I began doing the master cleanse yesterday. In an effort to document my experiences (and because people asked me to) I created another blog. If you should so choose, you may find it at:
http://mastercleanseisnotarapper.blogspot.com/
It might get a little graphic at some times, so you are forewarned.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Happy Halloween From the Big Pigs
PIGGY COLLEThis little piggy went to the market
PIGGY VICIOUSThis little piggy stayed home
PIGGY THORThis little piggy ate roast beef
PIGGY BUTTERSThis little piggy ate none (yeah right)
I don't know why we thought this costume would fit any of our porkers. Maybe their humiliation will cause Thor and Butters to lose some weight.
More Money, More Problems. Less Money, More Problems. At What Level of Money Are There No More Problems?
So I come home from Europe and the financial markets are a mess. Everybody is scared and everybody is selling? Why? Because the guy next to him is selling and the guy next to that guy is selling too. A lot of people are losing money, which is unfortunate.
People have been asking/calling/writing me about whether or not I'm ready to jump off of a bridge because my main source of income is the stock market. This post is to put to rest any fears that you might have for me. Yes, I trade stocks for a living. However, because most of my market activities are of the day trading varieties, I am not hurt by a falling market. The joy of day trading is that I don't have to care what stocks do as long as they move. If they go up I buy and if they go down I short. The worst markets for me are the ones that do not move at all or are turbulent all day (i.e. up, down, up, down, etc...). I would love for all of the stocks to go up so that everyone makes money, but I am more than protected when they are down. It's really a luxury to have no emotional attachment to the stocks that I trade. However, if you are still worried about me, feel free to send me money.
People have also been asking/calling/writing me about what they should do. I personally think that now is a great time to be buying stocks for the long term. Yes, the stocks will continue to go down, but you nor I am smart/lucky enough to get the lowest price before a stock starts its ascension. In my opinion, there are more good companies getting beaten up for no other reason than fear than there are companies getting taken to the wood shed because they conducted bad business. If you are going to buy stocks and look at them everyday and worry, then maybe you should stick with a mutual fund. However, it would be wise in my opinion to do your research, find the undervalued good companies (it's not hard), buy stock in them, forget you even have stocks, and then look at your account in a few years and see how much money you've made.
These are just my opinions. I could be dead wrong. However, if I am wrong, I'll be the guy salting the french fries that you just pulled up out of the vat of oil. Maybe we can carpool to work together to save some money.
John Yam was nice enough to send me a link to an article on the Bloomberg website the other day. He's crazy, but this guy just might be our new hero:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLmRPHKZLYmY&refer=home
Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks `Idiots' for Success (Update1)
John also turned me onto http://sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com, a site with pics of market traders and their captions. It's pretty priceless.
Nikkei, please.
People have been asking/calling/writing me about whether or not I'm ready to jump off of a bridge because my main source of income is the stock market. This post is to put to rest any fears that you might have for me. Yes, I trade stocks for a living. However, because most of my market activities are of the day trading varieties, I am not hurt by a falling market. The joy of day trading is that I don't have to care what stocks do as long as they move. If they go up I buy and if they go down I short. The worst markets for me are the ones that do not move at all or are turbulent all day (i.e. up, down, up, down, etc...). I would love for all of the stocks to go up so that everyone makes money, but I am more than protected when they are down. It's really a luxury to have no emotional attachment to the stocks that I trade. However, if you are still worried about me, feel free to send me money.
People have also been asking/calling/writing me about what they should do. I personally think that now is a great time to be buying stocks for the long term. Yes, the stocks will continue to go down, but you nor I am smart/lucky enough to get the lowest price before a stock starts its ascension. In my opinion, there are more good companies getting beaten up for no other reason than fear than there are companies getting taken to the wood shed because they conducted bad business. If you are going to buy stocks and look at them everyday and worry, then maybe you should stick with a mutual fund. However, it would be wise in my opinion to do your research, find the undervalued good companies (it's not hard), buy stock in them, forget you even have stocks, and then look at your account in a few years and see how much money you've made.
These are just my opinions. I could be dead wrong. However, if I am wrong, I'll be the guy salting the french fries that you just pulled up out of the vat of oil. Maybe we can carpool to work together to save some money.
John Yam was nice enough to send me a link to an article on the Bloomberg website the other day. He's crazy, but this guy just might be our new hero:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aLmRPHKZLYmY&refer=home
Lahde Quits Hedge Funds, Thanks `Idiots' for Success (Update1)
By Katherine Burton
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Andrew Lahde, the hedge-fund manager who quit after posting an 870 percent gain last year, said farewell to clients in a letter that thanks stupid traders for making him rich and ends with a plea to legalize marijuana.
Lahde, head of Santa Monica, California-based Lahde Capital Management LLC, told investors last month he was returning their cash because the risk of using credit derivatives -- his means of betting on the falling value of bonds and loans, including subprime mortgages -- was too risky given the weakness of the banks he was trading with.
``I was in this game for money,'' Lahde, 37, wrote in a two-page letter today in which he said he had come to hate the hedge-fund business. ``The low-hanging fruit, i.e. idiots whose parents paid for prep school, Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking. These people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government.
``All of this behavior supporting the Aristocracy, only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other sides of my trades. God Bless America.''
Lahde, who managed about $80 million, told clients he'll be content to invest his own money, rather than taking cash from wealthy individuals and institutions and trying to amass a fortune worth hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars.
``I do not understand the legacy thing,'' he wrote. ``Nearly everyone will be forgotten. Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.''
Request for Soros
He said he'd spend his time repairing his health ``as well as my entire life -- where I had to compete for spaces at universities, and graduate schools, jobs and assets under management -- with those who had all the advantages (rich parents) that I did not.''
