I like David Sedaris, Christopher Moore, and Chuck Thompson when it comes to laugh-out-loud funny books. A friend of mine pointed me to Christopher Buckley, who is featured in this month's Commonwealth Club magazine (p. 39):
You may know of the situation of the teenage boy who has to do a report for school on the difference between hypothetical and reality, so he goes to his father one night and asks him if he could give him a hand with it. The father thinks for a bit and he says, "Go ask your mother if she would sleep with a total stranger for a million dollars." So the son goes off and he comes back pretty quickly [and says] the answer is, You bet. So the dad says, "Go ask your sister," and the boy comes back quite lickety-split, and reports the answer as, "Totally." The dad says, "There you go. Hypothetically, we're sitting on two million bucks. In reality? We're living with a couple of hookers."
I think he's modifying something Churchill said, but it's still funny.
"And if an epitaph be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own: I had a lover's quarrel with the world." -- Robert Frost
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Day Trading
Although I've made many, many short-term trades, for the first time in over thirteen years, my brokerage has officially classified me as a "day trader." The exact definition is below:
The FINRA currently defines day trading as purchasing and selling, or short selling and purchasing to cover, the same security on the same day. A pattern day trader is defined as someone who makes four or more round-trip day trades in a five-business-day period, unless this activity is less than 6% of total trading activity in that period.
What happens now? The only differences appear to be 1) I have to maintain 25K in equity ("Pattern day trading accounts are required to maintain minimum equity of $25,000 on any day in which day trading occurs."); and 2) my margin buying power increases.
The FINRA currently defines day trading as purchasing and selling, or short selling and purchasing to cover, the same security on the same day. A pattern day trader is defined as someone who makes four or more round-trip day trades in a five-business-day period, unless this activity is less than 6% of total trading activity in that period.
What happens now? The only differences appear to be 1) I have to maintain 25K in equity ("Pattern day trading accounts are required to maintain minimum equity of $25,000 on any day in which day trading occurs."); and 2) my margin buying power increases.
Friday, November 21, 2008
New Treasury Secretary
We have a new Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, Timothy F. Geithner:
http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/banks/pres02.htm
What I like most about him? "He has studied Japanese and Chinese, and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan." Wall Street apparently likes him, too. The stock market shot up after the announcement.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/aboutthefed/bios/banks/pres02.htm
What I like most about him? "He has studied Japanese and Chinese, and has lived in East Africa, India, Thailand, China, and Japan." Wall Street apparently likes him, too. The stock market shot up after the announcement.
Stupidity or Genius?
In what can only be described as Las Vegas style gambling, I bought 1300 shares of Citigroup (C) today and yesterday. My average price is around $3.52. When I last checked, C was trading around $3.18, but had dropped as far as $3.07.
I will now proceed to hide under my bed until next week. I am assuming either the government will do something over in a special session over the weekend to deal with the Citigroup issue, or a merger will occur. If I am wrong, well, it wouldn't be the first time. If, however, I am right, I'll probably make between 1000 and 1800 dollars. I wish I had the cojones to hold onto the stock till next year, when it might be much higher. Sadly, my cojones remember the old saying, "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."
The information on this site is provided for discussion purposes only and does not constitute investing recommendations. Under no circumstances does this information represent a recommendation to buy or sell securities or make any kind of an investment. You are responsible for your own due diligence.
Update on November 20, 2008: in late-day trading, Citigroup went up to $3.83, and then started to dip. I sold at $3.74 and made around $300. Not bad for 60 minutes of risk.
I will now proceed to hide under my bed until next week. I am assuming either the government will do something over in a special session over the weekend to deal with the Citigroup issue, or a merger will occur. If I am wrong, well, it wouldn't be the first time. If, however, I am right, I'll probably make between 1000 and 1800 dollars. I wish I had the cojones to hold onto the stock till next year, when it might be much higher. Sadly, my cojones remember the old saying, "The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent."
The information on this site is provided for discussion purposes only and does not constitute investing recommendations. Under no circumstances does this information represent a recommendation to buy or sell securities or make any kind of an investment. You are responsible for your own due diligence.
Update on November 20, 2008: in late-day trading, Citigroup went up to $3.83, and then started to dip. I sold at $3.74 and made around $300. Not bad for 60 minutes of risk.
Gold
From the film, The Italian Job--prescient words from a gold bug?
INT. COIN & BULLION STORE - EVENING
Yevhen is 50 and like many in the gold trade, there isn't a conspiracy theory that he doesn't embrace. As they make their way to a back room, he keeps his mouth in overdrive --
YEVHEN:
All those poor bastards out there putting their life savings in banks and S&Ls and mutual funds. What do they think -- that when the collapse comes they can depend on the government? I don't think so.
Governments are nothing more than puppets on the strings of the Trilateral Commission with their twisted gods.
I mean, it's so obvious that in a world where NAFTA can overturn the Supreme Court, not to mention Microsoft's nefarious financial machinations, this, is our only refuge: gold.
I definitely get the part about feeling like a "poor bastard." Sigh.
