We train and consult in the uses of options and derivative financial products.
Try one stop for teaching, training, consulting on the uses of derivative products -- futures, indexes, puts, and calls. Learn to implement strategies for today's volatile markets.
Learn how to use the Internet for investment research and designing your own presence here.
While you're here check out the following:
I've got a number of links to financial information.
A few of my dated writings -- not just links to nowhere.
Get a general idea of courses which can be taught. Included are Derivatives and Finance and the Internet.
I spent about twenty years trading options on stocks and futures. Several years were great, several so-so, and one or two were plain lousy. From this distinguished background comes this insightful analysis of current stock and other market conditions. Examples of my brilliance and pigheadedness ...
One of the more consistently successful investment strategies involves buying stocks which are "significantly out of favor" with investors.
How does one determine which stocks can be described as "significantly out of favor"?
One method is to buy those stocks which are making yearly lows in late November and early December. These stocks are generally subject to tax-loss selling which exacerbates any price pressure they are under; this pressure usually ends in mid-December. By the end of January these stocks as a group nearly always have outperformed the market.
There are variations on this strategy.
In early 1987 Forbes magazine published an issue which had "How Will You Know When It's Over?" for the headline on the cover.
The knowledge available in this world just keeps growing. It boggles my mind (perhaps not all that difficult a task) how much is out there and how quickly the computer revolution proceeds. Unfortunately, the average level of intelligence displayed seems to be about constant. This while I have gone from an awestruck toddler with an enquiring (somewhat) mind to a "mature" avant garde "boomer" who is becoming curmudgeonly because the rest of you are not keeping up with the insights I've gained.
OK... they were nearly state of the art at one time. But if I wanted state of the art I would be buying a G4 PowerPC-based Mac running the new OS 9.
If you tell me Macs are more expensive, you still have not done your research. Straight up, out-of-the-box, they are virtually identical in price to Wintel machines -- if you adjust for the additional memory (both RAM and disk storage) Wintel machines require and the processing power (figure you need up to twice the clock speed for a Wintel design -- e.g., 500MHz versus 250MHz), Macs have the edge.
In 1996 Intel stated that it costs them more than $8000 per machine to support their own computers in-house.
Try spending that much on a Mac!
Software. I can spend about $200 to get a program called "Virtual PC" from Connectix. I can run "virtually" every Windows program on a Mac. A 200 MHz PowerPC will run about like a 150 MHz Pentium. Plus all Mac programs and no "plug-and-pray" headaches.
Then there is Windows 95/98/2000. How people can dismiss the Mac OS as "old" (which chronologically it is) when Windows is mostly a copy of the Mac built on the remnants of an operating system that was outdated in 1984 strikes me as Orwellian logic.
One of my favorite Mac tools is my word processor NisusWriter. I've currently use their most current version 5.1.3. Much of the development of this website has been done with Nisus and a wonderful set of macros -- to which I've added some and modified a few. Version 6 of Nisus is expected this month (May 2000) -- along with an interesting mail client known unofficially as "Nesy".
I've also got a few "tricks" I've learned and/or developed over six plus years of use of Nisus.
And I've got some macros for handling those all-too-common area code splits we keep hearing about (and experiencing -- my parents have had three area codes for both their main home and their winter home in less than ten years!).
In less than ten years northeastern Illinois (including metropolitan Chicago) has gone from one area code -- 312 -- to five (with talk of at least one more likely in the next few years). 312 split into 312 (Chicago) and 708 (suburbs); 708 yielded 708 (western suburbs), 630 (southern suburbs) and 847 (northern suburbs); 312 then gave way to 312 (the center of the city including "the Loop") and 773 (the rest of the city); 847 may get split again or receive an "overlay".
NisusWriter and these macros are an excellent combination for finding and updating the area codes in your various databases.
A while back ... OK, several years ago ... I posted a request to Guy Kawasaki's (now defunct) MacEvangeList requesting information on how fellow MacPhiles were using their computers in the music business. I was hoping for ten to twenty responses. Instead, I got about sixty. Here are just about all of them -- with just a little bit of editing. I hope they are still relevant. If you've got some thoughts or comments, e-mail me, and I might add them to the list.
Chicago is a great town to bike in! It's flat. The weather goes to extremes. The wind is seldom at your back. Need I say more?
Assorted sayings which have struck me as witty, wise, or worth pondering. Grouped by "subject" -- including Golf, Liberal Disillusionment, Marginal Thoughts, Trading, Words, Dave Barry on Guys, Microsoft Gripes and my e-mail Signature Sayings.
Think of this as a friendly warning. You've paid nothing for these insights. That's what they could be worth to you. If you act on them, you're on your own. In other words, you could lose money. I will not be responsible for any of your actions. If you make money, that's wonderful! Send me some of it if you like -- I will treat it as a gift!!
Any statements of fact are based on sources believed to be reliable. Opinions are just that -- they could be based on fact, conjecture, and/or a possibly increasingly unreliable memory
Unfortunately, access to most of this particular area about "the best damn class" from "the best damn place of all" is limited to those who are smart enough to figure out its URL. I hope this means you're a classmate!!! or fellow alum!! or somebody who knew how to get me to tell it to you!
But here's a slightly scaled-down version of the home page.
However, if you are a classmate or an alum, you are qualified for special pricing on my services -- classmates getting a better break.
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Date created: July 16, 1997 Last modified: May 16, 2000 Copyright © 1997-2000, Greg Cramer, O.M.S. Maintained by: Greg Cramer optionsms@earthlink.net How did this site get done?and
NisusWriter 5.1.3