Money and Financial Business

Managing your finances can be a daunting task. The earlier you start and the more you plan, the more satisfied and stress free your life will become. To me starting is one of the most important steps anyone can take. If you have been putting it off, START NOW! The way to start is to figure out where you stand. The easiest way to figure out where you stand is to calculate your NETWORTH. This is pretty easy:


Your main assets are bank accounts/cash/real estate/stocks/bonds/CDs/material things and your liabilites are credit cards/car loans/student loans/mortgage/etc... I prefer to not count any material things in my assets column. This is mainly because they are not as liquid as one would think. In either case find out where you stand. Congratulations you have completed the first step to managing your money! Next up #2 Goals

Starting this month, Money360 will be restarted with a new focus. I will be presenting series' called How2s. Suggestions to improve any How2s are always welcome.

----------------------------------------- Series: Beginning Investing (2nd post) Section: Set Your Goals ----------------------------------------- Now that you're sufficiently pumped up to start on your own journey to wealth, here's a fun task for you - calculating how much you are worth today! In performing this calculation, we will use a very strict and narrow definition of assets, considering

By: Institutional Investor Published: October 31, 2006 “Trouble is bubbling up for two more hedge funds. First, hot on the heels of Amaranth Advisors meltdown…” Institutional Investor’s “Daily ii” reports on a couple of “troubled” hedge funds.  But although they are compared to Amaranth, which lost a king’s ransom, neither fund actually lost that much money for investors.  [...]

In the last week, I’ve been real interested in absorbing the latest real estate news from local news papers, real estate bubble blogs, business websites, the personal investor magazine (just came out), and Arizona paid subscriptions of market analyses. One observation I’ve made is that you need to be very careful interpreting market “averages”. The [...]

By: Carolyn Bandel, IPE Published: October 31, 2006   In “The Search for Talent is the Search for Alpha“, we argued that employee “talent” was analogous to alpha in many ways.  In doing so, we also argued that emerging markets represented both new supplies of alpha and, as the Economist had pointed out, new supplies of talent. Today Deutsche [...]

I just received another email from International Promotions. I wrote about the original email that I received from them in yesterday's post. If you missed it, it can be found here at Get Rich Scams. This "company" is pretty persistant. This is actually about the 3rd or 4th email that I've received from them. I'm starting to think that I may have actually won 1000,000.00. I've gotten a

One concept I’ve been working with is creating a hybrid system to handle cash and a debit card.  It seems if I simply just spend money off my card, and get cash when I need it, I end up in either two places.  I’m either out of money in my living account or I’m out [...]

I kept seeing ads for Bank of America's "Keep the Change" program and thought, "I don't need a $7 a month service-charging bank to save my nickels for me." And so, since I try and use only cash, I have stopped using exact change when I make a purchase and break bills. For the last month, I have taken all the change and put it in a jar, and today I am going to cash it in and see how I fared. I'll post the results tomorrow.

CME Live Cattle Futures

Well that time of the month is nearing in the cattle futures pit once again. That’s right sport fan it’s the big bad Goldman roll.

I will be looking for the roll to begin in live cattle futures around the middle of next week. That’s the 7th or 8th of November in case you don’t have a calendar handy. Usually the Goldman roll is a 4 to 5 day affair.

So as traders how can we take advantage of the Goldman roll this month?

Below is one idea you may want to consider in CME Live Cattle Futures:

Long December 2006 Live Cattle / Short February 2007 Live Cattle.

Look to initiate this spread from (-2.75) through (-3.50). It can get ugly on the settle at times, so to trade this spread you must have the fortitude to withstand these “distorted” settlement prices.

This spread settled today, (I’m writing this on Monday October 30, 2006), at (-2.83 ).

December settled at 88.67
February settled at: 91.50
Spread = (-) 2.83 under

Historically speaking, during strong years this spread has traded as high as around +0.75 over. If you were to look at all years combined this spread averages around (-) 1.00 under. Based on this fact alone the current Long December / Short February spread can be initiated at “fire sale” prices.+

CME Decemeber 2006 / February 2007 Live Cattle Futures Spread

Please Note: This live cattle futures spread chart is only showing prices as of Friday October 27, 2006.

