Dutch uncle:

"...a person who issues frank...comments and criticism to educate, encourage, or admonish someone."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_uncle

A dutch uncle may be helpful to someone with a wooden head. :)

Dear Bill,

So there IS a free lunch, huh? That's good news; I always suspected that there was.
Has anyone noticed that the subtle application of indicators is key to timing stock purchases. This is either mindlessly simple or something you've never though of, but the best trades happen when the 20 day has flattened and begins to rise as the price intersects it. I myself have done so many stupid things, but this basic guideline explains why buying HL the other day was "early", for example. watch the action around 20 day sma's and you'll see (or have already seen) what I mean.
To STOCKTRADER....I remember the late 90's though I was not in this business. I remember the phony underwritings, I remember the fake, make-believe companies (theglobe.com?) and I remember how legions of the ill-informed booked fabulous paper profits during the period. My mom and I used to laugh at the dot-com names and with each new make-believe company, we laughed harder and harder. Problem was, most of the neophyte players had even less of an idea how to read a chart than I do, and they left the money on the table. I know one guy who still hasn't sold his '99 ebay and amazon purchases.
My sister used to work at DLJ making the phony research reports used to justify the nosebleed valuations used to sucker the widows and dentists. Her "associate" was famous for concocting the so-called "lifetime value of a customer metric", among other hideous lies. Analysts are and always will be nothing more than propogandists, and, in my opinion, that was the bubble bursting, that was when all this should by rights have ended. And all that has come since has been denouement.

Chris

US stock index-futures drop on profit concerns - Bloomberg Live

---

GS Abbey Cohen again raises targets on mighty US stock indices. Oh Yeah !

LBO dealmakers provided backlash from mutual funds - Bloomberg Live.

----

Finally recycling companies from public to private and vice versa is hurting the big guys. Oh Yeah !

Charles Schwab & Co. (SCHW) lowered the initial investment minimum required
for Schwab Funds to $100, effective immediately.

The San Francisco company's investment minimums previously ranged from $1,000
to $2,500 depending on the fund and account type.

---

Home Equity/Credit Card loans maxed out. Oh Yeah !

IBN chart looks very volatile. More gaps on the daily than you'll see in an English smile.

Bill,
Wow, looking forward to the multiple Cara groups and your book. My ancient downloader that serves an ancient software program can not handle anymore tickers. Talking with the provider for permission to use two downloaders to get around this problem. My count is 7 new lists. Will you be keeping the Cara Global 100? If so, I need to figure out how to handle 800 tickers. This strikes me as a heck of a resource. Thank you.

UXG,ABB,BMD on sale today, down 2-3%

Broad based decline across all US stock indices - Bloomberg Live

----

GS Abbey Cohen again raises targets on mighty US stock indices. Oh Yeah !

Chris -

Despite a few egregious examples of possible conflicts (see UBS subprime fiasco re: buy ratings), I agree with Bill that research quality & disclosure has generally improved since regulations have been tightened. I share, nonetheless, your visible frustration with the sway their reactive re-appraisal of a company's ratings holds on price action. Recent example being AMZN with a few changing recommendations from sell to buy overnight & price targets by $20+ on a single quarterly result. What an epiphany.

In the end, they are put in the impossible position to issue unidirectional opinions (rather than a AZ/DZ-type approach) for next 12 months. To avoid the appearance of too-frequent adjustments in response to price action, the easy route is to raise price targets along with the rising market tide.

JML

Confession of a repeat offender. I don't know if others experience this but when I read caution in the mkt I have a tug of war of emotions about how to process it. One voice says to raise more cash. Another voice resists saying don't try to over anticipate. Mr. Greedy feels that returns are nothing spectacular and that the only way to make money is to be in the market. Do not settle for mediocrity. Mr. Fear says it's not much fun to be a deer in the highway. Bottom line...knowing how to manage a portfolio when facing the emotional twist and turns , I think, is such an important skill that when awol can undo a lot of other strengths. In real time, I have an rmy of of rebellious generals who can muck things up.

