Dubyah

G.W. just moved up a notch in my book.

road trip

I'm taking a road trip to Northern California with the wife and kids (her father and uncle) for a music festival this weekend. Not sure how much I'll be blogging over the next week. So, for the one or two of you that read this blog, keep in touch! Have a fantastic weekend! I hope not to miss all of the volatility that might be on the horizon.

3G

Apple's WWDC (WorldWide Developer's Conference) starts on Monday. Expectations over which include the 3rdGen iPhone. The new version is likely to include:
-GPS services-Thinner casing
-Improved virtual keyboard
-And, hopefully, a reduced pricetag.
From PC World online: "AT&T is readying its 3G network to handle potential traffic from the iPhone. AT&T this week announced that it had upgraded its 3G wireless network to reach downlink speeds of up to 1.7M bps, a 20 percent increase over previous speeds."
Apple estimates shipping 10 million iPhones in calendar 2008 (10 million x $400each = mo money).
"A number of network providers worldwide recently signed deals with Apple to offer iPhones, including Softbank in Japan, Telefonica in Spain, and Telecom Italia.The company hopes to boost iPhone adoption through iPhone 2.0, the phone's software platform that Apple might announce at WWDC. During an earnings call in April, Apple officials said the company plans to deliver iPhone 2.0 software as a free download in late June.The iPhone 2.0 includes an SDK (software developer kit) that allows developers to write applications for the iPhone, including push e-mail support through the Microsoft Exchange mail server."

DOWn 4hundy

What a tumultuous day! The DOW down nearly 400, Nasdaq down 75! and the S&P off over 43. Crude's going nuts (so much for profit taking). The dollar got hammered (just when the pundits were talking recovery, hahaha, fools). And, the jobless numbers out this morning show a 5.5% rise in May, the biggest increase since 1975!!!
I've been working on (and getting help writing the code for) an indicator and alert for Tradestation all this week. It's finally finished, and I got to play around with it today for some profitable trades. Very exciting. I plan on sharing, of course, once it's perfected and I can show a track record with it.
Here's a chart of our U.S.DollarIndex

pathetic

now, i can't stand Rachel Ray as much as the next warm-blooded male. But, this is freakin' retarded!

Water re-visited

I made this post just over a year ago pertaining to the potential (likely?) global water crisis.
Here's an article addressing this issue and how GE has been investing in the infrastructure to deal with this problem.
Here's another article discussing the topic of "Peak Water." Interesting stuff.
Currently PHO (PowerShares Water Resource ETF) is approaching resistance (around $22.50) at it's 52-week high and up 22% since this time last year.

What I learned today...

....I do NOT want to swing trade!! In an attempt at self-sabotage I put in orders for a number of stocks yesterday evening as swing positions. Near the end of the close this afternoon I am out of half of them. I wasn't stopped out of these trades, just took myself out due to today's schizo sell-off. The market behavior just took away any confidence I had in those positions to hold them over night.
My aspirations are to DAY TRADE with consistency. And so, from this point on that is what I will do. Lesson learned.

TS data unavailable

While my Tradestation data is unavailable for whatever reason, I suppose I'll just blog a little.
Mortgage lender Countrywide (CFC) announced a first quarter loss of $893 million. Accepting that they haven't seen the last of delinquencies, foreclosures and dropping home values, Countrywide will increase their residential loan loss provision to $1.5 billion.
The Case-Shiller home price index saw the fastest one month price decline in the history of the index. Home prices dropped 2.6% in 20 key cities between January and February this year. A 12.7% total decrease over the past 12-months.
Foreclosures are up 112% for the year.
Deutsche Bank (DB) reported its first quarterly loss in five years. A first quarter net loss of $131 million Euros, compared to last year's first quarter gain of $2.12-billion.
What can I say? Microsoft sucks.

get it together

Been working on strategy refinement. Starting to like the results. For a while I've been feeling like a beaten dog.

news

There's a lot of news driving the markets today, it seems that's the major catalyst to move the market one way or another lately.
Oil's at a record high ($104+/barrel) seemingly as a result of OPEC telling Bush to shove it. From an article in the NY Times:
"{OPEC} decided Wednesday to keep its production unchanged, ignoring calls from President Bush to pump more oil into an ailing economy. OPEC rebuffed its top consumer, arguing that the world was well supplied with oil and blaming financial speculators and mismanagement of the United States economy for the current high prices."

