{"id":21440,"date":"2023-12-22T07:30:06","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jeffclarktrader.com\/?p=21440"},"modified":"2023-12-22T07:30:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T12:30:06","slug":"my-survival-christmas-tree-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/my-survival-christmas-tree-3\/","title":{"rendered":"My Survival Christmas Tree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Jeff&rsquo;s Note:<\/strong>&nbsp;Hi folks, although our offices are closed, my team and I still wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas and happy holidays.<\/p>\n<p>We&rsquo;ve had a hectic year, but I just want to thank you for sharing your trading journey with us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For today, let&rsquo;s relax, eat good food, and enjoy the next few days with our loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"margin-bottom:20px;\">\n<p>The Clark household has five Christmas trees&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>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<p>My wife, the Martha Stewart of Northern California, decorates three trees. They look like they popped out of a Neiman Marcus catalog. Everyone &ldquo;oohs&rdquo; and &ldquo;aahs&rdquo; whenever they see them.<\/p>\n<p>My tree, however, is the one all of our friends look forward to seeing.<\/p>\n<p>Several years ago, I started decorating my Christmas tree in the theme of the current economic and political environment.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>My liberal friends thought the tree was a sensitive statement displaying the threats of mankind&rsquo;s abuse of the environment. My conservative friends thought it was a hilarious expression of sarcasm.<\/p>\n<p>It was the perfect politically agnostic tree. Not so this year&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>Last year, I unveiled my Survival Tree.<\/p>\n<p>It was 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&rsquo;m one step ahead of that.<\/p>\n<p>The trunk is covered with burlap sacks that fan out at the bottom &ndash; like a tent. So, I have shelter and something to catch rainwater.<\/p>\n<p>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<p><!--GREY BOX START--><\/p>\n<div class=\"card bg-light mb-4\">\n<div class=\"card-body\">\n<p align=\"center\" style=\"font-size: 18px;\"><strong>Free Trading Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Have you checked out Jeff&#8217;s free trading resources on his website? It contains a selection of special reports, training videos, and a full trading glossary to help kickstart your trading career \u2013 at zero cost to you. Just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jeffclarktrader.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to check it out.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!--GREY BOX END--><\/p>\n<p>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 &ndash; but you get my point).<\/p>\n<p>For tinsel, I bought a bag of shredded U.S. currency and meticulously hung each strand on the tree.<\/p>\n<p>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&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Buy yer own darn gold, &lsquo;cause you ain&rsquo;t gettin&rsquo; any of mine!&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>I hope my friends take my advice. And I hope you do, too.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>Best regards and good trading,<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Signature\" src=\"https:\/\/files.jeffclarktrader.com\/global\/signatures\/jeff-clark-signature.png\" width=\"200\" style=\"max-width:200px; width:100%;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jeff Clark<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Clark household has five Christmas trees\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"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-21440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-minute","publication-market-minute","person-jeff-clark"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21440","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\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"person","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/person?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-type?post=21440"},{"taxonomy":"ticker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeffclarktrader.com\/market-minute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ticker?post=21440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}