 There are unprecedented censorship activities taking place with social media these days. Very powerful big tech companies exude enormous influence and have the ability to censor our content. We are at the point now where these businesses have become so powerful that lawmakers may have to step in to be sure our First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech is not being violated. With the level of their influence, there may have to be more accountability, inspection, and even a potential legal precedent set by the high courts. When you have the ability to shutdown years of someone's hard work building brand influence and followers in an instant, you must have high scrutiny. It doesn't matter if these social media powerhouses are private or not (many are publicly traded), as the power they yield to potentially limit free speech is far too great and a new phenomenon. Some will claim 'free speech' only applies to government, but it actually should and does apply to any 'entity' that attempts to suppress the voice of the people. Constitutional laws are of course open to interpretation. The founders of America certainly could not anticipate a beast of this nature in their time. Big social media is a different animal and they are becoming free speech platforms. Therefore, new protections must be established. Several of these companies are now deeply connected to government which makes this case even stronger (Twitter maybe not as much as others). With technology evolving so quickly and these giants getting closer to Washington bureaucracy, maybe they can no longer be considered "private." Twitter has become so powerful that it is now vital even for President's to reach their audience directly. A federal court ruled that Trump blocking Twitter users is a First Amendment violation, so why would Twitter blocking users accounts not be the same (without a very strong reason for legitimate threat)? Recently, popular financial blog ZeroHedge was banned from Twitter permanently over a post that a Chinese scientist may be responsible for leaking the coronavirus and that it may be being used as a biological weapon. The same thing happened to them with Facebook, but it was eventually overturned. They called it "arbitrary and unjustified." Well, if you are going to ban them for supposed fake news, then you must also ban every single mainstream media Twitter handle as well. These media outlets have controlled/dominated the narrative by brainwashing American's since the beginning (especially after invention and mass usage of the television). With their enormous power conglomerates controlling them behind the scenes, they determine what we're allowed to see and not to see. Zero Hedge is one of the few financial blogs with some influence and sizeable audience, that is not controlled by large Wall Street media players. Therefore, it is extremely valuable to receive a truth that we won't hear about otherwise. ZeroHedge has been one of the few to go after and attempt to wake people up on what is happening with the central banks and the Federal Reserve and should be commended. While some of their articles may push the limit, we find that they may be providing more truth than most of the mainstream media. Typical Wall Street financial outlets will do nothing but pump stocks and talk about how the stock market is going to the moon. Yet, they hardly ever mention anything about bubbles and downside risk. They want the party to go on as long as possible and are willing to mislead and deceive to achieve that agenda. A great example of this is what's happening right now with Tesla. Fake analysts are raising price targets like its candy just keep the squeeze going. There is no true justification for the stock to be where it is. It is important to hear the other side of the story. Wall Street in general is always biased to the upside because that what gets the institutions whales, trust funds, government, execs, and investors paid. There is much more falsehood going on with the long side than the short as many more people have an interest in stocks rising. Often times companies hide the truth in order to keep it from effecting their stock price value...a few examples are Enron, Valeant, and Lehman Brothers. All were concealing shady practices and who knows how many others are out there that have not been caught. Many CEO's are compensated via stock performance and therefore understandably want stocks as high as possible in order to get big bonuses. They are likely to hide the truth because it simply doesn't fit the agenda of a higher stock price. Often times it is the shorts that expose truth and fraud involving public companies. Longs should be very thankful for their market participation as these alerts can save them a lot of money. ZeroHedge is often considered to be overall bearish on the market and thank goodness for that. It is important to get a contrarian viewpoint when everyone else on Wall street is drinking the spiked Kool-Aid thinking the party can never end. Bearish commentators should be respected by bulls because they often expose a rare and valuable truth to the public that we rarely hear from anyone else. What's happening with big tech censorship is really a violation of the First Amendment and is setting dangerous precedents. With the power and influence of big tech companies growing and the invasion of our privacy increasing, there may have to be laws changed regarding free speech to keep us protected in relation to social media power. The ability to ban someone's hard work and effort is quite serious. Zero hedge has the constitutional right to post whatever they want, as long as not posing a potential physically danger to anyone. They should be immediately allowed back on the platform. It may come to the point where potential class action lawsuits will have to be created and a Supreme Court ruling implemented. Citizens must stand up to this kind of restriction or it is going to get worse and worse. The First Amendment states below... First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Bottom line, big tech has far too much power to censor our hard work and therefore something has to change. These tech companies must take it into consideration and be responsible by respecting First Amendment constitutional rights. It's become far too easy for them to restrict any material (by blocking or removing from search) that they may not agree with or that does not fit their personal agenda. Twitter is a great platform for exercising your right to free speech and can be used for much good. But, it should not be used as a censorship weapon. We hope Jack Dorsey will see the bigger picture and reverse his decision. While all of these companies offer great services loved by many, the abuse of free speech simply cannot be tolerated. It is our job as American's to stand up, or it will slowly and gradually get worse to a point where it will be too late to reverse! Twitter said it suspended ZeroHedge, for violating its rules against "abuse and harassment," according to a screenshot of a notification from Twitter shared by ZeroHedge pseudonymous author Tyler Durden. ZeroHedge claims they're confident they did not violate any terms. Think about the time and hard work it has taken them to build 600k followers. Imagine if it was your business and after all of that work, Twitter just wiped it out in an instant. At minimum, there should be a serious process involved to make such a decision. Furthermore, Twitter has pretty much erased all of Zerohedge's past content, which is incredible. There has to be more accountability for this kind of power. While in general, we are not a fan of too much government intervention...in this case lawmakers must take action to insure our right to free speech is not being violated. They aren't just wiping out some silly algo profile that was started last month and has ten followers. This is serious business as any one of us could be the next victim. Of course, if there is legit abuse or harassment then it is a different story. But, in this situation it appears ZH was banned mostly because Twitter did not agree with information being putting out there. Whether or not the material is false or conspiratorial is irrelevant. Numerous Twitter accounts and news outlets are putting out misinformation without threat of ban on a regular basis. Let the public decide what is true and what is not! We want to stress that Twitter is an incredibly valuable platform and the company would probably appreciate a clear resolution to this issue themselves. It has been said that "with great power, comes great responsibility." It is imperative that these big tech companies be kept in-check and the only way to stop the free speech encroachment is for the people to rally and convince our lawmakers to make the necessary changes.
