Movies Watched -- A Monster Calls (2017)

100 minutes even, but I still watched it at 1.5-2x not because it was badly made, but because the subject matter is so depressing -- how a bullied 12-year-old boy copes (fantasies, escapism) while his mother dies of cancer -- that I couldn't possibly sit through it at normal speed, and have no idea why anyone would torture themselves this way -- no child should ever see this! 

Sigourney Weaver as grandma with fake British accent. Video game-like storytelling sequences mixed with watercolors, and a fiery ent with a nightly parable to hit you over the head with....

Full red, avoid. 

Lotta tears

Movies Watched -- The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

90 minutes long, but this movie was so frantic that I didn't even make it ten minutes in... the booming music, the jokes, the million things going on in the background, the general frenzy -- it drove me nuts. My thirteen-year-old son enjoyed it though. Red for old guys, green for all thirteen-year-olds.

BTITUDE ... one of a million gags you probably missed

Movies Watched -- A Ghost Story (2017)

87 minutes so well within the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5x - 3x given the lack of dialogue and the dead pacing. A W.D. By movie, clearly someone's precious baby, "self-consciously arty" ... feels like something a trust fund kid obsessed with Terrence Malick would come up with in between bong rips. The story of a shitty haunted house and its various inhabitants.

Stars Rooney Mara, Mara Rooney, whatever, and her cheekbones ... she's skinny in a way that most modern American women aren't ... huge eyes, great bones. Her boyfriend? is Casey Affleck, any relation to Ben the poker player? Beefcake who makes shitty electronic music.

It's a weird one, not terrible, but I can't recommend it. "An unforgettable meditation on love and grief, loss and legacy" ... oh spare me. 

Mouth twist learned in acting school

Movies Watched -- Hidden Figures (2017)

127 minutes long so at least 27 minutes too long -- I watched it at 1.5x - 2x. Enjoyed this one. Well made, funny, "uplifting." I cried and cried, you know it's a tear-jerker for old softies like me ... the story of several black women who worked in the space program, starting in the early 1960s ... not sure how accurate it was, how instrumental these women were, but it doesn't matter, the racism of that era was just appalling. Kirsten Dunst plays a pretty good cracker and Remy Danton makes an appearance. I can't give it a green rating because it's overly long, but it's definitely a yellow. 

Better if she were in white shirtsleeves

Movies Watched -- A Quiet Passion (2017)

126 minute running time so at least 26 to 36 minutes too long. A W.D. By movie ... Terence Davies is gay, of course. The life and death of Emily Dickinson. Watched it at 2x because it's a period piece and talk talk talk. If you're interested in Dickinson, or poetry, or the lives of isolated, intelligent, upper class women in mid-19th C. New England (the "anguished artist"), then you might like it. Cynthia Nixon is well cast as the homely Dickinson, as is her attractive sister, Jennifer Ehle, who looks great for her age (my age).

Certainly not Jane Eyre

Notes for Chat with Traders, Episode 70

Episode 70 ... Jeff Davis (76:31)

