Thirteen years old ... love her imperfect teeth, raw talent beats anything packaged by The Machine:
Movies Watched -- Brawl in Cell Block 99 (2017)
132 minute running time including credits, so at least 30 minutes too long. Vince Vaughn with fake southern accent and shaved head. He has never been able to act, but it doesn't matter here since he just keeps a blank face and delivers his lines in a consistently clipped way. It's a Tarantino wannabe movie. Ultra-violence combined with goofy humor.
There is a funny opening scene where he beats up his wife's car. His wife is Dexter's foul-mouthed sister, Deb. Vince is running drugs and gets caught and goes to prison. His wife is kidnapped so he has to get himself transferred from a medium security prison to a maximum security prison to kill a guy to get his wife freed (yeah, it's a dumb story).
Vince is tall and not fat, but he's not in any shape to fight like he does in this movie, it's just silly. The movie became completely ridiculous when Don Johnson appeared (in sunglasses and leather gloves) to reprise his Big Daddy role, though this time as a prison warden instead of a slave owner. Tarantino-lite.
If you were a certain kind of teenage boy, you'd like this movie. Everyone else should steer clear.
Artfully applied bruises
Movies Watched -- Gook (2017)
94 minute running time so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. This one will put you through an emotional ringer, lots of tears at the end. Filmed in black and white (Spike Lee influence is strong), grainy at times. Set on the day of the Rodney King verdict back in 1992.
A pair of young Korean-American (2nd gen.) brothers running a sad shoe store in the Paramount section of LA ... they have a young black girl helper (whose relationship to them I don't want to spoil), who is delightful (probably won an award for this?).
Comedy and tragedy, especially tragedy. It's well made, but not fun. Tough one to sit through. The poverty, the racism, the violence, the desperation ... depressing stuff. Yellow rating. (Green rating if you're in the mood for it.)
Kamilla lending a hand
Movies Watched -- God's Own Country (2017)
104 minute running time including credits, so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. A homosexual love story. Unhappy gay farm boy in Yorkshire living with his crippled Dad and Grandmother (Nan) ... then a gorgeous Romanian temporary worker comes to the farm, and he just happens to be gay too! Rolling in the mud ensues. (No longer the only gay in the village.)
I found the lout's transformation a little too pat, but yes, it's amazing what a romantic dinner with wood fire and tablecloth can do to change a man (even though Gheorgheous forgot to serve the lager in a glass instead of the can).
I squirmed through all the homosexual sex scenes, watching through splayed fingers, but the movie is well made, it's not terrible. Of course if you think homosexuality is an abomination or perversion or aberrant genetic disorder or whatever, you're not going to be thrilled. But I'm a little more open-minded and can sit through these things, especially when they're well-crafted, and not overly long. Yellow rating.
How do you say 'cock-a-doodle-doo' in Gypsy?
Movies Watched -- Clash (Eshtebak) (2017)
In Egyptian. 97 minute running time so under the sacred 100 minute mark. Apparently there are two factions in Egypt: the army and the Muslim Brotherhood ("MB") ... everybody looks poor and bedraggled. A motley group of people (some pro-MB, some pro-Army) are trapped in a paddy wagon during the summer of 2013. It's an interesting conceit, but 40 minutes in, I ask myself, am I that interested in Egyptian politics?
Civil unrest on a massive scale... captures the chaos and inhumanity of it all. Probably a lot of the comedy is lost in translation, but the tragedy isn't. Yellow rating.
It's complicated
Movies Watched -- Gerald's Game (2017)
103 minutes including credits so well within the sacred 100 minute mark. Movie adaptation of the Stephen King novel published in 1992. It was not badly made, I didn't fast forward at all. No-name actors were good, pacing was good, not overly long as I noted before. But it was disturbing, it's a horror movie for sure. Sexually abusive, screwed-up father/daughter relationship touched on (no pun intended), as well as the asshole/domineering husband in later life thing ... a feminist story of sorts.
You won't enjoy watching this movie, but as I said, it's not badly done. Yellow rating.
Wake up!
Your Jacket Shall Be Blue
Zimmerman's cover is unbearable, but Nic Jones' beautiful guitar and simple voice do the old ballad justice:
Life Without Her
Terrible quality but there's something special about Gilberto Santa Rosa performing at Centro de Bellas Artes when he was in his early thirties ... choreography with his backing singers always wonderful. Es llorar, amigos, es llorar, indeed.