Fear won this morning. Raised cash, 48%. But, not happy to sell with large daily discount. Still holding gold miners, no gld position., with BBH and PPA. Now, have to think of re-entry plan. Scratching my head wondering if this is the old me who gets manipulated by old pros.

Anyone looking at oil today?

The Energy Department said Wednesday it rejected as "too high" all bids for the purchase of up to 4 million barrels of crude oil to have been shipped in June to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

The DOE move came a day after Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said the department didn't plan to take any "emergency" action even as retail gasoline prices increasingly topped $3 a gallon across the country and moved toward record levels set post-Katrina of $3.069 on a nationwide average.

The SPR, designed as emergency buffer against sustained disruptions in crude oil supply, currently holds 689.3 million barrels of crude in underground salt caverns along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4769698.html

Regarding the analysts, they are a great source of information to be considered with other sources. For example, the BMO Gold report Bill mentioned gives you all related detail to reserves and costs for miners from the largest to the very small. It is a great way to get a starting point for doing your own research and saves hours of trying to calculate these yourself.

The people who get burned by analysts are the ones who don't do their own due dilegence and probably watch a lot of CNBC!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/18547157

Today ... at 0100 hours Nigerian time (0000 GMT), fighters of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked and destroyed three major pipelines in Bayelsa State of the Niger Delta," the group said.

http://www.energia.gr/indexengr.php?newsid=14147&lang=en

A blast has destroyed a section of one of the main gas pipelines in Ukraine exporting Russian gas to Europe, Ukraine's emergencies ministry said.

Bill -

I am reading the Wisdom Of Crowds which makes the case that diverse groups, if structured properly, make decisions that are usually better than any single person in the group. I was thinking that the stock market is the ultimate application of this because of the large amount of information involved and knowledge needed. The author touches on this subject with the example of the Challenger disaster. The market seemed to assign blame to the company responsible for the O-rings within hours even though no one publically blamed the O-rings for several days.

Once you get these research groups set up you may want to consider creating a voting mechanism to let the group rank stocks. We could harness the group's knowledge to outperform the market.

Ah Jasper, sounds familiar.

The trick it seems is to get the cycle right, have more cash for corrections and to sell euphoria, not the opposite!

Hard if you catch yourself playing defense when you need to play offense.

Difficult to master fear of loss as opposed to buying low, which REQUIRES the appearance of loss.

Just ask me about my MPEL buys yesterday. Not looking particularly ingenius today, but I'm good being patient and maybe buying a bit more down here. I only held a 50% position at last night's close, so I have a little wiggle room. If I was fully invested in a position in MPEL I might be more defensive.

Sorry, this is a bit off the subject. I know we have disected the demise of real estate on this blog time and time again, but I had to share this with everybody. I think we are approaching a new low. Agents paying for two years of mortgage payments? Madness!!!

http://www.wepayyourmortgagepayments.com/

Sadly, I have a book fetish. I've not read the wisdom of crowds, but went to Amazon. I know that Bill has a poor opinion of Amazon, but as a reader, I think that Amazon is nothing short of amazing, particularly when I want to research books by a particular author. Their prices are consistently less than B&N, though I must confess, that I adore going into B&N and browsing through the bargain bins to find little gems.

Anyway....here's a little more color on Moab's Wisdom of Crowds

"If four basic conditions are met, a crowd's "collective intelligence" will produce better outcomes than a small group of experts, Surowiecki says, even if members of the crowd don't know all the facts or choose, individually, to act irrationally. "Wise crowds" need (1) diversity of opinion; (2) independence of members from one another; (3) decentralization; and (4) a good method for aggregating opinions. The diversity brings in different information; independence keeps people from being swayed by a single opinion leader; people's errors balance each other out; and including all opinions guarantees that the results are "smarter" than if a single expert had been in charge."

As I think about the concept of the wisdom of crowds and the underlying tenets to support the thesis, does the collective market really represent that? I don't know the answer, and I've not really contemplated it much. Nevertheless, it is something interesting to think about. With respect to the market, and the fact that it is a zero sum game, I have to wonder if the market really is represented by the wisdom of crowds. Juxtapose the Great Fool Theory against the Wisdom of Crowds and you have a true riddle!

