With the US traders away from their desks for the next two days I was expecting few trading opportunities due to the reduced volume. Oh how wrong was I, trade what you see and not what you think was spot on today.

Overnight the Japanese Yen pairs had put in some big moves, GBPJPY and EURJPY both falling 200 points and USDJPY falling 100 points. Noticed at 6am on the 5 min chart a double bottom forming on the JPY pairs and quickly placed a trade on USDJPY. Price action ran into the big number of 87.00 and started to roll over, so closed the trade for 30 pips profit.

The 7am trade on GBPUSD was then next thing on my radar, but with the two big seller candles just before 7am I was THINKING that the move had already started. But then we had some buyers entering the market giving a temporary lift to the price, but with the sellers still winning the battle of this candle, it left a gravestone doji indicating some more downward pressure ahead. So the trade was entered on the break of this candle and it fell quickly to the 20 pip target level.

The GBPUSD started to consolidate on the 5 min chart, offering another trading opportunity. Waited for the candle to close below the support level and entered the trade. Price quickly fell through my target of the big number at 1.6600 and closed the trade for 30 pips of profit.

7:35 my daily target hit and I am done for the day.

Learning Points

1: Trade what you see and not what you think.

2: The price action is the most up to date information available to traders.

Quote of the day from Warren Buffett

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royse to get advice from those who take the subway.

EZPower Universal Remote

Para quienes tienen un montón de equipos de audio y/o video, Gonzalo Tirado Yepez alega que un control universal es simplemente lo mejor. Pero el problema de estos controles es que consumen mucha batería, así que para solucionar esto, EZPower Universal Remote ha lanzado una solución, la cual se basa… en el aire. Un dial se ubica en la parte baja del control, el cual se gira para crear una carga. De esta forma, no es necesario preocuparse por las baterías. Afirma Gonzalo Tirado que una carga completa dura unos 7 días y el dispositivo está diseñado para controlar hasta 6 aparatos (TV, VCR, Cable, SAT, AUX, DVD). Su precio es de unos $33 dólares.

I wonder how many folks saw this article yesterday on the Stop the Cap! site:

Cable Companies’ Big Internet Swindle: They Charge You $40 For Broadband That Costs Them $8 To Provide

I had sent this article to a friend and his response was, “if all these huge profit margins are true, then why is Charter in bankruptcy?” Well, a possible reason is that even what ought to be a hugely profitable company can be sunk by bad management and horrible customer service (and I have seen allegations of both with regard to Charter).  But in a way, Charter is the reason for this article. As I mentioned in a previous article,  Charter wants to move to what they call “cunsumption based billing.”

I just want to point out that while people may be slow to react, they are not stupid.  America is littered with the remains of once-great corporations that in their day were at the top of the heap, but then got greedy.  At one time, the American railroads controlled much of the country, especially the in the west.  It took a while, but shippers finally figured out that trucks were less expensive and more practical.  The thing is, the railroads at one time had all the advantages, including friends in government and economies of scale, but they just plain got greedy and priced themselves out of the market.

I’ve previously mentioned Western Union, which at one time owned electronic text-based communications within the U.S.A.  But even as they became more automated, moving away from guys pounding brass keys and into the age of teletypewriters, fax machines, and microwaves, they kept raising the per-word prices for telegrams. At the same time, the price of a phone call kept falling.  Had Western Uninion been a bit smarter, they might have been a major player in today’s world of electronic communications.

Then we have landline phone service.  While this is a bit of a unique story, since in part it’s a story of the landline business being cannibalized by the wireline side of the business, it still is an example of many customers finally getting sick to death of being overcharged for service.

So what do we have today? We have cable companies and phone companies that overcharge for service, particularly with regard to broadband and cable television. The cable companies complain that they are being practically held up at gunpoint by the broadcasters and content providers, who demand higher fees, and therefore they need to pss those fees onto customers – however, they won’t even consider the one easy solution that would virtually eliminate that problem – allowing customers to pick and choose the channels they want, rather than being forced to subscribe to tiers of channels they don’t want in order to get channels they do want.  If customers were allowed to vote with their wallets, a lot of the alleged extortion by content providers would quickly end.  Yet the cable companies fight the very idea of à la carte programming tooth and nail.

