{"id":20424,"date":"2022-12-23T07:30:08","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jeffclarktrader.com\/?p=20424"},"modified":"2022-12-23T07:30:08","modified_gmt":"2022-12-23T12:30:08","slug":"my-survival-christmas-tree-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/my-survival-christmas-tree-2\/","title":{"rendered":"My Survival Christmas Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff’s Note:<\/strong> Hi folks, although our offices are closed, my team and I still wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.<\/p>\n

We’ve had a hectic year, but I just want to thank you for sharing your trading journey with us. <\/p>\n

For today, let’s relax, eat good food, and enjoy the day with our loved ones.<\/p>\n

Afterall, the markets will still be there once we resume our routine on January 3. So, stay tuned for the new ideas and insights we have planned for the upcoming year.<\/p>\n

Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n

\n

The Clark household has five Christmas trees…<\/p>\n

My kids get to decorate one, and they do so predictably. The tree is covered in candy canes, strings of popcorn and cranberries, and a bunch of homemade ornaments only a parent can love.<\/p>\n

My wife, the Martha Stewart of Northern California, decorates three trees. They look like they popped out of a Neiman Marcus catalog. Everyone “oohs” and “aahs” whenever they see them.<\/p>\n

My tree, however, is the one all of our friends look forward to seeing.<\/p>\n

Several years ago, I started decorating my Christmas tree in the theme of the current economic and political environment.<\/p>\n

One year, for example, I painstakingly created my own ornaments for a Global Warming Tree. I froze ceramic figurines of polar bears and arctic seals in cubes of ice.<\/p>\n

I inserted a metal hanger in each one and placed the ornaments on the tree. As the ice melted, the ceramic figurines would fall and shatter onto the hardwood floor below.<\/p>\n

My liberal friends thought the tree was a sensitive statement displaying the threats of mankind’s abuse of the environment. My conservative friends thought it was a hilarious expression of sarcasm.<\/p>\n

It was the perfect politically agnostic tree. Not so this year…<\/p>\n

Yesterday, I unveiled my Survival Tree.<\/p>\n

It’s a six-foot potted apple tree. You may recall stories of the Great Depression, when men would set up shop selling apples on street corners. Well, I’m one step ahead of that.<\/p>\n

The trunk is covered with burlap sacks that fan out at the bottom – like a tent. So, I have shelter and something to catch rainwater.<\/p>\n

The Christmas lights wrap around the top of the tree, and they flicker on and off, controlled by a dial. This allows me to send Morse code signals to other survivalists.<\/p>\n

The ornaments are made of empty shotgun shells, small bottles of water, canned foods like Spam, refried beans, and tuna fish, and a bunch of gold and silver coins (the chocolate variety – but you get my point).<\/p>\n

For tinsel, I bought a bag of shredded U.S. currency and meticulously hung each strand on the tree.<\/p>\n

I painted gold bricks and toy guns that surrounded the base of the tree. The message to my friends was simple, and it was written on a small cardboard placard…<\/p>\n

“Buy yer own darn gold, ‘cause you ain’t gettin’ any of mine!”<\/p>\n

I hope my friends take my advice. And I hope you do, too.<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n

Best regards and good trading,<\/p>\n\n\n
\"signature\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Jeff Clark<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Reader Mailbag<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What would you decorate your \u201csurvival tree\u201d with to represent this past year both politically and financially?<\/p>\n

Let us know your thoughts – and any questions you have – at feedback@jeffclarktrader.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My tree, is the one all of our friends look forward to seeing\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"service":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication":[10],"person":[7],"newsletter-type":[],"ticker":[],"class_list":["post-20424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-minute","publication-market-minute","person-jeff-clark"],"acf":[],"ai_tts_audio_outdated":false,"ai_tts_content_changed_during_generation":false,"ai_tts_legacy_post":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20424\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-type?post=20424"},{"taxonomy":"ticker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ticker?post=20424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}