Moab, when you finish the book, kindly give an opinion.

Craig, re MPEL...

a suggestion for you to check out and consider, if you have not yet done so...

I read that MPEL is unlocking 60.25mill shares on June 18th

I have not verified this info by checking SEC. filings.

regards,

joey

RE: I know many of these analysts, and most of the ones I know are professional.

I think ones you know may be good. But many of them are changing their ratings like 60 seconds day traders to make money for their propierty trading desks and their home run hedge funds. There is always going to be conflict of interest and as long as it exists, analyst ratings will always be a suspect.

You want proof. Check this out
http://www.andykessler.com/

Andy Kessler is a former MS analyst.

Anyone see how the Stock of the year doing today?
up .30 at 4.6

MPEL added more.
GRS thinking of adding more.

Re: IBN

Here is a view of ICICI from another Indian perspective. It is not necessarily inconsistent with that in the FT article, just different.

http://blog.investraction.com/2007/03/bad-icici-lombard-experience-and.html.

The last ten or so paragraphs are perhaps most germane for those interested in IBN.

I have no position in IBN.

JD

Leisa

Charles Mackay's "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" is available for online reading (in its entirety) at http://www.econlib.org/library/Mackay/macEx.html

Large groups of humans ever prove to be a hoot!

Leisa,

Excellent points. I think with alleged manipulation of economic reports, clear manipulation of stock prices, and stories of the day like goldilocks, the market as a whole is given a large amount of disinformation. Cramer explained in his video how this works. If the disinformation is not filtered out it will negatively impact the decision process for sure. I think the market as a whole is influenced by the disinformation and by group psychology. Independence of opinion is key.

The other issue is the manias that investors are subject to. This probably can not counteracted as this psychology would be a trait of the group as a whole. But since this process would theoretically yield a list of stocks that would outperform in the mid to long term, where stock price manipulation is much harder to accomplish, it wouldn't matter in the relative performance sense, only the absolute performance sense. Although that is what matters.

The author mentions manias but I don't have the book in front of me. I'll look it up tonight.

I hate to mention KRY but it is smoking, up 10% right now. That permit must be in the mail. Patience has been key with this stock. Also risk management.

Thank you Joey. That's probably two weeks of volume, yikes. THIS may have something to do with it.....

MPEL:

"Australia's PBL Announces Breakup of Business Into Gaming and Media Arms

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. announced Tuesday it would split its businesses into two publicly listed companies -- a gaming company and a media operation.
The breakup of represents a further shift in the management style of the company since James Packer took it over from his father, the dynamic tycoon Kerry Packer, who died in late 2005.

PBL shares surged on the news, jumping 6.08 percent to A$21.99.

PBL said the split would better facilitate recognition of the value of the underlying assets in the group, and will create two "pure-play" companies with attractive investment characteristics.

The gaming company, to be called Crown, will have full ownership of the Crown and Burswood casinos, a 41.4 percent stake in Melco PBL Entertainment Ltd. and investments in other international gaming assets, PBL said in a statement.

Consolidated Media Holdings, the other new company, will hold investments in a diversified portfolio including PBL Media, its 50 percent owned joint venture with CVC Asia Pacific, along with its stakes in pay television network Foxtel, online employment site Seek and Ticketek, a national box office company.

"It is now time to let these two successful businesses prosper in their own right," said Packer, PBL's executive chairman.

"Investors will have the opportunity to invest in a strong and growing pure play media company and also in a world-class gaming company," he said.

Current PBL shareholders would receive a stake in both Crown and CMH, as well as cash amounting to about $2 billion Australian dollars (US$1.65 billion; euro1.21 billion), equivalent to A$3.00 per share, PBL said."

