Mahant!

Dollar index is likely to retrace a bit from here on short term but the trend seems to be confirmed to the downside. The positive Stoch seems to be the only support dollar has for now. The numbers coming out today are expected to be bad, so cant say if the retracement will happen or its going to crack the floor right away. Trade remains short. Yen, Cad and GBP are pretty similar in patterns. They are just consolidating after their rises. I am not sure, if they are ready to let go of their confines just yet. The volumes and momentum still don't favor a new charge. It may take some more time and more sideways actions (akin to 4th wave moves) before it takes off. The idea is Dollar is likely to strengthen for some time (I don't have a reason for that now. Crude is a big against for this to happen) mainly on the back of Dollar index holdings its ground (may be with help on some intervention, possibly EU) Nevertheless, we just can't get out of the feeling that we are at defini...

Independent has a very good article on how things can go wrong when greed and capitalism function any ethics: Below the headlines about rocketing food prices and rocking governments, there lays a largely unnoticed fact: bananas are dying. The foodstuff, more heavily consumed even than rice or potatoes, has its own form of cancer. It is a fungus called Panama Disease, and it turns bananas brick-red and inedible. There is no cure. They all die as it spreads, and it spreads quickly. Soon – in five, 10 or 30 years – the yellow creamy fruit as we know it will not exist. The story of how the banana rose and fell can be seen a strange parable about the corporations that increasingly dominate the world – and where they are leading us. Source

Apologies for not posting the details of the studies along with charts. Trying to be as brief as possible Crude oil: Crude has shown increase in momentum. As earlier, it is futile to call a top on something that is running without leash. The best we can do is trade in the direction of trend with trailing stop losses. The level of 129 is important in short term. The prices may retrace to these levels. If the prices sustain below 129, it is likely to head to 124 regions else the targets of oil would be in the range of 138 and 143. Rice: Rice has been a darling, moving exactly as we thought it might. The prices have corrected from the higher angles and moved to lower angles. It is likely to find support here. The RSI has not yet bottomed by seems very close to bottom, all in all, rice should recover around these levels. Wheat: Wheat is the most bullish of the stock in the sense of risk-reward. The support of 750 is unlikely to be broken. The prices are likely to retrace to 890-900 levels ...

Is it possible to hack the nirvana code? Is it possible to have a short cut to peace? NYT carries an article titled Superhighway to bliss where Dr Taylor talks of her experience and how it can be used to gain contentment. You can get the content of the article here. But it is a simple even boring article. The best thing you can do is catch Dr Taylor recounting her experience when she had the stroke. The talk made at Ted is just simply fabulous. This talk can help you put this article in context, but then after listening to the talk, you don't need this article.

I came across these very sensible pictures/ cartoons that speaks tomes The above one highlights over population This is on poverty This is obvious - environment This is on dividing people by drawing lines on map. Must say this is my favorite.

A nicely made visual on the possible extinction timelines. It takes some guts to put a timeline to Microsoft or Google's extinction not because it it somewhere in 2040+ but to say why not earlier. But then author says its not to be taken too seriously. The biggest thing about this graphic is that - there are many things on the list and all seem possible, nothing wild.

Photoshop disasters is a really cool blog that mocks at companies and ads that are really messed up. I have been watching this for sometime, so what triggered my post; in a recent post they showed how two big companies are fooling themselves by using the same stock photo for their ads. Asus and MSI have been using the same stock photo said to be from Getty images for advertisements, not to mention they have made a total fools of themselves.

I know this is crazy but I did it anyways. Something that I don't like to beleieve in but is nagging me: Is presentation more important than content? So, when I came across the phrase "ounce of image is worth a pound of performance", I decided to google it to check if view was shared by others. to my surprise it was, I got 525 results. To top it all, I was not aware this is a proverb!!!

