Recent content by LodeRunner

Some people were mentioning FL vs. CA a while back. They don't have a lot in common, I'll agree with that, but while reading the discussion on whether a $400k house in CA is doable I just had to laugh a bit. You can get 3 bedroom houses (needing some cosmetic fixer upper stuff, granted) for...

A ridiculous statement. It all depends on how the tax is being used. The tax money used to build the US interstate highway system, for instance, was not a net drain on our economy over the long term. Our tax money used to rebuild Iraq obviously was (looking only at our economy, not theirs.)...

Glad to help, though I'm still not sure which part you're talking about. Synthetic positions as a means to adjust ('partially close out') an already existing two-sided position, or currency baskets to better capture one-sided sentiments like "USD will go up" ? If you're using a basket...

Synthetic positions aren't any more stable. Payoffs are always exactly the same (if ever they aren't, arbitrage will instantly eliminate the inefficiency), other than the higher commissions. It's a bit hard to visualize in the case of Forex, but it should be clear if you imagined all of the...

Other than lack of *nix support (I'll deal), TradeLink looks fanastic. Thanks, guys. Quick question though, how does one automatically download IB historical data? Realtime recording was a snap via Record, but Tik Converter doesn't support IB. Or does Gauntlet do this? One year of 1 sec bars...

(Sorry for the cross post, realized this is the proper forum.) I'd like to take my data feed (preferably both historical and real time) and dump it into an SQL database as quickly and painlessly as possible. If I could get something that automatically wrote to CSV or even some proprietary...

I'm tired of wrestling in vain with Interactive Brokers' API. My analytical engine is nearly complete but I have no recent fine-grained data to test it on. Who offers historical and/or real-time data with an API (or readymade solution, dare I hope) granting easy insertion into an SQL...

The real explanation is more fundamental. It has nothing to do with psychology. There is a fundamental asymmetry between long and short positions. Because of limited liability and all that corporate personhood junk, there is a terminal point on the short side of a stock: zero. Once a stock...

This echo-chamber of retardedness is too irresistible for me to quit without giving you a few hints. Like giving a troop of gorillas a rubik's cube. What is currency? What are its desirable attributes and undesirable attributes? Why did single-commodity based systems, from cocoa beans to sea...

Yeah, I monologued, because the only non-irrelevant argument I've seen so far is 'look at history', which is an argument so powerful it could be applied equally to buggy whips, chalkboards, and asbestos insulation. It's fantastic to watch the flamebait replies come rolling in, both from...

Hilarious. We have two people who actually address and debate the real issue, then a dozen more who blindly spout off with the same ole irrelevant pro-gold, anti-fiat rant. This has nothing to do with fiat vs. non-fiat. The fact that only a couple of you have grasped this so far only confirms...

Not since '82. But as long as people accept fiat currency, is that relevant? You keep your money fully invested in copper or some other commodity X, and when you want to buy something you cash out into dollars or euros or whatever. Back in the days before the internet, bullion coins (in only...

This is turning out to be an interesting experiment. How many replies can I get before I get one from someone who actually read my post and has even the faintest idea about what I'm talking about?