rugged independance & the protestant ethic

[dg]

I thought this might additionally be of interest here:

www.freewebs.com/dgsignals/apps/forums/topics/show/143513-rugged-independance-the-protestant-ethic?publish_user_action=1&set_sidebar=1&template_bundle_id=4301

dg

[bankedout]

That is a good idea dg. However, the rich people have control of law creation in this country and I doubt if they will vote in a luxury sales tax.

What do you think about moving the science and world view forum to a section dedicated to those topics at this site?

[dg]

Its true that the rich and powerful are currently in control; but I think it is slowly becoming obvious to more and more that the two party system is merely a sham set up to maintain that control. I think the poor majority are slowly catching on that they need to find a way to exert their control by getting around politics itself and to stubbornly insist on the will of the true majority. Either this can be accomplished peacefully through election of candidates who truely rise above party affiliation, or it will need be accomplished by other means as times become more desperate and patience is lost.

As to combining the currently dead science and world view forum with this site, I hadn't considered doing it thus far because of the vast difference of subject matter between the two forums. On the other hand, the lack of activity at the science and world views forum to date causes me to consider taking some action. It might be best just to delete it altogether, if there is no interest. At this point, I would be interested in hearing the views of the members as to whether they would be interested in further diversification of this site.

Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of the paucity of membership at each website. Are all the members here that are interested in continuing; or are many just putting off transfer until the last minute? Per the msn stats, we had well over 200 members at the market timers site and a few at the science and worldviews sites as well. Now we have a mere 8 at this new market timers website and only 2 at the now combined other website. Perhaps we are just spinning our wheels and should drop the whole thing. It seems that all we really have is a weekly horse race with up to 5 contenders.

[bankedout]

Having a small group makes things more personal. I enjoy the horse race and reading the other posts that pop up every once in a while. I also like having a place where I can share my trading journal (which will be revived in due time).

However, you are carrying the biggest load by running the horse race. If you don't find enough satisfaction to make it worthwhile, I'm sure we will all understand if you fold up the tent and disappear in to the void.

If we really want to be around a big crowd of traders, we could join an established and popular trading forum such as:

www.trade2win.com/boards/index.php

or

www.elitetrader.com/vb/

I just wonder if we would get buried in a sea of posts and end up dissolving our small group in one of those sites.

[sd]

I would support a Flat tax and progressively increasing luxury/sales tax for all. Combined with penalizing businesses that abandon the US for foreign workers-
The predicitions of wealth disparity and the rapidly shrinking middle class is a certainly coming to be.
That is not to say that those without initiative should be rewarded. On the contrary, if one loses the potential to achieve higher goals, standard of living etc by his/her efforts, there goes the initiative.
The nature of business is to not simply survive, but to prosper.
Business does this by increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.
I work in the construction industry- 90% of our company's jobs are funded with public money- schools, prisons, municipal projects etc.
We only get awarded those projects if we have the lowest bid-
We are forced to compete with the market place, and other competitors willing to do the work for less - How we survive and compete , is by trying to reduce costs where possible material and labor:

Each of us gets wrapped up in the immediate local/national economic concerns we can focus on as affecting us. Rightfully so I* might add.
What we fail to see, is that this is just a minor wave in the bigger wave of world-wide economic rebalancing of wealth. This may not come to be for decades- but it is in the works-

Take , as an example, the plight of the big 3 auto workers-
When times were good, the unions gained substantial benefits for the betterment of the employees. . Ultimately, the higher living standard the Unions were able to provide their members set the bar for competing non-union industry, and all of America's workers benefitted from it, even if not receiving the same generous benefits.
Now, There is a disparity of 2:1 in Union wages and benefits in the Big 3 and the other auto workers working in the US for Honda, Toyota etc.
There have been tens/hundreds of auto mfgs that have come into being and then gone out of business in the past century.
They were either bought out, absorbed or went bankrupt .
They faced competition , and it wasn't foreign competition back then pre 1980's- It was the natural process of business, market forces, and good/bad management that either saw their demise or evolution and future success.