As for metered billing for broadband – it’s totally unnecessary and it leaves customers open to possible fraud by the provider (this is sometimes even a problem with utilities where you can physically see the meter, so how much more of a problem will it be when the meter exists only in software, and customers have no possible way to check the accuracy of that meter).

But what I see here is a convergence of a “perfect storm” that’s going to totally reshape communications in the U.S.A. Here are a few, somewhat related points:

• Many other countries, particularly our competitors in Asia, are providing far higher broadband speeds to their customers, at a lower monthly rate.  Only so much of that can be explained by population density; I think a larger part is that in many of those countries it’s just not socially nor politically acceptable for companies to exhibit unbridled greed, and to gouge their customers for every penny they can get. The U.S.A. simply cannot afford to have its citizens giving up their broadband connections to avoid being gouged.
• The much-hated Universal Service Fund should be abolished, but instead it’s going to be expanded to include broadband.  However, the possible silver lining is that any time the government doles out money, it gains more control.  If the government used that control in a beneficial manner — by, for example, imposing network neutrality and a prohibition on metered billing on those companies that receive USF subsidies — it could nip some of these gouging attempts in the bud.  That’s not a long-term solution, however, since those regulations can and do change depending on the party in power.
• It looks like competitive broadband providers are finally going to be allowed to use “white space” (e.g. unoccupied television channels) to provide wireless service.  If the FCC can make sure that smaller providers get a fair shake, this could allow competitive wireless providers to offer broadband service at reasonable rates (note to such providers – PLEASE don’t assume your users will be happy with an upload speed only one-tenth of download speed.  People want to make and share thir own content, and you should allow them to do that without making them die of boredom).
• Also, when the large cable and DSL companies start gouging their customers, it creates a market for all available competitive services delivered via more traditional means (competitive DSL, current-technology wireless, etc.)
• Then there is “the ‘x’ factor” (see below).

What do I mean by “the ‘x’ factor”? I mean the new technology that’s not been fully explored yet.  Technology doesn’t stand still, and there may be a breakthrough soon that will cause all existing technologies to essentially become obsolete. Have you ever noticed that the SETI project, and other attempts to “tune in” to advanced civilizations “out there” haven’t met with any success? Maybe that’s because the aliens aren’t using old-fashioned radio waves. Our current forms of electromagnetic radiation are very inefficient and often, very power-hungry. I suspect that the world of quantum physics is going to provide us something much better, if our governments will allow it.

For example, Google “quantum entanglement” – now suppose there were a way to place two particles in a state of entanglement, such that when you change the state of one particle, the other changes instantaneously, withour regard even to the speed of light limitation on traditional electronic communications.  Imagine that you had a box at your ISP, and a companion box at your location, and each box contained two (or more) matched pairs of entangled particles (probably in some kind of plug-in module) – at least one pair of particles for transmitting data, the other for receiving.  These boxes wouldn’t use radio waves or the electromagnetic spectrum, so there would be no bandwidth limitations to worry about.  Furthermore, communications would be totally secure, because only the entangled particles would communicate with each other. That last part is why some governments would hate it – no more intercepting data mid-stream. But if that principle were developed commercially, your ISP could be on the moon for all you’d care, running off solar power and providing communications for half the planet – and if they started gouging their customers, someone else could set up a competing system, anywhere in the world. Maybe you could set one up in your basement, if you wanted to.

Sure, it sounds farfetched now – but so did the whole idea of radio before it was developed. We’re not talking some nebulous idea here, “quantum entanglement” is now a known principle of quantum physics. It’s just so new that either it hasn’t been commercially developed yet (much like the laser in the middle of the 20th century), or it’s being used in secret for totally secure communications, and the governments that are using it would rather you (and their enemies) didn’t know, not that there’s much an enemy could do about it.

