Saturday Night Live Speaks the Truth About Brokers

Straight Talk - Stock Market
by senatork

Saw a link to this clip on Twitter.

PS: Reading and playing Inspectd. Trying to get my equity up to $500 million. Might be a little too ambitious. I got up to $10million, but then got destroyed. Some people on there have $100 Septillion. I really need to work on my technical analysis skills. =)

Kurt Vonnegut on the Stock Market

"The name of the book was The Big Board. . . . It was about an Earth-ling man and woman who were kidnapped by extraterrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212.

These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and commodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a brokerage on Earth. The creatures on Zircon-212 told their captives that they had invested a million dollars for them back on Earth, and that it was up to the captives to manage it so that they would be fabulously wealthy when they were returned to Earth.

The telephone and the big board and the ticker were all fakes, of course. They were simply stimulants to make the Earthlings perform vividly for the crowds at the zoo—to make them jump up and down and cheer, or gloat, or sulk, or tear their hair, to be scared shitless or to feel as contented as babies in their mothers' arms.

The Earthlings did very well on paper. That was part of the rigging, of course. And religion got mixed up in it, too. The news ticker reminded them that the President of the United States had declared National Prayer Week, and that everybody should pray. The Earthlings had had a bad week on the market before that. They had lost a small fortune in olive oil futures. So they gave praying a whirl. It worked. Olive oil went up."

—Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Slaughterhouse Five

This was quoted in The Market Wizards by Jack D. Schwager and the reason I am posting this--besides the fact I love Kurt Vonnegut--is because DT is hosting a book club next Tuesday, and he chose The Market Wizards for the first book. I just started reading it (d/led it) and am enjoying it immensely. I'm sure DT wouldn't mind if I invited you to join, so please feel free to click here or on any other links to his site, check it out, and begin reading.

On a side note, somewhat related, I suggest you also check out The American Ruling Class, a movie/documentary with an appearance by Kurt Vonnegut. It follows two ivy league graduates who seek advice on how to live their lives. Anyway, read more about it here or watch it here. I strongly recommend it.

The Good About Steve Jobs' Weight Loss

(Comic from XKCD)

Stumbling Around

I'm still here. Been somewhat bummed by the rally (I should've listened to myself; I posted some comments in my COST puts post). It may not hold, but I definitely would not be surprised to see it do so. Quantifiable Edges has a post on how 1st weeks after a terrible year tend to do well.

I have some charts on my other computer that I will post and comment on later. For the moment, I thought I would post this lovely picture. Ever since Dinosaur Trader brought StumbleUpon to my attention, I have been completely addicted. It offers much better content than any social internet program or site I have seen. I used it back in 05 or so, and it has definitely improved--not that this picture represents its best content =).

Calvin and Hobbes - Subsidize Me

Been out most of the day. Got a new book, though: The Coming Generational Storm. Talk about a bleak looking 2030 for a good portion of the baby boomers. Hopefully I'll be on a beach somewhere drinking a martini. Otherwise, I'll probably be making a shitty wage in the nursing business.

Santa Claus Rally!

I think that's an appropriate image, given the lack of a Santa Claus rally this year, and whathaveyou (h/t The Big Picture). I'm not doing any trading today. Wish the best of luck to all of you reading this. Take care.

I <3 Google

Oh, how you help me target readers: "http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=a line graph of panda bears getting killed each year&btnG=Search"

Bring Out Your Dead

GM. Toyota makes $1.6k per car it sells, while you lose $2.4k. What's going on? I think we're going to have to put you out to pasture...

I setup a micro forex account this weekend at ForexMicroLot.com. They have an account minimum of $25 and crazy leveraging (I'm going to be careful, albeit you can't lose more than you deposit). I figure that in my equity downtime I can work on making some money in the forex market. I have a lot of trouble with the US equity market because of the day trading rules. I like to add small lots to my position and sell when I think is best, even if that is within the same day. Hopefully I can do some more frequent trading in the currency markets. We'll see.

