I disagree with all of your steps to stop the stock spam.
The incentive to send out stock spam needs to be removed. Until there is some law enforcement and a penalty, this will continue. Write to the SEC and ask them to start investigating. Write to your representatives and let them know that you feel this is a serious problem.
It happens, but not that often. When they catch one, law enforcement does a dog and pony show and we applaud wildly. But they just keep coming.
The agency responsible for enforcing securities laws, the SEC, is understaffed and weak. Think back a few years when Spitzer went after the investment banking companies in New York while the SEC cried on the sidelines while Spitzer did their job.
Spam filtering is not a solution to the problem. The solution is to write your congressmen, especially those in the banking committe, and demand that they order the SEC to investigate and encforce.
Could an application buy and sell stock without human intervention?
Of course, computer trading systems exist and are use thoroughly in the markets! Even the discount brokerages such as Ameritrade often "Trade triggers" which will wait for a given condition to execute an order.
I believe it is now illegal to let computerized systems trade without human intervention however, as the crash of 1987 was partly caused by unmonitored trading platforms.
2) most of these stocks are what they call pink slip or OTC (over the counter) stocks not traded on exchages like the NYSE or CME, thus not falling under the SEC (i think, please correct me here im no stock expert)
You're referring to the pink sheets which is *not* a stock exchange. The SEC won't bother investigating any pink sheets stock. Many of the stocks pumped by these scammers trade on the pink sheets because the companies don't meet the listing standards of the Nasdaq, NYSE, or even the American stock exchange.
Even shorting these stocks may not be profitable at this point, which is why I think you are right, there is something else going on here.
Most of the stocks in these pump and dump scams are penny stocks, therefore they cannot be shorted.
I wonder if these "pump and dump" schemes are still working?
Most of these stocks have such little volume, that a single person buyer can cause the stock to double in price. The pumper buys the stock cheap, and then places a sell limit order, and finally sends out the spam. They sell to everyone who buys, but at a higher price. And repeat.
The SEC doesn't have jurisdiction outside of the USA and it's likely that many of the spammers do not live in the USA. They're probably trading from Eastern Europe.
Graduating high school and starting college at 17 isn't all that special, tons of people do that.
I am not going to brag, because I graduated high school at 18. However, I will brag about my girlfriend, who graduated high school at 15 and held a Bachelor's degree in Comp Eng at 19, completing her 5 year program in 4. Graduating high school at 17 is nothing to brag about.
We can all thank Allan Greenspan for setting up that infamous meeting with LTCM and their creditors. It's amazing that *one* irresponsible investment firm can push the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, but it did happen.
Investing in the entire market, since 1927, has returned on average of about 10% per year. That's a handsome return! This is the beauty of index investing, which you described. The layperson can easily purchase index funds and sit back and relax. This is a great alternative to the higher cost managed funds which mostly do not beat the market. With an indexed approach it is impossible to underperform the market, because you're buying the market.
If you want to buy stocks anyway, mutual funds are the worst possible way to do it. Fees and active trading will kill you. Mutual funds are obsolete now that we have ETFs. The advice someone posted elsewhere to consult with a professional is bogus. Professionals will steer you into their comission generating products like mutual funds. You have to research this on your own, and most of the popular literature is basically industry propaganda.
ETFs have expense ratios too, and are not always as tax efficient as a mutual fund. ETFs are always sponsored by a company such as iShares or Barclay's. Their tax efficiency also varies. ETFs are terrible for investing periodically (such as weekly) because they must be purchased through a broker, and you'll pay comission.
You can't compare all ETFs to all Mutual Funds in one blanket statement like that.
Bose makes great products. Apple does too. But what is Apple's track record with home audio? I already know that Bose makes great home audio products, I have some of them and am extremely pleased.
Have you listened to the apple product? To the bose product? Side by side? Done an A/B of them?
Just remember, a "fucker" is sometimes define as one who has sex. With that definition in mind, and in the context of slashdot, "fucker" is a compliment, not an insult!
Anyone that's not in the stock market for the long run, please do us all a favor and leave.
Yeah, tell *THAT* to the day traders. LoL...
You think the MILLIONS of shares -- at $400 a share -- of Google stock that trade daily are mutual funds swapping shares back and forth? Give me a break. It's called TRADING for a reason. Nothing long-term about it bud.
Mod parent down. It's complete bull. You can buy as many -- or as FEW -- shares as you want of any company on the open market. You can buy/sell one share of a $1,000 stock just as easily as you can buy/sell a single share of a $0.0001 stock (yes they exist).
"1 funny" ?? that's one of the funniest damn comments i've read on slashdot all week. beats a lot of that "+5 funny" crap that isn't funny at all. i guess the mods just suck.
Most Amtrak trains run on a right-of-way (aka tracks) owned by other (freight) railroads. Freight trains don't need extremely high-quality track meant for high speed operation, they run relatively slow. Sharing lines with freight trains also means that passenger trains will sometimes get held, delayed, etc. up when the lines are busy with freight trains. Also, these freight tracks use signaling methods which are not meant for high speed trains. All new signaling infrastructure ain't cheap.
