http://www.investizmo.com/index.php Thu, 22 May 2008 17:41:02 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I always get a lot of question asking how someone becomes a trader. The truth is that there is no simple answer, it is a combination of education, ability, personality, drive & luck. I'll quickly go over them below:   Education At a minimum a University Bachelor in Commerce/Economics and preferably some industry courses. ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/22/how-to-become-a-trader-on-the-street/ I've said it before and I'll say it again: The mess in the credit market is the fault of the rating agencies. Had they not misled investors by giving high ratings to toxic investments, things would be very different today. The Financial Times has a great article on an "error" found in the rating algorithms ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/21/troubled-ratings-agency-moodys-caught-red-handed/ Today the Toronto Stock Exchange Index (TSX) hit 15,000 points, its highest number ever. Even though 15,000 is purely a nominal number, skewed heavily by a small number of companies granted heavy weightings by the indexing formula, now is as good a time as any to reflect on the past 10 ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/20/reflection-toronto-stock-exchange-breaks-through-15000/ I wish this wasn't true. I wish there was a nicer way of saying this. Alas, there is not. Canadian consumers are suckers, willing to buy at any price. How else can one explain the record quarter for new auto sales during the first quarter of 2008. Sales that had their biggest increase since ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/16/canadian-consumers-are-suckers-willing-to-buy-at-any-price/ Very busy on the desk today. Just found an interesting article on foreclosures and the Condo market. A couple of years ago I remember seeing a documentary on people waiting in line for days to buy Condos in Florida. It was absolute madness. It was the top of the market. This article has ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/15/a-good-read-for-a-busy-day/ According to a new Bloomberg survey, the world wide CreditCrunch™ appears to be slowly fading away. You might be wondering what the heck is this CreditCrunch? There has been a lot written on the subject, but not too much explained at a basic level. So here goes..... The current issues with credit is that ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/14/world-wide-credit-crunch-easing-what-the-heck-is-it-anyway/ Ed Clark, CEO at Toronto Dominion Bank spoke at conference in New York today where he stated that the bank is assuming "dramatically lower" commodity prices in the long run. If the world financial system is "over-inflating" prices as he put it, then we're in a bubble. As bubbles don't last ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/13/td-bank-ceo-thinks-were-in-a-commodity-bubble/ Quote of the day: "[Citigroup] is so deep in a black hole that even renown physicist Stephen Hawking could not help the ailing company" - Banking analyst Meredith Whitney (via NY Post) Ouch! http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/13/quote-of-the-day/ Some curious US economic numbers were released this morning. April's retail sales fell 0.2%, however, when excluding auto sales the number becomes an increase of 0.5%, beating forecasts calling for a 0.2% rise. The first curious observation is that retail sales were up, even with the recent drop in consumer confidence numbers. ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/13/aprils-us-retail-sales-data-is-curious/ This will be a slow week on the economic front, as the only economic data out of Canada today is the release of data on the price of new homes in March. Prices rose 0.2% compared to a month earlier, matching economists' expectations. Year over year, new home prices are up 6.1%, a healthy ... http://www.investizmo.com/index.php/2008/05/12/canadian-housing-prices-stable-still-increasing/