Educational firm that empowers traders with a complete detailed system become profitable traders Melissa Armo graduated magna cum laude from Gettysburg College with a being in philosophy and a minor in Latin and political science in 1984 she was employed for by several banks and brokers in Pennsylvania Florida Arizona and New York as a mortgage broker for 17 years She changed careers from banking to pursue a security trading career in 2008 a self-taught day trader with over 10 years of experience Melissa's specialty is a trading strategy focuses on shorting stocks that gap up Melissa also appears frequently on TV as a stock market expert watch Melissa on RT America Cheddar TV CBS Fox news and Fox business network So let's say you haven't tell five minutes before the hour then we'll give away our next batch of prizes So I'm gonna mute myself and this is my one chance a quarter where I get to say we knew Edie Wee-Chee You're the only Latin speaker we found as a presenter Production done and Merry Christmas. Happy holidays to everyone It's an interesting time of the year right now in December because you have very active days in the market like today Where the market is selling off like a hot cake and then you have some days where you just kind of kind of just take a step Back and wait and see what's gonna happen I think that makes a big difference between someone that is a beginner trader or someone that is a Season trader to know when to go full throttle or I call it like hog wild You know when you do everything in the world or you just back off and you don't do anything and you just kind of wait and see so Again as John was mentioning Next week the Fed talks and they will announce if they are raising rates And if so how much before I start talking today? I'm gonna give you my take my take is that the Fed is gonna continue to raise Rates as much as they've been that may be antithetical to what many people are saying particularly people I've been on television with that was on Fox news last week and the man I was on with was very bullish and thought the interest rates would be dipping from what they previously said I am the contrarian here. I believe they will raise rates 75 basis points at least in December And we're nowhere near the Fed's target of 2% inflation And in fact, I think the Fed will Overcorrect in raising rates and continuing to raise rates at a fast pace going into 2023 So what will this mean for the market? It means we could have some great trading days Really between now and actually the holiday week so you have to take advantage of this and you have to take advantage of every single opportunity that you get in the market whether you Like to go long or whether you like to go short I have made a niche on shorting and it's funny with John said the introduction I've actually been trading out for almost 15 years So that introduction was written by my assistant quite a long time ago almost 15 years in 2023 It will be that I've been trading and it feels like I've been doing it for pretty much my whole life I wish I had found out about trading the market really when I graduated college I didn't you know, but I'm happy that I found out about it when I did you know 15 years ago So if you've been doing this for a while and you haven't found success don't give up That's the best advice I can give you today stay positive. Don't give up many people go through hits and misses They'll go to one person learn something it doesn't work lose money then they'll find another person It's a process to gain information as we go along to find the right system to trade and that is why Lectures like I'm doing today and the other people here are extremely helpful It gives you an opportunity as an introduction to see is what I'm going to say Going to resonate with you today again. Everybody does something different So it's the idea is this this is something that you might be interested in because today is just an introduction into my system a Little bit about what I do. I see kumar here today kumar is on my options newsletter list he he's just joined So he's been doing the options trades So if you're new to me, you never heard of me before again, my name is Melissa Armo I own my own company called the stocks which I do live in Manhattan and Again, you know, this is one of these things where you could live anywhere in the world You don't have to live in New York City to trade. I don't live anywhere near Wall Street Actually, I live uptown But you can live in a different country and trade the US stock market and many people find the US stock market very Advantages to trade because it is a fixed market. It has fixed hours It is regulated and it has a lot of volume a lot of momentum a lot of volatility Which makes for a great opportunity if you know how to trade it So today we're going to talk about shorty and again, this is a great time to talk about it Why don't we fell yesterday to we're falling today? So we're going to talk about shorting stocks using the system that I do which is based on gaps And we're going to talk about in a little bit here, too If you have questions and you like to call me after the webinar email me my emails Melissa the stock switch calm My phone number is nine two nine thirty two hundred gap And you can also follow me on Twitter Facebook youtuber Skype when I'm on TV I always put what my hits are and I always had previous hits on YouTube And I actually encourage you to go watch the hit from Fox News last week because you'll see how I Called the market lower last week. We're falling out and the other person that was on was very bullish So this is this is you know, you kind of got to take a Viewpoint advantage point and say what am I doing here? You know if you're somebody that is long-term invested in the market for your retirement account or something Do I think the market recovers eventually? Yes, do I think it recovers before the end of the year? Absolutely not we're nowhere near the highs as an inactive trader, which is what I am all I'm concerned about is today right now today this second this day this week or Everything that I'm that I'm calling Kumar watch me on Fox. He said it was a brave call to Fox News It was it was because the other guy was so bullish the other guy was so bullish actually you love the gap newsletter Thank you. Thank you. Kumar good return investment. Thank you. Anyways, you can watch me on TV I don't know what I'm on next but I'm here and we're going to get into it right now So can you run a living in the stock market as a professional trader? The answer is yes Yes, so why there's so many people struggle. Well, they don't have a good strategy. That's number one and So they're all over the place doing many many many many many different things all the time Here are our results year to date someone is saying they can't see can everybody see the PowerPoint TK says he can't see This is year to day 2022 results 623 sound 1644 so this is year to date day trades only with an average risk of $2,800 a trade again This is up through the week before Thanksgiving now. I just moved. I just moved into a new apartment in Manhattan Two weeks ago. So actually Monday was my first day back in two weeks of being off for the Thanksgiving holiday But prior to that 623,644 we actually didn't do anything today yesterday. We shorted Tesla. I don't have that trade in here We can look at that chart and then we can talk about Tesla, which obviously is lower I called a day trade in that yesterday and an option So as far as you you yourself going into the end of 2022 and looking forward into 2023 What should you be focused on? You should be focused on yourself your own goals your personal goals your financial goals How to improve your life fast forward 12 months from now December 6 2023. Where do you want to be? Where do you want to be? It's about empowering yourself to get there. So whether or not again, whether the market rallies whether it falls whether we go into a Recession, okay, that was a discussion of Fox News last week whether we have an increase in rates or the lower rates Whatever the course may be you still want your life to move forward continue proceeding and get better You cannot control what's going on in the rest of the world You can't control what's going on in Ukraine. You can't control what's going on in Russia None of those things can you control the cost of diesel fuel the cost of oil all the things that have impacted us ever Our everyday goods everything we buy has gone up. You can't control that but You can empower yourself to actually earn more money Right now today 2022 and 2023. How are you going to do it? So again a lot of people attempt to trade they fail they lose money They make money they end up losing after all how are they going to do it? Many people find trading elusive because they just don't have a good strategy. They think they're doing something as a strategy It's not buying dips is not a strategy. I'll tell you that right out of the gate It simply doesn't work consistently in any market unless it's a power-trend bullish market, which actually we were in in 2021 So to start the year off people were buying dips They're still doing it now. In fact that guy I was on Fox News with I Maybe he's buying every dip I could tell you right now after hearing what he said But the fact is that is not going to work unless you're in an extremely strong market, which was 2021 Okay, 2021 is over. It's been over for almost a year. You've got to live in the moment What's happening now? And if you're buying the dip every every time this year, you're actually down for the year Okay, you're down for the year. That's a problem. That's a problem You need to change your viewpoint change your strategy change what you're doing so that you can be successful Okay, so we're going to talk about gaps today. What is a gap? Just go over it here right here. This is the market again This is by today. I don't know where we're at this second I clipped this this morning about 40 minutes ago Market closed here yesterday gap down snuggles a bug wasn't a big gap down was a little small gap down Again market closed at four o'clock at one number and open at a different number the next day Which was today. So this is four o'clock. This is 9 30 and we fell okay? And you could have shorted the market today already called puts here from yesterday.  