, like I'm, I'm this age. So, you know, I've already got life experience or I've already got this much experience. And which is true, you probably do have more life experience than me because you are 20 years older. But as far as market experience from some guys, like, you know, that's where you're lacking. And you really, you want to gain some knowledge from other people with market experience, right? Rather than have that kind of outlook of, you know, oh, well, I've lived more years than you on this earth. So that means I have to know more about the stocks than you, right? But that's not always necessarily true, you know? I wouldn't go up to a doctor and be like, well, I'm older than you. So I know how to do open heart surgery or something like that, you know? It's just, it's wild.  It doesn't care about your age. It doesn't care about your race. It doesn't care about anything. Oh, yeah. It really is just like experience-based.  And it's like, I mean, Alex when he started was 19.  Now he doesn't make, it doesn't make a difference, you know? And it's just, it's funny. I think, I think unfortunately, like the market doesn't really account for your age because it just, it just all comes down to experience in trading. Actually being in the market, seeing things you're seeing. The only advantage I could see to being older sometimes is that you might have a different stance on money. You might understand how far it really goes. But then on the flip side, when you're younger, you can be a little bit more aggressive. So it's like, there is that inner balance of like finding what really, how it works for you and like where you're at.  And because I'm older, because I'm younger, I need to do this, that and the other thing. Well, that was the thing with ego. I, you know, told that kid in 2004 to put on that Fannie Mae trade, but the market, and I knew the market was gonna crash. And that's me just saying, I knew that it was gonna crash as the ego right there, but it eventually did. I just had an educated guess, I think, but and that was what hurt me back in 2016. I was right about that. I will be right about the market crashing, but will it crash in that timeframe that I think it will crash? It could, it could not. And that's what will chop me up. And, but people take that as like, you know, you're wrong. Yeah, I'm wrong, you know, in that time. And I have to admit that to myself. You were wrong and you lost money. Yeah. And I think that like, as far as like the, like when you, when you look at it, like everyone looks at all these small cap stocks and they're like, they eventually have to go to zero, which is completely true. But then it becomes the timing. And so if you can master that kind of timing in your trading to say, I know that this is going to go down, but I don't want an average at the bottom of the range. Or, you know, if the majority, and I say this to most people, like if your average as a short seller is near the top of the range and you expect the stock to go to the bottom of the range again, then you know, probably eight times out of 10, you know, you're going to have a good shot at this, you know, because most small caps that I've seen don't really break out of that pre-market high range and keep going higher. And obviously if you break out of that range, then you want to stop out because you're wrong, but you know, the edge for a lot of short sellers that I've found has been just shorting near the top of that range and, you know, and then maybe adding when it confirms and then that's your trade and that can work out for a lot of people. And I think also that, you know, I've talked to a lot of people in, you know, MIC and, you know, just generally in the trading community. And the theme that I've found really around a lot of like winners is that if you look at people like Alex and Bao or like even like me and James, like the thing that like when we interview Alex and like I always go back on interviews and I always kind of like to re-watch them and like pick up like little things because like sometimes when you're interviewing someone like you don't always pick it up because, you know, you're on camera or whatever. So you want to re-watch how you've done and stuff like that. And the thing that I've really seen about Alex is that when you listen to Alex or Bao talk, you know, Alex is always going to say, well, I'm not the best trader.  He deeply believes that. He deeply feels that he's not the best trader in his heart, you know? He says every single day, well, I'm not the best trader.  Bao's like, I'm not the best trader.  He's just, you know, looking for this. But I know that he actually believes that he's not the best trader.  Or this will do better than me. He believes in his heart that he's not the best. And I think as far as that goes, is that like winners will do, you know, a lot of work compared to the average trader or the average 90% grouping and say, well, that's not enough and actually believe that, you know, a normal person will look at them and say, well, that's more than enough. You know, you've worked all day. Like, what are you talking about? To them, it's not, it's never going to be enough, you know? And they're never going to be the best trader.  And I said, well, how did you do? And she's like, well, I think I failed, you know? I didn't think I did well.  I've helped you go over this stuff. I've written flashcards. You've gotten everything right. And she's like, no, I don't think I did well. And the test will come out and it's like 98. And she's actually surprised, you know?  And they really humble themselves and they really kind of take time to work and kind of learn and, you know, they're listening to the people who are 20 and they're working hard just like that. And I think that is a key ingredient to win whereas a lot of people come in and just say, oh, it's easy, like I'll be able to do this or I'll be able to do that or I'll be able to do this. And, you know, with a lot of ego and I think that is probably the biggest harm as far as trading, that's probably the biggest harm to people, you know? Yeah. I heard a good story the other day, you know, you talk about work and that's what I really take from the group, the MIC group.   