Late Night Readings

Sorry, for missing the post last night. Looks like blogger is having problems posting to domain names. So, I've had to use the backdoor so to speak.

Excellent post by Roger Nusbaum on covered call index funds. I can't get over the dividend yields on the two funds he mentions. Will be nice to see these funds after a few years of historical data. Might offer some added bonus to an index market timing system.

Neal Berger interview post. Insight into running a hedge fund. Nice missive on capital raising: "I have seen many a successful trader not be able to get off the ground and not be able to make any head-way simply because they are not really good marketing people." A great marketer trumps talent any day. An ugly but truthful fact of life.

Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:

* 1 QQQQ long with current profit of +2.48%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Mid-day Readings

Took an early lunch to meet with the real estate broker today. Might have found a house. Not 100% sure...but the house has potential. Wouldn't be a big upgrade from our current house...but would get us closer to civilization...and more room for the little curtain-crawler.

Now, on to business. Some interesting articles today that run the gamut:

• Blockbuster removing the late fee? Finally, they realize how hard it is to stop watching TV, get off the couch, and take a dang movie back.


• Interesting chart from Infectious Greed on holidays and deaths. Paul's speculation that people would rather die than mess up their holidays is probably more true than we think. My mother died a day after Christmas in 2001 after a long battle with Leukemia. She decided being home with the family during the holidays was a much much better choice than being stuck in a hospital.


• Raymond Mason honored as CEO of the Year by CBSMarketWatch.com.


• Not finished Holiday shopping? Send someone a FAT bastard.


• Chuck Jaffe's Lump of Coal Awards. My favorite winners are Chris Lahiji and Doug Fabian. But, let's admit...kudos must go to Fabian. Promising a 100% return in 365 days? Now, that's moxie!


• The Bunny Portfolio? Check out Tesoro's rocket-like comeback from oblivion. Tesoro's stock plummeted below $2.00/share back in 2002 when the crack spread was at its narrowest. Now, the stock trades above $30.00/share. Wow! Maybe I need to watch the new low list more often.


• Interesting little history lesson on the German mark and hyperinflation by Jonathan Hoenig. Read here.

Why is it when we look at a home to buy...we automatically fly into Mr. House inspector? Noting every nook and cranny that is wrong with the house. Yet, when evaluating a stock...we only see the positives?

Later trades...

Oracle buys Peoplesoft

While everyone is focusing on Orasoft...I'm wondering what SAP AG is thinking right now? SAP could perceive this as a huge win or a death blow.

Huge win?

• The troublesome merger between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq marked the end of their dominance in the PC market. And opened the gates wide open for a strong and focused player like Dell.
• While Orasoft is struggling to combine the two companies and their product offerings...will a strong and focused player like SAP AG step in like Dell? Already 50% of the world's GDP flow through SAP systems.

Death Blow?

• 70% of SAP applications run on Oracle databases.
  
• How uneasy will the relationship between Orasoft and SAP AG become over the next few years?
  
• Will the marketing efforts on SAP AG's / MYSQL's MaxDB increase? MaxDB is a SAP-certified open source database.
• Will this open up the market for newcomers in the ERP field? Newcomers and existing players in the database field?
• Are CIO's feeling uneasy about their administrative IT systems being in the sole hands of a vendor? Could we see a resurgence in homegrown IT systems? If so, will companies like EDS and Perot Systems see a boost?

Later trades...

Daily System Updates
1 QQQQ (Harami) long with current profit of +1.97%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Survivor Winner

Congrats to Chris for winning Survivor! I thought he played the game extremely well. The odds were stacked against him. And thanks to his great talent in telling people what they want to hear (the BS factor) ...he now has a million dollars to spend. What would you do with a million dollar landfall?

I would take care of the normal things....house, debt, family, etc. But, allocate some travel money for two things:

1. Hawaii - my wife has always wanted to see Hawaii and take the helicopter ride and just have the full experience.
2. Alaska - I've always wanted to fly into a remote log cabin on a mountain lake. Fish for trout, salmon, etc. Just enjoy the scenery.

Have a good week!

Daily System Updates

• 1 QQQQ (Harami) long with current profit of +0.86%.
  

