IBM posted better earnings, but worse revenue…  OMG sell, sell… Oh yeah Texas Instruments did pretty well… BUT ignore that, focus on how IBM missed, missed… Am I being cynical? Yes I am! As I posted in previous entries the leverage is staying, and the volatility is staying… Does this mean that you stop being (more…)

I now work part of a fund, and on Friday I was talking to one of the traders and we thought, “that was probably it and there will be a pullback…” Guess what today was that pullback… So what was it that we saw? Was it the bad shape of the financial system? Was it (more…)

A blog has leaked the stress tests and in it it says that 16 of the 19 banks are insolvent! Really, no s**t Einstein! Yes the banks are insolvent, but guess what most banks are! In all of this hoopla, and crying we forget one very important thing, most people and institutions who take credit (more…)

I watch CNBC and just shake my head when these experts say, “oh there is no volume and that is bad”, or “oh the world will become saner with less leverage” Pimco’s El-Erian is on record saying that there will be less credit, less leverage and people will become saner. Sorry, but that is not (more…)

In the middle of March (18 to be exact) I started this blog entry. I am posting it now because somebody else finally said what I was thinking privately for quite a while. Investor Jim Rogers said he prefers oil over gold as he believes the International Monetary Fund will sell its reserves following the (more…)

Here is something I found quite interesting. If you read the following article you would get the idea that Marc Faber is down on the economy. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 1.1 percent. The benchmark index slumped 2.4 percent yesterday as investors George Soros and Marc Faber predicted that the recent (more…)

The SEC is mulling two rules for short selling. The first rule is: The SEC is working on an updated version of the uptick rule to include all stocks and a bid test, which would only allow shorting at a price above the highest available bid, said the source, who requested anonymity because the proposals (more…)

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…)

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…)