17 Rare Earth Metals

The seventeen rare earth elements, or rare earth metals, their atomic number and symbol, the etymology of their names, and their main usages is provided below:

21
Sc
Scandium
from Latin Scandia (Scandinavia), where the first rare earth ore was discovered.
Aluminium-scandium alloy

39
Y
Yttrium
for the village of Ytterby, Sweden, where the first rare earth ore was discovered.
YAG garnet, YBCO high-temperature superconductors

57
La
Lanthanum
from the Greek "lanthanon", meaning I am hidden.
High refractive index glass, flint, hydrogen storage, battery-electrodes, camera lenses, fluid catalytic cracking catalyst for oil refineries

58
Ce
Cerium
for the dwarf planet Ceres.
Chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powder, yellow colors in glass and ceramics, catalyst for self-cleaning ovens, fluid catalytic cracking catalyst for oil refineries

59
Pr
Praseodymium
from the Greek "praso", meaning leek-green, and "didymos", meaning twin.
Rare-earth magnets, lasers, green colors in glass and ceramics, flint

60
Nd
Neodymium
from the Greek "neo", meaning new-one, and "didymos", meaning twin.
Rare-earth magnets, lasers, violet colors in glass and ceramics, ceramic capacitors

61
Pm
Promethium
for the Titan Prometheus, who brought fire to mortals.
Nuclear batteries

62
Sm
Samarium
for Vasili Samarsky-Bykhovets, who discovered the rare earth ore samarskite.
Rare-earth magnets, lasers, neutron capture, masers

63
Eu
Europium
for the continent of Europe.
Red and blue phosphors, lasers, mercury-vapor lamps

64
Gd
Gadolinium
for Johan Gadolin (1760–1852), to honor his investigation of rare earths.
Rare-earth magnets, high refractive index glass or garnets, lasers, x-ray tubes, computer memories, neutron capture

65
Tb
Terbium
for the village of Ytterby, Sweden.
Green phosphors, lasers, fluorescent lamps

66
Dy
Dysprosium
from the Greek "dysprositos", meaning hard to get.
Rare-earth magnets, lasers

67
Ho
Holmium
for Stockholm (in Latin, "Holmia"), native city of one of its discoverers.
Lasers

68
Er
Erbium
for the village of Ytterby, Sweden.
Lasers, vanadium steel

69
Tm
Thulium
for the mythological land of Thule.
Portable X-ray machines

70
Yb
Ytterbium
for the village of Ytterby, Sweden.
Infrared lasers, chemical reducing agent

71
Lu
Lutetium
for Lutetia, the city which later became Paris.
Metal alloys

INTRODUCTION TO OPTIONS

Here is a great link to introduce you to options …. http://www.optionetics.com/education/detail.aspx?id=0
THE 5 GREEKS do not formulate the price of an option but ARE ESTIMATES of the impact to the option price from changes in the market environment. For the beginner, understand the theories of the 5 Greeks, but try to focus primarily on the impact from DELTA and THETA by following on a streamer an underlying stock and one of its options.

DELTA is rate of change in the price of an option for each $1 move in the underlying stock (sensitivity to SPEED)
THETA is rate of change as each calendar day passes (sensitivity to TIME DECAY)
VEGA is rate of change in option for each 1% change in implied volatility (sensitivity to VOLATILITY)
GAMMA is rate of change in delta for each $1 move in underlying (sensitivity to ACCELERATION)
RHO is the rate of change in price of option for each 1% move in interest rates (sensitivity to INTEREST RATES)


POPULAR OPTION STRATEGIES

CALL: A call option is the right, not the obligation, to BUY an asset at a fixed price before a predetermined date with the intention that the underlying stock price will rise before the predetermined expiration date.

PUT: A put option is the right, not the obligation, to SELL an asset at a fixed price before a predetermined date with the intention that the underlying stock price will decline before the predetermined expiration date.

SYNTHETIC CALL: Buy the stock and buy puts one or two strike prices OTM below the price paid for the stock. (one contract for every 100 shares of stock)

COVERED CALL: Buy the stock and sell calls one or two strike prices OTM higher than the price paid for the stock with approximately one month left to expiration. (one contract for every 100 shares of stock)

COLLAR: Buy the stock and buy Long term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPs) very close to the stock price and sell LEAP calls above the stock price. LEAPs are long term option expirations at least a year out. (one contract for every 100 shares of stock)

BULL CALL SPREAD: Buy lower strike calls and sell same number of higher strike calls with the same expiration date.

BULL PUT SPREAD: Buy lower strike puts and sell higher strike puts with the same expiration date.

