Today I calculated that 2021 minus 2016 is 5... 5 years since I've posted here. Not that I haven't been posting elsewhere - usually that 9-to-5 thing where I'm on the tube all damned day. I've been working from home just about this whole time. I'm a field employee and they closed the local office sometime in the last 5 years (it all blurs together) and the COVID Official Government Hoax actually has not affected my worklife not one little bit. Well, may be affecting it now because the supply chain snafu is starting to catch up to us. The chip shortage especially. We'll see if I can stay employed making the software better.
Friday, June 25, 2021
Sunday, June 19, 2016
How does time fly like this?
It's actually been three years since I posted anything here. Amazing! My job has been re-arranged for me, but it's not like that's a 24-hour-a-day thing [yet].
I've found a new series on YouTube that would be of interest to the RV-curious called "New Thinking Allowed" by Jeffrey Mishlove. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbGITLnzplK7jwNcw
I've also been make aware of an old "In Search Of..." posted on YouTube featuring Steven Schwartz and Ingo Swann searching for shipwrecks near Santa Catalina Island in Southern California.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUNPL4tirQ
I've found a new series on YouTube that would be of interest to the RV-curious called "New Thinking Allowed" by Jeffrey Mishlove. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFk448YbGITLnzplK7jwNcw
I've also been make aware of an old "In Search Of..." posted on YouTube featuring Steven Schwartz and Ingo Swann searching for shipwrecks near Santa Catalina Island in Southern California.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kUNPL4tirQ
Friday, June 13, 2014
Medium and Remote Viewing, Part 2
Have you ever woken up from a dream and could not shake thinking it was reality?
These are scenes in "Medium" I really appreciate: where Allison DuBois wakes up and is confused about the last dream and the current reality.
These are scenes in "Medium" I really appreciate: where Allison DuBois wakes up and is confused about the last dream and the current reality.
Monday, May 26, 2014
Remote Viewing the Financial Markets - Part 2 - Financial Products
You really don't have to know this stuff to do RVFM: the DVD does a good job of introducing the subject.
The bulk of the financial markets are broadly broken in to five categories: equities, bonds, futures, options, and foreign currency exchange.
In short:
Equities - a portion of the value of a company
Bonds - a portion of a debt a company
Futures - a contract to acquire a quantity of a equity or commodity at a future date at a fixed price
Options (or CALLS and PUTS) - a option to buy or sell an equity by a future data at a fixed price
Foreign Currency Exchange (FOREX) - trading on the relative value of foreign currencies
In long:
Equities -
This is purchasing "equity" in a company. Equity is a component of value in the existance of the company. This is exactly like "equity in your house" except that your house has intrinsic value and the value of a company is a summation of its tangible and intangible properties. A gold mining company has the mine property (real property), and equipment (assets property) as tangible properties; it has employment contracts with clever geologists and mining engineers and business managers that make the company work as intangible properties. To some degree, any intellectual property (patents on a novel gold extraction process, for instance) and also potential properties. Valuating a gold mine with a good mine and bad people or a bad mine and good people, etc, allows you to determine what the value of the company is.
When buying equities you're trading MONEY for "stock", which is a portion of the company's value. Your REWARD is that the stock will GO UP IN VALUE over time, and your RISK is that it won't.
Equities are "bullish" investments: looking for the stock to GO UP IN VALUE (bulls poke up with their horns).
"Mutual Funds" are basically bundles of equities with a few exceptions (see below) which are traded as if they are equities, but can only be traded once a day.
"Exchange Traded Funds" (ETFs) are basically bundles of equities with a few exceptions (see below) which are traded exactly like they are equities.
Stocks, Mutual Funds, and ETFs are identified by the exchange they are traded on and "ticker symbols":
NYSE:IBM ::= New York Stock Exchange - International Business Machines Corporation
NASDAQ:MSFT ::= National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations - Microsoft Corporation
NYSE:SPY ::= State Street Global Advisers SPDR ("spiders") Exchange Traded Fund (based upon the Standard & Poor's 500 index of 500 largest equities traded on American markets)
When selling equities you're trading "stock" for MONEY; your expectation is that the stock is going down in price. It is possible to legally sell stock you don't own; the process is called "shorting". Basically you sell high and buy low in that order (!?!) The missing stock is "covered" by other stocks and money in your trading account. (Although the very wealthy and connected can do it another way; see: Crime of the Century: Naked Short Selling)
Bonds -
This is basically debt. A bond is a loan of money to a company with a fixed interest rate and a due date. After the real property and assets of a company are added up, the value of bond issues is subtracted and that gives you the liquidation value of the company (the MONEY you can get if the company ceased to exist and its real property, assets, and intellectual property was sold).
