HBO Shows Watched -- Sharp Objects

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Watched episode one of this and wasn’t thrilled… with the amount that Amy Adams drank, there’s no way she would be standing, let alone functioning. She wouldn’t look that good either. Vodka out of the water bottle combined with steady diet of Parliaments means old lady quick.

Amy is a reporter, haunted by some childhood trauma, maybe something to do with a dead sister, and now she’s back in her home town, reporting on some missing / murdered girls … it’s based in Missouri of all places.

This has strong girl vibes… the writer is a woman, the director is a woman, it stars a woman, the co-stars are women. I don’t think I’m going to continue this one. Amy Adams and her remaining weird little sister are definitely pretty, but that’s not enough for me to continue watching.

HBO Shows Watched -- Mare of Easttown

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Winslet has a nice man-face with pretty eyes, but she has sort of a heavy bod like a rugby player. I thought she was a Hollywood nepo baby, but she isn’t .. and she’s British! Anyway she’s a police detective in some dying PA town southwest of Philadelphia (Delaware county). I love the way she pronounced “go” and “home.” I don’t know if that’s a Philly-area accent they were all faking, but it amused me.

I watched ALL seven episodes of this for some reason. It wasn’t terrible, but also not great. There are some red herrings and an ultimate twist. I laughed every time a bottle of beer was cracked open. Yuengling of course, and Rolling Rock.

Winslet’s daughter Siobahn reminded me of Jeanne Naujeck, a pretty girl I went to school with. They made her a lesbian and sort of glossed over the homosexual stuff. She had a hot high yellow girlfriend who attended Haverford College, which is a school like Hamtech, a little Ivy I guess.

Let’s see, what else do I remember about this show? I waited a day to write about it and have forgotten everything, which may be a sign. Oh, Guy Pearce is in it, and it deeply disturbed be how he sucked on a bottle of beer, like he was sucking on one of Kate’s tits, which he no doubt did.

Ah, Lori Ross was also in it… she was Esther Randolph in Boardwalk Empire, but I’ve seen her in something else and still can’t place her. She is a talented actress unlike Kate, who mainly relies on the mouth twist to express emotion, just like the worst actress of all time: Kristen Stewart.

This is not good enough to recommend, yet I inexplicably sat through seven hours of it. Walked on treadmill, not sat, but you know what I mean.

Brewing a Cup of Kotowa Chakira from Blendin Coffee Club

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Once again Blendin Coffee Club has removed their web page for this coffee so I can’t link to it, although the promo on Instagram remains up. I don’t know why they scrub web pages and wish they didn’t.

Anyway, this is a naturally-processed Chakira, which is a new coffee variety, from Kotowa Farms in Panama. It cost $25 for 100 grams, no doubt priced that cheaply ($6.25 a cup) since no one has ever tried the Chakira variety.

Here’s the card for the coffee, which is useful since the web page at Blendin has disappeared.

Soft grind on the beans … I always use 25 Clix with the Comandante C40.

Do you even sift, bro?

20 grams of perfectly consistent grind. It is essential that you set aside fines (anything sub-800 microns) when making pour-over.

Lovely color in the hand-blown Chemex (pronounced “sha-may”). 50g of 200 degree fahrenheit water to bloom, 100g more on second pour, 150g more on third and final pour.

Yielding a perfect 10 ounce cup of coffee.

This was interesting … a more coffee-forward coffee, especially since I’m mostly drinking Geishas of late. It wasn’t bad, it was different. Glad I experienced it.

HBO Shows Watched -- C.B. Strike

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Tom Harelip Burke plays a private dick in contemporary London … stories apparently based on J.K. Rowling books she wrote under a pseudonym, and originally a BBC production? … they give old Tom a CGI stump leg (lost in Afghanistan) and a rock star dad … he has a pretty, perky temp who becomes his partner in the business … made it through the first episode, but no interest in continuing since it’s formula TV, and I have 285 Original HBO series to work my way through by year-end.

HBO Shows Watched -- Luck

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I re-watched this recently and it holds up well. It was released in January 2012, but was cancelled after one season since some horses died during the making of it (it’s about horse racing). A David Milch (Hill Street Blues, NYPD Blue, etc.) creation. It’s sort of a pity the show never had a chance to play out.

I liked the horse racing, I liked the crew of misfit degenerate gamblers including Jerry, their brilliant handicapper, who was unfortunately a bad poker player. I liked the Oxy-snorting, hard-drinking, hard-screwing jockeys. I liked grumbling Nick Nolte as a trainer. There were a number of story lines they were developing that looked promising: Turo and the beautiful vet, Ace’s relationship with Joan Allen (“that ship has sailed”), Ace’s grandson and his Jewfro (“you look like a baboon”).