My point here is that if today’s communications companies want to be around for the next revolution in technology (which will surely bring about opportunities that haven’t even been considered yet – who could have envisioned the opportunities the World Wide Web would create?), they had better re-think their ideas about alienating their customers. Sadly, American companies are notorious for not thinking ahead – as long as the current C.E.O. gets his golden parachute when he retires, what does he care what happens to the company in the future?  But the stockholders ought to care, and customers ought to care, and the government ought to care if they don’t want America to become a third-rate nation.

It will be interesting to see which companies survive the next few decades, and which ones kill the golden goose to get the immediate big windfall. But if I had to take service from one or the other, I’d rather get it from the one that plans on being around for the next century, and treats their customers accordingly.

The list:

1) Cancel the landline phone (we use it maybe three times a week?!)
2) Cancel special features on my cellphone (I signed up with a corporate rate, and I added features that makes it the same price as a normal rate. Eek.)
3) Change our cable package for a few months (if that’s possible… I’m not sure what contract we may be under)

The update:

1) I’m not going to cancel our landline until I find a job. I’ve put that phone number on my resumes that I’ve handed out, so that would just cause p-r-o-b-l-e-m-s for any potential employers!
2) I had a $22 “value pack” on my cellphone which I have changed to $7. This means… my phone bills will go from about $55/month to just $36. Woohoo!
3) Modifying our cable? Yikes. My husband might bite my head off… it’s hockey season! However, for the sake of current situation, I’m going to try and convince him we need to cut back.

Half way through the week already and with the US on holiday for pretty much the rest of the week who knows what will happen with the charts. This time next month it will be Christmas day (scarey thought)

It has been a difficult week for me. I went to a funeral on Monday and Tuesday was exhausted from the travelling. I really should not have been trading on either day but did I listen to myself NO I DID NOT. The result being 0.5% down for those 2 days when I should have known better. What did I trade? Heaven only knows. But I have definitely learnt my lesson (although I seem to have had this lesson many times in the past and still I have to resit the exam!). My saving grace was that I only traded 0.25% risk per trade so it could have been a lot worse.

At least Wednesday has been a turnaround day for me

……UNLEASH THE SECRET WEAPON……..

Having refocussed last night, I was ready to start afresh today. No more thoughts of yesterday, I have learnt the lessons needed and I’m ready to trade the right way.

What a relief it was to see the James Bond cable trade setting up for the morning. Entry Long @ 1.6626 Stop Loss @ 1.6611 Target @ 1.6701. Reward:Risk = 5:1.

The trade triggered long @ 0615 and hit the target at 0800. That’s 75 pips in the bag and the last 2 previous days losses covered and a bit extra to replenish the account. That’s 3 for 3 for Mr Bond this month.

USDCAD TRADE

This was not a set play like James Bond above but I have found that when the price consolidates and moves sideways into the moving average it does give a nice move out the other side.

This morning USDCAD did just that:

Not only was there the consolidation into the moving averages, there was also confirmation from the MACD which during the consolidation was making lower lows. The entry was quite close to 1.0500 (the big number) but I have found that if price wants to go through big numbers then it will, it may stall here but not necessarily hold it up completely.

Entered short at 1.0519; stop @ 1.0533. Trade exited @ 1.0476 profit 43 pips. Reason for exit – after fast move short the inside bar was broken to the upside. On reflection I could have stayed in the trade until price closed inside the moving average, however break of the inside bar was a valid reason to exit (as well as a valid reason to add to the trade if it had continued to move in my favour).

Lessons:

To be the best at whatever you do you need to be in the best possible condition, mentally and physically. Don’t expect great results if you are feeling below form.

Set plays are wonderful strategies – they don’t show up all the time but when they do EXECUTE them.

They're not fat, Mom. They're just "big-boned".