What we fail to see, is that this is really about the wave of wealth shift & distribution on the global scale. A rebalancing of economic wealth- It may take 2 or 3 decades to go full circle-
In the interim, while most of the rest of the developing world will see broadening opportunities and brighter horizons for it's population, there will be a retrenching and attempt to hold onto what we have here. Like the Telecom Heyday in 2000, where are the jobs and great careers now? I have a friend who worked as an engineer in the telecom boom, and today finds his base pay is 50% of what it was years ago, and fewer benefits. He knows that even today's standards can be reduced further by overseas competition that can innovate and cut costs deeper.
How many of us could say "Do you want Fries with that ?" with a customer friendly smile on our face?
UAW take note- Not that the UAW is to "blame"- They just need to be able to adapt or go the way of the dinosaur- There will be major concessions, and unless we can exceed in innovation,, the big three will become the big 2 , then the big 1.
Maybe in the year 2110, the focus will be the world union demands.
I don't know where we go- Our youth need to excel in aptitude and education and be competitive on a world scale-
We need to become energy self-sufficient and not be held hostage to those people that would just as soon kill us as sell us oil. Even if we have to pay $10 gallon for the priviledge of energy independence- by God lets do it!
We need to recogonize that we indeed have a war -albeit silent- and it is the economic decline of our society- It's not the decline of the stock market per se- or the so-called terrorists-
The real threat is that we will no longer become the country and economy that drives the world. History will only put us in a footnote of short term Great societies- unless we choose to make a difference. SD

OK, Just a Rant- SD

[sd]

At this point, I would be interested in hearing the views of the members as to whether they would be interested in further diversification of this site.

Frankly, I'm not sure what to make of the paucity of membership at each website. Are all the members here that are interested in continuing; or are many just putting off transfer until the last minute? Per the msn stats, we had well over 200 members at the market timers site and a few at the science and worldviews sites as well. Now we have a mere 8 at this new market timers website and only 2 at the now combined other website. Perhaps we are just spinning our wheels and should drop the whole thing. It seems that all we really have is a weekly horse race with up to 5 contenders.


I would expect that there have been substantial casualties among the membership in this last year's market decline. As the market erased 35-40% of the past years gains, it has undoubtedly turned many from the market.
It's easy to be in the market when we're in a Bull market, and hard to be enthusiastic if you're long focused in a whip-saw declining market.
This is an exceptional market decline, and it will likely be as difficult going forward- Or we should expect it might be so. Trend traders can't buy a decent week long trend, and I suspect that many of us are not as adaptable to trade this market-- It's a moving target, with too wide a volatility swing in the course of any week to use conventional stops, and even then , extereme stops have likely been taken out.

To get dialogue there has to be subjects of interest-
I've been trying to post my trading successes and failures, and there's not much responding commentary -good or bad- Make no mistake - there are traders making money in this market, but they are likely traders that are playing with a much reduced time frame , and minimising the Risk. I don't think what I've been posting is relevant to approaches most are even considering....I think most "average" trend traders/investors have seen too much volatility and damage to their accounts this past year- I certainly was included in that group.
This is definitely a period of transition- not only in web sites, but in market conditions. Should this not be viable for the time and effort, I would like to say thanks for the contributions you, Bankedout, and members have provided over the years.
I, for 1, have benefitted and survived- up till now! A sincere Thank You for help along the way!
SD

[bankedout]

I think this site allows non-members to view messages. It is possible that some of the silent members from our past site are watching the messages here without registering.

I enjoy reading your trading journal SD. I feel like I'm real close to hopping back in this market. I will post my trading journal as soon as I take my first trade of this round. To me it feels like we are making a bottom here. I don't know whether it is a short, medium, or long term bottom. Friday prices started the session way down and closed strong. In addition as dg pointed out, prices are refusing to go down further on bad news. Also, people have been talking to me about the stock market and telling me how pessimistic they are about the future of stock prices. That is very bullish.

[dg]

1) sd, I read your journals. I wish more would do what you are doing. I try to comment once every blue moon or two. However, your journal is like a diary (which is fine). One doesn't wish to interrupt another's work in progress. I find that it takes questions to get responses.

2) bankedout, I would like us to get back to a dozen or two of active members. I really don't care how many silent members we have, because they don't contribute anything to the group. And no, I wouldn't want the site to get so busy that conversations literally get lost in the traffic.

3) sd, I assume by the size command at the beginning of your posts that you are unaware of the need for the close size command at the end of the message?

[sd]

