Gunny Walker

  Hey Folks. There's not much going on today. I had a new experience yesterday. I tried asparagus. Ever go walking through the grocery store and just say, "Hmm I've never had that. I think I'll try some." Well, I do it all the time. Though for some reason I think that "straight out of the can" is not the ideal method for most foods. Asparagus tastes a bit like peas in a husk. I think you are supposed to peel them first. Or scrape them or something. Yes, people I know. I should try them with cheese or deep fried or something. I am southern. I know I shouldn't be eating vegetables with out deep frying them first. I'd have to say that I'd give it six and half birds eyes. It wasn't as interesting as the heart of palm (swamp cabbage) but has to taste better than the oyster juice.
  The one thing that I can't figure out is ox tails. People eat them all the time. Or at least use them to flavor stews. This is my pledge to you. I will never KNOWINGLY eat ox tail. After all, that's the first thing that the poop hits on the way out. It can't be good for you.
  The most annoying thing is when you remember about an old website, go check on it, and find out that they haven't updated since you were last there. You're not really sure when that was, but it was at least three years ago. Such as this one. The only thing changed is the main page. The Chris Isaak quote is one that is a great definition of my dream girl. I guess I'm not the only one.
  There's nothing like running into an old girlfriend. Actually, I ran into an old girlfriend's sister today. It was at the poorly named Flapjack Johnson's, a new restaurant here in the Boro. I dated her sister for four months over three years ago. I guess I made an impression. That makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. She broke off the relationship because she wasn't happy. Happy with what I don't know. It bothered me for quite some time. Sometimes I still think about her. But then again she's the perfect reason that we men could be happy just living on a mountain by ourselves and be perfectly happy.
  I remember that she told me repeatedly that she didn't want kids. Today she is married with two step children. The major difference is between men and women is that we want you to understand us not necessarily love us. It's not hard. Men have three basic desires and a lot of time to kill other than that. Women want us to love them, but we will never understand them.
  But we're both from Earth. Let's get that straight right now. It's just a matter of converging evolution. We're really separate species that can breed. Kinda like a Zonkey.

  So this lady says to me the other day, "So, I hear you are a republican?"
  "Well, actually, I vote for the person not the party." After a pause, I add, "But this year I'm thinking of voting for Nader."
  "So you're just giving the election to Bush"
  I guess some people don't even listen to themselves. If I'm a "republican" then I'm taking votes away from Bush. Shouldn't she be happy about that? Then there's the old arguments. How he's caused the economy to turn sour. I reply with my opinion that this merely the tech bubble bursting. There are still many great opportunities in the stock market. Take Chico's Fas for example. (You don't actually have look at that horrible line chart. This isn't an investment post.) Some one recommended it to me just over two years ago. It was about to split and was just below 20 dollars. He has doubled his stock and it sits right at about 40 dollars a share. That's a growth of about four hundred percent. That's not bad.
  Of course, I didn't buy it. I was concerned about the fact that they didn't pay dividends, but what do I know? It's hard to watch the financial channels and not see this stock mentioned once a week. He's a pretty smart guy who has the patience to wade years of financial reports to find companies to invest in. He's good at it. He's actually so far into smart though, that he approaches stupid from the other side. He's like that friend that can tell you how figure out the speed of light only using a shaving mirror and stopwatch, but sometimes forgets to put pants on before leaving the house.
  Anyway, this democrat brought up the argument that Bush is paying people to go overseas. (What like ambassadors? She didn't catch my sarcasm. Of course she meant jobs.) The problem is that Bush isn't paying anyone to move jobs overseas. The problem is that the companies that we know and love are doing it themselves in search of the almighty dollar. Oh we'd like to stick it to them. We've even found a few fall guys to make ourselves feel better about the whole thing. The truth is that we just love our stuff to much to do what it really takes to stick it to these people. Stop spending our money on them. (Of course, as a "republican" I'm willing to understand the idea the if we aren't willing to make our money sowing up the beanie babies that we love so much, then we ought let some one else have the job.)
  The one problem is that this democrat never used the one argument that she might have won, the war in Iraq. I can't say whether or not we need this war. I'm pretty sure that Saddam is a pretty bad guy, but there have been many, pretty bad guys that we let exist for too long. Maybe it's that fact that he's not our, pretty bad guy. I can't help but feel that this war will just start off a whole new army of pissed of people. We also can't let people influence our thinking by pushing us around. It's hard to walk the fine line between bully and sissy.
  Anyway, there was a couple of stories in the news today about Arabs. I thought they were interesting. You can read them here and here. Of course, it makes me wonder if Michael Moore has a point. I haven't seen F9/11 but have thought about it. I don't care much for the man, but do have enough of an open mind to listen. Of course as being some one who has dealt with the patriot act a little, I wonder just how far it will go. I had to speak with the bank manager once as I withdrew $5,000 to pay for a tax deed. As I seem to recall they have to report transactions of $10,000, but it seems that I read somewhere that it had been lowered to $5,000.
  And speaking of Michael Moore, I also read where Castro interrupted the Thursday night Movie on Cuban television to show F9/11. (Read more.) The rumor is that he interrupted Herbie Rides Again. Even if we are not sure of his efforts here at home, at least Mr. Moore is doing a great service for somebody. (Okay, I made that last part up. You caught me.)
  Later folks.

