Challenge

Recently, I had written a few of the people I know and respect both within and outside my work setting to try and promote the spread of a message about the social inequities going on in Africa. One of the individuals I wrote was Bill Cara, a trader whom I read daily and admire for his rational take on the markets. Bill's blog is very very popular (I want to say several 100,000 hits daily). Last night Bill responded to his readers and me with an excellent discussion of the injustices being done in Africa and the corruption involved in the assistance process.

The most important part in this or any problem is not the realizing there is a problem it is doing something about it. This is where people get lazy. Yes nearly everyone in America realizes that the situation in Africa is not right. But how many of them are willing to do something? 1 million? I doubt it. Bill offered the following possible solution: "In my case, I believe I could, without difficulty, organize 100 or more of the world's top traders to manage offshore (and untaxed) a pool of billions of dollars of donated capital, at minimal cost, with the profits going to finance this programme."

Well Bill, consider yourself challenged. I'm not sure if you can do it. I hope for everyone's sake you can. I realize this is no short order, contrary to your statement that it would not be difficult. If you need assistance, any at all, do not hesitate...you know how to reach me. Let's see what we can conjurer up in the next week and I could do some promotion at Live 8 in Philly. In addition, I'd love to hear other people's ideas on how we can combat the problems.

You can visit Bill Cara's blog at www.billcara.com.

Trading Follow-up - TKO and PDG

Just a little follow up on my TKO and PDG posts. I haven't added again to my TKO position quite yet. I'm waiting for it to break out of its current trading range between $4.85 and $5.30. I will add to my position once I see it move from its base here. As for PDG, I haven't sold yet, being as the stock has been up nearly every day since I purchased it about two weeks ago. Other stocks I like right now are: PTR and SU (i'm convinced we will see $100 oil before we see $40 oil and even at $40 the valuation is still too low for these two high quality oil stocks); another stock I like for an inter-month (within one month) trade is RIMM (the techs on this support a good $10 move to the upside in the next month or so.

This is me up in Boulder, Co. in the mountains. I went out for work and had a day to mess around so I went hiking in the mountains there. It is gorgeous and I can't wait to go back.

Quit Whining!

As you may have noticed I am a big proponent of giving aid to Africa and other impoverished nations to help them help themselves. The media (namely the news agencies) have done little to promote the "good" and righteous side of the men and women who are donating their time and money to make things happen for Africa. In fact, they seem to have done quite the opposite. Instead of rallying people to help they attract people to slay these campaigns. I don't know if this is power politics or what (I'm guessing so because there's billions and billions of dollars at stake). But something got to change. The article on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8216883/) today is a very public unwarranted and unprovoked attack upon the individuals who are putting together the Live 8 Concert to raise awareness for poverty and AIDs in Africa and other poverty stricken nations (learn more at http://www.live8live.com). Here's a well deserved kudos to those who are getting off of their couches and finally doing something about these things that they find wrong in this world. I believe it was Mahatma Ghandi who said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." I think people sit around and do nothing but complain about things or other people because they are too lazy to actually do something. The simple fact is that its easier to complain. I'm not proclaiming to be better than others at the "doing something" part, but I think anyone with a shred of common sense and a shred of knowing good from evil can agree that helping people in Africa is good. I'll leave you with a quote from the Donald, "People settle for mediocrity for one reason: they're lazy. I've seen it so often. People go into something, they don't want to go that extra step. They know it's not going to be great, it might be good, it might be ok, it's not going to be great. They settle for mediocrity. They're lazy."

Thumbs-Up: Sir Bob Geldof (Live 8 Promoter)
Thumbs-Down: Complainers

Technical Breakout in Gold Stocks

Gold Stocks and a particular one I like, Placer Dome (PDG) have started to enjoy a bit of a technical breakout from their decline. The recent (somewhat of a paradox) strength of the U.S. dollar had contributed to the decline in gold. That seems to have taken a turn. I like PDG alot in this range. Short-term target of $17.50 by early-July and perhaps back up to the 52-week highs after that if the rally is prolonged. I'll stick with this until the tech's change.

Telkonet (TKO) Trading Skinny

I've been in and out of this company Telkonet for almost a year and half now. They produce and market in building BPL technology (the ability to make a building's electrical lines disperse a broadband signal). Recently, I bought at $3.20 and then again at $3.45 and $4.10. The company is awaiting FIPS certification for two of their proprietary technology products and has been rising in anticipation. The certification should give way to contracts with EDS and the government, with whom TKO has pre-established relationships. The current price of $5.19 will likely be much lower than the post-FIPS price (I expect new 52-week highs). If the process is slowed (more than a week or two) there will likely be a slight pull back to the mid to high $4's at which point I will likely add to my position. For now the technical indicators remain strong. I'm up over 50% and my initial target was 100%. I'm beginning to think I may have underestimated this. In the next week I plan on tacking a 15-20% trailing stop on the trade as a little insurance. My price target for this summer is in the $7 range.

http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/intchart/frames/frames.asp?symb=tko&time=&freq=

Social Equity in Africa

One of my big things that I'm interested in is awareness and political pressure for aid to Africa. Very recently President Bush and Tony Blair and the G8 nations agreed on complete debt relief for many of the world's poorest countries. I believe there is still a massive amount of work to be done for Africa. 6,500 people a day die of preventable causes; 1 million die a year because they can't afford mosquito nets to prevent the spread of malaria. This is preventable. I extremely encourage all individuals to view the following links to educate themselves (most importantly sign the petition at the first link):

http://www.one.org/

http://www.data.org/archives/Crisis_Facts.pdf

http://www.data.org/pdf/SpeakingOut.pdf

http://www.data.org/pdf/ActionSheet.pdf

http://www.live8live.com/

'There is one thing we should fear more than evil men. And that is, the indifference of Good Men.'

Welcome

Welcome to my blog boys and girls. I decided to do this so I can have some outlet to the world to express my views on the capital markets, politics, sports and whatever whim I may be on. Look forward to hearing from you all.

As for the information and opinions on this blog, the opinions are my own and are not intended to be investment advice, so don't take them as such and if you do, do your own homework. If you don't like it, read something else. If you do, let me know...it'll make me feel good.