BEAR CALL SPREAD: Buy higher strike calls and sell same number of lower strike calls with the same expiration date.

BEAR PUT SPREAD: Buy higher strike puts and sell lower strike puts with the same expiration date.

STRADDLE: Buying ATM strike puts and buying ATM strike calls with the same expiration date.

STRANGLES: Buying OTM strike puts and buying OTM strike calls with the same expiration date.

BUTTERFLY WITH CALLS: Buy 1 lower strike ITM call, sell 2 middle strike ATM calls, buy 1 higher strike OTM call.

BUTTERFLY WITH PUTS: Buy 1 lower strike OTM put, sell 2 middle strike ATM puts, buy 1 higher strike ITM put.

CONDOR WITH CALLS: Buy 1 lower strike ITM call, sell 1 lower middle strike ITM call, sell 1 higher middle strike OTM call, and buy 1 higher strike OTM call. (The distance between the four adjacent strikes should be equal, with the stock price being somewhere between the two middle strike prices)

CONDOR WITH PUTS: Buy 1 lower strike OTM put, sell 1 lower middle strike OTM put, sell 1 higher middle strike ITM put, and buy 1 higher ITM put. (The distance between the four adjacent strikes should be equal, with the stock price being somewhere between the two middle strike prices)


Option Strategy Notes for Market Behavior

When BUYING options you want to give yourself as much time as possible to be right.

When SELLING options you want as little time as possible to be wrong.

SYNTHETIC CALL insures a stock against falling fast.

COVERED CALL gets some income back while holding a stock over the medium term.

COLLAR is a low risk long term 18+ month strategy to capture a 20% return.

STRADDLE is when you're not sure of the stock direction but the move will be significant.

STRANGLE is cheap alternative to a straddle because OTM options have no intrinsic value.

BUTTERFLIES and CONDORS are for sideways range bound stocks.

Recession Ended In June 2009

The longest recession of the post World War II period now has an end date.

The National Bureau of Economic Research announced September 20, 2010 that the downturn that started in December 2007 ended in June of last year. The 18 month contraction was longer than the 1973-1975 and 1981-1982 recessions.

The technical indicator of a "recession" is two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth as measured by a country's gross domestic product (GDP)

A "pull back" is a near term price decline of less than 10%

A "correction" is a temporary price decline of at least 10%

A "Bear market" is a downturn of 20% or more in multiple broad market indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or Standard & Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500), over at least a two-month period, is considered an entry into a bear market.

UNIVERSAL STOCK TICKER

SELF WINDING STOCK TICKER MACHINE

STOCK TICKER HISTORY

The stock ticker evolved from telegraph technology. Many inventors of the 19th-century such as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell got their start as telegraph operators. Their experience as telegraphers provided them with a good understanding of the principles of electricity, electromagnets, mechanical devices, and machining tools. Stock ticker machines are an ancestor of the modern computer printer, being one of the first applications of transmitting text over a wire to a printing device.

In 1867, Mr. Edward A. Calahan of the American Telegraph Company invented the first stock telegraph printing instrument. It was Calahan's idea that stock prices could be provided through some form of telegraphy. The distinct sound of the telegraph printing instrument eventually earned it the name of the stock ticker.

Eventually Edison's evolving improvements in stock ticker technology resulted in the introduction of the Universal Stock Ticker in 1869, had an alphanumeric printing speed of approximately 1 character per second. For this and some related inventions Edison was paid $40,000. The Universal was highly dependable and was produced in high volume. At least 5,000 of these devices were produced and this machine was in service delivering stock quotes up to the the crash in 1929. The Universal Stock Ticker was Edison's first commercial success and established him with Wall Street connections that would fund development at his Menlo Park laboratory, as well as funding many of his greatest inventions, including the incandescent electric light bulb.

The self winding stock ticker was in use in 1870. It was used for about eighty years for receiving stock and commodity quotations from the nation's leading exchanges. The self-winding device is the image one generally imagines when referring to a stock ticker. One of the manufacturing vendors in the early 1900s was Thomas Edison's West Orange, New Jersey, plant, current site of the Edison National Historic Site. These "Western Union" self-winding tickers are sometimes mistakenly thought to be invented by Thomas Edison because they were manufactured at his plant. In reality, it is doubtful that Edison had any involvement with Western Union's self-winding ticker.

During World War II many of the Universal and self-winding tickers were scrapped for metal or sold off to businesses in South America. In 1960, Western Union ordered all remaining tickers destroyed.

INTERNATIONAL ETFs

All 20 International ETFs were positive this morning.