He also suggested that billionaire George Soros sponsor a forum in which ``great minds'' would come together to create a new system of government, as the current system ``is clearly broken.''
Lahde ended his letter with a plea for the increased use of hemp as an alternative source of food and energy that segued into a call for the legalization of marijuana.
``Hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food, as well as just about everything that is produced from petroleum products,'' he wrote. ``Hemp is not marijuana and vice versa. Hemp is the male plant and it grows like a weed, hence the slang term.''
`Innocuous Plant'
He added, ``The evil female plant -- marijuana. It gets you high, it makes you laugh, it does not produce a hangover. Unlike alcohol, it does not result in bar fights or wife beating. So, why is this innocuous plant illegal? Is it a gateway drug? No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country.''
Lahde said the only reason marijuana remains illegal is because ``Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers.''
Lahde graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in finance and holds an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. He worked at Los Angeles-based hedge fund Dalton Investments LLC before founding his own firm two years ago with about $10 million.
Lahde wasn't available for comment. A woman at his firm, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 17, 2008 16:27 EDTJohn also turned me onto http://sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com, a site with pics of market traders and their captions. It's pretty priceless.
Thank god this man’s head was there to deflect the market upward.
Nikkei, please.The Return
I am home from Europe and readjusting to life without trains, passports, multi-linguists, and American portions. All in all it was a good trip. We ended up visiting:
Budapest, Hungary
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic
Belgrade, Serbia
Rubik, Albania
Dubrovnik, Croatia
As expected, the trip was not without its mix ups and shenanigans but those are all forgivable and make for interesting stories. The only inexcusable event was the white knuckle cab ride from Rubik to Dubrovnik. Our Montenegrin "buddy" named Merlin gave us a ride in his cab from Montenegro to Albania. It was an hour and a half ride filled with loud techno music and excessive speeds on roads barely suitable for the livestock that occupied them. He cut us a "deal" and offered us a ride from Rubik to Dubrovnik, a five and a half hour journey. We accepted and hopped into his cab a few days later. Somewhere in the coastal cliffs of Croatia Merlin proceeded to give me what I hope to be my last near-death experience. Only a miracle of God prevented us from slamming into 4 oncoming vehicles, falling into the Adriatic Sea, or both. John and Cary were fortunate enough to sleep through everything but the screeching tires. I've never had a drinking problem but I'm still considering developing one because the memories of that event still haunt me.
Despite the death-defying cab rides, Albania was an incredible experience. My friend, Stephanie, is a Peace Corps volunteer in the small town of Rubik. I believe that it is the smallest city in the country that has a volunteer in it. The town has only one road in it and most people travel it as a means to get to Kosovo. Rubik is by no means a wasteland, but it is very simple and self sufficient. The people of the town could not have been more welcoming and warm. However, that is what the Albanian people are supposedly known for (that, and killing those who do you wrong). I'm not sure as to the validity of the statement, but we were supposedly that most Americans that have ever been in the city at one time.
While the trip was good, it's always nice to come home. I mean what's not to love about coming home to a fearful economy, a jittery stock market, and the Chicago Cubs being the Chicago Cubs and getting swept out of the first round of the playoffs?
(See Jimmy, that’s the New York Stock Exchange. That’s where people traded incredibly convoluted financial instruments that no one really understood until one day the whole thing went BOOM!) *taken from sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com
(Yes, there were pictures taken on our trip. However, none of them were taken by me. As soon as I get some I'll post them.)
Budapest, Hungary
Vienna, Austria
Prague, Czech Republic
Belgrade, Serbia
Rubik, Albania
Dubrovnik, Croatia
As expected, the trip was not without its mix ups and shenanigans but those are all forgivable and make for interesting stories. The only inexcusable event was the white knuckle cab ride from Rubik to Dubrovnik. Our Montenegrin "buddy" named Merlin gave us a ride in his cab from Montenegro to Albania. It was an hour and a half ride filled with loud techno music and excessive speeds on roads barely suitable for the livestock that occupied them. He cut us a "deal" and offered us a ride from Rubik to Dubrovnik, a five and a half hour journey. We accepted and hopped into his cab a few days later. Somewhere in the coastal cliffs of Croatia Merlin proceeded to give me what I hope to be my last near-death experience. Only a miracle of God prevented us from slamming into 4 oncoming vehicles, falling into the Adriatic Sea, or both. John and Cary were fortunate enough to sleep through everything but the screeching tires. I've never had a drinking problem but I'm still considering developing one because the memories of that event still haunt me.
Despite the death-defying cab rides, Albania was an incredible experience. My friend, Stephanie, is a Peace Corps volunteer in the small town of Rubik. I believe that it is the smallest city in the country that has a volunteer in it. The town has only one road in it and most people travel it as a means to get to Kosovo. Rubik is by no means a wasteland, but it is very simple and self sufficient. The people of the town could not have been more welcoming and warm. However, that is what the Albanian people are supposedly known for (that, and killing those who do you wrong). I'm not sure as to the validity of the statement, but we were supposedly that most Americans that have ever been in the city at one time.
Other highlights of the trip include visiting with my brother, Trevor, and seeing old and new friends in Vienna, wandering the streets of my favorite large European city (Prague), seeing the marble constructed tourist destination that is Dubrovnik, and getting a 500 billion dinar note in Belgrade. 
(I could scan the 50 billion dinar note, but c'mon, who wants to see that worthless piece of crap?)
(I could scan the 50 billion dinar note, but c'mon, who wants to see that worthless piece of crap?)
(See Jimmy, that’s the New York Stock Exchange. That’s where people traded incredibly convoluted financial instruments that no one really understood until one day the whole thing went BOOM!) *taken from sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com
(Yes, there were pictures taken on our trip. However, none of them were taken by me. As soon as I get some I'll post them.)
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