ParkTwain's Parlor

"Opposite" and "simpatico" sector Relative Strength (vs. S&P 500) charts

Notice the sector relative strength charts shown in this post on the Birinyi Associates blog:

http://tickersense.typepad.com/ticker_sense/2006/09/sector_relative_1.html

Notice which plots move in sync with each other and which are opposite:

* opposites: energy vs. consumer discretionary, energy vs. technology, utilities vs. materials, utilities vs. industrials

* simpatico: utilities and health care and customer staplies, materials and industrials, customer discretionary and technology, financials and telecom (this is the only pair of "simpaticos" that are both outperforming the S&P500 and have been in a steady uptrend for all YTD)

This shows where the "sector rotation" actually occured YTD vs true outperformance w.r.t. the overall S&P500. The net performance of each of the "opposite" pairs versus the S&P500 index appears on these charts to be about 0% YTD.

No one around here has been talking about ORCL's steady rise all this year. I had been considered doing a trade, but it had been a creeper facing mounds of overhead resistance. In the last 2 months its rise had picked up some pace. It had given a clear foreshadowing of its recent earnings news.

Many of the establishment commentators are expecting large-cap to do well going forward. Look at the chart for MMM and watch for continuing improvement.

Orcl hit screen here http://www.mrmarketishuge.com/showpo...&postcount=270

Started reading Justin Mamis's "How to Buy" (1982)

Recommended. Lots of good horse sense in this book. In Chapter 3 he gets down to brass tacks and identifies these buy scenarios:

* Buy during a selling climax
* Buy on the testing of a (sellling climax) low
* The breakout buy
* The pullback (after a breakout) buy
* Buy on the correction (for a trending stock, buy with the long-term trend, but against the short-term trend)

ORCL follow-through, and MMM a turnaround?

No one around here has been talking about ORCL's steady rise all this year. I had been considered doing a trade, but it had been a creeper facing mounds of overhead resistance. In the last 2 months its rise had picked up some pace. It had given a clear foreshadowing of its recent earnings news.

Many of the establishment commentators are expecting large-cap to do well going forward. Look at the chart for MMM and watch for continuing improvement.

[Lyehopper]

Park,
An interesting book with some pictures is Fisher's "100 Minds That Made the Market". Interesting short biographies on investors categorized as innovators , scalawags , crooks , bankers , speculators , economists etc.

-----------billyjoe

I highly recommend this book BillyJoe.... And it has great pictures!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/cgi-bin/apf4/amazon_products_feed.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=1580173276

"Y ... Y ... Greenblatt ... You Can Be a Stock Market Genius"

First book I read about investing, oddly enough. It was in a bundle I bought to get a book about Godel.

Well, I guess you would agree that this book is not intended for beginners in the stock market.

Park,
An interesting book with some pictures is Fisher's "100 Minds That Made the Market". Interesting short biographies on investors categorized as innovators , scalawags , crooks , bankers , speculators , economists etc.

-----------billyjoe

Very good to know. It's available CHEAP via amazon.com for as low as $1.94 a copy.

http://tinyurl.com/q8hc8

[billyjoe]

Park,
An interesting book with some pictures is Fisher's "100 Minds That Made the Market". Interesting short biographies on investors categorized as innovators , scalawags , crooks , bankers , speculators , economists etc.

-----------billyjoe

Ordered these books today

Blau ... Momentum, Direction, and Divergence: Applying the Latest Momentum Indicators for Tech Analysis
Hayden ... The 21 Irrefutable Truths of Trading: A Trader's Guide to Developing a Mind to Win
Neill ... Tape Reading and Market Tactics
Pardo ... Design, Testing, and Optimization of Trading Systems
Stridsman ... Trading Systems That Work
Gerstein ... Screening the Market
Taylor ... The Taylor Trading Technique (pushed by trader Linda Raschke)
Mamis .. When to Sell: Inside Strategies for Stock Market Profits
Mamis ... How to Buy: An Insider's Guide to Making Money in the Stock Market
Greider ... Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country

Most of these are available for under $15 each (even hardcovers) at a place like alibris.com or abebooks.com

Interesting list you posted.


