1. 2000-2022 Trailing 12 Month P/E Ratios

Back to 2002 Levels Coming Out of Internet Bubble

Gina Adams Bloomberg https://twitter.com/GinaMartinAdams

2. SPDR Software ETF -41% Correction….Closed Below Long-Term Weekly Chart 200day Moving Average.

XSW closes below 200day

3. Regional Bank Index Sell-Off….Holds Support Going Back to Early 2021

www.stockcharts.com

4. Energy Select ETF Another Break-Out to New Highs

www.stockcharts.com

5. Number of Days that SPY Traded in Positive Territory All Day Plummets

Bespoke Investment Group All Day Rallies A Thing of the Past-It seems like a distant memory now, but Monday’s rally marked just the 13th time all year (and over the last 100 trading days) that the S&P 500 tracking ETF (SPY) opened higher and traded in positive territory all day (‘100% positive day’).  The chart below shows the rolling 100-trading day total number of 100% positive days for SPY since 1994, shortly after the ETF launched.  The current level of 13 is already well below the long-term average of 18, but last week, the reading was even lower at 12.  The last time the 100-day rolling total was lower than that was in May 2009, and the lowest readings ever recorded were in periods beginning in October 2002 and September 2008 with just six in a 100-trading day span.

What makes the current period unique is how quickly the rate of 100% positive days has plummeted.  100 trading days ago, the rolling total was more than twice the current level at 29.  Also, it was only in February 2021 (less than sixteen months ago) that the number of 100% positive days reached a record high of 33 on 2/4/21.  That peak came just weeks before the Federal Government sent out the third and final round of stimulus checks.  Just as massive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus helped to support markets during COVID, the withdrawal of these supports has introduced gravity back into the equation.

https://www.bespokepremium.com/interactive/posts/think-big-blog/all-day-rallies-thing-ofpast

6. Natural Gas Huge Run Up in Price but Still Well Below 2008 Levels

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET. And the fracking boom that caused prices to collapse in the US starting in 2009, while prices soared elsewhere, is now being leveraged to export LNG, and we already kissed those collapsed natural gas prices of $2-3 per million Btu goodbye.

https://wolfstreet.com/2022/05/25/us-natural-gas-futures-spiked-to-highest-since-2008-tripled-in-a-year-why-we-kissed-that-dirt-cheap-natural-gas-goodbye/

7. Meanwhile, LNG exports are surging as U.S. inventories hold near the low end of the 5-year range.

Source: @WSJ  Read full article

The Daily Shot https://dailyshotbrief.com/the-daily-shot-brief-may-27th-2022/

8. Personal Savings Rate Falls Back to 2008 Levels

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-27/us-savings-rate-drops-to-lowest-since-2008-as-inflation-bites?srnd=premium&sref=GGda9y2L

9. College Enrollment Fell for 11th Year in a Row

685,000 fewer students were enrolled in post-secondary education in America this spring, a 4.1% fall on 2021, which itself was a 3.5% fall on the numbers from 2020 according to data out yesterday from the NSC Research Center. That fall marks the 11th straight year that the spring count of total enrollments has dropped in the US.

The college conundrum

The biggest drop came in undergraduates, as 662,000 fewer undergraduates enrolled — a 4.7% drop on the year before. Community college numbers fell almost 8%.

Part of that fall could be explained away by the pandemic, where remote-learning distinctly diminished the college experience, but the scale and consistency of the declines suggest something larger is at play: college is losing its allure.

Once the golden ticket to a middle class life, the rise in the cost of college has outstripped the rise in the cost of living many times over in the last 50 years, suggesting that the math of the college decision is, for some prospective students, not adding up anymore.