Anyways long story short a gap is the difference between the clothes in the open simple There are bullish gaps and bearish gaps today We're going to talk about bearish gaps, but having a strategy to focus on daily is very important Why you don't have any distractions? You don't care what they're saying on Bloomberg or Fox News or anywhere at all Because the fact is whether or not we're in a good times or bad times with the economy You have to be focused on technical analysis in the charts the price action So it tells you what's going to happen because the most important thing is what's going to happen right now We had a big rally. It was last week here. I'm just gonna go back. It was a 30th Okay Because somebody came out After we had data and said do they're not gonna raise rates as much they're gonna back off That was just somebody's opinion that that was in fact Okay, the fed meeting is not even until next week. So again, the market is very Emotional and if you're listening to every single person that's talking you're changing your mind every second all day long Look at what's happening the price and look at what's happening the chart and look at what's happening in the gap So having a niche also is extremely important. My niche is shorting It's shorting actually so it's been a great year to be with me to be on the newsletter to be in the trading room It's been a good year. I shorted though since I started trading in 2012 I've been doing nothing but shorts But the fact is again when I started out in 2008 I went long I went short I didn't know what I was doing it took me about three years a little bit more than three years to figure out my system And I made a lot of money once in a short and I said this is it and so from that point onward I just focused on nothing but shorts because the fact is that honestly You can make a lot of money when there's something and it falls. Why? Because it's panic. So like let's just say for example, you're not short the market. Okay, fine If you're not long either you're like, okay fine, whatever. You're not in a panic mode Okay, if you're long the market and the market's falling today.  Should I hold should I sell?  I'm down. What should I do the feds in a week? Do ba-do ba-do panic is what creates a selling and panic you come in like that We started selling off yesterday actually when somebody said something about the Fed now is going to raise rates again All of this is opinion But if you look at the chart if you look at the data if you look at the price action in the gap You can see it where it's gonna go ahead of time before it goes there Uh The I don't know what day you're talking about David's asking about a certain day What day you're talking about here David? We rallied on November 30th, and this was actually a neutral open I did not play this long, but if this is the day you're talking about we basically were neutral We closed your open here rally What's your what's your question? Let me know your question David because I don't know what day you're talking about David's asking about an up gap But I only see one bullish gap here, which was here. I didn't go long this either But I don't know what your question is There's only one bullish gap in the last week here Is that the one you're talking about David? But we didn't go long because I didn't I didn't think it was a good enough gap. I'm not against going long I'm not saying that at all. Okay. There are some things that are extremely strong But I don't think the market is one of them Right now Okay But this was a neutral gap Which is rare, but that's what that was if you want to tell me the day you're talking about David there The day after we gapped up here and we didn't go anywhere. So what's your question? This was the first That's right. We gapped up. I didn't go long there If you did you're down already That's right. It didn't go up What's your question? You can't go long every bullish gap and you can't short every bearish gap If that's what you're saying I'm not saying that You cannot short every down gap and you can't go long every up gap and consequently You can't short every up gap and you can't go long every down gap which some people do which is called a gap fill That doesn't work consistently either While sometimes it works sometimes anything works You could have bought some of those reddit stocks and made millions of dollars But 99 of the people out there that bought those reddit stocks lost So I mean it's not about sometimes something works. It's about the consistency. That's how you get these types of results You can make you know over 600 grand a year trading As a day trader. I do not go long every bullish gap. I didn't say that I don't short of a bearish gap either And you can't do the reverse in each one either You thought I traded each day from a previous gap for the following day. No No, no, no, no, no No, we're looking at today We're looking at today We're looking at yesterday. I was talking about yesterday because a gap Is the difference between the close and the open? Let's back it up Let's back it up here Friday. We closed at one number. I'm just estimating this here. It was like 407 or whatever The next day on monday. We opened where under 405. It was like 404 or whatever So the close at the day is four Eastern the open of a day is 930. That's where the gap is being created. I assess that in the morning in the pre market So this is nothing here. But then when I get up in the morning, I say, oh, let me check this out here And that's what I did monday and then I said, we're gonna fall and then we did boom boom today. We're just continuing Okay, I don't want to ignore anyone. I I'm happy to answer any questions and all questions. I just got to watch my timing here Um, I think all questions are good. I think actually I'll just say this off the cuff I think it's important to learn and I think a lot of people get So anxious to make money, particularly people that have been trading for years and years and losing They're so anxious to make money. That's all they care about. They just want to make the money back from every trade They've ever taken that they lost or every class that didn't learn from and they kind of lose sight in the learning part of it Um, you know, my last class of the year actually is this coming weekend But the fact is it's it's two full days It's 16 hours with an hour break each day for lunch. That's a time commitment besides The financial commitment and so many people don't want to spend a whole weekend Listen, that's what you're paying for you're paying for to learn if you if you can't even commit a weekend to learning Well, then how are you gonna make money doing this? You know, it's it's it's it is important to ask questions It is important to learn while it's great to follow somebody that calls trades live in the room And that's what I do every day But the the fact is if you don't like what if I stopped doing this, you know I meet a billionaire and I get married and I'm not doing this five years from now That very well could happen. So like then then you don't know what to do without me It's you've got to learn how to do it on your own And you are also risking your own money when you trade and you will have more confidence You will have more conviction To put on bigger positions to hold bigger positions if you understand what to do So I'm all for asking questions Anyways, what is my niche? My niche is shorty. We can talk about this. Why panic? Volume and volatility. I don't really use them. I just generally don't trade things that don't have any volume So like that's just pretty much it's not like a rule But it's like I just I'm not going to trade something like low float stocks or penny stocks So let's talk again about what is it again? This is another one we did. This was actually the week I was off I called an option and apple stuck close to here on the 25th. It was friday No, that was monday. No, it was friday. Yeah, that was the friday after the thanksgiving Then we gapped down here on monday the 28th fell boom fell off a planet So 28th and 29th apple fell Okay, so a gap again is a difference between the close and the open. I'm not predicting this is going to go here I'm just waiting. I see it. I say oh And then I rate it using my system and I said this is going to fall and it does and it takes a day or two You could have shorted it here as a day trade could have done the put could have shorter here as a day trade Could have done the put boom Okay Again, what is the gap tessa so we had a nice trade in tessa yesterday What did it do the stock closed here on friday open lower the next day fell bro We shorted it got in you could have done it again today Again, I don't know where this is now But this is pretty good So again, what is the gap a stock gaps in the opening price today is different than the closing price of yesterday's trading A gap is a break in price action from one day to the next This is called technical analysis and has nothing to do with fundamentals