Marco den Ouden
Bio
Marco is the published author of two books on investing in the stock market. Since retiring in 2014 after forty years in broadcast journalism, Marco has become an avid blogger on philosophy, travel, and music He also writes short stories.
Stories (62/0)
The Literary Masterpiece Hidden for 62 Years
The Incredible Story Behind a Novel I had not even heard of Irène Némirovsky until I read her story in Once Again to Zelda by Marlene Wagman-Geller. That book is a collection of fifty short essays giving the background stories on the dedications to fifty novels ranging from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in 1818 to Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union in 2007.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in FYI
A Question of Balance
Have you ever strolled along the beach and seen piles of rocks balanced on top of each other? They're quite common now. People are doing it everywhere. But the phenomenon started back in Vancouver's Stanley Park in the late 1990s. I wrote the following article for About.com and it was published August 5, 1999.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in Motivation
Some Random Thoughts on Money
A TV show I watched recently and a movie I saw on the flight home from Australia got me to thinking a bit about money. What is money? Usually money is held to have two components. It is a store of value and it is a medium of exchange. It is also said to be a unit of account but that is more of an accounting function than a day to day use of money.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in The Swamp
The Joy of Cruising
“They called her the Ship of Dreams. And she was. She really was.” You may remember those words spoken by old Rose in the movie Titanic. The Titanic was spectacular as the movie shows, with gilded dining rooms, gorgeous wooden staircases, luxury suites and more.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in Wander
Applying the Darvas Method
Recently I reviewed Nicolas Darvas amazing little book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market. Now I'll look at his methodology in more detail with an eye to seeing if his feat can be easily replicated. The short answer is no. If it could, there would now be thousands of millionaires who made their money using the Darvas method. Many people have studied his methods. Many have achieved some success in the stock market. But few if any managed to turn $25,000 into $2,000,000 in the short eighteen months Darvas did it in. We’ll get into the reasons for this later.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in Trader
Songs About Immigrants and Refugees
In another piece on songs about roots, I concluded with a number that disparaged the very concept of roots, a song about following your dreams and searching for freedom. "People have the ability to lay down their own roots, wherever and whenever they want," I noted. "Maybe part of growing up is not accepting the roots you came with but setting down your own roots in a place and with people of your own choosing."
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in Beat
Doubt and Certainty
Doubt has had a bad rap since the Apostle Thomas doubted that Christ had risen from the dead until he could see him in person and check out his wounds from the crucifixion. Related in the Gospel according to John, the ten other disciples told Thomas about the resurrection and Thomas told them, "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe."
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in The Swamp
How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market
I’d wanted to read this stock market classic for a long time but it is notoriously hard to find. Finally I bought it through a reseller on Amazon.com. The seller was in England and the book arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks later. It was worth the wait!
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in Trader
Plato on How Democracy Degenerates into Tyranny
This is an edited version of an essay I submitted for a mid-term on early western political thought. Libertarians tend to view Plato negatively, viewing his Republic as a blueprint for totalitarianism. Be that as it may, Plato had many interesting insights and this is one of the first perceptive critiques of democracy. He was so opposed to democracy because it was the democratic government of Athens that condemned his mentor Socrates to death for corrupting the youth of Athens. I used Francis Cornford's translation for the most part but occasionally quoted from a translation by George Grube.
By Marco den Oudenabout a year ago in The Swamp