Re: IBN

I apologize for the above link not working. I left a period on the end of it. This hopefully should work better.

http://blog.investraction.com/2007/03/bad-icici-lombard-experience-and.html

JD

Isn't there a game show that pits the contestant against the MOB? My vote goes with Leisa's mature analysis of when the crowd is likely to be wise. Too many investors like me and you'll have the contrarian signal.

re MPEL...does the story below indicate that half of it's shares will go to the for sale block? More weak hands now? PBL owns half of MPEL.

MELBOURNE (Dow Jones)--Australia's Publishing & Broadcasting Ltd. (PBL.AU) is poised to announce a separation between its media and gaming assets, The Australian newspaper reported Tuesday.

Without citing sources, the paper said changes to the PBL structure could be announced as early as this week.

It said the changes are likely to involve separating the company's now-dominant casino assets, including the Crown and Burswood casinos, the Melco/PBL Entertainment (MPEL) venture, stakes in other casinos throughout the world, plus 50% of online gambling operator Betfair in Australia.

Dear Bill,

Your take on sell-side analysts is more fair minded and probably more correct than my own. Most of my second and first hand knowledge dates to the '99-'00 period.
BTW...Did Crystallex get their permit and no one bothered to tell me?
And do thank me as well...Had I not sold yesterday on a nice rally I'm certain that today's action would be to the downside.

Chris...lol

KRY - the only item in the VZ press today is about a local politico in Bolivar state arrested for protesting against KRY ...

IBN: Do track it, but do not buy it just as yet.

The two closed-end India funds (IIF & IFN) down 2% today. Both are currently trading at discounts of over 10% (they traded of premiums of 10-40% in 2006 and early 2007) - so someone expects a selloff/correction of 5-15% in India in the near future.

The India ETN (INP) is also down 2% today.

Each of IFN, IIF & INP count IBN in their top-5 holdings, so if/when the selloff does happen, IBN will be sold too. Between these 3, there is 3b US$ of US$ invested.

This is regardless of dilution concerns with them going to issue US$ 5 billion more of stock in June etc. concerns...

Also re MPEL,
Wynn is down today after reporting and a bit if a run-up last night. Now they're down approx. 2%, so the group is also getting a bit of a trim along with the Asian mkts.

Wisdom of the crowds ...

If I may extend the logic to contrast this with a previous discussion, why then do we see these exhorbitant CEO salaries?

Are companies better led by a CEO making $10M per year, or by 20 high-quality senior executives sharing that amount?

I believe the aggregate work product of 20 good executives would create better and more consistent value. The single CEO would tend to be more hit-and-miss with sole decision-making.

I know many brilliant, hard-working engineers that would be happy to make 6-figure salaries. Organize them to extract the "wisdom of crowds" and you've got a powerful, dynamic force that costs you less than one supposed superstar CEO.

Moab/Leisa -

Asymmetrical information, rather than disinformation per se, may hinder the formation of truly counterbalancing, independent opinions. If some members are perceived to possess an informational edge, the rest of the crowd cannot rationally process their own decision making without taking these members' opinions. From this positive feedback loop, the countervailing weight of less informed players skews toward the "opinion leaders" upsetting the equilibrium. All might be fine if all parties were to disclose their actions in response to the crowd opinion. Unfortunately, the market likely forms its opinion based under the influence of these lead players whose actual strategies are not disclosed to the rest of the crowd.

Net result, one-track, uniform opinions take hold in the market reinforcing the belief that the lead opinion makers indeed possess an information edge, further skewing future appraisals from independence to follow-on. Until the leaders modify their actions for sustained amounts of time (must be sustained until credibility wanes as a result of a reappraisal of the core assumption that the leaders' opinions and ultimate actions are in fact aligned). I also think that the uneven distribution of resources affects the tenets of the crowd game.

JML

Good morning, Bill.

Looks likes this is a "programmed" sell day. I'm taking a look at CTSH. The stock has been pummeled, down six, and what looks like seven straight days. I'd figure the higher rupee isn't helping matters but this repricing seems a bit much.

Alas, looks like the SLW breakout may have been a headfake. Crunching on some ICE.

KRY, I HATE YOU. You're driving me NUTS!

I just charted a comparison of KRY and GRZ stock prices (weekly and daily) and KRY tracks GRZ so closely!

