Go ahead, try it..............

This will boggle your mind and you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your foot, but you can't. It's preprogrammed in your brain!

1. WITHOUT anyone watching you (they will think you are goofy) and while sitting where you are, at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.


2. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.

Your foot will change direction.

I told you so!!!

A tribe in upheaval.............

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/nation/17085770.htm

VA TECH

My heart goes out to the families of the victims of today's carnage.

More than disturbing.

And Americans continue to die in Iraq.

As disturbing.

a "pawn" taking on Putin..................

MOSCOW (April 14) - Police detained Garry Kasparov , the former world chess champion who now leads one of Russia's strongest opposition movements, and at least 100 other activists Saturday as they gathered for a forbidden anti-Kremlin demonstration in central Moscow. About 200 Kasparov supporters later gathered outside the police station where he was being held, shouting "freedom for political prisoners." After about an hour, police waded into the crowd, beating some demonstrators with truncheons and kicking them, offering sarcastic good wishes the crowd was forced to disperse. The demonstration, one in a series of so-called Dissenters' Marches, increased tension between opposition supporters who complain the Kremlin is cracking down on political dissent and authorities who vow to block any unauthorized demonstrations. A similar march planned for St. Petersburg on Sunday also has been banned. Since the first such march in December in Moscow, Kasparov has emerged as one of President Vladimir Putin's most prominent critics. He has vowed to accelerate his protest actions as presidential and parliamentary elections approach. Kasparov's United Civil Front organization works with other opposition groups in a loose alliance called Other Russia, which organized the marches. After his detention, he waved and smiled from a police van and did not appear to have been hurt. Police department spokesman Yevgeny Gildeyev said Kasparov was detained on suspicion of calling for provocations. Gildeyev said about 170 people in total were detained at the square. City authorities gave permission to Other Russia to hold a rally at Turgenev Square, but denied their request to gather at the more central and prominent Pushkin Square, one of Moscow's most well-known public spaces. Other Russia defied the ban and declared they would march from Pushkin Square to the other square, about a mile away. Police detained scores of activists at Pushkin Square, but thousands of others began marching. More than 1,000 others gathered at the authorized rally site. Among them was Mikhail Kasyanov, who was Putin's first prime minister but now has gone into opposition. "Everyone should ask the question: what is happening with our authorities - are they still sane, or have they gone mad?" Kasyanov said, as the crowd chanted "shame on the government." Andrei Illarionov, a former Kremlin economic adviser who came to support the demonstrators, told journalists that the heavy police presence showed "paranoia - there is no rational explanation for this behavior." The crowd began leaving by mid-afternoon. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who was observing the march, denied there were political motivations behind the ban, saying authorities were concerned with public order. "We have sanctioned a large number of events, both pro-government and pro-presidential, and also anti-government ones," the mayor said, according to the news agency Interfax. "Processions are a problem for us. We have not allowed pro-presidential organizations to hold them as well." In recent months, three demonstrations - all called Dissenters' Marches - were either broken up harshly or smothered under a massive police presence in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. If this weekend's protests draw large crowds, they could give momentum to Russia's beleaguered opposition and fuel more demonstrations against the government. If they founder, it could signal further irrelevancy for the opposition, which has been fractured by years of infighting. Russia's mainstream liberal parties, which some critics say have been co-opted by the Kremlin, have largely kept their distance. Grigory Yavlinsky, who heads the Yabloko party, refused to participate in the Moscow march, saying in a statement that "the ideological and political composition of the these actions are unacceptable for Yabloko." In the run-up to the demonstrations, Moscow's city council passed strict new regulations on rallies - including a rule limiting the density of protesters to no more than two people per 10 square feet. This week, prosecutors seized recordings of an Ekho Moskvy radio interview with Eduard Limonov, whose National Bolshevik Party is known for its street theater and political pranks targeting Putin. Since Putin took office in 2000, the Kremlin has moved to centralize power in Russia, created an obedient parliament, abolished direct gubernatorial elections and tightened restrictions on civic groups. Kremlin critics are now rarely heard on major TV networks. Putin also brought stability after a decade of chaos, and has presided over rapid economic growth. Polls rate him as by far the most popular political figure in Russia. Russia's parliament on Friday accused the United States of meddling in its politics before the elections, adopting angry statements criticizing a State Department report that outlined U.S. aid to Russian non-governmental organizations.

Friday the 13th.........

Imus gets fired, Ludicris gets a Grammy. Amazing. I never listened to Imus or watched him. Probably something about caustic coke-heads and gum chewing turned me off.

The other night a local Monday Night Football gang that had transformed themselves into a $10,000 entry fee poker "club" was busted. A friendly, high-stakes poker game. The law caught up to them and it may well cost them all far more than the entry stake.

