#Trading Complexity

[allaboutforexworld]

Hedging: Forex Trading Strategy Explained

Hedging is a crucial forex trading strategy that aims to minimize potential losses by taking offsetting positions in the market. This strategy provides a safety net against adverse price movements, allowing traders to protect their investments and manage risk effectively. In this article, we will explore the concept of hedging, how it works in forex trading, its various techniques, and the…

[catlover4536]

I am once again here to remind y'all that I love them.

[sillygoofyqueer]

Deity Jester Wei Wuxian AU because I really like it I don't CARE if you guys have no taste (/silly). What a shit ending to that last one was though, I was obviously some form of deluded with that ending. Jesus CHRIST. When Wei Ying returns to Master, he is furious. He wants to kill him, to rip him apart slowly and remind him that although he may hold the key to controlling him, Wei Ying can still fight back. He already has, once. It was a minimal, small struggle, one that had seemed to tear him apart inside, but it was enough. A sign that he does not need to resign himself to being forced to complete Master's every whim and want. It's what fuels him to pulling the poor wood that hides a room off its metal bindings as he enters Master's space, feeling that familiar tug in his chest that usually signals a transformation, but he still can't free himself of this cage of flesh and blood so he can only growl in frustration. Master is lounging in that pathetic chair of his, obviously having been waiting for him to enter, lips pressed against that damn instrument and already playing the tune that leaves him feeling separate from his own body.

At first, he can ignore it, clinging to his body - it's so heavy to move it, so heavy in a way it hasn't been since the deaths of his mama and papa - and dragging himself forwards towards the man himself. But, there's something about this melody that feels different. It seems to echo, reverberating around the room and thudding into his mind every time it bounces off a surface; it hurts, every thud another rip in his control, until he can no longer keep himself in control. He doesn't even hear the orders that Master gives him, but can only watch and vaguely feel himself moving somewhere, doing something, but then it all goes dark. He can't think, can't move, can't open his eyes. He just. Exists. It feels almost similar to how he existed after being chased out of his home when his parents had died, hidden beneath a tree and clinging to his mama's cloak as it rotted in his hands. He wonders if this is what death is like.

Wei Ying's master, known to most as Wen Haoran, moves in to take the throne after he is sure that all other competition is gone. The monster took care of all of them, but the way it had refused to attack the children had him worried. However, they were dealt with, it was dealt with, and now he can easily take over command of the country. The commoners cannot do anything, and it is easy to pit the old court loyal to the previous crown against one another with carefully placed pieces of 'incriminating evidence' that ties all of them to him in some way or another. Rumours and whispers, letters and bribes, all linked back to him in some way or another, falsified to suit his purposes. The infighting weeds out the weak ones who come begging for his support a few weeks in, the strong ones who end up swarmed as more 'evidence' piles up against them, and the smart ones. The ones who merely pretend to bend to his will. They are dealt with swiftly, leaving his control of the throne secure.

History unfolds from that moment, time passing as Wen Haoran's rule marks the start of Wen control of the country, rules doling out to become more and more oppressive as time goes on. Nobody can explain how he gained the throne, can only speculate while he tucks away the ancient, mould-ridden text that holds a short, vague passage on the monster with the melody that summons it. While he doesn't want anyone else to learn about his methods for his takeover, he wishes to ensure that future generations of the Wen also have the knowledge in case they need to summon the monster. It's stupid enough, it won't even recognise them considering it didn't even know his name, so it can be utilised again as long as the melody is played by them. So, he creates an inner library, hidden within his chambers (the chambers of the ruler), that holds all of the secrets his family should need to know to keep control of this country, one that is finally taking shape to be a truly great place. It is a secret that is passed down from ruler to ruler at first, but one that fades with time, until eighty years have passed and Wen Haoran is long dead, with Wen Ruohan on the throne.

Wen Ruohan is unlike his ancestor in that he is outwardly cruel. He is power hungry, a maniac that cares not for appearances - the Wen have been on the throne for this long, their power is practically absolute, and everyone has grown complacent with the treatment doled out to everyone within the country. Whatever the Wen ask, you do, or you face certain death. Rumours flit around that they are using dark magic but honestly, none of the rulers are even aware of the secret room within their chambers and, even if they were, would not think to find any sort of magic present in their ancestor's work. Wen Ruohan is just evil alone, he does not need any cursed magic or object to taint his mind. A clear indicator of his cruelty is when he asks the prestigious families to send a son into the palace so they can learn their roles; they can do nothing but send them over despite their fear and mistrust of this tyrannical ruler with his equally fucked up sons.