GRZ has delivered, but WHERE'S the BEEF, KRY? And why are you rewarded for an empty bun ?

CFC squeezing shorts like it's January/February again. I wonder if a new takeover rumor would do it.

JML

Dear Jock,

As you know, I haven't been doing this too long..I stood here this morning wondering, (while KRY was trying to break out)... If it does break out, how far will it go?
I am good at buying scary dips but not good at piling on bandwagons, so I watched the breakout today thinking it was just a selling oppty. It's very hard to gaugue the actual level of interest in a stock simply by watching time stamps and intraday charts, so my tactics are to buy and sell when the "rubber band" has been stretched to obvious extremes.
The bun may not be empty, but right now, it looks like a tofu burger to me (which probably means buy the heck out of it).

C.

While nothing works all the time, with KRY paying close attention to block buy/sells is usually a nice tell with respect to the day’s follow through. Early in the day there were about 10 block trades passed with total vol of about 138000. A tell. Currently 32 blocks at 401,300 volumne.

This stock is tricky and risky but pay attention to extremes and blocks for better timing.

Good luck. Long kry

I love all the hype on KRY. Its about 9 years ago I bought in at 0.83c. I have bought it along the way but always when it went below $2.00. It is a remarkable play and story but soon they hype will end. The licence will come but I'm not sure KRY will be the one to mine the property.

I’ve been trying to think of a better catch-phrase than market “melt-up”, which seems to be in every posting here. (Things don’t melt up, they melt down). I was ruminating on this while surfing the web and the ubiquitous Viagra ad came up. Then it hit me: the market’s in a “Viagra moment” – artificially induced for short-term gratification with little possibility (given the demographic) of producing anything of value. Enjoy while you can.

Moly (MLY.TO) seems to have dropped on volume as has a Moly producer... GMO

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GMO

GMO's up 123% over 52 weeks... looks like it some resistance...

Anyone know if the April price controls for China that were hyped went in to effect yet?

"An already tight molybdenum supply situation has gotten much worse recently, sending spot molybdenum prices above $30/lb in mid-April because of threats of export controls by China and the launch of new exchange traded fund (ETF) in Canada."

http://www.purchasing.com/article/CA6436707.html?industryid=2151

KRY:
I feel a bit bad about selling some yesterday hoping to buy back below 4.10 today.

KRY will be forced to comment on the unusual market activity by the exchange today.
If the press release does not mention anything positive about the permit, it will come down very fast.

JogyP states: “KRY will be forced to comment on the unusual market activity by the exchange today.”

My question is what’s the unusual market activity and why would the exchange force them to make a statement base on today’s action?

Re: KRY

This move has nothing to do with the permit and everything to do with momentum and a break of resistance at $4.40.

Based on current market action, it looks like buy the dip has once again prevailed.

It's just my prediction based on past history:

http://biz.yahoo.com/iw/070313/0226059.html

Thanx for KRY comments, folks. Telstar, any easy way to monitor block trades? I also get the feeling half of CNBC's trading contest players are goosing KRY.

Jock, two sources for block trades:

1) http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/stockresearch/screener/default.asp?siteid=mktw&dist=10rt&

good for general block screening, but delayed by 20 minutes, I think.

2) My broker FIDO (Fidelity) ruff ruff, has a screen that show’s total block trades and volume. Also, it gives you the ability to screen for block trades of any size you are interested in, on any date, and will list the size and price ranked by time.

If you do not use FIDO, see if your broker’s software has these functions available in their software.