Look to take advantage of major selling in the December and major buying in February, this is commonly referred to as unwinding for those who may be new to futures trading, as the roll moves into gear. This spread could potentially widen out anywhere from the present level of around -2.80 to as wide as -3.25 through -3.50 during the roll.

However, once the roll is completed I will be looking for this spread to move back to around the (-) 1.50 under area in rather short order barring any type of weather related event such as a blizzard in South Kansas into areas such as Amarillo, Texas. The probabilities of that happening are around 1 out of 12.

For purposes of risk management a potential exit area can be pegged around the (-) 4.00 under area. However, this would only be for a core position. If you add to the core position in the (-) 3.25 through (-) 3.50 area you can move your targeted money management exit area past the (-) 4.00 area.

Overview:
The Goldman roll can and does exaggerate market prices to extremes. However, once the roll is finished the market typically returns to a more “normal” ground. We want to capitalize on this exaggeration of prices by entering into a long Dec. / Short Feb. spread.

I’m seeking to initiate a core position at present levels. However, if this spread should get into the -3.25 through -3.50 area I will get mind numbing aggressive on this spread by adding to the core position in a major way.

Happy Trading,
Paul Skarp

Aaron Trading is a fully licensed and registered commodity futures broker. Additionally, foreign exchange trading is also available via our institutional foreign exchange platforms Currenex and FX All.

Disclaimer: There is a substantial risk of loss in trading commodity futures and options trading. Under no circumstances should you ever use scarce funds to engage in any type of speculation including commodity futures and options.
Past performance in not indicative of future results.

DFM Isis

I wish this was a better month for my blog, because then I think this contest would have been much more exciting. Today is the last day! So be sure to comment away…Thank you all for participating! I’ll post up more details once the contest is over.

freedumb	32
D	29
Maria	20
mapgirl	13
HC	8
LAMoneyGuy	8
Single Ma	8
udandi	8
Lazy Man and Money	5
Kate	3
Kira	3
fin_indie	3
Tricia	2
Jonathan	2
empty spaces	2
Frugal Duchess	1
pfblogs.org	1
Vari	1
Website Builder	1
Hazzard	1
Enough Wealth	1
John M	1
johnny	1
investor loan	1
samerwriter	1
Flexo	1

SAIC went public a few weeks ago, and I purchsed the stock at $18. Last week the stock jumped to almost $20. I sold a majority of my holding at $19.50. I made $1.50 per share, which is about 8.33%. Not too shabby for a two-week investment. My gains allowed me to buy a new digi-camera, the SD700 IS. Today, SAI broke the $21 mark before dropping back to $20.33 for the close. I'm still thinking if I should short-term trade it. Over the long run, I believe SAI is a good investment.

I'm looking for an all-in-one account for my business, where it has high-yielding money-market rate and allows a few check writing with free ACH withdrawals. I currently have a HSBC Free Business Checking account, but it earns no interest. With interest rates so high these days, I'm losing out on quite some money. I would like some input from self-employed people out there, as well hearing suggestions for taking advantage of tax savings for me.

I opened a 6% 13-month CD with Washington Mutual on 8/31/06. It seems to be one of the highest yielding CDs out there, even 'til today.

A question from "What to do with 1K, 5K, or 10K of savings and in your twenties?" Anonymous asked: So i've got 20k from a recent bonus, and won't need to touch it for about 10 months. After that I might use it for a down payment on an apartment. My money is currently sitting in a 5% savings account, but thinking about putting some of it in an higher yielding closed end bond fund. Any other suggestions for increasing my yield while not risking too much of my principal? Smarty said: If you could tolerate some risk, you may consider putting them in low-beta high-yielding dividend stocks. Do some research, you should be able to find a few companies that are expected to do well over the next 10 months. Otherwise, hunt for the highest yielding CDs. I recently opened a 6.00% 13-month CD with WaMu.