Interestingly, the most well-known institutions are bucking this trend. The acceptance rate at Harvard plunged to an all-time low (~3%). The same happened at Stanford… and Yale… and Brown… and Columbia (to name but a few). The college path might not make quite as much sense for everyone as it used to, but the big name institutions aren’t the ones losing out.

www.chartr.com

10. Three flavors of a good life: Happy, Meaningful, Psychologically Rich

Psychology Today Marianna Pogosyan Ph.D. As a distinct, yet corelated dimension of a good life, the psychologically rich life differs from the existing hedonic-eudaimonic dichotomy in a number of ways. For example, if the emphasis of a happy life is on positive emotions and security, and the emphasis of a meaningful life is on purpose and coherence, then the hallmarks of a psychologically rich life are variety, interest and perspective (Oishi & Westgate, 2021). If a positive mindset facilitates a happy life, and moral principles facilitate a meaningful life, then curiosity and spontaneity will facilitate a psychologically rich life. If the outcome of a happy life is personal satisfaction and the outcome of a meaningful life is societal contribution, then the outcome of a psychologically rich life, according to Oishi, is wisdom.

To explore the three constructs of well-being differently, consider the metaphor of a beautiful garden. You might feel hedonic well-being whenever you are greeted by the lovely blooms as you stroll through your garden. You might experience eudaimonic well-being as you revel in the sense of purpose you receive from tending to your garden and sharing its gifts with others. According to Oishi, psychological richness arises as your garden undergoes seasonal changes. The landscape of the garden is in a constant flux. Its diverse inhabitants from the plant and animal kingdoms follow the Nature’s lead. As you watch your garden metamorphose through the seasons – aflush with color and harvest in one, barren and dormant in another – you might recognize the wealth, wonder and wisdom of life’s unfolding, to which you also belong.

article continues after advertisement

Here are 6 questions on the psychologically-rich life with Dr. Oishi.

What does a psychologically rich life look like?

A psychologically rich life is a life of curiosity and exploration. It’s not that you have to chase after new and exciting experiences all the time. Rather, it’s an invitation to remain curious about life in its fullness, and not limit yourself to the comforts of what you already know.

What is the mechanism that allows our experiences, at times even the challenging ones, to add up to a well-lived life?

Consider the differences between material wealth and psychological wealth. Material wealth, which can be money or other assets, is often tangible. For me, the psychological equivalent of material wealth are our stories. They might include our happy memories and the meaningful contributions we make to other people’s lives. But when it comes to psychological richness, sometimes even the difficult experiences that help us grow and see things in new ways can add to our wealth. That’s because those are often the experiences that we tend to with care and reflection, which then turn to insights and observations that we can carry with us and share with others.

Two people can have the same number of unusual experiences. For one person, these experiences will add up to bring about new insights and perspectives. For someone else, they will remain interesting, yet disparate events that don’t contribute to growth. In part, this discrepancy has to do with personality, value systems, and even mindset. For example, if someone wants to live an aesthetic life, then engaging with thought-provoking art can be transformative for them, compared to someone who isn’t interested in these values. It also matters how reflective the person is. Self-reflection might be what binds experiences together to make them count towards a well-lived life. When we deeply reflect on our experiences, the connections and insights that we gather can accumulate to make for a richer whole.

You argue that a psychologically rich life comprises of experiences in which novelty and complexity are followed by changes in perspective. Why is a change in perspective so important?

A change of perspective is precisely what captures some of the growth. For example, the reason why certain experiences such as study abroad programs can be so transformative, is because they often introduce us to new ways of thinking about life. In turn, we might become encouraged to engage with the novelty and complexity of the experience in ways that affect our understanding of the world and lead to growth.

article continues after advertisement

On the other hand, a person can go bungee-jumping for the sake of sensation seeking, and it might not change anything about the way they see life. Thus, change of perspective is an indication that we were able to digest the novelty, complexity and depth of the experience in new, insightful ways.

Can second-hand experiences, for example through literature and film, contribute to a psychologically rich life?

Great literature, poetry, film, music and art can significantly enrich our lives. I think humans created art and culture to essentially help themselves go through a wealth of experiences second-hand. As Marcel Proust wrote in In Search of Lost Time, a novel can help us experience the joys and sorrows of someone’s entire lifetime within a matter of hours. While first-hand experiences are obviously more real, sometimes the imaginary worlds that novelists craft can be as vivid.

