Morning Thoughts

I'm trying to get into the grind of things at school. It's tough though.

I've managed to stay on task this week, for the most part. Picking up evening work shifts has also helped me make money while also kept me from spending it. Double Bonus.

The PPT http://ppt.ibankcoin.com/ is amazing and really giving me a feel for the market. There is a lot of really intelligent discussion going on. One of my favorite parts is the public watchlist and how you can see what other people are interested in. It's really helpful for getting fresh ideas and perspectives.

I have a job interview in a little more than an hour. I need to get ready! It will be my second one with this company, hopefully it goes well!

Happy Friday eve day.

Opposable Cheese

Summer 2008 I read a book entitled "The Opposable Mind"
http://www.amazon.com/Opposable-Mind-Successful-Integrative-Thinking/dp/1422118924

It introduced me to a few really interesting concepts, one of which came up today. When I was making Kraft Dinner, no less. If my third tier blog is any indication of the level of glam that currently exists in my life, then KD should be no surprise. I actually just like it a lot, I make sure I eat well. My situation is really not that dire.

I digress, when I was a kid, my parents literally provided the bread, with bountiful spreads of cheese whiz and jam. They'd also cook up mac and cheese often enough. They followed the instructions on the box, using just a little less milk than recommended, lest it be noodle soup - normal enough.

When we went to my grandparents house. It was a different story all together. Grandma cooked up the noodles as per usual, but the crucial step became evident when we were served a plate of cheese-less noodles. Needless to say, my sister and I were shocked and appalled. Grandma, not outdone quite that easily, came over and gave us each a half a package of cheese sprinkled on top. Much to our surprise it was delicious.

A conundrum presented itself the next time the lively orange dish was about to be prepared for us again. We had inevitably returned home (for the record: Kraft Dinner with the G-rents was an unusual occurrence, twice in one trip would have been sacrilegious) and when presented with the box-method of preparation we felt as though something were missing.

We complained. The next time, my dad saved about a quarter of the cheese and then gave us a best of both worlds surprise by sprinkling it on AFTER the normal, box-method, cheese application process. Sneaky.

The opposable mind encourages creative solutions and moving beyond trade-offs. We all operate in the models of reality that we construct for ourselves to understand the world. Sometimes we mistake those models for reality.

There is always a solution you haven't thought of yet.

Monday Mornings

I woke up an hour before my alarm was supposed to go off. Hopefully this will be a good week.

I'm back at school after a relaxing week at home. I'm going to try and make this week successful. For that to happen, I need to make today successful. For that to happen, I need to get off these internets and start working. Breakfast then library, that's how I have to roll today.

The PPT is out and it's amazing ppt.ibankcoin.com.

Happy trading.

Weekend Flexibility

Happy Saturday.

I'm heading back to school tomorrow after enjoying a relaxing time at home. My travel plans aren't set in stone. Train tickets are transferable. I don't know if I want to deal with Sunday, and the inundation of kids that will surely saturate my preferred method of travel, as reading week draws to a close. I might leave early tonight or Monday morning to avoid the throngs.

With the end of reading week, comes the end of the school year. I only have 8 weeks of University left, including exams. The next two months are going to fly by...

I'm currently enjoying the Stocktwits brunch (Stocktwits.com every Saturday morning at 10am). It's a great forum of ideas and sharing and is really helping me find interesting stocks that are ready to move. It's really cool to find these online communities full of people that are skilled at what they do and are willing to help teach. Today's take home lesson from brunch has to do with flexibility. It's impossible to know exactly where the market will be at the end of next week. That shouldn't matter, however.

I'm learning to profit no matter what the market does. It's about being flexible and objective. It's about looking at all of the signs and trying to figure out what you are going to do given a breakout, a breakdown, or even worse, a boring consolidation day.

I traded a little less this week but I think I can do better. I'm almost done reading "A Random Walk Down Wallstreet." It has been really helpful and reminded me to always be skeptic, and cautious. It also has some really solid practicaly advice for getting rich slowly. I've concurrently also started reading "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Pretty sweet so far.

Enjoy the fin de semaine!

Coupons and Jerked Knees

Today my mailbox was inundated with coupons. Pizza Pizza is practically giving stuff away. I guess it's a sign of the times. The Globe and Mail Report on Business Section today said "It's a buyers market but there are few buyers." I guess that about sums it up.

In other news, I kicked my FAZ position a little bit early because of a morning pullback. My other positions are doing well though and I still banked a 2 point profit on the FAZ trade. I also shorted the S&P 500 on the same bounce so hopefully that'll do me well.