If you love fundamentals and you want to get into it fine But if the fundamentals do not match up with the technicals You're going to be in trouble because all that matters is current price action and what's happening today But I will Tell you that we have been very Volatile in the sense that the market's been trading in a very tight range The home of a november. Look at it Even today You could say oh we're higher or you could say oh we're lower and everybody here today I'll probably tell you something different. So i'm telling you I think we're lower But the reality is again somebody could just as well say oh we're higher We've been in a tight range Okay, if you want to wait till we break out of the range till you take a trade fine That's up to you. Okay, but if you don't have a hundred percent conviction in either direction You know what the answer is do nothing Don't go long. Don't go short wait So let's talk about what is it got again? This was the key who's back here in november market closed here gapped up rallying That was one day back in the middle of the month Then we had this one here again closed here monday fell today dropped That was a gap down This was a long time ago. It was september, but it was a really nice gap. So I wanted to bring it up It was adobe. It was earnings Now we have a couple a couple earnings in the next few weeks Before the christmas week Then january later in the month earning season starts for the first quarter of 2023 Earning season brings a lot of gaps why stocks and companies like adobe report their earnings and they tend to have a reaction Again, I don't know the reaction before it happens could be up could be down I'm not taking a trade guessing what they're going to say in the earnings I don't know. I don't have insider information But I am looking at the stock waiting to see the reaction Then I rate it then I take a position if it rates good Into the open after the gap. Is that clear? So i'm not predicting the gap itself. This could have gone up here. I don't know And it could have rally But it didn't okay So this closed down here 375 and change open here in the morning around 320 fell boom Felt the planet came all the way down here broke 280. So again, this is panic Selling volumes down here. Someone's asking about it. I just don't do anything without buying them So how is this gap happening? How are the gaps happening in the market? How the gap happened in tesla? What's happening institutional money and big footprints of institutional money are coming into the stock or the market And they're either buying or selling it one of the reasons I don't have a bullish bias in the market right now At least between now and the end of the year is because institutional money is not coming in and buying this market full throttle It's either waiting Sitting on the sidelines already in not selling but waiting or Really selling a little bit actually But we're so far off the highs If a lot of people had sold they already sold basically for this year for 2022. Okay Now what is institutional money? It's hedge funds big traders big power players in the market So i'm reading that when i'm reading the gap But it's the whole idea of trading with power of money. You don't want to trade against it. You want to trade with it So I teach people in my class how to read the gap to see if institutional money will Come in grab hold of the gap And make the gap go in the same direction of the gap or if it's going to reverse Which is extremely important. So you've got to know how to play it. But again, I do prefer to short Okay, but i'm focusing in institutional money I'm capturing those moves in a small time frame in a small period daily That's what we're doing in the day trades. We're in and out in 5 10 15 minutes And in an option I could be out in a day or two Okay, like a week is a long time to hold a trade. I really don't generally hold trades for a week Like apple Call it boom starts to go next day drops. You're out. Boom done. Okay training You're not messing around why anything can happen. Okay But anyways institutional money is in charge of the market and stocks at all times and you can't forget it A big flow of money is going in a certain direction is what moves the market stocks creates momentum and sets the trend in charts When you're looking for institutional money, you're really reading the side of the power to stop You want to be on the side of the power in order for you to make money trading And institutional money is in charge of the market and stocks in all time And again, if you're not sure of that then you shouldn't do anything because you could get run over like a Trump because if you're on the wrong side of things What happens is a gap can come in overnight because that's when the gap is happening in the first place Okay And then your upside down in the trade could be an option could be a swing trade And that's where people really get hurt specifically trades like swing trades where people are on two to one margin or cash You know that you could only be on two to one margin at the most in an overnight Anyways, you saw that here in the Tesla beautiful chart fell the whole month of october fell the whole month of november Falling now in december Okay, and yet people will come in and buy this dip at some point here It's crazy, but people will do it So if you learn how to read the footprints of big position players before the momentum comes in and occurs You can take the position in the right direction and then you get out after the move happens for profit I call it the money move, but you have to understand how to trade with the side of power It's vital It makes a difference in you winning or losing and if you really understand what to do Again, if you take the class and you go through the process in your head doing the ratings and you understand What's going on you won't be scared out of a trade if it's down before it goes And you can make a lot of money because the market has the ability to pay you the moves are there Big moves are there not just in the qqqs of the spy, but in any any of the stocks that we're talking about today Apple tesla amazon google microsoft facebook oliva, okay And sometimes we do some weird ones You know, but it's the idea Of chunking it out where you're following one strategy one thing each and every day and for me again My focus is also to the short side Now this is another apple one we did This isn't the apple i did from last week, but this was an earlier apple in the month of december We did the 142 puts Okay, thursday the third i sunded out at 7 40 in the morning. This is a newsletter So gap options newsletter you cannot do the trade until the open the cost was pretty good for apple 350 for one You could have spent 350 dollars sold a day. That's good profit 129 return investment I have higher risk here for people and lower risk for them to look at Because you can trade options with an account with two grand You only need two thousand dollars to open it up the more you risk obviously Is up to you. You need a larger account, but this was a nice gap. So where wasn't on the third? On the third Here So again, we did the 142s I usually call them pretty close to the stripe So we closed here gap down called that traderly in the morning fell boom Fell so again, that was a couple weeks ago And then we did it last week too So it's just in and out in the options again the options are based on my gap method too for momentum Then on wednesday the second a little bit after the open. We did the meta Facebook 92s this expired on the 11th. I'm doing the weekly its cost was again. This is pretty good 280 30 contracts and 8400 dollars sold at 5 79 percent to be honest with you 50 percent is a good return in an option Within 24 to 48 hours. I'm trying to get to 100. I'm trying But I may get out of something at 60 70 80. Okay depends what's going on depends how much time I have left depends on what the market's doing Let's take a look at it wednesday the second here So close here gap down fell Gap down here boom done out boom again called the 92s fell dropped It's a couple weeks ago. We also did this actually. I don't have this one in here, but we did that one too That was or that was the earnings one actually that was the end of october closed here gap down closed up here around 130 and change gap down here around under 100 That was that was a good one Anyways gaps have huge opportunity why because I spot power and money power and money is in charge all the time Even if you think it's not it is and I continue to stress that Because again, so many people are buying the dips and stocks in the market And I and I really don't want people to get burned Well, I'm here to talk about what I do to market the educational classes that I teach people And I charge for I charge for my time and information I generally don't want people to get burned doing stupid things I say this and every single time I do one of these free webinars or lectures and for some reason I think people the concept of going long is for some reason something people gravitate towards Because you're like, okay, I can understand if you buy low and sell high I totally get it melissa people say but for some reason the idea of shorting people can't wrap their head out around it It's easily but the fact is shorting is very advantageous And if you can gain that niche in it when you know a lot of people don't like to do it or don't understand it Again, that gives you an edge. It gives you an edge. It's really not that hard If a stock is at $20 and you have a thousand shares and you short it and it drops to $19 in five minutes How much will you make a thousand dollars? So it's the number of shares times the buck That would be an equity trade on margin, for example It's the idea that you're betting that the stock is going to drop. It's really not that hard of a concept Okay But again, people love to go long But you know learning how to short gives you a big edge in my opinion Anyways, like I was saying gaps are created with large institutional money That is what makes the gap the professional gaps that happen and play out in stocks are formed by one thing And one thing only large institutional money Therefore you need a way that will help you pick the correct direction to play the gap And then confirm that the large money will flow with it by having a formula to rating qualify the gap You get confirmation and you get conviction the large institutional money is on your side and then guess what you play it Gaps are an event and create a sense of urgency. That's an action is being forced by participants of the stock This is why gap trading is incredibly powerful trading gaps is a powerful and profitable way to trade Because you're trading on the side of power of money Okay, and then it makes it a lot easier for you because you're not supplying the volume The volumes are already there. You're not even making a move.  