If you are lucky enough to have a long weekend please drive safely.

Walk and Trade

via: 8th light blog

1. Neural Market Trends Rapid Miner video tutorials have resumed.
2. Pairs trading with Matlab.
3. Basic pair’s trading in Matlab youtube video.
4. Short video on GUI creation in Matlab.
5. Monte Carlo methods in Matlab video.
6. Interactively create plots in Matlab video.
7. Importing Excel data files into  Matlab video.
8. Curve fitting in Matlab video.

Random Quant Finance Articles

1. Open Source FIX engine, QuickFix.
2. Mathematician on Wall Street PDF Part I, Part II, Part III.
3. Stat Arb in the U.S equity market [PDF, Technical paper] .

Blog Post’s

• Can you tell real from fake market data? via Move the Markets.
• Exports, productivity and policy. via EconBrowser.
• Finding your niche in life and Trading. via TraderFeed.

60 Free apps we are most thankful for.

Why Google wave sucks, And why you will use it anyway.

Portfolio.com has an article on Capital Flight.

The Kirk Report has some very interesting Mail bag Q&A. (If you are not a member of this site yet you are missing a lot of vital info.)

Mike has posted on the rationaliser.

Move the Markets has the Virtual Bars Indicator.

Brett has some interesting reading on trading success.

Michael responds to one of his readers on Warren Buffett.

eSignal learning has an article on seasonality in trading futures.   

The expected value of mouse smashing.

Four days with Phil Ivey video.

Don’t shoot the speculator.

A tale of two bailouts.

Forecasters Overpredict GDP and Employment.

The social life of financial bubbles.

Catching false breakouts.

Largest Sovereign Wealth Funds.

Company Seeks Return of Seized Poker Winnings.

15 rites of passage from around the world.

Why creating jobs is so hard.

Cats do control humans.

Would you trust a scientist.

Pictures of the year.

The Links

Buisness week article learning and profiting from online friends.

Google squares an interesting new offering from Google.

Yaro from Entrepreneurs Journey looks at what motivates a purchase.

Life hacker comments on The BRW Rich 200 On How Not To Lose Your Money.

Problogger gives us 13 Tips for Marketing Your Business With Your Blog.

The EMH a dead parrot?

Monty Python’s Dead Parrot Sketch

Why Motivation doesn’t matter.

Confessions of a recovering spendaholic.

Your credit score V the United States.

Would you work without pay?

No wonder California is broke.

1984 need I say more?

World resources map.

IRS Taxing your work mobile.

The 50 best C64 Games.

Your dad does what?

Not Cute.

Enjoy your weekend.

Links

• It is good to see some new posts on NMT again seems everyone is getting into GO.
• Interesting article on TechCrunch does Google really control the news?
• Zen Habits gives us Seven productivity tips for people who hate GTD.
• NYT Chinese bias for boys causes 32 million gap.
• 12 cool gadgets for eco friendly geeks.
• You do the math, learning concepts rather the techniques.
• Venice to use algae for 50% of it’s electricity.

The Signup Process

To signup to the Kirk reports member only section click on member information page. After doing this a page similar to the one shown below will appear.

I choose to pay via PayPal and the process was extremely straightforward. After the transaction is complete you are redirected to instruction on how to log on to the members only section. You will also receive an email welcoming you to the Kirk report. Once you have logged on you will see a clean easy to use interface as shown below:

As a member you get access to:

• Kirk’s stock screen machine
• Monthly Q&A sessions
• Premarket/Afterhours posts
• A market timing indicator
• Recommended Readings
• Tools of the trade
• Educational posts
• Retirement/Lazy portfolios
• Model retirement portfolio

Stock Screen Machine

Naturally after signing up this was the first area of the members only section that I wanted to investigate. At the bottom of the page is a tutorial which goes over how to use the tools effectively and gives a bit of background information. There are quite a few screens that will help you find stocks to play. The screens provided include:

Stock Screen Machine Filters

• New & Hot
• Most Popular
• Consistent Performers
• Losing Popularity
• All Screens

Kirk’s Favourite Stock Screens

• Back Up The Truck
• Cheapo Growth
• Cream Of The Crop
• Good Minds Think Alike
• Market Leaders
• Passing The Bar
• Pounding The Table
• Safety First & Then Potential
• Value/Growth/Momentum

Another benefit of Kirk’s stock screens is the ability to views charts of all the stocks listed with a singe click, download an excel file contain the stocks or a text file. I have found this to be very hand as it allows me to use BulkQuotesXL and AnalyzerXL on the list directly. The image below shows a selected stock screen filter:

The monthly Q&A section is a complete archive of all the past Q&A topics and is all easily accessible on one page. I found it really helpful to see the lists of news that Kirk reads and the blogs he reads. These two lists are both very extensive and contain some sites that even the most seasoned professional may not have come across.  Kirk also has a list of recommended readings which is fairly standard but helpful to the beginner. The tools of the trade section of the website lists in great detail Kirks trading setup and I have to say I am somewhat jealous The lazy portfolio section of the website is of a very high standard and there are lots of resources. In total there are 25 different lazy portfolios presented. At the end of each day Kirk sends all his subscribers a concise email with links to posts along with other relevant information. The final section of the members only section that is worth its weight in gold is the members mailbag. This section of the website goes over all the previous questions kirks members have asked him. There is a lot of content and it makes very interesting reading.

Bottom Line

Becoming a member of the Kirk report really is easy and the value most people will derive will far exceed the initial outlay. If you only got access to the screen machines it would be $50 well spent. The mailbag section and the tools of the trade section make for very useful and interesting reading. If you have been a regular reader of the Kirk report but have been sitting on the fence it is time to take the plunge. The only criticism I have is the lack of comments and community interaction. It would be great to see a members only forum or comments to be enabled on posts. Also it would be good if the recommended reading section offered links to the Amazon page of books presented. That being said a Kirk report membership offers extraordinary value for  money.Well I am off to read some more Q&A’s and mailbag questions.

• PennyStocking – Part Deux
• ShortStocking
• Tim Raw

So stay tuned 2009 is going to be a big year for global financial markets and a big year for TraineeTrader.

Original Photography: gbrunett

Today is considered a very lucky day for the Chinese as 8 is considered lucky. To find out why this is so we turn to the trusty online Chinese Astrology Guide.

“For Chinese the number 8 is considered lucky just like the number 7 is considered lucky in the West. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Olympic games in China start on August 8, 2008 or 08/08/08. In China you have to pay extra to have the number 8 in your phone number or license plate. In addition, home and business owners like to have the number 8 in their address.”

That’s very interesting but why is 8 considered a lucky number?

“The main reason has to do with the pronunciation of the word for the number 8 in China. It is pronounced “ba” and sounds like the word for prosperity which is pronounced “fa”. Another reason why the number 8 could be considered lucky is because it is a perfect symmetrical shape.”

8 Lucky Links

1. Using economics to predict the Olympic medal count.
2. Synergies of the unpleasant kind: recessions, credit crunches and housing busts.
3. DJIA member trading ranges via TickerSense.
4. Check out Tim’s July earnings $45,000…. Does Tim ever sleep?
5. Freddie Mac Losses to get worse.
6. NYSE Floor Brokers Get New Tools.
7. Guerilla Gardening.
8. 8 Timeless Classic Movies That Critics Are Afraid Of.