Burbank Alamo, for reasons of their own, decided to rent me this Cadillac.    Maybe they were out of compacts.   Oddly, for this trip I had hastily grabbed a CD from my car on the way to the airport — Foghat’s Greatest Hits.    Packed with enough classic rock to get the Caddy down the Ventura Freeway to Pasadena.  

Would never have thought the two go together — luxury auto and 70s rock — but since Led Zep Rock ‘n’ Roll powers the commericals,  I get the surprising message:  this kind of car is supposed to be for me now.  

Next day, I had a couple hours between show and airport.   Took a ride up Mulholland Dr, because…why not?  Maybe a better freeway car but I wanted to see the view from the hill. 

Wound up at a Pinkberry on Ventura Boulevard, snacking on tart fro-yo there at a tiny table between the man with $800 loafers and the lady who maybe inspired the book “When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple”.   That’s L.A. and that’s okay.

While at the LA Trader’s Expo, I stayed in Arcadia.   Now melded into LA, Arcadia used to be its own distinct town on Route 66.   I spent one evening walking around and marveling at Arcadia’s most surprising residents:  hundreds of wild green parrots.   Parrots are not natives of the region and no one knows for sure how they came to roost in Arcadia.   Rumors has it that a fire in a pet store decades ago prompted the release of a few parrots and nature took care of the rest.

I also came across an intriguing example of the great melting pot on the Pacific rim:  on El Dorado St (a Mexican name), is a drive-in diner (a US thing), featuring bento boxes and sushi (a japanese food).   

Tags: arcadia, parrot

Someone clicked on Amazon that they found my Garmin nuvi 760 review helpful so I will repeat it here:

Great Navigation but Useless Features and Broken Button, February 26, 2009

I really like the Garmin GPS navigators and wouldn’t take a trip without one anymore. I got this particular model free in a promotion from TD Ameritrade. Its got more features than I need: haven’t used bluetooth. I did try the traffic reports during the free trial but found it sometimes reported jams that weren’t there so I dropped it.
My biggest issue is that the power off button doesn’t seem to work. Usually it will ask to be powered off when I shut off the car which is an ok backup. Trouble is, it sometimes just stays on until the Garmin battery dies.
I also wish it had a volume knob accessible to the driver. As it is you need to use the touch screen which is a no-no while in motion.

Click here for all the Garmins

Tags: gadget, garmin, gps, nuvi

Grand Canyon Journal

Grand Canyon Wikipedia Entry

Tags: Grand Canyon, wordle

(Note to Traders: Check out my trading blog and BackTesting Report too)

After Dr. Alexander Elder’s Traders Camp in Cyprus 2005, a few of us who wanted to see the rest of the island threw in together and spent the next three days exploring.   See earlier posts for descriptions of the class — this one is all about sightseeing.

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Tags: Alexander Elder, Aphrodite's Birthplace, cyprus, greek, paphos, trader's camp

(Note to Traders: Check out my trading blog and BackTesting Report too)

The 2005 Trader’s Camp with Dr. Alexander Elder officially ended on Friday.   Saturday turned into a bonus day with an impromtu invitation from Alex to sit in on his weekly top-down analysis of the markets, a.k.a. “homework”.    Now its one thing to be told how to do market analysis, a better thing to get ready-made spreadsheets for it, and best of all to look over the shoulder of a seasoned expert who can articulate his thoughts in real time.    We got all three as best-selling author Dr. Elder sorted through over 130 market indices and 237 sub-industry groups to find candidates stocks for the trading  week ahead.

Looking over Dr. Elder's shoulder

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Tags: Alexander Elder, cyprus, Sell and Sell Short, top-down market analysis, trader's camp

(Note to Traders: Check out my trading blog and BackTesting Report too)

“Don’t take pictures of the checkpoint.”   “Watch out - its under military occupation.”   “You’re only allowed in for one day.”   In 2005, at Dr. Alex Elder’s Trader Camp in Cyprus, we knew these rules when we voted to venture, as a group, to Northern Cyprus, a territory controlled by the Turkish army and unrecognized by the United Nations.  A few campers had strong opinions about the unfortunate Greek vs Turkish conflict that cost thousands of lives on each side and declined the trip.  They spent their free day on the Greek side of the island.   The rest of us chipped in for the motor coach that took us for an unbelievably action-packed day.  

Kyrenia Castle, Northern Cyprus

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Tags: Alexander Elder, cyprus, Green Line, Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus, St Hilarion, trader's camp

(Note to Traders: Check out my trading blog and BackTesting Report too)

At Dr. Elder’s Traders’ Camp 2005, the class hours were time for serious study and the dinner breaks were time for serious fun.  With 30 people total, it would have been far easier for Dr. Elder to just turn us loose to eat on our own or have the hotel buffet each night.   Instead, he arranged for us to indulge in the best of the local villages, which meant some wonderful meze feasts!   We set out in daylight to enjoy the sights on the way.

Alex Elder and Class Strolling Before Dinner

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Tags: Alexander Elder, cyprus, Greek food, meze, Paki Pedi, Pini, Platres, Taki's, trader's camp, Travel, Troodos, Viona

(Note to Traders: Check out my trading blog and BackTesting Report too)

In Sept 2005,  I attended a week-long stock and commodity trading camp by Dr. Alexander Elder and Mr. David Weis on the island of Cyprus.  I learned two vastly different methods of technical analysis for trading, plus money management and all-important trading psychology.   The camp structure and side trips also helped me to meet other traders and create friendships that last to this day.   This post in the Cyprus series focuses on the seminar itself.

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Tags: Alexander Elder, cyprus, David Weiss, Investing, learning to trade, stock trading, trader's camp, trading, trading camp, trading class