My Day at Home

Didn't trade at all today. Woke up and my throat feels extremely dry and coarse plus a little tightness in my chest. I stayed home and talk with my dad about the deal we're working on with a potential partner in Memphis. Another good chunk of time setting up some communication stuff for my parents and our wireless network. I wish technology would just work the way they're designed. It's quite frustrating at times. It feels like these technology that's suppose to make our lives easier end up creating more hassles. And what do we do? Create something else to deal w/ that new hassle which ends up complicating things even more.

Last week was actually a pretty eventful week. I got to see Rent here in Austin w/ Anthony Rapp and Adam Pascal reprising their roles as Mark and Roger. Earlier that week I also went with my dad to Memphis to visit somebody we're thinking about entering into a partnership w/ and start negotiating some contracts.

Rent is definitely one of my top favorite musicals. Sure, some people might not agree with the subjects involved like homosexuality and drug usage but I think the emotional aspect of the relationships between the character is just beautiful and the music component is exactly what I expect out of a musical. It inspired other pop culture and spoofs (Ref: Lease the Musical in Team America: World Police) instead of having musicals "inspired" by other pop culture items lately like the Shrek and Dr. Seuss musical.

I remember during intermission when I saw it in NYC, this family was sitting near me and the dad was explaining to his two boys about the play. The boys looked no more than what... 12-yrs-old? I'm sure their young mind were pretty confused about why the two men or two women are kissing on stage.

I did a lot of prep work with my dad on who's going to say what so we're on the same page in front of the counter party. We talked a lot about the new project on the drive up to Memphis... it's about 10-11 hrs I think. I really think we should've taken a flight. I got to eat at Corky's as I wished. I knew it was right down the street from our meeting location. When we got there we actually got to meet the owner Don and his son. Turns out the guy we were meeting with went to school with Don when they were young in Memphis.

Corky's is really good, man! If anybody is ever in Memphis I highly recommend their tender juicy pulled pork. I tried the ribs as well. Memphis barbecue focuses on pork and dry rub while in Texas where I am it's more about beef and the sauce. I can appreciate all the spices they put into the pork, I think I just prefer the pulled pork more.

There's quite a few points to the deal and I won't bore you with that much details. We basically have another product that we have a patent on we have been trying to sell for a couple of years unsuccessfully due to lack of contacts and channels. The partner we're in talks with actually marketed the Chip Clip and couple other products. From our conversation I could tell that they were trying to sell us more on the idea of partnering up w/ them plus we have the patent. Sure, we could try to market it ourselves but it'll probably take longer and we won't sell as much. Their initial proposal was 50-50 profit split which I didn't like. I kind of feel them out to see if they'd go for something like a more commission based structure and it was obvious from their responses that was out of the question. At the end of the meeting to recap all the points my father sort of very casually and quickly agreed to the 50-50 point which I had asked him to not to agree on so easily. At the very least, save that for further discussion or even if he's ok w/ that act somewhat reluctant in order to set up leverage for other minor points in the negotiation.

That's basically what we talked about yesterday. I got on his case a little bit about leaving money on the table... but whatever, ultimately it's his decision. I still have some calculation and projections to run. If nothing else, it should boost our bottom a bit and gain valuable experience and contacts.

My Flight...

Oh... and I just found out that Meiko is playing in Seattle @ The Crocodile the same day I leave. I leave in the afternoon and she doesn't play until at night. Too bad I can't change my flights by just snapping my fingers. If I had known though I definitely would've planned around it. I have to say though, my crush for Meiko has waned quite a bit. Maybe it'll get back up there when she put out a second album. She also does the vocal for the last track of The Crystal Method's latest album called "Falling Hard," which I think is pretty cool.

My Emerald City

I'm heading to Seattle this coming weekend for Memorial Day. I'm really excited! Seattle is one of the few cool cities I've never been to before. My parents went with my sister a few years ago I think... I think I had to work so I didn't go w/ them. Honestly, nothing against my folks, but they're pretty boring.

God knows how many hours I've spent on Yelp looking at different restaurants and what not; probably somewhere in the 6-8 hours ballpark. I'm going w/my friend Craig and we're staying downtown close to Pike Market. I have a feeling that by the time we depart Seattle there's going to be a food shortage.

We're going to a Mariners game, and I'm going to be taking on the 12-egg omelet challenge @ Beth's cafe. I also kind of want to explore the UW area, or U-District I guess is what the local calls it. Check out Discovery Park and the Ballard/Fremont neighborhood and their Sunday markets. I want to try abalone somewhere. I don't think I'll be doing the whole museum thing that much this trip or even bother with the Space Needle. I have a lot of restaurants and little dessert or snack shops planned out but I'll report about the ones I actually went to when I get back. I'm already hitting the gym extra hard this week in preparation for all the eating coming up.

This 12-egg omelet... it doesn't look that big, but I'm kind of scared. Pray for me that I defeat this culinary beast!

My New Shop

I'm set up and ready to go @ Assent now. I've been away too long and I was getting itchy fingers, plus I wanted to trade after the stress test result... although I figure that it might just turn out to be a big non-event, that all this window dressing has already been priced in. Oh well, I want to at least take care of this before heading to Memphis next week w/ my dad to discuss a partnership contract.