Weekly System Updates
Long system triggers for EGHT and ZICA at Monday's market open. The system that generated these trades is the same system that generated VNWK, SPDE, and AATK trades the previous weeks. So, as you know, system caters to penny-type stocks with high volatility. Holding periods are mid-term in length. This system is one of my riskiest systems. I trade very little size with trades from this system because losses can be extreme...as you can see by the current losses in the SPDE and AATK trades.

Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQQ (SimpleUp) long with current profit of +5.22%;
• 1 QQQQ (TurtleTrader) long with current loss of -0.47%;
  
• SPDE (PennyLag) long with current loss of -11.54%;
• AATK (PennyLag) long with current loss of -17.06%.
• VNWK (PennyLag) long with current profit of +8.70%.
  

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Blade Review

Blade: Trinity did not impress. I was expecting a continuation from the first two movies. This one took off on a different path. Reminded me of the old Bruce Willis action movies...this time Ryan Reynolds played the whiny wise-cracking "tough" guy.

Ryan Reynolds clearly stole the show. The guy was hilarious. You might remember him from the Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place sitcom. His wisecracks had the entire movie audience rolling in their seats. The "silent but deadly" crack was brilliantly funny.

Jessica Biel looked good...but suffered from lack of dialogue.

Parker Posey played one strange, cool, ugly vampire.

Overall, the movie was okay. But, I missed the old Blade.

Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQQ long with current profit of 1.39%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Daily System Update

Sorry about the oil chart formatting in the previous article. I'll try to fix the problem tomorrow morning.

Daily System Updates
Received a long system trigger for the QQQQ for Thursday's (12/08/2004) market opening. This system has an 82% win ratio with an average profit of 3.55%. The system holds the QQQQ for a max of 7 days. This system is based on a two-day pattern: a range expansion day followed by a range contraction. A trend filter is thrown into they mix as well.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Oil Rigs & Prices Update

Posting an updated chart on US Oil Rig Counts versus Crude Oil prices.


Data provided by Baker Hughes, Inc. and inflationdata.com

To learn more about this chart...read the original post here.

Mark December 10th & 11th on your calanders or Tivo it. Roger Nusbaum from Random Roger's Big Picture will be on Your World with Neil Cavuto (Friday) and Forbes on Fox (Saturday). Roger is a good guy...wish him luck!

There is a long story to my shoulder situation...but I'll give you the short explanation. They had me down with the wrong shoulder injury. They could have really messed me up...but the surgeon and physical therapist think all is okay. I attended my second therapy session today...and much much better. The pain is finally gone from Monday's torture treatment.

In fact, I might sneak out and see the new Blade: Trinity flick. I'll let you know if its a winner or a stinker.

Thanks for everyone's well wishes and concerns!

New Kind of Pain

I started physical therapy on my shoulder today...and found a whole new kind of pain. I was told that beginning physical therapy can be painful...but I truly had no idea.

At first everything seemed fine. Just some minor discomfort in trying to expand the range of motion on my still sore shoulder. Then pop. And then a rush of pain like I've never felt before. The therapist struggled to pop my shoulder back into place. All the while I'm sweating and grumbling with the pain. Not fun.

After an ice pack and electrodes to the shoulder...the therapist tried to work it again. This time an even louder pop...and even stronger pain. I could tell the therapist was truly worried about getting the shoulder back into place. I was just looking for a bucket. After what seemed like an eternity...finally some peace...the shoulder popped back in. Then more ice packs and electrodes...and the therapist sent me home.

Not a fun day. And I'm afraid not much time can be spent on the computer due to the pain.

If anyone has any experience with physical therapy...please let me know if this type of experience is normal. I have another session this Wednesday...and I'm dreading it like the plague.

So, bare with me. I'll try to post a bit here and there. Just can't dive too much into system testing right now. I will tell you that I've been testing a cool little idea that involves US oil rig counts and oil prices to trade oil drillers. The idea seems to have some promise.

Have a great week!

Weekend Update

In a call-out for trading ideas last week, I received an email from Tony in regard to the following idea: buying NYSE stocks after 4 consecutive down days. Tony states that he's looked at various trading systems and has not found any that work well against the NYSE stock universe.