Students at a home in Poland just got very creative. SNAKE Game in the Student House - Awesome video clips here I dont know how they did it but here is a quote from one of the comments "a microprocessor was fixed to control all the lightings in the building and it was programmed to play this excellent game. It has nothing to do with timings, but still it is awesome creative work by the students."

| View | Upload your own | View | Upload your own | View | Upload your own | View | Upload your own

| View | Upload your own

An excellent presentation | View | Upload your own

If you want to view an entire blog in a glance here is the link to do it. http://surff.blogspot.com/search?max-results=1000 I go this from here: Googlesystems The syntax is: http://blogname.blogspot.com/search?max-results=N

I had no idea that one could download Wikipedia! Now, I am wondering why I thought it was not possible!!! May the size of the site.... What ever, here is the link to Labnol's article

Nick Leeson speaks in the latest edition of Advanced Trading magazine, which is one of the best magazines on trading & technology around. The full article here . "If you ask any trader what their biggest fear is, it would be fear of failure," Leeson continues. "And fessing up to what is going on is probably the biggest failure you could ever imagine." For three years, he notes, he believed that somehow he could work his way out of his trading mess.

I came across this chart on income distribution which I think eloquently speaks of the disparity.

World is flat | View | Upload your own Jia Lou | View | Upload your own Women of the world | View | Upload your own

How do you tell a secret to X and to Y, in such a way that both X and Y are able to use the secret effectively? Sounds impossible, even foolish, at first thought. But it is not so. The answer lies in the bandwidth, on how easily it can be used. If both X and Y can effectively use the information to benefit equally from the secretive information, then both can be execute without hurdles. Only when they cannot co-exist together, does the scenario becomes impossible. If an insider info is leaked to two persons; in case of stock, the price impact would be very high for both to capitalize on but in case of forex, both fishes can co-exist easily. Hence, it is the question of bandwidth and liquidity. Hence, if I am creating a very high-end product whose life is as long as a day, instead of sharing it with just X, we may share it with others and capitalise on our info / product. Its just that I have to create these products in a highly liquid market.

Forecasting and innovations – challenges and pitfalls When you have a new insight into say why the dollar is going to go down. It is very hard to keep this insight into meddling into my thinking on the way we are going to behave. In other words, it is very hard to un-insight the insight. It is very hard to un-innovate the innovation. And if we do not un-innovate; one the ills is that we do not know by when the next innovation should come to keep us alive. The popular example how innovation can go totally off the whack is the remote control. Remote control was invented to be an easy way to manage task without having to reach out to the device every so often. The innovation was in giving the comfort to the user of doing it with minimum effort. But how many people actually use all the buttons on the remote. And since there are so many functions that are not routinely used or are one-time affairs. The actual use of the remote is obscured under the weight on needlessness...

Just brainstorming.... When I am raising my products up the value scale, I am hitting a ceiling. I am not able to proceed much further because my product is not like a car that can be sold to anybody, my product is not like a toiletries that any body can pick off the shelf, not like corn flakes for everybody’s reach. My product is little skewed. It is niche product. It is more like selling a fighter jet or rocket fuel, there only just so many who are interested and who would find it useful. But my product is still a little different. I cannot guarantee it from doing anything spectacular. It’s like buying newspaper and finding blank pages. But once in a while there will be columns that may inform you of something significant or at best cause in significant change in your views. My product is opinion. I do not guarantee it will make you rich but I may help you in more ways than one. With each passing day, with each post getting a bit better, one day we may change the world. Goo...

Effectively using deep web technologies can throw up information hidden from the search engine eyes, well actually unrecognised. One of the searches are on personalities and this WSJ article tells you how to do that in better way - If you are still relying on Google to snoop on your friends, you are behind the curve. Armed with new and established Web sites, people are uncovering surprising details about colleagues, lovers and strangers that often don't turn up in a simple Internet search. Though none of these sites can reveal anything that isn't already available publicly, they can make it much easier to find. And most of them are free. Zaba Inc.'s ZabaSearch.com turns up public records such as criminal history and birthdates. Spock Networks Inc.'s Spock.com and Wink Technologies Inc.'s Wink.com are "people-search engines" that specialize in digging up personal pages, such as social-networking profiles, buried deep in the Web. Spokeo.com is a search ...

