Archive for the 'Life' Category

Share Your Paid Wifi with Friends

Published by Bret Fisher on Aug 17, 2010 in Life, Microsoft and Tech. 4 Comments Tags: airport, freeware, hotel, Microsoft, travel, vacation, wifi, wireless.

Virtual Router Ever been in a hotel, airport, coffee shop, or some place that you pay per computer to use their Wireless Internet? Windows 7 has a new feature “Virtual Wifi” that lets you use your wireless as if it was multiple wireless NIC’s, but why do we care? One way to use that virtual wifi feature is to use free software to allow connecting to wireless Internet while also turning your wireless into it’s own hotspot. Great for the wife’s or coworkers laptops sitting next to you. Pay once, surf many.

There’s been a similar feature since XP to share connections, but this required you to use two different NIC’s and only supported peer-to-peer network. This software fixes both issues.

Software: Virtual Router – Wifi Hot Spot for Windows 7 – 2008 R2

Info: Share Wireless Internet Connection In Windows 7 Without Ad Hoc

Trading: Method vs. Emotions

Published by Bret Fisher on May 16, 2010 in Book, Food, Life and Stock Market. 0 Comments Tags: mental, mood, Stocks, zone diet.

I'm striving for this: true calm

From the scripture of Mark Douglas in The Disciplined Trader:

As a result, I sincerely feel that success in trading is 80 percent psychological and 20 percent one’s methodology, be it fundamental or technical. For example, you can have a mediocre knowledge of fundamental and technical information, and if you are in psychological control, you can make money. Conversely, you may have a great system, one that you have tested and has performed well for a long period of time, yet if the psychological control is not there, you will be the loser.

Steps I’ve recently taken to increase my mental control (since we all seem to default to focusing on technique):

Meditation, both “empty your mind” and “visioning”. I took a quick $7 lesson from a local mind+body shop. Still working at implementing it daily.
Monitor/schedule my sleep. A Tim Ferriss trick is to use a timer rather then alarm for sleeping so I am focusing on my sleep deposit/debt. This works better if I don’t have a required wake time for a job (I don’t). Lack of sleep causes me to be more moody and thus more emotional. Goal is eight hours, so I often start “going to bed” at T minus nine hours.
Monitor/schedule my eating. Food is the most powerful drug we take multiple times a day (unless you live in a hospital I guess). Smaller meals more often keeps my blood sugar (the brain’s food) more level and thus my mood (emotional state). I also stay away from sugar and manufactured carbs which spike the blood sugar (but not yet conquered caffeine). The theory and application of this is found in The Zone Diet, which is designed to keep the body/mind “in the zone” of optimum energy by controlling what you eat.
Don’t trade when I’m focused on finances. If I need to pay next months bills with my "planned winnings” then I’ll trade from emotion, rather then if the money has no near-term impact on my lifestyle. Even once trading becomes my only income my plan has me withdrawing once-for-the-next-six-months and eventually to once-for-the-next-year so my lifestyle is unaffected by my day to day market success.
Plan, plan, and more sticking to the plan. How many times will I trade a month? How many times will I practice in a month? How much cash will I use each time? How many trades in a row loss will cause a “real money hold” period? What charts will I use? What stocks will I use? When do I get out of the trade “when it’s not working” and “when it’s working”? What do I consider “it’s not working”… and on and on. The more details I have documented and the more I review it… the more I tend to be less emotional on entry and exit of a trade.

Image used with Creative Commons License from Jeff Power’s on Flickr

My Great Experiment

Published by Bret Fisher on Nov 11, 2009 in Life and Stock Market. 1 Comment

My Great Experiment What if, regardless of circumstances, you could quit your job and retire within 5 years? What if you could only work 4-8 hours a week and make in a week what you used to make in a year, and do it from anywhere? What if you could leave and take a month to explore something you’ve always wanted to (travel, learn a sport, etc.) and come back with more money then you left?

Imagine spending your time doing all the things “you always wanted to do” but didn’t have the time, money, or energy to do? What if the belief that a job is the safe way and retirement at 65+ is the only way… is actually a lie?

In 2003 I started asking myself these questions, and have found the answers.

I’ve learned in the last 5 years that this is indeed possible and first has to start with believing it can happen. I mostly did this with books, some classes, and support from my Wife. Without any skills in either real estate or the stock market we are quickly coming to a turning point in our mindset and abilities that will allow us to do just that. I imagine this blog will change along with me, since I am quitting my job and phasing out my technology career. I’ve had people tell me this can’t be done, at the same time I’m doing it. I’ve had many moments I thought it was moving too slow and would never happen, or that I didn’t have the magic skills to make it work. But for the moments that it seems to take forever, I’ve had moments (like now) that a huge leap forward has taken place and now realize within a year we’ll both be living the way we started to dream 6 years ago with one simple book: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. It may not be the perfect book, but it lit a spark of hope, and after reading that book we had only one rule we weren’t willing to break: once we started to act on these dreams, we would never give up… never.

Great Weekend in Missouri with Shaman's Harvest

Published by Bret Fisher on May 3, 2009 in Entertainment, Life and Music. Closed Tags: band, blue note, columbia, indie bands, missouri, rock, Shaman's Harvest.

What a awesome show! To see your brother on stage rockin’ to hundreds of people is a rare thing. Watched my brothers band Shaman’s Harvest release their 4th CD Shine at the Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. Listen to a few tracks, see my photos of the event, and support indie bands by buying the album (once it comes out online).

Mastery, it's vital to understand

Published by Bret Fisher on Nov 15, 2007 in Book and Life. Closed Tags: Book, improvement, mastery, self-help, success.

Maybe you just get it… but I didn’t. Maybe I just forgot along the way. Before you read any other self-help book, read all 176 short pages of Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard, and then read it again. I find myself going back to my notes again and again to remind myself of what it is to be on the road of mastery in anything I want to do. It always helps when I think of straying off my plan to get better at something. Buy Mastery on Amazon.