Monday, February 4, 2008

A Collection Of Famous Political Ads

In celebration of Super Tuesday I figured it would be fun to compile some of the more memorable political ads. If I've left a good one out (I'm sure I have) be sure to let me know via the comment section. But seriously, if you're going to be all critical, maybe you should start your own goddamn blog...

Anyway, however tomorrow turns out, I'm looking forward to the outcome. Hopefully we can start moving in a positive direction again as a country.

With that said, enjoy these (mostly) negative ads.

I Like Ike (1952)



JFK "Smear" Ad (pretty tame by today's standards) (1960)



Daisy Girl (1964)



What Has Richard Nixon Done For You? (1968)



Nixon Ad (1968)



Reagan, Morning In America (1984)



The Willie Horton Ad (1988)



The Swift Boat Ad (2004)



Bush On The Ranch (2004)



Kerry Windsurfing (2004)



The Michael J. Fox Stem Cell Research Ad (2006)



The Harold Ford Smear Ad (2006)



The Swift Kids Ad (2007)



The Choice Is Clear ("support the Iraq war or else") (2007)



Vote Different (2007)

The Beatles, "I Am The Walrus"

This week's music video theme is "the 60's!" OOOH! AHHHHHH!

Let Your Winners Run!!!

I guess what I'm finding is that I find it easier to cut my losses than to let my winners run. Today I had a couple of trades that would have worked out quite nicely had I been a little slower to take profits.

The first was in TIF.



See that 3rd bar? The big green one? I got short there, at around $40.36, 500 shares. I covered 100 at $40.15, 100 at $40.08 and 100 at $40. The first 200 were by design. I'm trying to boost my size again and the way I'm working at it is by selling 400 or 500 and then covering 100 or 200 when I'm 20 cents in the money or so. Then, I hope to be more comfortable holding the other 300... to let them run.

So in the case of TIF, I could have just put my remaining 200 shares up at $40.37 and been assured of a winner on the day. Instead, I covered my remaining 200 at around $39.65. So I made a couple hundred in the stock, but I could have made another easy point on those 200 shares, thereby doubling my profits without any pain, had I just held.

Same problem with TUP, a trade that I nonetheless feel really good about.



$38 was a fairly important level in TUP on Friday. This morning, I noticed it couldn't really gain much traction off the open and had a very bearish second candle. Volume was picking up as it slowly head down, so I short a small amount, 200 shares in anticipation of it breaking the $38 level.

When it did, I added another 300 shares to my position at around $37.85. So far, so good. I wanted to add more, but the stock never really got up near $38 again. However, again, I covered early. By 11:00 I was out of 400 of my 500 shares at around $37.50. I let that last 100 run another quarter until I was too anxious to "lock in" that profit and covered at $37.27.

Again, the stock dropped from that level. It would have been very easy to hold and cover the entire position well south of $37.

LET YOUR WINNERS RUN!

Anyway, other than that, I thought the day was really slow. We only traded 1.3 billion shares on the NYSE today... that's like holiday levels of trade. Not sure why it was so slow. But I'm happy that I'm disappointed at myself when I'm making $100. It beats the hell out of being disappointed at myself for being down $100.

I know that as long as I keep staying green that the bigger days will come. They always do.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $105
Best, TUP, $320
Worst, VMC, -$165

9200 shares traded.
12 stocks traded. 5 winners, 7 losers.

Virtual Office, -$1710. SPX, -16.10, 1381.00.

Evolution, $1170 on 44,000 shares traded.
Tim Sykes, $202 on 200 shares traded.
Me, $105 on 9200 shares traded.
Misstrade, no trades.
Retardo, no trades.
Wincity, no trades.
OBAT, -$190 on 13,200 shares traded.
Sanglucci, -$635 on 20,000 shares traded.
Dehtrader, -$2362 on 4100 shares traded.


Holy shit today sucked. Where'd the volume go?

Suddenly, the market is in suck mode. Hopefully, it wakes up tomorrow. If not, it could be a long boring week.

Maybe everyone is watching and waiting to see what happens in the primaries... I don't know. I didn't really see "Super Tuesday" as a catalyst for stock market movement, but I guess it's possible.

Super Tuesday... Super Bowl... can't we get some new words around here to describe big events?

What I do know is that the volume today was completely pathetic. We didn't even get close to trading 1.5 billion shares on the NYSE. I don't think it has been this slow since the holidays.

Anyway, so we have a new member of the VO, Timothy Sykes. Some of you like him, some of you don't. He's "controversial..." dude went short Wallstrip... who does that?

Meanwhile, I'm currently in negotiations with other famous people so that I can start a "Celebrity VO." First on my list... Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson... Not many people know this about "Hank" but he churns the shit out of his Schwab account.

True story.

I Like Men!

I Live In The House That Reagan Built!

Timothy Sykes, "Blingmaster", Newest Member Of The VO

His story is now well known.

He was on Wall Street Warriors, he wrote a book, he was on CNBC, he sometimes drinks and curses a lot, and most recently, he was interviewed by the beautiful Julia from Wallstrip... but there was something nagging Tim Sykes.

He had not yet conquered Dinosaur Trader's Virtual Office.



So with that said, he immediately becomes the second most famous person in the VO (after me of course, and just ahead of Misstrade).

He told me his specific goal in joining the VO is to take down resident tough guy, Sanglucci. He said, "I'm going to ruin that fucker. I'm the 'blingmaster' around here."

No word yet from Sanglucci.

Anyway, sure, he's controversial, but when has the VO ever backed away from a little controversy? Go say hi to our newest member!

Hugo Chavez Drops Truth On Moblogic

Morning Link Love

Good Morning

Time: 6:35
Mood: Eli Manning Isn't A "Hero"