Saturday, October 31, 2009

Liar, Liar, Economy is not On Fire

This Explains Everything

Madoff: Had 'too much credibility' with SEC


Bush SEC "Idiots", Obama SEC "Dear Friends"

Overall, Madoff’s conclusion is that financial industry is “by and large…honest,’’ adding that “you can’t have the transparency the regulators want you to have because it’s proprietary and detrimental.”

“The thing I feel worst about beside the people losing money is that I set the industry back.”

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Obamadrama

It is time to out-Obama Obama. Stop being nice, threaten them, laugh at them and marginalize them. They know that they are fantasyland a-holes. Time to bring in reality.

Obamadrama

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Friday, October 16, 2009

The Model Which Will be Driven Over Our Necks



NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Corp. has struck a deal to sell its Hummer truck unit to a Chinese industrial business, the two companies confirmed Tuesday.

Privately owned Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd., based in China, will acquire the truck brand, which has been part of GM since 1999. Tengzhong said it plans to keep Hummer's management team.

China buys the world - Money machine (1) - FORTUNE


China buys the world - Money machine (1) - FORTUNE

Shared via AddThis

Insurers dropping Chinese drywall policies

But I am sure they got the lowest price for that drywall!

Sub headline: What cheap Chinese shit does to America / Benefits of globalism.

Insurers dropping Chinese drywall policies - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Shared via AddThis

Captain Ron's docking manuevers

Looks like that Sea Ray needed Captain Ron.

Searay Salvage: Everything is going to be all right

Well, this is one way to salvage a boat.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Metals Like Copper, Silver, and, Gold: The Number One Reason to Own Them

Been trading GFI, a South African gold miner all year long.

David Wu "Fighting To Protect Oregon's Environmental Legacy..."

"Environmentalist" congressman from Oregon driving alone in his Suburban. Well, he has two kids after all!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Hitler Misses the Bull Market

I bailed in June so I feel a little like Adolph.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Ireland Gets It Right

August 27th, 2009



A Lesson from Across the Pond

By Howard Rich

As states like California, Illinois and New Jersey struggle to make up for steep multi-billion dollar budget deficits while they totter on the brink of insolvency, there is one option for reducing those shortfalls that is making real headway across the Atlantic Ocean.

It all revolves around cutting the public sector. It's time to try it here.

Ireland is faced with a €20 billion deficit and borrowing €400 million a week just to keep afloat. Colm McCarthy, the chairman of An Bord Snip Nua—a cost-cutting bureau in Ireland—knows the stakes. And he sees no way around cutting public sector pay by some €5.3 billion. Government officials agree. So far, the left-of-center government refuses to rule anything out in the Bord Snip report.

Writes The Sunday Times on July 19th, "Ireland is like a household that has been living beyond its means and now finds itself deep in hock to the bank. Unless we show a willingness to reduce our spending, [international] lending may dry up, forcing us into the arms of the European Central Bank which will have to mount an IMF-style rescue to prevent a euro currency crisis."

Ireland is not alone. Poland just announced a cut of 12,000 government employees. No silly furloughs or dodgy accounting tricks. A straight reduction in the number of public sector workers. And the government warns that if revenues do not increase, further reductions will be forthcoming. Other nations in Europe are actively considering similar or even deeper cuts.

The basic problems Ireland faces are quite similar to those in California, New York and other states in the U.S.: Public sector workers make far more than their private sector counterpart.

An October 2007 survey from Ireland's Central Statistics Office showed that the average hourly earnings in the public sector were far greater than in the private sector. Average earnings per hour in the public sector were €26.67 compared with €18.07 per hour in the private sector. Public sector wages are 48% higher.

And how do California, Illinois and others match up?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' recently published study for 2007, in California, which is still trying to climb out of its oppressive $26 billion deficit, average annual income for state employees was $56,777 versus $49,935 for the private sector, a 14 percent gap. In Illinois, a similar story emerges: $53,925 for state workers, and $48,006 for the private sector, an 11 percent split. New Jersey: $57,845 average state salary, $53,590 for private sector workers, at an 8 percent difference. And these differences don't take into account the excessive fringe benefits enjoyed by public sector workers. The bottom-line is that we pay the public sector more, in some cases far more, than corresponding workers in private business.

Nationally, the story is even worse. Federal workers made on average $64,871 in 2007, with private sector workers making a meager $44,362, so public sector wages in the federal system are 46% higher.