  Sometimes it's good be a pack rat. Ever burn up a modem? I have. Luckily, I've still got an old desk top computer. Of course, I don't have a desk anymore, so I guess it's a floor top computer. Anyway, it's interesting to try to get this old thing to work. It's Win98 and I had to spend four hours updating the software to get on my brokers site. I still have to get used to using a real keyboard and a trackball. I'm miss-typing every fifth word. (And forget about using the backspace key. I keep getting slashes.)
  Anyway, it'll be a week before the my modem even arrives. At which time I get to replace it myself. I'm afraid. Very, very afraid. Anyway, here's to hoping that I can get back on track again.
  I do however have some weird things saved on this computer. I was looking through the hard drive and found some very terrible pictures. You see my common screen name (not the one listed here) sounds a lot like dubious sexual act. It's not. It just sounds that way. I guess I'm bad at picking out screen names. My first one made everyone think I was a girl. I have a couple of pictures of females performing this act. I shocked me, and that takes a lot. I guess that's about it for now. I've got some deleting to do. Until next time...

  Today was a first. I shorted a stock. Shorting a stock is called selling a stock short. It's where I tell my broker to sell a stock that somebody else owns with the promise that I will buy their shares later. Of course the idea is to buy back the stock at a lower price than what I sold it at.
  Well, that's the way it's supposed to work. I lost 16 bucks. It's not much but it's the fact that I screwed up. It bothers me. I must master the short sale. Watch the bottom drop out of the stock tomorrow. I won't be able to watch it tomorrow. I'll be helping out a couple of friends that are moving to North Carolina, the parents of the baby-matics. I'll be missing the workouts.
  Whenever you short a stock then you have to "buy to cover." Like I said, you should buy the stock at a lower price than what you sold it at. See, You don't just have to buy low and sell high. Sometimes you sell high and buy low.
  Just make sure that you pick a very active stock, not one that only trades twice a day.
  The buzz word of the day is sesquicentennial.
  I've just finished watching Bubba Ho-Tep. It's one of the better B movies I've ever seen. Of course what do I know? I watched Satan's Cheerleaders for the plot.

  Apparently, there is a new game in town. It's a group called Interactive Brokers. They claim that they will trade for one dollar per hundred shares. They charge a minimum of ten dollars per month. The thing is that this is great news to the active trader. If you buy one stock a month, then stick with Scottrade. Here comes the math.
  If you buy a hundred shares with a seven dollar commission and sell it with the same seven dollar commission, then you need the stock to go up 14 cents to be profitable. (Fourteen cents times 100 shares equals fourteen dollars.) With a one dollar commission, then you only need to go up by 2 cents. That's the thing is that you can lower how much money you need to make. That one dollar commission is one dollar per hundred shares. So if you buy 200 shares, then with Scottrade you need only seven cents. With this Interactive Brokers then you get charged two dollars, but you still only need to go up two cents. Scottrade pulls into the lead when you buy and sell more than seven hundred shares. Of course, Scottrade also works to your advantage if you are not very active. If you, do one trade a month or less then go for Scottrade. If you are doing two, then go with Interactive Brokers. I'm afraid it's all very complicated. I haven't even found out what all of Interactive Brokers fees are, but then again I use Scottrade and am not really sure what all of their fees are.
  The only way to get cheaper is to go with a Market Maker. Then you don't seem to pay any fees. (Of course you do. You just never see it. They make money between the bid and ask price.)
  Today's buzz word of the day is Microsoft. I have GOT to watch the market today. (And possibly sell my gas stock and buy some.)

