Bill Rempel, a.k.a. NO DooDahs!

Trading, Investing, Politics, Whatever

Entries for February, 2008

Working, Robust, and Useless Definitions

In every field of human endeavor, there is some attempt at communication, and that communication relies upon definitions. When a word or phrase is used, misused, overused, by myriads of people with different working definitions, communication becomes difficult, if not impossible, without first reaching agreement on what we’re talking about. If we consider […]

More Census Hating

Here’s the chart that I had promised y’all.
In retrospect, I could easily have cut other categories out of Meh, but I could also have had almost as many categories as states if I’d wanted to. Six-year international immigration equivalent to 3.0% and 0.6% of 2000 Census population were used as the love/hate cutoffs. […]

Another Natty Spread Gone Bad

I remain convinced that spread trades are far riskier than most professional traders seem to think they are, as evidenced by the comparative frequency of blowups and near-blowups in funds trading them. What is it about the spreads that causes this? Is it the position size these funds take relative to the liquidity […]

Americans Hate New York and Massachusetts

In actuality, Louisiana and the District of Columbia are more unpopular with Americans than New York or Massachusetts are, but I don’t like to think of D.C. as a “state” and Louisiana’s issue is decidedly “event-related.” What do I mean by “unpopular?” I mean that the people of America are voting with their […]

Site UpgrayeDD Coming Soon

Behind-the-scenes stuff, mostly. Shouldn’t be an issue except for site access over the time period, so if it looks goofier than normal, that’s why.