Michael Covel

Views on the election:

Good: It shows America itself and the rest of the world that anything is possible. Having traveled 75,000 miles for my film, around the world completely, America is in need of a new positive image for friends and foes alike in other countries. Additionally, it gives people a chance to channel energy toward new productive ends. People are very excited. That is a good thing.

Bad: Too many Americans seem to believe that even after they have trusted their economic life to buy and hold and no money down real estate purchases, decisions they freely and irresponsibly made, that Obama can fix it all for them. Obama is not scary to me (unless my taxes go to the moon), but the expectations people have for fixing their wallets through a belief in Obama is down right scary. My fear of a massive new government sponsored “bubble” to lift all boats should be your fear too.

Lastly, least we forget, the most powerful person in America is Oprah. Now if we can just get Oprah to use her microphone against buy and hold, after so successfully using it to promote a President, we will be onto real progress. In lieu of that, if everyone just read The Fountainhead, that would be progress too.

In a past life I followed politics closely, but not so much today. That said, anyone who reads this blog gets where I am coming from. But occasionally I do see something from a political strategy vantage that makes me pause. Consider these two pictures (and in no way am I endorsing anyone):

Picture One

Picture Two

Those images made me instantly think of the famous scene in Patton at the beginning, his speech about American toughness. I am not trying to say either of the two above are tougher than the other, but perception can become reality. Even if it doesn’t mean much in the long run, it appears U.S. political theater will actually be fun to watch this Fall.

From the wires:

MOSCOW, Aug 26, (Thomson Financial) - Russia is not afraid of a new Cold War taking hold and is ready for “anything,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday in a television interview. “We’re not afraid of anything (including) the prospect of a Cold War. Of course we don’t need that … Everything depends on the stance of our partners and the world community and our partners in the West,” Medvedev told the Russia Today channel in comments translated into English.

Good times ahead?

So True.

Not knowing exactly what to expect, I ventured to Comic Con today in San Diego to experience 125,000 “geeks” (I say that affectionately) crammed into one place to worship comics and science fiction. While waiting to hear a presentation from directors Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Frank Miller and Zack Snyder, I was standing in the line at the bathroom and was immediately in front of comedian Dennis Miller. Given the crowd, and given that he was dressed down, I doubt many recognized him. I told him that I liked the “libertarian” bent he takes in his pubic appearances (Bill O’Reilly show for example) and I said that it really seems to be where most people are these days even if neither political party gets it. His answer was simple? He just said, “time to be pragmatic.”

So I am in San Diego this morning in a hotel lobby and I noticed an older African-American guy wearing a Yankees baseball hat while sporting a very stylish suit. I am asked him about his hat and he started talking to me from 10 feet away. I went and sat down next to him and learned that he was Joe Scott one of the 50 surviving Negro League players (87 years old!). His hat actually said “Black Yankees”. We talked for 30 minutes. All of his stories of playing against all the greats. What a great Saturday morning experience. Sadly I doubt many in the lobby milling around had any idea what a treasure Joe was.

Since 1996 I have seen an absolute ton of hero worship in the investing space. It always strikes me odd to see people blindly follow along cult style to people who play the part. Thinking about that tonight I recalled a passage from the TV series “King of the Hill” that did not make my TurtleTrader book.

In the episode a washed up former Dallas Cowboy football player moves into Hank’s neighborhood. The football player who was never that good to begin with, but to weekend warriors like Hank and his buddies, it does not matter. He was a former pro football player - he was a god to be worshiped - that is until the guys found out the real story of ‘Big Willie’:

BIG WILLIE: Hey, you guys wanna see some stuff from my career? Hank, you’ve seen this. It’s the football from that kick I blocked. Oh, and here’s a picture from that kick I blocked…and that’s how I blocked that kick.

HANK: That story gets better every time you tell it.

But later, as Hank’s son points out, Big Willie is not that impressive a football legend.

BOBBY: You know, for a guy who was a pro athlete, Willie’s drunk a lot.