How can we add psychological richness to our lives?

A good lesson can be found in studies about regret. According to research, short-term regret is usually about something you did, whereas long-term regret is about something you didn’t do. If you were to ask old people about their regrets, it often is about not having various experiences, not taking the job offer, not doing this or that. This mindset can help us be more willing to make changes.

What can research on psychological richness teach us about the good life?

Sometimes, people can be so obsessed with happiness, that they actively strive to stir their lives in one direction – that of positive emotions and comfort. But life is unpredictable, and unfortunately, not always pleasant. Psychological richness entails accepting life as it happens, in its entirety. If we consider stories that we accumulate and share with others as the currency of psychological richness, many of our experiences can lend new insights and propel us towards growth, thus adding up to wealth.

To me, this research diversifies the ways in which people could lead a good life. A happy life is a great life. A meaningful life is a great life. But at times, when happiness and meaning are hard to come by, or if you are not predisposed to them, you can still experience well-being and have a good, admirable life by leading a psychologically rich life.

Many thanks to Shige Oishi for his time and insights. Professor Oishi is a personality and social psychologist at the University of Virginia.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/202205/the-psychologically-rich-life?collection=1175818

1. 40% of Trading Days this Year 1%+ Moves…2008 Levels

Nasdaq Dorsey Wright-A major portion of the trading days so far this year have seen SPX move at least 1% higher from its daily low into the close, with the count at 39 days through market action Monday. This equates to 39.80% of the days. which is significantly more than the average dating back to April 1987 at about 20.64% of the days. This also puts us on the highest pace of trading days with such a move since 2009. The only other year to see such a high pace of 1% intraday rallies came in 2008. We saw a significant count of intraday rallies from 1997 through 2002, although none of those years reached the current pace. The year with the lowest percentage of large rally days was 2017, which saw only one such day throughout the entire year.

https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/nasdaq-dorsey-wright

2. Another 2008 Number….Max Pessimism–Percent that Expect “stronger economy” Lower than 2008

From Irrelevant Investor Blog https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/05/25/animal-spirits-the-most-obvious-recession-ever/

3. History of 7 Week Sell Offs.

Don’t Panic! What History Tells Us After 7 S&P 500 Losing Weeks-The S&P 500 has fallen for seven weeks. Here’s why you don’t want to panic now. BRET KENWELL

Seven straight weekly declines is a pretty rare occurrence. This is just the fourth time we’ve seen such a streak since 1928. The prior three scenarios occurred in 1970, 1980 and 2001. Interestingly, all four declines concluded either in March or May.

To little surprise, there is good news and bad news associated with the declines.

The bad news: In two of the three declines, the seven straight weeks of declines turned into eight straight weeks of declines (in 1970 and 2001).

Further, in both of those years, the market went on to retest the lows, although the time it took varied widely. After the bottom in 1970, the S&P 500 went on to break the low about 4 1/2 years later, in Q4 1974. In 2001, the index broke to new lows a little more than six months later following the 9/11 attacks.

The good news: Each downtrend of this magnitude (seven straight weeks or more) has marked the low for at least six months. Further, the longest stretch did not exceed eight straight weeks.

The “tldr” is we may endure more short-term pain, but we also could be near an intermediate or potentially even a long-term bottom.

For instance, following the low after each stretch of seven or more consecutive weekly declines, the S&P 500 was higher four weeks later, one quarter later, six months later and one year later. That’s promising.

In 2001 we had a nice initial burst off the lows, climbing 15.4% a month later and 13.3% one quarter later, although those gains faded a bit once we got to the 6-month and 12-month marks.

