“When you can’t control what’s happening, challenge yourself to control how you respond to what’s happening. That’s where your power is.”

Stocks ending week with power following roller-coaster ride.

"The government jobs report was nothing short of spectacular for stock investors, pointing to a textbook 'goldilocks economy' with solid growth and low inflation. Non-farm payrolls increased by 266,000 in November, well above the consensus estimate of 181,000 and last month's revised reading of 156,000. The positive revision in itself is a huge plus for bulls, and the fact that wage growth was a tad lower-than-expected confirms the muted inflationary pressures. The unemployment rate unexpectedly declined to 3.5% as well, matching the measure's recent multi-decade low, thanks to the healthy trends in the labour market."

"Politics will pose the biggest risk to financial markets in December, as the U. S.-Chinese relations could have a crucial effect on risk assets, the impeachment process will also enter its next phase, and the British elections could also cause turmoil in the usually quiet month. The strong rally of the past two months could mean that a choppier period is ahead for stocks, and even an orderly pullback may be in the cards despite the positive seasonality statistics of December. The OPEC meeting, which is scheduled for the first week of the month will likely be a tumultuous one, as Saudi Arabia is trying to pressure the cartel to increase the support of the price of oil ahead of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the state owned giant, Aramco."

“Most professionals agree that novices and amateurs spend far too much time studying entry techniques in relation to their true importance to successful trading. It is risk management, they agree, that really separates the winners and losers. Since the markets are not very predictable anyway, you can have a far greater impact on your bottom line by applying proper risk management techniques than by finding a new and better way to anticipate the next market top or bottom.”