Oh the Delicious Irony

From the L.A. Slimes

In what is apparently the first legal action of its kind, an association of community-based organizations has filed a federal civil rights complaint against two of the three largest Wall Street rating firms, charging that their inflated ratings on subprime mortgage bonds disproportionately caused financial harm to African American and Latino home buyers across the country. The complaint, filed by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, alleges that Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings enriched themselves by assigning high ratings to bonds backed by mortgages "that were designed to fail" because of "unfair payment terms and insufficient borrower income levels."

The lawsuit should extend to Barney Frank and his boyfriend who was writing the Fannie Mae sub-prime rules.

The fact of the matter is that the poor were better off renting the last few years because they could have benefited from real estate deals of the century available right now.

The IRS 1040 form

Our Fading National Heritage

US officials flunk test of American history, economics, civics

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

"How can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience?" he added.

The exam questions covered American history, the workings of the US government and economics.

Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II."

I took the challenge and missed a few of the obscure ones, but 84.5% isn't bad. But maybe this is all about a new country called Ameria. See the headline from Yahoo.

Indeed, how can political leaders make informed decisions if they don't understand the American experience? And how can journalists tell us anything if they do not know how to spell?

Where's the 401K Going?

How the Obama plan is Working in Argentina So Far

Pethokoukis: Would Obama and Dems Kill 401K Plans?

The Slow (15%) Bleed This is actually a plan I support. As I can make tons of money as the Dow slides down to 4000 or so.

Welfare Nation

That's right, you just smoke all that crack, Obamba will pay for it all. You just relax.

A Message from the Boss to Employees

from an anonymous poster on freerepublic.com

Notice to All Employees

As of November 5, 2008, when President Obama is officially elected into office, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:

1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are underachieving a “fair shake.”

2. All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst yourselves. This will help those who are “too busy for overtime” to reap the rewards from t hose who have more spare time and can work extra hours.

3. All top management will now be referred to as “the government.” We will not participate in this “pooling” experience because the law doesn't apply to us.

4. The “government” will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging its workers to continue to work hard “for the good of all.”

5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it's “good to spread the wealth.” Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more “patriotic.”

6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don't feel bad though, because President Obama will give you free healthcare, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he'll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can't pay your mort gage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn't all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?) !!!

If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.

Obama Trade: MEE, KOL, BTU, PCX puts

Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry

from newsbusters.org via drudgereport.com

Imagine if John McCain had whispered somewhere that he was willing to bankrupt a major industry? Would this declaration not immediately be front page news? Well, Barack Obama actually flat out told the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) that he was willing to see the coal industry go bankrupt in a January 17, 2008 interview. The result? Nothing. This audio interview has been hidden from the public...until now. Here is the transcript of Obama's statement about bankrupting the coal industry :

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

So there, that'll my first trade Wednesday, massive selling of bear call spreads (or put spreads) on KOL (Coal ETF) , BTU (Peabody Energy) , MEE (Massey Energy) , PCX (Patriot Coal) if the homicidal, Islamic, street radical gets elected. I haven't done much trade posting here but once this election is settled the market will take on the next wave: DOW 5000 if its Obama, DOW 12000 if it is McCain.

Either way, with my awesome Investools training I plan on profiting big.

Street Wisdom from Alfonzo

h/t to audacitywatch.com

Bye Bye 401K,Venezuela Style

from workforce.com

House Democrats (Communists) Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks

Powerful House Democrats are eyeing proposals to overhaul the nation’s $3 trillion 401(k) system, including the elimination of most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive.

House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller, D-California, and Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Washington, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, are looking at redirecting those tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute.

A plan by Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economic-policy analysis at the New School for Social Research in New York, contains elements that are being considered. She testified last week before Miller’s Education and Labor Committee on her proposal.

Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.

“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”

Under the current 401(k) system, investors are charged relatively high retail fees, Ghilarducci said.

“I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better. Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ghilarducci said.

Editorial Note: Who is Teresa Ghilarducci and who gives a sh*t what she wants?

Next season on "Dancing with the Stars"

Dick and Dan the Plumber Corroborate Joe the Plumber

The liberal attack dogs swung full tilt against Joe the Plumber but here's more evidence. Small business owners, the verdict is in: Obama is taxing you more in order to "spread the wealth around." Click here, on the pic or the title to get the story from a Channel 5 somewhere in central NY state.