But it's just so educational and you're, and you just preach, put in the work. And I heard a good story the other day on a podcast. You know, Betty Crocker, they came up with the instant cake or whatever, instant something and their sales, their sales were nothing and they're like, why? It's so easy, you know? But then they went to a psychologist or something and the guy was like, you've made it too easy. People wanna feel like they've accomplished something when they make a meal. So take out one ingredient. They took out an egg, like you have to go to the store and buy the egg to add to that cake mix and then sales increased. And it was just like, yeah, like, I'm gonna feel, when I do this trading thing and I get better and I get above the waterline, I'm gonna feel so much better because I put in the work and that has to do with anything in life and that's, you've seen it as, you know, things become, have become easier in time in history, you know, but you're still gonna have to put in the work and I'm gonna feel better because I did that Coast Guard test and I passed that and I'm only 20% of the people that passed the first time. I feel great about that. But people don't understand that. And then like on another topic, like back to the hubris part of it, I have a contrarian nature and I just, you know, I just think that like Kosh and I go back and forth on Instagram. I don't know if he knows it's me, but we agree on Bitcoin, but we disagree on Tesla.  And I just have to maybe say, all right, I was wrong and get out of that position that, cause my thesis didn't play out. I'll tell you something like, I think, like what you said about the easiness, I think it was very true and I think people see MIC and they want there to be something more to it. I've like, I've traded with Alex on the phone during my first red days and stuff. And like, dude, like, I mean, literally if you look at his chart, it's like, there's VWAP and that's it, right? It's just like his, everything is so simple and it's so easy. The problem is it's the human, it's the operator is just they can't admit defeat. And I think it took me like, I think I'm honestly like, even though I've done well for a while, but like, I think I'm really just realizing this a lot more now is just like, especially when you try to size up like sizing itself isn't necessarily difficult. If you can just accept when you're wrong because you can technically have huge size on a trade like tons and tons of size, as long as you can accept when it's time to get out, but it's for some reason, I've just over the years and this isn't everything in life. This is like trading, this is like business, everything. It's really hard for people to just hear, you're wrong, it's time to get out.  And I don't know what it is, man, but it's like that's something that's kept in my head a lot recently. It's just that they would just accept you're wrong. It's okay. Like you take a, you're using 5,000 shares and you take a $500 loss, which is small compared to that.  You just made money back. Like it's just for whatever reason, it's like people, they lose and they shut down and then they can't just get their mind out of it. And that's what blows my mind. It's like, I mean, Alex was down, what was that? There was that one day he was down like 60K but he said he was all in composure and he's just like, he's like, I know the opportunity is still coming. You know, it was like a big, big day set up and everything. And then he ended up making like under an 82K like on that next trade, right? And it's like, it's just a weird mind thing. And I think all, a lot of guys I talk to like on calls and DMs just like, they short a VWAP rejection and they don't stop out and they get pissed. They're like, wait, it didn't work but I stopped out at high of day. I'm like, why didn't you stop out when the VWAP rejection didn't work? When your line failed to work and confirm why didn't you stop out? And I, again, I fell victim to that for years where I just would like kind of like, I got billed out a lot, especially in like the last market cycle like I'd short a line and like, it would kind of go against me but I had size left and I'm like, all right, well, I'm just gonna add when it curves.  And I just had to humble myself, you know? I think like the biggest thing that, the biggest thing that kind of opened my eyes was that, okay, let's say your idea is you think that it's gonna be a high day clear out, which some of them clear out, some of them don't, right? You know, that's just what happens. The stock goes above high day. Sometimes they stop out all the shorts and it just tanks and it's like, okay. So let's say you have that type of idea or you could do vice versa. Let's say you think it's going to be a low day clear out and you're a long trader, right?  I'm always early.  So I was like, okay, well, how am I gonna combat that? Right? And if you're under PDT, like, I don't know if this can work, but let's say you add like, you know, 10 to 20% of your size saying, okay, I think this idea is going to work. I think it's going to happen, but until I'm right, I can't add all the size that I wanna add. Yeah, yeah. We go into high a day and I put that 10 to 20% of my size that I wanna use on and you're saying to yourself, okay, well, we'll see what happens next. I don't keep adding to 100%. I'm gonna say I'm gonna wait for this to confirm. Let's say we go up to high a day.  Then I add my size because I'm proven right. And then as we go lower and lower and lower, you can either add more or just keep the original size that you add on.  And when the stock does confirm, you're still right. And also that allows you to confirm to your winner because you're like, oh my God, like I'm right now. And adding my size when I'm right, not when I'm wrong or what I think is going to happen.   