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Device Protects Day Traders From Emotional Trading
Philips Electronics, a Netherlands-based company, has come up with a device designed to protect day traders from emotionally based trading decisions. The Rationalizer measures your galvanic skin response and lets you know when you are under stress. An online trader can then take a "time-out, wind down and re-consider their actions," according to the company. This may have come too late for us, but at least future generations won't have to live through the horror of angry day trading.
Dunno why they'd have to invent something to do this: it's been known for almost 200 years. Build a Wheatstone Bridge with your body as one of the four legs of the bridge, and measure across the middle. I was building these when I was 10. Add a transistor to drive a meter and you have most of a Scientologist's E-meter. Use this as the input to an analog input channel of an Arduino and interface it via RS232 or USB to your computer and you can easily write something to automatically log you out of e-trade or whatever. I'm not really sure where the innovation is here, although Philips usually comes up with great ideas. I guess you could use a sparkfun xbee unit to make it wireless, since anything that contains the word "wireless" seems to be patentable these days, but that just makes me even more irritated.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
Day trading seems more like gambling than responsible ownership. Doesn't it create an unacceptable moral hazard?
I don't think you understand what a moral hazard is. Moral hazard refers to the concept that people who are isolated from risk (i.e: mega-corps that get bailed out when they fuck up) won't behave as rationally as those that are fully exposed to said risk. I don't recall many (any?) day traders getting bailed out during our recent round of corporate welfare.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Google "liquidity" and you'll realize why having it is such an important thing. (and why gambling day traders provide it)
Day traders create and provide liquidity.
Read, refresh, repeat.