End Of An Era: SD Expo, and SD Best Practices Conferences And Why It May Be More Ominous

I am going to be blunt, so far the recession has not affected me. On the contrary I could not be busier, and things are actually moving along quite nicely. Well, that was until yesterday. Yesterday I learned that the conference SD West, and SD Best Practices are no more. They have been cancelled because (more…)

Ah, Yes Let’s Dismiss the Sharpe Ratio

I write trading systems for a living and as such I think I have a grasp on the Sharpe Ratio and such. The Economist via Quantitative Trading has an article on the issue of trading and calculating returns using the Sharpe Ratio. A high Sharpe Ratio is one where there is low volatility. Clients who (more…)

I Am Back… (My Take on John Stewart and Jim Cramer and Why Advertising is to Blame!)

Wow, I have not blogged since Christmas. ZIPO…  nada, zilch… the problem was time. I HAD NO TIME!!!! I was very very busy with two projects: Reconcillation, and HippoTrader. From previous postings I talked about how I am working on a part-time basis with an investment bank. That is my reconciliation project, which is working (more…)

Why Rick Santelli Should Never Be A Life Guard!

Oh Rick, I have been on your side many many times, but on this Boston Tea Party you are simply wrong. In fact you are being very dangerous in your discussions because what you are doing is dividing the people and making a very bitter situation more bitter. You are letting your ideals get in (more…)

Getting Rid of Smith-Barney is Good For Citi!

I am going to play the contrarian, getting rid of Smith-Barney is REALLY good for Citi. Many like on Fast Money say, "hey why on earth are you getting rid of the cash cow?" And with Citigroup getting a potential 10 billion, I am thinking WAY TO GO CITI!

Why do I think what I do? Because obviously I am the only one in the market thinking this.

“You’re selling out the future to get through the crisis of the present, and unfortunately they don’t have a lot of other choice,” David Trone, an analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton Cochran Caronia Waller in New York, said in a Jan. 9 interview.

A Tale Of Two Cities! (Christmas Retail)

In the US Christmas retail sales plummeted.

The holiday shopping season was one of the most dismal in years and even the after-Christmas period, when consumers normally rush to stores to use gift cards and seize on big sales, isn’t expected to be enough to save retailers from a terrible year.

No so in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.

One Of My 2009 Predictions (Japan) Is Already Coming True (in 2008)…

I wrote a blog entry on how my 2008 predictions fared, and what I think will happen in 2009. Well, wow, I did not expect one of them to happen that quick.

My prediction was that in 2009 Japan was going down. It seems Japan is already going down. The headlines read "Japan November industrial output falls ‘off the cliff’".

Before people panic and say, "OMG this will happen to us", you need to go back into my predictions on why this is a Japanese problem.

Paul Krugman Calls Germany Dumb! (I say he’s DUMB!)

I am going to defend the German government.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck vilifies Britain’s financial stimulus plan in an interview with American magazine Newsweek, saying that making VAT cuts won’t solve the problem, but rather will build a national debt that will take at least a generation to pay off. The problem? Everyone seems to be against Germany’s solution.

Paul Krugman, the recent recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, referred to Steinbrueck as dumb, saying that a refusal to cooperate with debt-financed stimulus packages can cause severe damage.