Read 03.06.2020

Around the beginning of 2020, I started studying different investing styles and options in order to familiarize myself better with what exactly money is and how people expand their wealth. This journey took me from looking into real estate, the forex market, day and swing trading, and all the way to macrowave investing, the topic of focus in this book.

Simply put, macrowave investing deals with interpreting macro economic news and theorizing how different markets would react against said news. Macro economic news can be anything, ranging from changes in the interest rate to irregular weather patterns. And this is why I was sold by the idea of macrowave investing.

When I studied day trading and swing trading, there was a much heavier focus on technicalities— patterns in the stock price movement. It seemed to require constant attention to detail at the level which I could not comfortably provide. Yes, the idea of large, quick profits was attractive, but it just wasn’t fun, either. It didn’t feel like I was getting the bigger picture.

With macrowave investing, however, it felt like just the thing I was looking for. Just like a game or a puzzle that I could slowly figure out with time. Most important, one that I wanted to solve. As I read, I kept detailed notes of what I knew I would have to return to in the future, and this will be uploaded as an attachment at a later date. For now, all I can offer is my reflection.

Personally, I felt that this was the perfect book to move on to after Rich Dad Poor Dad. It got me thinking about the economy as a whole, while granting me the ability to distinguish the various sectors within. I learned how to perform sector rotation, minimize sector and company risk, and which macroeconomic indicators are important. Throughout the book, Navarro does a fantastic job of not only going over what it is that macrowave investors should do, but also precisely why things must be done in such specific ways. This type of logical reasoning is something that I could not receive from day trading experts (or at least from those that I’ve studied), not because their arguments do not make sense, but because there is a greater possibility that things just don’t work out in a predictable manner. The majority of logic in day trading strategies seemed more like hindsight bias than anything else.

One thing I’d add is that I have taken a macroeconomic class in college and so the relationship between the interest rate, bond prices, exchange rate, net exports, and GDP were familiar to me. Since Navarro does not explain these relationships in depth and does not use graphs to clarify his points, I would recommend getting some exposure to these concepts elsewhere before trying to tackle this book.

Overall, I greatly enjoyed reading If It’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks. The title might turn some people away due to its seemingly casual nature, but the contents were far more detailed and informational than I expected. I can’t believe I had this book since my sophomore year in college but just didn’t bring myself to read it. Once I finish organizing my notes, I expect to return to them frequently as I begin to navigate the macro-economy of money-making opportunities.