Listening to my course on CDs, "Great Ideas in Philosophy" published and sold by The Teaching Company [see http://www.teach12.com/ ], I learned an interesting concept and word: the noun, hylomorphism, and its related adjective, hylomorphic. In simple terms, hylomorphism is a theory that all physical objects are composed of matter and form. Aristotle developed this theory in his book De Anima and a few other books. I'm not going into his usage as that involves concepts of the body and soul.
Let's see how modern elementary particles fit this theory .. and stock prices !
Many have mass, or more precisely, rest mass. And they have other fundamental quantum numbers such as spin and charge. An electron has a rest mass and spin 1/2. A W and Z particle has rest mass and spin 1. A photon has no rest mass and spin 1. A quark has rest mass, spin 1/2 and charge -1/3 or +2/3. And some particles have "colors" and "flavors". A graviton (not discovered directly yet) has no rest mass and spin 2.
I suppose we could generalize "matter" to be "energy" as the special theory of relativity does by making energy the fourth component of a fundamental four dimensional vector with the three directions of momentum as the other three dimensions. But there really is a fundamental difference between rest mass and energy - that's why it's called, "rest mass".
So hylomorphism might partly right and partly wrong, or needs generalization. Not all fundamental particles have rest mass. But all fundamental particles have some fundamental properties one could characterize as "form", such as spin. I think latter day philosophers might have expected classical hylomorphism to fail on the other leg, namely that some physical objects would not have "form", but all would have "matter".
Hmmm ... can one call light a "physical object" ? Or a graviton ? We can observe light and feel gravity. But are we simply using the photon or graviton to sense a physical object that does have matter? I have to think more about that concept.
Hmmm ... what is a "stock price" ? It's the price of exchange of shares. So a "stock price" has no matter, but has form, like a photon. A stock price has two numbers, the price and the number of shares, and a time - when the transaction occurred. So it's three dimensional. The prices, share #s and times can be ordered but are not unique. At a single time, several exchanges can occur at different prices or the same price. This is analogous to a boson with integral spin - they can be stacked on top of each other while fermions with half integral spin cannot occupy the same "space". Interesting ... I'll think more about this.
Stocks:
Nothing is new. Wait for a confirmation day, or just buy dips of good stocks.
PS: I just realized my "beefer" theory of the stock market is a teleological theory - one that focusses on the purpose or design behind the actions :-)) I guess it sounds more intellectual now ;-)
PPS: I suppose if one includes the security identification number ["CUSIP" in the US], there are three numbers and a time - a four vector - asscociated with a stock price.
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An artcle on hylomorphism in Britannica Online [I subscribe] uses "natural body" in the defintion, not "physical object". I guess if that was further generalized as "natural ojbect" or "natural entity", then a photon would be included in the applicable things.
Bunkerman you are a well-educated man....a reasonable man....does the US government really expect its citizens to believe that no inflation exists?
uh ... the PCE core year over year is about 1.8% so "inflation" exists.
The government gave social security recipients an inflation bump of 3.3% for 2007 and 4.1% for 2006.
Tax brackets are adjusted, too.
So inflation exists. It's just not as high as the popular thinking is.
Inflation is the underlying embedded increases in "everything". People focus on the things going up and mis the items staying the same for years. I've mentioned numerous costs here that have gone down: my homeowners' insurance is a fine example.
I just bought a fine Mac computer for about $4400 - its' incredile and has so much more capability than the PCs costing $4400 about 15years ago.
Zero inflation is bad, by the way. I think 2% is about right.
If I wanted the same PC capabilities are 15 years ago, I could get that for less than a few hundred $$$. So that's a 90% fall in prices.
air fares are another item. I remember flying from Ohio to Boston for about $90 on a student fare in 1972. One can get a low price fare on some airlines for not too far from that.
I actually spent a lot of effort understanding inflation and how it's computed and what it means in the 1970s both in business school and on my own.
I lived through periods of really high inflation, too. Inflation just isn't so bad nowadays unless one lives in a place like Florida or California or NYC. Those are supply-demand bubbles.
I suppose one could say I make so much money nowadays that I'm out of touch. Maybe. But I still pay cash for lots of items so I think I know what stuff costs. I go shopping myself some and refuse to buy things I think are stupidly overprices. I get my pants at ... Wal-Mart. I buy my own beer ... wine ... liquor ... cheeseburgers ... ammo ;-)
Wow, now that's inflation - the price of ammo ! But that's caused by the Iraq war and demand by the military. It's not money-induced inflation
Another example are TVs - aka home entertainment devices. These are ridiculously cheap compared to their capabilities vs. 25 years ago.