Market Sentiment Indicator: Blue

H/T to dealbreaker.com

$SPX 783 is in Play, Ladies and Gents

Using the Fibonacci Fan study on my it is amazing how we have stopped precisely on the 78.3 retracement line drawn from the low of 2003 to the high of the Fall of 2007.

This, to me means, if we break this last fan, its down to the low of $SPX 783.

I've been keeping small and have sold a bull call spread with the SPY at NOV 86/84 and I'll probably sell another this am.

In my 401K at work I've been dribbling out of my 60% US Treasuries position taken last Spring, figuring this is the sale of the decade (my time horizon on my 401K is about 20 years.)

Look for volume to start drying up (decreasing), caused by the last of the baby boomers selling their overweighted stock positions, the last of the hedge funds to liquidate, etc. At a certain point there will only be us long-termers in 401Ks, IRAs, pension funds and Warren Buffet types who will not sell.

All in all, as a 39 year old, I really appreciate this sale which is allowing me to take advantage 2003/2004 prices in my 401K.

Employment Opportunities for Wall Streeters

The Crisis Explained

This bailout is a scam, there is no crisis, the fat cats made bad trades and now they want the US taxpayers to bail them out.

Listen here to the first half hour of TFNN's 30 SEP 2008 Tom O'Brien show. He starts with a market cap of his usually brilliant analysis and then "gets into it" with his sidekick Ed Young from MFGlobal.

Registration to the site is free and the show is broadcast in many cities around the country (e.g. WBIX AM 1060 in Boston)

The Real Reason for the Bailout: $$ to Foreigners

Rep Brad Sherman (D-CA) spills the beans and Kudlow is stumped, it is apparent he has not read the very bill he is pounding the table to pass.



associated commentary here by an interesting fellow.

Buffy the Taxpayer Slayer

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY TO INVEST $5 BILLION IN GOLDMAN SACHS; IN ADDITION GOLDMAN TO RAISE AT LEAST $2.5B IN COMMON STOCK OFFERING - FORMAL RELEASE

When Goldman Sachs goes to zero does Buffy the Taxpayer Slayer get preferred PCs from the hollowed out GS buildings?

Personal Bank

found on dealbreaker.com

"What in the World Are You People Doing"

Its called representing the people who elected us, you liberal bitch.


Watch CBS Videos Online

This video is such a partisan joke that I am shocked that CBS has it on their web site.

How the Democrats Caused the Crisis

And Obama voted "present."

Burning Down the House: What Caused the Crisis?

How the $700B was Poised to Fund Communists

Detailed here:

I Took the Red Pill

and

here:

Michelle Malkin

Carpe Diem Reveals the Truth

from the brilliant blog Carpe Diem:

Uncovering the roots of the disastrous home mortgage bubble that popped last year will keep economic historians busy for decades. Yet, one factor has so far been largely overlooked: the bipartisan social engineering crusade to drive up the rate of homeownership by handing out more mortgages to minorities.

More than a negligible amount of the blame for the mortgage meltdown can be traced back to multiculturalism: government-mandated affirmative-action lending, demographic change, illegal immigration, and the mind-numbing effects of political correctness.

Now, I'm a Roman Catholic and I believe deeply in human dignity and preferential treatment for the poor but this statistic show the malevolent affects of affirmative action. A couple of points come to mind:

1) The vast majority of Afro-American poor live in the cities (I know Boston well) and it is nearly impossible to strike a good real estate deal in most cities. To top it off, big city liberal mayors are rapacious tax and spenders. I'm there was no way to buy a home in Boston in 2005 and survive.

2) Ultimately the poor people in these loans are going to be traumatized, their credit will be destroyed and many will never be able to recover from the forclosure, headaches and worry.

3) It would have been one thing to plunk people in 30 year fixed rate loans but saddling first time home buyers with Option-ARMs was pure abuse and a prescription for disaster (like all forms of racism: policies based on race.)

Shumer Laughs At Idea of Selling the Bad Debt

Watch starting at minute 1:54 :

1) Shumer has no idea of how to get rid of the assets the government will buy (because the Democrats will never sell them)

2) He starts smirking and looking off to his right .. obviously the idea of a market mechanism to sell the $700B in mortgage loans is some sort of joke.

Dylan Ratigan should be commended for his earnestness but he needs to realize he is talking to a communist. It would have been a more interesting interview if Ratigan 1) asked what the hell Shumer was laughing about and 2) Asked about the $200 million slated for the radical communist organization ACORN which was embedded in the "deal."