If California, and other spendthrift state governments ever hope to emerge in the black, they must now implement what some may consider draconian fiscal measures. Cutting public sector pay makes the most sense. In California, for example, if workers received a 12.1 percent pay cut, leveling the playing field with the private sector, the state would save $3.1 billion.

Cutting the total workforce down by 10 percent is a real move that saves $5.4 billion annually and many billions more over time. Similar approaches would save taxpayers annually $1.3 billion in Illinois and New Jersey.

The fact is, the Irish are on to something. By facing the reality of their situation head-on and acting in a responsible manner, they are far more likely to weather the financial storm than are the compulsive spenders in the US. It is high time we embrace the pluck of the Irish here.

The author is Chairman of Americans for Limited Government and Liberty Features Syndicated writer.

http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1507

Saturday, July 25, 2009

America - Where is Your Money ?

Florida congressman Alan Grayson laughs in Ben Bernanke's face - priceless!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Saturday, May 16, 2009

The Man in The Arena

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Shame on the man of cultivated taste who permits refinement to develop into fastidiousness that unfits him for doing the rough work of a workaday world. Among the free peoples who govern themselves there is but a small field of usefulness open for the men of cloistered life who shrink from contact with their fellows. Still less room is there for those who deride of slight what is done by those who actually bear the brunt of the day; nor yet for those others who always profess that they would like to take action, if only the conditions of life were not exactly what they actually are. The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder. Well for these men if they succeed; well also, though not so well, if they fail, given only that they have nobly ventured, and have put forth all their heart and strength. It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who “but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.”

To say that the thriftless, the lazy, the vicious, the incapable, ought to have reward given to those who are far-sighted, capable, and upright, is to say what is not true and cannot be true. Let us try to level up, but let us beware of the evil of leveling down. If a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then. But if a man lies down, it is a waste of time to try and carry him; and it is a very bad thing for every one if we make men feel that the same reward will come to those who shirk their work and those who do it.

- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Cashin Gave a Month's Warning

Been busy trading .. this pullback is going to be huge ..and fun.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Where Do I Sign Up?

Gingrich Warns of Conservative 3rd Party in 2012



Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warns that conservatives could leave the GOP and form a third party in 2012 if Republicans don’t do more to rein in government spending.

“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012, Gingrich said during an address to students at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri.

Gingrich attacked President Barack Obama’s “monstrosity of a budget,” but acknowledged that Republicans are also to blame for the huge increase in federal spending, CNN reported.

Remember, everything Obama’s doing, Bush started last year,” he said.

“If you’re going to talk about big spending, the mistakes of the Bush administration last year are fully as bad as the mistakes of Obama’s first two, three months.”

Gingrich predicted that “fed up” Americans will instigate a “nationwide rebellion at the polls,” and said the increased government spending under Obama is “literally irrational.”

© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

On Becoming a Trader

This video from puretick.com is like the Magna Carta for daytraders.

Simpatico

Apparently Its a White Thing

From the BBC

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said the world's poor people should not be forced to pay for the global financial crisis. President Lula said white, blue-eyed people - not Indians, nor black, nor poor people - had created and spread the crisis throughout the world.

Wonder what he thought of Bush I's bailout of Brazil a few years back? Is he willing to give back the money?

Ratigan Out at Fast Money

From the NY Slimes

Dylan Ratigan, the longtime host of the CNBC program “Fast Money,” abruptly left the cable channel and the show on Friday, after a discussion with the network’s president, Mark Hoffman.

The move came after contract negotiations between CNBC and Mr. Ratigan ended with just a week left until the end of his current deal.

Asked why he would walk away from a successful program where he had built a reputation for fast and funny delivery of the day’s financial news, Mr. Ratigan said, “I had the benefit of my contract coming to an end. This is an opportunity to take a pause and evaluate all my options.”

I have to admit that enjoyed my months of watching that show but I also have to admit that it had a severe negative effect on my trading. Since I love trading more than that show I quit watching.

Wonder who will replace him? How about Michelle Cabruso Cabrerra?

Saturday, March 28, 2009

A Devalued PM of a Devalued Nation



This is exactly analogous to the American situation. Unfortunately there are few conservatives in the USA able to put a sentence together to articulate this situation. Nobody here knows this talk. Spending according to our means is not in our bones. It was after September 11, 2001 that Bush urged Americans to go out and spend.