  Guess who just got his vacation approved? That's right! It's me! I'm going to be off the week before Halloween, so I'm going to try to get a job at a haunted house. It's perfect. Sometimes I scare people when I pay to enjoy the place myself. Many times I hear, "Who's That?!? Oh, it's just the guy behind us." Half of the time I end up leading complete strangers through the houses. Anyway, I'm going to try to get a job at the The Haunted Prison. I say job, but honestly, I'd work there for free. Have power tools, will travel.
  There's one thing that's been sticking in my craw for a while. It's this whole issue of having a black president. It seems that we will never be a country of equality unless we have a black president. Why? Did you know that the president only gets paid four hundred thousand dollars a year? Granted that's nothing to sneeze at, but really for what. The presidents always get out of office looking 20 years older than they went in, even if they just serve four years. Your on call 24/7. You get blamed for stuff you have absolutely no control over. You get blamed even before you get the job. Sure, you can get your friends some good jobs, but you get left splashed all over the front page for it. Heck, some people even make films about how terrible you are.
  Why try for the president? If you want a white man's job, be Bruce Willis. Look at how many times he's saved the planet. Once in Armageddon, possibly once in Unbreakable, and all of life as we don't know it The Fifth Element. He got paid two years of presidential salary for Pulp Fiction, and that's at the bottom of the list.
  Heck, I wouldn't mind taking a black man's job. Did you know that Chris Tucker was paid 20 million dollars for Rush Hour 2? I want to be Chris Tucker. And I really get tired of hearing, "Chris Tucker needs to do something else." Look, he got paid 20 million for his last movie. He doesn't need to do anything. Ever again.
  I were a big time actor. I'd star in flicks for nothing. Independent flicks only. The big time movie studios could pay me big time money. But little guys are the most grateful and in the end they help you out in the end. Did you know that Ben Affleck was paid $30,000 dollars to star in School Ties? Then he appeared five years later in Mallrats for $7000? Later that year, Kevin Smith submitted Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's script for Good Will Hunting to Miramax. The studio bought it for $600,000.
  See no matter how big you get to be, good deeds still pay off. I guess I shouldn't look at being president as being just about the money, but no one will like you, you possibly won't have a job in four years (Less if you get impeached), and if you're the first black one, you'll get shot at. At least, in Hollywood you know it's blanks. And if you do a bad job, you can usually get another one pretty shortly there after. They just call you a comeback king.

  Good morning. Not much going on today. I raised my stops this morning on my stocks. I figure the stock has gone up 59 cents since I've bought it so I ought to raise it 59 cents. The thing is that according to technical analysis, Wal-mart's five day is about to cross the twenty day. They don't get much more powerful than Wal-mart. Another stock that I plan to watch is Southwest, and if you doubt the power of technical analysis then look at Mcdonalds. That's the thing about technical analysis. People do it because it works and it works because people do it. It's a terrible cycle that can escalate and tear a stock up. Anyway, I've got my ducks in a row with my broker, and plan to go fishing.
  Just so you can see some stuff that's not stock market. Here's some local news.

City employees no longer can log on to the Web during work to balance their checkbooks, send personal e-mails and other activities.
  That's because city leaders have tightened the leash on non-work related Internet use in light of two police department employees who were recently disciplined about sending sexually explicit e-mails to each other during work hours, city spokesman Chris Shofner said.
The city locks down internet use.

And there's another interesting story in today's Tennessean. Want some free rent? Try getting a job with Rutherford County Schools. Also technology companies are dipping chips in Mexico. Read this as well. The new fashion trend is to wear matching tinfoil armbands and hat.

Hey! What a tax auction! There were only ten properties and a lot of people. It's amazing how many people come in with the list that they cut out of the Tennessean. They Never look any thing on the web. Nothing. Anyway. There was one property at West Trinity Lane, Parcel number 07008015700, that literally went for $25K. This property is appraised for $2,500. This is why it's important to do your research and keep your cool at the auction. (It's also why some people tell you that you shouldn't buy tax liens at the auction. Of course TN is a tax deed state so I have no idea what to do here.)
  Anyway, Like I said, there were ten properties, too many people, and too much money changing hands for me to get anything. Not that all the properties were overpriced, but the ones that were reasonably priced went for more money that I had to spend.
  The next tax auction will take place On August 18th. I think. Don't be surprised if I have to change the date.
  In other news, my stock pick last week is doing well. I bought it last week at 20.84 a share and since then it has risen 59 cents. This technical analysis is pretty sweet stuff. Just remember to follow the rules. It's very important. Now I think I am going to move my stop up. Later folks.

