Even Fox News agrees “The end isn’t near”

So I’m asking – what are the most worrisome signs you’re seeing that things have gotten out of hand to the upside?

The most worrisome sign I’m seeing that things have gotten out of hand to the upside? Glenn Beck is leaving slash fired from Fox News. Fox News has finally realized that someone can only tell the same “the end is near” story so many times that no one believes it anymore

Who or what do we believe anymore?

I’ll turn on the TV and I’ll hear one thing and then I’ll I change the channel and I’ll hear another thing.  Regardless of what that “thing” is, who, or what, do we believe anymore?

The Democrats accusing the Republicans.  The Republicans accusing the Democrats.  Economists fighting amongst themselves as to when the end of the financial world will actually come.  MSNBC said Fox News said this.  Fox News said MSNBC said that.  All the while Jon Stewart is laughing at everyone and our elected politicians seem to be more concerned with their own personal agenda.  At what point do we turn the stream of information off?  Who is going to take the first step forward and say enough is enough?

I can’t even turn on the TV or news radio without an overwhelming sense of vomiting, so I don’t anymore.  I stopped watching CNBC except Mad Money with Jim Cramer.  I admit it.  I like his show since he doesn’t seem to get involved in the bull v bear, economic and political BS.  Otherwise, “CNBC, your number two source for world demise next to Fox News!”  I must say, I’ve never been so content and so stress free and I owe a lot of it to Howard Lindzon and his book.

Howard recommends turning off all the useless streams of information and I couldn’t agree more.  What could you possibly learn?  The next asset or commodity bubble?  CNBC has been squawking about commodity bubbles since I began playing the stock market game and precious medals still continue to march on

I say believe no one, because “no one” believes everyone!  It’s good business.  If you still have mixed feelings about CNBC’s usefulness, I’ll leave you with this, what ever happened to the Hindenburg Omen everyone feared during the Spring of 2010???

Without paper and pen to write a note? Try texting yourself.

I’m trying to make myself more organized in my trading activities and have begun writing down important notes or ideas.  One cool trick I thought of recently was to text message myself rather than write it down.  Do you really carry paper and pen with you everywhere you go?  I don’t, but I always have my iPhone right next me.  I’ll send a text to myself.  Even if you aren’t in cell coverage (I have AT&T, I know all about lack of service) and the text message fails to go through, it will still show up in my texts, only with a red exclamation point.

I’m not claiming this as my idea, for I’m sure someone thought of this a long time ago.  Even so, I still manage to impress myself every once in a while with my cleverness.

Minimalism is more than just a number

As the title says, minimalism is more than just a number.  It is also how you interact with the task at hand and the path you take from start to finish.

From when I turn on my computer in the morning and log into my Investor’s Business Daily account to read the news and do a little stock research, my “market” pattern more resembles the Lévy flight concept than it does a defined direction.  It starts with doing “homework” on a position.  Then I’ll find an interesting unrelated article linked in one of the margins.  Check out a stock noted in the article.  Check out it’s technicals and fundamentals.  Does it offer options?  Maybe I’ll see if Stocktwits.com has any current twits on it.  Look, someone spammed $SPY in their twit to get noticed!  How is SPY BTW?  And before I know it, I’ve become like a derailed train and 30+ minutes wasted with no actual progress to show for it.  Even as I write this, I find myself beginning to trail off into other directions.  Must… Stay… Strong!

The idea of being a minimalist trader has many facets.   One such facet of minimalism means being able to focus and block out the multiple distractions that want to divert my attention from the task at hand.  There is no switch or magical fix.  It requires the self discipline to accomplish what you had set out to do before you set off again in another direction.  It also means being able to recognize the fork in the road and to stay on the correct path.

Where Will Housing Bounce Back Most? Nowhere!

I came across this article the other day titled, “Where Will Housing Bounce Back Most?” which listed the top five and bottom five cities they author expects to see a rise in value for 2011.

Coming in at number one is San Diego, CA at +3.5%.  Personally, I think they’re about 3.6% optimistic in this article.  A little about myself, I’m naturally pessimistic.  The glass is half empty.  I’ve got half a glass of beer left and the optimist is telling me to be happy because I’m going to have to buy another glass shortly.  Only if the next round is on you!

I recently refinanced my house and my personal experience with the refi and the appraisal led me to believe that it is going to be an extremely long time until we see a return to the housing market we all once knew, if we see it all.

The value of my house was found by taking the average of price per finished square foot from the comparable sales in my neighborhood.  By using averages, you will never have a result higher than the high nor lower than the low.  Therefore, by using averages alone it is impossible to show an increasing trend in values unless buyers are willing to pay a premium for the home which leads me into reason number two.

Once the bank appraises the value of the home, the price is set and that is the max they will be willing to lend.  I don’t know too many banks that are willing to offer cash at closing.  So unless the buyer is willing to pay up for a home with his/her own cash, this will only keep values depressed for longer.

I’m not singling out San Diego in this article, I’m just trying to convey that I don’t believe we will see a drastic rise in home values anytime in the near future, if we do at all.  So until we see a change in the way we appraise value and the allowance for value premiums, we will be stuck in the values we currently have.

The Chinese Threat LOL

And suddenly I’m not so worried about the Chinese rise to world domination…

click here