Funny how Georgia works.

The state owns the real gambling operation in the state called the Georgia Lotto. It is a great franchise and they apparently hate competition. Every convenience store in the state profits from the gambling habits of its citizens, some far brighter than others. Is it racist or discriminatory that the less intelligent Georgia citizens who probably can't afford throwing good money after bad buying lottery tickets support university students in paying for their educations? The rich and smart get richer.........

You have to love how the bulls keep pressing the bears. Who doesn't love these late session rallies? Don't let long-term prejudices blind you to the truth of what is happening today. The stock market tells a story every day and if we listen carefully we will greatly outperform those who claim to know what the future holds. There is an old saying "bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered." The more accurate saying may be "flexible folks make money, stubborn folks get killed."

About 15 years ago I left the ranks of being a stockbroker and joined the ranks of a professional trader and money manager. Being a stockbroker is certainly an excellent profession that can be fulfilling and lucrative as a salesman, but until I became a full time trader I never really understood how enjoying my work could make such a huge difference in my results. Trading was the right fit for me. The main appeal of trading is the flexibility and freedom it gave me. The very nice economic rewards were a consequence of enjoying what I was doing. To wake up and look forward to what I was going to do that day made a huge difference not only in my happiness but in my net worth. Friday the 13th was always a good day for me.

Today is no exception.

Solarfun............

The symbol is SOLF.

Interesting acceleration in top and bottom line numbers.

Another Chinese company.

Jimmy Cramer................

Many Alpharetta IBD CANSLIM meeting attendees have shown up at our meetings with varied opinions of the former hedge fundist who averaged a compounded 24% per year over a decade at his fund. Boo-yah Skeeeeedaddy............

Here is a look at a web site who has made it a business to follow Cramers stock recommendations against a dart-throwing monkey. Enjoy the read !!!!

http://www.cramerwatch.org/

Musings on last week...........

The oft-stated phrase I heard last week, "your first cruise is probably your best cruise" is probably correct. I spent a week on this vessel;

http://www.carnival.com/CMS/Onboard_Activities/Miracle-Onboard_Exp.aspx

Carnival understands the cruise experience and I would book another trip with them in a nanosecond. That said, weather and sea conditions can have a pretty big impact on a trip and they aren't negotiable at the time of booking.

Mexico is always a treat. Not a sign of any middle-class citizenry. Not in my lifetime. No wonder millions wander around America.

The port of Costa Maya is a hoot. Build a large pier to dock a large ship and you will attract business. Belize was nice, English speaking, fairly clean and good beer. Cozumel and Grand Cayman I can do without. I have never been to Myrtle Beach but that is what they felt like. Or Gatlinburg. No shortage of financial institutions in Grand Cayman either! Can anyone say dirty money without smiling? Going down in a submarine was nice, it beats learning how to dive and I think probaby more things to see while covering so much more "ground" on the ocean floor.

Hard not to gain a couple of pounds on a ship. Food was abundant and good. Service and staff superb. All in all another great week on our planet.

Mr. Market treated us well last week. The fine folks at Web Methods (WEBM) decided to throw in the towel and sell themselves which caught me by surprise but hey, sticking with the stock with declining revenues paid off. It is nice to have an edge. My theme of owning water stocks seems to be working. MIC is headed up. Anyone care to bet against this stock NOT doubling from here?

There is nothing I'd rather do than be wildly bullish, but for me it all comes down to finding the charts I like. I worked the charts hard yesterday and today but found surprisingly few of interest. I focus heavily on stocks that are moving out of support on volume increases and there simply weren't that many on my screens. My feelings and opinions about the market are primarily a function of the hundreds of individual stocks I look at throughout the day. Volume is the key to my decision-making. It is my main measure of the emotional state of buyers. When there are big volume increases, I have much greater confidence that a price move may develop some meaningful momentum. I think of volume as the jet-fuel that drives a stock. They can't act like an F-14 Tomcat with the after-burners glowing without volume!

What we do is watch charts and see if there are signs that big buyers are interested. If volume picks up and stock starts moving, then it's probably a sign that someone knows something positive about the fundamental case. If you are a trader like me, the best possible quality the market can possess is "follow-through". Strong follow-through is what produces big gains. I seldom make one buy and one sale of a stock. My methoodology is to average in and average out and to use varying time frames. I'm constantly evaluating positions as conditions evolve.

This is a tough game and trading from a cruise ship wasn't my idea of having a great vacation nor having optimal trading tools at my disposal. Over the years I have found that the secret to success lies not so much in playing well as in not playing badly. After all, the system wasn't designed so most people could beat it.