I'm kinda burned out from posting about neural nets, AI, and Rapidminer because of real life commitments.  Recently I've made a few blog posts topics not related to the focus of this blog.  Looking back at it, its probably not a good idea to do this if I want to maintain the integrity of this site. So I've decided to post my other ramblings at www.thomasott.net until I feel inspired to write more about neural nets, AI, and Rapidminer again. Read more...

Ayn’s philosophy of Objectivism is pretty tough to swallow if you’ve never been exposed to it, but its the only thing that cuts through the BS today. She’s a follower of Aristotle and reason, and boy do we need more of that today! I watched the entire 5 part series, and I suggest you do as well! UPDATE 2019: I wanted to chime in here that it’s 2019 and I’ve spent the last 10 years thinking about Ayn’s philosophy. Read more...

I'm coming to a painful realization that I might have to eat my words regarding my S&P500 market bottom call.  I say this because of my recent observations in the bank owned/foreclosure market.  There seems to be too much "optimism" and inventory on the part of the banks! My wife and I started trolling around the foreclosure markets again and found a potential property.  Its'a 2 bedroom, 1 bath cottage overlooking a lake in a decent neighborhood. Read more...

Dear Mr. President, I know it’s really easy to spend other people’s money but let’s face a reality here. No matter how much money you’re going to throw at the banking and credit system, it just won’t work. The banks are, for lack of better word, bankrupt. They went bankrupt because they were built on a shoddy financial foundation and took excessive risks. Now you want to continue to use MY TAXPAYER MONEY to keep feeding these pigs? Read more...

The only way we will be free from our current financial crisis is if we beat every politician to a bloody pulp with the corpse of every dead banker. How's that for solving the economic crisis?

Many readers know that I’m a big fan of Ayn Rand, objectivism, and of course capitalism.  I was thrilled to find this well written WSJ article a few weeks ago and it seems appropriate to share it with you now, given the current Obama economic bailout plan.  In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. Read more...

Many readers know that I’m a big fan of Ayn Rand, objectivism, and of course capitalism.  I was thrilled to find this well written WSJ article a few weeks ago and it seems appropriate to share it with you now, given the current Obama economic bailout plan.  In the book, these relentless wealth redistributionists and their programs are disparaged as "the looters and their laws." Every new act of government futility and stupidity carries with it a benevolent-sounding title. Read more...

I decided to sign up for AAII a few months ago and only recently started poking around in there.  I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the quantity and types of stock screens they have and I've been getting a lot of great ideas from there.  The most popular ones I like are the ADR, Piotroski, and O'Neils CAN SLIM screens.

Sorry my dear readers but I've been consumed with Go, work, and photography.  Sorry about that!  What I can tell you is that my timing model is showing a return to normalcy in the market (even though the market is down on average 40%). I'm still saying the bottom of the market is (was) in the 700 to 800 range of the S&P500.  On November 20th, we closed in the 750 range of the S&P500. Read more...

Now that the new year is here and we went through the greatest meltdown since the Great Depression, what shall I do?  Well, max out my 401k for sure and update my neural net models!!!  I'll be busy working on them but I'll probably starting moving toward more genetic algorithmic models this year as they tend to adapt better to the shifting market place. My market timing model seems to be holding up but I'm going to review it to make sure its still giving me the right signals. Read more...