Meanwhile, Bush & Bernanke take more steps to displace accountability.

Financial Insurer Ambac (ABK) got hammered today after reporting it will sell $1 billion of common stock and sell at least $500 million of equity units.

Gold is....well, need I say more?

bday

It's my birthday today, March 4th. I was born on a command....get it? March Forth! Anyway, the least I could have gotten was a stable internet connection today. The dsl issues are driving me crazy. At any rate....An insane turn-around in the markets today. Gold and Oil both had some profit-taking. One minute the market is churning down, the next minute things are green. Crazy.

Like Surround Sound?

Than here's a set-up for you to drool over. A little on the excessive side, but who am I to judge with my little 32" TV and no cable service.

Free Healthcare...

...unless we're bankrupt. An interesting blog posting here telling of the setback Governor Schwarzenneger is experiencing as he tries to provide healthcare to those without. The worrisome economic status of the state of California has led Governor Schwarzenneger to declare a fiscal emergency in January, as the fifth largest economy in the world battles with a $14-billion deficit. An attempt to raise revenue by increasing tobacco taxes was strongly opposed and unable to pass as a measure in the past election. So, we're left with school and hospital funding cuts in order to trim the budget. It's a sad statement on where priorities lie. Higher taxes on tobacco products? Hell no! Cut school and hospital funding? Who cares, so long as you don't raise the cost of my cigarettes. And since California will likely be the last state to feel the full effect of the mortgage/credit crisis pinch the seriousness of this problem is only just surfacing. 'tis a shame.

Moving Average Crossovers

A rainy Saturday is good for some things. Like browsing through charts and picking out simple technical indicators. So, this browsing session was looking for crossovers (or near crossovers) of the 50, 100 & 200 Exponential Moving Averages. So, here we have a list of decent looking candidates to watch for coming trend moves based on the action of their fast and slow moving averages.
WYNN
PATR
AMZN
DRYS
GRMN
BIIB
CELG
GPRO
TROW
ERTS
EMITF
LSTR
CMTL
UMBF
ADSK
MYGN
UAUA
PVTB
CTXS
TBSI
CBEY
NATL
SEIC
NTGR
JNPR
NVDA
BCSI
CIEN
SCRX
DISCA
EXPE
FMER
CLMS
LPHI
SYMC
SHEN
RRST
NITE
WCRX
STAR
ACAD
HALL
POZN
LVS
PRU
CVX
SLB
ITW
MRO
HPQ
VZ
T
HAL

Cali feels the pinch

California should certainly be the last to feel the pinch of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. Just a reminder that the affects of this mess are far from over. California defaults have soared in Q4 and are up over 114% versus the same quarter of '06. The other shoe will soon drop.

Simple Brilliance

Finally....

....back into the swing of things. I've been very preoccupied over the past week, but things are settling down. I had some network issues over the past few days (that I have corrected today), so I haven't gotten to work my charts or scans. I have, however, finally loaded all the indicators from eotpro.com and look forward to Monday morning when I could study them in real-time.

ouch! Currently (2:42p.m.EST) the Nasdaq is down 94+ points !! Gives the bulls an idea of what it feels like to be inside the clutched fist of Vinnie Jones.
ooffaa

Recipe app.

For those of you who like to cook. My bro showed me this mac app. I haven't used it (yet), but it looks pretty interesting. It's called YummySoup! Organize...Share...Shop...Cook!

Ammending My Previous Posting

I originally went with the whole "forget about resolutions" mindset for the new year. However, I think "resolutions", or better yet "goals," are necessary for success in life. Regardless of what you strive to succeed. So, with that being said, I would like to put my intentions out to the universe for the things I would like to achieve throughout the new year. Perhaps it's something I should do on a quarterly basis, thereby keeping it in the forefront of my mind but anyway...
Things I will routinely meditate upon:
- Be more present
- Worry less
- Laugh more
- Be more grateful
- Focus on deep breathing
- Do more yoga
- Focus on my core/lower chakra's while doing said yoga
- Learn more about futures trading, especially the index mini's
- Get more cardio exercise
- Expand my knowledge of Tradestation intricacies
- Don't take things personally; "Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dreams. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering" (h/t to Don Miguel Ruiz).
- Find the courage to ask questions and to express what I really want.
- Don't make assumptions