"Y ... N ... Link ... High Probability Trading"

I did not care for that book.

"Y ... Y ... Greenblatt ... You Can Be a Stock Market Genius"

First book I read about investing, oddly enough. It was in a bundle I bought to get a book about Godel.

My Finance, Investing, and Trading Library

I've decided to post a list of all my books on these subjects, along with a simple thumbs up/down review on each that I have read. Maybe others on the board can do the same.

Some of the books I found in "bargain bins" so I picked them up at almost no cost, just to have a book to dip into to make a very beginner's acquaintance with the subject matter. (I may discard such a book, such as one about index futures, as soon as I have read it, with it being a stepping-stone to a more recently published book in that subject area.) None of my college economics textbooks are included in the list.

A lot of the "not read" books listed I actually have started reading but put them down for one reason or another, such as Brown's Technical Analysis, which is pretty "out there" and goes into some of Gann's ideas.

Several of these aren't "trading" books per se, but are biographies, history, or journalistic treatments of financial events (such as Stewart's Den of Thieves). Some of these I have picked up as novelties for my collection, such as How to Survive on $50K to $150K a Year, and Con Man or Saint.

I will also try to remember several more books in these fields that I have read but not purchased.

There are many more "classics" in these fields that I haven't yet picked up, and I have a long "wish list" set up for myself. More recommendations from others are welcome.

