DC Recap

DC was delightful. I got to meet up with quite a few friends, the only one that I missed was Johanna whom I went to high school and college with. She lives far north east of the District in Maryland so it was harder for her to come out.

I stayed with Dan, my old tennis doubles partner who lives in Crystal City, which is just one metro stop away from the airport. I got up at 4am and had a bowl of soup but other than that I didn't have anything to eat all day. The reason being that when my plane landed in Denver, the one to DC was already boarding. We actually arrive in DC about 10 minutes early at about 1:05 but the luggage carousel didn't start until about 1:45... what the frick, seriously. And I waited for my bag to come out. And waited. And waited. Finally the little bell went off and the belt stopped. Oh Lord, you did not just lose my bag with the all my warm clothing in it. I started walking towards the Frontier office to let them know but turn my head to give it one hopeful look, the way they do it in the movies where the character looks back to see if their lover ran out to stop their departure, and voila! It was there, sitting lonely on the belt as probably the 2nd to last piece of luggage to come out.

Dan and I went out to Pentagon but security was super tight and you can go in w/ a scheduled tour but you have to book it THREE WEEKS in advance! Three weeks? I joked with the security guard if he meant three days or hours. They don't really appreciate humor when it comes to matter of national security... So yeah, it was pretty boring and you can't take any pictures at all. The most you're gonna get is one of the five sides anyway... it's not like I had access to a helicopter. We then went over to Arlington cemetery, which was creepy, yet beautiful at the same time. That was followed by a hike across the Potomac to Lincoln Memorial and bunch of other memorial this, memorial that before we hopped on the Metro over to Rosslyn to watch the Texas-Stanford game where I met up with Paul, his fiance, and Chantal. I don't know why it didn't register in my head before, but all three of us b-school kids were all in the very first LeaderShape our freshman year. I also met up with Hilda after the Texas game at Dupont Circle for the KU game. Hilda has to take the MCAT the following Saturday so I figured this might be my only chance to see her while I'm in town.



Saturday was mostly just the cherry blossom festival stuff. Dan and I went up to the National Building Museum (I didn't know there was a museum for buildings...) where the opening ceremony was and saw some performances and arts & craft kind of stuff for family and kids. We saw the White House, the Old Postal Pavilion, the Capitol and walked over to Jefferson Memorial before getting to Arlington Cemetery again for our metro stop. It felt like everybody in DC and their grandmothers were out... it was so crowded. We walked maybe 5 miles that day? I should've brought my pedometer, that would've been a fun little fact. My feet definitely felt the impact of all five all those miles as it was very thin on the bottom, no cushion to soften the impact of the road at all.

Sydney got us some tickets to a contemporary dance performance at Sydney Harmon Hall that night. Honestly, I don't know much about dance. I've been to ballets and stuff and I'm pretty familiar w/ art and music but just never been exposed to much dance, not to mention contemporary. I didn't really understand the first performance. I usually try to find the message the artist is trying to convey through different clues or context when it comes to art or music but this performance was very messy, disorganized even... maybe that was the point. The 2nd performance was cool. There was a man who was in a yellow tight, which I think symbolizes the sun or the light because all the other performers were in the shade of the rainbow. The third and final piece didn't have music at all and you could check out an iPod shuffle for it. I brought my own. I think it was intended for us to listen to music on shuffle to get a random song but given the variety of songs I have on my iPod was going from Black Eyed Peas to say Jack Johnson... it didn't make sense at all. I eventually decided to put on something futuristic or electronic like Ghostland Observatory, Hot Chip and settled on Holy Fuck. I thought it worked magnificently. They would play sounds of New York like the subway, the PA announcement or cars. It felt like I was just listening to my iPod and people watching as I commute. The title was called "eyepiece" so I thought that was a fitting interpretation.

Dan let me borrowed one of his tennis shoes on Sunday when we head to the zoo. I wear about size 11 shoes and he had one that's 11 1/2. Paul and Chantal both mentioned the zoo when we were watching the game on Friday plus I really wanted to see the pandas. Headed back to Rosslyn for Rhodeside Grill to watch the game w/ Ryan... we lost, it was pretty miserable. I was going to Kennedy Center to meet up w/ Paul as they were going to do some engagement photos there w/ Katy, whom I've heard both Paul and Sarah talk about her but I've never met her... but the weather turn really gray and it looked like it was going to rain so I just stopped by Paul's place as they were taking their dog Duke out for a walk by the Iwo Jima Memorial (yes, I know, another memorial...). I was dead tired. I think I fell asleep watching The Soup on E! by 9pm. Dan said I was snoring, whatever dude....