Mom finally sucked it up and bought an HDTV flat panel. It took me forever to get her to do it. Why did she finally do it? Because the remote broke on her old Sanyo. Oh, and because cable was going to go digital and that freaked her out because god forbid she should be unable to watch Dancing with the Stars every week. I encouraged her to get a new TV for purely selfish reasons as well; every time I visited, she wanted to watch DVDs that looked like absolute CRAP on her old TV because, get this, her TV was so old, it didn’t have CONNECTIONS for a DVD PLAYER.

And yes, before you can ask, my mother still owns a VCR and watches VHS tapes. I know.

So, whatever, she got the TV on a Saturday and had the guy install it and hook it up to everything. I called her to find out how much she loved it.

Me: So? How is it? Did you spend all weekend in front of the TV watching endless old movies and marveling at how big and pretty they are?

Mom: Meh.

Me: Meh? What the hell? You don’t love it? I thought you would love it!

Mom: …everyone looks funny.

Me: What do you mean they look funny? Is the picture discolored?

Mom: No. Never mind. It’s nothing.

Me: Mom. Tell me what it is.

Mom: …it’s like everyone is fat.

Me: Fat?

Mom: I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me. Is everyone fat on TV? I don’t think they looked fat on TV before I got this new set.

Me: No, everyone isn’t fat on–well, some people are fat. John Goodman is fat. And that chick from Boston Legal. She’s fat. Still. But everyone isn’t.

Mom: I am telling you that everyone looks all wide and stretched out.

Me: Oh! That’s the aspect ratio! You need to change the aspect ratio.

Mom: The huh?

Me: Aspect ratio. There should be a button on your remote that allows you to change the settings of the TV so that the picture isn’t stretched out.

Mom: Huh. I don’t see a settings button on it.

Me: I don’t know what your remote has on it — maybe a menu button?

Mom: A menu button? No. I see a POWER and a CHANNEL and a…

[Mom proceeds to read off every button on the remote.]

Me: Wait! I heard you say Menu!

Mom: Oh! Yes. Okay. So what do I do with it?

Me: …press it.

Mom: And then what?

Me: Look at the TV screen. What’s there?

Mom: Oh! Um. I can’t read it.

[I can actually HEAR my mom straining to read it through her bifocals from across the room.]

Me: You should have something on there that says DISPLAY.

Mom: No. Nothing like that. I see SOUND and INPUT and…

[Mom reads every item displayed on the screen.]

Me: VIDEO! That’s it. Video.

Mom: Uh-huh.

[Silence.]

Me: Select it, Mom.

Mom: Select what?

Me: The little icon that says VIDEO.

Mom: Select it? How? With what?

Me: The remote. Use the arrow keys to select the icon.

Mom: Arrow keys?

Me: On the remote. There’s probably a circle surrounding an ENTER key and it has arrows on it–

Mom: Oh forget it.

Me: No! You can do this!

Mom: Forget it. Everyone’s fat on TV.

Me: Mom, this isn’t hard. You just can’t be afraid of it.

Mom: I DON’T SEE ANY ARROWS.

[She starts pressing random buttons on the remote -- I CAN HEAR HER -- and sticking her dagger-like nails into the rubber. She's done it with every remote she's ever had. And it's why they keep breaking.]

Me: Mom.

Mom: HOW DO I GET OUT OF THIS?

Me: Calm down. Look at the remote. Is there an EXIT button?

Mom: I DON’T KNOW.

Me: Okayokayokay. If there’s no EXIT button just hit MENU again. It should exit you out of there.

Mom: THAT’S NOT WORK–Oh. Oh. Okay. It’s back to the TV screen. How in the HELL do you know how to do these things?

Me: I am a super genius.

Mom: I know this. I’ll just have the geeky guys come back and fix it for me. It’s free.

Me: Okay.

Mom: What do I tell them again?

Me: Tell them you want to change your aspect ratio so that your picture isn’t stretched out.

Mom: …change…aspic…radio…

Me: No. ASPECT. RATIO. You’re changing the…never mind. Just write: A. S. P. E. C. T. and R. A. T. I. O. They’ll understand.

Mom: Okay. Will that make people not fat?

