Week of February 15th, 2009

Happy President’s Day. We used to only honor Lincoln and Washington, but now we honor all of them with mattress sales. Like Chester Alan Arthur for example. Arthur had never held elective office until being elected Vice-President in 1880. He had been collector for the Port of New York, which was the most lucrative patronage job in the country. It was the chief source of graft for the “Stalwart” Republican machine of New York. When President Rutherford B. Hayes removed Arthur in an attempt to reform civil service, the Stalwarts responded by driving Hayes… [ Read more ]

Week of February 8th, 2010

You’ve heard this before. When the NFC wins the Super Bowl the market will be up for the year, and if the AFC wins it’s time to dump the portfolio. This indicator has been accurate about 90% of the time according to some estimates. The reason there is some dispute is because some just measure AFC vs. NFC while some break it down with original AFL vs. original NFL. So, for example, when the Steelers won last year’s game and the market went up for the year, did it disprove the theory because they… [ Read more ]

Week of February 1st, 2009

Well here we go again. Some overhyped rodent sticks his head out of a hole and pretends to be a prognosticator, but enough about your broker lets talk about Punxsatawney Phil. According to Phil’s official website (yes he has a website that I will not link to since it is overwhelmed this time of year – check it out in July) Groundhog Day is routed in the Catholic tradition of Candlemas and the Pagan Celtic festival of Imbolc. I think it is really rooted in the ancient tradition of cabin fever and the need for… [ Read more ]

Week of January 25th, 2010

It was an old tradition on the trading floor. When there was a relatively quiet moment in the pit, someone would say something like “There having a raffle to raise money for this orphanage I help sometimes and I want all you guys to buy a ticket.” Or, “My wife is on the board of a children’s hospital and there having this dinner and I’m selling some tickets. You don’t have to go, but at least buy a ticket.” A week seldom went by that we weren’t asked to contribute something to somebody who… [ Read more ]

Week of January 4th, 2010

Our first column of this decade begins with a term that did not exist in the popular vernacular ten years ago: Webinar. What is a webinar? According to Wikipedia (which also wasn’t around ten years ago) a webinar is:

” a neologism to describe a specific type of web conference. It is typically one-way, from the speaker to the audience with limited audience interaction, such as in a webcast. A webinar can be collaborative and include polling and question & answer sessions to allow full participation between the audience and the presenter.”

After you are… [ Read more ]

Christmas, 2009

All of us at The Chicago School of Trading would like to wish everyone a great holiday season. 2009 was our first full year of operation and we have made great strides in bringing our knowledge to a new generation of traders. We would like to take this opportunity to thank those people who have helped us out in the past year:

Mark Anderson
Tim Bourquin
Pat Childress
Katie DiCola
Joe Duffy
Bill Figel
Colette Flo
Laurie Gruzynski
Kathy Gruzynski
Ryan Hansen
Joe Harwood[ Read more ]

Week of November 23 – 30, 2009

The first Thanksgiving occured in 1621 in the Plymouth Colony in Massachussets when the Pilgrims invited the local Wampanoag Indians to dinner to celebrate a successful harvest and to thank the Wampanoag for not killing them. This is where our current Thanksgiving tradition comes from. Down the shore in Virginia a few months later, 347 colonists were savagely murdered by the Powhatan Indians in the Great Indian Massacre of 1622. This is where our current tradition of Black Friday sales comes from.

Scene outside Best Buy, Black Friday 1622

The savage behavior… [ Read more ]

Week of November 16 – 22, 2009

President Obama and other world leaders have long touted the new green economy. These are the new opportunities for entrepreneurs who provide Earth-friendly products and services that decrease our dependence on fossil fuels. Here are three recent news stories involving the growth of that green economy:

Pioneering Industry
Well one industry is way ahead of the rest of us: The Sexual-Aid Industry. According to Time Magazine’s October 26^th issue, As the green movement makes its way into the bedroom, low lighting is a must–to conserve electricity–but so are vegan condoms,… [ Read more ]

Week of November 8th, 2009

Today the world celebrates the 20^th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Actually that sounds like there was an earthquake or something, and the wall came a tumbling down. What actually happened on November 9, 1989 was that the Communist East German government succumbed to the inevitable and announced that East Germans were free to cross the border into West Germany without being shot in the back; “Honest, ve vont shootz you, really”

The Berlin Wall – November 9, 1989

In August of 1989, the first crack in the Iron Curtain… [ Read more ]

Week of November 2 – 8, 2009

Bang for Our Buck:
-CIT, which took $2.3 billion in TARP money from federal government, filed for bankruptcy in New York. Goodbye $2.3 billion.

-Ford Motor Company, which was the only one of the big three US automakers to not take TARP money and declare bankruptcy, posted a $997 million dollar profit in the third quarter. “Cash for Clunkers” helped Ford, but Ford was also helped by generally positive press and consumer reaction to their auto and truck lines. In other words, they made a good product.

That Lil’ Devil Bernie… [ Read more ]