Movies Watched -- Thelma (2017)

In Norwegian. 116 minute running time but lots of credits … probably still ten minutes too long, which I could have skillfully cut to get it to the sacred 100 minute mark if I were the editor … nevertheless, I liked this one.

Witchcraft, demonic possession, lesbian love, religious fundamentalism, psychogenic non-epileptic seizures, repressed memories, beautiful Scandinavian actresses, it has it all … and it’s a well-crafted thriller … recommended! A rare green rating from the Chairman.

(David Edelstein wrote that it’s like “Carrie remade by Ingmar Bergman,” which made me laugh.)

So far from the 2017 movies I’ve watched, I can recommend this one, Land of Mine, Graduation, and Wind River.

Lord, save me from these thoughts

Movies Watched -- The Shape of Water (2017)

119 minute running time which means that it’s 20 to 30 minutes too long. Weird one and sort of wonderful. Lead actress was brilliant, never seen her before. Agent Van Alden plays an eviler Agent Van Alden, Larry Gopnik plays a Russian-speaking Larry Gopnik, and Nathaniel Fisher plays a gay Nathaniel Fisher.

Stylized sixties look, reverse monster story (the humans are the monsters), it was darn strange, original even, and I would give it a green rating except that it’s overly long and I didn’t like seeing those familiar actors named above playing their familiar roles, or the violence at the end. Solid yellow rating, definitely consider seeing if you’re into wacky.

Rex hated it. “Not as stupid and pointless as that other critically overrated piece of junk Get Out, but determined to go down trying.“ God bless Rex!

Do Not Tap On The Glass

Movies Watched -- Lucky (2017)

86 minute running time but felt much longer since it’s a talk talk talk movie. I could only watch it at 2x ffwd; it’s about as slow as the hit-you-over-the-head metaphorical tortoise who lumbers across the screen at beginning and end. Harry Dean Stanton is 90 years old here and looks every day of it, an old smoker look (he died shortly before the movie was released). Harry is a now-harmless curmudgeon, crab walking around some dead town in the southwest.

David Lynch also looks about 90 years old and still talks in that weird way he always has. I’m sure that both the writer (an X-er named Drago) and director (Norm Gunderson) thought this was “precious,” a sort of respectful send-off for or tribute to old Harry Dean, but I wasn’t thrilled with it. May appeal to Boomers who are approaching death, but it’s an avoid for everyone else. Red rating.

(Dick Brody also didn’t like it.)

Mourning President Roosevelt

Movies Watched -- Land Of Mine (2017)

In German and Danish. 101 minute running time, so a good length, though I could have trimmed a few minutes off to get it within the sacred 100 minute mark if I were the editor. The story of German POWs (teenage boys in this case) who were forced to clear mines from the west coast of Denmark following the war. A Danish sergeant is their commander (more like a scoutmaster), and he’s alternately cruel and kind … in the end he proves to be merciful and just.

The Danish title is Under Sandet (Under the Sand) which is not as clever as the English title.

I liked this movie. It’s not perfect (predictable at times), and it’s not entertainment or a pleasure to watch, but it’s well constructed and well acted, and it gets a green rating, a rare recommendation from the Chairman.

So far among the 2017 movies I’ve seen, I’ve liked Wind River, Graduation, and this one.

Bist du ein Mann?

Movies Watched -- BPM (Beats Per Minute) (2017)

In French. 146 minute running time so at least 46 minutes too long. A terminal illness movie (AIDS, then), not easy to sit through. Combined with multiple homosexual sex scenes, damn near impossible to sit through (bearable at 2-3x ffwd). But the re-creation of the meetings of the Paris branch of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) in the early 1990s was sort of interesting, though sanitized/dramatized no doubt. Their organizational abilities were impressive, and their activism paid off in the end, though too late for most of the characters in the movie.

Yellow rating if you’re interested in gay culture and AIDS … red rating (avoid) for everyone else.

Not afraid of a little thrush

Movies Watched -- Marjorie Prime (2017)

97 minute running time but it felt much longer because it's a talk talk talk movie. Rich people in the future have holograms of their dead spouses, which somehow helps them cope with Alzheimer's. Starred Tim Robbins, who looks old and fat, Geena Davis, who looks old but still has wonderful curves, and Don Draper, who will never be seen as anyone other than Don Draper.

Baby Boomer sci-fi ... talk talk talk, whiney rich white people problems accompanied by an awful score (same guy who did "Under the Skin," where the music worked) ... featured a nice house down in Amagansett ... only highlight was seeing Hannah Gross (screencap below); she's beautiful and is getting a lot of movie work for that reason (and because she's a member of the Tribe).