Since the weather forecast for Monday was rain, I had planned to hit up the museum that day instead before my 6pm flight to stay indoors and dry. I went to the Air & Space, the Art, and the Natural History Museum while fitting a trip to Hard Rock Cafe, H&M, and Zara in there somewhere. I didn't really find anything I like at H&M and Zara, fairly disappointed I must say... I got home at like 1:30am and I went straight to bed.

I liked DC a lot, I hope the weather is better than what I've seen the 4 days I was there. It does seems kind of boring with all the museums and national monuments, but I know there's a lot of partying going on as well, I was just too tired to part take in any of that this weekend. On top of that I can't say I'm too into politics... it annoys me, so I don't know how well I'd fit in here. I'm actually thinking about going back for 4th of July (lots of people again...) or maybe even go to Georgetown for my MBA.

My Favorite Online Photo Editor

I just heard about this new program called Photoshop Express before I left for DC and I gave it a try after I came back since some of my photos definitely could use some cropping at least. Personally, I don't like to do too much photo editing. 1) It takes up too much time, time that I don't have. 2) My personal theory is that it's not really true photography if you digitally enhanced it. 3) I want to be known for my photography skills, not Photoshop skills.

Photoshop Express is almost like the real Photoshop, except you don't have layering functions and a lot of the advance tools but it has just about everything else. Definitely enough for me to play around with. What I'm most pleased with is its ability to sync with Facebook and your blog if you have one. You can also edit old pictures you've already posted.

One thing I fear though, as w/ any other photo editing software is the lost of quality. I usually use shutterfly to print my pictures, so if I edited some pictures on PX and then downloaded back into my computer it's a compressed JPEG file but what happens if I want to print a big picture out? That is still to be answered. Also PX runs on Flash 9 and sometimes it just sucks all the RAM and computing power out of my laptop. They also leave this little caption w/ a link to PX when you upload your pics to Facebook through it. Some minor annoyance but overall I still love it; better than using the ghetto Paint program that comes with Windows.

Go to http://www.photoshop.com/express to check it out for yourself!

My Office's March Madness

Our Managing Director sends out this email today telling us about a little March Madness contest we'll be having in the office. How it works is that there are two tournament pools, the regular NCAA w/ the top 64 traders and the NIT with 32 traders. Traders ranked like 29 and beyond are placed in groups to compete for the 4 8th seed in the NIT tournament. Traders go head to head with each other, the person w/ the higher PnL at the end of the day advances. This goes on all week next week I believe and the eventual winner of each tournament wins a ticket to the NCAA Championship game.

My thought? I'm not trying to let it affect my trading too much. I can kind of see some people doing stupid stuff trying to advance. I certainly would not want to take on unnecessary risk b/c of it and get blown out. The thing is, anything can happen on any given day. One good or bad trade can make or break your day.

But going to the championship game would be wicked cool.

My Last Week of March

Today marks the last week of trading in March for me since I'll be in DC this weekend and not trade not Monday. I don't know what it is but I feel just so... ON. I was feeling really positive and energetic. Everything feels so clear. Maybe it was b/c I did almost nothing but sleep this past weekend or the fact my coach is back from Europe.

I felt the market was going strong today so I was longing SPY or EEM on retracement and I shorted SKF. I got stopped out of EEM, but my SKF and SPY turned out well. That plus a few nice prints in JPM and MO* resulted in a $500 day.

I hope to carry this slight momentum and finish out this week strong b4 I head to DC. Daniel and Jennifer have been blowing it up and they both started the same time as me. I need to find that something that will be give me the edge and just friggin' pound it.

I'm going to DC this weekend. I'm excited! I didn't quite realize how many of my friends are in the DC metro area. I leave early Friday morning and get in about 1:15pm and I leave at 6pm on Monday morning. DC sounds... kind of boring actually. I hope people prove me wrong. It just sounds like there's bunch of national monuments and museums. The cherry trees are blossoming so it should be real pretty and good photo ops as well. Here's a little to do list for the weekend.

Smithsonian?
Library of Congress?
Lincoln Memorial
Jefferson Memorial
White House
Nationals opening day
Arlington Cemetery
Reflecting Pool
Texas vs Stanford, 7:30pm on Friday
Cherry Blossom Festival opening day on Saturday

Trade Review: 3-19-08

One bad trade... I was short EEM and I kept adding to it even though it looks like it's breaking the down trend, down about $400, $500 on that one. I shorted it again after it stalled, although I didn't hold it for the entire move.

There were two trades, FIS and GLG, one dropped and another one popped and I traded the reversal. I made some money on it, but both made it all the way back. I need to start holding my winners better, or take more size or add to them as they go in my favor.

Got some closing prints that saved my day... I didn't lose money on Visa IPO at all. In fact, I made some. I'm not good at trading IPOs yet. I'm happy w/ today's result.