We created a housing boom to heal our wounded psyche, a binge spending trip, promulgated by the binge drinking President, that is all that Bush knew. Now, we have brought in a professional alcoholic (to further the drinking=spending analogy.) Bush set the U.S. up for Obama. One flows quite naturally from the other.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Beware Boy Geithner

Congressman Moves to Block Collaboration with the Communists

Alarmed by talk of a global currency, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., introduced Congressional legislation Thursday to prohibit the president of the United States from striking any deal to validate a non-U.S. currency.

The bill’s introduction follows mixed messages from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on whether he would support a global currency to replace the dollar.

On Tuesday, Bachmann tells Newsmax, she asked Geithner at a hearing if he would renounce any effort to move toward a global currency.

“He answered unequivocally that he would,” Bachmann said. Geithner’s assurances echoed those of President Obama.

On Wednesday, however, while speaking before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Geithner remarked that he was “quite open” to a larger, global-finance role for a melded International Monetary Fund currency.

Here's a pic of the damage this stooge let loose within minutes. No doubt the Blackberry's were buzzing at the CFR ... hmmm sombody important was long the Dollar and they needed Boy Geithner to retract and quickly!

Sham Wow

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Punch Drunk

Fresh off the airwaves:

President Barack Obama said he believes the global financial system remains at risk of implosion with the failure of Citigroup or AIG, touching off “an even more destructive recession and potentially depression.”

His remarks came in a “60 Minutes” interview in which he was pressed by an incredulous Steve Kroft for laughing and chuckling several times while discussing the perilous state of the world’s economy.

“You're sitting here. And you're— you are laughing. You are laughing about some of these problems. Are people going to look at this and say, "I mean, he's sitting there just making jokes about money—” How do you deal with— I mean: explain. . .” Kroft asks at one point.

“Are you punch drunk?” Kroft says.

“No, no. There's gotta be a little gallows humor to get you through the day,” Obama says, with a laugh.

An assessment from a freerepublic commenter:
Inappropriate affect is a schizoaffective behavioral symptom. And a form of schizoaffective dissociation. He appears to be under some form of mind control or dissociation. Not a good sign. It could be indicative of a sociopath or from pathological narcissism. Someone giggling at a funeral would be a similar type of behavior. It seems like Obama has sociopathic attitudes toward white Americans. He does not identify and distances himself emotionally.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Milton Friedman Explians Why Socialism is Always a Failure

This is an interesting clip with Phil Donahue asking all the questions that the liberals are asking today. They are good questions and there are definite answers to them. This clip must from around 1980 or so and it makes me sad. In seeing Phil Donahue I see an intellectually inquisitive person, willing to sit, listen, think, question and thereby enlighten his audience. You won't see that today from today's low brow thugs like Chris Matthews or Keith Olbermann. All they know is the jackboot and that is all they deserve.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Not Taking a Thing Back

When I saw the still of the video over at Breitbart I jumped to the conclusion that Erin Burnett, in a rare display of journalistic integrity, slammed Rep. Rangel for his crocodile tears of rage over the whole AIG thingy. Nope. It was Mark Haines, who jumped in, sensing perhaps, that Erin was just conducting another Democrat love fest.



I dare say that Rep. Charlie Rangel has violated the public trust. His failure to pay taxes is a matter of fact.

Not Shocked at the Shock to the Shock

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Political Art


While scanning old photos of the Soviet Union I took on a trip there in 1987 I began to notice this eery similarity between the artwork flowing out of the Obama juggernaut and that old crap that was plastered all over Russia.

Apparently the stimulus plan now has official artwork associated with it.

A blogger offer still more ... the words are his.

Some people, reportedly including at least one state governor, aren't very excited about Obama's new 'Stimulus Logo'... ...Do you suppose that might be because 'creating new logos' isn't really the type of 'LEADERSHIP' most Americans are seeking right now...?


...and here, of course, is the obligatory, related, 'bumper -snicker'...

Friday, March 13, 2009

Slammed ?

Purportedly John Stewart is "slamming" Jim Cramer but I see nothing of the sort here.



The points Stewart makes are valid and can be confirmed by other professionals in the industry and amateurs such as myself who study the market 3 hours a day, everyday, and make active investments.

Some of my instructors have advised me to not even watch CNBC at all. Indeed, I have stopped watching CNBC altogether and my trading has improved 100 fold.