I thought I had the size command figured out- Likely a typo on my part-
Yes, I am posting mostly as a diary /blog on the investor strategies- Ultimately , trading is a very personal process- it's you and your interpretation of where your investment will go-
The investor strategies thread:
- it's my sense of contribution to share with other aspiring traders the attempted process of trying to achieve a level of trading competency -I had hoped to post all my trades- both winners and losers - and at the same time illustrate some of the indecision and errors I make along the way. I had hoped that this would also inspire others to come forward with their own approaches , or to engage some of the silent viewers that it's Ok to step forward , that it's OK to have losing trades, and that it's OK to make this known and we all don't have to be trading gurus with all the right answers all the time.
I have hopes of engaging others to join in the spirit of this learning process . Otherwise no point to taking the time to post charts and blog.
I don't know whether this approach I am trying will ultimitely prove viable or not- I am modifying it as I go along, so it's a work in progress. It may well be that somebody else could maintain success while I will fail. What inspired me to do this was a moment when I realized my trading methods were simply getting slashed bit by bit, and I changed my trading approach-
I started to pay attention to my trades: cut my losses quicker, changed my time frame due to the high volatile markets , and locked in some profits and turned my portfolio around , and this happened from Sept to now.. I think the "paucity" of activity is that so many folks got beat up in this market downturn-
I hope the message is - If what you have been doing doesn't work as well as you expect- don't wait for the market to change to fit back to your past method, adapt your method to fit to a changing market.
When we get back into a trending market, there will be more activity and interest overall- This is truly a tough time to be trading, and cash preservation has a lot to be said for it. Cash preservation is also a trading decision.
SD

[dg]

sd:

I checked using the modify command to see if you had inserted a close size command at the end of your message -- and you have not done so. Here is what you need to place at the end of your size controlled string: [/size][/color].

BTW, size 6 is awfully big for an entire message. What is your point? Size 2 is the default. On the internet, the use of all caps or larger sized letters is interpreted as shouting. (just so you know)

[sd]

I was trying to enlarge this print size up one- Not to be hollering at anyone, and this 2 size may be the standard, but I can't read it clearly without glasses, and even with it seems small. Undoubtedly, it's time for some new spec's .
As for using the command function, I'd click on the A with the up and down arrows and the size command would appear:

I would then set my cursor between the 2 inner brackets, and hit the enter command and separate the 2 commands- then start my post and hit enter- Perhaps the reason it didn't work is that I didn't bring the commands to the end of the written post, but allowed the final command to be several lines lower-
I'll try that here-
Fun to learn new things!
and if I keep the commands one line above and one line below the written words , I get this:

Fun to learn new things!

which seems to also work on the preview- so a separation of 2 lines from the written word:




Fun to Learn New Things!


and I see all three as very large size 6



Perhaps it was because the lower size command was below the bottom of the screen I was typing.

That also appears in the preview screen enlarged.
I will end this post here and see if all the enlarged sections stay enlarged- No offense anyone, just learning the ropes -SD

[dg]

sd:

I have already made a post displaying all the command functions. I suggest that you print out a copy of that post to refer to. Then you can type them manually as needed without using the icons. Just remember that all commands come in pairs (one in front and one at the end of the type to be altered).

When you really think you have it down, try making a table like I make for the horse race. Then try altering the type inside the table. HE HE HE

I wonder if the members here that do not post are not posting because they do not understand how to work the commands here? (just a thought)

Just keep asking questions. We will get you there.

dg

[ira85]

I'm one of those mostly silent members. I greatly appreciate the site and hope you find it worthwhile to keep going. I've been following DG's NASDAQ signal with great interest. Since you have a new buy on it, I hope you keep posting so we can see how it works out. I'm also following SD's seat of the pants strategies. I'm a less knowledgeable and less sophisticated investor, so I don't have much to contribute to what is posted. But I find the site to be quite interesting and helpful. I'm sure it's work to keep it gong and with so few members, you may question whether it's worth the time and work. I appreciate what DG, SD, and Bankedout are doing and hope you keep going.

One feature I relied on at MSN Groups was the weekly email with links to new posts. That email reminder was often the cue for me to log in. I wonder if maybe a lot of the MSN members didn't take the time to visit this site and register and without the weekly email reminder have lost touch with this site. I still get the weekly email for one other MSN group where I'm a member. You might be able to make a post to the old site, reminding people the site has moved here and post links. That might get a few more of the old members to register here. Keep up the good work and thank you DG, SD, and Bankedout.

[dg]

ira85:

Always good to hear from newbies (including those that mainly just read). Understand that no one here qualifies as an expert trader. We are all learning to a degree. Also feel free to ask questions of the other members. You will find the others very friendly here and actually eager to provide you with answers to any questions you might have in regard to market trading, strategies and techniques.

And feel incouraged to play in the weekly horse race (after reading all the rules for it). You will be amazed at what you will learn by playing.

BTW, congratualtions at leaving the world of readers and joining the world of chatters.

And additional btw: bankedout has already emailed all the members of our move. I think what we have now is basically it.

As to the model, fear not. I will continue posting. It is right most of the time. Right now, however, I think its buy signal is a tad premature. However, it is good to remember that it is a long term model that ususally only trades a few times per year -- so being a week or two early isn't a big deal with it most of the time. My biggest concern is when it flip-flops due to rapid market fluctuations (which might be the case now).

dg