My SXSW on a Budget

Wristband on Craigslist: $180
Platinum badge: $1050
Music badge: $650
Seeing all your favorite bands for free: PRICELESS

Ok, so the free part is not entirely true. I did spend $20 to get into The Parish last Thursday night for the Hotel Cafe Showcase where people like Kate Havnevik, Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles played. Other than that, I didn't spend a dollar.

I'm slightly disappointed that I didn't get to see White Denim, Tokyo Police Club, and Scissors for Lefty. The whole waiting in line or commuting to a different venue makes it just impossible to see all the bands you want or they play at the same time as another band. The sooner you accept that fact the better. No matter where you go, you're going to hear about a certain set or party that was just off the hook.

It was very interesting to go to SXSW w/ my DSLR. A lot of people assume that I was working. Some would even give me their spot in the front, which usually is not necessary b/c I'm already up scoping out the good angles. Unfortunately the good angles, more so w/ smaller stages, are usually right by the speakers. I didn't have my ear plugs with me the first day and my ears hated me that night. Shooting concerts is so tricky man... if your shutter speed is not fast enough the image comes out blurry but if it's too fast you don't let in enough light. Cranking up the aperture and ISO doesn't really help sometimes. And if you choose to use flash sometimes the light comes out really harsh and you lose the background lighting and the environment of the whole show.

I snuck out of the office on Thursday to see The Raveonettes, The Shout Out Louds and Sara Bareilles. When I came back everybody on my team is up at least a G, some up three G's. Apparently there's been something that keeps printing down and they just keep racking up $100 after another. It really makes me upset... On top of that I was out late but I forgot that I had a position open overnight. When I got a phone call the next morning I knew exactly what it was for... luckily I closed out the position even. I could easily come in the office up $500 or down $500. I also missed the entire BSC move on Friday... ARGH!

Trade Review 3-11-08

The Fed added liquidity to the lending system and SPY shot up this morning pre-market. I was trying to find spots to get short but I got stopped out all the time. Then I traded SLV pre-market as well and did pretty shitty.

Nothing really worthwhile mentioning during the market hours. I traded SKF pretty well on 100 shares going long on it. I almost made back my pre-market losses but I tried to get short EEM at the close thinking that people are going to take profit but it just kept going up. I got stopped out couple of times... I did get long once but then we had some bad quotes or what not so I got out of my position.

Didn't get a lot of the closing prints... I'm pretty pissed.

Trade Review 3-10-08

I'm really tired right now so I'll keep this brief...

Had a bad loser in VMW today. It just moves too fast and the spread is big. I was short when it was bouncing and I even added to it. It was just stupid. Lost about $400 on it.

I got short on WCG when it was moving up higher and higher for 1,000 shares @ 46.43 but I didn't make too much on it. It just trend lower for the rest of the day and there was news on one of the health care companies that sends all of them down after market. If I had held to to the close, which I probably wouldn't I would've made about 6 and a half points on this. I know there's no way I would've known about the news but it just makes me a little bit upset b/c I got the high print of the day and I didn't do very much with it.

Still trading SLV pretty well. There was one that I let it slip a little bit too much but as long as I keep identifying good opportunities when GLD breaks support or resistance I should do pretty well on it.

Stock Market Wizards: Mark Minervini

• The fruits of your success will be in direct ratio to the honesty and sincerity of your own effort in keeping your own records, doing your own thinking, and reaching your own conclusions.
• Being wrong is acceptable, but staying wrong is totally unacceptable. Being wrong isn't a choice, but staying wrong is.
• Understand that you will always make mistakes. The only way to prevent mistakes from turning into disasters is to accept losses while they are small and then move on
• Concentrate on mastering one style that suits your personality, which is a lifetime process. Most people just cannot weather the learning curve. As soon as it gets difficult, and their approach isn't working up to their expectations, they being to look for something else. As a result, they become slightly efficient in many areas without ever becoming very good in any single methodology.
• You need to have a plan for every contingency... ... ... The most important contingency plan is the one that will limit your loss if you are wrong. Beyond that, you need a plan to get back into the trade if you're stopped out.
• Many amateur investors get sloppy after gains because they fall into the trap of thinking of their winnings as the "market's money," and in no time, the market takes it back. It's your money as long as you protect it.
• You don't have to make all-or-nothing decisions. If a stock is up and you're unsure what to do, there's nothing wrong with taking profits on part of it.
• Don't let your ego get in the way
• Don't allow yourself to be influenced by what other people think
• Many people approach investing too casually. They treat investing as a hobby instead of like a business; hobbies cost money.
• None of this is a black box. You have all these people trying to come up with formulas to bea the market. The market is not a science. The science may help increase the probabilities, but to excel you need to master the art of trading