Cramer is not even the worst of the bunch. There are shills out there like Maria Bartiromo is the most biased non-objective journalist I have ever seen. She is neither a technician of the market, nor a financial professional. She is a professional liar. Then you have complete Democrat Party suck-asses like Becky Quick, Erin Burnett and John Harwood.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Fibonacci in Lateralus

Technical Analysis now has a theme song of its own.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Cramer Fires Back


Cramer: My Response to the White House

He picked right up on the character assassination by Gibbs (who now has picked a fight with the a radio host of some note.)

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Obama-Bot Responds



The guy can't even respond .. just nervously laughs. The funny thing is that Cramer is a Democrat. Wall Street is America but not for the Grand Mufti Obama. How many Americans know that Obama's tax return revealed that he owns zero stocks, nothing, no mutual funds, nothing.

A poster at Media Bistro writes:

This explains why the Whitehouse is attacking its critics:

Saul Alinsky wrote the book, "Rules for Radicals," which has been used by hardcore left wing radicals for over 30 years. His Rule Number Twelve explains why they are under personal attack by the Left:

RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Attack Santelli, Attack Cramer. Attack America.

Cramer Slams the Annointed One



This is getting sweet. Erin Burnett .. you dumb bitch.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Rick Santelli/Kudlow Respond To Whitehouse Speaker Robert Gibbs Attack

And that is the end of that. Gibbs, what a sarcastic asshole. These Stalinists have paper-thin egos, they're surrounded by a press corps of like minded fellow travelers or just plain cowards.

The day after this Obama came out and declared himself a hawk on deficits. Listening to this stuff from the White House is like listening to a cult program its members. Within 72 hours they do the exact opposite of what they preach, this is all a method to break down critical analysis.

The prospects for the mid term election look very good for conservative Democrats and Republicans and Independents.

Rick Santelli Claims White House Is Out To Get Him

Santelli picked up on what I noticed and indicates that his family has been threatened.

This is the way these Stalinists roll.

Obama's Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Addresses Rick Santelli's Rant

Notice how the White House dirt bag leads off with "I don't know where Mr. Santelli lives, where his house is." This is a veiled threat. The government thinks it owns everything and everybody.

Rick Santelli and the Shot Heard Round the World

This is the first time the Annointed One has been questioned. Toupee' Kernan did not like it one bit.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Basic Stuff

hat tip to Outraged Spleen of Zion

Investing and Trading in a Socialist Economy

by Simit Patel in Seeking Alpha. Not complicated fare, but simple basic stuff, crucial for the memory banks.

My answer, from my studies: COMMODITIES.

There's a funny quote out there from legendary investor Jimmy Rogers: "the MBAs will be driving tractors for the farmers."

Sunday, February 8, 2009

A Savior Based Economy

WASHINGTON (CNN) – As many state and local officials clamor for their share of the billions of dollars in federal aid in the stimulus bill under consideration in Washington, South Carolina’s Republican governor is sounding a note of dissent about federal efforts to help the economy.

“A problem that was created by building up of too much debt will not be solved with yet more debt,” Gov. Mark Sanford said Sunday, making a reference to the federal deficit spending that will likely finance the federal stimulus package.

“We’re moving precipitously close to what I would call a savior-based economy,” Sanford also said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

The South Carolina Republican said such an economy is “what you see in Russia or Venezuela or Zimbabwe or places like that where it matters not how good your product is to the consumer but what your political connection is to those in power.”

Most liberals would describe "Venezuelan" or "Zimbabwean" as compliments. So I think the Gov.s comments will send a thrill up some legs.

New Crisis, Old Crisis

The New Boss is the Same as the Old Boss

The names change, the skin is 1/2 shade darker but the bullshit is eternal.


Where have we heard this "urgency" plea before ...hmmm. it echoes from a bygone era .. say three months ago.

Bailout: Bush to describe urgency of $700B plan; Cheney heads to Capitol Hill

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Obama's Leninism

from American Thinker

Vladimir Lenin coined the term “Democratic Centralism” in order to describe what he considered to be Bolshevik “bipartisanship.” In his famous book What Is To Be Done? Lenin worried that left to themselves, the proletariat would never achieve the kind of “revolutionary consciousness” required to overthrow the capitalist system. Therefore a “vanguard” of socialist intellectuals like Lenin and Trotsky were needed in order to instill the proper “consciousness” into the mentally challenged masses.