As long as you are fulfilling some need of the customers, you will be valued by the customer. The upshot of this is: if you want to be respected, fulfill the need of others whose attention you are trying to get.

You thought the word ‘blog’ is an abbreviation of web log but some have discovered a better meaning of the word Blog. They define it as " B etter L isting o n G oogle ." Ref: Digital inspirations

A excerpt from an article cross-posted on a community site, unfortunately the poster din't mention the source. --- I know. I've seen this movie once before. And the script will forever be ingrained in my mind. It was 1978. Jimmy Carter was president. Oil prices had been surging for nearly seven years. Other commodities -- including silver, gold and food -- were following closely behind. Wholesale prices, import prices and the price of critical resources were climbing swiftly. Most important, the Fed's pipe-smoking Chairman Arthur Burns, fearing a chain reaction of financial failures, pumped up the money supply with wild abandon, slashed interest rates -- and set the stage for the worst U.S. inflation since the Civil War. I saw it all, but I didn't believe it. I assumed Burns would come to his senses, see the obvious danger of inflation and reverse course. But I assumed wrong. Burns plowed ahead regardless of all the signs. He gave lip service to fighting inflation, whil...

Jim Rogers said it best when he said "You don't need MBA to succeed." Actually everything that we do is simple common sense. But we don’t understand this until we actually go through these educational processes. Perhaps that is what educational systems are designed for, like Zen, you go through the journey only to understand it that it was not worth it and you start realizing the true potential you always had within you. Visualization of information is a very interesting subject and XPlane is in forefront of that. Founding of XPlane in 1982 is considered a milestone in data visualization. It has a cute and simple web page, with no more than 7 data objects. Yes, you read it right 7! Google by contrast has nine, generously speaking. The beauty of the site has to be seen to be believed. Their website is http://www.xplane.com/. The crux of data visualization is to give the maximum amount of information in simplest form. XPlane's home page has following obje...

It is a very good sentiment to believed world is fair and equally balanced. But unfortunately it is not. There are no 50:50 balances in this world. So, does that mean there is no balance? There is a balance, which I think is a skewed balance. A balance which enables the equilibrium to take place. One of the universally accepted theories that point to this contradictions Pareto's theory also called as Law of vital few. This law states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of causes. This skews the risk or rewards more on a certain set of population that others. The world is thus unequal. For example, 20% of population lives in luxury, essentially implies that 80% of population does not have access to that luxury. 80% of internet traffic is represented by top 20% of websites and so on. 20% of people make money in market. Some estimates state an even lower number. This implies there are large numbers of people who do not make money in markets. The point this post tri...

Product management and perfectionism One day when going through my uncle's library I found an article by one of the top man in advertising industry (I forget his name) he was quoted on cover saying "I am a perfectionist." As a young kid, I loved it. It had a certain ring to it. It made you feel more intellectual than others. Finally, you had something to tell people about your characteristics, a word that may awe them. And if a man that successful is a perfectionist, then being perfectionist is the way to go! Wow! What a kid I was. Certainly not smart enough. Still, a kid but having learnt many lessons in the class of life, I can say that statement is an utter delusion. Perfectionists are extinct. They are dinosaurs. It is important to draw a line here between perfectionism and striving for perfection or quality work. If you were like the CEO I mentioned above who "will do it until it attains perfection and only then accept it" kind of p...