By: Christine Williamson, Pensions & Investments Published: October 30, 2006     Talk about industry leadership.  According to Pensions & Investments, Bridgewater (manager of $165 billion) has sent letters to its clients saying that portable alpha strategies are such a no-brainer, that any client not buying in to the approach in the next 12 months will be, as P&I puts [...]

I was reading my email today when I came across ANOTHER, yes ANOTHER, spam email. The email that I received was from International Promotions in Amsterdam. Of course, there is no such company like this, but that's what the email said. I looked a little closer at it and found a couple of funny things. First, I never signed up for anything. According to their email I was randomly selected from

Tonight, October 30th, Singing Fool will show the exclusive U.S. premier of the new Moby video for "New York, New York." I do love Moby. I saw him in Kansas City about four years ago and the show was fantastic. "New York, New York," features Debbie Harry on lead vocals, another reason for me to check it out. And I don't need cable! Which I don't have anyway, so there.

See the US premiere of Moby's "New York, New York" feat. Debbie Harry (Blondie).

I've been racking my brain to come up with a way to make a ziploc bag dryer for my sister. She and I both wash and reuse and so our kitchen counters are always covered with baggies. I thought about using one of those octopus-style photo holders, and then did a search for "plastic bag dryer" and found this site:

The Agora Concepts Bag Dryer


It's much nicer than anything I could ever make and since it's a Christmas present, it was worth the $16. I know, you're thinking, "What kind of person gives her sister a bag dryer for Christmas?" If you knew my sister, you'd know that she will be doing back flips when she opens this gift.

I received notice that I have been approved for a Discover card with a 0% APR for 1 year, and that includes balance transfers. Good-bye Beneficial; hello Dicover. I'll be wiping out the LOC and paying off the Discover before the introductory rate expires. I calculated that over the course of a year I will save approximately $1200.00 in finance charges. That's no small potatoes.

I have also recently sent every single credit card company that we owe a letter requesting that they lower our interest rate since we have been making timely payments and paying more than the minimum payment. I'll let you know in furture posts how that turns out.

According to Investopedia, a point and figure chart is:
“A chart that plots day-to-day price movements without taking into consideration the passage of time. Point and figure charts are composed of a number of columns that either consist of a series of stacked Xs or Os. A column of Xs is used to illustrate a rising price, while Os represent a falling price. This type of chart is used to filter out non-significant price movements, and enables the trader to easily determine critical support and resistance levels. Traders will place orders when the price moves beyond identified support/resistance levels.

Additional points are added to the chart once the price changes by more than a predefined amount (known as the box size). For example, if the box size is set to equal one and the price of the asset is $15, then another X would be added to the stack of Xs once the price surpasses $16. Each column consists of only one letter (either X or O) - never both. New columns are placed to the right of the previous column and are only added once the price changes direction by more than a predefined reversal amount.” - Investopedia



I couldn’t have written a better definition myself so I feel comfortable using the one from Investopedia.com. I use point and figure analysis every night while scanning my charts because I can easily determine important support and resistance levels. As with any type of chart, many indicators can setup to offer buy and sell signals but I stick to the basics and only trade a few patterns that the point and figure charts offer.

Please understand that I use point and figure charts as a secondary technical analysis tool behind candlestick charts (both daily and weekly). When I find an interesting stock that has already passed my fundamental criteria and peeked my interest on the candlestick chart, I then view the point and figure chart (will be referred to as a P&F from this point forward). Support and resistance levels can be found using basic candlestick and bar charts but P&F charts eliminate the unimportant noise by setting-up the critical levels and breakouts or breakdowns with the more important (larger) moves.