Me: Yes. But you’ll have two black bars on either side of any picture that hasn’t been adjusted for widescreen.

Mom: WHAT? BLACK BARS? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Me: That’s just how it is. Like you know how you go to a movie, and it’s nice and big on the screen, and then you rent the movie at home and shit’s cut off on the sides because your TV isn’t widescreen like the screen at the movies?

Mom: …yes?

Me: Well, now you have a widescreen TV. And TV’s are only being MADE as widescreen now. But TV hasn’t caught up yet. So there are still TV shows that don’t broadcast in widescreen. But mostly it’s commercials now. If they adjust the aspect ratio for you to be auto instead of stretched, then the good programs will show up normal and pretty, and the bad ones will just show up with black bars. But you don’t have HD cable, so it still might be wonky.

Mom: WELL THAT IS JUST FUCKING STUPID. WHY DID I GET THE TV IN THE FIRST PLACE? I SPEND ALL THIS MONEY AND THERE ARE FAT PEOPLE AND BLACK BARS?

Me: …that’s just the way it is, Mom. Sorry.

Mom: Ech. It’s all a fucking scam. They just want you to spend more money. Buy the TV. Oh, you can’t watch it without fat people! Buy some more cable! Buy an aspic radio!

Me: Mom. The world of entertainment and electronics is changing. You’d better get used to it. Either join this century or pretend it’s still 1964. Your choice.

Mom: I choose 1964. I miss variety shows.

Me: I’m sure you do.

In the growing world of high definition entertainment, it is important that tech-savvy consumers have access to the highest quality peripherals. One often-overlooked area is the Audio/Visual cables used to connect your entertainment devices to your television or monitor. Regardless of how expensive or cutting edge your game systems or media players may be, if they are still connected to your screen using old-fashioned analog cords, you will not be able to appreciate the true increases in quality that are possible with HD content.

360. This cable format supports the real high definition performance levels, 480p, 720p and 1080p, along with an updated HDMI cable now able to appreciate the true increases in quality that are possible with HD content. HDMI cables by comparison use no compression whatsoever, leading to an extremely crisp high resolution image, and accurate lossless sound. Since 2003 the HDMI in that the connection is all digital which raises the quality for what you’re recieving. Toslinks have the audio components.

This is also called a Optical cable as it is a super high quality digital optical connector being offered on such things as high end audio purist the Toslink cable offers a superior connection for the high end CD players, DAT recorders, and MiniDisc recorders. There are also some computers like Apples Unibody Macbooks that have incorporated it as well. These cables are digital alternatives to traditional analog cords such as component or composite cables. Traditional analog cables must compress data streams being transferred to the highest quality peripherals.

One often-overlooked area is the Audio/Visual cables used to connect and put out HD quality content. Going for the audio components. This is also called a Optical cable as it is a super high quality digital optical connector being offered on such things as high end audio purist the Toslink cable offers a superior connection for the high end CD players, DAT recorders, and MiniDisc recorders. There are also some computers like Apples Unibody Macbooks that have incorporated it as well. These cables are digital alternatives to traditional analog cords such as component or composite cables.

Traditional analog cables must compress data streams being transferred to the HDMI is backward capable with the Digital Video Interface, DVI, enabling them to connect and put out HD quality content. Going for the high end CD players, DAT recorders, and MiniDisc recorders.

I’ve been tossing the idea around to get a new LCD HDTV set, but I don’t think I will, here’s why.

I got a letter in the mail from the evil Cable Overlords known as Comcast. In addition to the obvious raise in rates (10% hike in a year where the government says that the economy DEFLATED), we’re getting a whopping seven HD channels.

Five of these are local channels, I could get them for free on an antenna. Technically they are on the “Limited Basic” plan for $19.99 a month, but you need an HD box (which means a DVR) for another $15 a month to actually tune any of these in. Do you think anyone wants to rent a DVR for basic cable? Neither do I.

The other two are on “Digital Starter” which went up to $57 and are ESPN and ESPN-2, which I don’t care about.

