I survived The Beast aka Manhattan, NYC. To this causal observer, business in the Beast must be good. The Grill Room at the Harvard Club was full at lunch, and the Tap Room at the Athletic Club was full for dinner even though the minimum period was over. People were spending money.
Men's fashions are a bit dour, still. A few colorful ties were spotted, but most men wore boring, drab neckwear. Few wore pinstriped suits either. Again, sadly, your writer was the best dressed man in the room. As usual, beautiful women admired my ties. When are the men of NYC going to start dressing a bit better?
Actions
Krypto wants me to buy some emerging market stocks. It's a decent signal, and on these down moves I hit the first signal and then wait. Down moves can be vicious; swinging at ever pitch can be painful. But the first one gets a swing and I will obey, likely via ETFs at the open.
There's a weak sell signal for gold+silver, too. I'll wait for a strong signal there.
Word of the Day
"Abduction" - noun [$100] Logic
Abduction means a syllogism whose major premise is certain but whose minor premise is probably.
Sentence: Much reasoning in life (investing, detective work, historical analysis, policy analysis) is neither deduction nor induction, but is abduction, where one starts with facts and creates a probable scenario / narrative that fits the facts to use in actions. Sherlock Holmes used abduction.
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New York City. Show all posts
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Back from the Beast
NYC is still there, a weird conjunction of the spectacular and the drab. The architecture and museums are wonderful sights to behold. The people are still stuck in the mud - figuratively. They mostly wear drab black, dark blue, dark browns and grey. The color of muck is yuck. Your writer, of course, tried to bring some color into that boring milieu with bright ties, colored shirts and pocket silk handkerchiefs. I had quite a bit of success, at least from the compliments I got from several beautiful women unknown to me ... and still unknown to me !
What's new from the Beast ?
Taxi fares are up a lot. Rides that used to cost me $6 are now $10. Metaphorically, one leaves a trial to $10 and $20 bills traveling through the city. Subway fares are up, too, to $2.25 a ride. Net of the multi-ride discount, it's $2/ride.
Business seems rather active. My favorite sushi restaurant seems to be doing fine; it had a good number of Japanese businessmen there on a Monday evening.
I heard Karl Rove speak yesterday at a luncheon at the Union League Club. His talk was interesting, but far too short. And it was concentrated on tossing some red meat to the crowd of businessmen and financiers who lost friends in the 9/11 attack. Publicity and $$$ overruled courtesy, as he left early for his book tour. It was typical behavior of the ruling class from RC.
Markets
Grinding higher, moving my put speculation further into the red. This is definitely purgatory for my breaking the Green-Red rule. :(
Fido Fund owns DVN. It will be up sharply at it seems to have gotten a good price for the deep water drilling assets to be sold to BP. I've been waiting for this deal and will likely sell soon to take the sugar.
Word of the Day
"Rebarbative" - adjective [$10] literary
Rebarbative means repellent, unattractive.
Sentence: The rebarbative dress of most New Yorkers shows no signs of joi de vivre - the joy of living: no spring colors, just drab winter gloom.
What's new from the Beast ?
Taxi fares are up a lot. Rides that used to cost me $6 are now $10. Metaphorically, one leaves a trial to $10 and $20 bills traveling through the city. Subway fares are up, too, to $2.25 a ride. Net of the multi-ride discount, it's $2/ride.
Business seems rather active. My favorite sushi restaurant seems to be doing fine; it had a good number of Japanese businessmen there on a Monday evening.
I heard Karl Rove speak yesterday at a luncheon at the Union League Club. His talk was interesting, but far too short. And it was concentrated on tossing some red meat to the crowd of businessmen and financiers who lost friends in the 9/11 attack. Publicity and $$$ overruled courtesy, as he left early for his book tour. It was typical behavior of the ruling class from RC.
Markets
Grinding higher, moving my put speculation further into the red. This is definitely purgatory for my breaking the Green-Red rule. :(
Fido Fund owns DVN. It will be up sharply at it seems to have gotten a good price for the deep water drilling assets to be sold to BP. I've been waiting for this deal and will likely sell soon to take the sugar.
Word of the Day
"Rebarbative" - adjective [$10] literary
Rebarbative means repellent, unattractive.
Sentence: The rebarbative dress of most New Yorkers shows no signs of joi de vivre - the joy of living: no spring colors, just drab winter gloom.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Back from the Beast
New York City seems to be coping quite well ... so far. Of course the bears are talking gloom, but the bar was packed, as were the lunch rooms at the clubs. Even the dining room was quite busy.
