The last couple of days have been quite interesting. So much so. I haven’t been able to dedicate the time to write on this blog. I wanted to write. I really did. I even pulled the screen up. Wrote a little. Saved. Left. Yes, i did that. Well, I have a couple joys to speak of. First off, thank you oil for being so generous. Oil prices have slid a good 5-8 dollars on nymex crude futures since we spoke last. That has enabled us to play a long position for the last two days. The first trade I made was something to the effect: 100 contracts QQQIS 2.61 sold at 2.70 (high for the day). At the end of the day, we decided to get in again. We bought in again at 2.62 with 100 contracts. The day ended with the call 2.40ish. The market dropped because American Express’ rating dropped towards the end of the day. We had confidence that a rally would ensue. We sold that call back out at 2.83. I hope oil continues the nice little slide. Short oil. Long U.S. economy. That might last a little while. Have a good weekend! More to come!

I figured it was about time to give John McCain his voice in my blog.  I gave the mic to Obama, right?  After a little research,  I will give you some insight into the McCain’s Energy plan.  Until today, drilling seemed to the biggest issue between the two canidates.  McCain stood by the drill, drill, drill mentality.  This involves the federal government removing a morotorium for offshore drilling.  McCain and Obama both now support offshore drilling as a part of major energy package.  His plan calls for a $5,000 tax subsidy on hybrid/low-emission vehicle.  The plan goes through many proposals that may/may not come true.  I won’t sit here and restate facts that you can read from his website.

I find a couple of things interesting.  His speeches reinforce ad nauseum how drilling is the key issue here.  It gets murky when I try to put logic to it. I pondered it.  I listened to pundits go back and forth.  Supply.  Ok, increase the supply, now we are moving.  Americans won’t see that supply refined for 5-10 years.  Ok, it provides security that down the road we will have oil.  Isn’t the whole point to decrease dependence on oil? In 10 years, I hope I’m driving a hydrogen fuel cell.  If not, domestic oil production increase might provide much needed to relief to the American consumer down the road.   Even though oil/inflation has increased my cost of living, it has brought an issue I hold near/dear: energy.  Why were the best and brightest not thinking ahead?  Other countries are there.  Others aren’t.  It pains me how much a hurricane/Iranian sabre parading causes oil to spike up 5 bucks.  I’m ready for America to control America.  Energy independence in whatever form/shape is the key.  It is the issue of our generation.  Who owns/drills it/harvests/kills/whatevers for it wins.

I listen/read that many oil companies untapped properties that they are sitting on currently.  Supply.  So should legislation force companies to drill/harvest on land?  Supply manipulation? Maybe.  I won’t put my tinfoil on just yet.  McCain should add this to the legislation.  Uncle Sam says drill. Do it.

I know this post appears to be very one sided.  Mr. McCain and I agree on tax subsidy for hybrid/ulev cars.  Demand. We agree on the diversification of the American energy portfolio.  I am a huge natural gas advocate.  America has a huge supply.  It’s clean. It hooks up to Honda Hydrogen coverters.

Lastly, we traded 50 contracts of .QQQIS.  Bought at various prices, sold at 1.58.  Grand total: 200 dollars.  It was a weird day in stock land. Oil down. Markets down.  Everyone holds their position before the Fed talks.  2:15 tomrrow.

So the above title is what Megan called me in a blogpost not too long ago.  I don’t know why I resisted the tag, but I am about to act like one.  To make a long story short, I am pretty much obsessed with gadgets of all types.  Cell phones happen to be high up on the list.  We just switched providers to att, and I haven’t had Cingular since 2004.  I now own an iPhone.  Yes, July 11 launch status. I thank Megan for putting in 5 hours of the grunt work (100 degrees , 100% humidity).  I stuck it out the last two.  I am OCD about cell phone coverage.  Yes, it’s a reallly weird habit.  att runs out of coverage at mile marker 64 i-65 in Kentucky.  It doesn’t resume until mile marker 70.  Oops.  I spent most of the trip up to Elizabethtown on iPhone Safari browser.  I read the business section of Google News and Washington Post.  I stalked all my friends.  Out of all that nonsense.  I found a jewel.  If you have jailbroken your iphone, there is an amazing new app up: “MxTube”.   It does two things that I find brilliant.  (1) The ability to choose whether you want the best quality youtube mobile.  I know you are asking why this matters?  Well, if you are on att 3g, you get a low grade video.  All I see is a blurred Chris Brown dancing.  You must be on wifi to get the high quality youtube iphone video.  Not anymore. (2) It allows you to download the youtube videos directly to your iPhone for replay as much/little as you want.  This speaks for itself.  Brilliant. Rack Em. Hah.  It’s Sunday night, and trading season begins tomrrow.  9:30 am.

In my trading studies, I have found oil (energy) to be the joker in the deck.  As of late, the market responds overwhelmingly to the up/down price of oil.  Hell, we get terrible employment numbers, but if that oil is down, markets aren’t sweating.  Seeing that this is an election year, I have decided to write/ponder/tackle what each canidate is doing to put a wrap on oil.  Ill start with Obama because his strategies are more controversial.  His first plan is to place windfall taxes on oil company profits.  This idea has killed me.  As I’ve said before, market intervention is only necessary if the shit has hit the fan.  Well, real estate tanked. The government responded by bailing fannie/freddie.  Oil nearly hit 150/barrel ( trading mid 120s today).  Consumers now have to put groceries on to credit cards they can barely pay, etc etc.  I would have to say I am neutral on Obama’s plan.  I see both angles.  However, with demand degradation, oil prices will decline short term.  Soon enough, the olympics will be over and China’s demand for oil will resume on pre-olympic pace.  I don’t have an answer on this one.  I don’t really know if I would trade long/short on energy at the moment.   I added a chart of the US Oil fund.  It is an ETF that tracks oil.  I use decision point’s PMO as analysis tool.  If you look at the weekly chart, it appears to have a fresh PMO/EMA cross which could signal bearish (decrease in oil price) or intersect again to go higher.  The monthly PMO/EMA chart shows an extremely bullish outlook which can mean it’s time to drop or press higher.  Enjoy.  Edit: I’m learning how to add pictures.  Graph will come soon.