The last bit of “good news” is that Comcast is shifting the channels around so that all the channels people want are only on Digital Starter or higher. They did add one channel I want, but I’m not paying another $15 a month for the package that has it.

When my Digital Starter promo fee crap wears out, I’ll probably go to Digital Economy, which means I lose the Sci-Fi channel (only one in Starter that I care about), but pay $30 instead of $57. Thankfully Stargate Universe is on Hulu anyway.

So not only am I going to downgrade my service, there’s yet another year with no real HD programming from Comcast and no reason to buy a nice TV.

I may just get satellite yet...

I exchanged some more emails with a member of Verizon’s PR staff, as I continue to try to get a better understanding of the issues previously mentioned here, with FiOS customers in some parts of the D.C. area unable to get Comcast SportsNet Plus (CSN+).

What I learned in that email exchange might be helpful to some of you who are trying to understand why you can’t get Caps and Wizards games on CSN+ via FiOS in your area, when a FiOS customer in a neighboring county can. Or why you could get MASN2 on your FiOS channel 1 during baseball season, but can’t get CSN+ now.

If you are a FiOS customer in a part of the D.C. area that gets CSN+, it is shown on your channel 1. For you, that channel is called Fios1. This distinction between Fios1 and channel 1 is key to understanding this whole situation.

For the DC market, FiOS1 is available—according to the CSN Plus Listings on CSNWashington.com—in the following areas: Montgomery County and Prince George’s Counties in Maryland and then Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fredericksburg, Loudoun County, Prince William, Spotsylvania County and Stafford County in Virginia.

Now for FiOS customers in someplace like Howard County, you have a channel 1. That channel was carrying MASN2 this summer. But, that channel is now blank for you, most or all of the time, according to one FiOS customer who lives there. Channel 1 for all of these particular FiOS customers is not FiOS1; it is just channel 1 and it does not carry CSN+.

The reason channel 1 carried MASN2 for these FioS customers this summer is, according to Verizon’s PR staff, because “MASN makes MASN2 available as a full-time feed. Comcast does not make CSN+ available as a full-time feed. At this time, [Verizon is] not able to handle a part-time feed like that, so outside of where [Verizon has] FiOS1, [they] cannot offer a part-time channel like CSN+.”

So, the only way FiOS customers in these areas could get CSN+ on FiOS channel 1 would be if either:

1.) Verizon turns Channel 1 into FiOS1 in these locations, like it is in all the locations listed above or 2.) Comcast SportsNet decides at some point to turn CSN+ into a full-time feed like MASN does with MASN2.

As for point number 1, Verizon says that FiOS1 is “a local channel that [Verizon] offers right now in three areas: DC metro, Long Island (New York), and Northern New Jersey. As [FiOS] moves forward, [they'll] announce any plans to expand the channel.”

People can debate where the DC metro area begins and ends, but for right now, according to the way FiOS defines it with FiOS1, it does not include some areas that are as close as about 20 miles to where the Caps and Wizards play their home games.

If I could get Verizon to answer one question, it would be: What specifically is preventing them from putting FiOS1 on channel 1 right now in these other DC area locations where there is demand for the CSN+ games? That’s the one thing I still have not gotten a clear answer on.

As for option number 2, this would require CSN+ to fill the time outside of games with some type of content. MASN2 did this by airing ESPN News. I have not heard whether or not this is something CSN would consider or even has the capacity to do. I only know that they want to help Verizon find a solution to this problem.

Despite the uncertainties, one things is pretty clear—a lot of people are losing in the current set-up. Caps and Wizards fans are not able to watch approximately a dozen of each team’s games, FiOS risks losing some of these fans to competing cable TV companies, CSN is not having some of their content seen by people who want that content and, finally, the teams whose games aren’t being seen are missing out on some opportunities to reach current and potential fans.

We need a beer summit.