Go Camping!

Yes, it is my nature to think that these are Apocalyptic times but this training I've been getting in technical analysis has been forcing my eyes to link up with the analytical side of my brain. I nearly fell out of my chair last night when I saw this chart. $CAMPER (Mobile Homes & RVs)

Somebody is getting in early on the ole' land yacht trade. Dare I say that this is an early indicator of unrepentant bullish activity. Maybe some heavy hitters are factoring on Americans only being able to afford trailers and campers after getting booted out of their houses.

If I get foreclosed on then I have already picked out my model.

In the meantime here's some ticker symbols to ponder:
THO, WGO, COA, SKY.

Financial Terrorism Part 4

This time from Todd Harrison from Minyanland via Marketwatch.com

Martial law for the markets
Last Friday, the U.S. government waved the white flag and surrendered the capital market process when it banned short sales in the financials. See related Minyanville item.
It was a profoundly sad day for the free market system. I felt as if I lost a close friend of 17 years that I was intimately involved with.
Over the weekend, I discovered there might have been more to that decision than I initially thought. There was chatter on the Beltway that we may have been the victim of economic terrorism, a coordinated short raid that originated in London and Dubai.
While the legitimacy of that remains to be seen, my source is well-respected. Further, as the goals of terrorism are economic destruction and social upheaval, it makes some sense. The stock market is the world's largest thermometer and breaking the capital market construct -- as some would say they did last week -- would effectively achieve both goals.
This is a separate conversation from the financial fabric itself, a monster created through years of experimental engineering. It simply speaks to the fact that we're vulnerable and that weakness may have been exposed from afar.

My Current Market Sentiment Indicator

Financial Terrorism Part 3

What made no sense, was a total ban by the SEC on financials. Then I read the blurb in Slope of Hope, then I said to myself, I wonder if this happened to really pick up in or around Sept. 11.

Well Barry Ritholz, a premier blogger, respected in nearly every circle has DROPPED THE BOMB.

from his amazing blog: The Big Picture

Last night, we discussed the absurdity of banning all short sales. The details of the SEC action have been released (see below). The specifics are a "temporary halt in short selling in 799 financial institutions" until October 2nd.

I have been trying to contextualize this, and I keep coming back to what seemed like a wild theory yesterday that seems a whole lot less wild today. During the day, I had an interesting phone conversation with Joe Besecker of Emerald Asset Management. (We used to do schtick together on Power Lunch, and made for an amusing financial comedy team).

But Joe is a good money manager, a great stock picker, and a thoughtful guy. He raised an intriguing issue: None of the many hedgies he knew were pressing their bets recently. The bear raids on the banks and brokers were NOT a case of piling on by US based hedge funds. And from what he was seeing and hearing about in terms of order flow, the vast majority of the financial short selling the past week or so were being done overseas. It appears that the lion's share of shorting was coming out of overseas bourses such as London and Dubai.It may not be a coincidence that the financial short selling ban is both here and in London.

Then there is another coincidence: The huge increase in shorting of the financials occurred on the anniversary of 9/11. And on top of that, the same institutions attacked on 9/11/01 were the ones suffering in recent days.

Now Barry has to be reserved, let me say it because I'm just a working class stiff from the Boston with a $5000 IRA brokerage account: It was Al Queda. This was no coincidence. The market was headed down, quite naturally, and this is a normal and good thing but what was happening to perfectly healthy firms who go a little stupid was well-timed Financial Terrorism.

Blacks Against Obama

This is a priceless moment.

Obama22 blacks against obama
by dollarsandsense123

Cramer on Financial Terrorism

This is other piece of the puzzle .. apparently the massive naked shorting cannot be traced to hedge funds or normal individual, retail investors.

Cramer on short sellers
by burghnews

Financial Terrorism?

H/T to a poster over at Slope of Hope:

from www.billcara.com

September 18, 2008

America, not the financial markets, in trouble

I would agree with the person who wrote me the following letter that the meeting tonight between Treasury Secretary Paulson, Fed Chairman Bernanke, SEC Chairman Cox and the Congressional leaders shows the US at a crisis point. In fact, I think the leaders of America are having a collective nervous breakdown. ADDENDUM

This is pathetic to watch, but we must be on guard because our rights are being taken from us. Make no mistake about that. I received the following letter tonight from someone who follows this stuff much closer than I. I hope you read this material and participate in the dialogue.

