Let's all climb mountains in 2016 -- no matter how much higher they get and how much shorter you get!
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Agree. Many readers/lurkers/posters here have no desire to wade through a gazillion political messages to get to those "On Topic" posts!!! If I want politics, I go to a political thread, for trading info I prefer a "No Politics" trading thread. Seems logical to me. . .
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Thomas Pynchon
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USPI up $1.39 today and still climbing. ARGHHHHHH! (Sold most of my position yesterday at $16.77). I always seem to leave too much money on the table . . .
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A@P?
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I was watching the tick waiting for a sell order to fill afterhours on NTPA once at around $3 and saw a 1000 share buy go through at like $6. Couldn't figure that out until I realized NTAP reported that day and was trading around $6. Some poor trader bought 1000 shares of the wrong stock for $3 over what it was selling for. Sure wish it had been my sell order he'd picked up, poor guy!
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A big THANK YOU is due to all you veterans who fought to win in Viet Nam. The frustration of day-to-day trading must be nothing in comparison to being sent out to risk your lives daily in a war you were not allowed to pull out the stops and win!
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Salvador Dali
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Who hasn't been there, done that! Using IB traderworkstation, in the heat of the trading day I sometimes spank the wrong key and sell short shares that I meant to buy. So very annoying to find my mistakes doing better than the intended trades would have!!! Shakes my confidence and makes me wonder whether I am my own best contrarian indicator!
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Both.
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I'm running i.e.6.0, and as you scroll down to the java category, it says "Java (Sun)", check the only box below that heading. You may have to uncheck the MSFT version of Java if you find you have a conflict. Good luck.
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Stalking the big yellow dog . . . no rush, in my opinion.
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I only play long also, but never thought of myself as bull or bear, just realist unable to justify making a profit off someone else's misfortune -- shorting to me feels like kicking the underdog when he is down, very unAmerican. JMO, and applies only to MY actions, and in no way presumes to judge the choices others make. Short with abandon, y'all . . .
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Joe,
Didn't realize you were such a male chauvinist pig <VBG>
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SM,
Presume you have tried i.e., tools, internet options, advanced tab, scroll down to "java" category and see if box is checked. This is how I solved the problem when I got my new computer running XP and couldn't run my java tradersworkstation.
Good luck!
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Deleted, wrong poster.
Dan,
Thanks, yes, I saw that. Sold the last of my CDE @ 1.95(+.49).
Waiting and watching for possible reentry in the PMs as lightened up considerably in December. They're constantly pumping one miner or another. Proceed with caution -- your mileage may vary!
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mark,
Will do.
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Yes, mark, it is the trading that would free me from the constraints of having a "normal" job, and allow me to go "on the road" (shades of Jack Keroac!) again. Someone was saying last night that I could put a satellite dish on top of my van and continue to trade wireless while travelling. I'm not sure how it works, but will look into it more if that's what I decide to do.
I think your accountant is probably right, NOW is the time to sell, but don't buy a replacement home, as we are likely at the top of the r.e. market, but who knows. Prices here (coastal area of So.Calif.) are sky-high, and, unless we get hyperinflation, are unlikely to get much higher. In addition, it's smarter to sell your principle residence before your paper gains exceed your allowable tax exemption ($250K for singles, $500k for marrieds).
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Brainlessone,
Hard to believe people actually send them their money! Have to admit, I am constantly amazed at how naive many people are.
Reading that Jonathan LeBed article, and how his pump and dump actually worked, just amazes me, as well. Sometimes I think people are often their own worst enemies!
I mean, look at the anklebiters Zeev has to put up with, who appear to be mostly people who try to ride on his coattails and get burned, then turn around and blame him for their own stupidity. Sheesh, what a world, what a world . . .
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Mark,
PMs are hard to read, fundamentally or technically. They trade as erratically as the human emotions that drive them.
I trade them by leapfrogging one lot over the next, and rarely close out a position entirely. Right now there is certainly plenty to indicate the price of PMs will move higher (eroding dollar, war worries, China buying, etc.). Then again, as John Mauldin pointed out, indications are appearing that the economy may be improving.