Everything in the multimedia industry is switching to high definition (HD). There’s HD radio, HD television, and Blu-Ray DVD’s. This new high-definition media requires technology that can deliver this information quickly. The most popular cable used to deliver HD information is the HDMI cable. It sets itself apart from the component cables, because it consists of one cable that delivers both visual and audio information. An HDMI cable is capable of delivering 5 GB of digital media; however they are rarely used at capacity. Because HDMI does not use all of its bandwidth, as more media progresses its technology you will not have to worry about updating your equipment. – Xbox 360 HDMI Cable
HDMI Switch Port
HDMI Switch Port

Happy Tuesday! (a.k.a. the last FULL work-day before vacation!!)

I’ve had a busy morning so far– starting off with a visit from the cable guy! We finally HAD IT with our old DVR last night… it was being incredibly fickle! It recorded about 80% of the shows we asked it to, inevitably “forgetting” to record our very favorites!! Our new DVR replacement is still a “fossil” compared to previoius ones we had (from other cable companies), but hopefully it will work better than this last one! All I’ve got to say is… it better record Biggest Loser tonight!!

I wasn’t hungry right away, so I started my morning with some coffee:

In my favorite festive snowman mug.

Then, when I finally felt hungry, I made some festive-colored green juice:

I included a small head of Romaine, 3 stems of kale, 1 organic apple, 1 beet, and a small lemon. I love adding beets to my green juice! Not only do they produce a pretty deep, red color, they also help protect us from cancer, heart disease and inflammation! (Source)  So drink your beets!!

Sticking with my RTD plan, I had a raw lunch as well:

Mixed greens with organic sprouts and a chopped zucchini, topped with a tablespoon of my new dressing:

I thought this dressing was only so-so…. I probably wouldn’t buy it again. Honestly, I rarely like bottled dressing in general, but I bought this so I’d have it in a pinch. I think I’ll be making my own dressing next time!!

After my salad, I had something much more tasty:

I finished off the rest of my Cocoa Crispies from One Lucky Duck! I served it with a sliced banana and almond milk, and topped it off with a dash of cinnamon. Yum yum!!

Now I’m done with work, and even though I’m kinda tired, I’m determined to get in a good workout!!

Duineil Cabled Cardigan by Jenna H.

Well, LOTS of things have been happening!

Jenna H’s Duineil (Ravelry link — if you’re not a member, sign up — it’s free and gives you access to much fibery goodness!) has been published in the Fall 2009 Issue of Janet Szabo’s Twists and Turns Newletter.   Congratulations, Jenna!

Lasa Cadais Short-Sleeved Top by Jenna H.

Jenna has also just published the Lása series — a set of 3 patterns which includes:

Lása Cadáis (Ravelry link –) is the short-sleeved version

and the Lása Olann Pullover and Lása Olann Cardigan (Ravelry links) — you can also see pics and the story on Jenna’s Knits ‘n’ Wovens blog.

These beautiful patterns can be purchased individually or as a set through the Ravelry links above or from Jenna’s blog.

Lasa Olann Pullover by Jenna H.

(photos published here with permission of the designer)

Lasa Olann Cardigan by Jenna H.

Overnight there was clearly some dollar strength around, EURUSD and GBPUSD where trending lower on the 5 min charts and the Japanese Yen was also displaying some overnight strength, with the EURJPY, GBPJPY and USDJPY all trending down. I wanted to join in with these great trends but there was just no setups forming.

Could I have just gone short at anytime as the charts where clearly trending lower, yes I could of. But with no clear trading set up I did not have a strategy to follow, where would I place my stop loss, what would be my target. I would be purely trading on emotion, some days you may get away with it, but over a course of the year trading on emotions is a good way to empty your trading account.

I had missed a clear trading opportunity on EURJPY, but as this triggered before 6am I was not looking at the screens. There was a clear line of support on the 5 min chart. When the price action broke this line, the price started to fall as expected but then put in a small rally back up to the line of support, which has now become a line of resistance. Price turned at this level and continued on down.   So there were 2 trading opportunities, but both triggered before I was in a position to start trading this morning.