I get up early super duper early I look at the market. I look at what's gapping Then I rate every gap that I see that I think I might want to train Using a 26 point checklist and this is what I teach in the class If the gap rates 20 points or more I'll short it Or I'll do a punt Otherwise I won't so if it rates 15 points and my goal is 20 guess what I'm not doing it And I'm also not flipping it. Then I always get this question. Well, how do you do? I try to do one take trade a day But you know, you could do anything it rates good Sometimes I'll do a couple options Just because it's easier to manage more of those because they go for usually a few days As far as size I've been doing this like I said since 2008 So I have been trading for almost 15 years If you are someone that has the money to trade the advanced trader risk That I trained or even more Then you have the cash to do it go for it after you take the class There are no prerequisites other than you have to be able to open up an account So as I stated the minimum opening for an options account is $2,000. I wouldn't risk $2,000 in a train I would do one contract at a time If you have a hundred grand And you want to risk $8,000 a trade in an option go for it. Okay So you have to assess one how much cash do you have to Your knowledge have you done the class? Okay, and three how long have you been trading? So if you've been trading for a while And you do my class and you have the cash to trade I certainly don't think there's any problem with people starting out with an advanced trader risk But you could do a hundred shares of something The minimum would be depending on if you open a retail account or a prop account for margin trading So at a retail place you need 25,000 to trade a 4 to 1 margin that would give you a hundred thousand of buying power If you have $25,000 opening and you go one penny under they're going to shut you off those teams So you really need like 30 cash to be at a retail place If you want to go to a prop place they'll open you up with sometimes 2500 You get 10 to 1 march and you have 25,000 in bp But then again, I would not risk more than 250 dollars a train 200 dollars a train Per trade risk. All right, so you must look at yourself individually There's no rules other than the fact that you have to be able to open the account and trade it If you have questions about that you can ask me individually and I'll tell you what I think And it's getting back to what I was saying There is only one thing and one thing only that can move the direction of a stock, which is money Not a little bit of money, but a lot of money or what I call power money Power money is in charge power money is in charge of the stock's direction and trends are set and moved by the power money people I guess what which was a lot of in the market Think about it. I mean, it's just like this. Why do you think everyone wants to trade the u.s? Market, why do I think people want to invest? Why do people talking about it on news channels and business channels all day long 24 hours a day? People love the idea of getting rich in the stock market. They love it. Love it. Love it. Okay And the dream is real But until you actually get good at a set strategy that consistently works in any market conditions bullish or bearish You're not going to be able to achieve your dreams or your goals of making money trading So that's the thing. Yeah, do your homework. Who are saying? And think intellectually about it like when you think about it everything that i'm saying today really makes sense It does the idea of shorting panic makes perfect sense The idea of only trading with big institutions, whether they're going long or short that makes sense. Okay Buying the dip doesn't make sense in a market. That's trending down all year You know Anyways, this is a good example here. I'm just going to show this here quickly. This was july Since we're talking about the market Actually, let's look at here. This is june. So this is a cute cute cues I could have pulled anything up. I could have pulled up the diamonds a spy anything So we based out here in june rally rally the whole month of july Rallying in the first two weeks of august remember that Okay Then the fed came out about the raid hike and then we fell ever since boom So again, if there was any chance for the market to recover it was here It was it was like, you know four or five months ago There was that But I said like back in april that I didn't think the market made a brandy well-timed high this year I was right. We we could have though We had a chance midway point through the year a little bit after You know six and a half seven months Seven months in a week or so. We could have done it But we failed, you know So that was it And again, what 2023 brings who knows? It's like it's a lot easier for me to predict What's going to happen between now and the end of today if I pull the market up I could tell you or tomorrow or friday Even rather than look at what's going to happen two months from now three months from now Again, look at 2020 if anyone could have predicted what the market would have done in 2020 with coven You know, you would be a billionaire. You'd be richer than Elon musk. So it's like Farther out you go harder to predict Shorter time frame easier to predict. What's one of the reasons I trade on a one-minute chart for the day trades? And again, I'm doing the weekly options. It's as short as I can do them, you know Anyways, here's today the market today as I said, we're falling And it's pretty interesting because again a lot of people didn't expect this after last week's rally Anyways, my system involves a 26 point golden gap rating system. That's the name of my course It's called the golden gap course and it pins points the direction of power of money by reading price action It's technical analysis. That's what I'm doing. You need to have conviction to make money Really having a good system gives you the conviction to do it If you want to follow the crowd of people, many people are again grasping at straws You know trying to find one big trade to nick up all the losses for the last five years of trading or whatever The case may be it's not about that. It's a grind here. I'm going to give an example I said earlier that I just moved It took me 29 months I started looking in july of 2020 for a new apartment to move after covid in the city prices were down Then they went up in 2021 and now they're starting to drop off again Anyways finding an apartment in new york a great apartment a fabulous apartment Even if you only spent a lot of money it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack A lot of realtors lie try to scam you it's it's absolutely was absolutely nuts actually I almost gave up, but I didn't I found a fabulous fabulous place But it took me 29 months then I moved Then I moved about two and a half weeks ago and guess what I've been on my feet 10 14 hours a day Unpacking and it's so much work so much work This is this is life, you know after i'm through it after i'm organized after my place is decorated beautifully I'm going to get there. I'm going to be so happy here. It's an amazing place I'm a meeting amazing people it's going to be fabulous, but it was so much work and took so long to find it And I kept pressing on it reminded me of actually trading I never thought it would take me more than three years to figure out how to make money the market If someone had told me that I probably wouldn't have done it Same thing with moving I said to my mom the other day if I had known how much work this was I probably wouldn't have moved But the fact is I did it I did it anyway So you you start out doing something you have it in your mind your positive mindset You're going to make money trading you're doing it. You're doing it Then you do it and you say oh my god This is not as easy as I thought And then you lost money and then you want to give up but you can't give up You can't give up because if you get up then everything you did from the day you started training the first trades You took the first class you paid for up until the day was a waste You wasted your time you wasted your energy and you wasted your money And that's where I was kind of at with the apartment thing now I will say this I was living in not a good area of the city I had a great view but I was living in midtown and midtown changed because of the homeless people the crime Covid everything and