5 Life Lessons 🎢

Reflections after Covid

Author

Snowfish
April 07, 2024

Welcome April

5 years ago this month, I left my 18 years Corporate America career in NYC.

Taking a leap of faith on myself with a passion of helping others.

Then Covid came in 2020 changing our world till today, as we deal with its aftermath- inflation and affordability.

I. Mindset

Making the choice to prioritize passion over security and ambition over comfort was not easy.

These last five years have been filled with ups and downs, challenges and triumphs, but more importantly, they've been a period of immense growth and self-discovery.

When faced with adversity — we can curl up on our bed and cry feeling bad for ourselves or take it on the chin and find a way to strike back.

(It’s ok to do both btw)

Here are 5 invaluable lessons I've learned the last five years:

1) Life is too short to not do something you love: money isn’t everything.
- Human nature is to fixate on financial gains, I encourage you to identify what truly brings you joy and fulfillment.
- For me, it was mastering a skill set - trading the financial markets. My passion for analyzing trends and chart patterns became a mentally stimulating obsession — a pursuit that I could immerse myself in day in and day out.

2) Find your passion: if you're struggling to identify your passion, don't despair.
- Start exploring new interests and activities to ignite your curiosity.
- Pay attention to the things that excite you and make you lose track of time.
- It's those moments of fascination that lead to discovering your true calling.

3) Surround yourself with supportive individuals: I’m not talking about those “friends” that distract you on the weekends.
- Assess are the individuals in your life helping you grow and get ahead or holding you back because they are comfortably set in their ways.
- Surround yourself with individuals who encourage and inspire you to pursue your dreams, not the ones constantly talking about what others are doing or what’s going on in the media.
- I became the role model for others, I never had. Check out how our friendships can shape our future here

4) Push through self-doubt: it's okay to feel uncomfortable or uncertain, but don't let fear hold you back. Embrace it!
- Have confidence in your abilities and let your passion drive your actions.
- I thought about leaving my job for 3 years because I was “getting ready” until I got a gut check from my passion and quit the next day. Reached a point I had enough of the BS.

5) Focus on your own journey: don’t fall into the social media trap of comparing your progress to others.
- Channel your energy into giving your all to your own path.
- Everyone seems like an overnight success because you can’t see their daily grind.
- I like to reflect on my progress and use others success as motivation and confirmation anything is possible.

Everything needs to start with addressing the feelings that we have within.

II. Money

Life after Covid has been quite costly to say the least…I can’t be the only one that still cringes paying at the grocery store. 🥴

Traveling through our financial journey will bring euphoria and hiccups depending on what we are dealing with.

It's important to step back and check in from time to time to make sure our financial decisions align with our values, passions, and aspirations.

Here are 3 financial tips to enhance your quality of life:

  • Invest in your personal growth - investing in activities or experiences that fuel your curiosity and ignite your passion. I’m not talking about happy hours and brunch on the weekends…those are really distractions.
    - Enroll in a course, attend a workshop, or read personal development books, view these expenses as investments in yourself and your future.
    - Practicing mindfulness and focusing on small achievable goals at a time will alleviate that overwhelming feeling and empower you to take control and seek change.

  • Choose your financial circle wisely: - surround yourself with financially savvy individuals that can help you make better decisions and grow your assets.
    - Seek out mentors, advisors, and peers who are already doing what you would like to explore.
    - Want to invest in Real Estate or the Stock market? - Seek a mentor who’s experienced doing so.
    - This will not only save you time and money in the long run but open up your mind to a whole new world.

  • Focus on making small progress not on getting rich: - worry about tackling your struggles one at a time not comparing yourself to the fake lifestyles on social media.
    - If you struggle budgeting or saving: create an action plan and do it for 3 months.
    - If it’s paying off debt: create a spreadsheet and a plan to pay it down in 3 months.
    - Want to know where to start? See here for budgeting and debt.

Surround yourself with those who elevate you, challenge you, and inspire you to reach new heights — Life is too short to be standing still.

III. Markets

Rough start to the second quarter with volatile price action following a strong start to the year.

The major indices all settled with decent losses last week cooling off some after

the Dow Jones Industrial Average+5.6%, S&P 500 +10.2% and Nasdaq Composite +9% for Q1 2024.
Here is how we did compared to them.

The downside bias was related to a sharp increase in treasury rates amid some solid economic data and sticky inflation figures.

