My 1000th Blog posting!

Well it has been a while since I started blogging. It was back on May 11th, 2005 when I posted my first Blog. Now, 1,000 posts later, I pause to reflect why I started doing this. It was only 4 months after President Bush began his 2nd term, when I was fed up of all the bickering in the Congress and in the Country. My first post reflected this and I will repost it again, below. But first, I wish to thank all of my readers for inspiring me to continue in this endeavor and to let you know, you have helped me make this a better blog. I started exclusively focusing on politics, but now I have added a focus on the economy and particularly the stock market.

It has always been a hobby of mine, since I was 14 years old. My father would come home from the Sweat Shop he sewed mens suits and topcoats and got paid. He didn't get a pay per hour, as many do today. He only got paid for the number of completed garments (hence, piecework) he sewed. If he didn't feel up to working hard on any given day, his pay reflected that. When Dad got home, he was tired, but he always brought home a newspaper, which I browsed through while he napped before dinner. I had noticed pages of entries of company names and numbers, which I didn't understand. But after Dad explained it to me, I decided I would pretend I had money and purchase a company's stock and would put the price in a little notebook and track it each day. I can remember one of the first companies stock I imaginarily purchased was IBM. Interesting that 12 years later I would take a job at IBM. I have followed stocks and read over 100 books on investing since then. Much of what I have learned I have learned from actually trading. The costly mistakes I have made have made me a better investor. It took me almost 8 years to realize I was off 180 degrees in my timing to buy or sell stocks. This turned out to be the most important lesson I would learn.

Boiling this lesson down to something easy, here's what I learned. When the crowd is buying with a frenzy, try to sell as it gets extreme, while many are still buying, and try to Buy when everyone is throwing in the towel and selling, near the final gasp of selling.Watching Volume helps determine this point beter than price alone. It is counterintuitive and difficult to do but I found it was worth the effort. Over the past 10 years two such times come to mind. First when the market was rising so rapidly in 2000 on the Nasdaq, I was writing a newsletter which many readers here received. I had told everyone to go to cash 2 months before the big Tech bubble burst. I did and some others did and we were spared the drop. The second time was after 9/11, where I had told friends and family that when the market opened there was going to be a great panic to sell. I said wait and let it happen and then start buying back . Both moves were my best market calls and made me some good profits or saved big losses.

Back to the reason for this post. I can't believe I have written 1,000 blog posts. Hooray! Yippee. I can't believe I have had now over 38,000 Visitors and they have read over 62,000 pages of my Blog. Write a comment since you took the time to read this.

My first post on May 11th 2005 was titled, "JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS: Do common people care?" In closing here is a copy of that first post and a link to it to read the comments I received on it.

May 11, 2005

JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS: Do common people care?

I am amazed that most people are too busy to know what is going on in the Senate currently regarding the issue of ending the filibuster for Judicial nominations. I am more amazed at how both Republican and Democratic Senators are so entrenched in their positions. It is apparent to me that when Senators can no longer work together from both sides of the aisle, it is time to consider voting out all incumbents, Republican and Democrats alike and return the Senate back to caring about the people's business rather than pursuing zealous ideological positions that separate and divide us, rather than bring us together. The President and Vice President contribute to this divisiveness in spite of the President claiming to work to bring us together. All this when we are in a war, where our young men and women are constantly in harms way, attempting to help foster a democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, based upon our notion of democracy. I am ashamed as a citizen and angry at the lack of compromise in the Senate. However, I don't believe in compromise when the stakes are as high as they are now. Ending the filibuster will affect lifetime appointments of Judges with a more extreme viewpoint of a minority and harm this democracy. We need more centrists in governing our republic. Someone must heal this division before it is too late. Even if the Republicans are successful in suspending the Rules on filibustering for Judicial nominations, it is a slippery slope. When the Democrats regain the majority, as they certainly will again, when the shoe is on the other foot for Republicans, they won't be so happy they are on the receiving end of this action.

The real question is, do common people care enough to voice their views in a voice that can be heard around the world? I think not and that is most troubling to me. If we lose this true democracy, it will be all our fault, those for ending the filibuster, those against it, and those indifferent or too busy to act. Whether you are for this or against it, get involved and email or phone your Senators and let them know how you feel about this.

Link to the original, click on this: JUDICIAL NOMINATIONS.