(Normally, when a company goes bankrupt, the debt-holders are paid first, then the equity-holders. A grand exception to this was the GM "bailout", where the bond-holders got completely screwed and the equity in the company was given to the auto workers unions. Don't buy GM stock or bonds ever...)
Treasury bonds and municipal bonds are debt the government owes to bond-holders with interest paid from taxes.
Bonds can be traded before they "mature" (debt contract has met its expiration date), and speculation in bonds is based upon the future value of the debt versus the future value of the money your trading.
There exist Mutual Funds that are made up entirely of bond investments.
Futures -
Futures are "derivatives"; they are not equity, debt or commodity, but a speculation on the value of equity, debt, or commodity at some time in the... future. Two parties agree (a "contract") upon a value and a time and exchange money. The money is generally for a fraction of the value of the item the contract is based upon. Investing in futures is different from equities and bonds in that the contract and target a price that might be higher or lower than the current price. Your REWARD is more value if the value of the underlying asset moves in the direction of your speculation. Your RISK is that it doesn't PLUS. And futures are also LEVERAGED: you are putting up only a fraction of the value of the underlying asset, and the REWARD and RISK are the ENTIRE value of the underlying asset relative to the contract (!?!). YES, THAT SHOULD BE SCARY.
Futures typically trade equities (stocks are the underlying value) or blocks of equities (Exchange Traded Funds), or commodities (gold, wheat, corn, pork bellies, orange juice (See: Trading Places))
(Some Mutual Funds and ETFs use futures to create their products. There exist "bearish" ETFs that speculate on the market declining (you buy the ETF looking for its price to go up when the prices on the underlying market go down.)) (Bears pull DOWN with their claws.)
Options -
An option is a "derivative", typically on an equity or another derivative (and you wondered why there are "bubbles"?) An option is a bet that a stock will go in a particular direction in a particular period of time. If at the end of that period of time the stock meets that goal, the option holder gets to buy or sell the equity at that price. The option has a "premium" which is a value (a small fraction of the price) that the buyer will lose if the stock does not meet that price.
A CALL goes UP in value as the stock goes UP but also loses value over time; a PUT goes UP in value as the stock goes DOWN, but it also loses value over time.
Options can be bought or sold but not necessarily in that order (!?!):
Buy Call option - expect the stock to go UP
Sell Call option - expect the stock to go DOWN or SIDEWAYS
Buy Put option - expect the stock to go DOWN
Sell Put option - expect the stock to go UP or SIDEWAYS
The most common usage is to buy a PUT as an "insurance policy" against the stock going down in prices, and selling a CALL is like paying yourself a dividend (a "covered call", where the CALL you are selling is covered by the stock you own.)
The bulk of the financial markets are broadly broken in to five categories: equities, bonds, futures, options, and foreign currency exchange.
In short:
Equities - a portion of the value of a company
Bonds - a portion of a debt a company
Futures - a contract to acquire a quantity of a equity or commodity at a future date at a fixed price
Options (or CALLS and PUTS) - a option to buy or sell an equity by a future data at a fixed price
Foreign Currency Exchange (FOREX) - trading on the relative value of foreign currencies
In long:
Equities -
This is purchasing "equity" in a company. Equity is a component of value in the existance of the company. This is exactly like "equity in your house" except that your house has intrinsic value and the value of a company is a summation of its tangible and intangible properties. A gold mining company has the mine property (real property), and equipment (assets property) as tangible properties; it has employment contracts with clever geologists and mining engineers and business managers that make the company work as intangible properties. To some degree, any intellectual property (patents on a novel gold extraction process, for instance) and also potential properties. Valuating a gold mine with a good mine and bad people or a bad mine and good people, etc, allows you to determine what the value of the company is.
When buying equities you're trading MONEY for "stock", which is a portion of the company's value. Your REWARD is that the stock will GO UP IN VALUE over time, and your RISK is that it won't.
Equities are "bullish" investments: looking for the stock to GO UP IN VALUE (bulls poke up with their horns).
"Mutual Funds" are basically bundles of equities with a few exceptions (see below) which are traded as if they are equities, but can only be traded once a day.
"Exchange Traded Funds" (ETFs) are basically bundles of equities with a few exceptions (see below) which are traded exactly like they are equities.
