------20th anniversary------ 4) at aroud that time, i chatted with an old college friend who's a local (a licensed individual trading for his/her own account on the floor of a futures exchange) and that got me interested in commodities and futures. she always asked, "are you long or short US dollar?" i had no clue what sh meant. i was thinking like, "i buy/sell stocks and funds. what US dollar?" anyway i began to learn futures and conventional technical analysis, wave theory and stuff that borders on myths, like Gann techniques, through books, magazines, seminars and newsletters. for a while i thought i knew a lot. a friend who got a rich father said, "hey, why don't i give you 100,000 USD to trade and we'll share the profit, 50/50." "what about losses?" i asked. "don't worry. i'll bear the loss alone. if it's all lost, it's all lost. it's ONLY 100,000 dollars," he said.