Good Luck.

does anyone have a clue how to trade this market...difficult to imagine anyone having conviction either way...if you're long, you have to be nervous, and if you're short, even more so. if you're on the sidelines, is there a compelling reason to jump in? even from the sidelines, i have to agree with bill's comment about the average joe being emotionally pressed during a melt-up and prone to making serious mistakes...anyone who held the japanese market during its run-up to 40,000 would have to have an iron will.

congratulations to anyone who kept/is keeping the faith on kry...in this case, the reward is definitely proportional to the anxiety...

no positions

it makes no sense to trade in and out of KRY.
it is a speculative trade that one should buy on dips with money that one can TOTALLY RISK.
then put away for the day it trades above $10.
one should look at it as an all or nothing speculation, willing to lose 50 to 75 percent of their investment in hopes of making 500% plus.

i purchased several thousand shares of KRY, when Bill first discussed it , at $2.63, and have held it since, totally willing to lose most of my investment. a 5:1 risk reward is worth a speculative play.

ewd and ewn ....two of the leader countries in europe breaking down to 20ema. Healthy selling or beginning of something deeper? rsi 14 inverse to price... a negative that can MAY take some time to be played out.

one of these days I want to find a rhythm with less dodging...where I feel that I have nice fat under the belt and willing to take that 8% trailing loss. I've done a lot of backtesting in the last few months and that allowance consistently allows for far better results.

tom lydon is seeking in alpha has written something similar.
http://www.indexuniverse.com/index.
php?section=65&id=1911

Dear Bill,

I won't hold you to it, but I do find your above KRY info reassuring, and I thank you for it.

And to my friend mbernold,

All due respect, I have made more money by far actively trading KRY than any other stock. I think the permit and the dictator guy are catalysts that a little guy like me can try to understand, unlike metrics such as "lifetime value of a customer" and other such nonsense. But I do get your point and I respect it. KRY is very tradable, though.
Chris

It would not suprise me to see GRZ and KRY get marrried. I think Hugo would like to see his gem under one roof. That way he can keep a close eye on matters.

dear shark attack

very happy to hear of your siccess trading KRY.
my point though is i don't believe given KRY's extreme volatility,there are many people on this site who can consistently trade it profitably, and if they try will be left behind when the payoff comes.
i write this as a full time commodities trader, who lives with extremes.

Hugo is busy negotiating control of oilfields and refineries from XOM, COP, et. al. I doubt KRY or GRZ even make it onto his radar screen.

thnx, telstar and, mbernold, your words are powerful consolation.

AMZN is at $61?!?! Where was I? is it 1998 all over again?

going back to bill's "dutch uncle" comment, i would hazard a guess that all brokerage firms and market makers require associates to learn the psychology of the "average joe" prior to starting their jobs, that studies exist on the subject, and that the studies find that the behavior of the "average joe" is highly predictable. so unless you are certain you are not an "average joe," you should probably stay out of the way.

Richard Russell has NOT acknowledged the BULL that began in Oct 2002...until now apparently

No Complaint Regarding Lack Of Comment Headers From One Reader

No complaint here. Personally I don't find it troubling to glean the gist of a comment from the first few lines. If it's paragraphs long I'll skim it quick, then usually read it through. I have to say I find 95%+ of the comments here either useful or otherwise interesting.

Great job Bill!

Doug

Bill,
I find that by travelling through all of the comments I get somewhat of a "liberal arts education". There is so much divergent thinking and variety of topics which I otherwise wouldn't experience. The pattern of the comments also provides me with a pulse of the market for the day.
IMHO
Fred

Bill,

Another Quebec tree cutting tale..... Even after cutting 100 cords a day he was falling behind his competitor and it seemed that every time he looked over at his competitor the girl was sitting on a log with her saw in a loving embrace. At the end of the day he went over and asked how she could spend so much time not cutting wood. She replied " I wasn't lazing around, I was was sharpening my saw!" I would much rather spend time at your site sharpening my saw for a few good trades than slug it out only to enrich the broker's commission account. IBKR: Come to me baby!

Re: Subject headers on comments

I like the current format where one can read all daily comments on one page.
I use the find option in IE to look for comments by my favorite posters and topic. (like KRY).

Subject headers would be a small help, if everyone want to use the first line for subject.

If we organize comments based on subject, we will loose the free flowing nature of the blog.

I think it is much easier to look at a single page than clicking on a subject to navigate to subject content and then back and forth to see all comments.

"So I'll ask the readers, what do you think?"

Not needed.