on top of that people were smoking pot in my building 24 hours a day seven days a week I couldn't take it anymore. It's like six air filters. I have allergies It was just like if it wouldn't have been for the pot I don't think I would have kept even pushing myself to find a place But the fact is anything that you want in life that's a dream or a big goal It could be moving to a new home like I did It could be moving to a different location a different city a different town a different state It could be a different job a different career. It could be having a baby It could be anything could be losing weight could be training any big goal that you have It's going to come with challenges. But but I'm telling you The mindset that so many people have that it's going to happen in an instant And that it's not going to take work and it's not going to take money Is wrong Okay, so as soon as you accept that it will be work It could take you more time than you think it might cost seven thousand dollars Which is the cost of my class it might take you several years Who knows But the fact is if you quit you definitely will not make it So you got two choices you either quit or you do nothing and you just keep basically going along not getting anywhere Or you just throw yourself into it Which is pretty much what i'm doing now with unpacking And you just say i'm not stopping till i'm done and that is what you have to do And that type of mentality is what separates the winners from the winner winners from the losers It's what separates the winners from the losers the perseverance that people have that they want to be successful You've heard it many stories except for people forget they forget that ilan musk was not born a billionaire They forget that You know many many people i could name more cubans another one people started out and they weren't successful They weren't born at the place they are now people think oh god all these people are so successful all these business people listen They all had their hardships and they all had their hard times And you you got to go through it. You know what i mean? You need to grow with mindset always Um non-save plant area i'm i'm now i moved up town i moved up town it's again I smell it outside But the building i'm in now is so much better so much better quality building I'm not going to have that problem here at secondo They have rules like again they had rules there but they weren't enforcing them with the pot It was crazy.  So there's only one Choice you're gonna have to make more money. That's it. Like i was saying this to a friend the other day I'm like well You know i'm paying a lot more now for where i'm living and i'm living now guess what i guess i'm just gonna have to make more Money so that's okay. That's okay.  I hear these stories from people. Oh my god I'm 65 i'm 70. I i'm still working and i'm still trying to figure out how to trade. Okay 70 is young Christy kirstie. I only just died yesterday. It was so sad so sad. I saw that on fox news last night She was only 71 now. She died of cancer 71 is young That's a young okay looking for a risk to reward of one to one in my day trades and one to one in my options But i'm telling you and i'm happy with 50 if i can get it there So if i'm risking $2,000 in a day trade if i make a thousand i'm okay with that But i'm trying to make two Okay, you have to watch what the market's doing and you have to watch the targets as well All right, I went off on a tangent there. So we'll see i'm watching my time But anyways, that was a good discussion You know if you walk away with nothing else today think about what i said about not giving up Is nothing wrong with hard work? You know, I think the problem with society nowadays everyone everybody wants everything now today yesterday And people don't want to work for it anymore. That's not reality I don't care people working from home.  You still got to go to work There's nothing wrong with that You know, I admire people that work hard. In fact some some man I met someone of the worker dudes that was coming in my apartment asked me what I did He asked me if I was married. I said no, I'm still single. He said why are you still single? I said I haven't met anyone who fell in love yet and he said what kind of man you're looking for I said someone that's successful. He said well, do they have to make a lot of money? I said I'd love for them to make a lot of money, but if they're if they're not make a lot of money I at least want them to Want to make a lot of money So I want to I would be attracted to a man who has a big ideas of success And someone that is entrepreneurial, you know someone that's motivated, you know, the problem is, you know, so many people you meet They're just not motivated I want to be with someone that aspires at least to be successful not someone that's lazy you know Again, think of all the people that you know now that again own all these companies. They didn't start out wealthy and rich Roger says that's me Anyways, 26 point checklist. That's what I teach having a checklist keeps you organized and focused Having a checklist forces you to look at what you should be looking at in a chart and a stock to make the correct decision Having a checklist helps assist you with directional bias Having a checklist keeps you on track to reach your goals a checklist is a plan of action Everyone that puts money into the market should have a plan of action and a checklist on a professional level All high-income career field specialists have checklists. Okay, so this was this was one week and I'm going to go fast year through this I'm going to get pretty fast year through this. This is one week of day trades 15,486 This was day trades. We did apple Here on the seven doesn't look like much but we were in and out We shorted it to 13680 got out here again. This is a little bit more than a buck So again, my risk was 30 60. I made a little bit more than 50 percent 2016 Then we didn't do anything on the fourth Then the third we had a good trade here Risk 31 50 got out with 25 50. We did the qqqs was 11 3 Down in here closed here fell gap down dropped We were in and out then that was the third and then we did a day trader this fine And this was the second this was here closed here gap down We actually shorted this here got in get out it was a day of the fed then in rally Then it fell but we were in and out of this super duper quick Okay, and we did uber which actually fundamentally was a long we went long uber here closed here gaped out We went long it spiked up We got in got out and then it closed here and then this fell that fell with the overall market That was 11 1 and then we had a big play big play in meta again This used to be facebook it is facebook 97 40 we added at 97 20 we went hog wild in this This is a great trade So I did an ad in this because I loved it 6 720 it was 10 31 This was this day in here Big fat red bar was a short Stock closed your gap down fell okay And as I spent a lot of time getting running in the morning get up early do the gaps rate everything look at the market And I'm in and out of trades fast So the more time you spend on prep learning trading studying Again, what you're going to do the faster you should be in and out of the tree So if you want to consistently make a lot of money the market the only way it's going to happen for you is if you have Number one a high winning strategy number two good money management and number three a good mentor to follow While I think it's important to have a mentor when you're learning It's not something that you should need for the rest of your life You come you take my class you learn from me You want to join the trading room for a bit you don't you don't shouldn't have to rely on me forever I mean that's the whole point of learning but for me I focus in the morning time of the day is key and again you can trade from home You can be anywhere in the world and do this it is about chunking it out And I think it's very important to empower yourself to trade not just this year in 2022 But next year in 2023 and going forward while a lot of people think the economy has you know only upside to go Things could get worse before they get better again interest rates could continue to climb That is not good for people who have credit cards and who have want to buy cars and houses and everything else You can't stop spending money You can't stop using credit cards or buying cards or buying gas or food or homes. You have to live your life Okay, so again the only choice is what earn more money figure out how to do it You get a raise at your job you find another career or you learn how to trade of the sign Even if you can only trade two or three days a week That's extra money if you look at it over the course of the month and a year Even if you can't do it every day So my class is called the golden gat course it teaches a 26 point rating system to find the best stock to trade each day The course also teaches you how to enter and enter the stock on the day The course teaches a price analysis and technical analysis on an advanced level So my class the last class of the year is this weekend the 10th and 11th It's a full two-day course on how to strategically find pick and play stocks in our professional bearish gaps Class is online. You can be anywhere in the world and take it The class tuition is $69.99 again 9 a.m. To 5 And then I also run a live trading room the trading room is open Monday at 9 a.m Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday We're usually done trading by 10 a.m 10 15 10 30 in the morning The newsletter for options is a separate special service You can go to my website and look at that But for this end of the year last class deadlines friday If you want to sign up you can get a year free in the trading room with the class This weekend again for $69.99 Any questions from anyone about anything here? I'm just Just going to answer any questions for the last 10 minutes Good discussion today You know again Don't get down on yourself if you haven't made it yet as a trader and there's nothing wrong with hard work Okay Wait if again if you just fast forward and all the hard work is done You'll be so happy that you did it so happy that you made it You know if someone could say okay, you know five years from now You're earning a million dollars a year.  