It's not really that much.  But the point is that you don't keep adding when you're wrong. You say, I have this idea, I think this is going to happen. This is going to be my plan. And then you kind of take that trade and just see if it works out.  When you add all your size and we start moving up and moving up, that's the appropriate way I think to trade as a long trader as well as to trade as a short trader is that use that little bit of size to control your FOMO.  And if you can do that every time, right? For early people like us, that is what can really, really help you. Just like James talking about that VWAP rejection, I'm going to fantasy order 10 to 20% of my size at VWAP because I believe that there's going to be a VWAP rejection, but I don't really have that confirmation.  The top of the candle, the middle of the candle, the bottom of the candle, because I am right.   And why did you nail that trade? Because you weren't fucking, let's say we cut right through VWAP. Oh, well, it's only 10 to 20%. I can wait for the next line, right?  And that can really help you a lot. But why can't people do it? Like, that blows my mind. It starts to actually frustrate me sometimes. It's like, why would you talk to people? And Chris, maybe you have a good answer. Like, what is it preventing people from like, I don't want to say humbling themselves, but just like stopping, especially if they're over PDT. Like if you're under PDT, that is a mental battle. And I, you know, I don't even want to go down that rabbit hole PDT, but like it's a mental battle of accepting you're wrong and sometimes not having another trade. But I don't understand. But they're conditioned that way. They're conditioned to think that I have to put on a full position right away. And it's like you're giving yourself less chance if you do that. Like they just, they haven't put in the work with MIC. But I think with me personally, I've been down 50% on an option as trade and it's come back and I've made, you know, 50%, 100%, 200%. So I think that was my problem. I'm like, oh, it could come back. And it's like, no, you're wrong. You got to stop out on a scalp or whatever. But also I think like, I use, I'm big on analogies, I'm an educator, but I would score the basketball games in, you know, I'd be the timekeeper or whatever and handle the clock and stuff. And I would catch myself. I'd be watching the game and say, oh, this kid just shot this when I have to be paying attention to the bigger picture of the ref blowing the whistle and that sort of thing and hitting the buttons. So I could get caught in that minutia, I guess. And I'm not paying attention to the bigger picture on the screen here. And that's a big thing. But also going back to what you said about, you know, Alex and just putting in the work, I was a couple of months ago, when I was in Vietnam, he did a morning watch list video and he said, no one's watching these videos. And he was kind of upset by that. And I texted, I emailed him or DMed him and I said, the people that aren't watching, are watching the videos care that you're doing this. And if they're not gonna watch the morning watch this video or put in the work, we don't want them. Like, let them be. Cause then they're not, they're gonna come into this group. They're gonna be going, hey, where's this line? Where's this stock?  And you don't want that. You want the guy that's gonna look for a video first and ask questions for harder things. Bro, we have 2,400 members, right? We have 2,400 members. And I would say, and I'm not calling people out, I'm just gonna make my broad statement. I bet 200 of that 2,400, maybe 400, maybe I'll even go that, actually put in like serious, serious work. And I think like put in such hard work cause this is what they want. I think the rest of them, like you have to be super honest with yourself. Like most of the time I feel like you say you're putting hard work, but the reality is you're just showing up and like wondering why you're losing.  You know, I'm still not getting it. But there's so much into this. And it's true.  Cause like, if you want to do this successfully, like there is a ton of work.  This is like your tuition. It could be six months. It could be a year. It could be 10 years. It really is different for you. But I do find that like the more you put into it right away, like it's obviously, you're going to get all that market experience that much quicker. And it's like, it's obvious. Like you have been here a little bit.  And it's going to show. And like you will be the person that, you know, you're above water and it'll come quicker than you think. But I think what you said 200 people out of 2400, that's statistically accurate. Cause yeah, and that's fine. Cause those people will fail and they'll be shaken out. And, you know, but I think being on a boat and sometimes we have internet, sometimes we don't. And I've been, you know, it's tough cause I can't download the videos from MIC onto my laptop or something. But I'm listening to any, like we have to do sanitary on the boat and, you know, clean them up or just to keep it whatever. So I'm always listening to podcasts, reading a book and that's just, it's something to keep me in the game even if I'm not technically in the game on a boat. But, you know, it's rewarding when you put in the work and it's paying off. And it's not paying off yet, but I know it will. Yeah, of course, man. Of course. And I guess we, I didn't even realize we're coming up on almost an hour, like 40 minutes. So I know I didn't even realize, but before we wrap up, what is something that you would recommend to all new traders, aspiring traders or people who are stubborn really found their way? If it's a new trader, I think what I've been focusing on is that one play, that one, that's what I keep hearing in the podcasts, chat with traders podcast or whatever, or this podcast is that focus on that one play and what suits your personality. But also like being an educator, you get the kid that always goes to the bathroom is always on their phone. And they're the ones that are asking, what is VWAP? Or what is it? It's like, don't go to the bathroom, stay here and pay attention. That's annoying to me.  