Trading Notes -- 20190102 Wednesday

Added on January 2, 2019 by C. Maoxian.

CCCL: No borrow, FIDO #19 — Day Two, good spots, no borrow alas

09:25 668, 10:00 18.1K, 16:00 40.8K

ENTG: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a — no news, mystery mover, shorted two legs (50x, 75x)

09:25 n/a, 10:00 7.99K, 16:00 27.1K

PRAN: Pre-borrow possible, none during regular hours, FIDO n/a, dumb PO PR, shorted one leg (25x rushed? bad.)

09:25 2.76K, 10:00 12.2K, 16:00 24.5K

VTVT: No borrow, FIDO n/a — Day Three, good spots, no borrow, big inside coil (see 12hr)

09:25 419, 10:00 5.06K, 16:00 17.4K

MRIN: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a — Latecomer, not even Top 50, shorted one leg b/c had borrow (50x)

09:25 n/a, 10:00 n/a, 16:00 8.79K

SFET: No borrow, FIDO n/a — semi-active PO but no borrow and just dead, #StuckAtaProfit

09:25 316, 10:00 801, 16:00 1.53K

Trading Notes -- 20181231 Monday

Added on December 31, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

VTVT: No borrow, FIDO #11, Day Two

09:25 #2 1.33K, 10:00 #1 25.4K, 16:00 #1 77.9K

GOOS: Yes borrow, FIDO n/a

09:25 #4 163, 10:00 #3 6.26K, 16:00 #2 31.3K

CCCL: No borrow, FIDO #29, Latecomer, no news

09:25 N/A, 10:00 #5 2.13K, 16:00 #3 21.2K

APHA: Yes borrow, FIDO #30, Day Two

09:25 #3 773, 10:00 #4 4.76K, 16:00 #4 18.0K

SFET: No borrow, FIDO n/a

09:25 #1 1.58K, 10:00 #2 7.91K, 16:00 #5 11.2K

GOOS: Canada Goose's first China store draws eager crowds despite diplomatic headwinds (dumb “news”)

APHA: Aphria Responds To Green Growth Brands’ Hostile Takeover (Endless shadiness)

SFET: , Safe-T Receives an Order From the Largest Israeli Beverage Company for its SDA and SDE Solutions (Dumb PO PR)

Movies Watched -- George Washington (2000)

Added on December 30, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

89 minute running time so the perfect length, but I still had to watch it at 2x fast forward because it was so depressing. It’s about a bunch of poor black (and some white) kids in some awful little town in the South … one of the kids is killed in an accident and the other kids cover up the death, but there’s not really a story here, it’s just recording misery and poverty and hopelessness. Some white guy’s low-budget Art House flick. Yuck.

Movies Watched -- First Reformed (2018)

Added on December 30, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

113 minute running time but felt much longer, at least 20 to 30 minutes too long. This movie was ridiculous, just an unfocused mess. The only thing it got right was the typical size of an upstate New York church congregation nowadays: six people. No idea why they used a church in Queens for an Albany county church, probably has to do with tax credits. And St. Barnabas hospital is in the Bronx so I don’t know why Ernst would go see the doctor there.

SPOILERS: Anyway, Ethan Hawke, he’s exactly my age and nearly as good looking as me… a minister in a dying church which is somehow affiliated with an evangelical megachurch inexplicably run by a black guy who makes toilet jokes. One of Ethan’s flock is a pretty bug-eyed girl whose husband is worried about environmental collapse … Ethan “counsels” him but doesn’t prevent his suicide. The husband had a suicide bomber vest that Ethan takes for himself.

The little church is being “re-consecrated” on its 250th anniversary, all underwritten by some BAD polluting company (like GE) so Ethan considers blowing it all up at the ceremony (including governor Cuomo), but pretty bug-eyed girl prevents this by showing up at the last minute and love conquers all I guess, especially when she’s 15 years your junior. Honey, why have you wrapped yourself in barbed wire?

God, this was a terrible movie. 93% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which means the rating system there is absolutely worthless.