It's not long before these boys from prominent families have different tasks doled out to them that seem to mock the individual family's greatest pride - Nie Mingjue is placed as a Duizhu (captain of a company), meaning he is working with woefully less soldiers than he usually would, an insult to his expertise of battle. Jiang Cheng is now a fisherman for the Wen, supplying them with the best fish - an insult to the family revered for their trade and control of the waterways. Jin Zixuan? A retainer for Wen Chao, who delights in ordering around a member of the family that poses the most threat with their almost natural talents of politicking and charming all those that cross them (well, until you talk to Jin Guangshan, of course). And Lan Wangji, the one to willingly go to the palace so that his brother could still be the heir of the Lan family, a scholar dedicated to documenting the illustrious history of the Wens and whatever strikes their fancy, spitting on the Lans' own well-documented, impressive history and their unparalleled scholarly arts.

Lan Wangji despises his place in the palace, forced to sit in the library every day and read through pages and pages of the Wens' lies, writing down everything that could be deemed even remotely important to the Wens so that he doesn't have to go back and read through them if he misses something. This task is not straightforward even with his length, because every time one of the royals ask him to research something else, he must stop his documentations of the Wen to learn everything about the subject asked until he has enough information written down to appease those that have asked for it. It's long and tedious enough already, and every time he has to pause, it adds more time to what he has to do. It gets worse when he realises that there is vagueness around the beginning of the rule of the Wen - something that Wen Ruohan will not tolerate if he is presented with it, forcing Lan Wangji to ask for more resources on that part of history.

Coincidentally, a servant stumbles across the secret library while cleaning the room, having done the impossible and accidentally knocked a statue resting against the untouched books in the study. They look inside, assuming this is just another part to the library of the study, and dust off all of the books - they notice two books in particular - small, handbound. 'The beginning of the Wens' and an unnamed, mould-covered book. They don't think much of it, just remembering that that blasted Lan was asking for more resources on the former subject and so grabbing that without much thought to go give it to the Lan, then grabbing the mould-covered book just because it will surely be a pain in the ass for the Lan to decipher. They leave the hidden library, being sure to reset everything after they're gone, and go to give the books to the Lan. They honestly assume that the other inner servants know about it, so they don't mention anything as they deliver the book to Lan Wangji, who practically glares down at it as he opens it for more bullshit to be delivered.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

“Today the United States launched a trade war against Canada, their closest partner and ally, their closest friend. At the same time, they are talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense,” a visibly angry Trudeau said. Trump imposed tariffs against Washington’s three biggest trading partners, drawing immediate retaliation from Mexico, Canada and China and sending financial markets into a tailspin. Just after midnight, Trump put 25% taxes, or tariffs, on Mexican and Canadian imports, though he limited the levy to 10% on Canadian energy. “What he wants to see is a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us,” Trudeau said. “That is never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state.” [...]

The premier of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said that he would issue a 25% export tax on electricity sold to the U.S. and may later cut it off completely if the American tariffs persist. Ontario powered 1.5 million homes in the U.S. in 2023 in Michigan, New York and Minnesota. Ontario Premier Doug Ford also told The Associated Press that he would stop the sale of nickel and rare minerals to the U.S. Ontario and other provinces already began removing American liquor brands from government store shelves. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario sells nearly $1 billion Canadian dollars ($687 million) worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers every year.

A government official said Lutnick called Ford after Ford’s press conference and asked him to stand down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the call, said Ford told the U.S. commerce secretary he’ll go harder.

I fucking hate this timeline &c. &c.

[whumpbby]

TBH I do think some Jiang disciples did survive the Lotus Pier massacre, if only because they had been elsewhere when it happened/too old or too young to fight so they ran (<-which could be a fun thing to grapple with for both the potential run-aways and newly recruiting Jiang Cheng, who was sent away), but it still wasn't enough people to be called Great Sect. So I think as you say they recruited anyone they could, including some rouge cultivators and some from smaller sects that were destroyed or taken over by the Wen Sect. I don't think they tried to recruit - while the Sunshot campaign was going - a lot of people without active golden core, because they would simply have little time to train them between the battles. Some probably did manage to join the Sect like that, and these would probably grow quite close to people who taught them between the fights.

Also Jiang Cheng having to be at least one of these teachers, because they are short on the disciples but shorter in those trained in Jiang style even more so. And how after the war he must've been doing that still, on top of having the sect to run as both Leader and Head Discipline (because Wei Wuxian was going through things he chose to neither explain or acknowledge) (1/2)

(2/2) Also Jiang Cheng, who almost had to watch his brother get caught by the Wen soldiers when he went off alone in the streets, WOULD try and make his disciples work in big enough groups to protect themselves. Also also Jiang Cheng that seems to go off alone rather often.

Oh, and Jiang Cheng throwing his weight around when his disciples get into some sort of disagreement/scuffle every time, and being harsh on the other party (totally not because of finally being able to shield someone he cares for) and never satisfying the questions about the punishment (totally not because of his mother and Zidian and Wei Wuxian). Even when Jiang disciples were in the wrong. Not meaning there was no disciplinary action, just that it never went outside the sect.