Halloween

Don't Vote

Our Imaginations Falter

Thanks to The Deipnosophist for this clip. Again, I don't think either candidate has all the answers (that's what their advisors are for, yeah?), but I do believe the collective IQ of the United States is slowly falling below 100.

Take care, good trading.

Greater Respect

Not that I would want her as VP of the US, but my respect for her has increased.

Sinfest, a comic name well positioned for the times

Barry over at The Big Picture posted a comic from Sinfest. I began looking through the comic's archives and found that the last few months have been full of politically and economically charged strips. They were all good. These were my favorites.






(With all the beatings given to McCain and Palin, mocking Obama a little feels refreshing.)

I love Naomi Klein

Naomi Klein on the Colbert Report. I'd recommend her books No Logo and The Shock Doctrine. Both informative and interesting.

Grammar? Who needs the stuff...

Now, I know grammar jokes are only funny to a few, and that the joke must be especially clever to elicit laughter. But, for me, I enjoy even the poorly done. Yesterday, during some free time I began reading through various blogs on the internet and came across a stock blog called The Float. Among his intelligent posts and numerous article links, he posts comics on a regular basis. And while I find some of them somewhat formulaic, I did come across this New Yorker comic (left) that reminded me of my love for grammar (even if I do not always succeed in using it properly).

This reminded me of a brilliant birthday card I got my brother a year or two ago. Here are the pictures, outside and inside.

And given that this is a blog about stocks and not a blog on the nuances of the English language, I figured I would post a comic that while not directly relating to the market, reminded me of its most recent plunge and current rebound into the green:

I have to go to school.

PS: 100th post! Hope someone out there has somewhat enjoyed the posts. If not, I have. And it probably won't stop soon.

God Hugging Us Closer

I found this nifty link while searching through StockCharts.com the other day. It provides you with a list of NYSE stocks that currently show buy signals on their point and figure chart. Basically, it is the list that is used for the NYSE Bullish Percent Index (they divide the number of stocks with buy signals by the number of stocks on the exchange); but, it is also useful as a stock screener.

Because my grandpa is suffering from a fairly severe medicinal side effect, I won't be posting much else today. But a little humor never hurts:


South Park on the simple economics of WalMart

Wanted to Talk Without the Filter

Summary: She wanted to write the interview questions.

"It's adult hot potato, honey."

The VIX is rising; but, as FDR said, "There's nothing to fear but fear itself." Learn to love Fear (yes, capitalize the SOB) and he will treat you with some respect. Of course, tomorrow could usher in another shit storm. Albeit, that's a risk I am willing to take. I bought some SPY @ 112.76, some BA @ 55.20 (yes, it hurts a little), and bought back some SOL @ 10.53 after selling it for 11.13 this morning. Now I'm off to school, but while I'm away, enjoy this:


McCain takes some jabs at Letterman, after Letterman makes a few jokes of his own. (6 month+ old show).

I'm hoping for more 700 point down, 500 point up days.

I am very tired. I am also fairly happy because I am up 3.56% for the day. I bought into INTC, COH, and SOL (more INTC, about double) before I left for school. And what do you know? Shit didn't rain from the sky--not today at least. More like Paulson asked the referee for a redo. In any case, the NYSE Bullish Percentage Index ($BPNYA at stockcharts) has dropped below 30. I'd look for a three box reversal on a point and figure chart for a strong bullish signal. The number of stocks above their 50 and 150 day SMAs is starting to rebound. And while most of that points towards a higher market, Congress has the ability to make the tickers bleed red again. Albeit, it's likely they will develop a palatable plan as they have plenty of (unhappy) constituents with 401k accounts.

Currently, futures are down. After such a rally, that can be expected.

Looks like the world has another day. Until the end, enjoy:

Student: "Worried about age?" McCain: "Nope, you little jerk."

I love YouTube.

Update on the day trading situation: My brother has said he will put $6,000 in my brokerage account if I can get the rest of the 25k from elsewhere.