Idol of the hour: Thomas Peterffy

It's refreshing to see some crazy man that actually changed our lives once in a while. Just read an article from the options newsgroup about Peterffy, the mad man behind Interactive Brokers LLC. His undying passion for efficiency strike a loud chord and resonated with me. He's crazy enough to the point that he doesn't deem advertising necessary for his firm due to the wild superiority of his options and future trading system. His argument is that if you build a good enough mousetrap, it will just sell itself. Obviously he is stunned to find out less intelligent people than him didn't actually flood to his product. Shows again how important marketing is no matter how brilliant your products are. While we are talking about advertising, I think Thomas's story can just be readily made into a Lexus ad, you know, one with the tag line "relentless pursuit of perfection". I can even picture this Rolex style symbolism print ad where one page says "Thomas Peterffy, his life is devoted to relentless pursuit of efficiency" and the other page says " just like Tom, Lexus is relentlessly pursuing perfection", you know, that that effect. lol.

But seriously, this guy is really idealistic. and i quote:

"An efficient network able to mediate and faciliate the global flow of risk capital would, Peterffy argued, help steer a course between the practical impossibility of a centrally planned economy and the boom-and-bust cycles associated with capitalism."

How good is that? Exactly what i thought a while ago!

movie journal: derailed

After the fantastic mini-series of BMW the hire, owen wilson's screen presence just rocketed for me. Cool and collected, he's an unstoppable force on silver screen today. Today i've finally found time to merge myself in "Derailed", an 05 film co-starring jennifer aniston. Jennifer's giving her best screen performance to date in this film i think. Cute, sexy and witty, she was perfect in her role as a scam artist. The plot was beyong my expectation though, i would've thought it to be a mild thriller film, but man was it a blast. right from the moment a gun was put to Jennifer's head, the plot start twisting and turning like Yang-Tze river. At a much deeper level, it reveals about ourself: lust, morality and vengeance. But how scary was chicago for its violence though, make you think twice about moving there.

trading journal: elliot waves in p.s.

some key points from last night's elliot wave online class (Module 4):

• Biggest problem of elliot wave: subjectivity
• therefore in p.s., some complex rules are excluded from the calculation
• TAPP -> time and price projection. stat TAPP: historical TAPP. fibonacci TAPP: based on fib sequence, ratio can be adjusted
• EBOT: elliot breakout trigger (end of a waave, use to signal when to enter/exit. based on standard deviation channel.
• range projector signals when and where the stock will go
• green upward arrow signals buy, red downward arrow signals sell
• walk thru mode is useful for backtesting

somehow i still feel human perception of chart is superior to algorithms. hmmm

trading journal: system testing

Yesterday i embarked on a long overdue journal into the wonderful world of system testing. I have to say it is easier than i thought but the process actually is enduringly long if you are to test your system over the whole market for an extended period. Also it sounded very much like an optimization issue where all the parameters are tweaked to maximize profit, but i'm guessing the parameter space of this one is gonna kill you. But nonetheless it's a small step in the right direction.

And because its end of day data, signal day isn't entry day, the presentation explained. and there is a new jargon in trailing stop: ATR (average true range). yet to investigate what that is.

anyhow, moving on to module 3 tonight.

The national fat issue

After a bit out and about, it is clear to me that the human race will dive head-long into universal overweight without any resistance whatsoever. Case in point: the modern shopping center. I mean, isn't it true that every time you go to shopping center and the whole establishment just feels like a giant candy ad? there's donut kings on every corner and cafes in every passageway. Not to mension the cheese that permeats through the whole national food chain. there is absolutely no escaping from cheese. breakfast, lunch and dinner, if el-cheapo restaurant/cafe food is what you are after, then be prepared because you are getting lots of cheese. The whole italian food culture revolves around cheese and that's fine, but why italians take over the whole cafe industry i have no idea. just because they put froth cream on top of coffee bean drink doesn't warrant them to take over all of our leisure eating habit too! why cheesecakes are the only choice in most cake-of-the-day deals especially when they make sure your blood will thicken to the point of blocking anything in your artery even before you finish your coffee/cake combo? this is not healthy. i am so not going to eat cheesecake from now on.