Also taking in some non-cultivators that are good at other things (like Jiang Yanli!) or people who lost their golden cores but can still fight and teach (because he remembers not having a golden core and how that felt like; and maybe he realises somewhere along the way that he might've been able to live without one too; which would certainly add even more flavour to learning whose golden core really was inside him all along).

The latter headcanon is also so amazing because resurrected Wei Wuxian would have to confront how he dealt with the loss of his core and finally stop saying he is fine and reflect on his feelings about all this, including Jiang Cheng

____________________________________________________

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with me :D I am so absolutely taken over by this subject!

This is why I'm writing these things, I love to discuss them with other peeps:)

Your message pushed me onto another path of wild speculation via the mention of the other smaller sects that JC would approach to recruit - and that pushed me into the economics of Jinaghu and their influence on the post-war lay of the landXD

Which I am putting under the cut, because it's a lot of rambling to get to a point, but that's how it is in these parts;]

Also, the map I will be using, because it's as good as any other:

From the beginning - smaller sects yes, there was probably not a shortage of them that were destroyed by the Wen passing through and by the blowback of the war happening at all. I imagine that anyone from lone survivors to whole families was displaced…

But I am unsure if inviting them in would be a good idea in JC's position, because, going back to the main point - the Jiang were decimated. I can only go by what the story tells us when it doesn't mention any extra survivors - the Wen banning other sects from night-hunts was a nifty set-up for everyone being stuck at home after all - even if, logically, some of the disciples could be in other locations… however, even if they were, these wouldn't be the meat of Yunmeng Jiang. Because…

…random tangent no 1, because this is a low-fantasy setting (thinking of Game of Thrones I am), I am structuring the Sects as Just Gentry. Maybe not kingdoms outright - because there doesn't seem to be enough land between them to cover for their economic statuses - but city-states ruled by aristocratic bloodlines with the actual political power in their hands. Thus, even if the book doesn't really go into it, I'd wager that the region of Yunmeng was run by the extended Jiang family that was living in the capital of Lotus Pier. That's where the disciples were trained - but that was most likely also where the taxes were being collected, where the trade arrangements happened, where the law was being written, higher education took place, it had the best restaurants, etc.

When the Wen destroyed Lotus Pier, they did away with the whole socio-economic and political setup of the region, which is a smart move for someone who wants to set up their own shop.

…And that circles me back to JC and recruiting - he wasn't just gathering disciples to fight, he was rebuilding a whole intricate system of governance from scratch. A system that used to be run by the extended family that he could trust - now was something he was staffing with strangers.

And, from the example of Su Minshan, we know how jumping sects was considered to be in bad taste - it stands to reason that whatever decimated sect showed up on JC's doorstep, they wouldn't want to give up their own name. Just like JC wasn't going to give up his name. These people would be looking for an alliance and revenge, and, most likely, economic help in their own rebuilding, but most of them weren't looking to join the Jiang. And if they were - what was the guarantee that they'd stay? Or that they wouldn't use JC to meet their own ends and leave him worse for it? Or simply take over due to sheer numbers? A valid fear for a clan of 1 that had to seem ripe for picking.

I think JC would be very careful about accepting disciples from existing sects as his own, and instead build alliances with them. A rogue cultivator or a promising youth looking for a place to settle were a safer bet to build the core of his new sect with. Not to say that some of these alliances wouldn't result in the smaller sects merging into the Jiang later on by osmosis, but not at the outset…

Which leads me to believe that JC would want to start taking in and training coreless youths as soon as humanly possible - just to have someone at his back who was OF Yunmeng Jiang and not just allied with them. Maybe not during the beginning of the war, but by the time Lotus Pier was reclaimed things were probably going this way. If you think about it, Jiang Cheng was a fucking powerhouse of a leader. I have no idea when he slept. Probably not at all.

Probably why he was so cranky XD

That's why I am of firm opinion that the alliance by marriage with the Jin sect was a double-edged sword JC wasn't in a position to refuse, but also wasn't in a position to wholeheartedly accept. (And everyone who thinks that JC 'sold' Yanli to JGS for all these doubloons is just plain old wrong). Because now they're family. Only family he has. And that family can slowly find their way into the important positions of his own 'kingdom', because that's how gentry/aristocracy tends to work in a setting putting that much value on bloodlines, and he doesn't have his own family to plug these positions with ahead of time.

And even if JGS wasn't super eager to marry his son to JYL and the marriage was mostly pushed by Madame Jin and Jin Zixuan - it was in JGS's best interests for Yunmeng Jiang to remain weakened and/or under his control. Because….

…tangent nr 2- economics! :D

The plot doesn't go into it, but I like to know, so I was thinking of the actual economics of the magical land of magical peopleXD I don't need them to be detailed, but just realistic enough to make some sense, and serve as a believable background. I'm not going to question the existence of potatoes or other anachronisms, but one thing I needed to answer for myself was - where is all the money coming from???