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/dont-panic-after-7-losing-weeks-in-sp-500

4. Big Correction in Consumer Discretionary but Still Trading at Premium vs. Historical

LPL Research

https://lplresearch.com/2022/05/25/difficult-outlook-for-consumer-discretionary/

5. Factor Returns Year to Date

https://www.zeninvestor.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/factors.png

6. Supply Bottlenecks Disappearing

United States: Supply bottlenecks are disappearing, which means suppliers will have a tough time raising or even maintaining prices.

Source: Daily Shot

The Daily Shot https://dailyshotbrief.com/the-daily-shot-brief-may-25th-2022/

7. Alternative Investments Go Mainstream

www.chartr.com

8. CO2 Admissions and Commodities

From Michael Gayed Lead Lag Report

https://twitter.com/leadlagreport/status/1529540557202153473/photo/1

9. Another Covid Chart…Beyond Meat $200 to $25

www.stockcharts.com

10. The 15 Rules Every Stoic Must Follow

https://www.njlifehacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/16-Rules-Every-Stoic-Must-Follow-Infographic.png

1. U.S. Households Could Now Theoretically Repay All Indebtedness

Blackrock Rick Reider

Figure 5: US households could now theoretically repay all indebtedness with cash

https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/insights/prepping-financial-hurricane

2. Tesla Loses 50% of Market Cap Since November

3. S&P 500 has Only Fallen 8 Weeks in a Row 3x Since 1950

Irrelevant Investor-And to top it off, the stock market keeps going down. If the S&P 500 falls this week, it would be just the third time since 1950 that it fell for eight consecutive weeks.

https://theirrelevantinvestor.com/2022/05/24/recession/

4. Office REITS No Bounce Out of Covid

Jim Bianco https://twitter.com/biancoresearch

5. S&P Financials Trading at P/E 12

Despite yesterday’s gain, Financials -13% YTD; sector’s undemanding valuation – current P/E of 12 is almost 20% below past 5 years’ average – may reflect concerns about impact of economic slowdown and potential recession may have on banks’ earnings ⁦⁦

@SPDJIndices

From Liz Ann Sonders https://twitter.com/LizAnnSonders

6. Thrifting is the new normal

Hope King, author of Axios Closer

Axios on facebook

Axios on twitter

Axios on linkedin

Axios on email

Data: GlobalData via ThredUP; Chart: Baidi Wang/Axios

Buying secondhand is no longer an afterthought.

Driving the news: 93% of shoppers in the U.S. have or are open to buying secondhand products, according to a new report from resale platform ThredUP out this morning.

• That’s up from 70% in 2019.

Why it matters: We’ve grown increasingly aware of our consumption habits — particularly the youngest consumers among us — and are living in a period of high inflation which has us questioning our purchase decisions.

Details: Nearly 2 in 3 people believe their individual buying habits have a significant impact on the planet, according to a survey of 3,500 U.S. adults.

• 82% of respondents said they feel a positive emotion when they buy used.
• 74% said preowned apparel is more socially acceptable now than it was five years ago.

Yes, but: Saving money is the top reason people buy secondhand over new — across all age groups — the study found.

• Among Gen Z, sustainability is the second top motivator.
• For average consumers, being able to afford higher-end brands is the second leading motivator.

The big picture: E-commerce technology has matured so much over the past few years that it’s helped to increase the availability of used clothing around the world, whether that’s through dedicated platforms like ThredUP, Poshmark, The RealReal or a closet-sharing service like Tulerie.

What to watch: Big legacy brands are building more ways to resell their own products.

• Doing so not only helps companies like Oscar de la Renta and Levi’s retain customers, but it also adds a new stream of revenue to their business by taking back what a resale platform may have made on their products.

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/17/resale-secondhand-americans-shopping

7. TikTok vs. T.V. vs. NFLX

Scott Galloway

https://www.profgalloway.com/tiktok-boom/

8. Average age of U.S. cars hits record high due to tight supplies, report says

Reuters

May 23 (Reuters) – U.S. consumers are using their existing vehicles for longer as the inventory of new cars and light trucks remains constrained due to supply chain challenges, marking an all-time high for the average age, according to a report from S&P Global Mobility.