Stocks, Mutual Funds, and ETFs are identified by the exchange they are traded on and "ticker symbols":
NYSE:IBM ::= New York Stock Exchange - International Business Machines Corporation
NASDAQ:MSFT ::= National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations - Microsoft Corporation
NYSE:SPY ::= State Street Global Advisers SPDR ("spiders") Exchange Traded Fund (based upon the Standard & Poor's 500 index of 500 largest equities traded on American markets)
When selling equities you're trading "stock" for MONEY; your expectation is that the stock is going down in price. It is possible to legally sell stock you don't own; the process is called "shorting". Basically you sell high and buy low in that order (!?!) The missing stock is "covered" by other stocks and money in your trading account. (Although the very wealthy and connected can do it another way; see: Crime of the Century: Naked Short Selling)
Bonds -
This is basically debt. A bond is a loan of money to a company with a fixed interest rate and a due date. After the real property and assets of a company are added up, the value of bond issues is subtracted and that gives you the liquidation value of the company (the MONEY you can get if the company ceased to exist and its real property, assets, and intellectual property was sold).
(Normally, when a company goes bankrupt, the debt-holders are paid first, then the equity-holders. A grand exception to this was the GM "bailout", where the bond-holders got completely screwed and the equity in the company was given to the auto workers unions. Don't buy GM stock or bonds ever...)
Treasury bonds and municipal bonds are debt the government owes to bond-holders with interest paid from taxes.
Bonds can be traded before they "mature" (debt contract has met its expiration date), and speculation in bonds is based upon the future value of the debt versus the future value of the money your trading.
There exist Mutual Funds that are made up entirely of bond investments.
Futures -
Futures are "derivatives"; they are not equity, debt or commodity, but a speculation on the value of equity, debt, or commodity at some time in the... future. Two parties agree (a "contract") upon a value and a time and exchange money. The money is generally for a fraction of the value of the item the contract is based upon. Investing in futures is different from equities and bonds in that the contract and target a price that might be higher or lower than the current price. Your REWARD is more value if the value of the underlying asset moves in the direction of your speculation. Your RISK is that it doesn't PLUS. And futures are also LEVERAGED: you are putting up only a fraction of the value of the underlying asset, and the REWARD and RISK are the ENTIRE value of the underlying asset relative to the contract (!?!). YES, THAT SHOULD BE SCARY.
Futures typically trade equities (stocks are the underlying value) or blocks of equities (Exchange Traded Funds), or commodities (gold, wheat, corn, pork bellies, orange juice (See: Trading Places))
(Some Mutual Funds and ETFs use futures to create their products. There exist "bearish" ETFs that speculate on the market declining (you buy the ETF looking for its price to go up when the prices on the underlying market go down.)) (Bears pull DOWN with their claws.)
Options -
An option is a "derivative", typically on an equity or another derivative (and you wondered why there are "bubbles"?) An option is a bet that a stock will go in a particular direction in a particular period of time. If at the end of that period of time the stock meets that goal, the option holder gets to buy or sell the equity at that price. The option has a "premium" which is a value (a small fraction of the price) that the buyer will lose if the stock does not meet that price.
A CALL goes UP in value as the stock goes UP but also loses value over time; a PUT goes UP in value as the stock goes DOWN, but it also loses value over time.
Options can be bought or sold but not necessarily in that order (!?!):
Buy Call option - expect the stock to go UP
Sell Call option - expect the stock to go DOWN or SIDEWAYS
Buy Put option - expect the stock to go DOWN
Sell Put option - expect the stock to go UP or SIDEWAYS
The most common usage is to buy a PUT as an "insurance policy" against the stock going down in prices, and selling a CALL is like paying yourself a dividend (a "covered call", where the CALL you are selling is covered by the stock you own.)
Remote Viewing the Financial Markets - Part 1 - Trading
Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in LearnRV or the products they sell. I'm just a happy customer willing to share some experiences. I will warn you early and often not to commit a single red penny to any investment until you understand the risks.
To start trading equities (stocks and collections of stocks), derivatives (financial products related to the value of equities without actually involving the equities themselves [thus: derived-from]), and currency exchange (the relative value of one sovereign nation's currency against that of another), you have to first get your head wrapped around the concept of THE TRADE.
Trading is trading: you are exchanging one item for another where the one party and another party come to an mutually agreed, uncoersed decision of value for exchange. The result of the trade is the "satisfaction of needs" for both parties (see: Austrian school of economics and Marginal Utliity).
Most of us WORK: WORK is a trade of YOUR TIME, KNOWLEDGE, DILIGENCE for MONEY from your end, and MONEY for THE VALUE YOU BRING TO THE ENTERPRISE for you employer. You have time and the need for money to satisfy your other needs; your employer must run an enterprise and needs people doing work and creating value for him. You come upon an equitable trade for the value you bring and the money he can commit to the generation of that value.
This is where the law of supply and demand come in to play. Each of you have a supply:
Trading financial products is no different. Now you have all that nice money from the time you've spent with the employer. After you've paid YOUR TAXES, paid the mortgage (or the rent) and the power, and your car payment, and food, and etc, you have money left over to use for RISK CAPITAL. RISK CAPITAL is money you don't need to survive, and with which you can find an financial product that will REWARD you for taking a RISK by TRADING MONEY for SOMETHING THAT MIGHT INCREASE IN VALUE FASTER THAN THE MONEY.