Lastly, in the US, it currently costs about $1M per mile to construct new railroad track. For now we're stuck with our passenger trains using freight railroad's tracks, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.
I don't recommend it unless you've got a logic analyzer handy, or at minimum an oscilloscope (preferrably both). Wirewrap will be flaky at high frequencies, but I recommend getting an 8086 and running it at say 4MHz. You can throw some SRAM and EEPROM (or Flash) on the board to write a very basic monitor program and do some neat stuff. Make sure you include a UART, PIC, PIT.. and an FPGA or CPLD helps for decode logic and such too.
Computer science grads often make poor software engineers. Computer science students are taught how to write code, but the truth is, developing software takes a lot more than good coding. Software development is engineering and must be approached from an engineering standpoint. Look at how much time a software engineer spends writing code, and I think you'll find that it's a small fraction of the development process.
My advice? Learn software engineering, and look for a software engineering job. With a bachelors, I nailed 60k out of school. Then again, I'm a software engineer, not a computer scientist.
Power supply noise can be a major issue. When a large number of transistors suddenly turn on, there is a very, very large instantaneous draw in current. A poor power supply will respond with a quick voltage drop, as it is unable to meet the demand. The voltage drop can be enough to reset a flip-flop and otherwise affect an IC. (Although board designers should strategically place capacitors around IC's to filter this high frequency noise.) This becomes more of a problem as switching frequencies increase.
Of course the users don't care if the code is elegant. But after time, as your code quality goes down and is impossible to maintain, and fixing one bug causes 50 regressions, the users will care... because your application will be a steaming pile of crap. While I am not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out that code standards, code documentation, and modular code are all good things.
Time Warner has been known to not be the biggest supporter and funder of public access TV stations. In my hometown, where we have a very active public access station with 3 channels, a huge volunteer base, and 5 full-time staffers, people are shitting bricks about what will happen once Time Warner comes in.
I live very near the Canadian border in western New York state, and cross several times per week. Quite often, the customs inspection when returning back to the USA is a joke.
"Anything to declare?" "No." *Customs officer waves hand to proceed.*
So much for an ID check or vehicle check. How do they even know I'm a US citizen? How do they know I don't have a terrorist in my trunk? What a joke.
Slashdot Mirror
Does this mean if I buy something priced at $1.96, I have to pay $2.00 because I won't be able to make exactly $1.96?
I disagree with all of your steps to stop the stock spam.
The incentive to send out stock spam needs to be removed. Until there is some law enforcement and a penalty, this will continue. Write to the SEC and ask them to start investigating. Write to your representatives and let them know that you feel this is a serious problem.
It happens, but not that often. When they catch one, law enforcement does a dog and pony show and we applaud wildly. But they just keep coming.
The agency responsible for enforcing securities laws, the SEC, is understaffed and weak. Think back a few years when Spitzer went after the investment banking companies in New York while the SEC cried on the sidelines while Spitzer did their job.
Spam filtering is not a solution to the problem. The solution is to write your congressmen, especially those in the banking committe, and demand that they order the SEC to investigate and encforce.
Could an application buy and sell stock without
human intervention?
Of course, computer trading systems exist and are use thoroughly in the markets! Even the discount brokerages such as Ameritrade often "Trade triggers" which will wait for a given condition to execute an order.
I believe it is now illegal to let computerized systems trade without human intervention however, as the crash of 1987 was partly caused by unmonitored trading platforms.
2) most of these stocks are what they call pink slip or OTC (over the counter) stocks not traded on exchages like the NYSE or CME, thus not falling under the SEC (i think, please correct me here im no stock expert)
You're referring to the pink sheets which is *not* a stock exchange. The SEC won't bother investigating any pink sheets stock. Many of the stocks pumped by these scammers trade on the pink sheets because the companies don't meet the listing standards of the Nasdaq, NYSE, or even the American stock exchange.
Even shorting these stocks may not be profitable at this point, which is why I think you are right, there is something else going on here.
Most of the stocks in these pump and dump scams are penny stocks, therefore they cannot be shorted.
I wonder if these "pump and dump" schemes are still working?
Most of these stocks have such little volume, that a single person buyer can cause the stock to double in price. The pumper buys the stock cheap, and then places a sell limit order, and finally sends out the spam. They sell to everyone who buys, but at a higher price. And repeat.
The SEC doesn't have jurisdiction outside of the USA and it's likely that many of the spammers do not live in the USA. They're probably trading from Eastern Europe.
The kid has a legal defense fund in the event that he can't find a lawyer to take the case Pro-Bono.
http://slightparanoia.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to the "Donate" link.
Let's help him out.
Graduating high school and starting college at 17 isn't all that special, tons of people do that.
I am not going to brag, because I graduated high school at 18. However, I will brag about my girlfriend, who graduated high school at 15 and held a Bachelor's degree in Comp Eng at 19, completing her 5 year program in 4. Graduating high school at 17 is nothing to brag about.
We can all thank Allan Greenspan for setting up that infamous meeting with LTCM and their creditors. It's amazing that *one* irresponsible investment firm can push the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, but it did happen.
