Moomin Valley

May was another generally positive month for trading. Realised gains came in at $1,600 ($3,674 ytd): It's feeling like this kind of rate...

Sold my holding in SAFT. Held since August last year, received a few dividends watched the stock price go up, but though the company is chea...

We made some donations to help with the recovery from the Sichuan Earthquake. Half the money we gave through San Diego Zoo to help the Wolo...

Today the price of oil is falling and though the U.S. stockmarket rose overnight the Australian stock market is down. Resource stocks are, o...

I completed my first CFD day trade for a profit of $1. Moving stops is not as fast as on Interactive Brokers as you need to click a confirm ...

My account was approved this morning and I got some money into my account - using a credit card it was there right away - more is on the way...

Gradually, I'm getting up to speed on Australian taxation, retirement etc. A combination of reading the Australian Financial Review (hor...

Listed property includes REITs and other companies mainly involved in property that are listed on stockmarkets such as Westfield. Unlisted p...

The American Economic Association (the World's top academic economics society) has an $18 million dollar potfolio . They're currentl...

Challenger Infrastructure Fund is down 22% today currently. Yesterday they reported that they sold their holding of Arqiva and ceased takeo...

I just got back from the City Index seminar . I was pretty impressed. The trading platform looks nice a lot of features similar to Interacti...

The Challenger Infrastructure Fund announced that it sold its interests in Arqiva - a British provider of broadcasting infrastructure - an...

Readers might be familiar with the following quotation from Burton Malkiel ( A Random Walk Down Wall Street , 1996, p. 154): “technical stra...

It's unusual to have more than two big down days in the US market recently without some sideways or slightly up action. So expect smalle...

Bekaert has returned 35% since bought on 17 January . The price is close to analysts' targets and as I blogged earlier there may be so...

We just bought an office chair for use at home. A few months ago I ended up with an inflamed sciatic nerve from sitting on a poorly designe...

It's quite likely that the wave that started in the March lows is complete and we are now in a down wave. One reason that this might not...

Gottliebson has some interesting insights on the upcoming Australian tax review. I think it makes sense that "salary sacrificing"...

I haven't opened a CFD account yet but am thinking about where the money is going to come from. $2000 would be enough to get started wi...

Man Financial was voted the best CFD provider in Australia but only seems to offer CFDs on individual shares. So I can't use that. CMC ...

Here's another idea in my ongoing quest to trade stock indices cheaply, in small size, and at times which are convenient for my time zon...

On an intraday basis, we just went over a half million U.S. Dollars in net worth ($US503k or $A535k). Hopefully, we can hold onto it. We are...

As of today our total return index (US term) or accumulation index (Aus speak) hit a new all time high, at least when measured in US Dollars...

Strange how there are still new instruments for me to try trading :) I traded my first futures option - deliberately throwing away $A22.50 t...

Beazer Homes finally released their earnings for September 2007... They still have two quarters to release. I bought some puts again. This ...

The latest version of Trader Workstation - Interactive Brokers trading software - has a new look - I don't really like it, but there see...

While on the topic of book reviews and risk, I recently read "The Education of a Speculator", Victor Niederhoffer's autobiogr...

I added MVC Capital to the private equity category. Also added to Newcastle Investments after they released their earnings and again bough...

Most people think of options as a way of increasing leverage. You can put down a small amount of money to control a large amount of stock. B...

I just read Peter Bernstein 's Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk . It is an interesting read though I feel he often wanted ...

There were some great charts on the growth of tax revenues and spending in the last few decades in Australia in Saturday's Australian Fi...

A new investment in Qantas. It looks cheap despite high oil prices etc. The P/E ratio is 6.4 and the dividend yield is 11% (fully franked)....

The stock will again be traded on the ASX from 9th May . My shares are likely worth only $20 or so. After the capital reconstruction I have ...

This month I'm trying out a new format, which focuses on how we are doing in meeting our annual goals. Other statistics appear towards t...

There's been some debate on and off about how well various ETFs track their underlying benchmarks. Debate has focused on commodity, curr...

As you can see in the righthand column, I've achieved one of my five annual goals - that of reaching breakeven on my U.S. investment/tr...

Lakonishok J., I. Lee, N. D. Pearson, and A. M. Poteshman (2007) Option market activity, The Review of Financial Studies 20(3): 813-857. I...

Sold a couple of May covered call options on BWLD . From a realised gain perspective it's a certain win - I bought the stock at less tha...

A much simpler to understand study about the profitability of selling put options. I've sold options in the past - several years ago - ...