This will appeal to a certain type of Boomer and *nobody* else. It wasn't terrible ... issues of memory and family problems are interesting, but this gets a red rating, avoid.

Kate Urbland writes "the film’s ripped-from-the-theater feel never abates."

Post-coital proposal

Movies Watched -- The Florida Project (2017)

115 minute running time so at least 20 minutes too long. A W.D. By movie (written and directed by the same guy, i.e., it's his baby). A story about the underclass in America ... white trash living week to week in a motel in Orlando, Florida. Depressing, I had to watch it at 1.5x ffwd. A million wild kids running around. Tattooed, foul-mouthed single mothers lounging about. Shot in documentary style, but of course it isn't a documentary (reality would be much worse than this).

Willem Dafoe plays the kindly motel manager, cutter of slack, protector of kids. Main tattooed mother goes from hawking cheap perfume to tourists to turning tricks. "I'd cook, but Lunchables are like a dollar." This means it's the end for her as the mother of her child.

Spoilers: eventually the State comes and takes away her daughter (I had to google DCF ... "Department of Children and Families") -- there's no escape to the Magical Kingdom. Are we supposed to feel bad for child or mother? My only thought was, "what took them so long?" What's the point of watching this misery?  Why make yourself feel sad? Red rating, avoid.

Say cheese, biotch.

Movies Watched -- The Other Side of Hope (2017)

In Finnish. 89 minutes so the perfect length, but I still watched it at 1.5-2x ffwd since it was so stylized, ultra retro, a typically quirky "Art House" movie ... Finnish humor is sort of a contradiction in terms ... not much of a story here ... gorgeous Syrian refugee ends up in Finland seeking asylum, after being separated from his sister ... around the same time, a traveling salesman of shirts quits his job (and his wife) and buys a restaurant ... and ends up hiring the refugee (paths crossing).

Someone said it's a "tale of human kindness in the face of official indifference," which is sort of true, but I wasn't thrilled with this "hipster sermon against anti-immigrant prejudice," it gets a red (avoid) rating from me, or a yellow rating if you're into art house movies from Finland.

Playing the blues... 

Movies Watched -- Faces Places (2017)

In French. 90 minutes, the perfect length. A couple of French artists, a young Elvis Costello-ish guy and 88-year-old Agnes Varda, travel around the countryside pasting giant photos of the common people they meet on buildings, bunkers, containers. It's sort of charming, "delightful," but I wondered who was underwriting the whole thing, probably the French taxpayer. 

Oddly there wasn't a black or brown face to be seen anywhere ... maybe the French countryside is still "pure." But it's a sweet little movie, a feel-good film, which would appeal to the capital A.R.T. crowd. The general audience wouldn't be interested in this, or "get it."  Yellow rating. 

Goats should have horns.

Movies Watched -- Graduation (Bacalaureat) (2017)

In Romanian. 127 minute running time so at least a half hour too long, but let me say straight off that I generally love Romanian movies (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu was my favorite movie from 2006), and am willing to give them a pass when they run over the sacred 100 minute mark.

Life is complicated in Romania ... it reminds me so much of China, another non-market-based culture where connections are everything. The hospital scenes especially bring home a lot of my experiences there ... issues of integrity under strain, and the things desperate men do.

Loved it, green rating.

We thought we'd move mountains. We moved nothing.

Movies Watched -- Endless Poetry (2017)

In Spanish. 128 minute running time so at least 30 minutes too long. In fact it's about 128 minutes too long and should have been titled Endless Absurdity, Assurdità Sin Fin. Jodo is a lovable loon, but two hours of autobiographical performance art tests the patience of even the most steadfast devotees of small 'A' art. Full red "avoid" for the folks in Omaha.

Ben Sachs: "...  if you consider Jodorowsky's work excessive and mannered, you'll probably find this to be a slog." | The "if" made me laugh out loud. 

Brian Gibson: "It’s not endless, but it can often seem insufferable." | Not "can often seem" but "always is."

Blood is sacred!

Long Nights, Strange Men

Thirteen years old ... love her imperfect teeth, raw talent beats anything packaged by The Machine:

Grace VanderWaal - The A Team Recorded Live: 1/23/2017 - Paste Studios - New York, NY More Grace VanderWaal in the Paste Cloud: http://www.pastemagazine.com/search?t=Grace VanderWaal&m=Video Visit Paste Magazine: http://www.pastemagazine.com

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:

Day 4 Canadee-I-O by Nic Jones, from his album Penguin Eggs.

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. 

Mp3 Gratis: Salsa Clasica, Sensual, Romantica, Live en: www.salsaengrande.com By DannysalsaF

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