  Woo hoo! Guess who got paid today? One of my properties have been going through redemption. That means that I have more money to spend on the tax deed auction tomorrow. (Wait, what time is it?) I mean more money for the auction today.
  I've finished the first two movies on the list. I've made a list of all the movies that I should see. For example, I've never seen Godfather, The Matrix, or Rain Man. Well, I've made a list of 80 movies and the first two that I've seen are Seven Samurai and Citizen Kane. They are both pretty good. It's nice to see the basis of Mr. Burns ofThe Simpsons, but I highly recommend buying Seven Samurai. It's also really great if you like westerns.
  That's all I've got for now. I'm going to read a little bit, and then I'm going to get some sleep. Later folks.

  Today's load of crap brought to you by Yahoo. Marvel loses nearly 20 percent of it's share price (chart) in two weeks in June/July and blames it on an insider sale in March. Now you can go look at the chart.
  Just so you know. I no longer own Marvel. My stop kicked and minimized my loss. I guess that's what I get for not following the rules of technical analysis. Always follow the rules. I hadn't been given the green light and tried to predict what would happen. Never try to predict what the stock market is going to do. Most times it will prove you wrong. (Of course, I really did expect a rally after the movie came out.) If you notice, the five day, never moved above the 20 day. (Close, but no cigar) Once it started heading south, it just picked up speed.
  The bull goes up the steps, but the bear goes out the window. That's why stops are so important. Because Marvel lost more than 20 percent in two days, and it might go down more.
  The funny thing is that the article talks about how much the stock moved up Thursday, but gave up most of that on Friday. That's what called a dead cat bounce.

  Hey folks! It's that time of year again! Uncle Dave Macon Days begins today. So if you are near the Murfreesboro area and are a hardcore cracker (Or just like to see some.) the party starts at 4 PM. I highly recommend the Freestyle Dance. All the dancing competitions begin at 5:30. Come watch some white folks with rhythm. (But no soul.)
  Also there will be a parade Saturday morning at 10 am. It's the motorless parade. So that means horses, mules, and donkeys. It also means don't be driving your car down Broad Street or Main Street that day, until your are sure you've given enough time to have all the poop cleaned off the road.
  It's also your chance to see some old photos of Murfreesboro/Murfreesborough. That's the reason I like to go. Well that and the fact that I admire white people with rhythm.

  Guess who I just saw on TV? It's the Pets.com Sock Puppet. (Should I say former Pets.com spokespuppet?) He's currently pitching car financing for those with poor credit. The slogan is "Everyone deserves a second chance." Here's an article about it.
  It seems that there is a lot of talk about Kerry choice of Edwards VP. That it's the reason that Wall Street has been doing so badly. No, I'm not making this stuff up. Read the article. It just goes to show how much CNN knows. They obviously don't know why the market is down, so they just guess. The thing about investing is that no one has a clue. No one. That's what makes it so difficult. So everyone offers an opinion and then you have hard time sorting through the useless stuff.
  I mean look at Marvel. It's lost about 20 percent in the past month. Heck, it's almost lost that much in the past week. Thank goodness for stops. I'm out and it's saved me a lot of hurt. I'll will be watching it to see just how much it moves in the future.
  The next two items should not be viewed by anyone. Just to let you know you've been warned.
  Here's a couple who have raised fourteen thousand dollars for the rain forest. How? By having sex in public. How do they raise it? I have no idea. It's seems kind of silly if you ask me. I can't imagine people having sex in public for money. After all, I know lots of folks willing to do that for free.
  It's amazing how close minded people can be.

WASHINGTON -- Reading from the Bible on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch endorsed a federal judicial nominee who wrote that wives should have a subordinate role in marriage, with the Utah Republican emphasizing "millions and millions of people will agree with" that view.

Read the article. Now this article doesn't really need to be posted here. I'm always surprised by just how subordinate people think that females ought to be. The truth is I think that is crap. I think that Women are important as men in the marriage. Knowing some of the guys that I know, the women should be wearing the pants. This is a recommendation for The Stepford Wives. It's these guys dream world.
  Of course, the reason why this article sticks out is that it mentions Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. I've heard this name before. Apparently he's been upsetting people quite a bit for quite a while. Here is an extremely graphic article about Mr Santorum. Don't read this if you get upset over anything. Really. Somebody must really hate that guy.
  I on the other hand, support gay marriage. Oh it's still a sin, but then again, why should I push my religious views on anyone else? Just so you know Nader supports Gay Marriage.
  Market's open. I'll talk to you later.

