Hurray for Buffett and Gates

See New York Times: A $31 Billion Gift Between Friends.Hurray for Buffett and Gates who disdain inherited wealth.Hurray for Buffett and Gates who believe that being lucky with talent implies a responsibility to the world.Hurray for Buffett and Gates who have dedication and fascination with their marriages and wives.Hurray for Buffett and Gates who make big audacious proclamations and back them up with actions.Now, there are lots of ways to criticize the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for how or to whom they are giving money. And I hear people do it all the time. But they have ...

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Futures Trades: Long Yen, Reduce Bond short, buy September Nat Gas

June 26th Simple Trades:1. Added to my long Yen short US Dollar position. This position is still small but after the next fed meeting the usual rumors that this was the last interest rate increase by the Fed will send the dollar into another tailspin.2. Reduced my US bond short slightly in the ten year. I'm leaving on the long bond (thirty year) short position.3. I bought NYMEX natural gas futures for the September (paid $6.42) and August (paid $6.25) delivery. It's only the weather that is keeping gas prices down. One hot week in July or ...

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The Scottish Princess says "Aye" to DADA at the MOMA

The Scottish Princess is rare in many ways. First, she is Scottish and there are only five million of those (that's less than Massachusetts). Second, she is Jewish and according to Wikipedia there are only 7000 Scottish Jews. Third, she is beautiful. And sadly for both Scotland and many men out there, but lucky for a friend of mine in New York she is married. Fortunately for us, we can follow her adventures in America on the Adventures of a Scottish Princess Blog.I recommend her blog entry on the DADA exhibit at the MOMA ...

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Washington DC: Road Biking in Northern Virginia on the Washington & Old Dominion Rail Trail

I was in Washington last week for some meetings. That would explain the lack of blog entries. Additionally, I did some road biking and met my second cousins. For photos of the bike trip and the cousins see this group ..

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Reducing Short Bond Exposure a Bit

Yesterday and today I have reduced my short bond exposure a bit. I did this mainly by closing out (selling) out deep in the money puts on ten-year bonds. I think bond yields are headed higher (bond prices lower) but I think we will be in a range for some time before that happens. Now there is bad inflation data and the fed is about to raise short term rates again. Once they raise short term rates, the call will go out that they've gone to far, some positive news for delclining inflation will come out, ...

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Trades For Today: Exercise of Wal-Mart (WMT) options, Diageo, Japanese Yen.

Allowed Walmart to be called away at $45.00. During a panic about same store sales and September of 2005 I bought WMT 45 strike calls for $0.95. I held the stock the calls and in late November I sold and sold June 2006 45 Strike and Jan 2007 45 Strike Calls. My idea was that if WMT fell below 45 I would buy the stock (because that's where I thought it was a good value). Bel ...

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Interview with Eduardo Bastida: Trader and Portfolio Manager

This is a note from my friend and ex-competitor Eduardo Bastida. He is one of the better macro, technical and event traders I know. He, much like many of the traders for whom I have respect, grew up trading Emerging Markets derivatives with me in the early nineties. At the time he was a young Brazilian at ING in Sao Paolo and I was at Chemical (now Chase) and then Morgan Stanley. Later, Eduardo moved to London (via New York) and to proprietary trading at Commerzbank then as a portfolio manager at WMG.I found his comment ...

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Trade: Adding to my position in Seaspan Corporation (SSW)

I took advantage of the selloff to add to my position in Seaspan (SSW). Seaspan is basically a similar to a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) but instead of owning and leasing real estate they own and lease container ships. At $19.88/share it pays a fat 8.4% dividend. It is not a riskless position however, one is exposed to the overall level of international trade and a potential overbuilding boom in shipping. That is why I keep this position small. Also, since the dividend is not part of the 15% reduced dividend tax I ...

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Pride and Prejudice

You know the situation. You are looking forward to a "night in" with your girl. You want her to know you are a sensitive, modern and caring boy. You are standing at the video store with her and she keeps suggesting chick flicks. Well, here's one you can see that while it's not as exiting you might hope have to pick a video to rent and even though you want to see X-Men Rent her the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. This is the classic Jane Austin "Chick Flick" but I have ...

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Trades: Cannot Pull the Trigger on Tech Yet. Though I'm Shopping for Big Caps.

I'm holding off buying on that Value Tech List from last week for now. The US equities might fall more as the equity market continues to digest the prospect for higher interest rates and a slowing world economy. But for now I'm looking to add to some of my positions in the cheap large caps that I already own.

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