Market participants also recalibrated rate cut expectations following last week's data.

Here are the main points from last week:

  • February Personal Spending and Income report showed sticky inflation figures in the form of the PCE Price.

  • The March ISM Manufacturing Index and the March employment report reflected ongoing strength in the economy.

  • Apple $AAPL is pursuing home robotics assistant after cancelling iCar

  • Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari (not an FOMC voter) warned it's possible the Fed might not cut rates this year if progress on inflation stalls.

  • Increased geopolitical tensions in the Middle East related to a potential retaliation by Iran against Israel

  • Tesla $TSLA missed Q1 deliveries by 14%; will unveil its RoboTaxi in August

S&P 500 Heatmap for last week

🚨 All eyes this week will be on 🚨

March CPI - Consumer prices have come in on the high end the last three reports. Core prices in March are expected to slow to a monthly increase of 0.3% vs 0.4% in February. Annual rates are expected at 3.5% overall and 3.7% core compared to February’s 3.2% and 3.8% core.

- Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the change in the average price level of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by consumers.

March PPI - Producer prices in March are expected to rise 0.3% on the month vs a 0.6% rise in February. The annual rate is seen at 2.3% vs February's 1.6% which, like the monthly rate, was higher than expected.

- The Producer Price Index (PPI) of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a family of indexes that measure the average change over time in the prices received by domestic producers of goods and services. PPIs measure price change from the perspective of the seller.

Banks kicking off Q1 earnings season this week

$SPY: S&P 500 finally reached a rocky road last week due to stubborn inflation data and a resilient economy.

We have been trading in a tight range 515-525 the last 2 weeks, the CPI and PPI inflation data should help it pick a direction this week.

Is this pull back only getting started or just a shakeout of weak hands?

SPY over 525 trades to 528,530,535. Under 513 pulls back to 508,505,498,495

Trades Recap📊

Here are how some of our callouts did last week:

Interested in making passive income while you’re at work?

Comment at the bottom of this post “Swing trading” for more information

$RNA: our swing from $7.28 tagged our $27 price target last week for +276% return on your money It needs to consolidate some before making its next move.

$TGT: Target our swing trade from $131 entry tagged our $175 price target last week for +33.51% return on your money.

Watchlist 👨‍🏫

Here are some charts we are watching this week:

$FAS: with Banks kicking off Q1 earnings season let’s take a look at this Financials 3x leveraged ETF. It’s up +115% since late October on the Fed rate cuts thesis.

With such high expectations and rate cuts going from 6 last October to now maybe 3 if any…what happens? 🤔

Banks will give us a good read on what earnings sentiment will be like after markets huge rally since October.

FAS over 113 trades to 120,125,130,140. Under 104 pulls back to 98,90 and 83.

$JPM: JP Morgan Chase is reporting earnings on Friday before the open. By far the best performing bank since October up +100%, can expectations live up to its recent run will be the question.

Wall Street is looking for EPS of $4.18 a share on revenue of $41.8 billion.

JPM over 202 trades to 205,208,210. Under 195 pulls back to 190,184,178.

$WFC: Wells Fargo is up +50% the last 5 months and Wall St. expects Q1 profit estimate to remain flat at $1.07 EPS on $20.19 billion revenue.

WFC over 60 trades to 65,68,70. Under 56 trades to 52,50 and 48.

*None of these stocks above are recommendations to buy, sell or trade. We do not give financial advice, you should always do your own due diligence and practice proper risk management. For educational purposes only*

If you are interested in getting our swing trade alerts ahead of time, comment “I am interested” at the bottom of this post for more information

This segment is brought to you by Ceni Capital which was founded as a way to foster a community of like-minded individuals and empower them to create long term wealth by capitalizing on shorter term investments.

For those who are looking to try something different in 2024, let us take you on a transformative journey!

I value your time and will strive to keep the content easy to read and short enough to get to the point!

If you would like to support this free newsletter, here are the most helpful ways:

  •  📲 Screenshot your favorite part, share it on your stories and tag me @SnowfishTrading @Mindset.Money.Matters

  •  🏹Forward the newsletter to your friends, family or anyone who you feel it may help- they can subscribe here

  •  📨 Reply back with any questions or topics you would like more information on

See you next week!👋🔑🔑🔑

Reply

or to participate.