These things do matter since surveys of the "poor" show they own fancy TVs, etc. So to fairly compute the cost of "living" one really does need to take this into account. A standard level of "living" must be used to calculate the cos tof it.
Actually, that overstates marginal inflation since people really do shift some use of high cost items to lower cost items, so the "weights' of the "living" items change a lot over a decade.
Here's another example. I just bought some DVDs [Julie Andrews movies] for around $15 each. I remember buying lower quality VHS tapes in the 1980s for not less than $20 each. uh, that's deflation even before real quality adjustments.
Netflix is a real improvement over the video store, too - lower cost, better service.
prof Bunkerman...beefer 101...you should be teaching....Bunker U.
poor sure isn't what is was when we were young...54% of the class now are two car families, and 46% own their homes...inflation indeed...poor no longer what it once was.
I'm not really a good teacher. I am much better with the written word that orally.
I should thank spin for giving me the seed to realize that my beefer theory is a teleological theory - he described one day as having "telic" selling and that got me thinking.
Even "middle class" has changed upward. Defining "poor" on income is simply wrong and many "poor" have considerable wealth or cash incomes.
boy, that wasnt too difficult to get you going, was it...interesting points to ponder....while we're at it, can you diagnose Jim Rogers' statement taht reads as follows: "Ben Bernanke is a total fool- a complete madman."
I don't think Rogers' statement needs much diagnosis - it's just totally wrong.
Rogers' himself says that increases in commodity prices is due to ... demand in emerging markets ... and low investment in mines, etc. [in his book at least, which I have and read]. So what does that have to do with inflation ?
Since when is the Fed responsible for controlling demand in China ? India ? Brazil ?
I think Bernanke is actually learing his job - that emphaisis on dual mandate that I heard yesterday was on the money. I also noticed he always said, "maximize employment" first of the two.
Bunkerman...what is up with taking down GOLD MIST...what the heck did you order, the armor package installation must be time consuming :)
don't know, frosty. It's been four weeks. Should be any day now.
QQQQ 50 stkike in play...max pain perhaps?...GOOG and the like no place to hide...rumors of some hedge fund problems once again...beefer window open, large fund or funds in trouble...all the typical bear rants...their case is reflective of the price action.
GOOG 50% give from the move off the august low=615...surpirse, the 50 sma...the key to the nasty...very important level.
Beefers are giving real buyers some fine entries - will they scoop 'em up?
are you asking me or just pondering.
pondering ... we always hear, gee if only the stocks would pull back. Then when they do, so many miss the dip buys.
I think the common man will miss this.
Bunkerman...it is rare that the market leaders like GOOG RIMM ane the like crack at the start of a bull wave...the march low in the nasty futures 1700, august 1800...this move a test of 1900 my take, the common man will be a seller there.
Now timing is key, the common man feels good and puts money to work next week...the beefers are then free, void of the up tick rule to push the nasty down to 1900 and they blow chuncks...sad but true...the common man has no chance.
when is that fed meeting 12/12...timining indeed...three handle on the ten year by then, think there is a shot? bag the season buyers and chase them ahead of the fed...$ndx 1900, paint it into year end...the beefer game plan is coming together :)
I remember summer of 2006 that the oils got smashed. The was the bottom and beginning of a huge bull move. And they were leaders.
Beefers so dominate the market week to week that their moves can overwhelm anything else.
mybe I'll be able to get more C after all. 83-31 = 7; 7/2 = 3.5. 31+3.5 = 34.5.
Bot it.
typo -> 38-31=7
attempting to put your buy the dip and beefer thesis together...time and price, the common man operates on emotion, not with limits or bounds relative to either time or price...just a common man with a desire to learn :)
I'm up to 83% of "Plan" on the big fins. Hehe, I sound like a commie :-)
I am buying based on what I think will be prices in over 12 months. So I let the beefers knock prices of good stocks down as they rotate & buy them to build my position to hold for 1-2 years.
I did that on oils & miners from summer 2006 until last buys Q1 2007.
when I succumb to emotion I screw up, as in my second round of buys of fins - those weren't good entries at all. I succumbed to "buck fever" then.
If they knock JPM down, I'll load up on it.
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