But they got to watch the videos and to take three months to watch, just watch videos and sit in front of your computer and watch the market. Cause that's what I did in Vietnam. I was like sitting there not being able to trade, but they're mostly every night watching the markets and they're not doing that. I just want to add one more thing before we go. I forget which book I picked this up out of, but a lot of people, as far as like watching videos and stuff like that, it's really just getting started, right? And so if you, let's say you love to hang out in your living room and your living room is your number one spot in the house. If you stick a laptop in the living room or if you stick a book out in the living room and you just put it on your coffee table, when you're watching TV, you're going to be looking at the TV, looking down at that book, looking at the TV, looking down at that book. And then eventually you're going to have to pick that book up because you're looking at the book, you're looking at the TV, and you're like, fuck, I can't watch TV anymore. I have to read this book. And if you stick education in spots where you're not doing education, it's really kind of helped me as well. Whereas like, I'll stick a laptop on the living room table.  Maybe you can like read a book there or something like that. And that is what kind of helped me a lot as far as just getting going. Not interested in the battle is just to get going every day, just to study every day. And so if you put a tablet or something like that, maybe you're cooking and you have a tablet on the counter or something like that, if you do stuff like that, little tricks like that, that can help you a lot as far as just getting going. I have a laptop to watch videos. I have a physical book. I have my phone with the Kindle app and podcasts on it. And then I have a Kindle. So I have all those all the time. But I think, I guess, you know, I know we got to go, but one more final point is that also, if you're not really loving this, then it'll shake those people out. And like the example, the analogy, I was a golf coach in Shanghai and I love golf, but I dreaded going to practice every day. It's just, I didn't like the practice. I like to play. But then when I coach softball and I was taking the stats for the kids and showing them their stats and looking forward to doing the stats, I love that sort of thing. And I looked forward to going to that practice every day and because I found something that I liked and that's, you know, this, I'm doing the little tiny things every day to get better because I love it. If you're not obsessed with this, if you're not obsessed with this, you'll become obsolete. It won't, you won't make it. You won't make it. I wish this was something that I could just like give it to my parents or my friends and be like, dude, this is how you do it. Like go enjoy it.   Like this isn't gonna work. If you're not sitting there like, I remember, and this is the last thing I started to talk, it just got in my head now. Like I remember like when MIC first came to be and like where the after hours became a thing. So we were in there 24 seven, 24 seven.  And it just, it truly shows in the people who are here now and the people who will be here for a long time. Versus the people that come in on a Monday, they're bitching, they didn't make money on a Tuesday. They're asking for a refund Wednesday. I mean, that's just goes in life and everything like that. But yeah, I'm so thankful for MIC. Like I was down a rabbit hole. Like I love the trading, but you're kind of, I was in a group trading options, which is great. It was a great group, you know, not scammy, but then there's a certain someone with, for a course that's expensive. And you're like, I was down a rabbit hole. Like, why can't I just find my, teach myself to fish? But I'm learning to do that. And I'm at the bottom of the ocean trying to do that. And it wasn't working until I found MIC. And I'm just like, thank God, like people that have great intentions. Yeah. Oh dude, I love it. I love it. And again, thank you for coming on, bro. I think, I think we're, we're coming up. We've had so many interviews and like it's been long enough. So we always want to keep having people back on, especially as they progress. So, so let's keep in touch and let's, we'll get you back on as soon as possible. Yeah, I appreciate it. I hope to be above that water line soon. Yeah, you will be, bro, you will be.


Another senior here, the Speaker of the Edison Group of the River State House of Assembly, is requested by elections to replace 25 lawmakers whose seats were declared vacant. A dear member of the lawmaker's loyal to Governor Simfubara declared the seats of the lawmakers were defected from the People's Democratic Party, so the old Progressive Congress vacant. He wrote to INEC in a letter dated 14 December 2023 requesting a by-election to fill the vacant seats. They also directed the Accountant General of the State to suspend the payment of salaries and amendments due to the former lawmakers. Meanwhile, stakeholders have continued to weigh in on the river's political crisis, with the latest being the river's elders and leaders firm which has condemned moves to impeach Governor Siminal Laifubara. The group's position was contained in a communique, it's issued after its emergency meeting. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