My favorite pattern setup is the Triple Top Breakout which occurs when a stock hits a certain level of resistance on three separate occasions, telling me that a move above this zone has some meaning. Not every triple top breakout will be successful but the odds of a breakout above this setup increase dramatically. As with all trading, you must take the signal with proper position sizing and set your stops without thinking like a human. Become mechanical and trade the setups; don’t trade your thoughts and don’t ever trade for pure money. You will be a lot more successful if you learn to trade the setups rather than everything else. The NASDAQ recently broke out of a triple top breakout but has since reversed (near the 100% retracement level on my Fibonacci chart – seen in other posts on this blog). Tower Group (TWGP), a long time favorite of MSW has recently confirmed another triple top breakout and has successfully moved higher since forming the resistance.



So what is the true definition of a triple top breakout?
According to StockCharts.com

A triple top breakout occurs when prices rise to a certain level and then retreat because the supply outstripped the demand at that level. Prices must rise back to the level on two additional occasions at which they retraced before. If prices continue to carry through that level, a triple top breakout has succeed and given a buy signal. Since this level previously acted as resistance, we now know that demand is currently exceeding supply and an entry area is born.

A triple bottom breakdown is similar to a triple top breakout except we reverse the rules and look for a breakdown where the price has retraced from the same area two times before (see the example of RHAT). This implies that the price level is a significant area of support and is an area where buyers are willing to buy the stock and create demand that outstrips supply. The breakdown below this level implies that the sellers are now creating more supply than there is demand and therefore the prices are breaking down.



A quadruple top breakout is similar to a triple top breakout, except that the prices break out after retracing from the same level three times. The fourth time the demand was able to outstrip the supply at the price level, and prices broke out with a quadruple top breakout. I have provided an example of this breakout with the chart of FDS (it actually setup five levels of resistance instead of four).

A quadruple bottom breakdown is similar to a triple bottom breakdown, except that the prices break down after retracing from the same level three times. The fourth time the supply was able to outstrip the demand at the price level, and prices broke down with a quadruple bottom breakdown.

Now let’s look to some further basics of the P&F chart (all explainations are provided by StockCharts.com):

Point & Figure charts consist of columns of X's and O's that represent filtered price movements over time. Their distinctive look may be alien at first to people who are more familiar with traditional price bar charts but once people learn the basics of P&F charts they usually become hooked.

There are several advantages to using P&F charts instead of the more traditional bar or candlestick charts. P&F charts automatically
Eliminate the insignificant price movements that often make bar charts appear 'noisy,'
Remove the often misleading effects of time from the analysis process,
Make recognizing support/resistance levels much easier,
Make trend line recognition a 'no-brainer',
Help you stay focused on the important long-term price developments,

On a P&F chart price movements are combined into either a rising column of X's or a falling column of O's. If you are familiar with standard chart analysis, you can think of each column as representing either an uptrend or a downtrend. Each X or O occupies what is called a box on the chart. Each chart has a setting called the Box Size that is the amount that a stock needs to move above the top of the current column of X's (or below the bottom of the current column of O's) before another X (or O) is added to that column. Each chart has a second setting called the Reversal Amount that determines the amount that a stock needs to move in the opposite direction (down if we are in a rising column of X's, up for a column of O's) before a reversal occurs. Whenever this reversal threshold is crossed, a new column is started right next to the previous one, only moving in the opposite direction.

It sounds much more complex than it is, trust me!

In a nutshell, as long as a stock is in an uptrend and it doesn't move down more than the 'reversal distance' (i.e., the box size multiplied by the reversal amount), the P&F chart will show a growing column of X's. Similarly, a stock in a downtrend will cause a descending column of O's to appear. Only when the stock changes direction by more than the reversal distance will a new column be added to the chart.

Traditionally, the box size is set to 1 and the reversal amount is 3 (this is exactly what I use when viewing my charts each night)

It is important to remember that a P&F Box does not represent a single value. Instead, it represents a range of values that is equal to the box size. The number on the vertical axis represents the value of the "floor" of the box. The "ceiling" of the box is equal to the floor plus the box size. If prices move anywhere inside that range of values, the box is filled in with an "X" or and "O" (keep reading for details).