I agree with him 100%. I have developed over 45 trading systems and only two can trade NYSE stocks successfully. There's just something funky about NYSE stocks. The only tip I've found for trading NYSE stocks is to limit your trading to the NYSE optionable stocks only.

Now, back to Tony's idea of buying after 4 consecutive down days.

I coded the idea first against the QQQQ. There was a surprising amount of trades for this idea with nothing to write home about. So, I filtered the results down to only buying on a drop of over a certain percentage from 5 days ago. I applied various percentages and none really seemed to improve the results. A trend filter did not help either.

Just for kicks, I ran a rough test against NYSE optionable stocks. Results were no better than random entry. Overall, the first wave of testing was frustrating. Does not mean there is not something there. Just means have to dig a little deeper.

My next step is to test volume patterns and possible extending the number of days down. Other ideas could be to test whether it's a brand new 50 day low or if the down days started from a 50 day high. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Until then...

Daily System Updates
No open trades at this time.

Weekly System Updates
Long system trigger for VNWK at Monday's market open. The system that generated this trade is the same system that generated SPDE and AATK trades the previous weeks. So, as you know, system caters to penny-type stocks with high volatility. Holding periods are mid-term in length. This system is one of my riskiest systems. I trade very little size with trades from this system because losses can be extreme...as you can see by the current losses in the SPDE and AATK trades.

Also, as I'm sure you know, the QQQ symbol has changed to QQQQ. This symbol change is a result of the ETF now trading on the Nasdaq versus the Amex.

I currently have a weekly long system open on the QQQQ (results below). But, this weekend received a new long system trigger for the QQQQ from a different weekly system. This weekly system is based partly on the original Turtle Trading system. TraderMike has a post containing links to the system. Read TraderMike's post here.

Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQQ long with current profit of 5.74%;
• SPDE long with current loss of -9.23%;
• AATK long with current loss of -13.10%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Motley Fool Millionaire Article

A recent article by Tom Gardner and Rich Smith of The Motley Fool sparked a system idea or two. Read the article titled, "Be the Millionaire Next Door", here.

Tom and Rich propose a system of consistently pumping money into the market each and every month for up to 25 years in order to become a millionaire. Basically, using the dollar-cost averaging techniques of investing your money in good times and bad. But, what if you could supercharge the system? Like Tim Allen in Home Improvement used to say, "I think it needs MORE POWER. Arrh! Arrh! Arrh!"

Instead of investing your money each month into the market...invest your money each month into a money market account/fund. Then only move money from that account into the market based on system triggers.

These system triggers could be as simple as using moving averages, donchian channels, seasonalities, etc. to determine entry points. You could even change the idea of using stocks to choosing mutual funds. Pick a few sound mutual funds with long-term records. The more non-correlated these funds are the better. And then a system could be built to trigger off these funds or their corresponding benchmark index.

Maybe an even better alternative would be to just use ETF's instead of funds.

Again, the basic premise is to contribute every month...but wait to invest in the market when the system deems it appropriate. The extra little tweak you could make is to play with money management techniques. You could allocate the money from your holding area into the market based on simple formulas such as using a percentage based method of allocation. Or drive down further into more complex techniques such as pyramiding, equity curves, etc.

You're probably asking, what's the difference between this system and regular systems used to enter the market? With regular systems you're looking to stay out of the market as much as possible. Only have your money in at opportune times and remove your money during the risky times. With this system you actually want your money in the market as much as possible. In fact, you never pull your money out with this system. Once you get an entry trigger and move your money into the market...that money is gone to the system. See the difference?

Like I said before, I'm just trying to add more power to Tom and Rich's system. Maybe reduce the time to become a millionaire from 25 years to 15.

I plan on working on this idea over the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Taylor Turkey System Follow-up

Wanted to post a follow-up to the Taylor Turkey system post. This system goes long at the market open the day before Thanksgiving and sells at the market open the Monday after.

This Thanksgiving was another winning year for the system. The Nasdaq Composite had a gain of 0.91%, the DJ-30 had a gain of 0.26%, and the S&P 500 produced a 0.49% gain. Didn't reach the average profit marks from the backtests...but a gain is a gain. Gotta take what the market gives ya.