INT. COIN & BULLION STORE - EVENING
Yevhen is 50 and like many in the gold trade, there isn't a conspiracy theory that he doesn't embrace. As they make their way to a back room, he keeps his mouth in overdrive --
YEVHEN:
All those poor bastards out there putting their life savings in banks and S&Ls and mutual funds. What do they think -- that when the collapse comes they can depend on the government? I don't think so.
Governments are nothing more than puppets on the strings of the Trilateral Commission with their twisted gods.
I mean, it's so obvious that in a world where NAFTA can overturn the Supreme Court, not to mention Microsoft's nefarious financial machinations, this, is our only refuge: gold.
I definitely get the part about feeling like a "poor bastard." Sigh.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
A Long Sigh
My poor, poor Roth IRA. I am losing around 2,000 dollars each in Yahoo (YHOO) and a Swiss fund (SWZ). Almost all my other holdings are also losing money. On the bright side, if the aforementioned two investments do well over the next year, along with my S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index Fund (PFF), my Roth IRA will be somewhat healthy again. Right now, it's on life support. Five years of gains wiped out.
I wish I had more retirement savings to invest. As crazy as it sounds right now, I'd love to buy more stocks in my retirement accounts.
In my non-retirement brokerage account, which is around 90% in money market funds, I picked up some Starbucks (SBUX), Symantec (SYMC), Nvidia (NVDA), 3M (MMM), and ConocoPhillips (COP), and Citigroup (C). I wanted to buy more Cisco (CSCO) but chickened out.
Update on November 21, 2008:
The S&P 500 lost 46.8% from 12/7/07 to 11/21/08 [from December 7, 2007 (1504.66) to November 21, 2008 (800.03)]
In that same time period, my retirement accounts declined in value 27.9%. Although I am beating the averages in my retirement account, I don't feel happy at all.
I wish I had more retirement savings to invest. As crazy as it sounds right now, I'd love to buy more stocks in my retirement accounts.
In my non-retirement brokerage account, which is around 90% in money market funds, I picked up some Starbucks (SBUX), Symantec (SYMC), Nvidia (NVDA), 3M (MMM), and ConocoPhillips (COP), and Citigroup (C). I wanted to buy more Cisco (CSCO) but chickened out.
Update on November 21, 2008:
The S&P 500 lost 46.8% from 12/7/07 to 11/21/08 [from December 7, 2007 (1504.66) to November 21, 2008 (800.03)]
In that same time period, my retirement accounts declined in value 27.9%. Although I am beating the averages in my retirement account, I don't feel happy at all.
Public Sector Costs and Benefits
Rio Vista, California is yet another morality tale about how government spending, which includes public sector benefits, has spun out of control:
Link1 [replaced dead link]
Link 2 [replaced dead link]
In Vallejo, CA, another city that had to file bankruptcy, police and firefighter unions tried to force the city out of bankruptcy court so they could preserve their own government benefits--at the expense of the general taxpayers. How many more California cities have to go bankrupt before our government starts protecting taxpayers from unreasonable government spending, which includes comparatively much higher salaries and benefits in the public sector? (See Malanga article for comparison of private vs. public employees)
The costs of pensions and lifetime health care benefits depend on employees' lifespans and are difficult to estimate, because some employees may live longer or may need care that far exceeds the estimated costs. As a result, it's very difficult to ascertain employee pension liabilities because so many unpredictable factors are involved. Inevitably, because of the uncertainty involved in calculated how many years a public employee has to be paid after retirement, the government will have under-funded pensions. The result is that the taxpayers--and our children--will suffer as a result of the government continuing to provide itself with generous and hard-to-estimate benefits. Almost no private sector employees receive pensions anymore because companies figured out they shouldn't be in the insurance business. If a voluntary 401(k) or 403(b) plan is good enough for most engineers, nurses, and lawyers, why isn't it acceptable for government workers, firefighters, and police officers? Who exactly is the government protecting and serving?
Link1 [replaced dead link]
Link 2 [replaced dead link]
In Vallejo, CA, another city that had to file bankruptcy, police and firefighter unions tried to force the city out of bankruptcy court so they could preserve their own government benefits--at the expense of the general taxpayers. How many more California cities have to go bankrupt before our government starts protecting taxpayers from unreasonable government spending, which includes comparatively much higher salaries and benefits in the public sector? (See Malanga article for comparison of private vs. public employees)
The costs of pensions and lifetime health care benefits depend on employees' lifespans and are difficult to estimate, because some employees may live longer or may need care that far exceeds the estimated costs. As a result, it's very difficult to ascertain employee pension liabilities because so many unpredictable factors are involved. Inevitably, because of the uncertainty involved in calculated how many years a public employee has to be paid after retirement, the government will have under-funded pensions. The result is that the taxpayers--and our children--will suffer as a result of the government continuing to provide itself with generous and hard-to-estimate benefits. Almost no private sector employees receive pensions anymore because companies figured out they shouldn't be in the insurance business. If a voluntary 401(k) or 403(b) plan is good enough for most engineers, nurses, and lawyers, why isn't it acceptable for government workers, firefighters, and police officers? Who exactly is the government protecting and serving?
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