It is important to remember that P&F charts do not show time in a linear fashion. Each column can represent one day, or many days, depending on the price movement. Because P&F charts filter out the noise associated with more traditional charting methods, every mark on the chart is significant. The spacing between months, for example, will not be the same from month to month. Numbers and letters inside the chart itself indicate when a new month has begun. For instance, the number '2' shows where February started. The letters 'A', 'B', and 'C' are used to indicate October, November, and December. (I highlighted the months on the FDS chart where the number 5 is May and the letter A is October).

One of the best places to visit to start learning about P&F charts is through this link at StockCharts.com:
Understanding Point & Figure Charts

I also recommend the book Point and Figure Charting: The Essential Application for Forecasting and Tracking Market Prices, 2nd Edition by Thomas J. Dorsey

It was expensive in the past but the price has come down on Amazon to $37.77 but I would recommend buying it used for $19.99 or visit your local book store. The book is not on my recommendations page due to its former price of $59.95 which I felt was not worth my value. However, at $20, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in learning about P&F charts.

Piranha

By: The Economist Published: October 28, 2006 Maybe Alpha Male wasn’t the only one paying particularly close attention to David Hsieh’s recent opining about “hedge fund beta”.   This week’s Economist cited his research in a story about the rising interest in “cloning” hedge funds using cheap, liquid instruments.  “The result could be a cheap competitor for the hedge-fund titans, akin [...]

Have a high electric bill? How would you like to save a little money on that bill every month? That's what the Smart Strip Power Strip promises if you install it in your home. Lately, I've been reading a lot of reviews on various web sites about this device and everything that I've read seems like it may be worth it to at least give the device a chance. This little device has been featured on

This week's Blog of the Week is GettingFinancesDone, a blog whose purpose is to be a stress-free guide to financial control. GFD hasn't been around long but has had the fortune of being featured on Lifehacker a couple of times, which gave it instant creditability. Lifehacker or not, GFD is a good personal finance blog. SSpeer, the blog's author, doesn't have time to update the blog often (once a month or so) but when he does update it, it is usually a thoughtful entry. It makes for some good Sunday reading.

The Northern New Jersey Real Estate Bubble Blog has moved.

You will be redirected to the new website shortly. If, however, you are not directed to the new site automatically, you can find it here:

New Jersey Real Estate Report

See you there!
James Bednar (aka Grim)

This is just a quick post to update you about an excellent feature on Value Research Online, which, by the way, is probably the best Indian mutual funds site on the Internet. Check out their 'Ask!' feature wherein you could submit queries about mutual funds and get pretty insightful and well-researched answers from their experts. Unfortunately they seem to have suspended fresh queries for lack

Platinum retraced 50% of the lengthy bullish wave which begun at mid 2004, the retracement took the shape of an ABC correction which is typical for correction waves. The indicators on the daily chart are slowly turning positive while the weekly charts need more time. Price is at major support, more support at the 983$ zone. Resistance at Fibonacci levels above current price.

Can Google really do this?

Is this legal? The more interesting aspect of this case implies that Google does in fact manipulate their search results, and, the judge seems to imply that Google manipulates search results, which would severley skew his decision, irregardless if Google actually does manipulate this or not.

By: Allan Sloan, Newsweek Published: October 30 Issue Newsweek’s Allan Sloan, “The Cruncher”, offers up some pretty weak evidence this week that a bubble exists in hedge funds: “Day after day, I hear about hedge funds’ growing power—we’re up to almost 9,000 funds with $1.225 trillion in assets, according to Hedge Fund Research, from about 3,600 with $456 billion [...]

By: Allen Wastler, CNN.com Published: October 26, 2006 Kudos to another Allen.  CNN’s Allen Wastler prescribes a chill-pill regarding hedge funds.  His common sense is refreshing: “…hedge funds kept growing and are popping up in other sectors. They make real estate bets. They lend money. And, most recently, they’re making commodity plays. “Yes, they’re everywhere. And there are a lot [...]

