The Price of Investing (Trading)

I oftentimes wonder if it's better to simply just put my money in a bond fund or CDs...I already have it in a "high yield" savings account that is currently 1.65 percent (Damn you ING Direct). It used to be 3 percent, then 2.75, then 2.6, then 2.4, then 2.2, then 1.85, now 1.65. Everytime I look at the account, I become angry. Those are my returns lost....to this bad economy. The lower interest rates really discourage me from saving more than I would need in a emergency...so I've been moving more and more into investing.

As we speak, at 9:37 PM CST...I am watching oil futures...I sold out of an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) UCO (Double leverage WTI Crude)...I know oil has tremendous upside both long term and short term growth. So I've been watching this website for signs of the contracts growing closer...and they are...

This means we're likely to see (based on the margins between the contracts...we're going to be out of contango...very, very soon.) Now that I've sold though, I risk buying at a higher price.

Price is always king for any trader...but what price am I really paying? I would like to think that I am investing by my obsession with trading and market movements. I am takings some gains and some losses...But the more I make, the less it means...I think half of it is just the thrill of the knowledge... and stream of information...the market is always moving (neigh for the weeekends where I get some rest). 

Wow, I guess I really need a relationship.

Digging Our(selves) Out of (Our)selves

As anyone who knows me could attest, I love business news. I wake up every morning to catch a glimpse of CNBC before I go to work. Watching the reactions of the anchors of Squak Box is always a show as they speculate what might be going on in the market and make commentary on policy, politics, and profits. Squak Box starts before the bell of market tolls, when everything is trading "futures," living on speculation before anything takes place. And this uncertainty reveals a heck of a lot about what is on the minds of those immersed in the world of finance. This morning they were gripping about Obama's taxes on the wealthiest of us. 

Last week, I was lucky or unfortunate enough to witness Rick Santelli's "Rant of the Year" in real time. This was shortly after Obama had released details on his foreclosure recovery plan.

When I saw Rick's rant from the CME, it hit me. Many people in finances don't get it. Greed is still here. I know I have it. But there comes a time when greed does not have a place...we are all too interconnected for it to persist at this point. The market has already depreciated significantly, but the call to introspection will be the true bottom point of our economy. This is when we will see "capitulation," when no one (or very, very few) feel safe and they sell without regard.

We are or will be forced to reckon with our resources and thus where we will place our values or our values and where we place our resources. This is where we will begin the healing process. We've (myself included) must learn to modify our ways and start to live meaningfully again.  

I've recently been trying to detach myself from my money (not be "of it").I don't know how successful I will be in the long term, for I am, truly a capitalist. But that doesn't mean that I have to be greedy or "evil." It is possible to capitalize on growth, ideas, efficiency, and sharing instead of hoarding, profiteering, and crushing others. 

For anyone, so blessed, so fortunate to be making more than 250,000 dollars a year. They risk extreme moral hazard bitching about higher taxes. With great wealth, comes great responsibility. When selfishness prevails, no one trades and no one eats...If we continue to live like this, there will be a revolution. I'm not being melodramatic. The movement towards revolution is happening faster and faster each day.

Does anyone else notice Rome is burning? Wake up people. 

Making the Trade

I love to trade. All day at work, I flip between doing actual work and checking out this screen. At precisely 8:30 CST, the flood gates open and the trading begins! You really never know how the market is going to move...no matter how informed you are...but it moves. It moves as a trillion ideas, dollars, and dreams are traded between the hours of 8:30-3 (9:30-4). But it doesn't stop there...shortly after market close...the Asian markets open and the other half of the world is heard from! Then the European markets open (by then I am up WAY too late)....but just the sheer thrill of watching all this information and reactions being processed keeps me up more nights than I would like to admit. 

So I trade, but trading has really become a larger metaphor for the choies I make (or do not make) in my own life. What's in my "life" account? What attributes should I keep? What should I dispose of...I think there is a lot that needs to be shed. Everything in the market has a price. When I trade with someone else, they are betting on the value of that price. A transaction has taken place. It has only been recently when I have had enough in capital to invest (mid-term trade) when I have started to realize the value of the choices I make everyday. How much do I want to get buff or is cultivating a knowledge of food and wine more valuable? Should I spend time on budgeting and profit/loss projections or should I get together with my much neglected friends. (God bless them for being so patient.) There is always a trade off. 

For some absurd reason, it is easier for me to trade securities than it is to decide where I should focus my energies. I would write more...but I feel like writing anymore would be disingenuous and pretentious (even for me).  Happy trading...

Leaps of Faith

I have a co-worker who is obsessed with Brazil, a friend who loves Nicaragua more than God itself, and myself...who has no clue where he wants to go and why. I just know that I am unsatisfied with this particular set of circumstances. I have been for quite some time...about 2 years now. The question comes...when is it right or time to take that "leap of faith." I've wanted to move to Los Angeles for well about 3 years now. I have no idea why. I've never been there. I don't really know many people there..maybe NY grated on me too much. Somehow, I think there is something better waiting there. It's the ultimate West. The final frontier.

I had originally planned to make a trip out to LA to find jobs and visit a job fair. But given this current economy and the stagerring 9.5 percent (we'll see worse numbers tomorrow) unemployment in Southern California, I decided to use the time I took off to touch base to go back to the last place where I felt alive: NY. I want to find something different, but I don't know how much it is location based and how much is just wanting a change. I think I could be happy in either city, but I doubt my ability to be happy here.

Nonetheless, we are told time and time again to 'bloom where you are planted.' What the fuck does that even mean? While the prima facie interpretation would be to strive to be the best where you are...all I see is hyper-mediocrity. Can we really bloom where are we planted or is it many times better to nip the bud? 

That's where the leap comes in. Taking all security and throwing it to the wind. I think I'd like to do that...but I'm just not ready yet. I was discussing this with a friend of mine who offered a fairly random idea...it is the leaps that define us...the only thing we really have control over. That's a lot to mull over.

Intro

Hello World!

My name is Benjamin, but you can call me Benji.

When the media first starting covering blogs back in the 2004 election, it took me a long time to make the connection as to what they actually were and now I'm making my first post. It is hard to believe that was 5 long years ago. My friend, who recently decided to make journey across the Pacific to teach English in South Korea encouraged me to start journaling. Well, a blog is pretty public, but then again, what isn't these days? So here I am.

I have no experience blogging, but I have a good friend from college, "Rob," who will serve as my Sr. blogging mentor. His experience is vast. Perhaps a little too vast...you know the type. The type who spend a tremendous amount of their free time to this hobby.

I entitled the blog "Notes at the Brink" because if I can muster up enough energy to make a post something or someone is on the brink. Otherwise, why would I post anything? I see these brinks happening more and more each day and they surround (engulf) me. We all see them. Some posts, however, will likely be a more personal brink or revelation. Honestly, we'll see. I don't consider myself much of a writer (even less so a blogger), so I hope that you will forgive me for any blunders or faux pas' that I make. That is, if and only if, I can maintain to post with any regularity. But as of today at 9:40 CST, I'm officially in the blogosphere...a brink in and of itself.