Rule #1: Be passionate: Passion for trading can be untamed, so focus your attention and decision-making only around strategies, tactics, countries and sectors that are inherently and endlessly interesting to you. If you don't aspire to superior performance, and attack the task with strong feelings, then others will out-perform and you'll be disappointed.

Rule #2: Get a "watch list" of potential candidates: Since there are endless "opportunities" promoted by the sell-side, you need to select a few candidates you need to effectively trade for building wealth that's yours, not theirs.

Rule #3: Get a telescope, a wide-angle lens and a microscope: Create a lifetime trading plan that allows you to manage risks and see opportunities from the big picture, but also helps you focus on quantity and percentage details of building portfolio wealth one day at a time.

Rule #4: Teach so you can learn: The opposite of being active is being passive. You need to be active. Share your knowledge and learning with others. Do the research, which brings the learning, and participate in groups that teach one another what each person has learned.

Rule #5: Grow your portfolio by using wealth-building techniques: You need to continuously reduce the Adjusted Cost Base (ACB) of each core holding, and increase your dividend to cost yield. Discipline yourself to patiently and fearlessly buy into weakness and deliberately sell into strength. If you are comfortable with put and call options, you must learn to overwrite your portfolio by writing (selling) put options at cycle bottoms, and writing covered call options at cycle tops.

Rule #6: Quality is everyday: Quality should be priority number one... in every decision, every day. If a good company like a Pfizer or a Citigroup happens to be going through a tough patch of legal issues where management is temporarily distracted, stand aside but watch for buying opportunities in the Accumulation Zone. Well-managed companies with solid business models (i.e., corporate fundamental and quantitative operating performance measures) will sooner or later have a bullish phase in their stock price cycle.

Rule #7: Build multiple sources of good advice: Search for advisers who complement your skills and understand your needs and goals. Seek help in learning about your core portfolio companies from sources who are brimming with talent, energy, intellect, optimism and generosity, which could be independent financial advisors, or even objective publishing sources like Value Line, for instance.

Rule #8: Focus on the positive. Events routinely occur in the marketplace that present challenges, so learn to patiently and deliberately evaluate or assess the situation, gather the good things in sight, abandon the bad, clear your mind, and move on. Stay in control; never panic.

Rule #9: Take risks, not chances: Analyze, analyze, analyze, and then make decisions. For anything to do with money, never decide on the basis of somebody's story. There is always a catch they didn't tell you about. Look for your own opportunities, and if one should pass you by, never assume it will be the last. There will always be a next one if you are patient.

Rule #10: Make it beautiful: Listen intently, become an authority on the securities in your portfolio, learn new things every day, and stay flexible in your thinking. As a trader you must add value to receive something valuable in return. That contribution is focus, research, analysis and disciplined decision-making. The results will come, and, as Martha says, you will find great joy and satisfaction in making your life easier, more meaningful, and more beautiful.

These may be from The Martha Rules, but as you can see I found meaning in them, and I hope you do too.