Ho John Lee’s Weblog

• Feds unplug NetBank | ajc.com
  Can’t have an old fashioned run on the bank if there’s no bricks and mortar.
  (tags: personal finance banking economy trends)

• Weird computer names | Shark Bait
  Assorted themes for coming up with network hostnames.
  (tags: network sysadmin random humor)
• Bernanke Has Snookered Us All by Gary North
  “Bernanke and the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) have done something extraordinary. They have publicly lowered the FedFunds target rate, and have forced down the actual FedFunds rate to meet the target rate, while deflating the money supply.”
  (tags: federal reserve monetary policy economy finance inflation deflation trends)

Here’s a graph of the open interest in Sep07 SPX options. Unlike your typical equity option which settle based on opex Friday’s close, most index options settle based on the opening value of the S&P 500 index on expiration Friday.

This leads to interesting dynamics like last month, when Ben Bernanke cut the discount rate just before the market open on Friday. A lot of fund managers went to bed Thursday with good looking option positions that got crushed Friday morning when S&P 500 components gapped up at the open.

Thursday SPX cash closed at 1518.75. I come up with around 1490 for max pain. (”Max Pain” is the settlement value that will result in the lowest aggregate value for the open contracts at expiration.) This, and the big run up since the unexpected 50bps rate cut on Thursday, suggest a lower bias going into tomorrow’s open, which we would see in the futures. ESZ7 (December S&P futures contract) closed Thursday at 1531.75.

• Coding Horror: Rainbow Hash Cracking
  On precomputed hash tables and password crackers. “The multi-platform password cracker Ophcrack is incredibly fast. How fast? It can crack the password “Fgpyyih804423″ in 160 seconds.”
  (tags: computer security password encryption hacking hashing algorithms)
• Adventure Consultants - world renowned expedition organisers
  Expeditions and mountain treks to Mt Everest, Nepal, North and South Poles, and other trips off the beaten path.
  (tags: vacation travel global tourism hiking)
• RFID implants linked to animal tumors - Boing Boing
  Some studies conducted from 1996-2006 noted a high incidence of dangerous tumors arising at the sites of RFID implants.
  (tags: rfid privacy livestock tagging health risks)

Barry Ritholtz points out the new community sentiment feature, part of the new front page for Yahoo Finance.

Stock message boards are a fascinating place to scan through from time to time, containing a mix of informed, uninformed, and sometimes deliberately misleading posts. On average, the post volume and prevailing sentiment is probably a good contrary indicator. Part of what makes stock message boards interesting is the sheer volume of misdirection and general noise. At the same time, there are a smaller number of board posters that contribute more than blind cheerleading or bashing their chosen stocks.

This weekend we had our first game for the fall 2007 AYSO soccer season. Once again, I’m coaching, this year in the U12 Girls division. It’s an interesting change, as in Palo Alto there is no U11 league, it goes from U10 to U12 as the kids start shifting into different sports and activities and the player pool shrinks a little.

I ran into Tom Conrad at Barcamp Block a few weeks ago, which reminded me to go check out Pandora again. I’d been an early adopter when they introduced it to the folks at the very first Barcamp, but accidentally stopped using it a while back when I changed out the computer in my office that I’d been running it on. I recently swapped in another system, and among other things I have it running Pandora again.

I like being able to launch a station with a single suggestion and get a few hours of “more stuff like that”, especially when it turns up something I haven’t heard before.

Here’s a sample “station” that I’m listening to at the moment, constructed starting with a track from Rick Braun, which has turned up selections from Larry Carlton, Jeff Golub, Joyce Cooling, and the Brecker Brothers on its own.

• Computer crime is slicker than you think - Security - CRN Australia
  An overview of the current state of the business of malware, phishing schemes, and botnets.
  (tags: computer networks malware spam hacking botnet security economics trends)
• 50 Ways You Know You Are an Emotional Investor - Stock Trading To Go
  Do you resemble any of these habits?
  (tags: stock market trading psychology culture fun)

• TouchGraph | Products: Google Browser
  An interactive visualization of web site link relationships retrieved from Google
  (tags: visualization google web2.0 graph social java)

• Pietro, that’s me
  Personal site with notes, charts and comments on investing from Peter Ponzo, retired professor turned private investor.
  (tags: investing markets personal finance math)
• smf_addin : EXCEL Stock Market Functions Add-in
  Home of the Stock Market Functions add-in developed by Randy Harmelink - functions to retrieved data from the web and placed directly into Excel spreadsheets.
  (tags: excel software programming tools personal finance investing trading)