...

Obama’s recent frustrations and impatience over the “Stimulus Bill” have less to do with his claims of “catastrophe” and “crisis” and much more, it seems to me, to do with his breathtaking inexperience in a true marketplace of ideas. And just where was Obama supposed to learn how to debate? In liberal academia? From his “adversarial” minions in the press? Community organizing?

more

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Man Has Moves!

Biden: "Oompa Loompa Doopity Doo. I've got some real Communism for you! Oompa Loompa Doopity Dee. If you are smart, you'll listen to me!!!"

courtesy of Prole in the freerepublic

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Unpatriotic Criminals

"It is a patriotic duty to pay your taxes." - Vice President Joe Biden

I wonder if "ole hair plugs" had any idea of the decimating effect of his pronouncement on the Democrat party and Usama bin Bama nominees in particular.

London Buried

There's a great snow storm in London and cooler temps all around.

Silly, emaciated Londoners. If their asses were as fat as Al Gore's they'd know that we're experiencing global warming instead.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Good Rhetorical Point

Dealing with the emotional Stalinism over the past few weeks:

"Gasp, you support Obama, don't you? and want him to suceed?"

Rush Limbaugh flat out and basically said "No, I'm a conservative."

Mitt Romney puts a finer point on it.

It's still early in the administration of [editor's note] President Grand Mufti Obama. Like everyone who loves this country, I want him to adopt correct principles and then to succeed. He still has a chance to step in and insist on spending discipline among the members of his own party. It's his job to set priorities. I hope for America's sake that he knows that a Chief Executive can't vote "present." He can't let others run the show. He has to say yes to some things and no to a lot of others.

We need to stimulate the economy, not the government. A true stimulus package, one that respects the productivity and genius of the American people, could lift this country out of recession. And experience shows us what it should look like.

Oh, It is Coming

At a certain point, maybe it will be 9% unemployment, 10% or 12%. This whole idea of letting 20 million illegals and 2 million more import workers into the USA to "do the jobs that Americans won't do." Isn't going to go over so well.

Looks like the jig is up in the UK. Better clamp down on the illegals and optionals before something really nasty springs up like extremists suggesting that even legal immigration should be halted (bad news for your truly.)

In this week news, one of those stellar hi-techies from India in country on a H1B (work) visa(god knows, computer programmer are just impossible to find these days) almost blew up THE mortgager of the USA. It didn't say, a mortgager, I said THE mortgager. The one that US Government owns as surely as they own AmTrak and the USPS.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Stmulus Explained

from quipster:

Stimulus Payment Info.

This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers and loans from China.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.

==================

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China .
If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs.
If you purchase a computer it will go to India .
If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala (unless you buy U.S. organic).
If you buy a car it will go to Japan .
If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan .

And none of it will help the American economy.

We need to keep that money here in America . You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer and wine (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.

The Path to World Depression is Paved with Protectionism

Guess Who Is Leading Us There?


Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- [Grand Mufti Hussein] Obama’s administration will examine a “buy American” requirement in economic stimulus legislation that has raised concern among U.S. trading partners, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

The administration “will review that particular provision,” Gibbs said today at his regular briefing. The president’s advisers understand “all of the concerns that have been heard, not only in this room, but in newspapers produced both up north and down south.”

He refused to say whether the administration supported or opposed keeping that part of the legislation intact. Nor did he say what the president would do if the provision remains once the bill clears the House and the Senate.

The issue may cloud Obama’s trip to Canada on Feb. 19, his first journey outside U.S. borders as president. Officials in Canada, the top U.S. trade partner, are criticizing a part of legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives Jan. 28 that requires the use of U.S.-made iron and steel in infrastructure projects.

“U.S. protectionism is about to make Canada’s recession a lot worse,” Ralph Goodale, house leader for the opposition Liberal Party, said today in Parliament.


But then again, maybe Canada shouldn't worry. Obama economic advisor Austan Goolsby confirmed to the Canadian consulate that all that protectionism talk was just a ruse to gin up votes.

Now lets talk about opening those Canadian markets (including that Canadian oil not tied to OPEC prices.)

How it All Started

from the old Grey Lady Herself, 1999:

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES
Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Before Trading

There's a ton of free resources out there and the boys in the thinkorswim (ToS) chat pointed out something for my consideration before starting out.

