01/14/2013 - 01/16/2013 Sessions

No trades.

Standing orders for 01/14/2013 - 01/17/2013 sessions:

Buy YMH13 @13,302 with 13,284 stop and 13,338 take-profit.

(Weekly S1 support @13,298, weekly Pivot Point @13,367)

Sell YMH13 @13,498 with 13,516 stop and 13,462 take-profit.

(Weekly R1 resistance @13,502)

[ For some background and a disclaimer, please read this post and especially this post. For a more general disclaimer, read the section at the bottom of the blog. ]

01/11/2013 Session

No trades.

Orders for 01/14/2013 session:

Buy YMH13 @13,302 with 13,284 stop and 13,338 take-profit.

(Weekly S1 support @13,298, weekly Pivot Point @13,367)

Sell YMH13 @13,498 with 13,516 stop and 13,462 take-profit.

(Weekly R1 resistance @13,502)

[ For some background and a disclaimer, please read this post and especially this post. For a more general disclaimer, read the section at the bottom of the blog. ]

Behavioral Economics Newest Enthusiastic Convert

I might be unfair here: maybe David Brooks, the New York Times' main "useful conservative", has been bullish on Behavioral Economics for a long time, unbeknownst to most of his readers. Strangely, I don't remember ever reading a column of his mentioning the subject (then again I can't say that I read all of his columns; actually it could be said that I very rarely read any of his columns, for some reason I forget just now).

At any rate, I respect him all the more for writing a column embracing Behavioral Economics wholeheartedly and even bemoaning the fact that its techniques aren't used more widely and for much more ambitious aims than just, say, gently nudging people to eat better, exercise more or stop smoking. Ambitious as in:

[...] How do we get people to restrain government commitments now so that debt down the road won’t be so ruinous? How do we calculate the multiplier effects of tax cuts or spending increases among different subgroups of the population, or under different emotional conditions? How do we rig the context of budget negotiations so participants can actually come to a deal? How are people in different cultures likely to react to drone strikes? How do we structure sanctions against Iran to cause the greatest psychic humiliation? [...]

Say what? Oops, I think I've been had! Now I remember why I don't read David Brooks so much.

MOOCs

I am a fairly recent user of Coursera, a leading Massive Open Online Course provider. I have started but not finished (which is, I understand, what happens to the "massive" majority of people who sign up) a few classes on statistics and programming. I am, however, trying to hang in there for the excellent Introduction to Computational Finance and Financial Econometrics by University of Washington's Professor Eric Zivot.

There is a lot of hype along with some controversy (for an overview, read this New York Times article for example) over this MOOC phenomenon, one that has only very recently reached critical mass (no pun intended here) and gained media attention. I find this post from the Simply Statistics blog sheds a welcome no-nonsense (which is what you'd expect from a Statistician) light on this new approach to teaching and learning:

[...] Top researchers end up at top universities but being good at research does not necessarily mean you are a good teacher. Furthermore,  the effort required to be a competitive researcher leaves limited time for class preparation. To make matters worse, within a university, faculty have a monopoly on the classes they teach. With few incentives and  practically no competition it is hard to believe that top universities are doing the best they can when it comes to classroom instruction. By introducing competition, MOOCs might change this. [...]

01/07/2013 - 01/10/2013 Sessions

No trades.

Standing order for 01/07/2013 - 01/11/2013 sessions:

Buy YMH13 @13,152 with 13,134 stop and 13,194 take-profit.

(Weekly Pivot Point @13,155)

[ For some background and a disclaimer, please read this post and especially this post. For a more general disclaimer, read the section at the bottom of the blog. ]

Republican Wisdom and Courage

A truly remarkable New York Times Op-Ed by, get this, a former Bush White House staff member:

[...] 

The Republican Party — once a proud bastion of civic and business leaders who battled Southern racism, Northern corruption and the evils of big government — has for the past several decades been itself the victim of political protection rackets. These rackets are orchestrated by fringe groups with extremist views on social issues, which Republican politicians are forced to support even if they are unpopular with intelligent, economically successful and especially female voters. Their influence was already clear by the time I joined the Bush White House staff in 2005, and it has only increased in the years since. 

[...] 

Republican politicians must free themselves from the N.R.A. protection racket and others like it. For starters, the party establishment should refuse to endorse anyone who runs in a primary with N.R.A. money against a sitting Republican. If the establishment refuses to support Republicans using other Republicans for target practice, the N.R.A. will take its shooting game somewhere else. 

Reasonable gun control legislation will then be able to pass Congress and the state legislatures. Next, Republicans should embrace legislation like the proposed American Anti-Corruption Act, which would rid both parties of their dependence on big money from groups like the N.R.A. The Republican Party will once again be proud to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. And voters will go back to feeling that their children are safe, their democracy works, and they will once again consider voting Republican.

12/17/2012 - 12/19/2012 Sessions

No trades.

Standing orders for 12/18/2012 - 12/20/2012 sessions:

Buy YMH13 @13,002 with 12,969 stop and 13,088 take-profit.

(Weekly S1 support @12,996; weekly Pivot Point @13,127)

Sell YMH13 @13,348 with 13,366 stop and 13,312 take-profit.

(Weekly R2 resistance @13,349)

[ For some background and a disclaimer, please read this post and especially this post. For a more general disclaimer, read the section at the bottom of the blog. ]

12/04/2012 - 12/14/2012 Sessions

No trades.

Orders for 12/17/2012 session:

Buy YMH13 @13,002 with 12,984 stop and 13,038 take-profit.

(Weekly S1 support @12,996 and daily S2 support @12,998; daily S1 support @13,043)

Buy YMH13 @12,902 with 12,869 stop and 12,988 take-profit.

(Daily S3 support @12,898 and weekly S2 support @12,905; weekly S1 support @12,996 and daily S2 support @12,998)

[ For some background and a disclaimer, please read this post and especially this post. For a more general disclaimer, read the section at the bottom of the blog. ]