A wonderful, simply incredible post by Satyjit Das. A Must read. Check here -------------- According to George Will: "The future has a way of arriving unannounced". That was before equity analysts. In dense, jargon-infected prose splattered with spurious statistics, many analysts are trumpeting that the worst of the credit problems are behind us. Major equity markets have recovered a substantial portion of their losses; even bubonic plague stricken financial stocks have rallied. It is time to buy for the new equity "bull market". The following guide to the calls of equity markets seers may be helpful: Weak data - Fed eases, stocks rally. Strong data - Strong economy, stocks rally. Consensus data - Lower volatility, stocks rally. Bank loses $8bn - Bad news all out of the way,stocks rally. Oil price up -Good for energy producers, stocks rally. Oil price down - Good for consumers, stocks rally. $US down - Good for exporters, stocks...

Rupee is possibly in making the formation of three-rivers, which is a variation of complex bullish head and shoulders pattern. Some features of this formation really help us in understanding the scenarios we may be facing. Three-rivers patterns are formed in 'gorges', i.e. after a steep fall and the bottom being formed with slowing of the momentum (fall). But this pattern takes a long time to form and market/prices are in a tight but volatile range during the formation. In case of stocks, unlike forex, the volumes are very good indicator of waning interest in the stock. [some text taken out] Falkor

Always knew Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were severely under-capitalized. Nevertheless was stunned when I read this para at NYT . I don't know what stunned me, the colossal figures or the effortlessness with which it is said. Fannie Mae, along with Freddie Mac, are essential lubricants in today’s housing marketplace. The companies buy more than 80 percent of all home loans made by banks and lenders, providing fresh financing for more home mortgages. At the end of 2007, the firms had a combined cushion of $83 billion, underpinning a colossal $5 trillion in debt and other financial commitments.

Well, sometimes we read something that hits you instantly and leaves you with a feeling if this person is right? These are somethings that make you think, and think hard. These triggers can seem frivolous at first. What ever it is, this is exactly what I felt after reading a para from Economic times article: However ridiculous it may sound, the fact is that stocks are actually invented to go up. They are like evolution and the human mind: in the long run, they get better. And though, once in a while, some crackpots manage to short the market, it is more a case of chance. Falkor

Equities have moved up albeit with lot of caution despite of great fears on recession and inflation. The mergers and acquisition scenario is hotting up with lots of deals in pipeline. The theme of rising risk appetite in the wake of falling interest rates and higher inflation is supporting the higher yielding asset classes like equities and commodities. If this trend of low interest rates continues, which it is likely to, the higher yielding assets will get a good boost. Dow Jones has been drifting up very steadily but with lack of momentum or volumes, in other words this entire move up seems to lack conviction. But even with out alternative count, the markets are headed up, at least in the short term. The shorting of Dow Jones though feasibility would be biased towards aggressiveness. The trend is likely to be up with corrections coming in at resistance points. Dow Jones is likely to remain in range with the targets being achieved very slowly along with the result season playing out. ...

We had expected the crude to dip back and test the channel supports which existed at 115. Crude came below the expected 115 to touch 111.11 The bullish candle made with the jump in prices yesterday is a good sign of bull, it would be premature to say it could cause a new rally. As everything in candlesticks charts, the key is in the placement. With bullish candle so up high and with so little correction, it is likely to fizzle out. The stop loss of any positive trades are meant to be below the levels of 111.45. It is hard to call a top here. The prices may retest 110 levels soon.

New York Times is really a great exponent in graphic designing. This graphic highlighting the inflation and the spending patterns in simple view, is excellent example of that. The screen shot of the pic is below. Check here for the link .

Sensex has moved steadily to 17500 levels. The movement is still not impulsive but at the same time I am not discounting a major move could have been started. To play with the trend now, I feel the markets will face pretty strong resistance at around 18000 and we may see some amount of drop from those levels. This drop if it occurs may drop to the levels of 16600 and 16400, before making a move up.

The broader technical outlook is little changed from the last time. In the short term the prices have seen the correction to the levels of 21. After achieving the 2.618 projections the prices have declined from the top of the angles. The Fibonacci retracements supports are also placed at 20 and 18, with 18 being 61% retracements. We feel the prices are unlikely to drop below the lower angle. Hence, 20 should be the bottom in short term.