If ya'll have any ideas you'd like me to test out...send me an email at mike@taylortree.com.

Enjoy your week.

Taylor Turkey System Follow-up

Wanted to post a follow-up to the Taylor Turkey system post. This system goes long at the market open the day before Thanksgiving and sells at the market open the Monday after.

This Thanksgiving was another winning year for the system. The Nasdaq Composite had a gain of 0.91%, the DJ-30 had a gain of 0.26%, and the S&P 500 produced a 0.49% gain. Didn't reach the average profit marks from the backtests...but a gain is a gain. Gotta take what the market gives ya.

If ya'll have any ideas you'd like me to test out...send me an email at mike@taylortree.com.

Enjoy your week.

Weekend Update

J.P Morgan, when asked what the stock market will do, replied, It will fluctuate.

Roger Nusbaum of Random Roger's Big Picture asked for thoughts on what's next for US Capital Markets. I get a sense from Roger that he's like me...in that he's in the market, not going to miss the rally, but somewhat skeptical on the future move upward.

So, what is next for the markets? First, let's see how far this election rally has come.

Here's the breakdown of past election rallies if you would have invested at the close of the last day in October and sold at the close on the last day of December of the same year within an election year.

S&P 500
Time Period: 1964 - 2000
Total Elections: 10
Total Win%: 70.00%
Total Losing%: 30.00%
Average Profit: 3.85%
Average Loss: -2.74%
Largest Gain: 6.50%
Largest Loss: -7.63%

DJ-30
Time Period: 1916 - 2000
Total Elections: 22
Total Win%: 68.18%
Total Loss%: 31.82%
Average Profit: 5.63%
Average Loss: -5.44%
Largest Gain: 18.95%
Largest Loss: -15.29%

How does that compare with the current 2004 election rally?

The S&P 500 has moved 4.64% from its October close and the DJ-30 has moved 4.93% accordingly.

The S&P 500 has moved slightly ahead of its average profit of 3.85%. Nudging ever closer to its all-time high of 6.50% set back in the 1980 presidential election.

The DJ-30's current profit of 4.93% is still under its average profit of 5.63% and well off its all-time high of 18.95% occuring back in 1928.

What does all this mean? In my opinion, there is still head room for the market. Averages are just averages and the market can go anywhere it likes during the course of an individual data point. But, there's no denying the easy gains are behind us.

The key during these times are having proven exit strategies to protect your hard-earned gains. Letting the market take you out of your positions...not getting silly like me in trying to second-guess the market.

I hope to showcase some of my time-proven exit strategies in the days ahead.

Until then...

Daily System Updates
No open trades at this time.

Weekly System Updates
Long system trigger for AATK at Monday's market open. The system that generated this trade was same system that generated the SPDE trade for the previous week. So, as you know, system caters to penny-type stocks with high volatility. Holding periods are mid-term in length. This system is one of my riskiest systems. I trade very little size with trades from this system because losses can be extreme.

Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQ long with current profit of 3.53%;
• SPDE long with current loss of -7.69%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So far, the market is heading towards the bullish scenario from my prior post. Currently, the Nasdaq is up 0.51% from today's open, DJ-30 is up 0.25%, and the S&P 500 is up 0.31%. Will be interesting to see how close this market can get to its historical average profit %.

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

Turkey Day Effect

Performed a fun system test on the major indicies today. Tested for the Thanksgiving Holiday effect on the stock market. If you buy on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving at the market's open and sell at the market's open on the Monday of the following week...you get some impressive results:

Nasdaq Composite
Time Period: 1990 - 2003
Total Trades: 14
Total Win%: 92.86%
Total Loss%: -7.14%
Average Profit: 1.72%
Largest Profit: 5.37%
Only one loss and it was less than half a percent. Not bad.

S&P 500
Time Period: 1962 - 2003
Total Trades: 42
Total Win%: 83.33%
Total Loss%: 16.67%
Average Profit: 0.93%
Average Loss: -0.62%
Largest Profit: 2.64%
Largest Loss: -2.46%

DJ-30
Time Period: 1951 - 2003
Total Trades: 51
Total Win%: 58.49%
Total Loss%: 41.51%
Average Profit: 1.11%
Average Loss: -0.92%
Largest Profit: 3.89%
Largest Loss: -5.23%

Take special note of the length of time frame tested here. The Nasdaq Composite enjoys the best record but with the shortest time frame tested. The Dow Jones is the worst performer but with the longest time frame tested.