back where live it's four o'clock. I'm Jay Fiedel. This is Think Tech. More specifically, this is Global Connections. We're going global today with Jay Friedheim. We're going to talk about the fallout of the grounding in Suez of a ship called the Ever Given. It's the largest container ship in the world. It's a quarter mile long and for about 10 days it was stuck in the Suez Canal and there is fallout. So the first thing Jay, you know about Admiralty and Maritime Law? What happened? I went to school at Tulane. It's the world's leading Admiralty and Maritime Law School. So the kids that I went to school with and the ones that came after me wrote the contract for passage through the canal, wrote the contracts about shipping. Here's what we know. There's a ship called the Ever Given, but that isn't just enough. You need to understand that the vessel is actually owned by a company called Sosikesen Kasai, which is really a Japanese holding company and it's leased. So the ship owner leases it to the Evergreen Maritime Corporation, the actual Taiwanese, which is a Taiwanese based conglomerate. The crew was hired by Bernhard Schutte-Mitt Ship Management, which is a German company. So the people that work there this was an American ship and it was a Jones Act question, then they would only be allowed or they would be allowed to sue their ship. They're the person that hired them, which is a German company. Now here's what's really exciting at the moment and that's that Egypt filed a lawsuit in this little bitty town along the Suez Canal. After that the company filed a lawsuit called The Limitation of Liability and they did it in a British court. So the way the limitation of liability works is the place that was filed first gets to control the case and then there's something that's called a concourses, which means everybody has to come to that little court to decide the matters. So the biggest initial dispute is, is Egypt going to honor the British's claim that even though their suit was filed later and have the Egyptian rights decided in Britain and I would just say the likelihood that the Egyptian nation has any concern for the interests of Britain, which seized control. The history of this is fascinating. There was an invasion by Britain, France, and Israel in which they tried to come and take back the canal after Nasser nationalized it for very good reasons. There's fascinating history related to the canal. Let me back up a little bit and just confirm that the ship, it takes about a day or rather 12 to 14 hours for a ship to navigate the canal. The ship got stuck. I want to ask you what happened there. And as a result, some 360 ships were stuck behind that ship. They couldn't go through the canal. And that time is huge money. The claim that the Egyptian government is asserting is $900 million. They have not said exactly what that's about. We should talk about that. And we should talk about how this is all going to shake out and how it affects global maritime traffic. So the first question is what happened? What happened is the ship, the largest ship, can possibly go through the canal. It is exactly the number of feet of the maximum ship allowed. What happens to be so wide that where it got stuck, it barely fits through the middle. Now the sides of the canal at this point are sheer sand walls. And so as it bumps into it, the sand falls down and it traps the ship. There's other things that were going on at the moment that it got stuck. There was a sandstorm and it was big winds. And so the sandstorm is blowing hard wind and this ship, which has thousands, 20,000 containers on it, stacked 13 high above the deck, completely full below. All these containers act like a sail. So the ship is going through there. The sandstorm is blowing and the vessel turns. It doesn't have to turn much and it's stuck. And that's a problem because to unstick it is really difficult. And we're talking about the absolutely most remote place, like Hawaii is the most remote island group in the world. Well, the most remote place you could get to by water in the middle of a desert is this spot in the Suez Canal, you know, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean and the whole history of why that's important. This is the same sea that God split so the Yids could walk through with Moses. I mean, there's a whole lot of history tied up to this spot. Okay, and so how did they get it out? I remember reading that with three things they tried. One is they try to take the sand out from under the ship and other is they try to use tugs to pull the ship off the sandbar. And the third one, the third one, I can't remember what the third one was. Which they ultimately did, which is that they raised the water under the ship. But what's important is that there is a salvor that came into play and so they tried to use material to remove sand from the sides of the boat. But you couldn't remove sand from under the boat. They tried things like getting rid of the ballast. Ballast is weight that you put on a ship to cause it to go down in the water. So they were pumping out the ballast to try to float the ship. And then they, what ultimately got them out of it is the water power of the canal was used to push the vessel while the salvers were pulling the vessel. Now the company, the salver is a tugboat, the salver is a company that his job is to get it out of there. Now it could be, you know, we've gone over the laws of salvage or ancient maritime laws, the traditional remedies, they're all around the world and the company has a right to hire a salver and they hired Smith, which are the big boys. These are the guys that removed the post-Decordia disaster in 2012 and then the Baltic ace car carrier that sunk in 2015 right at the entrance of the port of Rotterdam. So these guys come in when the troubles are really big. And you know, so here's what actually happened at the very end. They needed two much bigger tugboats. And there were no tugboats this side at the time because it's the middle of nowhere. And so they were rushing these giant tugs to get in there because all the little tugs weren't enough to move this thing sufficiently. So they just weren't around. The physics