Learning Points

1: Do not go chasing the markets, there will always be another opportunity.

2: Capital preservation should be your main concern in times of uncertainty.

Quote of the day from Bruce Kovner

“The first rule of trading—there are probably many first rules–is don’t get caught in a situation in which you can lose a great deal of money for reasons you don’t understand”

Cabled cowl hand-knitted with pure merino wool. It has an ending that gives the garment a Victorian style at the same time modern. The body was knitted with cabled ribs that gives consistency and firmness to the piece. It is attached with 2 wooden buttons.

Details:
-Dimensions:
Length 18.5 in – 48 cm
Wide 7.09 in – 18 cm
-Weight: 3.17 oz – 90 gr
-Materials: pure sheep merino Patagonian wool, variegated brown, turquoise and beige. Wooden buttons.

This collar is a detail of sophistication to be worn on the lady’s neck. It could be fine with a hair up, with a collarless shirt, both in winter and mid-season.
The ideal complement and gift for her.

More…

Cabled cowl hand-knitted with flammé novelty yarn. It has an ending that gives the garment a Victorian style at the same time modern. The body was knitted with cable stitch that gives consistency and firmness to the piece. It is attached with two wooden buttons.

Details:
-Dimensions:
Length 18.50 in (47 cm)
Wide 5.91 in (15 cm)
-Weight: 2.12 oz (60 gr)
-Materials: novelty yarn flammé (wool 30%/acrylic 70%), red. Wooden buttons.

This collar is a detail of sophistication to be worn on the lady’s neck. It could be fine with a hair up, with a collarless shirt, both in winter and mid-season.
The ideal complement and gift for her.

More…

Cabled cowl hand-knitted with flammé novelty yarn. It has an ending that gives the garment a Victorian style at the same time modern. The body was knitted with cable stitch that gives consistency and firmness to the piece. It is attached with two vintage buttons.

Details:
-Dimensions:
Length 18.50 in (47 cm)
Wide 6.69 in (17 cm)
-Weight: 1.76 oz (50 gr)
-Materials: novelty yarn flammé (wool 30%/acrylic 70%), marled violet, black, green and mint. Vintage buttons.

This collar is a detail of sophistication to be worn on the lady’s neck. It could be fine with a hair up, with a collarless shirt, both in winter and mid-season.
The ideal complement and gift for her.

More…

Cable providers are using DOCSIS 3.0 as an enabling technology.  To ensure the highest quality of service, a complete testing solution can allows you to verify compliancy and performance testing. 

DOCSIS testing should include stateful two-way interactive flows.  To measure true quality of experience or service satisfaction require a ‘Per flow’ test approach in which stateful CPE traffic is presented on the cable modem to CPE Interface.  This allows you to test performance on an end-to-end basis from the CMCI (Cable Modem to CPE Interface) to CMTS-NSI (Cable Modem Termination System – Network Side Interface).  Performance testing includes everything from DHCP, IPv6 CPE behavior, QoS effectiveness and the upstream/Downstream channel bonding capability.

Shenick diversifEye “Per-Flow” Test System can deliver these capabilities.  This PDF is an overview of how diversifeye can help you with your testing requirements. 

Today I took a major step towards starting the craft show process by going to access orientation at VCAM.  Apparently there are normally three people at the orientation but today there where twelve.  Public access also called cable access grew out of concern that because cable companies act as monopolies in our communities, they need to put something back into the community.

Studio Cameras

VCAM Mission Statement:VCAM seeks to foster free speech and public dialog by providing easy access to the electronic media to all citizens of the VCAM service area on a nondiscriminatory basis for nonprofit and noncommercial purposes.

A couple of things I didn’t know about public access TV:

1:  Employees scheduling shows never preview programs before they are aired.  It is up to the producer to insure that no FCC laws are violated.

2: 5% of cable companies net profits must go to public access television.

Its all about free speech baby! And access to equipment that would not be accessible to folks in my income bracket. Now I can film, edit, and produce my craft show and learn whatever I need to get our pod cast started.