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 When it comes to day trading and investing success, there is no question that the battle to win this game starts and ends in your own mind. The Law of Attraction is an important force of nature to understand and it is very real. Thoughts are energy and whatever you are putting into the world is going to come back to you. Whatever dominates your thought process tends to find you. Now this of course is not to say that whatever you conjure up is just going to appear. But, your thoughts effect your decision making and actions. Becoming a great trader takes a lot of hard work, practice, knowledge, and skill. However, whether you choose to think positively or negatively, the results will be a direct product of your outlook. If you are consistently hanging around negative friends or family, it will train your mind to be negative as well. It is of max importance that you pay attention to the regular thoughts that dominate your thinking and keep them in-check every day. The importance of positive thinking of course does not just apply to trading and investing, but to life in general. Whether it be day trading or investing, your biggest enemy is not the market maker, other traders, algos, hedge funds, your broker, or high frequency traders working against you (although they can be). The biggest enemy is staring back when you look in the mirror. Your lack of patience and resilience, your fear, and your self doubt, are the true adversary. The mind really is a battlefield and the enemy (self-doubt) is out to break you. Wall Street and the media are out to confuse you, scare you, cause you to be flustered, so you give up your money. Trading is a zero-sum game and therefore for Wall Street to win (generally speaking), you have to lose. Peter Lynch said..."The real key to making money in stocks is to not get scared out them." He was right on point. The majority of the time you will lose on trades is due to the fear of seeing red on your screen. Every short trader we have run across has had times where they bet against a stock and as it pushed against them, fear took over and they exited for a loss, just to watch the stock drop remainder of the day. Every long trader has had a situation where a stock was going against them, they became afraid and exited, just to have the stock bounce back. Recent activity in Tesla stock is a great example. The stock dropped to $350 (from $900) and scared everyone out, just to rebound to $800 again. Warren Buffett said..."Wall Street makes money on activity, you make money on inactivity." No words could be more truthful when it comes to investing and being able to stay patient in uncertain times, or when you have an unrealized loss, comes back to your mindset and thinking. We always pay very close attention to the words that come out of people mouths as they can give you a deep insight into their general mindset (negative or positive). You may not even realize that you are being negative at times if it is all you surround yourself with. A few great books we highly recommend for improving your mindset is 'The Power of Positive Thinking' by Norman Vincent Peale and 'Think and Grow Rich' by Napoleon Hill. Don't just read these books, but study them and take notes. Put into practice what is discussed and ask friends to help by letting you know how you are changing or progressing. Negative thinking can also turn people off from wanting to be around you. It could be friends, coworkers, a significant other, or even your wife/husband. Sometimes people get so caught up in the negativity, they mistakenly think of it as 'reality.' But, reality is actually just your specific perception and everyone's tends to be a little different. One thing is for certain, this type of negative thinking can absolutely destroy your trading and investing success...the game is so much about emotion and psychology and this is all rooted in your mindset and thought process. If you are constantly feeling negative when trading, it will greatly effect your decisions. If your general state is emotional, negative, and fearful...your trading results are going to be directly impacted and it most likely is not going to be for the better. Almost 100% of people who are constantly in a negative state are going to fail because of their thinking alone. Chances are they are feeding themselves lies and we must recognize when this is happening. Telling yourself you can't succeed or that you are not good enough is simply not true. You can succeed and you WILL! It is very important to keep in mind that Wall Street (via the media) wants to cause fear and uncertainty for traders and the investing public. They want to create confusion and simply cannot take your money, if you do not become beholden to your emotions. This is something that can certainly be improved with the time and experience of trading. And of course certain market conditions such as high volatility and uncertain times can increase the fear. Having a highly over-leveraged position is a great way to upset the brain into a bad decision. Some humans are of course going to be naturally more emotional than others (you know who you are), and improvement will take time and effort. Without question, majority of times a trader panics due to fear and exits a position, it is going to end up being a mistake. Work hard on assessing your own personal strength and weaknesses and improve where needed. Many aspects of life are out of your control and are a lot about chance. But, the best thing about mindset is that it can actually be controlled. It just requires great awareness, attention, and repetition. Nothing good comes from negative thinking, so you might as well force out the fear and choose to think positively. Focus on the emotion of FAITH in yourself as it helps root-out fear. There is no question self-doubt is an account destroyer and strong conviction will have an extreme impact on your trading or investing success! |