Fashions seemed alive, too. I saw fewer men in "undertaker" uniforms, and less black in women's fashions. No 1970s era "earth -mother" fashions were in sight. Fashionable tailored pants or skirts several inches over the knee was the rule. The Apple store on Fifth Avenue was crowded at 3PM on a weekday. The fashion indicator is NOT 'flashing" a depression or even a severe recession.
I'll read more about Timmy's financial regulation reforms, but so far, it's OK. He included regulations for hedge funds and all derivatives - both good. I have some problems with relying on these agencies like the SEC. It's still obviously on the take from the Street, as it continues to approve these fraudulent ETFs designed solely for day trading. But I need to read more and will comment more fully later.
Hmmm ... the index of leading indicators is up again. The Philly Fed - for what that's worth - was OK. I guess that cancels the recent poor Empire State number. Net zero, I'd say.
US News & World Report (online): "The Labor Department reported today that the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell for the first time since January, a sign that the economy is slowly recovering. Total unemployment rolls declined by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the first week of June, the largest weekly drop in more than seven years. The decline also breaks a streak of 21 consecutive weeks in which the number of people collecting jobless benefits for more than a week increased."
Sounds like the recession is over and growth is occurring. It's a long way back up, but ... up is up.
I suppose I'll be accused of "data mining". But gold nuggets found when mining are gold and up is up.
The recession ends when growth returns from whatever absolute level. That's the meaning of the terms. A "recession" has to have "recessing" - i. e., declines. Period.
An astute commentor suggested I look at RIMM for a buy. I had deferred for awhile, looking & thinking. I like what I see and plan to buy it for Fido Fund today. From my point of view, the Apple iPhone gets the business of the young and music/entertainment oriented consumer, while RIMM's Blackberry gets the business of the email oriented person. The markets are huge and both can do well. I like the revenue growth and new product innovations. Mrs. B has AAPL in her Sky Fund, so I'll put RIMM in Fido Fund.
Today is triple witching day so volatility could be large. If we get a pullback to the S&P 900 area, I'll probably add to many positions. Otherwise, I'll go over the Obama positions today to see what has had good dips.
Word of the Day
"Geminal" - adjective [$10]
Geminal means 1. of or relating to germs or of the nature of a germ; 2. in the earliest stage of development; 3. productive of new ideas.
Sentence: My language skills in French are rather developed, but for German, Polish, Italian and Spanish, they are much more geminal.
[In the spirit of a multilingual blog, I am switching to a penta-lingual "Word of the Week" for French, German, Polish, Italian and Spanish. I'll try one or two words of each a week and write a sentence using them. For some languages in which I have less skill, the words and sentences will be rather simple for awhile. Important words like drink, beer, wine and similar crucial concepts for humanity will be foundation for awhile.]
Das Worte der Woche
"Trinken" - verb, strong.
Trinken means to drink. The simple past Stem is trank. The past participle is getrunken. One can quickly recognize the common proto-Germanic roots of English and modern German. Compare drink-drank-drunk to trinken-trank-getrunken.
Der Satz: (A) Ich habe drei Biere gestern getrunken. OR (B) Gestern habe ich drei Biere getrunken. OR (C) Ich trank drie Biere gestern. OR (D) Gestern trank ich drei Biere.
Sentence: (A) I drank three beers yesterday. (B) Yesterday I drank three beers. C translates the same as A but uses the simple past tense instead of the conversational past. D translates the same as B, but also uses the simple past tense. German word order is quite sensitive. Putting the adverb, "yesterday" requires significant changes in verb-subject positions in German, versus no changes in English.
Fashions seemed alive, too. I saw fewer men in "undertaker" uniforms, and less black in women's fashions. No 1970s era "earth -mother" fashions were in sight. Fashionable tailored pants or skirts several inches over the knee was the rule. The Apple store on Fifth Avenue was crowded at 3PM on a weekday. The fashion indicator is NOT 'flashing" a depression or even a severe recession.
I'll read more about Timmy's financial regulation reforms, but so far, it's OK. He included regulations for hedge funds and all derivatives - both good. I have some problems with relying on these agencies like the SEC. It's still obviously on the take from the Street, as it continues to approve these fraudulent ETFs designed solely for day trading. But I need to read more and will comment more fully later.
Hmmm ... the index of leading indicators is up again. The Philly Fed - for what that's worth - was OK. I guess that cancels the recent poor Empire State number. Net zero, I'd say.
