The 2002 and the 2012 versions of the I Ching
In 2002, I wrote a manual on managing and investing with the I Ching and called it The TAO for CEOs and Investors. One of my goals was to share with those investors who had gone through the 2000 crash and had lost a substantial part of their wealth, my studies of the Oracle and how the Oracle had helped my clients to successfully invest in those corporations whose CEOs had the Mandate of Heaven.
Never before the crash had I made public any of these consultations with the Oracle because I felt the investors in general were not ready for it. But then came the crash of 2000. It was the moment that made me wonder if I might be wrong. Even though many of my more sophisticated clients had encouraged me to publish what was perhaps private information belonging to a group of High Net Worth Individuals, it was a consultation with the Oracle about writing the manual what tipped the balanced and made me write it. I decided that both the Oracle as well as my clients were right and that perhaps it was time to share with the investors, and in particular with the small ones, what was a clear message from the Oracle: there is a better WAY.
In light of the present financial crisis, this message rings true once more:
· To the abuses brought about for a second time by so many crooked Wall Street bankers and Hedge Funds Managers, the I Ching says: there is a better Way,
· To allowing them to create one crash after another, destroying trillions of their clients’ wealth and giving birth to movements such as Occupy Wall Street, the I Ching says: there is a better Way.
· To allowing them to place the entire financial system in danger, and make so many nations of the world go through so many economic crisis one after another with depressions and massive unemployment as the final outcome, the I Ching says: there is a better Way.
· To the lack of desire on the part of governments to bring these criminals to justice, the I Ching says: there is a better Way.
When I wrote the manual in 2002, I had set as one of my goals to update it every decade because a decade is the usual tenure of a CEO. Now that a decade has passed, I am presenting the 2012 version which includes two basic changes. The first is that while in the 2002 version I included only 40 of the thousands of corporations I have followed during the 44 years I have been studying the I Ching, in the 2012 version, I have expanded it to include the 30 corporations of the DJI and the 100 corporations of the QQQ. And the second is that while in the 2002 Version I separated the Hexagrams into those related to Management from those related to Investing, in the 2012 version I have merged them into one. It has become abundantly clear that the two are closely related.
The investor depends on the CEO for the return on as well as for the return of his investment. That is, thanks to the Oracle, the investor does not need to diversify with a mutual fund. All the investor needs in his portfolio is a few good CEOs who have the Mandate of Heaven. He does not need a mutual fund manager as an asset allocator because the CEOs are asset allocators. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson for instance, manages a large portfolio of products and he must efficiently allocate the corporate assets by either improving or discarding the various products which comprise the portfolio. So does the CEO of every corporation in the world.
We will see next those CEOs who have the Mandate of Heaven. That is, those who are truly Alpha generators and therefore should be in every investors’ portfolios. But before going into the interpretation of the Hexagrams and the cases of the corporations which are going through their individual Time-Spaces, I would like to express once more my gratitude to the Oracle and insist that the entire credit for this manual on Managing and Investing belongs to the I Ching. I do suspect, however, that the Oracle would refuse to take the credit. I can almost hear what the Oracle always whispers in the ears of those who love and respect it:
“The wise man gladly leaves fame to others. He does not seek to have credited to himself things that stand accomplished, but hopes to release active forces; that is, he completes his works in such a manner that they may bear fruit for the future.”
And one more thing, as Steve Jobs loved to say: thank you Richard Wilhelm for bringing the light from China to Europe when you translated the I Ching from Chinese to German. And thank you Cary Baynes for translating Wilhelm’s work to English. This manual on managing and investing with the I Ching would not be have been possible without your labor of love.