I'm afraid the longer we extend the test period...the worse the results will become. But, continuing on this fun factor...let's see what happens if we use the same time period for all 3 indicies in the test:

Nasdaq Composite
Time Period: 1990 - 2003 (same period as previous test)
Total Trades: 14
Total Win%: 92.86%
Total Loss%: -7.14%
Average Profit: 1.72%
Largest Profit: 5.37%
Only one loss and it was less than half a percent. Not bad.

S&P 500
Time Period: 1990 - 2003
Total Trades: 14
Total Win%: 71.43%
Total Loss%: 28.57%
Average Profit: 0.79%
Average Loss: -0.30%
Largest Profit: 2.64%
Largest Loss: -0.72%

DJ-30
Time Period: 1990 - 2003
Total Trades: 12
Total Win%: 64.29%
Total Loss%: 35.71%
Average Profit: 0.83%
Average Loss: -0.23%
Largest Profit: 2.58%
Largest Loss: -0.79%

As expected, the DJ-30 results improved as the tested time period was shortened by almost 40 years. A little odd is the S&P 500 results performing worse under the shorter time period. This throws a minor wrench in my theory of results improving with shorter time periods. Especially since this shortened time period was the roaring bull market 90's.

There might be something to the Taylor Turkey system. A little tweak here, a trend filter there...might improve the results even more. Then again, that could leave you with even less data points in your test. A system with few tested data points has a tendency to forward test rather poorly. Maybe this test should remain as it started...just a fun project.

Please note, the above system results were judged merely by the Total Win% variable. I'm fully aware there are many more important factors to consider when evaluating a system. But, in order to keep the post short, simple, and fun...decided to go with a ratio most investors understand.

Weekend Update

Finally got back the use of my left arm...so I'll begin testing some new system ideas this week. In addition, fine-tune the new system I created a week or so ago. I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Have a great week!


Daily System Updates
Currently no open system positions

Weekly System Updates
Long system trigger for SPDE at Monday's market open. System that generated this trade caters to penny-type stocks with high volatility. Holding periods are short to mid-term in length. This system is one of my riskiest systems. I trade very little size with trades from this system because losses can be extreme.

Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQ long with current profit of 1.92%;

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

surgery & CVT update

sorry, but tough typing with just one hand. all went well with surgery...but recovery time is taking longer than expected. have to sit in a chair that moves my arm up & down 4 hours a day for up to 2 weeks. ugh! boredom is beginning to set in. i guess i'll get started on memorial day book by vince flynn...the last of the great mitch rapp series.

Daily System Updates

Closing positions at friday's market open (11/19/2004):

• CVT long with current profit of 4.13%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Trading System Ditties

• Market orders only. I do not use limit or stop orders in my trading systems. In fact, to avoid slippage issues, I only enter orders for the market's opening print. This allows my backtest results to better fit real world conditions. Or is it, real world results better fit backtest conditions? Ha!


• There is a stock picture and an overall market picture. Making sure the market and stock picture match your idea can improve the performance of your system. But, keep it simple. Try to use just one filter to determine the strength or trend of the overall market. Then drill down to your stock ideas. This approach is even useful in trading ETF's.


• All of my long-term and most of my mid-term systems contain a trailing ATR exit system. I usually avoid a predefined profit exit system. I find it best to let the stock or ETF run where it may and let the trailing ATR do its work. This might not be the most efficient way to capture profit from a trend...but works for me.


• I will also add a timed exit system to some systems. This helps avoid and/or limit the dreaded "dead money" trades.


• It is okay to break the market into exchanges for your systems. I find that extremely useful in my stock trading systems. The New York Stock Exchange trades differently than the Nasdaq. Surprisingly, the American Stock Exchange is closer to the Nasdaq's behavior than the NYSE.. Maybe one day someone will tell me why.


• The Nasdaq is my preferred choice in trading systems. The Nasdaq stocks as a whole tend to trend much better and tighter than the other exchanges.