• Grew up in farm country two hours north of New York
• [Sounds like a two pack a day smoker]
• Didn't go to college
• Worked for US postal service, in processing center, night shift
• Voracious reader of magazines and newspapers at work
• 30 years old then [late 1990s?], married, had baby and mortgage
• Wanted to be his own boss, attracted to day trading
• $25,000 minimum to join an LLC trading firm
• 1999, Harbor Securities, firm blown up by one trader [not him]
• Didn't matter since he'd pretty much lost all his money anyway
• Saved more money, went to Bright Trading next
• Passed series 7, sat on a desk in the city, surrounded by traders
• Worked night shift at USPS, day traded during day, slept on train [wow]
• Was breakeven at Bright
• March 2000 he went full time [how about that timing?]
• Learned how not to lose while at Bright
• Learned how to short
• At Bright, you picked one stock and specialized in it
• Trade with the specialist, not against him
• Most of his problems were mainly him
• Made money in the morning, gave it back in the afternoon
• Sep. 11, 2001 last day of trading at office at Bright (next to Towers)
• Afterwards traded from home, lonely and hard but also good
• Guys who focused made money, people who didn't adapt were gone
• Got Lyme Disease, got sick, couldn't trade ... inspired him to automate
• You can't fiddle along with trading, bad things happen in life so you have to seize opportunities
• Exchanged his mentoring with a programmer who coded up a "tape reading tool"
• In 2005, Russell re-balance provided a lot of opportunities, he saw this
• His brother also a computer programmer, wrote a program to take advantage of index rebalancing
• Found programmers who also traded, they understood what he wanted
• Should have learned Fortran and Cobol in high school but didn't
• In his early 50s now, wouldn't even think about learning how to program now
• If you're in your 20s, definitely learn how to program, or find someone who can program for you
• Avoid the rabbit holes
• If you're searching for edge, you're definitely going to go down some rabbit holes (curve fitting, etc.)
• Nobody has ever run a bad backtest
• Trend following hard to do when you have a 30-40% win rate, people give up
• Nothing out of the can is going to work for everybody [or anybody]
• You have to work hardest on you .. your psychology
• Your strategy has to fit your personality
• He has now achieved "mature simplicity" ... it's not what you add, it's what you take away, less is more
• Find something where you can get size on, where you're confident
• You're in a risk business, you don't want to make a salaryman's wage
• His algorithm is now trading the S&P futures
• Mean reversion strategy -- most days are range days
• Range prediction algorithm -- knows probability of daily range, will fade spikes
• Yesterday's high or low is hit 88% of the time
• VWAP is the target on most of his trades
• When price gets away from VWAP, that's where he gets interested
• Range is a well-kept secret (Cooper, Crabel, Raschke have done lots of work on it)
• Be aware of "market regime" even though you're day trading
• Everything he does is based on Average True Range
• For example, a 22 handle move will revert at least 5 handles 70% of the time
• People can't stick with their systems
• Automated systems with tight stops don't work -- then you fiddle with the stops
• Old traders just do the same thing in the same way every day
• When you're trading right, it's boring, it's just execution
• Throw away what the crowd is doing
• So much trading wisdom from the past ("the trend is your friend") not relevant for day traders
• Don't be a hamster on a wheel
• You have to stick with your system, only possible if it fits your personality
• "Averaging is groping for the top or bottom"
• He doesn't scale, he just goes all in [scales out in two pieces however]
• He never chases
• If nothing sets up, don't push the button
• Picture a pool filled with sharks, that's what you're jumping into to make money
• Overtrading is the downfall of most failing traders
• Many are operating on tilt, jumping from strategy from strategy
• Always knows what he's risking, structured identically, dollar loss pre-determined
• No slippage on his stops in SP futures
• Traders always rode in last train car in case of derailment [always thinking about risk]
• Good traders are not jacks of all trades, they specialize
• Your strategy has to be about getting size on, otherwise there's no point
• "Single digit midgets"
• You get confidence from specializing
• Two regimes: expansion and contraction
• Tracks range of one minute SP to make sure his stop is "outside of the noise"
• He went from having tight stops to having wide stops -- to protect him from himself
• He knows the percentage of the time his wide stop will get hit -- he never fiddles with it
• With tight stops, he'd be liable to fiddle with them
• You need to be able to trade your system without feeling the urge to fiddle with it
• Once comfortable with strategy, with your stops, your dollar losses, then you can build up your size
• Exits in two pieces: first piece getting him 2.5 points on average, gets instant gratification, lets second piece take its time (averaging 7 points) 
• Two to one win rate on his mean reversion trades [1R losers, 4.75R winners]
• He's out there to help people, esp. persistent guys who don't lose money but don't make big money
• Day trading is not a hobby, not an action junkie thing, it's a business, take it seriously
• Says some kind things to Aaron in parting
• Twitter: @Shaq48_Trading

Movies Watched -- Your Name (Kimi No Na Wa) (2017)

106 minutes so close to the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5x because I've generally had bad luck with anime -- it creeps me out ("Spirited Away" disturbed me so much that I nearly vomited) ... this one was a little better in the sense that it didn't *completely* give me the heebie-jeebies ... but still, it's strange and sort of awful when you really think about it.

The animation is amazing, it's incredibly dense and complex -- and the main story is kind of interesting (the kids switching places in time-space), but there's something about animation from Japan ("anime") that just seems off ... the mysticism, the dreaminess, the hyper-reality ... I just have a nagging feeling that there are some real sickos behind it.

You'll love it if you love anime ... could give it a shot if you've never seen one before ... but it's a red for the general audience.

Getting in touch with his feminine side

Rasta No Fool

Big hit when I was six years old... I remember it well. 

ALBUM: COOL RASTA LABEL: TROJAN RECORD DATE: 1976

Movies Watched -- Raw (2017)

In French. 98 minutes so within the sacred 100 minute mark, but I still watched it at 1.5x because I'm not into horror generally, esp. horror from France.

A vet school is a good place to stage a horror movie though. Made in France, so attractive young women wander around in their underwear at length (see below). The lead girl was cute as was her butchy sister, when they weren't cannabilizing anyway. Not for the squeamish!

SPOILERS: Pair of sisters, both in vet school, discover they have a taste for human flesh, thanks a lot, Mom. It's not badly made, it's just gross and I wasn't thrilled.

If you're into horror movies, you might like it. There were some funny bits to lighten up the vats of blood being thrown around. Yellow rating for horror fans, red for a general audience.

A funny review by Jeffrey Bloomer.

Red light district

Movies Watched -- My Life As A Zucchini (2017)

66 minute running time ... I still had to fast forward from 20 minutes in. Animation from France. Not for kids.  Supposed to be heartwarming and uplifting, I suppose, but I just found it depressing -- orphans, abused children ... dark stuff, you know. Hideous claymation characters (see below). Just awful, and no child should ever see this. Red rating.

Horror story....