Re: header
Probably doesn't require any more than what dougll or JogyP did for their first line. I also would not want to see posts organized by subject. (Only exception might be to keep us damn KRY'ers from monopolizing the day's posts.) It is a pleasure to read the varied topics, but if you only come here once or twice in the day, it does take a while to get through them. But the quantity and quality is what sets this site apart from all the others.

Re: Subject headers on comments:

I’ve worked with writers most of my adult life. Whenever I heard complaints about flap copy or back-cover copy or ad copy, I’d say, “Sure, okay, you write it.” Many tried. Writing accurate headlines or sub-heads is more demanding. My request to the Cara Crowd is to footnote, please, your more arcane acronyms. Dialing up http://www.investopedia.com/categories/acronyms.asp
usually helps. But Googling “AZ/DZ points” gets you nothing by truck drivers.

AZ/DZ---accumulation zone/distribution zone

Re: Subject headers on comments:

Please keep things as they are. I like the flow as it is.

Don't go changing, to try and please me
You never let me down before
Don't imagine you're too familiar
And I don't see you anymore
I wouldn't leave you in times of trouble
We never could have come this far
I took the good times, I'll take the bad times
I'll take you just the way you are

Don't go trying some new fashion
Don't change the color of your hair
You always have my unspoken passion
Although I might not seem to care

I don't want clever conversation
I never want to work that hard
I just want someone that I can talk to
I want you just the way you are.

I need to know that you will always be
The same old someone that I knew
What will it take till you believe in me
The way that I believe in you.

I said I love you and that's forever
And this I promise from the heart
I could not love you any better
I love you just the way you are.

Telestar3rd said it best of all.

Indeed, I've learned that in work, in business and in life, it rarely pays to fiddle with what's already working.

So I stand with Leisa (and many others): "Not needed."

By the way, the lyrics are from Billy Joel’s song, “Just The Way You Are.”

T3D

one thing that might make it a little better is numbering posts. when you want to reply to someone, you can just reference the post instead of copying its text. its also easier to keep a mental note of a number rather than scrolling through all the posts to see where i left off.

another option - haloscan for comments. it opens in a separate window/tab, and it tells you when there are new posts. see mish's blog or calculatedrisk for examples. the scroll bar on the right gets pretty small by the end of the day.

the other option, of course, is forums instead of a blog format. with the new cara 100s coming online in the near future, it may get harder to keep track of everything.

just random thoughts, not suggestions. i'll read them all anyway. too much good stuff here :)

Took the afternoon off to golf, then drove 140 miles and now catching up.

Format, subject line--agree, not needed. Some put subjects or list who they are responding to which is helpful, but not necessary to mandate.

Enjoyed the scroll and the KRY updates by all.

Central banks front and center next two days. See you in the morning.

Housing spring selling season a bust, yes Officially.

---

In a report issued yesterday, Ivy Zelman, a Cleveland-based housing analyst for Credit Suisse, said her building-industry contacts have been surprised by the weakness of sales recently, "given the typical seasonal bounce that occurs at this time of year." She added, "Our contacts have officially declared the spring selling season a bust." Many people who had expected a recovery by year end "now believe the market rebound will be pushed out until 2008 at the earliest," Ms. Zelman wrote.

Link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117865978021996312.html

---

Zelman is the smartest of all analysts when it comes to housing sector.

Both Housing & Lending has bottomed. Keep Loading. Oh Yeah !

Charged with Insider Trading in DJ shares.

Two weeks before News Corp.'s $5 billion offer to buy Dow Jones & Co. was made public, a well-connected Hong Kong couple borrowed millions of dollars to buy $15 million of the newspaper publisher's stock. It was their first purchase of Dow Jones shares -- and a profitable one.

Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Kan King Wong and his wife, Charlotte Ka On Wong Leung, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, charging them with insider trading in connection with their purchases of 415,000 Dow Jones shares. That's the equivalent of about 3% of the Dow Jones shares traded during the period when the couple were buying.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117863910433195908.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

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Insider Trading seems to be operating now in full blown mode. I thought these things usually happen in BRIC countries. Guess what ? I was wrong.