of what happened is it's a 430-yard long vessel. They had eight tugboats pushing and pulling and there were ships everywhere. There were ships in front, there were ships on both sides. The way it works is that ships can go in both directions through the canal at the same time. But there are these wide spots in the canal in which you move ships over to one side or the other. You let ships pass. All right. And so they were digged, they were dredging sand, but it only had a very minor impact. We tried the ballast water to stabilize the ship. And then there was what they called plan B while this was all happening. And they were going to try to inject water under the vessel so that they could blast sand out to try to get it happen. Since it was dislodged, it got anchored at the Great Bitter Lake, which is at the midpoint in the canal. There's 25 crew members on board, which is very interesting because they're all Indian nationals and they're stuck on board. There's a court in the town of Ismalia, which is on the west bank of of the canal, and it's Egypt. And they issued arrest orders. So under Egypt's maritime laws, they allowed a precautionary seizure, meaning they knew there was this debt. The debt had been incurred. And so they were allowed to seize the vessel. Okay, so now stop there and tell me what that $900 million is about. Okay, well, there's three major issues there. It's the total compensation that they could figure out right now.  But right now, you've got the loss of revenue for ships that would ordinarily run through the canal. That's number one. Then there's damage to the waterway. And number three, there's the equipment labor that were deployed to deal with this. And now you've got this conflict going on. Egypt's saying, I mean, really, 900 million, let's round it to a billion. The insurance company can come in and put up a two like in America, you get like a double or triple amount, the $3 billion handed over or in the form of a letter of undertaking, they could get the vessel out. And maybe the Egyptian would be reasonable and allow it to be decided in Britain provided they've got their billion, $2 billion, $3 billion there held by their courts, but they don't want to do that. Okay, wait, so just to square away on this. This is the law of salvage. Anybody that helped this ship get unstuck and the canal for the damage to the canal. And I suppose other shippers who were delayed, 367 ships were delayed, cost them money.  And I guess all of those claims are included in this 900 million or billion dollar affair. In the initial thumbnail estimate, but you have, it's they're not all self, there is cargo interest, 20,000 containers that have an individual contract with the shipper that I told you about that glimpse the vessel. And there's a contract between those container owners and the vessel. All right. And what that was important is it brings in another ancient law called general average. And that means that not only is the ship responsible, but every piece of cargo may have to contribute to it. So now you got a conflict between all the shippers and the vessel interest and the Egyptian government. There were 422 vessels were building up after the grounded or they're ready to go through. And just to show you how good this canal has been since they improved it in 2015, just before that, you could only get 46 or 47 ships. Now you can get 97 ships through. They cleared the backlog in three to four days. Now that's not the whole story because there's something called supply line economics and supply line economics means that once you knock the supply line that those those things that were needed somewhere aren't going to get there in time. And so all the people that needed it there can't do the things that they need. Like I think there's somebody did an analysis of the apple iPhone and just one little part the processor has materials from 46 nations that all have to be shipped by vessels from one place to another. And at the end of the day you got this little processor and then that little processor goes into an iPhone and then it's shipped somewhere else. So this all depends on moving stuff around. And right now we've got these really, really difficult supply line problems that could undermine the economy of the entire world because this impact I mean it's an enormous amount of shipping went through this little space. Okay so now we're talking about a lot of legal issues, a lot of claims by a lot of people. I mean everybody on the stage and the Shakespearean stage has a claim. I guess there's an insurance company that's going to have to deal with this. There's the owners, there's the lessees, certainly there's the crew, there's the Suez Canal authority, there's the Egyptian government. It goes on and on. Anybody had any contact with this ship or this incident has got to have a claim or be claimed against. So then you have an arrest okay and I'm hoping that you can explain to the people what it is an arrest. It's an admiralty concept and it sounds like an arrest stops the ship and the owners of the ship have to, well the arresting parties I should say they have to take care of the ship well the ship 400 yards long that's pretty expensive to take care of a ship like that isn't it and the ship isn't in the canal right now it's outside the canal. No, no it's over in a area the Bitter Lake which is in the canal it's stuck in the middle it is not going anywhere the ship has been detained it is seized and Osama Ravi was a really good spokesman for the SCA which is the Suez Canal authority and he says look agree to the compensation and we'll let the boat go out right and that's you know that's them being very reasonable and so that's the putting up of the money to do this. So how is this going to get organized because this is a major affair I mean I presume that these what did you say 20,000 containers are still on that ship they didn't leave town yet. Oh yeah just to give you an I'm sorry I'm trying to all