Wednesday, February 20, 2008

On a Personal Note

I'm in South Carolina, attending the final basketball games of my youngest daughter's high school basketball experience. Last night was the Regional Tournament Championship games. My daughter's team, undefeated in conference play, 8-0, lost the tournament championship by two points. Now on to the State Tournament.

At the end of the evening they handed out the trophies and individual achievement awards. This was the end of basketball for my two daughters that started way back in the nineties and went through a JV team with only six players, through driving untold miles to remote gyms spread out across the "Low Country," to private schools that make up South Carolina Region II, through both girls starting for their varsity teams to now, the final moments of play for my youngest daughter in her home gym.

Near the end of the ceremony, out if the blue, unexpected, a burst of pride and culmination, came this:

The fifth and final player selected and named to the Region II All-Tournament Girls Varsity Team:

Alana Harris


Sometimes in the end, everything just seems worth it all.

A

9 comments:

hidaya.umrah said...

congrats Allan!

Anonymous said...

Allan:

Is it a coincidence or are you related to Alana Harris?

Colton

Anonymous said...

Following up on an old post (hope that's ok). How did your study of Bod Taylor's gravity/market trend predicting turn out? He's speaking at an investment club and I am doing some research. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Right on Allan !

singlengle

Anonymous said...

A:

Cheers to you and your daughters!

GTR

***Hawaiitrader*** said...

Allan-

I have followed your blog for some time now and although your picks, strategies, and opinions are VERY interesting, it has become quite obvious to me that you spend a little bit too much time and energy bashing the famous Wall St. clown that we all know to be a complete puppet...yes, Jim Cramer. Now, I do not and cannot speak for others following this blog, but as an avid reader of your blog, I wanted to let you know that it is just no longer ammusing to hear about how dumb he is, how incompetent he is, and how horrible his picks are when compared to your own. Personally, I trade stock and options for a living, and most people with any sort of Wall St wits about them already know that Mr. Cramer is a complete clown, is not to be trusted, and MOST DEFINITELY CANNOT PICK STOCKS while at the same time being a TV personality. Cramer makes great money from CN'BS', book sales, and street.com subscriptions.
Have you looked at the balance sheet of thestreet.com??? It is run well, makes a tremendous profit, and for all intents and purposes would be worthy of almost anyone's praise who runs a successfull business.
So, alas, I am not here to back Jim Cramer AT ALL, I think the guy should get a life and leave Wall St for good, I mean he's already made upwards of $50 million dollars runing a hedge fund, time to retire I say. But if you are to critique Wall St personalities, I would suggest picking on people that actually have intelligence, guise, education, and are not directly tied to Wall St by financial strings, friends, and paychecks. Here is a list of ideas...

Harry Dent Jr., Douge E. Kass, Ben Stein, Karl Denninger, James "RevShark" Depourre, and so on and so forth...It would be much more interesting and as well challenging. It doesnt take anything special to bash Cramer and we all know that.

Regards,
Reader.

A said...

day trade hawaii,

good points all, no argument from me, even on that i tend to bash cramer way beyond what was originally necessary to make my point about him. in my defense, it is a sort of vice and feels good, especially with him in our collective faces all day on cnbc.

as for the others you mentioned, i just am not as familiar with their work (they not being in my face...) but critiquing others seems less helpful to my readers then actually coming up with good ideas, for stocks, for strategies, for overall approaches to making money in the markets that maybe have been overlooked.

as an example, one you may understand if you are a day trader, is that it is easier to make 2% on a stock trade then 20%. it takes a lot less time and the only caveat is that you have to do it a little more often to make up the difference. making 2% on three trades a day versus 20% on one trade a month, or even a week, well you guys do the math.

i can point folks in the right direction, but i'm not going to hold their hands unless one has a diamond from brad pitt on it.

anyway, thanks for the heads-up, i'll seek out another vice, or pull out one from my university of michigan days, whichever comes first.

a

***Hawaiitrader*** said...

Sounds good Allan, glad to know you basically feel that same. I do day trade options quite a bit, and have many times had 20%-200% increases in one trade within hours or even minute if I catch it correctly. But yes, you are correct, in general, it is very difficult to have a 20% gain in a month, as opposed to a 2% gain each trade. Especially if one is trading stock.
I think you do great work and appreciate the personal side of the blog. I do not trade penny stocks very often, just dont have the research drive to make it safe enough for me, but I do like following your picks as well!
N=

A said...

day trade hawaii, the moves that underly my day-trades are only about 2%, occasionally a bit more, but hardly enough to trade options and compensate for slippage. Still, I have found statistically significant triggers that give me a very tradable edge resulting in a high percentage of winning trades.

But you are trading options and 20-200% is quite a trade. Care to share some general characteristics of what triggers your option trades? If you prefer, we can take this to email, sort of a "you show me yours and I'll show you mine" sort of dialogue.

A