Patrick's Diary - 5/16/2016

My son called me around 6:00 AM to tell that he selected the courses for Autumn Quarter. As we planned yesterday, he will take ENGL 202, ENGL 297. which will ensure him to declare major in English. These courses require a lot of readings and writings, it won't be easy if he wants to get good grades. In addition, he selected PHIL 120 - Introduction to Logic, which qualifies almost all academic categories - I&S/NW/QSR. He seemed not able to forget quantitative subject. I can tell he is still trying. He called me again at noon to tell me that he talked to the advisor at Department of English and got very warm feedback. In his words, he almost dropped the tears. His roommate is a freshman and selected the same English courses as my son did. As my son told me before that kid wanted to go to law school eventually. As I shared, there will be many opportunities for these kids if they carefully and seriously design their futures from now. If my son is fully passionate, he can pursue a PhD in English as he proposes as one of the options, then becomes a professor. Though he may not make much money, he will be happy in his whole life. As a professor in English, he definitely will become an author, which may have him making decent money eventually. Passion is the most important factor for anyone's success, more critically, happiness. 

As I tweeted this morning, I would follow up some stocks to ensure my son to make money in his first trade during the summer break. He told me when he studied Calculus, it didn't bring him immediate benefit, he wasn't motivated to study hard on it. I don't think anyone can be great in the difficult courses like Calculus if she or he doesn't make extraordinary efforts. My son also said to me that he believed trading stocks would be different because it could bring in money right away. I actually agree with him because I had the similar experience when I was young. I just did a little bit research online and planned to focus on Top 10 Stocks headquartered in Seattle Metropolitan area. I actually built a SeaPower Index to use today's closing market value as the base, so it is 100 on 5/16/2016. My son will finish his Spring Quarter on June 10th. I will give him a week to fully rest, then another week to learn the basic knowledge about the stock markets, such as fostering a habit of watching CNBC in general while doing research on these 10 stocks specifically. I may have him start trading these stocks on June 27th. It won't be very difficult to make 2.5% on AMZN, SBUX, EXPE, even MSFT on daily basis. I won't let him trade options at the beginning but he can short sell, which I generally don't do. When he makes money and cashes out to spend, he will touch the real life. 

I did go to gym to work out an hour tonight. Because I practiced soccer yesterday, muscles on my legs were pretty sour. Due to the injuries at my young ages, I could feel the slight pains on my knees. However, I feel so spiritual.