that supply line economics analysis you were talking about is still in play and there's still losses going on at the far end of that trip and then of course the lawyers the lawyers are coming from she must be every country in the world because so many people are involved to try to you know assert their claims or defend their claims with this ship this is this is going to be this is very meaningful for the economy of Egypt I think. And for the economy of the maritime lawyers around the world because every one of them is going there's a conflict so you can only represent one of these parties just to give you an idea of what 20,020 foot containers means if you put a 20 foot container on a truck it becomes 40 feet long if you had 60 in between each truck it would stretch from Washington DC to Trenton New Jersey we're talking like 175 miles of ships cargo if it was all taken off in that way and you know one of the ideas was when it really looked like a jam they were getting ready to take the cargo off the ship in the middle of the desert think about that what are you going to do with 20,000 containers and you need helicopters out there to move them one at a time and gigantic craneships this thing could have been there you know for a year without any problem and it would stop this waterway from functioning this is a huge problem and this isn't the only place that you have those kinds of passageways you know there's the Straits of Hormuz there's the Maluccan Straits there's the Panama Canal and we are really really vulnerable to this kind of shipping and like you said all those things needed to get somewhere where there's companies waiting for those parts to do the next thing right now we're panicking about we don't have enough computer trip chips to build cars so those computer chips which are not you know being made by people that are real happy with us because of the way we've acted in the last five years and so they're not we're not so we're no longer the high prestige nation it used to be back five years ago and up until actually almost right now that if you were an American ship you got to get in head of the line in going through the canal and that's because we've been shoveling Egypt a billion or two billion dollars a year in discretionary spendings we call it protection and that's buying this American favoritism which is really the cost of American prestige that has eroded enormously recently and there's all these other players coming into play okay and so you know did you know that at one point after Nassar nationalized the canal the United States came up with a plan in the mid fifties to blow up about 400 nuclear bombs in the Sinai and blast another canal almost right next to it you know fifty hundred miles up the desert and then we would have our own canal there and you know we didn't go that route but we've known about this problem for a long time and this issue goes back to Nico a a pharaoh who used 150,000 people to dig the canal the first time in recorded history according to Herodontus who is one of the Greek historians that documented this stuff and a lot of people since then had ideas hey let's build a canal through here you know including the Ottomans the Venetian traders the Egyptians themselves and finally Napoleon Napoleon wanted to build a canal but his surveyors went there and they determined that one side of the canal was 40 feet higher than the other side of the canal that was a mistake this is actually a level waterway but Napoleon didn't do it because he was afraid that if he succeeded the waters would rush in and flood the entire Nile delta now that was a miscalculation and then we get our our homie you know Adolf Hitler decided he wanted the canal so he and Mussolini and his crowd could be the ones that controlled it and so he invaded North Africa the British went in there and fought them it was really about the canal at that time a couple a couple of things that as you mentioned in passing and that is that this canal has no locks there were no locks in the Suez canal the level of the of the Indian Ocean and the level of the Mediterranean are the same and so the ships just just passed through without without interruption by by the locks the other thing is that you can talk about the history of the canal as a primitive canal way back when but in fact the current canal was built a longer time ago than you would might have think it was it was started in like 1859 or thereabouts actually I think it's 42 but it's 152 year old history of the canal which then got expanded in between the years of 2014 and 2015 which doubled the number of ships that could go by from 47 to 97 and the total cost of that upgrade was eight billion dollars in today's money I mean we got people all over the place that got eight billion dollars to do it well we only have a few minutes left and I want to focus on the international implications and there are two questions I'd like you to address Jay one is is this going to change the way the Suez canal works that the canal work properly does abnormality law as it applies to this this incident work properly these are going to change for the Suez canal the Panama canal to streamline to use that term to streamline things because after all we find now that we're dependent on these canals for global trade they're really important are they functioning properly actually yes and the law is working beautifully and there will probably be minor tweaks to already existing contracts but the contract that each vessel signs that's going to cost them about seven hundred thousand dollars to go through there has been really ironed out and there may be glitches that we learn about to modify and improve it the maritime law works wonderfully with great precision and we are going to run around and we're going to bang swords on shields and at the end of the day we're going to sit down with a bunch of mediators and we're going to try to figure out how to skin this cat the canal works great he is