Dustin Hoffman’s backstory isn’t clear though… yes, we know he’s a Jewish mobster, but his past isn’t fleshed out enough. Michael Gambon overplays his evil Robert Maxwell role (but I’ll always love him no matter what because of The Singing Detective). That whole rivarly / partnership gone bad was no doubt going to be revealed in later seasons.

Weronika Rosati, a Pole, plays Jerry’s beautiful poker dealer girlfriend Naomi… she has a great bod to boot. Dennis Farina as the aged muscle.

SMART Stock Routing Algorithms

Added on by C. Maoxian.
  • SMART Multipurpose (SMART) - This is the basic smart-routing algorithm. Routes your non-marketable order to the default exchange for the instrument.

  • SMART Maximize Rebate (SMART MaxRebate) - Routes the order to the venue offering the highest rebate.

  • SMART Prefer Rebate (SMART PreferRebate) - Routes the order with the bias toward getting a rebate vs. getting the order filled.

  • SMART Prefer Fill (SMART PreferFill) - Routes the order with the bias toward getting a fill vs. getting a rebate.

  • SMART Maximize Fill (SMART MaxFill) - Routes the order with the sole objective of getting a fill.

  • SMART Primary Exchange (SMART Primary) - Routes your non-marketable order to the listing exchange for the instrument.

  • SMART Highest Volume Exchange with Rebate (SMART VRebate) - Routes your non-marketable order to the exchange with the most volume that also offers the highest rebate for added liquidity.

    Note:  On a best efforts basis, the IB SmartRouting system will attempt to capture a rebate on your order. However, not all trades will receive a rebate, as best execution at the best possible price remains the top priority.

  • SMART VLowFee - Routes your non-marketable order to the exchange with the most volume that also charges the lowest fee for taking liquidity.

  • SMART Dark Only - Will probe the dark pools for liquidity and use the immediate-or-cancel time in force.

Rare Transparency Regarding Stock Loan Locate Fees

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Came across this note in SageTrader’s 2023 Annual Report:

Stock Loan Locate Fees

The Company maintains Securities Lending agreements with several broker dealers (Velocity, Clear Street, Muriel Siebert) for the benefit of customers who as part of their trading strategies need to sell stocks short. Under these agreements they provide a daily machine readable “Easy to Borrow List” ("ETB") and provide “Locates” on securities, which are not on the ETB List. The customer is quoted a rate per share displayed in their trading platform. Should they decide to accept the locate, the Company is given a discounted rate by the broker dealer. These discounts range from 30%-50% of the rates quoted to the customer.

Drinking a Cup of Elida Natural ASD Vuelta from Blendin Coffee Club

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I got a number of different Panamanian coffees from Blendin Coffee Club recently. The first one up is Elida Natural ASD Vuelta. Elida is the name of the Estate in Panama, “ASD” stands for Anaerobic Slow Dry, “Vuelta” is the lot.

Slightly elongated beans, fruity on the nose. A Geisha for sure.

Very, very hard to grind, definitely a Geisha.

Almost no chaff, interestingly.

Do you even sift, bro? To make a perfect cup of coffee, you need to eliminate the fines.

Lovely color.

This is what I would call a “lesser” Geisha. It’s good, very fruity, but if you’ve been drinking super high end Geishas, then you realize that you’re coming back “down” when you have a cup of something like this. The $38 pricing reflects this … it’s appropriately priced.

Brewing a Cup of El Angel Natural Pacamara from Proud Mary Coffee

Added on by C. Maoxian.

The August coffee sent to “Deluxe” subscribers at Proud Mary Coffee was a natural Pacamara from Finca El Angel in El Salvador.

Pacamara a bigger bean.

Into the sifter.

Perfectly consistent grind … this is the key.

Lovely color.

Dark.

Strong cup of strong coffee-flavored coffee. Big change if you’ve been drinking Geisha non-stop as I have. As Proud Mary says: “… a distinctive flavor profile that sets it apart from less exotic varieties.” It’s a traditional coffee flavor for sure.

US Stock Trading Spaghetti Bowl Statistics

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Lit Venues reporting 49.22%:

NYSE 19.09%

NASDAQ 14.18%

CBOE 10.04%

MEMX (Members Exchange) 1.90%

IEX (Investors Exchange) 2.99%

MIAX Pearl 1.02%

LTSE (Long-Term Stock Exchange) 0.01%

Dark Venues reporting 50.78%: (“reporting transactions effected otherwise than on an exchange”)

FINRA & TRF (Trade Reporting Facility) 50.78%

NASDAQ TRF Carteret 45.01%

NYSE TRF 5.47%

NASDAQ TRF Chicago 0.30%