sswan11

+1

http://www.chpc.biz/2/post/2013/09/canada-overvalued.html

Article on SCTY in Barron's today: http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424052748704719204579025283044181654.html?mod=BOL_twm_fs#articleTabs_article%3D1

Seattle, WA (just moved back from Portland, OR area :)

Its certainly no zero, and the conflict could well start in Asia.

What I found amazing about reading about hedge funds such as SAC and the former Galleon Fund (I read The Billionaire's Apprentice about Rajat Gupta, and The Buy Side:A Wall Street Trader's Tale of Spectacular Excess, written by a trader who worked at Galleon) g-was the amount of day-trading going on. Didn't these guys ever invest long-term, or even medium-term? From these books it seemed to be constantly in-and-out trading - sort of the opposite of value investing. Yet the managers became billionaires (at least partially by cheating :) Don't any of these hedge funds buy and hold? Do they even read Buffett or Graham (they seem to profess to publically, at least)? http://books.google.com/books?id=viwraQS5hHoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=galleon+fund&hl=en&sa=X&ei=a-_qUZ_NKciaiALgjIHwAg&ved=0CE0Q6AEwBDgK

I'm thinking of doing a full or partial Roth IRA t.ransfer from Interactive Brokers to TD Ameritrade (I'll leave my taxable account at IB). TD Ameritrade offers 90 days free trades + $600 for xfers > $250K, and I don't think charges $7.50/quarter IRA maintenance fee. Does anyone have advice re TD Ameritrade? I also get annoyed at IBs multiple logins and find the TWS platform hard to use. The Web Trader platform is intuitive but relatively flaky, logs out at variable inactivity times, sometimes logs into a scanner so you can't see open positions, easy to make a "fat finger" mistake in order entry (esp with options) - & relatively slow to initiate orders. TD Ameritrades and Think or Swim seems friendlier, and no $7.50/qtr fee? Options trades after 90 days are higher at .75/contract + $10 vs IBs .70/contract, but I don't trade too much in Roth IRA account. Advice? thanks in advance!

Ran a boiler room operation which pumped penny stocks...only company which became legitimate seemed to be Steve Madden shoes, according to the book.

Warning: This Daily Show clip forwarded in a Whitney Tilson email! :) http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-24-2013/money-boo-boo---the-canadian-banking-system

Anybody shorting Chinese banks or other stocks a la Chanos? http://www.gurufocus.com/news/217031/short-selling-guru-jim-chanos--presentation-on-china-april-2013

AIG 2015 35 and 37 calls

Anything else that someone can name where he made a large investment and it didn't work well? I guess we could argue AIG and SHLD haven't hit yet. I'm not sure of his average price on either. What about St Joe?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/29/usa-fannie-freddie-idUSL2N0EA1TB20130529?feedType=RSS&feedName=marketsNews&rpc=43 UPDATE 1-U.S. senators aim for bill to replace Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

It seems to me that continued decline in the Yen is pretty certain. Anyone have any experience owning YCS (2x leveraged short yen ETF)?

which preferreds are recommended?

Re Japan implications: http://etfdailynews.com/2013/05/27/the-japanese-financial-system-is-beginning-to-implode/

I believe Mohnish once owned Genco Shipping (GNK) which is trading at $1.73 (down from over $60/share in 2008). BDI indeed!

My dad is an academic neurologist and knows Dr. Sidney Gilman, the neurologist who related insider information to Martoma - unquestionably it was insider information, according to my dad (who participates clinical neurology trials himself).

Congrats - another brilliant s/t options call!

Congrats to Sanjeev on BAC April 5 $12 calls. Brilliant! You and I should both go to sleep, because I have to get up right at 7am to sell some of those April 5th $12 calls, and you've spent your entire day teaching the board about options! Have a good night Eric! Cheers!

Re Prince Alwaheed. Does he pay taxes? I think not. Thus a favorable headwind for his returns.

Thus, from a purely economic theory point of view, it is predictable that those who own guns argue that they have the "right", as they do not bear the full cost -- they are being subsidized.

Here is how microeconomic theory applies: Consumption of guns (right to own a gun) has an externality effect. That effect is that innocent people may be killed. That is a cost to society that the individual who purchases a gun does not pay for in the price of a gun. Additionally, there is the cost of greater policing, insurance, security (which are probably quite large) that gun-purchasing individuals do not bear. Thus, US society is subsidizing those who purchase guns.

I'm an American who has lived in the UK and Germany, where there are almost no deaths from guns. The NRA argument "guns don't kill people, people do" is patently ridiculous. How much damage can a person do with a knife, relatively? And most of the US murders are in domestic violence situations. US gun laws are even arming the Mexican cartels. I'm from Seattle, near the Canadian border -- in Canada, murders are vastly lower per capita. Its just common sense that murders will increase with gun prevalence.

There's an article in 10/29/12 New Yorker magazine that the island of Sark in the UK Channel Islands is entirely tax-free. If I had $50 million, I might move there :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sark