By the way, a client/friend called yesterday, asking whether I thought now was a good time to sell his real estate, quit his job (as a financial planner), and take off to see the world. I told him I was facing exactly that decision myself, but waiting to see some definitive indication as to whether we are to get inflation or deflation before taking appropriate action to profit from either scenario!
Having traded gold bullion for my personal account during the panic of the last manic bullmarket in gold and read all the books/articles on how the Great Depression was about to revisit America (which, obviously, did not happen), I am currently more inclined to agree with the moderates than the extremists on the overall state of the economy and gold. Like John Mauldin, I think we will "muddle through" somehow this time, too. If not, well, I still have that '70's stash of gold buried in the backyard if necessary . . . <ggg>
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I received that email, as well. Sounds like a scam of some sort to me.
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Mark,
I'm still in the PMs (at least at this moment, though I have rarely been without some gold stocks in the folio since the 1980's) but cautious, too. After trading them with wild abandon last year (to my extreme benefit, I might add, though it could just as easily have gone otherwise), I am now more cautious. I find their fundamentals appear to mean little, as they seem to trade mainly on emotion (traders'/investors' fear and greed).
Wouldn't even consider a LTBH in the PMs at this point. As Richard Mazzarella on S.I. says, trade 'em, and trade 'em often! I believe that is good advice . . .
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BWDIK = But What Do I Know
another version: BWTFDIK = But What The F*** Do I Know
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Unhedged No. American PMs on my watchlist or currently owned:
GG, GLG, BGO, PAAS, CDE, GOLD & RGLD, GLDR, PAL, SLGLF (no interest, diluting shares)
So. Africans off my list (except for s-t trades):
GFI, HMY, DROOY, GSS, KGC, AU
Hedgers off my list (except for s-t trades):
NEM, HL (no interest, diluting shares), TVX (bought out?), PDG, ABX, ECO (bought out?), TXCO
One's I'd like to know more about (when I have time to dig):
SSRI, VGZ, CUSIF, PME, AEM, BWLRF, PAL (Palladium)
Love the yellow stuff: when one holds 24 karat gold in one's hand, it feels warm and seems to glow . . . Did some panning for gold (just for fun) up on Bonanza Creek in British Columbia back in '81 -- ended up buying some nuggets in a store <ggg>.
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Public Heel,
Agree! IMO gold is a store of value, nothing more, nothing less. It will buy roughly the same size bag of groceries in either inflationary or deflationary times, regardless of the dollar amount denominated. I disagree with Russell that the run-up is due to deflation fears, however. I think Bernanke's "printing press" speech put the fear of hyper-inflation and destruction of the dollar out there, causing the run-up.
By the way, last time gold really ran (up to $850) back in the '70's, there was a plethora of books published on "How to Survive the Coming Depression" touting gold and also silver, as being best barter items (gemstones were too hard to evaluate).
Well, we dodged the bullet that time, and here we are again! Who knows, we'll probably dodge it yet again, but just in case we don't, I still have the gold buried in the backyard, and am working on the silver coins, a $50 bag at a time <ggg>.
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While I've made money on the South Africans (Drooy especially) last year, I've been avoiding rebuying any of them recently. Apparently the S.A. Rand is appreciating in value more rapidly than the price of gold is rising, causing production costs to skyrocket for the So.Africans. This, IMO, is a bigger problem than the S.A. political situation.
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IMO, when the printing press Bernanke mentioned really gets working, people traditionally flee from the inflating dollar into hard assets, such as gold and real estate.
Inflation would probably lead to fewer numbers of homes sold, but at higher prices. If we get higher unemployment and an inflating dollar, prices might stagnate, or drop somewhat.
Deflation, on the other hand, could be a major problem for the real estate market. As debt-dollars become more expensive to pay back, foreclosures rise, leading to a glut of bank-owned properties entering the market at give-away prices, and few buyers to take up the surplus, as in the l930's. My grandparents always said anyone who went into the Depression carrying cash came out a multi-millionnaire! Makes sense to me!
Well, we can hope it doesn't come to that! I remember seeing a Depression-era photo of a man (apparently a government employee) shoveling dollars into a blazing furnace. I had always wondered where all the money went during that time . . .