Poor Casey Serin A 23 year old ambitious investor that broke every rule in the book and is paying for it! I posted his link for several reasons. 1) To remind us that you can lose in real estate. 2) In all of his posts, I didn’t see any sort of plan or analysis. If you don’t [...]

The decision on whether to go to a state or private college is still quite a ways off for me, but the finances involved make for a big decision. Since I'm planning to have all my college funding saved by the time I turn 18, if I choose to go to a college that is less expensive, I will have money left over to begin my life once out of college. I will have to seriously weight the benefits of both options to see what is best.

I started thinking about this from an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Sending a child to a prestigious school is a real accomplishment. But lots of happy and successful people have come out of the state schools. At less than one-third the cost, maybe they're a better buy.

Talking with my uncle (okay, it really isn't talking yet, but I am blurting out words now and then), I realized that not all kids are lucky enough to have banks in their area or museums to help them learn money skills. If that is the case, you can get some help from the government. The Federal Citizen Information Center offers a free "Teens and Money" package to help teens learn about important money information:

The older your children get, the more they have to deal with real-world challenges like saving money, getting car insurance, and managing credit cards. Help them get ready for adult life with the Teens and Money package.

Order Your Free Package Here

It is not only at the bank where kids like me can learn about how money works. The Children’s Museum of Cleveland (CMC) is launching a new financial literacy school field-trip program to introduce first and second grade school children key money management lessons. CMC’s “Money, My Community and Me” program will also be offered to museum visitors and CMC members as part of its family learning initiative. “Money, My Community and Me” is aimed at helping Cleveland-area students begin to grasp the concepts of financial literacy, budgeting and saving.

According to a A.G. Edwards survey, only about one in four U.S. children (27 percent) have learned about saving and investing through their schools. In addition, more than half of U.S. parents with children in the home have not discussed saving or investing with their children.

The museum field trip will teach:

The basics of earning money as a “member of the community”

How to make choices about spending and saving, through the use of play money and a trip through the “Bridges to Our Community” permanent exhibit area that consists of a bank, grocery store, gas station, bus, hospital and home.

The impact of their spending and saving choices on both immediate purchases and long-term financial goals

The program at the Children’s Museum of Cleveland is also being set up at 17 children’s museums across the country which I hope will help other younf kids like me learn more about money at a young age.

I think it's always good when children are encouraged to learn about money, saving and interest. The earlier the better. I have been happy to read about more banks setting up programs for children like this one mentioned in The Signal:

Hundreds of children throughout the Santa Clarita Valley have been getting hands-on practice saving money through a community youth project run by parents through local schools.

Elementary students are able to open an account for only 25 cents through Washington Mutual's School Savings program, and every other deposit - no matter how small - earns a prize.

It would be great to see all communities set up similar programs with banks in their area...

Good luck catching up with D! I’m pretty sure the battle is for 2nd place at this point.

freedumb	31
D	27
Maria	15
mapgirl	12
Single Ma	8
udandi	8
HC	7
LAMoneyGuy	6
Kate	3
Kira	3
Tricia	2
Lazy Man and Money	2
Jonathan	2
empty spaces	2
Frugal Duchess	1
pfblogs.org	1
Vari	1
Website Builder	1
Hazzard	1
Enough Wealth	1
John M	1
johnny	1
investor loan	1
samerwriter	1
Flexo	1
Andy	1

I couldn't hold out long, Ive got to get back to my favorite topic...STUDENT LOANS.

For this second installment, I'm going to address the scam that is "The Grace Period".
For those of you still in college/university, or for those about to start, you should find this valuable. When I graduated from university two years ago, I called the student loan center to inquire about what I needed to do to arrange repayment. I was told that all students received a 6 month grace period before repayment. "Fantastic", I thought. I could focus on getting a job and not worry about repayment. Besides, I was moving back to Toronto. I had things like first and last months rent, work clothes etc to worry about.

Fast forward to November. I've landed a job and Ive started to stash money away for a house and for my good friend student loan. Sure enough, I receive forms in the mail so that I can arrange for my monthly payments to be taken out of my bank account. I receive 4 of these forms to fill out and send back in. You see, while I was in school, the government couldn't make up their mind on who was going to fund student loans and how they would be administered, but I'll save that story for a later post.