US News & World Report (online): "The Labor Department reported today that the number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits fell for the first time since January, a sign that the economy is slowly recovering. Total unemployment rolls declined by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the first week of June, the largest weekly drop in more than seven years. The decline also breaks a streak of 21 consecutive weeks in which the number of people collecting jobless benefits for more than a week increased."
Sounds like the recession is over and growth is occurring. It's a long way back up, but ... up is up.
I suppose I'll be accused of "data mining". But gold nuggets found when mining are gold and up is up.
The recession ends when growth returns from whatever absolute level. That's the meaning of the terms. A "recession" has to have "recessing" - i. e., declines. Period.
An astute commentor suggested I look at RIMM for a buy. I had deferred for awhile, looking & thinking. I like what I see and plan to buy it for Fido Fund today. From my point of view, the Apple iPhone gets the business of the young and music/entertainment oriented consumer, while RIMM's Blackberry gets the business of the email oriented person. The markets are huge and both can do well. I like the revenue growth and new product innovations. Mrs. B has AAPL in her Sky Fund, so I'll put RIMM in Fido Fund.
Today is triple witching day so volatility could be large. If we get a pullback to the S&P 900 area, I'll probably add to many positions. Otherwise, I'll go over the Obama positions today to see what has had good dips.
Word of the Day
"Geminal" - adjective [$10]
Geminal means 1. of or relating to germs or of the nature of a germ; 2. in the earliest stage of development; 3. productive of new ideas.
Sentence: My language skills in French are rather developed, but for German, Polish, Italian and Spanish, they are much more geminal.
[In the spirit of a multilingual blog, I am switching to a penta-lingual "Word of the Week" for French, German, Polish, Italian and Spanish. I'll try one or two words of each a week and write a sentence using them. For some languages in which I have less skill, the words and sentences will be rather simple for awhile. Important words like drink, beer, wine and similar crucial concepts for humanity will be foundation for awhile.]
Das Worte der Woche
"Trinken" - verb, strong.
Trinken means to drink. The simple past Stem is trank. The past participle is getrunken. One can quickly recognize the common proto-Germanic roots of English and modern German. Compare drink-drank-drunk to trinken-trank-getrunken.
Der Satz: (A) Ich habe drei Biere gestern getrunken. OR (B) Gestern habe ich drei Biere getrunken. OR (C) Ich trank drie Biere gestern. OR (D) Gestern trank ich drei Biere.
Sentence: (A) I drank three beers yesterday. (B) Yesterday I drank three beers. C translates the same as A but uses the simple past tense instead of the conversational past. D translates the same as B, but also uses the simple past tense. German word order is quite sensitive. Putting the adverb, "yesterday" requires significant changes in verb-subject positions in German, versus no changes in English.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Back from the Beast
Like Jonah, I survived a stay Belly of the Beast, viz., Manhattan, New York City. At least the weather was balmy, but very, very windy. The Acela train is by far the best way to travel from Boston to NYC and back. The train was comfortable and on time, while the planes were delayed up to three hours due to the wind. And as usual, my ties received fine compliments from unknown beautiful women. New York fashion is still buried in black, so my colorful ties and fine suits stand out. Someone has to show a bit of life.
My bilingual blog efforts are paying off. I see my readership in France is growing [from FT]:
"France on Friday will press for tighter controls on hedge funds, urging other big industrialised nations to strengthen regulation of the industry and compel banks that lend them money to hold more capital.
"Paris wants the European Union, and eventually all leading economies, to beef up indirect regulation of hedge funds via their prime brokers, the banks which provide them with loans and other services.
"Under plans to be floated by Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, banks could face higher capital requirements to reflect the riskiness of their hedge fund clients, a proposal likely to be resisted by banks that are already struggling to raise capital."
France montre le chemin. [France shows the way.]
Good move. Obama, get moving on this. Hedge funds are the "root cause" of the financial crisis.
Here's news of more hedge fund skulduggery [from WSJ]:
"The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether several hedge funds traded improperly after being given advance notice by a research analyst of his negative report on a prominent insurer, people familiar with the agency's investigation said.
"The investigation comes amid a civil-court case brought by the insurer, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. That case, filed in a New Jersey state court in 2006, unearthed documents indicating that executives at the hedge funds discussed the coming report of the analyst and made bets that the company's stock would decline.
"Companies routinely bar analysts from distributing reports to investors before publication to prevent the trading of nonpublic information. Analysts who give out information that isn't public but is market-moving and violates company policy can violate the securities laws. It also is improper for investors to trade using information that they know they've received improperly.