Read Armond White’s spot-on review:

This Life It Ain't Free

Added on December 20, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

Love her sound and the song….

http://KEXP.ORG presents Courtney Marie Andrews performing "Table For One" live in the KEXP studio. Recorded September 7, 2016. Host: Greg Vandy Audio Engineer: Kevin Suggs Cameras: Jim Beckmann, Scott Holpainen & Justin Wilmore Editor: Alia D'Alessandro http://kexp.org

Movies Watched -- Lady Macbeth (2017)

Added on December 15, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

89 minute running time so the perfect length. SPOILERS. I’m not sure why it’s titled Lady Macbeth, she doesn’t appear to be filled with guilt … a pretty girl in a loveless Victorian marriage … she has torrid sex with a gorgeous half-black, Derek-Jeter-like groomsman … scandalous of course … ends up poisoning her father-in-law … and then kills her husband … later she kills her husband’s half-black child (whom he had with another servant, some time before). Maybe you’re supposed to sympathize with her at first, but you don’t in the end, because she’s murderous after all. And she gets away with it: the groomsman and a black maid are taken away for the final crime.

This was made by a guy who looks like a trust fund kid. The lead actress is pretty, but there’s not much of a story here … the class and race and gender politics of it all seem confused.. Is she a seductress or a victim … or both? It’s a simple movie, all shot in one spot, could be a stage play. I didn’t hate it, but I’d never recommend it either. Yellow rating.

Claudia Puig correctly writes: “…it ultimately leaves the viewer unmoved, and possibly confounded … She starts out as an avenging angel and then devolves into almost campy serial-killer criminality … Birch and Oldroyd show little willingness to delve too deeply into the [race issues].“

Oliver Jones correctly writes: “Oldroyd appears to want to say something about race— Anna the maid is black and Sebastian and several other prominent characters appear to be of mixed race— but as with his thoughts on class, whatever his point is seems lost or a least clouded upon delivery … a film that feels emotionally vacant and somewhat pointless beyond its desire to disrupt the typical period piece.“

Someone Else's Dime

Added on December 14, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

Jewel from February 1999 … terrible quality but I love this song and her imperfect teeth (fixed once she got big):

18-Feb-1999]

Movies Watched -- Stronger (2017)

Added on December 14, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

119 minute running time so at least 20 to 30 minutes too long. Boston Marathon bombing story. I like Jake Gyllenhaal even though he has an impossible to spell last name. I think he’s talented and hard working (“Nightcrawler” was one of my Ten Best movies from 2014).

There was a class angle here that interested me … Jake’s family is working class, stereotyped as a foul-mouthed, hard-drinking, dumb bunch. But his girlfriend is from a more solidly middle class family, so the dynamic between her and his morons-with-hearts-of-gold family was fun to watch.

They CGI’d out his legs to get those realistic looking stumps… very high tech. There was a weird sort of product placement for CostCo employee healthcare benefits, which gave me pause… I’d love to know what his whole recovery cost in dollars and cents terms, given the obscene costs people face in the corrupt US healthcare system.

It wasn’t terrible, but I can’t recommend it either… yellow rating.

Ten Best Books of 2018

Added on December 11, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

The 10 Best Books of 2018, according to the New York Times Book Review editors:

Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday — female, no birthdate but looks young
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai — female, born in 1978.
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani — female, born 1981
There There by Tommy Orange — male, born in 1982
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan — female, born in 1978
American Prison by Shane Bauer — male, no birthdate but looks young
Educated by Tara Westover — female, born in 1986
Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight — male, born in 1949
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan — male, born in 1955
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs — female, born in 1978

The books about Jobs looks interesting… maybe I’ll try to read them all?

Movies Watched -- Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017)

Added on December 9, 2018 by C. Maoxian.

108 minute running time so 10 to 20 minutes too long. The backstory of the Wonder Woman comic book (“carefully crafted psychological propaganda inserted into a populist medium to further the cause of equal rights for women“) is sort of interesting, but I wasn’t thrilled with this movie.

Professor Marston and his foul-mouthed wife have a lifelong ménage à trois with one of his students. He had children with both women … they were into some kinky stuff (bondage, S&M, etc.) back in the 30’s and 40’s … the sex didn’t disturb me nearly as much as the gratuitous swearing. He came up with the comic book idea to make a living, and in a way popularize his DISC theory (dominance, influence, submission, compliance), after he was fired from Radcliffe.

Yellow rating at best. These people were ostracized as reprobates then, but it all seems rather tame now.