That MIGHT is important. Using the LearnRV Remote View the Financial Markets that MIGHT becomes a WILL... assuming you follow the process and stay in structure. Beyond that you really have to understand the mechanics and that ANYTHING WITH A HUMAN BEING IN THE PROCESS IS PRONE TO ERROR and, perhaps... FAILURE...
To start trading equities (stocks and collections of stocks), derivatives (financial products related to the value of equities without actually involving the equities themselves [thus: derived-from]), and currency exchange (the relative value of one sovereign nation's currency against that of another), you have to first get your head wrapped around the concept of THE TRADE.
Trading is trading: you are exchanging one item for another where the one party and another party come to an mutually agreed, uncoersed decision of value for exchange. The result of the trade is the "satisfaction of needs" for both parties (see: Austrian school of economics and Marginal Utliity).
Most of us WORK: WORK is a trade of YOUR TIME, KNOWLEDGE, DILIGENCE for MONEY from your end, and MONEY for THE VALUE YOU BRING TO THE ENTERPRISE for you employer. You have time and the need for money to satisfy your other needs; your employer must run an enterprise and needs people doing work and creating value for him. You come upon an equitable trade for the value you bring and the money he can commit to the generation of that value.
This is where the law of supply and demand come in to play. Each of you have a supply:
- your clock goes around twice just like everybody else's, and you have a well determined set of skills, experiences, and attitudes that may or may not have value as it is applied
- the employer's clock goes around twice every day also, and he needs to pay your salary from his supply of MONEY AFTER he has paid his TAXES, stockholders dividends (or improve the value of the stock... same thing by different means...), debt service, rent, power, suppliers, and other employees
- "Hey, man, I need to make this much an hour and get these bennies..."
- "Son, you gotta show up at 6AM and leave at 9PM because that's the way the business works..."
Trading financial products is no different. Now you have all that nice money from the time you've spent with the employer. After you've paid YOUR TAXES, paid the mortgage (or the rent) and the power, and your car payment, and food, and etc, you have money left over to use for RISK CAPITAL. RISK CAPITAL is money you don't need to survive, and with which you can find an financial product that will REWARD you for taking a RISK by TRADING MONEY for SOMETHING THAT MIGHT INCREASE IN VALUE FASTER THAN THE MONEY.
That MIGHT is important. Using the LearnRV Remote View the Financial Markets that MIGHT becomes a WILL... assuming you follow the process and stay in structure. Beyond that you really have to understand the mechanics and that ANYTHING WITH A HUMAN BEING IN THE PROCESS IS PRONE TO ERROR and, perhaps... FAILURE...
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Remote Viewing the Financial Markets - Preview
So there are a few of you who have asked for some guidance on the RVFM process. Unfortunately, I really can't discuss the contents of the LearnRV RVFM DVD; Major Ed Dames and his team has spent too much blood and treasure establishing these processes to be just givin' them away here.
However, I can post some material on the mechanics of the RVFM process. The DVD actually does a decent job of introducing the subject, and a little (or probably a lot) of reading and making use of the on-line market trading tools, especially the market tradnig simulators, can get you most of the way.
I'm an engineer, computer scientist, and mathematician, and so the use of many of these tools is fairly obvious to me, but for others it might not be so clear. What I promised was to post some material here to help those folks along.
Darling Wife and I trade using the TD Ameritrade ThinkOrSwim platform. We originally took market trading training from a company called InvesTools which acquired ThinkOrSwim, which was subsequently acquired by TD (Toronto Dominion) Ameritrade. The ThinkOrSwim, or ToS, platform was built by traders at the Chicago Merchantile Exchange to provide a better, faster, smarter interactive platform for trading derivatives (equities options and futures). The tool supports trading these derivatives as well as trading the equities (aka stocks) and The tool can be quite intimidating, and there are a variety of materials available on the site.
And the best feature is that you can get started for FREE; sign up for the PaperMoney trading simulator and try your hand without committing a dime to the process. You really don't want to get into the market until you've established a set of trading rules for yourself (see: Turtle Traders) and have had success trading without the emotion attached to your hard-earned money being AT RISK... AND ITS ALL AT RISK!
Here is a screen-shot of the top-level screen in PaperMoney... it looks just like the live money site (borders and such are in different colors to keep one from trading the wrong account).
To get started, sign up and just play with it. You can't break anything (and if you do, post to these guys 'cuz they love to know what on the platform doesn't work...)
To be continued...
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