Would you do everything you had to do to get there? Would you you say oh no five years is too long. It's way too long No, it goes by like the blink of an eye. Look at it next year 2023. It's less than 30 days away Actually, it's less than 20 days from Christmas Christmas is a 19 19 days So, I mean, you know life goes so fast so fast It's worth the investment to invest in your future Even if it's work even if it costs money It's the it's the only way to make it no one's going to hand you anything in a silver platter Okay, any last minute questions here from anyone. Thank you so much for having me So nice to be here and I will see all of you in 2023 Again, if you want to contact me if you have Questions or would like information about the class. Here's my email or if you want to go to my youtube you can watch it It's on the stock swash Thanks for having me. All right, um, melissa. Thank you very much


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Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Tom Wagner and as you know every month we strive to focus on a different department, different programs and responsibilities. We have 144 million budget, 19 departments, over 200 programs and services, a lot going on and today we're very pleased for perhaps some of you to meet for the first time our new County Corporation Council, Crystal Fieber. Welcome. Thank you Adam, good morning Tom. It's nice to have you here. Crystal took over the reins from Carl Bezing who was our Corporation Council for a number of years but let's start with you Crystal. Please share a little bit about yourself, your background and and introduce yourself to the community. Sure. So I'm a Sheboygan County native, grew up in Sheboygan County, graduated from Plymouth High School. After that I went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Go Badgers. Major in political science and international relations. After college I moved back to Sheboygan County, lived in Plymouth for a year and worked saving money for law school. So I sold cell phones and in bar attended. Then I attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, Mizzou and while there I was the editor-in-chief of the Missouri Environmental Law and Policy Review. I also worked at a small law firm that focused on personal injury work and interned at the Missouri Attorney General's Office. After law school I found my way back to Sheboygan County and started with my current firm Hoppnum and Humkey in 2006. And as you mentioned recently have taken over as Corporation Council for my predecessor Carl Bissing. He retired at the end of 2018 but prior to that I had had a lot of contact with the county department head staff and so was was well aware of the county workings because of having started with the firm in 2006. Absolutely fair to say you hit the ground running. It's been a seamless transition and and you've been well received by the team. So it's going well. Thank you Adam. I forgot that you were a badger. I'm a badger as well. Go badgers right? Are you going to a football game here in the upcoming future? I'd like to. I don't currently have tickets. Well I'll see if I can help you out there. I actually try to get to a game a year. Well again good to have you here. Please touch on the primary roles and responsibilities of being a Corporation Council. Some folks might be wondering well what do they do? The Corporation Council provides all of the the civil legal services for the county so whereas the DA's office works on on the criminal matters occurring within the county, my office handles the civil matters. So we advise the elected officials, elected and appointed officials, the department heads were responsible for providing ethics opinions if any of the officials have ethics questions. We draft the legislation resolutions and ordinances on which the county board acts and and just any of the general legal matters. And Tom, how has your advice been so far? It's been excellent. It's a really good job. I've known Crystal a long time in all honesty but no it was a very smooth transition. We looked for that to happen because one of the things I'll just add is we're a little unusual in Sheboygan County that we contract with a private firm and it's worked out wonderful in my opinion for Sheboygan County. We've looked at a number of times usually if there are size a lot of times we'll have an in-house corporate council but we believe that not only do we have the advantage of Crystal services primarily but we also get other people in our office who have different expertise so we're getting more for our buck we believe in Sheboygan County. And that is a perfect segue to my next question if you could you know share a little bit about how your office is structured and as a contracted department or service how long has this been in place? We do have a really unique relationship with Sheboygan County since 1955 my firm has been representing the county as the outside corporation council I believe we're one of three of the counties within the state of Wisconsin that handles their corporation council that way most of them as as Tom said are in-house corporation councils but in 1955 attorney Alex Hopp became the corporation council for Sheboygan County and then that work has stayed with my firm since 1955. And you work with a number of very talented partners? Well thank you I do there are six attorneys in my office currently attorney Mike Bauer handles a lot of the real estate work for the county he was instrumental in the acquisition of Amsterdam Dunes we have attorney Phil Miller who works closely with Laura Henning Lorenz in the county treasurer's office in the IMREM proceedings and for for the viewers that may not be familiar with that and IMREM proceeding is when there's a tax foreclosure for unpaid property taxes so there's a court process that Phil navigates with Laura Henning Lorenz we also have attorney Herb Humkey Herb does a lot of litigation for the firm and and for the county when there's a litigation matter we'll ask Herb to participate in that there is attorney Paul Dirksy he has he came to the firm in 2002 with a background in child support enforcement and guardianship matters Paul also does a lot of real estate work and then our newest member of the firm is attorney Oliver Bauer he works closely with the planning and conservation department on sanitary ordinance enforcement he does the caretaker male treatment cases for the county and he fills in for our assistant corporation council who will get to in just a minute when she's absent so our office does fill in that way for her and although not a member of my firm on my table of organization I do have an assistant corporation council who is excellent her name is Samantha Pastel she handles the child support enforcement and the mental health commitments and the adult guardianship cases for the county yeah wonderful overview and and if you're wondering you know well of only three counties in the state of contracted corporation council services does this really make the most sense for Sheboygan County the answer is yes not only do we have this wonderful track record dating back to 1955 but we've looked at it in fact we've looked at it on a couple of instances and compared in contrasted continuing with with contracted services versus bringing it in house and both times we've concluded that we receive better service and a stronger team with a contracted approach and the cost is actually more cost effective with their approach we have so we're fortunate I presume in some counties that just wouldn't work but it's worked very well here in and again we're glad crystal now has the reins and is it is leading the charge so as as people may think about an organization of our size I mean obviously there's so much going on providing services dealing with challenging cases whether it's health and human services child custody custody law enforcement I mean there's so much going on that can involve the need for legal advice but if you boil it down what would you say are some of the more routine responsibilities that the corporation council office has we do a lot of of contract review contract drafting for the county drafting ordinance and resolutions as I mentioned before so there's a lot of that and public records requests so the county gets numerous requests every week for the public who are interested in obtaining records and so many times those will be sent to us if there is some concern from a department head of records custodian about the release of the records many of them are released routinely without our office's involvement but we do regularly review those record requests as well yeah and I know Tom and I both rely on your office a lot rely on you specifically a lot just for legal interpretations even if an ordinance is in place there's still maybe some interpretation of that language or statutes that we need interpretation on and and you do a great job with that so thank you Tom right absolutely and the law is always changing right