Bill, This is near surreal. In 2004 Dateline NBC was filming an expose called “Financial Terrorism in the USA”. It outlined naked shorting, offshore accounts and money laundering for organized crime and terrorists. They scraped the story after market members and DTCC threatened them. Today Jim Cramer came out and discussed his conversations with various short sided hedge funds. They all claimed they were not shorting the financials. They called it a stupid move with all the attention focused on them. Jim identified that the shorts taking place were engaged in financial terrorism by people who wanted to take down the US markets. I had a similar call and discussion earlier today. An individual close to all these big funds stated near identical story. The big funds are on lockdown. They said that with all the attention they did not want to risk jail for this stuff. They are also pissed because these moves being made will actually hurt them. I have also been informed that some of these big funds have contacted the 9/11 Commission/Homeland Security to discuss the possibilities since these guys are not involved. I am at a loss as to what to say…but now you know what I know. It would also explain this sudden next step.

I just caught something weird on CNN. Sen. Chris Dodd has revealed that Bernanke's brief last night to Congress and the White House was met with stony silence at the end. Dodd says, "the oxygen went out of the room." Wolf Blitzer pressed but Dodd would not give details even after Blitzer expressed that the American public has a right to know. Dodd said soemthing about not wanting the American public to panic.

What Dodd is holding back is not analysis of FASB157 or complicated financial jargon ... everybody knows that already. I believe the markets have been under coordinated attack by Al Queda.

I'm only a fledgling technical analyst, the equivalent of a college freshman. Everybody understands that the market was due for a correction and the CDOs and all that were toxic. But I have a theory that the market can handle normal shorting by hedge funds and individuals. What it cannot handle is coordinated attacks.

Jimmy Rogers Drops the Bomb

Going forward, before I place a trade I'm going to watch this video all the way through.

In God the U.S. Mint Does Not Trust

This still needs confirmation but apparently the new dollar coin does not have "In God We Trust."

If there ever was a reason to ban anything, this is it.

And Here She Is

And here she is, the USS New York, made from the World Trade Center. Those liberal jackasses that run NYC can't (won't?) get anything rebuilt at the World Trade Center so the Department of Defense is picking up the slack.

She's The One

Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) has wowed me at her appearance on the Larry Kudlow show a few months back and I new Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty or Ridge were massive mistakes. She's quite a good speaker, direct, plain spoken and America (real America) is going to love her.

Game, Set, Match McCain/Palin win in a landslide 1980 style.

An Appropriate Repsonse to the Latest Jobs Report

600 Down, 11,999,400 to go.

LAUREL, Miss. (AP) - Federal officials say nearly 600 suspected illegal
immigrants were detained in a raid on a manufacturing plant in southern
Mississippi, making it the largest such sweep in the country.
A spokeswoman says more than 100 of those caught up in Monday's raid on Howard Industries were released based on humanitarian concerns, mostly because they have children.
Most of the rest were transferred to a federal Immigration and Customs
Enforcement facility in Jena, La. Nine 17-year-olds were transferred to the
custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The Mississippi raid was one of a series of recent high-profile crackdowns on illegal immigrants. In May, officials swept into the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa and detained 400 workers.

The original post over at Drudge Report included info that ICE was tipped off by a union organizer and that the workers cheered when the criminalians were marched off. Why wasn't management marched off also?

In related news:

WASHINGTON, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. workers filing new claims
for jobless benefits fell by 10,000 last week, government data on Thursday
showed, but remained at elevated levels indicating a weak labor
market.
Initial claims for state unemployment insurance benefits declined to
a seasonally adjusted 425,000 in the week ended Aug 23 from a revised 435,000 the prior week,
the Labor Department said. It was the lowest reading since the week of July 19.

So the immediate quota for ICE should be 425,000 . At this point, no American or legal immigrant should be without a job.

So what of this recession?

Going Long the Semis

I've taken up the challenge of several of my Investools instructors and laid down a trade strictly based on what I see on the chart and somewhat against my "gut." I see a little bounce trade on SMH, the Semiconductors Holders ETF. I'm buying NOV 08 29 Calls which are in the money with paw-lenty of time before THETA chews my butt up. Hmm.. maybe I should have bought OCTs but here goes nothing.

This is only papermoney but I take my paper account deadly seriously because until I can stoke it up ... I've prohibited myself from trading for real. I'm up about 5.2% in one month which I suppose isn't too bad.