Like, for real, where is the cash coming from for all the silks, fancy furniture, houses, swords and so on. How are the gentry sects making money?

Again, the genre, like many others, waves away monetary concerns in general - aristocrats are just wealthy, commoners are poor, and Bilbo Baggins is a landlord. OK.

So, taxes. What makes sect a Great one? Land, mostly, it would seem. The amount of land they own. Which means taxes - if we consider the Gentry sects local aristocracy. That tracks, because ain't no way they'd earn that much dosh via night-hunts from a population that isn't really that large. If you look at the approximate map of the whole realm and consider how fast people are moving from one region to another (even including flying swords and donkey-travel) that ain't a lot of land/people to feed all these sects fleeting about between the 5 Majors.

So, my idea is that the small sects do support themselves mostly via night-hunting and general spiritual upkeep of their locals, but the Greats are just aristocracy and live off of taxes and trade.

And that makes me wonder how Yunmeng Jiang managed to recover their wealth in such a record time, and why was the Jin so wealthy for apparently doing so little.

I propose that Lanling Jin grew out of a port-city and made its money on sea-trade. Sea trade was always The Shit if you wanted to, dunno, gild your palace in gold or something.

Yunmeng - with its access to lakes and rivers - was another trade hub of the realm with the additional bonus of lotus, fish and all other crops a well-watered land can give you.

Qishan - being the most West-ward placed of the Great sects we know of, had to have access to - or even monopoly over - the intercontinental trade routes, or a lot of raw materials available. But at the same time, being a mountainous region, it wasn't rich in water and water-intensive crops. I think that once the material appetite of the Wen upper echelon grew, the more they needed to look towards consuming other regions to sustain it.

Annexing Yunmeng was a good strategy from that point of view - it fixed the water issue and also opened new trade routes towards the South and East via the rivers.

But then the Wen were defeated - and all that West-ward trade potential suddenly was left unattended, and JGS would be a fool to let it slip through his fingers. And the only 'large' clan placed close enough to was Yunmeng.

Stands to reason that, somehow, JC managed to wrestle some of that for his own people to refill the coffers. Gusu was too far and not a trade hub by any means, and Nie Mingjue/Huaisang seemed uninterested in reaching out for it, so the only serious competition on that front were the Jin… Which, again, JC somehow managed to outsmart there, because I do not believe for even a moment that a fierce economic battle wasn't fought as soon as the military operations ended.

[britneyshakespeare]

beatles poll, for research (reductive binary opinions only)

[strange-big-earner]

Today is bring your wife to work day for BLU

[tracle0]

Feast your eyes! My pride stars :)!

[shima-draws]

Anyway speaking of poly trios. Have any of you considered Lawlusan because MANNNN.

[lovinggreeniehours]

i love all my f/os and all but. i do have like an extra soft spot for the ones who also have npd,,, they just get it,,

[rhineposting]

okay pause on phone people posting to do some Rhinedottir Posting ™

I think that while all of the Five Sinners are generally around the same level of unhingement and gray morality, Rhinedottir was just Like That even before taking a dunk in the Eldritch and Forbidden. I think it's kinda funny.

"That's Surtalogi, he basically invented lycanthropy and has a pet multidimensional narwhal that eats French people, that obelisk over there is Vedrfolnir, the single greatest visionary to kinda-live, capable of restoring sentience to the cursed, and the lady over there is Rhinedottir, a revolutionary alchemist and she, uh... Yeah these days she's mostly printing flying dismembered dogs. No idea why. She's not even taking care of them, or of any other thing she ever made for that matter. Yeah, she made a bunch of her clones and dumped most of them into a vat of acid. No idea why, something about them not being good enough. Oh yeah no, that was before our country was nuked. I don't know what's her deal and honestly at this point I'd keep it that way. Anyways, that guy over there is Rerir and he uhhhhhhh-"

[fridayiminlovemp3]

i’m so serious i need these lyrics tattooed on the inside of my eyelids

[nocternalrandomness]

9/11 Memorial & Museum, Manhattn NY

[nthflower]

Fallout 4 is a game about making cute little towns from trash and completing missions earning money to buy more trash and scavengering everything you found. Also collecting people to put into your towns. Or helping you collect trash.

[touchlikethesun]

the next time someone calls english a "simple language" i'm bringing out the knives. this goes for any other language too actually. there's no such thing as a "simple" or "simplified" human language. if people speak it natively, it will be as complex and as simple as any other language. stop it with these made up hierarchies born of bitterness ffs

[velaraffricate]

worldbuilding can honestly be so slow and exhausting sometimes, i gotta figure out how like 50 interlocking systems work in detail before i can even start to think about writing my story