"In the civil suit, Toronto-based Fairfax alleged that the hedge funds, the analyst and his firm conspired to profit by driving down the company's stock, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The suit alleges that SAC Capital Advisors, Third Point LLC, Kynikos Associates LP and others acted together, paying the analyst, his investment firm and other defendants in the suit to spread false and defamatory information about Fairfax from 2002 through 2007."
The article provides considerable evidence from emails between SAC Capital Advisors and Kynikos. Sigh ...
This behavior of hedge funds should be no surprise to readers of this blog.
Why are these market Vikings allowed to continue raiding ?
Markets
From the reversal yesterday, it's clear that early weakness in stocks was caused by short selling hedge funds. They cover on any sign of strength or positive rumor. But in its absence, they are trying to break support levels to create more panic and fear.
Word of the Day
"Cathexis" - noun [$10] and "Cathect - verb, transitive [$10]
Cathexis means a concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea.
Cathect meansto concentrate emotional energy on (an object or idea).
Sentence: The American public has cathected upon Obama as the agent to improve their lives. Will he perform or flop ? Cathexis can dissipate quickly when weakness appears. He needs to show firm hand in dealing with the Pelosi et al whose sleaze shows no bounds.
Le Mot du Jour
"S'écrouler" - verb, pronomial; regular -er conjugation.
S'écrouler means to fall down, to collapse, to crumble.
La Phrase: L'adminstration Bush se sont écroulée par l'incompétence et les nombreuses erreurs.
Sentence: The Bush administration crumbled through incompetence and numerous errors.
My bilingual blog efforts are paying off. I see my readership in France is growing [from FT]:
"France on Friday will press for tighter controls on hedge funds, urging other big industrialised nations to strengthen regulation of the industry and compel banks that lend them money to hold more capital.
"Paris wants the European Union, and eventually all leading economies, to beef up indirect regulation of hedge funds via their prime brokers, the banks which provide them with loans and other services.
"Under plans to be floated by Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, banks could face higher capital requirements to reflect the riskiness of their hedge fund clients, a proposal likely to be resisted by banks that are already struggling to raise capital."
France montre le chemin. [France shows the way.]
Good move. Obama, get moving on this. Hedge funds are the "root cause" of the financial crisis.
Here's news of more hedge fund skulduggery [from WSJ]:
"The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether several hedge funds traded improperly after being given advance notice by a research analyst of his negative report on a prominent insurer, people familiar with the agency's investigation said.
"The investigation comes amid a civil-court case brought by the insurer, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. That case, filed in a New Jersey state court in 2006, unearthed documents indicating that executives at the hedge funds discussed the coming report of the analyst and made bets that the company's stock would decline.
"Companies routinely bar analysts from distributing reports to investors before publication to prevent the trading of nonpublic information. Analysts who give out information that isn't public but is market-moving and violates company policy can violate the securities laws. It also is improper for investors to trade using information that they know they've received improperly.
"In the civil suit, Toronto-based Fairfax alleged that the hedge funds, the analyst and his firm conspired to profit by driving down the company's stock, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The suit alleges that SAC Capital Advisors, Third Point LLC, Kynikos Associates LP and others acted together, paying the analyst, his investment firm and other defendants in the suit to spread false and defamatory information about Fairfax from 2002 through 2007."
The article provides considerable evidence from emails between SAC Capital Advisors and Kynikos. Sigh ...
This behavior of hedge funds should be no surprise to readers of this blog.
Why are these market Vikings allowed to continue raiding ?
Markets
From the reversal yesterday, it's clear that early weakness in stocks was caused by short selling hedge funds. They cover on any sign of strength or positive rumor. But in its absence, they are trying to break support levels to create more panic and fear.
Word of the Day
"Cathexis" - noun [$10] and "Cathect - verb, transitive [$10]
Cathexis means a concentration of emotional energy on an object or idea.
Cathect meansto concentrate emotional energy on (an object or idea).
Sentence: The American public has cathected upon Obama as the agent to improve their lives. Will he perform or flop ? Cathexis can dissipate quickly when weakness appears. He needs to show firm hand in dealing with the Pelosi et al whose sleaze shows no bounds.
Le Mot du Jour
"S'écrouler" - verb, pronomial; regular -er conjugation.
S'écrouler means to fall down, to collapse, to crumble.
La Phrase: L'adminstration Bush se sont écroulée par l'incompétence et les nombreuses erreurs.
Sentence: The Bush administration crumbled through incompetence and numerous errors.
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