Hail, Holy Comrade

Cosmological Confluence

A TFNN/thinkorswim confab represents for me a cosmological confluence of epic proportions. Tom O'Brien from Tiger Financial News Network and Tom Sosnoff, founder of thinkorswim, are having a webinar. See here for details.

These two firms sorta need each other. TFNN attracts quite an audience and I see the need for some education for some of the "Tigers." Some of the callers to Tom's show actually sound less experienced than me, and that's freaking inexperienced. On the flip side thinkorswim/Investools could stand to use some sort of media outlet.

I had a daydream today about a merger between these two entities. Tom O'Brien could continue his subscription newsletter the same way the folks at RedOption still sail their ship under the thinkorswim banner. thinkorswim/Investools could continue to pump out media like their Marketcast and/or their would be bloggers at Mytrade and add it to the amazing broadcasts streaming out of TFNN.

This education/investing/trading juggernaught could really give CNBC and Bloomberg a run for their money in the long run simply because all these folks are awesome. I see it as Technical Analysis for the Masses. Let CNBC have the monopoly on assclowns like ..... well you know who. Bloomberg is so stagnant it could suck the liveliness of a funeral.

And Yet the Box Remains

Until a few days ago I was confused by the higher lows traced by the tan line. Some thought it bullish, some claimed it to portent doom. Either way it all points to witching hour: tomorrow, options expiration Friday. I do believe, however, that this is the ole bear flag. My guru, Tom O'Brien, say we're going downtown!

I'm glad I grew the nads to close out of my SPY 130/132 bearish call vertical in my real money account last week for a small loss. Good ole Investools did that for me. Previously (in May/June) , I had just stood there like a deer in the headlights praying for the market to turn away from my precious $.36 credit verticals. Instead of taking a $.70 - $1.00 loss I discovered the roll button and doubled my losses the next month. How about them apples?

Its only when I got kicked in the face that I ponied up for some edu-MAH-cation. This self flagellation, posted to the world is quite necessary before posting on any winning trades.

Still In A Box

Still in a box even though my box needed a slight adjustment upward so as to coincide with a minor resistance line. It's interesting to see the SPY (a proxy for the SP500) crash through 10 and 30 day moving averages. On Friday she stopped just short of the 50 day moving average.

I still think the SEP 136/138 call spread was a good choice, it is going to take a massive upsurge through all kinds of resistance to get up there by SEP expiry.

In A Box

As a newb, I've been having grave difficulty trading this market profitably and I think more than a few professionals have been too. We're in a box, so one idea I had is to sell bearish vertical spreads at the top of the box and then consider sell bullish put spreads at the bottom. The white downward sloping lines at the top denote my bearish outlook (I'm unphased by the highter lows) and I'll post on that later.

Others have ommented elsewhere about the "lack of decision", "whip saw", "lack of conviction.

This is providing one hell of a education for would-be traders. In order to join an investools Memebers Group I was asked "Do you have an accountability parter." To that I answered "No." But maybe I'll hold myself accountable to the entire planet by blogging my trades. (Warning: there's no evidence that I have ever or will ever make any money in the stock market.)

The green circle denotes where I sold a 136/138 bearish call spread on the spy for $0.35. I also used the Investools/TOS market forcast oscillator to guide my decicion ...we'll see how that goes. In May/June I got smoked pretty bad with real money by selling bullish put spreads basically because I had no clue where the market was going. Hopefully, I can develop a clue this time around.

The Paris Hilton Rally

I'm calling this one the Paris Hilton - big deal for nothing. As a homework assignment in a stocks course my task was to watch the fed 2 year funds rate 5 minute chart at 2:15pm on Tuesday and then check out the SPX 5 minute chart and just watch the action. The funnt thing was that the 2 year Fed Funds rate wasn't really doing anything and the SPX took off like a rocketship. I didn't know what to make of this.

What is the catalyst for this meteoric rise, a 300 Dow Point day? I'm a neophyte and this just makes no sense. Slope of Hope called it the Seinfeld Rally (a show really about nothing.)

My call is that this baby is going down, she's gonna get back to where she belongs. I hope I'm right as I have a SPY 130/132 bearish call spread going on. I know I screwed up the entry a few weeks ago but overall .. there's no beef here.

How Much Is Too Much?