The average age of light vehicles in operation (VIO) in the United States rose to 12.2 years this year, increasing by nearly two months from the prior year, the report said.

Report ad

The pandemic led consumers to shift from using from public transport and shared transport to personal cars, and since customers could not upgrade their vehicles, demand for used cars have accelerated and boosted the average vehicle age further, the report said.

Stress on global supply chains worsened in April as COVID-19 lockdown measures in China and the war in Ukraine lengthened delivery times, and air freight costs between the United States and Asia rose, the New York Federal Reserve reported in its latest update to a worldwide index of supply problems. read more

Report ad

The average age of light vehicles in operation in the U.S. is expected to rise through 2022 and 2023, as the pipeline for new vehicle production and sales continues to be weighed down by parts shortages, the report said.

Supply chain constraints have led to a decrease in vehicle scrappage, which measures the number of vehicles leaving the vehicle population, and has been a catalyst for the rise in average age over time.

Report ad

The report also said demand for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the U.S. has been expanding rapidly over the past few years.

The average age of electric vehicles in the U.S. is 3.8 years of age this year, down from 3.9 last year, and has been hovering between 3 and 4.1 years since 2016.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/average-age-us-cars-hits-record-high-due-tight-supplies-report-2022-05-23/

9. The Increase in Public Home Builders Gross Margins

John Burns Real Estate

https://twitter.com/johnburnsjbrec

10. This Is the Exact Amount of Coffee You Should Drink, According to a Harvard Brain Expert

But don’t make it espresso or French press.

BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK@MINDAZETLIN

Scientists agree: Drinking coffee is good for you. That’s good news if, like most Americans, you enjoy coffee and perhaps rely on it to help you wake up in the morning or stay alert during the day.

In the last couple of years, more detailed research on coffee has sought to zero in on just how much coffee you should drink every day for maximum health and brain benefits. They’ve found the answer: You should drink three cups. That advice comes from Dr. Uma Naidoo, who’s been described as a “triple threat”: a Harvard-trained psychiatrist, trained nutrition specialist, and trained chef. She’s also the author of the bestseller This Is Your Brain on Food. In an article at CNBC.com, Naidoo explains how she uses coffee as part of her daily routine to boost her own brain function. (Naidoo’s routine includes putting shots of espresso into golden milk, which sounds like a fantastic idea to me.) 

Why three cups? Naidoo points to a study in which researchers tracked both the coffee consumption and cognitive health of 676 elderly men over 10 years. They found that the coffee drinkers had less than half the cognitive decline as the non-coffee drinkers did. And those who drank three cups a day had the least decline of all. A larger Harvard study, with 208,501 participants (both men and women), examined the likelihood of death over more than 20 years. It found that participants who drank coffee were less likely to die early than those who didn’t, with the greatest longevity benefit going to those who drank between 3.1 and five cups a day.

If you want the maximum benefits from your coffee habit, make sure to follow these three rules.

1. Filter it.

Many sophisticated coffee drinkers favor espresso, French press, and Turkish coffee–and some love the Scandinavian tradition of boiling coffee with an egg in it (sometimes including the shell), which pulls together the grounds. Unfortunately, all these versions of coffee can be bad for you. When coffee is made without a paper filter, “oily chemicals called diterpenes come through that can raise artery-damaging LDL cholesterol,” according to the New York Times‘s Jane Brody. Brody, who uses coffee pods, actually dissected one to make sure it contained a paper filter (it did).

2. Be careful what you add.

Coffee may be good for you, but sugar is very bad for you. So if drinking coffee means getting a highly sweetened latte concoction from your favorite barista, you won’t be doing your health any favors–especially when you consider that espresso-based drinks like lattes are unfiltered.

A better strategy is to make your own drip coffee at home, using fresh-ground beans for both better flavor and better control over what exactly goes into your coffee. For added fun, put the $4 to $6 you would have spent at the coffee shop aside for every homemade cup you drink, then use that money for a special treat.

