investing

Wow! What a day on Wall Street... I did not expect what happened today. Instead, I was braced for terrible losses spurned by the GM Bankruptcy news.

Before I get too in-depth, I must explain that I am not very knowledgeable about stocks, bonds, trading, etc. I started studying (a few years ago) to prepare when/if social security becomes privatized. I wanted a basic understanding of investing to make my money work, if/when I am totally responsible for my own retirement.

The first book I read was Rule #1 Investing by Phil Town. That gave me enough confidence to open a trading account on-paper. (I opened the account at Phil's preferred site, Investopedia about a month ago)

My first gain was small = about $271. But, it was still excited. Then, I checked out how other members in the game did that day. The guy (or gal) in the #1 spot turned a profit of over $1 million. Naturally, I had to investigate, find out how he/she did it.

Options was the strategy. 333,000 shares of an S&P 500 index fund. 3 cents was the purchase price. $3 was the sale price. A gain of 100,000%. (Hope you're good at math 'cuz I'm leaving that part up to you)

Being a rookie investor, I had no idea what Options were or even how to purchase them. So, it was off to do more studying. Various resources on the Internet got me up to speed. A few TV shows got me focused. And, I was ready to put my skills to paper. (I knew enough to be dangerous, if you know what I mean)

Last week, I (on-paper) bought a few positions in Options. Mainly in the S&P 500 index fund. I went with December 2009 expirations to give the positions time to grow. Mostly, I stayed in the $5-$6 purchase range and around 1,000 shares. One positions I purchased 25 blocks of a $5.69 sticker that was almost $10 above the stock's price.

I should mention that I gained a bought a few positions in some Stock equities. Last month, the BBBB (Blackboard, Inc) stock expired and gained $12,000. Expiration on a stock called AEP (American Electric Power) only brought a twenty-five cent gain. 1,000 shares totalled a small profit of $250.

Anyway, back to today's unexpected rally. If you missed the news, the Dow soared up 221 points. In my little paper-trading world, all the positions I set last week gained. Plus, the AEP stock rose $2/share, netting $1,800. All in all, the rally equated to a profit of over $20k. Not bad for a guy who's only been doing this for a few weeks.

Still, I'm not quite ready to take this success into real money....

Posted by: nbarring on Tuesday, June 02 at 9:39 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: bonds, invest, investing, options, rule one, stocks, trades, trading

reduce expenses

Lately, I've given serious thought to dumping the monthly $125 cable bill. There are many alternatives available - one possibility is over-the-air digital signal. Another option, which I just discovered, is watching internet channels via the internet.

I'm a firm believer that solutions to worries present themselves in mysterious ways. Still, I was a bit surprised to find many of the network, upper-tier, and basic cable (and satellite) channels broadcast over the Internet. I learned that a simple player brings the channels in. The best part was there are no ongoing monthly expenses. And, no messy hardware to installation = just a simple, safe software download.

There are so many advantages; I can't list them all here. I really enjoy watching a vast number of channels from around the globe! Russia, Japan, China, Greece, Iran are just a few of the countries available. Best of all, it's 100% legal!

There was a nominal fee for the instant download (about $30 each). But, I have 60 days to try it. If I'm not completely satisfied, I guess, as they say, I've got nothing to lose with their money-back guarantee.

Is anyone else curious to try out this innovation in TV viewing? I hope so. Here are a couple sites to visit, if you're interested:

Watch Live TV On Your PC = this is the one I recommend for the best, overall, worldwide viewing experience.

TVU Networks - Live TV From Around the World = this is the software that gives you access to CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, the CW, and many other channels from around the world.

I'll write a few more entries about this subject over the next 60 days. Let me know what your experiences are, too.

Posted by: nbarring on Friday, May 29 at 8:36 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink

Tags: broadcast, cut debt, dump cable, free tv, internet, internet tv, networks, no satellite, over air broadcast, reduce expenses, television, tv, worldwide sports, worldwide television, worldwide tv

a new Blog Title

I decided to change the heading of my blog to open up dozens of new topics to write about. Hopefully, this will make me more active with posts for areavoices.com.

Posted by: nbarring on Saturday, May 23 at 3:19 PM | Permalink

ScriptFrenzy '09: A Lesson Learned

The first draft of a screenplay is all about the "How." Back in middle-school English Composition class, you may recall that writing is all about Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. As I sat down over the weekend to write my 100-page ScriptFrenzy screenplay submission, I faced a blank page and at least a dozen questions that inevitably plague writers: Where do I begin? Should I start at the beginning and write straight through? Or, write the sequences that are clear in my mind and fill in the rest later?

Each method has positive and negative impacts on the story-writing process.

Starting at the beginning and writing straight through uncovers unexplained details that do not get properly set up. You have to go back to the beginning and insert these set-ups later.

Random writing - write scenes that are fresh and fill in the rest later - requires additional time to later arrange the scenes in the proper order. It can also leave scenes that no longer fit into the story - wasting some writing time. The biggest drawback to this method, I feel, is forgetting how the scenes go together in the first place.

After writing 100 pages, it's hard to recall why a particular scene was written in the first place. Unless, you assembled an outline while you were writing.

This year, I preferred the method of random writing. Mainly, it helped me get past the dreaded lack of momentum, self-doubt in ability, and loss of focus and freshness that comes around page 45. That's the point of story-crafting when the fun wears off. All of the characters have been introduced, the conflict has been established, and your main character is locked-in deep. Now, the downward slope to resolution starts. Which means the screenplay will be complete in another 45 to 60 pages.

Completing the first draft generates it's own form of anxiety. Eventually, you have to put your work out there for other to see. It also means you have to start crafting another story. After all, if the draft you just completed doesn't sell, what else have you got if you don't have a draft to follow it.

This year, I decided to start writing around page 45. To work out the downward slope to resolution and write while the idea was still fresh. But, I got caught up in the "When does this happen" and "If this happens, What happens then and Where does it fit into the flow of the story." This method of story planning can debilitate a writer into the dreaded writer's block.

I broke through this particular anxiety by reasoning, Does it really matter at this point in development WHEN the events happen? After all, post-production is likely to rearrange the scenes anyway, right? If I can just work out the Who (the characters in the scene), What (the strategic decisions), Where (the setting of the scene), and How (the details of action and dialogue), the When (the order that events happen) can be worked out later.

For ScriptFrenzy (or any first draft for that matter), the goal is simply to write 100 pages of a screenplay. The validator doesn't care how well the story is told. It just makes an official declaration that 100 pages were written.

For my next submission, I'll try to go into my revelations about the "Why" of a story.

Posted by: nbarring on Sunday, April 12 at 1:22 PM | Comments (0) | Permalink

NaNoWriMo '08 - 50k reached

Another month of frenzied novel writing called National Novel Writing Month is over. For my second year in a row, I completed the 50,000-word challenge. Give me a few days for the cramp in my writing hand to diminished, and I'll blog about this year's experience.

My official word count is 50,117. For my efforts, I received some fabulous web badges. I can't show them to you because I don't have a web site to host them on. You'll just have to take my word to it that they are fabulous.

The site owners hope to smash last year's collective word count. Currently, we are approaching 1.5 billion words written by all the NaNoWri's participating in 2008. About six hours remain in the international National Novel Writing Month challenge. At the last update, the word count was close to 1,430,000,000.

I did my part to meet the 1.5 billion word goal. It's up to the rest of the world to fill the gap.

Posted by: nbarring on Sunday, November 30 at 4:38 PM | Comments (3) | Permalink