Hmm the Cheesecake Shop.....

comedians

Ok here's my list of favourite English speaking comedians (that i've been watching this week). You can probably get what i'm saying after a bit of crawling around youTube and Google Video:

• Seinfeld - the king of observatory comedy, the kind he perfected through long running of his own seinfeld show. Clever, witty and cool comedy at its best. Overused piece: the crazy cab driver and their names in NYC.
• Russel Peters - king of ethnic jokes and impersonations of various races. Gotta have a laugh when he's mocking Indians and other immigrants. He's a naturally talented comedian and his relaxed on-stage swagger shows. Not afraid to crack a few dirty jokes here and there which is priceless. some people might find them offensive at times but that's ok with me. Overused piece: The arrogant English accent joke and God made hairy indians. Also the thing about his name.
• Pablo Fransisco - the only show i've heard of him is that "little tortilla boy" gig which is excellent by the way. He is capable of imitating a huge range of acoustic effects both artificial and personal. A bit freaky and nerdy in appearance.
• Frank Caliendo - Famous for his mocking of Madden the NFL dude, he's adept at voice imitations of anybody. Overused piece: bush-bashing.
• Dana Gould - excellent comedian not afraid of exploiting his own mischieves. Extremely funny as well. Overused piece: how a loser he once was.

That's all Folks!

movie journal: pirate of the caribbean sea: dead man's chest

this film is so overhyped it's not even funny. opening weekend and several days afterwards the story is the same everywhere: sold out, solt out, gone. Johnny Depp just commands such a huge fan base (mainly of female variety) that people are dying to see just about anything with him in it. this is reportedly the second of at least 3 instalment that will be star wars/lord of rings trilogy like and next one (supposedly a finale of the current story/plot) will be here next summer for another blockbuster opening (pretty much granted if J Depp doesn't get some cheap blowjob at a southern california highway or start believe in scientology, divorce his wife and marry some chic 20 years younger). all in all, his captain jack sparrow role is still pretty much alive and kicking. However, the major disappointment of this film is its seemingly millions of sub-plot and development that keet uninformed audience mesmerized and brain overclocked to melting point in order to figure out what is what is the fuck is going on. at times there are black voodoo woman who speaks a strand of english only she can understand, some giant seafood buffet pirates in a ship that apparently can eat a whole enemy ship (and impossible to fight back), and jack sparrow's personal journal to fight against himself and the whole british empire. keira knightly is still all pretty and sexy in this film, but visibly aged and not the young princess of yester-year anymore. more matured is a good thing some might argue though.

he film starts unannounced at sea and finished uneventfully at the black voodoo woman's house. basically, it looks and smells like the middle chunk of a really big and smelly fish waiting to be cooked. a bit like the second lord of the rings trilogy now that i come to think of it: long, elaborately CGed, epic, and serves no purpose but to propel the story towards the finale climax which is one year away. cool.

but then again, this is exactly the biggest weakness of the film. of any epic trilogy that is. that the middle chunk is big, fat and unannounced. character and plot development is constrained by the beginning and finish story so the middle film are left to do whatever is necessary to entertain and hook to the next film. on a brighter note, the next pirate of the caribbean will be brilliant though, with captain jack sparrow returns. the return of captains.

Pablo Francisco the funny man

this is what i mean comedy!

The Bling Bling Escalade

the pinnacle of amercianism embodied in a SUV.

the Ford GT story

the ford GT story

Following an earlier brief on the legendary Ford GT, here is a nicely done documentary/review on the GT legend by who else but Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson. He's a self-confessed GT fanatic since age 6 and is a (somewhat) proud owner of one of these. Had Ferrari agreed to merge with Ford, this car would never have happened. According to Clarkson, GT is the first ever American car that can steer. Bravo to that!

Tibetan Railway and surprising Brazil exit

While it is hailed as a national milestone in developing the wild west, the tibetan railway isn't without its problems. News report didn't mention the fact that locomotive cars are in fact manufactured by Bombardiar Transport of Canada. They've devised ways to increase oxygen concentration in the car without pressurize the cabin, increasing cabin o2 level to about 23 percent - above 28 percent and the air might be flammable. Also there are environmentally friendly waste management system and o2 nozzles enough for every passenger.

Permafrost represented another long term worry: the permafrost is in fact only several degrees below their melting point. Global warming of the earth is virtually guaranteed for the coming decades not to mention the constant pounding of trains on the track. But that i guess will have to wait and see.

Otherwise i'm 100% behind the greatest railroad achievement by our great motherland. Never before has Tibet been so close to modern civilization although it is still debatable whether this is a good thing.

World cup has degenerated into Euro2006. What a pity. Is defensive football winning over samba soccer? So many pities: Ronaldiho's lacklustre performance, Rooney's hooligan-like temper, beckam's tear, Argentina's sad exit following such graceful football and that awesome goal from Rodriguez. I'm tipping Portugal to win this worldcup because their guys will be back from suspension and we'll still yet to see what Deco & co can do in their peak.

France showed us what old champion can do when they are in the mood. Zidane's hair may be loosing but he looses none of the flair. Waltzing around the field he is mesmerizing to watch.