So I look at these forms that are sent to me. The form outlines what you owe, what the minimum payment is, how many months it will take you to pay off your loan at the min payment etc.. But there was one line I didn't understand, "Capitalized Interest". Between all 4 forms this amount exceeded $1200. I called to find out. I was told that this was the interest that was adding up over the last six months. I questioned: "but what about the grace period I was told about". Response:" Sir, during the grace period you don't have to make any payments, but you still owe for interest".

I WAS FURIOUS!!!! I tried to be proactive about my loans, I wanted to start paying back sooner. I didn't have $1200 extra to be handing to the bank. WHAT A SCAM!!!! There was nothing I could do. I just had to suck it up.

Fast forward to 4 months ago. My fiance is graduating from school and already has a job lined up. She will be starting the second she is done. I tell her about what I went through and to start paying back your loans immediately. So I call the student loan center on her behalf (She had to log in and then hand the phone off once she was speaking to one of the administrators). I tell the person on the other end that my fiance would like to start paying back immediately. I have our banking information ready and would like to set up recurring withdrawals.

Her response: "Sir, you realize your fiance is in her grace period".
I'm upset now: "Yes I realize that, but we can afford to pay now and we don't want to deal with compounding interest".
The attendant: "Sir, recurring payments cannot be set up during the grace period".
Even more upset: " What do you mean I cant make payments? Do you mean to tell me that we just have to sit back while the interest runs up (see my first posting for how big the interest is on student loans in Canada)? They don't tell you about this part of the scam while you are in school?"
Her reply: " You can make payments during the grace period, you just have to make them manually."
I'm told that in order to make manual payments, I need to use online or telephone banking and set up a payee with the account number equal to my fiance's student loan number. Here is the catch, we don't know her loan numbers. Had we not called, we would have waited until the end of the grace period to receive them.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that Canadian student loans are a big bloody scam. Call them the day you graduate. Get your loan number and start repayment immediately. Otherwise, its like dealing with the mob, the juice gets added to the principle and the clock keeps running.

Thanks for listening to my rant, I hope you learned something.

Until next time.

We have finally closed on the condominium in West Windsor, after much gnashing of teeth about repair issues and having two sellers in different locations, one of whom was an estate. It was nice to hear from the sellers’ attorney that he appreciated our efforts to the point where he said that if it had not been us as the seller’s agents, that the deal probably would not have been consumated.

The single family home in West Windsor is still getting limited showings as are most listings in our area. It seems that the less expensive homes are getting more traffice.

Our listing in East Windsor is going to hang in there for a few more, maybe taking it off the market and waiting for the spring market. No rush as they haven’t found anything to their liking in Pennsylvania closer to their daughter.

The condominium in Plainsboro is also still available. We do have another condominium coming to the market in East Windsor. Going to see it next Thursday, reports have it that we will be in for a cleaning process first.

Check out the various township websites to see how the news is being blogged into them. I do hope that the spiders think it to be of value…

I have been wondering, while listening to the media go on and on about the slump in the housing market, about whether what they are seeing is simply a matter of percentages of single family homes sales versus condominiums or townhouses. So I ran some statistics for Cranbury, East Windsor, West Windsor, Robbinsville, Plainsboro and Hightstown.

In August, September, and October of 2005, there were 519 properties sold, with 249 of them being condo/townhomes and 270 being single family homes at an average price of $419,434. The same time frame in 2006, produced 424 sales. There were 233 single family homes and 191 townhouse or condominiums units. The average sale price was $427,436.

This means there were 47.9% condos/townhomes in 2005 and 45% in 2006, less by percentage and it shoots down my theory. But the average sale price has increased year over year by about 2% and at least in our market place, the prices have not plummeted as the news media is telling us.

Well who woulda thunk it. Freedumb doing a book review. That’s like a vegan eating meat. Well, okay, not really, but I haven’t picked up a book book since college.