3. Pay attention to your own reactions to coffee. 

This is Naidoo’s advice and it’s an important tip to follow because everybody is different, and each of us may react differently to coffee’s effects. If it makes you feel jittery, cut back your consumption or cut it out altogether. The same holds true if you have trouble sleeping. Caffeine can affect your ability to fall asleep, and also whether you reach the deep sleep stage that your body and brain both need to stay healthy.

At the same time, pay attention to whether coffee lightens your mood, which it might. One of the most intriguing findings from the Harvard study is that coffee drinkers were half as likely to commit suicide as non-coffee drinkers. According to the research, the explanation may be that coffee boosts brain chemicals that have an antidepressant effect.

There’s a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or idea. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Interested in joining? You can learn more here.) Many are entrepreneurs and business leaders, and they tell me that a bright mood and positive attitude makes all the difference when you’re running a business or leading a team.

So the most important question is: How does coffee make you feel? If it makes you feel nervous or interferes with your rest, then stay away from it or switch to decaf. If it makes you feel good, then drink up. Make sure to use a paper filter, and aim for three cups a day.

Correction: An earlier version of this column misspelled Uma Naidoo’s surname.https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/coffee-consumption-health-benefits-correct-amount-uma-maidoo-harvard.html

1. Russian Economy Imploding…GDP -30%

https://twitter.com/RobinBrooksIIF

2. Concentration on Way Up…..Conentration on Way Down…..8 Stocks are Half the Stock Markets Decline.

Found at Barry Ritholtz Blog

https://ritholtz.com/2022/05/10-monday-am-reads-351/

3. 1100 Corporate Insiders Buying Stock in May

Bloomberg-ByLu Wang

Investors bailing on stocks because they’re afraid of a recession may want to consider the buying spree that is happening among people in charge of American businesses. 

Corporate insiders, whose purchases correctly signaled the bear-market bottom in 2020, are bottom fishing during the S&P 500’s longest stretch of weekly losses in two decades. They were rewarded Monday, as stocks jumped almost 2% on optimism the US will lift some tariffs on Chinese goods.

More than 1,100 corporate executives and officers have snapped up shares of their own firms in May, poised to exceed the number of sellers for the first month since March 2020 marked the pandemic trough two years ago, according to data compiled by the Washington Service.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-23/insiders-put-recession-angst-aside-to-binge-on-their-own-stocks?srnd=premium&sref=GGda9y2L

4. Precious Metal ETF Flows Turn Positive

Commodities:  Precious metals ETF flows have turned positive.

Source: Daily Shot

https://dailyshotbrief.com/the-daily-shot-brief-may-23rd-2022/

5. GDX Gold Miners had a Fast -25% Correction April/May

6. 75% of Companies Mentioning Supply Chain for the Last 3 Quarters

FactSet

https://twitter.com/FactSet

7. Looks Like Supply Chain Issues Loosening….Total Ships L.A. Ports…..

From Dan Stratemeier-Managing Director-Equities, Event Driven Strategies

8. U.S. playing catch-up on electric vehicles

• Ben Geman, author of Axios Generate

Axios on facebook

Axios on twitter

Axios on linkedin

Axios on email

Data: Global EV Outlook 2022; Chart: Jared Whalen/Axios

https://www.axios.com/2022/05/23/electric-vehicles-us-china-europe

9. Pew Research Majority of Americans Favor Exporting Natural Gas to Europe.

61% of Americans would favor exporting large amounts of natural gas to Europe

https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/05/12/a-majority-of-americans-favor-expanding-natural-gas-production-to-export-to-europe/ps_2022-05-12_energy-europe_00-01/

10. The Hidden Secret All Successful People Have but Don’t Talk About

 Chazz Scott

When most of us think about success in life, we automatically fix our minds upon material items of money, cars, clothes, or power. Many successful people indeed have these items at their disposal. However, many of us get blinded by these symbols of success and misplace where successful people actually receive their source of prosperity, abundance, and wealth.