EWA,EWC,EWD,EWG,EWH,EWI,EWJ,EWK,EWL,EWM,EWN,EWO,EWP,EWQ,EWS,EWT,EWU,EWW,EWY,EWZ

SORT BY SYMBOL:
EWA AUSTRALIA
EWC CANADA
EWD SWEDEN
EWG GERMANY
EWH HONG KONG
EWI ITALY
EWJ JAPAN
EWK BELGIUM
EWL SWITZERLAND
EWM MALASIA
EWN NETHERLANDS
EWO AUSTRIA
EWP SPAIN
EWQ FRANCE
EWS SINGAPORE
EWT TAIWAN
EWU UNITED KINGDOM
EWW MEXICO
EWY SOUTH KOREA
EWZ BRAZIL

SORT BY COUNTRY:
EWA AUSTRALIA
EWO AUSTRIA
EWK BELGIUM
EWZ BRAZIL
EWC CANADA
EWQ FRANCE
EWG GERMANY
EWH HONG KONG
EWI ITALY
EWJ JAPAN
EWM MALASIA
EWW MEXICO
EWN NETHERLANDS
EWS SINGAPORE
EWY SOUTH KOREA
EWP SPAIN
EWD SWEDEN
EWL SWITZERLAND
EWT TAIWAN
EWU UNITED KINGDOM

HIGH TIGHT FLAG

High, Tight Flag:

A high, tight flag price pattern is rare and seldom occurs during a bull market.

It begins by moving approximately 100% to 120% in a very short period of time (four to eight weeks). This creates the flag pole.

Next, it corrects sideways, usually in three to five weeks, no more than 10% to 20%. This creates the flag. Because of its sharp vertical action, this pattern is often easier to spot on a weekly chart.

The ideal buy point would be 10 cents above the peak of this flag.

This is the strongest of patterns, but it's also very risky and difficult to interpret correctly. Many stocks can skyrocket 200% or more off this formation.

STOCHASTICS

The stochastic momentum oscillator is used to compare where a security's price closed relative to its price range over a given period of time.

The main difference between fast and slow stochastic is the fast stochastic is more sensitive than the slow stochastic to changes in the price of the underlying security and will likely result in many transaction signals.

K and D are the periods used in the formulas for Stochastic

I prefer a 12 period K and 3 period D Slow Stochastic momentum oscillator for both swing and day trading (smooth the bumps like exponential MAs). Longer term could use 14,5 and intraday could use 4,2. One of the popular traders on twitter uses 5,3.

It is calculated using the following formula:
%K = 100[(C – L12)/(H12 – L12)]
where
C = the most recent closing price
L12 = the low of the 12 previous trading sessions
H12 = the highest price traded during the same 12-day period.

A three-period moving average of the %K called %D is usually included to act as a signal line. It is bullish when K crosses above D and bearish when K crosses below D. The security is overbought when K is above 80 and oversold when K is below 20.

The ideal entry is when K is in oversold territory and begins to curl up and cross above D. Likewise, the ideal exit is when K is in overbought territory and begins to curl down and cross below D. For scalping this would apply to a One Minute Chart, Day Trade consider a 10 Minute Chart, Swing Trade consider a Daily Chart, Speculation consider a Weekly Chart.

How is your portfolio performing?

Stocks that make up Warren Buffet’s portfolio are down an average 10% the past month and down an average 2% over the past six months. Stocks that make up Ken Heebner’s portfolio are down an average 9% the past month and down an average 5% over the past six months. Stocks that make up the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s portfolio are down an average 8% the past month and up an average 5% over the past six months. Stocks that make up Goldman Sachs portfolio are down an average 8% the past month and down an average 1% over the past six months.

Source: http://www.tickerspy.com/hedge_funds.php

1989 EXXON Valdez Oil Spill

Litigation was filed on behalf of 38,000 litigants. In 1994, 5 years after the oil spill, a jury awarded plaintiffs $287 million in compensatory damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. Exxon appealed and the Ninth Circuit court reduced the punitive damages to US $2.5 billion. Exxon then appealed the punitive damages to the Supreme Court which capped the damages to $507.5 million in June, 2008. On August 27, 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska. In June 2009, a federal ruling ordered Exxon to pay an additional $480 million in interest on their delayed punitive damage awards.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are approximately 98 m³ (26,000 gallons) of Valdez crude oil still in Alaska's sand and soil.

As of June 2009, 20 years since the oil spill, no payment of punitive damages by XOM.

source: Litigation section
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez

How do you think the BP oil spill will be handled?

mayday-mayday-mayday

May 2010 trading ends today as one of the worst months for the markets since the Financial Crisis steep declines of early 2009. It was a bumpy ride during the entire month.