  I'm so pathetic. A co-worker and I have been listing movies that we should see. He likes to think of himself as a bit of a movie expert. The funny thing is that he's seen Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but never seen the Godfather. Of course, I also am in that boat. We both know about it. We've recognized the spoof in Mallrats, but never actually sat down to watch it.
  So I've been pitching movies to him because he thinks that to be a true movie expert then he needs to see all of these movies like The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Know that one? Try "Badges! We don't need no steenkin badges!" Did you know that the line "No ticket" from Dogma is from Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade? Or that the Muppet Rizzo is a reference to Midnight Cowboy? Or that J., the middle initial of all the male Simpsons, is a reference to Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose?
  Well, his goal is to see these tons of films he's missed. Including the good ones like Jaws or the Seven samurai. (Ones I've missed as well.)
  It's become my inspiration to subscribe to Netflix. I signed up today and added movies to my rental list. Total number of movies? 80. And that's not including the series of films that I haven't seen like the Fistful Of Dollars. I'm so pathetic.

  Sometimes Blogger just bugs the crap out of me. Yesterday, I write this big long post about technical analysis and moving averages and then I find out that my images won't fit. When I shrink them down, they lose so much resolution that they become unreadable. So I guess I have to launch them in new windows. That's not exactly what I wanted, but I guess it'll have to do. Anyway, there's my post on moving averages. I can not stress enough the importance of using stops. I also just wanted to point out the chart for Southwest was a six month chart. With a purchase price of 17 dollars a share, a $2.50 profit figures out to be a 14 percent return. Actually, it's a little greater than that, but that's close enough for government work.
  The thing about technical analysis is that it works because people follow it. And people follow it because it works. It's a vicious cycle, that could easily lead to another stock market crash. That's why you must always use a stop. Always.

  Okay, folks. Here's a new term for you. It's called a Moving Average. Now that we've gotten rid of the line chart, I'm going to reintroduce it. In Technical Analysis, there is a item called the Moving Average. See figure one.
  Now the thing about the Moving average is this. It tries to predict which way the stock is going to go. The line above is a twenty day moving average. It looks at how the stock has moved in the past twenty days and then guesses what it is going to do. If the past twenty has been up days, line predicts that the stock will go up. If the past twenty days have been down days, it predicts that the stock will go down. Unfortunately, a twenty moving average is not exactly accurate and does not respond well to the changes of a stock. That's why around the beginning of April, while the stock goes up, the moving average is still going down. See figure 2.
  Now of course, if you look at the five day moving average, then it is much more responsive. Notice around the beginning of April that the moving average moves up more quickly as the stock goes up. The stock still jumps above the line, but the line moves almost as quickly as the stock does. See Figure 3
  Now there are three moving averages here. The moving averages are set to five, twenty, and two hundred days. There are a couple of reasons for the 200 day moving average.
  First off, it shows the general direction of the stock. May people say you should only buy stock that is moving up. According to this strategy, you should not buy Southwest airlines. (at least not at the time of this writing)
Secondly, some people use this as a second indicator.
Thirdly, I am red-green colorblind and often times mix up the 5 and 20 day moving average unless I make one of them black.
  Now the most common trick in moving averages is to buy and sell depending on the location of the moving averages. If you would have bought when the 5 day moved above the twenty day and sold when the situations reversed, you would have noticed a very interesting phenomena.
  You would have bought near the beginning of April ($14.00), and sold near the beginning of May. (14.75?) realizing a total profit of 75 cents.
  You would have bought in the middle of May ($15.00) and sold near the middle of June. (15.50) In couple of days you would have realized that this was a false signal and bought back in. (15.75)
  Of course you would have lost a quarter, which I will discuss later. Had you been using stops you wouldn't.
  the chart ends at a value of seventeen dollars. I can tell you however that it did come down the next day. After a week's worth of trading it's given up a dollar, but not the signal.
  So what are the total gains on this chart? Seventy five cents for the first trade. Then fifty cents before the false signal and a dollar twenty five afterwards. That's 2.50 a share in six months. If you had bought Southwest at the beginning of the chart ($16.00) and sold at the end of the chart ($17.00) you would have only made a dollar.
  This is the sort of thing that creates day traders. Before you try this you should always back test the stock. It doesn't always work. Especially with Microsoft, but that will be for another day. This post has gotten long enough. Good night folks.
  Read more about technical analysis.