I just read my old blog posts. Hilarious.  After saying that, you can laugh at/with me too. K cool.

Well, the job market reports came out this morning, and it made for an interesting day of trading. As I was walking out the door, my father called. He was unable to pull up Wizetrade ( a tool we use in trading). I checked the computer. The Q’s had tanked. I did my research last night, and I knew if the job forecast was strong we’d move up a little bit. However, America now has 55,000 less employed putting unemployment at 5.7%. This had an adverse effect on the market, oops. (On a side note, I can now understand why I can’t get a job, 8 months straight with job losses!) We bought QQQQ call option .QQQIS for 1.58 x 10 contracts and 1.63 x 30 contracts. We then sold at 1.79 x 40 contracts. After fees and bullshit, we made $598.00. Not bad. In other news, I am officially a grad student. “non-degree seeking” haha.

Sadly, my core beliefs are shaken.  I once found myself a staunch liberal.  Yes, leftward far left.  Well, that was college.  I am now long gone, way gone.  Oh wait, I’m coming back.  After tossing myself out of law school and working, I am unemployed.  Sort of.  Every morning I wake up around 6:15-30 ish.  Not by choice.  I have a cute little girl begging me to get up.  Dog that is.  I crank on the ol’ tube.  It happens to be a ‘46 sammy hdtv.   CNBC powers up.  Since June 15th, I have been schooling and under the mentorship (sp) of a seasoned day trader.   This has become my new job.  I am at the doorstep of the market.  I follow two stocks.  The first is an ETF by the name of QQQQ.  Codename: “The Q’s”.  It is an electronically traded fund that tracks the Nasdaq 100.  It isn’t proportional.  Majority of the stock inside of it resemble the likes of Apple, Google, Qualcomm, and Microsoft to name a few. The second stock I track is First Horizon.  They own banks across the country.  A relative told me they bought it therefore I watch it.   So to get back to where I once belonged, here in lies my problem.  Two months of trading education has made more conservative.  It’s not like the Republican conservative.  It’s like, stay out of my markets conservative.  Recently, the government did two very big things.  Lack of financial stock shorting/fannie/freddy bailout.  Enough said.  I still am fairly liberal on everything else.  I guess I find myself in the middle now.

Interestingly enough, when I came back to this blog, I realized how much of a rookie I am/was.  I spelled ramblings wrong.  Now, I have no way to fix it.  Excuse the error.  More to come.

I honestly never would have resumed blogging (after such a long delay between posts). Well, I am back for no good reason. My girlfriend Megan blogs about her fashion passion. I guess I need a place of mental outpour. I have no one thing I really want to write about, but I do have a few scatterings.

Well, I’m sitting at work.  No class on Fridays by design.  I have to be up at 6:30 to leave by 7:15.  Not a real challenge.  Plenty of those who must wakeup much earlier.  I wouldn’t complain about the job that I have.  I work at Comptech which services multiple departments, and it acts as a ”help desk” if you will.  Compare to the last job, North River Yacht Club (country club), I’d say I’m sittin’ pretty.  I don’t miss the 5:30 wakeup call on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  I enjoy attending Alabama football games with my girlfriend. It’s my excuse to get as  drunk as fast as I can. I love it. I would have missed that and probably a lot more if I hadn’t found this job. It’s interesting how life works in a funny way.  Almost like a puzzle, mentally piecing what is happening.  I got turned down for multiple jobs before I got hired on at Comptech.  One week before my family reunion, I had no idea what I was going to do.  I wasn’t going to quit North River without finding another place to work.  My parents pay for my school and rent, and I figure my bills are my deal.  I had already been turned down at the public library.  I have a years worth of experience working at a library (University of Kentucky), and I figured I would give it a shot.  Well, they did that, shot me down.  So, somewhat depressed, I found myself at North River.  A guy I worked with there turned me on to a site through the University.  I call the first number I see.  The guy (my current boss) leaves me a voicemail saying he’s “interested”.  I knew right then I had the job.  I just had to sell it.  It’s interesting what happens what you know you HAVE to win. When your back is completely against the wall… I had to get this job, and my boss had to know that he was going to give it to me.  Well, I landed the job, basically had three interviews in one with his two bosses.  Worked out.  Went well.  Blah blah blah. Good Story eh? Yah, thought so.  What I honestly learned from this is that life is just that: a puzzle.  I saw the picture: no more 9pm nights, more time with shit that matters, me getting drunk on saturdays, family reunions, trips to UF, UT, and LSU. I knew I wanted that picture; I just had to make it happen.  I had to slide the puzzle pieces of my life around.  I was fucking disappointed as hell when I got shot down, but I think that my girlfriend and my mom’s encouraging words helped me refocus.  Gotta stay close to the family.  Keeps my shit grounded as hell.  When things don’t go my way or your way for that matter, there is always another door..almost like the 20,000 door room in the matrix.  I found the key.