Ho John Lee’s Weblog

• SOCCER-COACH-L Soccer Coaching Manual
  Collected notes on coaching youth soccer from the soccer-coach-l mailing list.
  (tags: soccer coaching youth sports kids)
• Paul Kedrosky: The Sneezing U.S. Economy
  Pointer to an ECB paper examining correlation between US and world economic performance. Correlation of Asian mkts is lower than ROW, US is 20% of world growth down from 30%
  (tags: economics markets global finance trends investing)

• $4.5b bet on another 9/11 within 4 weeks
  The two sales are being referred to by market traders as “bin Laden trades” because only an event on the scale of 9-11 could make these short-sell options valuable.
  (tags: markets options stock trading finance culture risk management)
• Content aware image scaling
  A video demo of a content-based image scaling approach which produces results similar to page flow when browser windows are resized.
  (tags: image processing digital photography graphics algorithms photo scene analysis research)

• Sprott - The Visible Hand (PDF)
  August 2007 - Observations on the Working Group on Financial Markets aka “Plunge Protection Team”, and government intervention in the US stock market via futures purchases
  (tags: markets government stock bond futures trading investing policy risk management federal reserve treasury)
• Rotational illusion
  A collection of graphics which produce an illusion of rotation
  (tags: graphics illusion optical psychology perception science image art fun random)
• byokal : www.zefrank.com
  An interactive kaleidoscope game that lets you create interesting graphics on the fly
  (tags: animation color kids fun graphics media shapes)
• FT.com - ‘The Armani of body armour’
  On the rise of fashionable bulletproof suits, trench coats and kimonos. Looks like normal clothes, and will stop up to 9mm rounds.
  (tags: fashion travel security defense hardware clothes trends)
• Bill Rempel, a.k.a. NO DooDahs! - » My Links
  Nice collection of trading and investing related links.
  (tags: stock trading investing personal finance resources)
• Forex Blog: The Day Trader’s Toolkit: 100 Free Online Apps for Professionals
  Another nice list of trading and investing related links
  (tags: stock trading investing personal finance resources)

• StreetSmack Scalp FAQ :: Move the Markets :: Entries ::
  Day trading tactics comments from StreetSmack at Wallstreak, a collection of posts edited by Prospectus.
  (tags: stock trading daytrading tactics markets finance)
• SSRN-Shorts and Insiders by Amiyatosh Purnanandam, Hasan Seyhun
  Draft paper proposes a measure of “informationally motivated shorting demand” to identify future underperforming stock prices (on longer time horizons) based on short interest.
  (tags: finance theory stock investing trading markets)

• The Big Picture | Voice Recognition Software ?
  Barry has repetitive use injuries. Comments containl a long list of suggestions for speech input, ergonomic mouse / trackball / pointing device.
  (tags: ergonomics office workplace computer speech voice input)

• Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920’s
  by Fredrick Lewis Allen written in 1931. See Chapters 12-14 on the 1928 bull market and the 1929 crash.
  (tags: history us financial markets stock crash culture society trading investing risk management)
• Telegraph UK - My brush with absolute perfection
  A columnist tries the Snappy Snaps photo airbrushing service. “For a mere £10, love handles and wobbly bits can be removed from bikini shots, dark circles can be lightened and legs lengthened.”
  (tags: photo beauty advertising digital imaging retouching society culture media random)
• A rush to pull out cash - Los Angeles Times
  “Bill Ashmore drove his Porsche Cayenne to Countrywide’s Laguna Niguel office and waited half an hour to cash out $500,000, which he then wired to an account at Bank of America.”
  (tags: banking credit risk management society culture)

• Federal Funds Rate Data - Federal Reserve Bank of New York
  Table of the effective daily funds rate based on market operations. Over the last 5 session the effective rate has dropped sharply, while the target rate is unchanged at 5.25.
  (tags: federal reserve monetary policy economy finance trading investing markets)

• The Hedge Fund Implode-O-Meter - tracking the hedge fund implosion - leverage, speculation, arbitrage, interest rates, credit bubble
  (tags: hedgefund economy finance markets)
• The Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter - tracking the housing finance breakdown, related to Alt-A and subprime mortgages, lending fraud, predatory lending, housing bubble, mortgage banking, foreclosures, debt, consolidation, lawyers, class-action lawsuits
  (tags: mortgage finance economy housing markets)

BarCamp returns to Palo Alto next weekend, this time as BarCampBlock.

Almost two years ago, a group of 6 San Francisco geeks in 7 days, using blogs, wikis and IRC slapped together a weekend conference with wifi, food and amazing presentations in Palo Alto, California. This was a different kind of conference, though. There were no superstar keynote speakers. There were no pre-programmed agendas. There was a brilliant agenda filled with content by and for the attendees. Everyone, including the sponsors, the organizers, the speakers and the audience were involved in making the event happen equally and were often one and the same. Over the weekend, more than 200 people showed up and people watched remotely from all over the world. This event was BarCamp.

I take a week or so away from the markets and look at what happens…

The preface to Oscar’s e-mail this morning summarizes the current sentiment pretty well.

“Caution: This Next Trade is Not for Widows or Orphans”

Bear in mind that he’s a short term futures trader, so if you’re a buy-and-hold investor, none of this matters to you. You might enjoy his daily video commentary though.