There are some areas it's just the same as Kershner and some areas w/ pretty dramatic differences. It took me over the span of like two days to get up to speed where I'm comfortable w/ everything. It really could've been accomplished in a morning or afternoon but Assent only has one tech guy w/ multiple duties. Plus there are other new people starting (some ex-KTG traders) so he really couldn't spend too much time or attention with me.

Once I'm proficient with the new system I'll write a comparison between the two shop for the benefit of the readers. I'm not sure if this will burn any major bridges back at KTG. I hope it won't. And again, I hope this is only part-time and temporary anyway.

My Rumor Mill

Man, I was getting text messages last week the very next day I left my position about me setting up shop at our competitor, Assent. The truth is, I have filed for some paperwork but I have not put a deposit down and funded my account just because I still wasn't sure how much trading I'll be doing and I couldn't quite go through with the decision to switch. I do have some guilt as if I'm betraying the team if I do switch. It feels as if I stabbed my brother in the back.

Andy had proposed a new structure to the guys on the older commission plan to increase their commission rate, an added infrastructure fee, and I think lower split? I don't remember that part. It didn't really involve me since I was on TAC plan so I didn't pay attention to the great details. At least within the discussion in my team the move didn't make too much sense. The purpose was so the company can have a higher margin but chances are we'll lose a few of the top traders that are getting the higher split, which would negate the savings/margin the company would get from the move.

Sure enough, that very same week two very major traders, one that's definitely in the top 3 P/L wise and the other is probably somewhere in the top 10 but has many HP traders under him, left the company. From my understanding, Andy made an announcement late last week to switch back to the old compensation plan.

I'm not going to doubt Andy. I believe that entrepreneurs and artists do see the world a little differently. He probably sees something with the whole China move. We knew we weren't going to be able to trade A shares but the plan is to have access to Japan and Hong Kong. I know at least for me I was getting tired of having more than half of my profits go to fund this project and the number of employees we have working in the back offices. It was one thing if we were seeing promising results but I can't even plot VWAP on my charts or overlay multiple stocks on one chart to compare price % movement. Sometimes if I have an order sitting out for a position I'm in but my stop gets triggered before that all of my special programmed keys would get fried, to which they have yet to be able to find a solution for and it'll cost me some serious money sometimes.

I know some of the employees in different departments and a good handful of them provide some real value. I love the pit guys and the quant team, but there's a ton of people, especially the new hires that I have no idea what they do and I know we're the ones funding their paycheck and 401(k). It just didn't sit very well with me the longer I think about it

There are many reasons why I left and the higher payout at Assent is only one of the factors (and it's not the main one despite what the rumor is saying). If I was going to be trading part-time, I knew I didn't want to take such a small slice of the pie.

My Outrage

So I'm up, can't really sleep... I'm operating on Asia time more these days. I was flipping through the TV and I saw back to back infomercials that just makes me sick. The first was for Investools and the second was for Optionetics. I think what was interesting enough for me to blog about was that this occupied back to back 30-minute slots on ABC from 2:00am to 3:00am.

I knew these ads have always been out there. Honestly, I don't know what to say to you if you truly believe that you can pay $2,000 or $3,000 and they'll tell you everything you need to know to trade equities or options successful in a 2-day 2-hour seminar or some variation of that format. You're just a little too gullible or maybe your mom didn't raise you right. You gotta take everything they say in the ad w/ some salt right? That was my first thought.

Second thought: interesting they would pitch these ads at this time! Does this signal the American people's appetite for risk? My impression is that you tend to see these ads during bull markets, when the market is white hot. Who could blame them? We have been in a pretty bullish run here. Now the big question is: is this a contrarian indicator? You probably have noticed the more and more frequent ads for gold like Cash 4 Gold. For crying out loud they ran one during the SUPER BOWL! I consider these things to be contrarian indicators. Gold was very bullish during that brief time frame, yes. But after it made a "sort of" double top late February where it didn't break the previous high made last March and started making lower highs you knew the gig was up.

There was another case and this one had to deal w/ real estate. Yup, you've seen the ads about how to make money from foreclosure and what not. Well, I thought it was a little ridiculous when a company took ads out on THE RADIO. I thought we'd find, if nothing else, at least a temporary bottom in housing.

So, does this mean that stocks are overbought? Maybe a little. I've been out of the game a little... more research is needed on this.

Final thought: I was disgusted at these ads, especially the 2nd one on options. The main reason was that they played up so much the leverage factor in options, like how a stock going in your direction can make you 5 times the earning while taking on only limited risk. This is true, I won't debate that. My belief is that most novice had no idea the true risk they're taking on or even what to do if their options get exercised (even though percentage wise most options positions are closed out before expiration). Anybody that tells me he can teach somebody in 2 or 4 hours how to trade confidently and profitably is a liar. And yes, I will tell him that straight to his face. Right after I kick him in the nads. Leveraging was the exact reason how we not just shot ourselves in the foot but in the face or whatever vital organs you deem fit in this analogy. And now you're encouraging individual investors to go out and leverage the hell out of this. Hey, take out yet another mortgage if necessary right?

This is just dumber than the kid you will have with your cousin from Oklahoma.