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MarkBrown: I've studied it and you're dead wrong. Tax free compounding over any significant period of time (such as an 18 year old investing for retirement) far outweighs any plausible increase in tax rate.

Being able to speak articulately and cogently on subtle issues is a pretty clear sign of intelligence. There is a difference between knowledge and experience. From all I've seen & heard, Obama knows a great deal about the topics you mentioned. On the other hand he lacks personal experience...

Here's a qualification. He's probably the most intelligent and articulate candidate left in the race. I'm not an Obama partisan by any means, he's got his flaws, inexperience, naivete, perhaps a lack of toughness, drug use, and of course lots of people disagree with his policy views. But if...

<i>"One of the problem I hate these retirement plan is you cannot touch it until you retired." "if one takes distribution before the no-penalty age, then one jsut has to pay the penalty."</i> Wrong, and wrong. At any point in your life, you can start taking "substantially equal" monthly...

Brownsfan, you're utterly missing the point. Rateesquad was mostly right, you were mostly wrong. Aggressive lifestyle funds are quite widely diversified. They are perfectly safe as single holdings in a young person's 401k. They may or may not actually hold bonds (this one doesn't), but that...

I've spent a lot of time sitting in the Aeron and I recommend the Steelcase Leap instead, as long as you have an air conditioned office. Here's an earlier post I made on the topic: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1402088#post1402088 Martin

All heat and no light here as usual. Guys, why don't you look at the actual fund the dude is investing in rather than arguing about what the word aggressive means. His screen shot shows John Hancock Lifestyle Aggressive fund, JALAX. Here it is at Morningstar...

Saudi Arabia is a hell of a long way from the Henry Hub. Martin

I don't think RAID changes the situation. RAID performance improvements come with a boat load of caveats. And of course, if you're made of money you could always put together a RAID of flash drives. If you're using RAID for high capacity then obviously SSDs can't compete. If you need...

No. Futures are marked to market daily. There is no such thing as unrealized futures gain or loss for tax purposes. Even before you close the December contract you have already taken the loss. Fortunately you get 60/40 tax treatment. Martin

Bottom? Bottom!?! What the hell are you talking about? You can't call a bottom 2 days and 15% off an all time high. That's a long hangover, not a bottom. If Apple were Mount Everest we'd still be on bottled oxygen. You wouldn't be able to see base camp with a telescope. Bottom my ass...

Get a clue, guys, you can't have a short squeeze in an ETF, only in the underlying. A while ago TLT had short interest that was 150% of float, and nobody got squeezed. Even 150% of TLT's assets is miniscule compared to the Treasuries market, far less than one days worth of transaction volume...

The base of the wheel -- the point where it is in contact with the ground -- is always stationary during the entire takeoff run. This is also true for cars, or any other vehicles, unless they are skidding. You seem to be measuring velocity relative to the plane's reference frame. In that...

Just got to this thread... what a ridiculous waste of time. The whole controversy arises because the problem is very poorly and misleadingly defined: <i>The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, but moving in the opposite direction.</i> Do you mean the speed...

Forget the few weeks, think professional data fees. Having a Series 7 and exchange affiliation costs you some $2500 a year in exchange fees. I can think of a lot better things to do with that money. Martin

Wanting to believe it doesn't make it so. Actual crude oil deliveries have been flat for the last 3 years as prices have doubled. If the world were awash in crude, don't you think someone would want to sell more of it at those prices? They've got it, why aren't they selling it? Explain to me...

Another problem (or, perhaps, the flip side of the same coin) is that oil sands production is difficult to scale up, and impossible to scale up quickly. It has taken 30 years to develop 1 million barrels per day of production on the Athabasca oil sands. The second mbpd of production may take...

You can use whatever cost basis matching method you want. IRS allows either FIFO or LIFO for stocks as long as you are consistent. I have the same situation, where I have long term positions and trade around them. LIFO maximizes long term capital gains for me. I just ignore capital gains in my...

Chevron CEO: "The era of easy oil is over." In a widely placed advertisement. That's pretty much crystal clear. Martin

First of all, the big Western oil companies definitely aren't playing for time. They are taking out full page ads left and right saying "the age of easy oil is over," "Beyond Petroleum" etc. Could be many reasons for this, but they certainly aren't being coy with their opinions. Exxon is an...