Investing in the entire market, since 1927, has returned on average of about 10% per year. That's a handsome return! This is the beauty of index investing, which you described. The layperson can easily purchase index funds and sit back and relax. This is a great alternative to the higher cost managed funds which mostly do not beat the market. With an indexed approach it is impossible to underperform the market, because you're buying the market.
If you want to buy stocks anyway, mutual funds are the worst possible way to do it. Fees and active trading will kill you. Mutual funds are obsolete now that we have ETFs. The advice someone posted elsewhere to consult with a professional is bogus. Professionals will steer you into their comission generating products like mutual funds. You have to research this on your own, and most of the popular literature is basically industry propaganda.
ETFs have expense ratios too, and are not always as tax efficient as a mutual fund. ETFs are always sponsored by a company such as iShares or Barclay's. Their tax efficiency also varies. ETFs are terrible for investing periodically (such as weekly) because they must be purchased through a broker, and you'll pay comission.
You can't compare all ETFs to all Mutual Funds in one blanket statement like that.
Bose makes great products. Apple does too. But what is Apple's track record with home audio? I already know that Bose makes great home audio products, I have some of them and am extremely pleased.
Have you listened to the apple product? To the bose product? Side by side? Done an A/B of them?
I'll take the Bose.
Just remember, a "fucker" is sometimes define as one who has sex. With that definition in mind, and in the context of slashdot, "fucker" is a compliment, not an insult!
Anyone that's not in the stock market for the long run, please do us all a favor and leave.
...
Yeah, tell *THAT* to the day traders. LoL
You think the MILLIONS of shares -- at $400 a share -- of Google stock that trade daily are mutual funds swapping shares back and forth? Give me a break. It's called TRADING for a reason. Nothing long-term about it bud.
Mod parent down. It's complete bull. You can buy as many -- or as FEW -- shares as you want of any company on the open market. You can buy/sell one share of a $1,000 stock just as easily as you can buy/sell a single share of a $0.0001 stock (yes they exist).
- Oscilloscope
- Logic Analyzer
- Power Supply
- Function Generator
- DMM (Digital Multimeter)
"1 funny" ?? that's one of the funniest damn comments i've read on slashdot all week. beats a lot of that "+5 funny" crap that isn't funny at all. i guess the mods just suck.
Most Amtrak trains run on a right-of-way (aka tracks) owned by other (freight) railroads. Freight trains don't need extremely high-quality track meant for high speed operation, they run relatively slow. Sharing lines with freight trains also means that passenger trains will sometimes get held, delayed, etc. up when the lines are busy with freight trains. Also, these freight tracks use signaling methods which are not meant for high speed trains. All new signaling infrastructure ain't cheap.
Lastly, in the US, it currently costs about $1M per mile to construct new railroad track. For now we're stuck with our passenger trains using freight railroad's tracks, and I doubt that's going to change anytime soon.
I don't recommend it unless you've got a logic analyzer handy, or at minimum an oscilloscope (preferrably both). Wirewrap will be flaky at high frequencies, but I recommend getting an 8086 and running it at say 4MHz. You can throw some SRAM and EEPROM (or Flash) on the board to write a very basic monitor program and do some neat stuff. Make sure you include a UART, PIC, PIT.. and an FPGA or CPLD helps for decode logic and such too.
Computer science grads often make poor software engineers. Computer science students are taught how to write code, but the truth is, developing software takes a lot more than good coding. Software development is engineering and must be approached from an engineering standpoint. Look at how much time a software engineer spends writing code, and I think you'll find that it's a small fraction of the development process.
My advice? Learn software engineering, and look for a software engineering job. With a bachelors, I nailed 60k out of school. Then again, I'm a software engineer, not a computer scientist.
Power supply noise can be a major issue. When a large number of transistors suddenly turn on, there is a very, very large instantaneous draw in current. A poor power supply will respond with a quick voltage drop, as it is unable to meet the demand. The voltage drop can be enough to reset a flip-flop and otherwise affect an IC. (Although board designers should strategically place capacitors around IC's to filter this high frequency noise.) This becomes more of a problem as switching frequencies increase.
Of course the users don't care if the code is elegant. But after time, as your code quality goes down and is impossible to maintain, and fixing one bug causes 50 regressions, the users will care... because your application will be a steaming pile of crap. While I am not disagreeing with you, I'm just pointing out that code standards, code documentation, and modular code are all good things.
Having it search ISBN's would be handy; it'd be nice for finding out-of-print and rare books.
Time Warner has been known to not be the biggest supporter and funder of public access TV stations. In my hometown, where we have a very active public access station with 3 channels, a huge volunteer base, and 5 full-time staffers, people are shitting bricks about what will happen once Time Warner comes in.
I live very near the Canadian border in western New York state, and cross several times per week. Quite often, the customs inspection when returning back to the USA is a joke.
"Anything to declare?"
"No."
*Customs officer waves hand to proceed.*
So much for an ID check or vehicle check. How do they even know I'm a US citizen? How do they know I don't have a terrorist in my trunk? What a joke.