All wealth, abundance, and prosperity in any aspect of life come from our minds. More specifically, our imagination. Many self-help authors and speakers may call this practice visualization.

Napoleon Hill said, “the imagination is the most powerful, most miraculous inconceivably powerful force that the world’s ever known.”

Why is it so powerful? Because if you cannot see the positive circumstances on the outside, you can build it on the inside, as Bob Proctor would say. In other words, if what you see with your eyes is not what you prefer in your life, you can imagine something different and work toward this image in your mind to reproduce it in your reality.

The Elon Musk way

Do you think Elon Musk could have built SpaceX if he didn’t have a vision or imagination? His goal was to create a fully reusable rocket that achieved a vertical soft landing back on earth. They failed numerous times but kept going. He held on to a future vision of the possible.

Now SpaceX is the first privately owned company to send a liquid-fueled rocket into orbit and the first to achieve a vertical soft landing of a reusable orbital rocket stage

This had never been done. NASA couldn’t do it, and neither could many private companies that had billions of dollars of research and development. And just like that, SpaceX achieved what many thought was impossible. And because of this innovation, money is being saved, making it cheaper to send rockets to space. Now NASA depends on SpaceX’s rockets for their space missions.

So, what did SpaceX have that all these other companies didn’t? They had a leader who had a vision and a vivid sense of imagination. Elon built an image of the possible instead of relying on what always had been. Even though SpaceX’s competitors had basically an unlimited budget, they still couldn’t get the job done. Vision mattered more than money. As Sam Walton, founder of Walmart, has said, “capital isn’t scarce; vision is.”

The Oprah Winfrey story

If that example seems extreme to you, let’s take Oprah as an example. A Baltimore TV producer told her that she was “unfit for television news.” Yet, she didn’t become consumed by her external conditions of what was said – she continued to follow the vision she built in her mind of what was possible. As a result, Oprah is one of the wealthiest people on TV.

Imagination is not something to be taken lately. If you think this is child’s play, that’s precisely what it is. Child’s play got Oprah, Elon, and many others rich and successful. Most people use their imagination as kids but never exercise it as they grow. Forcing many of us to rely on what we can see with our eyes for growth, success, and achievement. This results in stagnation because nothing changes unless you do. Change comes from within, not outside in.

Most people unconsciously use their imagination to guide them toward the very circumstances and conditions they don’t want. Why not use your imagination for success, happiness, health, and fulfillment? 

Unfortunately, if you continue to search for success with your eyes – your success is futile. What do I mean by this? Let’s think about this: every successful person you’ve ever heard about had to rely on vision to achieve their goals. They could not rely on their external conditions to pull themselves to success.

Each of them experienced pain, failure, disappointment, and loss. Still, they continued to follow a vision built with their imagination of what could be possible for them despite the negative they may be experiencing in their external conditions.

Pain is simply a teacher

Michael Beckwith famously said, “pain pushes us until our vision pulls.” In other words, pain is an excellent teacher to tell us how we don’t want to experience life. Once you know what you don’t want to experience in life (removal of pain), then you can begin to develop a future vision for yourself. Then, when your future vision of your success and life is created using your imagination – you will be pulled toward it.

This is when your brain’s reticular activating system (RAS) goes into full gear, finding conditions in your external reality that match the vision you’ve developed in your mind. This is when synchronicities, the right people will call, and things start working in your favor because you’re relying on a higher vision that is propelling you toward the very intention you’ve set for yourself.

Even the bible talks about how you must develop a future vision for yourself. More specifically, it says, “where there is no vision, the people perish.” So, if you have no vision, not only do you parish, but so does everyone around you – family, friends, and anyone that may rely on you.

In order to develop a future vision for yourself and begin to be pulled toward new conditions in your life that you may not be able to see with your physical eyes – you must exercise your imagination.

So, let’s do that now. Where do you want to go? Who do you want to become? What type of people do you want to be around and work with? How do you really want your life to be? What’s a big goal you’ve always wanted to accomplish? Do you want to become more confident, peaceful, or develop a sense of calmness in the face of adversity?

