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Fine, but if I cancel my cards and pay cash, then I have to pay more to subsidize the credit card companies because they have rigged the merchant pricing system (in most jurisdictions). Can you imagine if AARP rigged things so that if you didn't have one of their membership cards you would...

Think about it, the bank's transaction fee is 2-3% and they have to split that with MC or Visa. You are getting rebated 1-5% and getting a free loan for the month and getting the technology and customer service. All that cost the cc company money. The only reason they are nice to you is...

I did not say that people who default on their credit cards are subsidizing you, I said those who pay cash and who carry balances are subsidizing you. The split on the transaction fees that banks receive does not pay for the technology, 25 day free loan and rebate/miles etc. that you receive...

You have been subsidized for decades by people who pay cash and by those who ran balances (the irresponsible). Retailers raised prices to account for credit card fees causing cash customers to pay higher prices. The credit card companies made up for rebates by soaking the profligate. Those...

I wonder if this is in response to Rick Santelli's rant? Not a good idea to mix politics and business.

You are doing the right thing. Don't let others discourage you. It is better for your frame of mind to earn something and not be isolated while you figure out your trading.

Could mean more opportunity for US based small businesses who don't enjoy the advantages of global tax, labor and regulation arbitrage that big multinational corporations do.

Probably not until shareholders complain that it is driving away business. All they need to do is to reduce the ES tick to .10, eliminating the .25 to .10 arbitrage. They can leave the pit open after that as it won't matter.

ES is too choppy due to the unnecessary pit to electronic arbitraging (i.e. every time the ES starts to rally, it is pulled down by pit arbitrage). Instead of a clean up move it is a stop and go move, kind of like a new driver trying to use a stick shift for the first time. A fine index is...

Japan was dependent on the carry trade to rig its currency. Banks would borrow at near zero percent in Japan and reinvest in the US. With US interest rates so low, this doesn't work anymore. Cars and electronics are their biggest exports which are the hardest hit products.

There are a lot of after hours fake-out moves in futures that could trigger stops, unlike with ETFs. I think a lot of stock brokers are putting client money to work in ETFs. They normally would not be eligible to trade futures. The CME has been resting on its laurels and distracted by...

Isn't this the pit that Rick Santelli announces from? If he keeps roughing up Obama they may just close the Madoff like operation they have going on there in the pits. Time for all electronic trading anyway.

No wonder why they are fighting not to be regulated by anyone but the CFTC. Time to close the pits and move everything electronic. With an electronic market everything can be traced. In the pit they can get away with anything.

More shenanigans involving pit traders. http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-cbot-treasury-fraud-april1,0,2743726.story

It did seem to take hold a little too quickly being on the Drudge Report, Youtube etc. When I first saw it I thought whats the big deal Santelli is always ranting. Check this link out from The Big Picture http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/02/rick-santellis-faux-rant/#more-20449 Maybe...

When incomes for the middle class stagnate or decline and upward mobility is cut off, people no longer have an incentive to hold down taxes on the rich. Only when the middle class is upwardly rising do people think, one day I could be rich, lets hold taxes down. When hope is cut off, it is...

Globalization is good for the rich and the poor but it is deadly to the middle class of developed countries. Skilled work can always be done cheaper in places where the cost of living is less. The middle class is all about skilled work.

I have met a lot of CEOs who work less than 40 hours a week - they are always out somewhere that has nothing to do with business. The hardest workers are those executives with line responsibility below the CEO. CEOs also have company paid liability insurance. The only CEOs working for $1...

Traditional college education is turning into a big scam. It is way too expensive for the value you receive. People get into debt up to their eye balls or their parents give a big chunk of their retirement money in return for ever lower paying jobs after graduation. When everyone becomes a...

I don't know about drugs, but I have never seen an announcer interrupt a discussion with stupid questions more than Dylan Ratigan. Usually the guest is making an intelligent point and Dylan will interrupt and ask something like - If the stock market was an animal, what kind of animal would it be.