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Crusader,
Thanks for the article. Interesting, isn't it, the spin I mean.
The two headlines and first paragraph of each article, commenting on the exact same data in the MBA quarterly report, put their individual spin on:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/030107/economy_foreclosures_6.html
"Home Foreclosures at Record High--Bankers" (Reuters)
"U.S. home loans in foreclosure edged up to a record level in the third quarter of 2002 as the weak economy forced a larger portion of mortgage holders out of their homes, a mortgage trade group said on Tuesday."
http://www.inman.com/hstory.asp?ID=33461&CatType=R
"National mortgage delinquencies down, foreclosure rate flat" (Inman News)
"Despite the weak economy, the number of homeowners who are delinquent with their mortgage payments dropped and the number of foreclosures remained flat compared with the previous quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America's quarterly survey."
The scarey part is "they" do this with ALL our news.
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National mortgage delinquencies down, foreclosure rate flat:
http://www.inman.com/hstory.asp?ID=33461&CatType=R
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Not to be sorry, Dr. Hed, not your fault. Everyone plays at their own risk. As you say, win some, lose some.
Thanks for sharing.
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Tnx for staying with me here, Bob. I think I've got it now.
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Tnx. Looks like an informative site (bookmarked it for later). I usually do my own taxes, and believe it or not, actually ENJOY it <ggg>!
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I thought I had it all figured out until you wrote: "3) You don't have to elect m-to-m to be treated as a trader".
So, I understand the difference in treatment between traders who elect m-to-m and those who do not, and I understand the difference in treatment between traders who elect m-to-m and investors, but what is the difference in treatment between traders who DO NOT elect m-to-m and investors? Or is there any difference?
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P.S. By the way, I trade mostly in IRAs -- no bookkeeping required at all!
Thanks, Bob.
The question was hypothetical, since I trade mostly in my IRAs. I did not, however, realize until today that there was no SE tax on "traders'" gains since the IRS treats them as gains from the sale of property used in the business, and not as earned income.
The advantages I can see are one can write off expenses, and one's entire trading losses (if one has them) against regular income each year.
The downside would be the bookkeeping and the inability to write off any capital losses carried-forward from previous years against current trading gains except up to $3K/year.
So, let's see if I've got this -- for tax purposes, one is either an investor or a trader, and to be considered a trader by the IRS one MUST use m-to-m, otherwise the IRS considers one an investor with capital gains, correct? Am I missing anything?
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Other than the fact that one can write off all expenses, what advantage would one have to designating oneself a "professional" trader?
Would the "earned" income of a professional trader be subject to self-employment tax? Would it impact one's EARLY social security payments? Anyone? TIA
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warawls,
Thanks for the Pristine article on goal-setting.
I used to trade with a daily monetary goal, but found that if I hadn't reached it near EOD, I would close out trades that were still maturing, plunge recklessly into higher risk trades, feverishly scalp, or engage in other high-risk behavior. Just not acceptable, IMO.
Now I use a weekly goal, and feel it keeps me motivated and on-track, tho I still tend to trade more recklessly if I feel I'm falling behind. Hmmmmmm, perhaps I should try a monthly goal next <ggg>. . .
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justamother,
Tnx. Love your cat!
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OT, OT
SirRealist (from S.I.)
I think you also follow this board, though rarely post. Just saw your "Gaps" dialogue on BubbleVision -- after years of reading your posts, must say, you don't look anything like the way you write!
Guess it's like reading the book, then seeing the movie -- the characters look nothing like how one envisioned them!
Nice to be able to put a face with the writings, now. . .
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P.S. I agree with Smart Money -- you DO look like Burt Reynolds!
Yup, like the stock market, it is "musical chairs" -- just don't be left as the bagholder of record.
Personally, I'm waiting to see whether it's inflation or deflation before I decided whether to liquidate my r.e. holdings or not. Don't want any debt if it's deflation, but flight to real property in inflation drives prices up. What to do, what to do???!!!
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P.S. Yup, except when you're married you got to SHARE that half million!