Begin to close your eyes and imagine it first, then work every day towards the dream you’ve developed in your mind. This is the true path to manifesting the life you desire despite the external conditions you may be facing.

As the saying goes, “if you don’t have a dream, there is no way to make one come true.”

https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/the-hidden-secret-all-successful-people-have-but-dont-talk-about

1. Bull/Bear Indicator 1.5 ..Sentiment Can’t Get Much Lower

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/who-will-be-recessions-lehman-wall-streets-most-accurate-analyst-says-3600-new-bull-case

2. Market Performance During Summer Months

Dorsey Wright

https://www.nasdaq.com/solutions/nasdaq-dorsey-wright

3. Fang Plus Index Still 2000 Points Above Covid Lows.

FANG Index -40%….Covid Low was 2800

www.stockcharts.com

4. Right Now…90% of SPACS Below List Price

500+ SPACS in Last 2 Years Underwater

https://www.statista.com/chart/24008/growth-in-us-spac-ipos/

5. Growth Valuation Reset

WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/recession-looms-but-markets-havent-got-the-message-11652866209

6. $4 Trillion in Equity Value Lost Emerging Markets

After $5 Trillion Rout, Emerging Markets Seek Turnaround Signal—By Srinivasan Sivabalan and

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-22/after-5-trillion-rout-emerging-markets-seek-turnaround-signal?sref=GGda9y2L

7. Why the Fed matters to regular Americans, in one stunning chart…Year Over Year Mortgage Payments +43.4%

Myles Udland-Yahoo Finance

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-the-fed-matters-to-you-in-one-stunning-chart-morning-brief-100026868.html

8. Nine Months in a Row of Year Over Year Existing Home Sales Declines

Wolf Street-It was the ninth month in a row of year-over-year declines, even as supply of homes listed for sale continued to rise (data via YCharts):

https://wolfstreet.com/2022/05/19/as-supply-rise-mortgage-rates-spike-us-home-sales-fall-to-lowest-since-june-2020-plunge-in-californias-coastal-metros/

9. XHB Homebuilder ETF -32% from highs

www.stockcharts.com

10. Why the Most Intelligent People Love Spending Time Alone

If you crave time to yourself, science says you might be much more intelligent than the average person.

BY JEFF HADEN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, INC.@JEFF_HADEN

Science says people who socialize more tend to be happier. Makes sense: Relationships, friendships, connections, spending time with people we enjoy… all of that makes us happier.

But that’s not completely true if you’re highly intelligent. If that’s the case, socializing with friends will actually not increase your level of satisfaction with your life.

Here’s why. When researchers followed people between 18 and 28 years old, they found the more most of the people socialized, the happier they were.

How This Tech Founder Runs 4 Companies As a Digital Nomad 

But not the subset of people in the study who were highly intelligent: The more theysocialized, the less happy they were.

Why? Researchers ventured several explanations.

One theory is evolutionary: Greater intelligence lets smart people more easily adapt to a modern world where the benefits of staying in close contact with a social group for food, shelter, protection, etc., are no longer as important.

Another theory was aspirational: The smarter you are, the more focused you will be on longer-term goals — which means spending time with friends can be distracting instead of helpful.

In short, if you’re hanging out with people, you aren’t getting stuff done.

Of course, this is just one study. It may be only directionally accurate.

And the relationship between intelligence and the desire for “alone time” doesn’t necessarily work in reverse.

I’m a prime example: I like time alone… but I’m not particularly bright.

But in your case, if you like to spend time alone working on a project, learning something new, developing your business plan, or grinding away on the things you need to do achieve your goals, don’t assume you’re a loner.

And definitely don’t assume you’re antisocial.

There could be a much better answer: You might just be smarter than the rest of us.

https://www.inc.com/rebecca-deczynski/small-business-administration-small-business-person-of-the-year-bright-futures-jill-scarbro.html?cid=sf01003