Finally, Hank’s neighbor Kahn, who knows little about football, gets tired of Big Willie’s beer bashes that are keeping his family up at all hours of the night. He senses that Willie is a loser hanging onto an unimpressive past:

KAHN: I don’t sleep. My career is going in the toilet. My little girl can’t study. And all because some fat jock slob play a little football and “block a kick.” I don’t even know what it means, to block a kick, but if you can do it, then any idiot can do it!

Quotes from “New Cowboy on the Block”
Written by Dean Young
Directed by Cyndi Tang-Loveland

I can’t say I am the world traveler, but I have been to a few places. Singapore’s airport? Wow. Gorgeous inside and cleaner than most private homes. If all airports were like theirs everyone would travel a whole bunch more.

Nice ‘crib’ eh?

Manny Ramirez’ career stats mean zilch if baseball is not your game. But for those who played or for those who are fans those are mean numbers…

This seems to be something known before the research was done!

Today the Drudge Report has this as a headline:

Question. What is the real difference between 102 or 103 or 104 compared to 107? Drudge is a nice source of quick news, no doubt, but he seems to be trying to scare people. What action does he want them to take now that oil is 107? What action are you taking?

As a Florida State grad I have always enjoyed their football team (even with the downturn of the last 5 years). And arguably their best player ever was Deion Sanders. This morning I read that at his pro tryouts in the late 80s “Primetime” ran a 4.57 40-yard dash backwards. For anyone who has ever been timed running a 40 yard dash…isn’t that number just not fair? PS. I believe back in the day I was timed at a 4.8 not running backwards.

Maybe it doesn’t really work.

First the video of the year:

More from commander Cruise:

The parody:

The anonymous group of hackers now out to end Scientology:

Scientology presents one simple example why so many people will never understand markets. If your core belief revolves around these types of views how could you ever accept the rational and logical view of the markets needed to make money?

What happens when second life has a second life?

From Tarantino’s classic Reservoir Dogs comes an interchange (MP3) between Mr. Blonde and Mr. White:

MR. BLONDE: Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?

MR. WHITE: What was that? I’m sorry, I didn’t catch it. Would you repeat it?

MR. BLONDE: (slowly) Are you gonna bark all day, little doggie, or are you gonna bite?

Not many movies been made like that one.

An excerpt from one of the best movies of the last few years:

The trailer:

I received a call the other day from a guy who wanted to buy a domain I own for his daughter’s rock band. Turns out that he runs all alternative investments for one of the top five U.S. banks. When he called me he had no idea who I was or what I did. He just had a phone number. I took the liberty to ask him about the investing styles he was associated with assuming that trend following trading had crossed his desk. Not only had it crossed his desk, he had read my first book. Now that is a small world random story! To top it off he had earlier in his career worked many years for one of the top trend followers of the last 25 years. Not sure I want to sell the domain in question as I have a use in mind for it, but it does say something about returning people’s calls. You never know who you will bump into.

My Japan travels of the last few years have forced me to revisit my youth and Ultraman. One particularly cool T-Rex inspired monster from Ultraman is here. My four & five-year-old nephews are of course excited every time I bring back more Ultraman monsters. But here is my question: how can I import these things? While most American kids are unfamiliar with Ultraman, I am willing to bet that if I have thousands of these monsters they will sell like hot cakes (for a premium) in the States. Work for Bandai? Drop me a line!

And the relevance of the following clip? Practice.

For the Wall Street film I am producing we just finished a Moneyball-connected shoot at Cal Ripken’s minor league park. An old friend of mine, who pitched professionally for 10 years, threw some of his “stuff” at me for the better part of the morning. ‘Kevin’ can still get it going 85+ mph on his fastball (from his playing days high of touching 97 mph), and my catching hand (I have not caught for over 15 years) is feeling it. That said, I took none in the groin, so I am happy!

Depressing state of affairs to say the least.

From the wires:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that every child born in the United States should get a $5,000 “baby bond” from the government to help pay for future costs of college or buying a home.

Not sure what to make of this. Will there be a market I can speculate in? Perhaps a baby bond futures contract?