Here at Simply Finance we give you a high level of Financial Data alongside relatable stories that make it easier for you to learn and make Finance fun.
Let’s put some personality back in Finance.
Don’t be shy to hit the “like” button, share this post, and become a subscriber to this entirely FREE NEWSLETTER if you haven’t done so already!
That’s how we keep the lights on here.
Today’s edition is part of My Stories where I share vulnerable thoughts around my opinions in Finance.
Typically Charts & Chit Chat is our next edition where I share Financial Data/Charts alongside quick takeaways that get right to the point.
However, I am just getting back from traveling overseas for a couple of weeks. I plan to get back to a regular schedule by next week.
For now, let’s get vulnerable.
I don't smoke cigarettes, but even I had to light up a few inside the club on the Greek island. You read that right.
Inside the club.
This trip was my first time partying at the clubs in Greece. When I walked into that first club, which was more of a small rooftop bar, the bar was half inside and half outside. I found it funny how people were lighting up cigarettes in the inside portion.
In America, some places won't even let you smoke a vape inside, and vaping is all the rage these days amongst the kids. I guess that's what happens when you make tobacco taste like tooty fruity strawberry melon ice.
Local Greeks make fun of anyone smoking a vape, and I think they are pretty stupid too.
After a couple drinks at that rooftop bar I moved on to find a popular club I was told that opens at 2am. You read that right.
The club opens at 2am.
It doesn't pack up until closer to 3am though.
This was a real club not just some small rooftop bar and I couldn't believe my eyes.
Not only were the women gorgeous -- I love me a Greek looking woman. But everyone in the club was lighting up cigarettes, from the customers to the DJ to the bartenders.
Inside the club with no balcony area. Talk about a culture shock.
I couldn't really hang that night, I had to call it at 4am which I was a bit disappointed in myself for because the real party was just getting started. I figured I'd catch them next weekend and be better prepared for how they roll.
Maybe I'll even buy a pack of cigarettes.
Turns out I didn't need to buy a pack because the next day I got word that my "cousin" (or something like that) who lives in Greece is going to take the ferry over to the island my parents and I are staying at and hang with us for the next weekend. He's 26, and he's bringing his 31 year old friend with him.
I was ecstatic. Now I'm going to really party with the Greeks the right way.
Last time I saw him was 7 years ago. He was 19 at the time and we were staying with his family in the small village which doesn't have a great nightlife.
He doesn't really smoke cigarettes, but his friend -- my goodness. I saw him buy 4 packs of cigarettes a day. Two before midnight and two after midnight every day.
Since I had already scoped out the nightlife area I knew exactly where to take them when they showed up, and off we went.
It was awesome to have them there.
I speak Greek and can hold conversations with no real issues, but there's some words I don't understand and sometimes I get lost because of how fast they talk. Though, I do a lot better after I get a few drinks in me and loosen up a bit.
I took them to the rooftop bar first and we had a few drinks over some good conversation as we got to know each other a bit better, and I watched my cousin's friend rip 10 cigarettes in a row while my cousin had a couple himself.
At this point I couldn't resist.
"Thoseh mou ena reh" I said to him, which means "give me one my man."
He gave me the pack, I took one out, and he put a flame to it while I puffed it down inside the bar.
I'm finally a real Greek now! We hit a couple more spots and then made our way to the club that opens at 2am.
It's weird watching a beautiful girl inside the club holding a filter between her lips that she's about to insert into the cigarette she is rolling up with her hands.
More culture shock.
The type that makes me want to start rolling my own cigarettes alongside her. In America we're typically not rolling up tobacco, and we're definitely not smoking anything inside the club.
Everything is so different.
One day we went to a beach bar day party. It was off the chain crazy. We each had at least 15 cocktails, but who's counting anyways?
I found it odd how you don't pay for your drink when they give it to you. You pay for your drinks when you are ready to leave, and you don't give them a card, your name, or anything before-hand.
I ordered a round for us and was handing over my credit card when the bartender looked at me funny and asked if we were already leaving. I said no I'm just paying for these drinks, and she said "mettah," which means "later."
45 drinks in and a few shots on the house (I hope) we finally decided it's time to go get some gyros and take a nap or else we wouldn't be able to make it out to the clubs later that night. I asked for the bill and when it came I was scared to look at it.
$2,450.
That's a bit much I thought but I had such a good time I was ready to pay it no questions asked. It's like getting bottle service in America at the club for the night on a special occasion.
Then I took a closer look and realized it was actually $245.
I guess I was seeing an extra digit after the double digit drinks I took down beachside with mountains in the background and cigarette smoke in the air.