a wonderful source of pride for the Egyptian people dignity pride sovereignty which really matters and it's a source of of foreign currency and revenues for Egypt and it's a really a big deal and how did it get solved I mean it's the intervention of the almighty this king tide which only comes about once a year in this time because of the position of the moon raise the canal water I mean it's like the parting of the sea it floated the boat and that's what got it moved and unclogged this well I knew there was something biblical about this yeah I'm always trying to rattle that there you go again okay another question last question really the impact of this kind of incident on global trade you mentioned you know the economic supply line analysis and all that but just suppose we lost one or both of these major canals and these cargo ships would have to navigate to the south of Africa or and or to the south of America yeah it's the Cape of Good Hope and that's why the canal got built because the British seized the area of South Africa created a garrison there and every ship that went by whether it was a whaler whether it was a foreign nation going to attack somebody or whether it was trade were vulnerable to the British there so the French got together with the Egyptians that said hey let's build you a canal and the French paid for it and the statute of liberty that we like to make believe was built for America it was built to be at the Mediterranean side of the canal and they decided not to and the statute of liberty was to show that the light of France and the western world was bringing trade to Asia and that's where the Statue of Liberty comes it was an afterthought because they had this old piece of crap and it couldn't figure out what and we decided that's what America is bring us your poor bring us your everything and I don't downplay the reality of that sentiment but the idea to say that she was built for us she was built to sit in front of the canal as a guiding light to show the Chinese the Indians all of what you know eastern Asia that we were bringing enlightenment to their shores in the form of trade yep yep okay so so this is very important both canals are really really important and you know if you don't have those canals you have to you have to go thousands of miles out of your way and and spend a lot of money time staffing bunker fuel what have you to get there it changes the trade paradigm in the whole world if that happens so my question to you is these must be strategically important they have been strategically important in the past so if I were a terrorist for example I might try to leverage the importance of these canals because if I could stop trade through there or threaten to stop trade through there I'd be I'd be making a big statement um and do you think that is possible has it happened oh yeah and here's what that says state here is what is at stake 12 percent of the total global trade passes through the Suez canal 30 percent of all the shipping containers in volume pass through there on a daily basis and according to Bloomberg 10 percent of the world's oil trade and eight percent of the national gas trade is passing there it connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean it's the ultimate shortcut from Europe to East Asia from Rotterdam to China and the other way around is the Cape of Good Hope and that costs at least 12 or 14 more days depending on your engines and it exposes you to the pirates of Somalia and all kinds of other people who can grab yourself so it's exposure to security risk and pirates yep you get it it's a big deal and the Egyptians want it they're not giving it back you know and to build it these guys built it with shovels there was as of there was a hundred thousand people virtually enslaved to dig if they were paid nominal money and each you know you get it blood sweat and tears you know where that comes from it comes from Winston Churchill who at during the war but this is one of those blood sweat and tears and that's why the Egyptians were indignant about it and supposedly the Egyptians auctioned it off back to the British and to the French and when there was a problem you know they seized it as a military control because back in 1940 we understood how strategically important it was well this certainly focuses world attention on it and on Egypt for that matter and on all the mechanics you have described and the legal issues you have described I can see all these young young law students changing their their focus to Admiralty now well it's hard to get paid I help people my job is I like to help people that load and unload ships I learned this stuff because I was blessed to get to go to this college law school the Tulane which I said is a phenomenally you know important maritime law school it's the leading one in the world and we learned this as I've bread and butter but I don't actually get to do it so much there was once I had to do a general average case in which there was a ship coming into the Honolulu Harbor the Coast Guard which you know about said nope you can't come in here because it's leaking ammonia into the hole and so all of the the cargo in the hole like very expensive chocolate got poisoned with pneumonia which is not poisonous it just couldn't taste good and so all the cargo interests had to contribute because the one thing leaked and that was a very complicated case when you're talking about very complicated issues and involving physics involving chemistry involving the fundamental industrial processes by which the world trades and people you know they go to the store they buy what they need they don't realize that it's a combination of components from everywhere many of which have gone through one or the other of these canals well thank you for helping us understand it Jay it's really a contribution to the public conversation we should all know and understand what's going on really appreciate your expertise and time thanks so much