• I do not have access to foreign stock exchange data. It would be interesting to see how those stocks behave in accordance with my system rules and logic.
  

A quick little ditty on my background. I have been developing and trading systems for 4 years now. Before that? I was a chart reading swing trader. Before that? A tape reading daytrader. Before that? Someone who believed you bought stocks and kept them forever. My how times have changed.

Good Night.

Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:

• CVT long with current profit of 0.98%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Surgery & Fund Performance

I'm receiving shoulder surgery to repair a torn ligament this Wednesday. I'm told the surgery should be minor...but partial recovery might take a few days. This could impact the number of posts to the site. Please forgive me if I do indeed miss a day or two. I'll do my best to stay on top of things. On a brighter note...

Below you'll find the recent 6 month performance of my virtual Marketocracy fund.



This will be the first quarter the fund qualifies for ranking by Marketocracy. The fund will be eligible for overall ranking and possibly the financial sector ranking as well. I'll continue to update the site with my progress.

By the way, I mentioned last week that I was going to work on a few system ideas over the weekend. That is true. I started out testing MuckDog's suggestion of the Chaikin Money Flow Indicator. I've never had much success with the Accumulation Distribution type indicators. I'm sure there is something there...just never could find it. But, in the process of trying out different ideas...I began to whittle together a new system. A very exciting system.

The system as it stands right now is one of my best works and yet one of the simplest. It is a weekly system that may hold positions for years. The system may go long or short depending on the entry rules and isn't always active in the market. The system is not quite ready for production. Additional work is required on entry rules, position sizing, and markets to trade. Hopefully, I can work on this system a bit while recovering from surgery.

Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:

• CVT long with current profit of 1.18%.

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.

Weekend Update

Taking our daughter to get her first haircut was a memorable experience. Funny how life's little pleasures mean the most. We also took her to see The Incredibles. Great movie. Unbelievable graphics. Just phenomenal. Three-quarters into the movie...the entire audience is silent...just totally absorbed into the movie. Don't you just love those movies where you get so into it...you forget you're at the movies? So, go see The Incredibles...two thumbs up!

Here's some interesting reads from this weekend:

• Is this the beginning of a new secular bull market? Clem Chambers of ADVFN thinks so and makes a compelling argument. His main reason? "We are experiencing huge global progress. I am using pro-gress in the Victorian sense, progress being the improvement of humanitys lot. This progress will make the world a rich place. Even in sluggish, Europe, the effects of an exploding world economy will inundate us with wealth." Read on...


• Roberto Perdone from the NasdaqTrader blog found a great article on Buffett-inspired investor, Eddie Lampert. This is the guy behind the recent KMART turnaround. Sounds like a pretty sharp cookie having worked with Robert Rubin (Clinton's Treasury Secretary), Professor James Tobin (Nobel prize winner in economics), and astute fund manager, Richard E. Rainwater. Read on...


• Interesting article on Robots and NASA. Read on...


• U.S. is 1st, India is 2nd, Russia is 3rd. What country contains the 4th largest number of computer programmers in the world? Ukraine. Read on...


• It's about time. Why is it so easy for American companies to outsource their IT to India, China, or Russia when they could outsource to rural America for practicaly the same costs? I really like Kathy White's approach in working with universities. It's amazing how many outstanding programmers are being produced from America's rural universities. Yet, very few companies are paying attention. Read on...


• Donald Luskin's take on the falling U.S. Dollar. Claims Warren Buffett doesn't know what he's doing. Greenspan doesn't either. And of course, he knows all. When I read articles like this I always ask...what was the point of writing it? Trying to prove something Donald? Read on...

Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:

• CVT long with current profit of 0.79%.

Weekly System Updates
Current open system positions:

• 1 QQQ long with current profit of 1.87%;

As I've mentioned in previous posts...I do have other weekly system positions that I purchased back last week. But, I've decided not to share them. Most of those positions were triggered several months ago. I've decided to only share the positions triggered since I've started this blog.

Have a great week!

Please read the disclaimer on the website. This is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or trade securities. Just a journal of my travels through Wall Street. I can buy, sell, or hold any positions mentioned on this website at anytime. So, be warned.