I would say we got a discount because we were Greek and speaking Greek, but everyone was Greek there. The American speakers were few and far between and stuck out like a sore thumb.
They were the ones not smoking any cigarettes, couldn't sing along to the music, and didn't have any gold/silver crosses hanging around their necks.
Their faces had two words written on them.
Culture shock.
At this point I'm sure you are enjoying the story and I hope you don't think I'm too much of a degenerate.. I'm just embracing the Greek culture on the island. But you're probably wondering how I'm going to tie this into Financial Markets.
Well, culture shock isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a bit of a change, and change can be fun. Change is good.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with the idea that the only constant in life is change.
Life and everything in it is subject to transformation. We must learn to adapt if we want to thrive. It's essential to our well-being.
While traveling the motherland that meant lighting up a few cigarettes inside the club to take the edge off, fit in, and start up conversations with beautiful Greek women rolling their own cigarettes in 60 seconds flat.
On the other hand, change at Sky View Trading (the trading community I work for) means starting to embrace and transition over to Automated Trading Styles. We have been trading manually since inception in 2013.
Last Wednesday we had a webinar for our members to unveil our most exciting offer yet which included a new Automated Trading Style called FIFO. It stands for First In First Out. It’s a day-trading strategy focused on trading the S&P 500 futures contract intraday.
It all started by offering our Automated IV League Trading Style.
IV League is where we sell strangles (options strategy) on the S&P 500 futures contract, and we will hold that position anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. Automating that trading style was a bit of a culture shock for anyone that has been around in our community for a while.
We've always had a bit of a "brains over bots" mentality here. FIFO comes along on top of that now, and we've never really focused on day-trading. Even if we were, we always traded option strategies.
But embracing fully automated trading has catapulted us to a new level of possibilities in what we’re able to build and deliver for our members, allowing us to expand beyond just selling option premium.
That's where FIFO comes in.
As mentioned, the strategy is scalping S&P 500 futures. No options. Just day-trading the futures contract, and some trades have lasted less than 60 seconds to complete.
Like me if I ever get a chance to take one of these Greek girls home one night.
In all seriousness, we are so excited for this next Chapter of trading for our community.
We know it's a bit of a culture shock to anyone that has been with us for a while, but it should be in a good way. In a way where we are an awe of what's happening and the journey we are about to go on.
Taking a stroll through the "horyioz" (small towns) in Greece with uneven narrow hilly roads as we window shopped all the little trinkets, jewelry, clothes, and everything else they had to sell also had me in awe.
It's all just out there and up for grabs basically. Nobody is paying attention. Jewelry in a little plastic case that could easily be smashed and stolen and likely reck the business owner was difficult for me to understand.
There's a lot of trust there -- whether it's from the business owner selling accessories in cases or displayed on the rocks outside their store, or from the bartenders that don't take down your name or credit card even if you order 45 drinks with them over a few hours at the beach bar you could easily run out on after getting drunk to hit the ferry back home.
Everyone might be Greek but none of those Greeks actually live on the island. Most were from Athens just taking a little weekend trip.
It's like an honor system on the island. It was all a huge culture shock to me, and in a good way. Crime and theft is extremely low, despite how easy it could be.
I loved it all.
I embraced every last second of everything while I was there. It was easily some of the best memories of my life, those that I could remember at least.
Not just clubbing though, but beach hopping on my own, or taking a car up the mountains with my parents to find a village with some good cheap food, or just having conversation with my parents about how they grew up over dinner with our feet in the sand and the moonlight hovering over us.
Priceless change.
The change was good. It was something I could sure get used to.
I have family in Greece, and I know people from my Church back in Rhode Island who have picked up and moved to Greece.
That's a damn good trade if you ask me. Maybe I'm next?
First things first though. First In, First Out. FIFO.
We're excited to change the culture a bit at Sky View Trading. Adapt or die as the saying goes.
With the world clearly becoming more digital by the day, robots becoming more ingrained in society, and exponential advancements in artificial intelligence happening, it would be a bit dumb not to embrace this trend and make these changes to transform into something stronger than ever before.
Why stay stagnant?
Join the club.
Light up a cigarette.
We're about to have some real fun out here!
I hope you enjoyed reading Simply Finance. Please share this edition of My Stories with anyone that you think would benefit.
And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss the next one!
Disclaimer: These are not recommendations and I am not a financial advisor. These are just my two cents, or two satoshis as the kids say. Remember to do your own homework before making any financial decisions. Also, keep in mind I usually have some personal investments in the things I discuss.