SHADOWTRADER.NET has a 10 part audio series on trading and particularly day trading. I'm just at part 5 but this series of talks are crucial.

Main Lesson of the Day: Learn from your losers, it stings a little but learn from them. Investools has drilled into my head: Keep losers small, stay in the game. Peter, the shadowtrader teacher, claims that the professionals know how to lose and that's what makes them professionals with very long trading careers. Inversely, it is the amateurs who focus on their winners and subsequently blow up their account.

Peter goes even a step further and basically says you're whole job is to lose the first year. Heaven forbid that experience great success in trading right out of the chute. I knew this instinctively and have traded an old IRA for almost two years ... it was money I could afford to lose ... I set my limit ... lost my limit ... got my head straight and now things are headed in the right direction. The point is: I'm still in the game.

Day Trading the E-mini S&P 500 Index Futures

For some reason, this new year hit me like a ton of bricks. Maybe it's that whole turning 40 thing. I'll publicly proclaim that my goal is to quit working for a corporation (even though I like it, it has been good to me and I'm good at it) and just trade all day long (the only thing that could possibly beat getting good pay for doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Daytrading is a little more in tune with the things that interested me when I was 11 and used to finish my paper route on summer mornings, spread open the Business section of the Boston Globe and track my favorite stocks. Not that everything in there was understandable but the stock market always had a magical lure for me.

Just wanted to display the set-up for a paper trading exercise with real live data before showing any particular trades. (And the trading has been going well.)

It's a little intimidating, but the focus will be on the losers. I may even develop a trend coding system like Screw-Up A, Screw-up B.

I've been focusing on 4 elements to trading the day's action.

#1 Price Action - looking for candle set ups, knowing where the market is, MAJOR (multi week) support resistance. Been trading the 5 minute but monitoring the 15 minute candles.

#2 Volume, where is the volume? Is the move backed by volume? What was the volume the last time support/resistance held? What is the volume now? Is the volume to the hupside or downside? I get my volume analysis methodology from the guy over here: www.tfnn.com . Tom OBrien is a big ToS fan and Tom Sosnoff of www.thinkorswim.com does a show on his network on Tuesday's at 11 am.

#3 Linear Regression 50 Channel. Not sure where I picked up this little ditty, but I have been SHOCKED at how good it is at showing overbought/over sold, resistance areas. I will also use Fibonacci Retracement levels and when they coincide with the linear regression that, to me, is a powerful confluence of support/resistance.

#4 CCI (-14, 100, 100) I use this is a "Trigger". I learned about this in the Advanced Technical Analysis coursework at Investools where they talk about a CCI 6-14 Sling Shot Method of trading. I tried to use that system on straight puts/calls but that was a disaster. (I did notice, however, that it worked great for my spread trades when combined with the 30 Moving Average)

note: screen shot is from thinkorswim desktop application showing 3 days of /ES mini trading with 15 minute candles, overlapped volume in light blue, the Linear Regression Channel in yellow and the CCI at the bottom. Looking around at other trading blogs, it has shocked me how great thinkorswim is and how everyone else sucks.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Rosa for Senate 2012


From Iowahawk, Rosa Speaks Out. Very funny.

What's even funnier is that she looks exactly like my mother in law, Soledad, who is a filipina.



NY Daily News:

She lost him at "hello."

Gov. Paterson was completely underwhelmed with Caroline Kennedy from their first conversation about Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, a source close to the governor said.

Paterson's thinking has become clearer in the two days since Kennedy withdrew her name for the Senate seat that Friday went to upstate Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-Hudson).

Friends said Paterson was adamant that she was never going to be appointed, even though she was considered the front-runner.

Paterson was turned off when Kennedy first called him and asked if she "could" be considered for the seat.

By asking if she could, rather than saying she wanted to be considered, Paterson immediately felt she wasn't really interested, the source said.

In meetings, the governor and his aides decided she had no political depth, the source said.

She had no firmly held views and little idea about why she wanted the job, the source said.

Her abysmal public rollout cemented the governor's fears that she had no political instincts.

The governor felt the sheltered Kennedy had no communication skills and absolutely no empathy with the voters, the source said.

He was amazed that she went upstate for a day to meet with political leaders but didn't walk around to chat up regular people.

"She just lived in a bubble," the source said.
Currency Converter by OANDA