Read? ... Rec'd? ... Author last name ... Title

Y ... N ... (none) ... IBD Guide to High-Performance Investing
N ... - ... Angell ... Sure-Thing Options Trading
N ... - ... Anonymous ... License to Steal
N ... - ... Anuff and Wolf ... Dumb Money
Y ... N ... Baruch ... My Own Story
N ... - ... Bass ... The Predictors
N ... - ... Bernstein ... Against the Gods, the Remarkable Story of Risk
N ... - ... Brown ... Technical Analysis for the Trading Professional
N ... - ... Buffett ... Buffettology
N ... - ... Carret ... The Art of Speculation
N ... - ... Chance ... An Introduction to Derivatives
N ... - ... Chancellor ... Devil Take the Hindmost
N ... - ... Cohen and Wool ... How to Survive on $50K to $150K a Year
N ... - ... Connors and Raschke ... Street Smarts, High Probability Short Term Trading Strategies
N ... - ... Conway ... Professional Stock Trading
N ... - ... Cowles ... The Rothschilds, A Family of Fortune
N ... - ... Darack ... Taking Profits from the OEX
Y ... Y ... Darvas ... How I Made $2 Million in the Stock Market
N ... - ... Dreman ... Contrarian Investment Strategy
N ... - ... Drobny ... Inside the House of Money
N ... - ... Edelman ... Ordinary People Extraordinary Wealth
N ... - ... Eichenwald ... Serpent on the Rock
Y ... Y ... Ellis ... The Investor's Anthology
N ... - ... Fisher ... Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits
N ... - ... Fowler ... Ten Years in Wall Street (1870)
N ... - ... Frasca ... Con Man or Saint (Glenn W. Turner)
N ... - ... Fridson ... How to Be a Billionaire
N ... - ... Getty ... How to Be Rich
N ... - ... Graham ... The Intelligent Investor
Y ... Y ... Greenblatt ... You Can Be a Stock Market Genius
N ... - ... Greenblatt ... The Little Book That Beats the Market
N ... - ... Haugen and Lakonishok ... The Incredible January Effect
N ... - ... Heady ... The Complete Idiot's Guide to Making Money on Wall Street
N ... - ... Henriques ... Fidelity's World
N ... - ... Jacwin and Costa ... HT Accumulate Wealth Through Stock Speculation
Y ... Y ... Jiler ... How Charts Can Help You in the Stock Market
N ... - ... Katz and McCormick ... The Encyclopedia of Trading Strategies
N ... - ... Kessler ... Running Money
Y ... Y ... Kilpatrick ... Of Permanent Value, the Story of Warren Buffett
N ... - ... Klarman ... Margin of Safety
N ... - ... Kroll ... Kroll on Futures Trading Strategy
N ... - ... Kroll ... The Professional Commodity Trader
Y ... Y ... Lefevre ... Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
N ... - ... Levy ... The Mind of Wall Street
Y ... Y ... Lewis ... Liar's Poker
N ... - ... Lichello ... How to Make $1 Million in the Stock Market Automatically
Y ... N ... Link ... High Probability Trading
Y ... Y ... Loeb ... The Battle for Investment Survival
N ... - ... Lowe ... Damn Right! Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger
Y ... Y ... Lowenstein ... Buffett, the Making of an American Capitalist
Y ... Y ... Lowenstein ... When Genius Failed
N ... - ... Lukeman ... The Market Maker's Edge
N ... - ... Lynch ... Beating the Street
Y ... Y ... Mackay ... Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
N ... - ... Malkiel ... A Random Walk Down Wall Street
N ... - ... McClintick ... Indecent Exposure, A True Story of Hollywood and Wall Street
N ... - ... McMillan ... Options as a Strategic Investment
N ... - ... Mehrling ... Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance
N ... - ... Mesler ... Stock Index Options
N ... - ... Morris ... The Complete Guide to Market Breadth Indicators
N ... - ... Morris and Siegel ... The Wall St Journal Guide to Understanding Money and Investing
N ... - ... Mulford and Comiskey ... The Financial Numbers Game
N ... - ... Ney ... The Wall Street Gang
N ... - ... Ney ... The Wall Street Jungle
Y ... Y ... Niederhoffer ... The Education of a Speculator
N ... - ... Niederhoffer ... Practical Speculation
N ... - ... O'Glove ... Quality of Earnings
Y ... Y ... O'Neil ... How to Make Money in Stocks
N ... - ... O'Shaughnessy ... What Works on Wall Street
N ... - ... Oz ... How to Take Money from Wall Street
N ... - ... Perkins ... Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
N ... - ... Poundstone ... Fortune's Formula
N ... - ... Powers ... Starting Out in Futures Trading
N ... - ... Pring ... Introduction to Technical Analysis
Y ... Y ... Reich ... Financier, the Biography of Andre Meyer
N ... - ... Rice ... My Adventures with Your Money
N ... - ... Sands ... Turtle Secrets
N ... - ... Schabacker ... Stock Market Profits
N ... - ... Schreiber, Jr. and Stroik ... All About Dividend Investing
Y ... Y ... Schwager ... Market Wizards
Y ... Y ... Schwager ... The New Market Wizards
N ... - ... Schwager ... Stock Market Wizards
Y ... Y ... Schwartz ... Pit Bull
N ... - ... Smith ... Toward Rational Exuberance
Y ... Y ... Smith ... The Money Game
N ... - ... Soros ... The Alchemy of Finance
Y ... N ... Sperandeo ... Trader Vic, Methods of a Wall Street Master
N ... - ... Spurga ... Balance Sheet Basics
Y ... N ... Steinhardt ... No Bull, My Life in and Out of Markets
N ... - ... Stewart ... Den of Thieves
Y ... Y ... Strouse ... Morgan, American Financier
N ... - ... Taleb ... Fooled by Randomness
Y ... Y ... Tharp ... Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom
Y ... Y ... Train ... The Money Masters
Y ... Y ... Train ... The New Money Masters
N ... - ... Wanger ... A Zebra in Lion Country
N ... - ... Whitman ... The Aggressive Conservative Investor
Y ... Y ... Whitman ... Value Investing, A Balanced Approach
Y ... Y ... Wright ... Trading as a Business
N ... - ... Wyckoff ... How I Trade and Invest in Stocks and Bonds
N ... - ... Wyckoff ... Studies in Tape Reading
N ... - ... Yergin ... The Prize, The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power
N ... - ... Zweig ... Winning on Wall Street

[spikefader]

new acquisition should be accretive to earnings

Nice pick. Should find $17.50 pretty easy.

Bot XCO this morning

new acquisition should be accretive to earnings

[Websman]

You guys have heard of these?

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/3130/2006/09/02/[email protected]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

Never heard of them, but it's worth looking at.

Blank Check IPOs

You guys have heard of these?

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/3130/2006/09/02/[email protected]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22blank+check%22+IPOs&btnG=Google+Search