When I was asked by JLP if I was interested in covering a chapter for his October Project, I was a little hesitant because I didn’t know if I could really finish the book and write a review. Well, I was right. I didn’t finish it, but I got really close, and I plan to continue reading the rest of it shortly. It’s just been a crazy month, but hey I finished my chapter…and quite a few more.

On to the review.

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If the first thought that come to mind was football, then this post will not be helpful. It provides advice to academic economists on how to write critiques of other economists' research.

From Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution:

Here are my tips:

1. Assume that no referee reports are truly anonymous. It is fine to be critical but always be polite.

2. Unless it is immediate junk, read the paper once and return to it a week later with deeper thoughts and a fresh mind.

3. Your report should not assume that the editor has a working knowledge of the paper in his mind.

4. Respond within a month. First it is considerate to the author. Second, the less "fresh" the task is, the more painful it will be.

5. A properly critical and useful "accept" report is harder to write. Don't look for excuses to quickly reject a potentially good paper.

6. The editor might have chosen you as referee for a reason. You need not go along with the editor's grand plan or desired outcome, but be aware it may exist.

7. Don't check the references to see if you are cited.

Here is a short article full of good advice. Here is the longer piece (which I have not read) on how to publish in top journals. Thanks to Elaine Hawley for the pointer.

I'm sure this post will leave most people scratching their heads, but I recieved a great birthday gift recently - a starter set of Henckels Pro S kitchen knives. You don't appreciate how hard it is to cook with dull knives until you get a decent set of cutlery - the difference is like night and day. Of course, I'll find any excuse to add expensive gadgets to my sparse kitchen.

In doing research for this purchase, I discovered that there's actually an internet message board devoted to kitchen knives. People rant and rave about their implements as they...prepare mirepoix? If this isn't proof that there's someone out there for everyone, I don't know what is.

Kitchen Knife Forums

By: Sandra L. Manzke, MAXAM Capital Management Published: 2006 Here’s a question: is a passive investment in alpha-producing hedge funds an oxymoron? If a return stream can be replicated with a passive investment, then isn’t it beta?  This is certainly the case when it comes to index investing.  But doesn’t the very existence of a risk premium on [...]

Organized By: IRC Dates: February 12-14, 2007 Location: London The dynamic duo of William Fung and David Hsieh have been referred to as the “Gilbert & Sullivan” of the hedge fund world - co-authors of seminal works whose broad themes are regularly borrowed by subsequent playwrights.  Well, there’s good news for fans: the pair will be appearing together [...]

We revisit the 'prices never go down' myth again this month just to hammer home the point.
Following on from last months decline, we see larger fall in prices again this month... seems the correction is gathering momentum.

New-home prices drop 9.7% from 2005, biggest fall in 35 years

"The median price of a new home plunged in September the largest amount in more than 35 years, even as the pace of sales rose for a second month."

"That was the lowest median price for a new home since September 2004 and the sharpest year-over-year decline since December 1970. The weakness in new-home prices was even sharper than a 2.5% fall in the price of existing homes last month, which had been the biggest drop on record."

Welcome to the first of my posts on beginning investing. If you’re reading this with any degree of interest, it’s probably because: You have a decent amount of money in your savings account and you know you need to do something with it but you’re just too busy and don’t have time for it just now. You’ll get to doing something next weekend. [You’ve been saying that for six years now]You have a

A lot of people have heard of Salary.com, but there’s a fairly new company that may offer a better service. The company is called Payscale, and they deliver salary information that is targeted to a specific region, city, and job title. If you’ve ever wondered if you’re getting paid the same amount that others in your field are making, check out www.payscale.com. When you visit the site you’re

Is another mutual fund scandal brewing?

More than two dozen mutual fund companies are under investigation for allegedly accepting hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks from outside contractors, according to a published report Thursday.

The Securities and Exchange Commission probe was sparked by a $21.4 million settlement it reached in September with Bisys Fund Services Inc., The Wall Street Journal reported.