That's it for now! Have a great morning.

Late Night Nonsense

Kobe is an unreal athlete.

Today I learned that Twitter originated from a notepad project "(hattip@squasher)"
http://flickr.com/photos/jackdorsey/182613360/

I'm interested to learn more about what's going down with the Eastern European banking system.

I've been reading a lot http://www.larrywinget.com/images/bk-work.jpg is the one I wrapped up today. My Dad got it for me, I found the cover offensive. At first glance, Larry irked me. The book was blunt, and I think it will help me. The gist of it is that people need to work harder to achieve better results. It's a simple book. I think simple is good.

I'm also reading "A Random Wall Down Wall Street." It's challenging me to work harder and remain skeptical with regards to my trading strategy. I need to be critical and patient, I hear there is a lot of garbage advice on the internet. Best be careful this time. I've been trading less this week and letting positions ride a little bit more. I think I waste less time checking twitter and it's a step towards developing my system. I want to be able to trade while working full time.

That being said, I don't like the idea of working exclusively during the business day. I struggle a little bit with structure and will often find myself working on work problems well into the night.

Speaking of well into the night, that's where we find ourselves. I'm out.

Trade Less, Read More.

I'm a student of the physical sciences. In highschool it made sense to pursue, I thought I wanted to be a doctor or a dentist, something difficult to attain. At that time in my life the other jobs that I time knew existed included: nurse, teacher and lawyer.

How my eyes have been opened. There are so many jobs that exist but with which I was previously unfamiliar. I know that I'll do whatever it takes wherever I go, it's just something I've always done.

I think I'm going to invent my own job. That is, I'm going to make my hobbies complement my job. Right now finance is demanding my attention at an alarming rate, almost to the chagrin of my job hunt. I'm trying to develop a stock trading system that will allow me to work a full time job while still working swing trades. Lucky for me being a student provides me with some time to do this. Technical analysis is the tool I'm learning to employ now to help me. I'm also reading as many blogs as possible and following the activity at Stocktwits.com. This helps give me an idea of what great traders are doing and feeling about the market. I'm hoping to refine my TA skills to help pinpoint entry and exit points, while using the advice of the best bloggers and tweeters to feel out the market and some particular stocks or (inverse) exchange traded funds.

Right now I'm reading "A Random Walk Down Wall Street" which does a pretty convincing job of debunking trading strategy. I'm enjoying the book and reading a lot. It highlights knee jerk reactions to market moves as a prime reason why day traders fail to make money. I think a sound system and the conviction to stick to it (the latter part of that statement is probably the more challenging) will be required. I'm usually pretty relaxed and laissez-faire, maybe that will help?

This being reading week and all, I'm going to try and read more and trade less. I'll let you know how it goes

Currently I am short RIG, SLG and MAC I also JUST added AFAM short.

If nothing else, writing for 20 minutes a day will hopefully be an exercise in self improvement.

Thanks for visiting!

The Worthy Life

I feel like the first blog post should be this legendary piece of writing. One that proclaims the need for observers to read my opinions and musings, for their personal and professional development, of course. Unfortunately for you and me, I don't know yet that my comments on the world in which I take part will benefit anyone. I hope to have fun writing about them though.

I'm in an interesting stage in my life. I can't help but feel pending tumultuous change as I prepare to leave the academic world, which until this point, is pretty much all I know. I'm excited. I don't know where the future will take me but I have some goals and I'm pumped to see how they play out. More and more I think about how cool it is that in this world we can do anything we want. The only limits are the ones we impose on ourselves. Not to get too philosophical and shit.

I have something of a plan. I'm desperately looking for employment, as the world economy collapses around me. Great timing. It's cool though, I know that when I get hired I will have to add value and profit to the organization that takes me in. Otherwise they will find someone who does. I would like to leverage my people skills and business savy with an undergraduate science degree, ideally. I want to go back to school in a few years to pursue a law and/or business degree. That's obviously open to change though. I want to have fun and pursue my interests, which are of course open to change.

I'm going to [try to] write [regularly] about what I do, how I feel about things I experience and anything else interesting that I might find myself fortunate enough to take part in. I'll focus a bit on finance and the stock market because that's something that curently interests me quite a bit.

It being my first post and all I'm going to throw it up instead of editing and re-writing for the next 4 hours because of the pressure. Hopefully we can grow and learn together. Thanks for stopping by!