Notes for Chat with Traders, Episode 164
Episode 164 ... Nick Fabrio (84:10)
- Wanted to be a doctor
- Started working at a casino, 4 AM to midday
- Working in a casino is depressing, everyone's losing
- Sold cars after that, was pretty good at that, lasted a year
- Started frozen yoghurt shop, hard work, paid off debts, sold out, 23 yo then
- Retail is horrible, too much competition, frozen yoghurt is "optional" [discretionary spending]
- Doesn't regret yoghurt experience, learned a lot
- Got job at something called Wholesale Investor. Boutique broker. Not high pressure sales
- Willing to take a risk, it's in his nature
- "Bryce" turned him onto trading, back in 2010, 2011 [Bryce Edwards]
- Learned a lot of from Bryce and others in chat room he was in
- Replaying stuff on Spark? [no idea what that is ... it's this]
- Did year abroad studying in US
- Started with $10,000. Lost $300 in first month, second month made $800
- Added $10,000 more in second month once confident
- Built account up to $65,000 within five to six months (January 2016)
- Only traded stocks between 30 cents and $3
- One tick is a full cent over $2, half a cent under $2, and then lower from there
- Would risk $50 a tick on his highly confident trades, $25 a tick on less confident ones
- Scalping when he began
- Watches market all day long even though he is in trades briefly
- Only focused on one setup at first
- Always been fearless about losing money, unlike most people
- Been trading full time now just under three years
- 2016 on exchange to US, didn't trade as much
- Scalper trading off catalysts, news
- More comfortable short than long
- Average holding time is ten to twenty minutes
- Wishes he could hold for at least an hour
- He's holding when he should scalp, and scalping when he should hold, working on this
- Comes in each day with a watchlist, filters through looking for candidates
- 40 stocks on his watchlist at the open, many charts open on Spark
- ASX opens by alphabetical group, two minutes apart [odd]
- Earnings news, contract wins ... these are good catalysts
- From 7 AM to 4:10 PM he's in front of the market
- Received a cease and desist letter from GetSwift(?) after posting four page report on Twitter
- 20 cent IPO went to $4.50 and now it's back at 35 cents
- "Rubbed him up the wrong way"
- Took his information to the AFR [whatever that is ... it's this]
- In a thick book, he'll risk $500-$1000 a tick
- Peruses the AFR [whatever that is ... see above]
- Learned about Daily Report Card from Austin Mitchum
- Internalize what you're doing right and what you're doing wrong
- Trying to grade his setups in the moment now
- Sizes by tick value and liquidity, how much protection he has in the book
- Fair bit of spoofing in Australian market, algo activity, bid propping common
- Recent Cobalt Blue Holdings trade was an A+ short for him
- Illiquid stock, so good opportunity for a move, took a large sized trade
- Got out within 20 to 30 minutes, but should have held longer
- He is critical of himself, always room for improvement, a bit of a perfectionist
- Does all his trades manually
- Only uses mental stops, something else he has to work on
- Does everything off the cuff, all feel based
- If something goes against him, he gets out
- If a trade does not work right away for him, he'll get out
- Scratches lots of trades
- Gets in and out in one go
- He's an adrenalin junkie, if position not large enough, he loses interest
- 70-80% of his profits happen in the first 30 minutes to an hour
- Trades Australian market from Texas
- Mean reversion "wallet padder" trades, "income" trades
- Recently crossed $1MM in trading profits mark... after two and a half years
- Has financial freedom but doesn't really care about the money, doesn't spend it
- Bryce's mentorship was key, learning curve greatly reduced
- "Nick is a freak" ... trading a game that suits his personality
- Strengths: cutting losers quickly, "learn to lose," unaffected by losses, doesn't fight losers
- Weaknesses: shorts too much, looks for reasons to short with obvious buys, doesn't relax enough
- Plays reversals to VWAP
- Not really a charting guy, more of an order book guy
- Internet failures really "grind his gears"
- Has no dollar loss limit for the day, he just grinds back
- Lazy about doing daily report card now
- Advice for amateurs: having a mentor is key, focus on doing one thing and doing it well, size up
- People who aren't passionate aren't going to make it, you have to live and breathe it
- Trading isn't a path to freedom, it's a path to prison (in front of the screens) [I'm chuckling]
- Trading isn't stimulating or interesting to many people, yet they still try to trade and wonder why they fail
- Trading isn't a job, it's just enjoyable
- Don't over-plan starting, just dive in, immerse yourself
- Let the smart people do the algos [or people who think they're smart; Nick is clearly smart :-)]
- Paper trading is the worst thing you can do
- Risk $1 a tick at first, don't even cover commissions, but *never* paper trade
- Read Bella's books, they're awesome
- Trading is like poker ... 95% psychology, 5% skill
- Trying harder to hold longer ... at least an hour
- Twitter: @longhorncapital
Murmur Vague Obscenities
The great Janis Ian singing her greatest? song ... painful truths.