This post has nothing really to do with food, except my Uber driver this morning was from Brazil. He was telling me all about Brazilian delicacies such as coxinha and pao de queijo and by the time we arrived at the hotel I was pretty much starving. But three quick market/behavioral observations to share with you on a Wednesday…

I’m traveling back home to Cleveland today after a ten-day trip to Asia.  This was my first time to Kuala Lumpur, where I spoke at the IFTA Annual Conference.  This has become one of my favorite annual events as it rotates to a different country every year and gives you a chance to learn about the people and their culture.

I’m a huge college football fan.  From my days in The Ohio State University Marching Band (no, I did not dot the “i”), I’ve cheered the scarlet and gray to a multitude of wins, including multiple national championships.  I even had to study Ohio State football history to win the favor of my future father-in-law, who took coaching class with the great Woody Hayes.

As I was just getting started as a technical analyst, an early mentor of mine warned me that I was getting into the dark arts. The way he put it, “A technician’s phone always rings more in a bear market.”

I first read Julia Cameron’s fantastic book The Artist’s Way years ago, and it impacted my life in a number of positive ways. I started writing a three-page journal every morning. I reflected on how I could better incorporate creativity into my routine. And I made a list of five “Imaginary Lives” that I might lead.

I’m down in Orlando for FinCon 2018 which is a gathering of personal finance writers, bloggers, Youtubers, and everyone that helps them provide great content for individuals. A little out of my comfort zone but I’m quickly realizing that people here understand marketing, social media, and audio/video production way better than I do.

I was in New York last week to visit clients, also for interviews for Bloomberg as well as thestreet.com. I’ve stayed downtown on the last couple trips, partly for convenience and also just to take in the history of the city.

I'm often asked about market cycles and how I incorporate something like seasonality into my process.  The short answer is I bucket them under "interesting, but not vital." Here's the somewhat longer answer...

At the end of September, the Telecom Services Sector will cease to exist, and the new Communication Services sector will be born.  I created this post following a morning of Googling to try and gather the best information out there.  Let's review what is happening, how it will affect existing sectors, and how investors should think about this change.

I just got back from a fantastic trip to Seattle for the stockcharts.com ChartCon 2018.  It was a pleasure to reconnect many whom I consider mentors in my own career.  Also great to meet others with a passion for technical analysis and data visualization. As with any productive conference, I took copious notes and have enjoyed revisiting some of the insights that I picked up during the two-day event.