I mean it's static I mean there's no doubt about that in she went in county we're always looking to make improvements and there's going to be some changes in your office coming up for next year you want to talk about them a little bit yes we do have some big changes coming so my office will be hiring a another attorney to handle the the chips tprs and guardianship cases for the county chips are really children who are in need of protection and or services those are children who come into the system because their parents are unable to care for them and the county steps in and through the court system places them either with with relatives or with a foster family so that they can can get the care that they need the tpr cases are termination of parental rights cases so the goal is always reunification with a parent sometimes that's not possible and and then the county is is in a position where we need to be looking at terminating parental rights so we can give these children some some permanency for their future and some certainty about about where they're going to be in a year so we will be taking those cases over from the district attorney's office which is a trend that we've been seeing statewide over the last several years so the statutes provide that either the district attorney's office or corporation council can handle these kinds of matters for the county and in our case we're going to be making that that transition at the end of august of of 2019 we had in shaboy and counting we had 230 kids who are in out of home placement that's a lot of kids and we're seeing that number steadily rise over the last five years there's been a very significant increase in the number of children who have been placed out of homes along with those placements there is certainly a cost and so those costs are state mandates to the county an unfunded mandate so the county is also paying for these children to be placed out of homes in 2013 that cost is about 1.1 million in 2019 we're projected at about 2.2 million so that gives you an idea of the cost of this the average child is waiting about 3.3 years out of home before there's some some permanency or certainty for that child so with this transition to my office we're really looking to shorten the amount of time that a child is is in an out of home placement there are some parameters that we work with within the statute and it's a very serious situation when we're talking about terminating a parent's parental rights so not approaching this lightly but want to to the degree we can make this an easier process for the children going through this this difficult time yeah there's just sometimes where there's no question and those numbers are sad frankly but in some instances the child has to be somewhere else simply for their own protection absolutely yeah you kind of talked about it so and and and maybe if you want to just reiterate or whatever why do you think this is so important to move this over to your to your office well I think it's so important because we're looking to change the model in that we're going to have one dedicated person so we will be hiring a new attorney so certainly if any of our viewers our members of the state bar and interested or know someone who who might be interested we're looking at making a new hire this person will work closely with health and human services we want this person to be working with the social workers throughout those chips proceedings to make sure that the files are properly documented and it's not that our social workers aren't doing a good job now they are but we think with having an attorney more closely involved throughout the process that we are going to be able to create some efficiencies when it comes time if we are in that situation we're terminating parental rights so we think it's an important transition and and are hoping that we can create some efficiencies in that process yeah thanks are there any other key projects that I know that you're working on for the county right now one of the key projects is the us customs facility so as you're well aware we have the rider cup coming September 2020 so that should be an economic boom for our county and the Kohler company has a lot of international travel even outside of the rider cup but we're looking to have the us customs facility up and running at the Sheboygan county airport to service anyone who's who's coming in internationally for the rider cup but even after that we're expecting that there will be use significant business use from Kohler company as the main user but also our other local businesses who may have some international travel so we're working to get the customs facility constructed and that's well underway we also have a funding arrangement with Kohler company as the main user of the customs facility Kohler company has stepped up and will be funding the us customs officer there will also be it will be a user fee facility so while Kohler company will be entirely responsible for that funding for the first three years of a of an agreement that's roughly 30 years it'll go through 2050 after the first three years there will be user fees at the county airport and those user fees will be charged to anyone who's using the customs facility so not people who are using the airport in general just those who are using customs at the airport so I think that's a really exciting project and probably my favorite project that we have going on right now yeah it's a big deal and it's a big change I know road america uses people flying the road america to the Sheboygan county is a destination for a number of things with the golf courses and the racetrack those are two without a doubt that stand out in my mind always as a destination you don't find those two things in many counties without a doubt we're unique in our regard what do you think is the most time-consuming and challenging work that you've been doing for the county in your new position one of the most time-consuming pieces for me other than dealing with me outside of dealing with the county board chair yes one of the more time-consuming things that I work on relates to our health and human services department it's a huge department for the county and there's a lot of different legal issues occurring within that department because of the nature of their work there's a lot of federal law and state law and then we have our county code and so there are a lot of different places that I need to be looking when there's a legal issue that arises at health and human services so we have HIPAA is our federal law that protects the release of medical information so we're always checking that and then we have state confidentiality laws there are special laws related to the release of mental health or drug treatment records versus juvenile records and so there are really a lot of places to look when there's questions that arise related to to records releases at health and human services and sometimes those come in the form of general public records requests sometimes those come in the form of discovery during litigation an attorney may be requesting those records from health and human services so that's probably one of the more time-consuming pieces that I do in terms of challenging one of the the things I really like about my job is the variety so that's it's always a challenge when you're faced with something new every week and multiple times a week I have an issue arise that I've never encountered before so I would say that part is challenging but also the part of what part of what makes my job great I think I would be bored if it was very routine and I had the same questions coming at me every day county government is far from boring in many instances going back a little bit to the health human services I just wanted to yeah I think a lot of people aren't aware other than the Milwaukee County which the state operates their health and human services the other 71 counties we really deliver the services for the state of Wisconsin and in some instances federal flow through funds from Washington DC so that's constantly changing and that's why that department is rather large because it's the counties who are delivering all those services just another example of something that's going on would be juvenile detention they're looking at closing their juvenile detention up by wasa and it would be the counties who would take that over and basically build I think now they're looking at four new buildings and things like that so it's it's just a constant change in that area and they're always changing the regulations all the time so it is complex so I appreciate all your work with that so Adam thanks Tom as you mentioned health and human services our largest department so much going on there critical safety net services and obviously you have a assistant corporation council that spends some time there and with child support please share a little bit about that role of your your assistant corporation council and what their primary functions are because they're very critical to our operations they are so Sam Bastille she handles the child support enforcement so she's frequently in court um related to those issues then the chapter 51 mental health commitments so if there is someone who is is a risk to themselves those individuals will be taken in to have their their mental health evaluated and then there's a hearing to determine whether or not they are are at risk of harming themselves so she handles those hearings as well and then she does the guardianship sometimes we have adults who are not in a position to care for themselves sometimes those are our dementia issues and they don't have relatives in the area who