About a year ago while sitting on the couch on a Sunday morning about 5AM after a bout of insomnia. An extended infomercial came on from a company named INVESTOOLS. The stock market had piqued my interest ever since my mother had died and I discovered she had a ton of stock options from Whole Foods Markets. Well, the options never got above water (I think they were 45 calls) as Whole Foods Markets slunk to new lows and then their creepy CEO was caught pumping the stock on Yahoo Finance.

Some time later I resolved to take the free Investools course, attended, signed up with T hinkorswim but said no thanks to the $1200 stocks course. Six months later Investools dropped the price to $295 and it was kinda funny because for months I thought for sure the price of the Foundations Stock course was $295 x 6 monthly payments, that the price was concealed in a sly way.

After thinking about the power of trading in options, I resolved to spend the $1800 thinking it was worth it anyway. I called Investools and the guy was like, "no way, it's $295 flat."

I declared, "Well, then Lee Barba (CEO of Investools) is insane because the course is worth way more."

My trading had become quite active by then as the insane twin of Investools, Thinkorswim, had thrown on a FREE options course and I was making money hand over fist selling vertical spreads on the SPY, DIA and IWM.

But this question: How Much Is Too Much? Is not about $1800 courses slashed to $295 or about the balance in my brokerage account (later reduced by assinine trades resulting from lack or training.) Its this: How much thinking about the market/about trading per day is too much?

In this amazing webinar by Tim Knight on Fibonacci ratios a few days ago, Tim quipped, "I had better stop here because I could talk about this until 1:30 am." Somehow I knew exactly what he was talking about. I could literally listen to Tim, take Investools classes, seminars, chats, virtual coach sessions and trade room capstones 20 hours per day.

For me, its been about 4 hours a day on this stuff in between a full time job and a full time family. On the markets, on trading there can never be enough.

Oh Yeah, And Another Thing

A few people have wandered into this site via various means so I better fess up that I have a habit of going to deep blogging hibernation followed by an extreme profusion of activity. Let the activity commence.

Better Than Peanut Butter and Jelly

Had a funny episode of synchronicity today when my brokerage firm ran an ad on my favorite radio show. Previously, these two things that I slavishly follow in a cult-like way had been separate, but now they are flowing into one.

Thinkorswim is a really great brokerage through whom I stepped into Investools (which is kinda backwards because Investools bought Thinkorswim and kinda expected its students to use the brokerage.) For me, Thinkorswim/Investools are not just vendors through which I purchase brokerage and education services, they are my way of life.

Tom O'Brien is this far-out cat from 1970s who does this wild version of technical analysis to analyze the markets. Check out his book in my Amazon banner. I'm going to order his book soon. Tom has some really great associates like Larry Pesavento who, in the middle of discussing Fibonacci ratios on international forex markets will jump into right astrology. He also has a book on Amazon (to be loaded in my banner at a later date.)

So, now Thinkorswim is a major advertiser on the TFNN. I'm addicted to both, and it would be funny if these two entities flowed together in even a minor way. I know already that if the they click, Tom O'Brien will really push them on his show because he does the same thing for www.carinsurance.com (which has the most annoying radio ads in the history of radio advertisement.)

It will be fun if those zany guys from Thinkorswim make some fun radio ads for Tom's show.

Another Smackdown of Leisman

Great video about a possible path out of this mess and a money making opportunity for the US Central Bank. As a special bonus, thinkorswim's Joe Kinahan smacks down Steve Leisman's irrelevant point at the end.

Great Video with Criticism of the Fed, and Rick Santilli Smacking Down Steve Leisman

Steve Leisman is supposed to be the chief economist of CNBC but his bio reveals he has no training in economics, he's a journalist. Rick Santelli is the real deal although I cannot understand 90% of that bond reporting he does. Anyway, watch Rick nail Steve at the end. In the beginning, more stinging criticism of Helicopter Ben and the printing press called the Fed.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=729223444

McCain on Economics, This Ain't Good

Obviously, McCain has no clue.

Sub-Prime in a Nutshell

From the BBC via Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis.



The SubPrime crisis has really had my head spinning as I reflect on my two homebuying experiences first, in 1999, and second, in 2005. My last time out the lender/broker came across like a coke addict. He wanted me to borrow %125 of the cost of the home so I could "have some cash on hand." We knew each other socially but I knew better than that.

I'm sure every one remembers the phone calls from the home equity types urging you to "get that cash out of that house." Truly, the rise in home walues was an dispersed economic windfall the like of which we have never seen before. The rapacious mortgage industry with the endorsement of the Fed sought to get all that money back as soon as possible.