Always have. And there is something more satisfying from being self taught, though hard to get too far from digital lessons and advice nowadays.

In my twenties, I learned to count cards at blackjack. Of course there still were single and double deck games then before the endless shoes of four or six decks. If you were good enough you could just get the edge on the house. I actually was banned from two Nevada casinos! I doubt that skill set could still serve me today. But that was fun.

This site was created and coded by me with WordPress until very recent help called upon to clean up a bit of code to make things work better on mobile devices. I’ll still take credit for 95% of all you see and click. I’ll sometimes forget how I did something years ago and have to relearn. But I enjoy this challenge.

When I was bitten by photography, especially concert photography, I did seek out books and articles by some of the famous or wanna be famous live music photographers. Then I decided what they all preached just couldn’t be right. Especially for me. The short of it is since there is MUCH less light than your mind’s eye makes you think there is, aperture is what makes it all work. Let in as much light as you can and fiddle with the other sides of the exposure triangle – shutter speed and sensitivity or ISO. However, this could lead to excessively noisy shots when ISO had to be dialed up (much better now as technology improves daily) or shutter speeds would be too slow for tack sharp pictures. As far as I am concerned, if a picture isn’t sharp with rare exceptions such as an historic moment filled with motion or news story shot under pressure, then it doesn’t work for me. So I always made sure shutter was fast enough for the Image Stabilization of my camera and lenses and my steadiness of hand and then let aperture float at the wider sides or lens openings and braved sensor noise by pushing my ISO to the practical limits of my gear. In the old days, ISO 2400 or 3200. Then 6400. Today I get usable images even up to 12,800 though I try to stay below 6400 and as low as possible. I think I do an acceptable job.

Not so long ago day trading caught my interest. Though truth be told, anything I buy for my small portfolio is held more long term. I read blogs, websites, articles. I read you cannot time the market. I read make dummy accounts and trades and watch how you would have done. Etc. I never had the goal of buying and selling the same stock in the same day and making a few hundred dollars. But really,that is what day trading is, no?

So, I watched. I decided, not uniquely, that its a good thing to invest in things you like,things you use. For example in my case, Apple instead of Hydrogen or Lithium for example. Or pharmaceuticals! Google is another.They have all done well for me. But now, with a new self learning goal I set off to choose two stocks that are meaningful, good products, do no harm stocks. Watched for months. With the tariffs this year, one could see a big drop then a come back as the tariff news would change daily. I thought I found bottom or close to for these two stocks and made a sizable investment for me. They both dropped instantly.

One dropped so much that I struggled withdoubling down – called a Martingale in casino gambling where you bet $1 and lose, next bet is $2 and on until you are ahead. Never ever is a good strategy. A sucker bet. In stocks you lower the average cost per share by increasing your investment (and risk) so it takes less to become positive again when you buy more shares at the now lower cost. So I did that for one of these stocks and doubled the shares I owned. It dropped further 🙁

So, my still modest portfolio is up significantly with the big 7 and decently chosen mutual funds and ETFs, and the only losers are those two where I tried to “time the market”. I’m still holding…