are able to care for them so a neighbor might report that that there's that they have a concern and it comes to the county's attention and then Sam steps in and is involved in in the court proceeding to determine whether or not this individual is able to care for themselves if it's determined that they're not then there is is typically a corporate guardian appointed and that corporate guardian assists with with the the care of this adult that's the financial care medical treatment and and day to day living care yeah heavy lifting Sam I think is fantastic and really heavy matters to deal with dealing with a lot of emotions and and just challenging situations and she does it very effectively yeah well thank you for that overview so of course all these programs these services whether it's the corporation council department or one of the other 19 departments it takes funds to operate Sheboygan county government I think many of our viewers know that county government is the right arm of state government most of what we do is mandated by the state and sadly there's this long track record of the state requiring programs and services but not necessarily providing sufficient funds to implement them we have the property tax levy is our primary county board means of raising revenue to support programs and services and of course people don't want to see their property taxes go up and we all get that and the board has a wonderful track record of holding the line with that said now we have a one-size-fits-all property tax cap in place associated with net new construction and this is where folks might start to get a little fuzzy animal what does this all mean essentially what it means is the county is only able to raise property taxes now by a certain amount tied to net new construction can you in layperson language you know share that statutory umbrella that counties work with sure so this this levy limit was really imposed in 2011 so we had a little bit more flexibility before that time starting in 2011 the legislature imposed the the levy limit that would be equal for each municipality to the percentage increase in net new construction and what that means is it's it's the equalized value of net new construction so that's the fair market value I think most people know that we have municipal assessors they come out and they give me your your property and assessed value that's all then submitted to the state department of revenue and the in the department of revenue comes up with an equalized value so the the percentage that each municipality can increase their property tax levy is then limited to that percentage increase in equalized value of net new construction so the percentage increase in fair market value that's going to vary widely between municipalities municipalities that have a lot of development going on they're obviously going to have a higher percentage and a little bit more flexibility in determining their levy limit because that that levy limit is going to be higher and then there's some municipalities that are going to be you know stagnated if they have no net new construction that that then they do not get to increase their levy limits this is how it generally works so the challenge with that that the county board is faced with that we're all faced with as as department heads are very engaged with the budget development is you know the question people may pose well what does net new construction have to do with providing law enforcement or addressing mental health issues or dealing with termination of parental rights or guardianship i mean really there's no relationship with net new construction in providing these services some of which are on the arise unfortunately the county board led by tom wagner implemented the half percent sales tax a few years ago so now we have a a reliable funding source for our transportation system and we're doing great work out there dedicating that to our transportation and property tax relief and sharing it with other municipalities but my concern having been in this role now for a little over 20 years is the board has done such a remarkable job holding the line on property taxes well before this cap would into place but to put this in perspective the net new construction increase this year was 1.26 percent now if you're a fan of not seeing your property taxes go up which i certainly am that may not sound all bad but 1.2 point 1.26 percent is not enough revenue to cover wage and benefit increases alone yet alone other needs for example one of the key things we're dealing right now is the possibility of expanding our detention detention center we can borrow as much as we want by state law but to operate it it will cost us over a million closer to two million dollars to staff that detention center if we if we put a big 20 million dollar addition on so the question crystal is if net new construction is not sufficient going forward to cover a basic programs and services to maintain what we have yet alone address other needs such as a detention center that's full of the brim what what alternative does the county board have to try to raise additional revenue to meet these needs the county board would be able to submit it to a referendum which really means that the county board would submit it to the voters and the voters would determine whether or not we could exceed that percentage increase in net new construction so there would need to be a certain an explanation as to why why why we would be asking for the referendum and then the voters would see it as a question on their ballots right and this may be something going forward that the county board is going to have to do and i personally do not relish that idea i am a big fan of supporting local control which is why tom wagner and the county board was elected by their constituents but we may get to a point we're just to provide basic wage and benefit increases to cover ongoing costs we may have to go to a referendum to maintain programs and services so i share this and appreciate crystals explanation so our viewers appreciate that this may be a new approach going forward for sheboygan county in the next two three years on how we operate our organization and it's one that gives us all some angst because as you can imagine going to referendum to justify a cost of living pay increase for our correctional officers or whatever it may be feels almost punitive it's it's a difficult way to operate your organization especially one is complex desire so well absolutely and i think everyone is generally aware of the percentage increases in in health care costs in terms of health care insurance that alone you know i've seen numbers 12 percent 15 percent 22 percent so those are huge percentage increases and when we're talking about an organization the size of sheboygan county 1.2 1.26 percent really isn't going to cut it even for health care costs alone for the insurance coverage right so more more to be discussed there but wanted to bring that up next month we'll be talking more about our proposed 2020 budget we're in good shape for 2020 but every year it's getting tighter and we're getting closer i think to those types of referendum discussions i want to end it with a final question and this is so important to all of us and our organization's success we want more people to be involved with our county organization all of the county board meetings are open to the public all the committee meetings are open to the public what would your advice be crystal on how people can become more engaged or provide input or suggestions to the organization well certainly there's always the option to contact their elected officials all of the the county board supervisors have their contact information on the county website if you go to directory of officials you can find out who is your representative official if you're not familiar and certainly can reach out to that individual and express concerns ideas i think that's one of the the really great aspects of county government and local government is that the elected officials are available we sometimes don't get that same direct contact with state representatives because it's just a much bigger area that they cover but the the county officials certainly are available to the constituents if they want to reach out and contact them they certainly can write into the county board if they they don't feel like calling and there is an opportunity for a public address at the county board meetings we do have that built into the agenda so from time to time we will have citizens who request to appear if there's something on the county board agenda on which that person would like the county board to know their viewpoints yeah well thank you it's been an absolute pleasure talking with you for the last 30 minutes that went by pretty quickly didn't it thank you crystal well thank you so we appreciate your time we appreciate your leadership when we appreciate your firm's good work benefiting sheboygan county and all the citizens here so thank you so much and thank you for joining us if you have any further questions about our corporation council services don't hesitate to contact myself or crystal directly you can look at our website and you'll see the numbers and contact information for the different departments next month we're going to be talking about our 2020 budget our proposed budget we're just about wrapping up the process the board will be the final decision maker here in the end of october but we'll talk a little bit about what's what's the budget look like and some of the wonderful initiatives that are in play ahead so until then thank you for joining us and we'll see you next month