With natural disasters so prevalent these days, the one thing we can take away is the need for insurance. Hurricane Katrina showed us the need for flood insurance. The Southern California wildfires have showed us the need for fire insurance. And so on. Estimates of some 40 percent of New Orleans residents had no form of flood insurance pre Katrina even though the New Orleans is a high flood risk area. This is not at all out of the norm. It’s estimated that only about a quarter of homes in high risk areas are even insured for fire or flood insurance. This is unfortunate because flood insurance is some of the most affordable insurance available. It may take some individuals a lifetime to realize the American dream and purchase a home, but we’ve seen first hand how quickly that dream can be destroyed. So, if we can take anything good away from these recent disasters it’s the importance of being protected, especially for higher risk areas. Flood insurance isn’t the only important form of insurance. Disability insurance provides protection for you and your family as well. The question you need to ask yourself is that will you be able to provide for your family if you were unable to work. Disability insurance is a very valuable form of insurance that protects your income. It’s not just for the construction worker who needs to protect against injury. It is actually quite common for sickness or illness to sideline your career. Some 12 percent of the working class will have a disability lasting greater than 5 years before they retire. That’s a large number and a long time to go without income. You can’t just rely on workers compensation, as the accident would have to happen at work. Again, it’s important to remember that most disabilities happen from illness and not injury. Disability insurance protects against both.

This week’s declines were also reflected in the continued weakening in the Technical Indicators which our Major Market Model follows. The NYSE advance/decline line was lower for a second week in a row. Although new highs continue to outnumber new lows on both the NYSE and the NASDAQ, the number of new highs continued to decline. A shift from large cap to small cap dominance is of significant importance to our model and the small cap Russell 2000 index outperformed other major indexes gaining 0.76% for the week.

Bond prices edged down Friday after this week’s news releases of new home sales, durable goods and jobless claims reports suggested the Federal Reserve will not cut interest rates in the near future. The five-year note fell 3/32 to yield 4.80 percent. The benchmark 10-year note slipped 5/32 to yield 4.86 percent and the 30-year bond was down 6/32 to yield 5.00 percent.
I’m speaking of Variety the magazine and website, not variety “the quality or condition of being various”.

The main reason I hate it is because of the pompus arrogance that oozes from the “Hollywood jargon” used in the articles.

Over the last few months, I’ve rolled my eyes at the following unnecessary jargon in Variety articles:

“Skedded”: Scheduled (example: “Sony priced the PS3 below its production costs during its startup period and production delays caused a slower-than-skedded rollout in key territories.”)
Ron Artest Wants Out

He has requested to be traded from the Indiana Pacers and it seems they are going to work with him. I’m not really sure how many teams will be interested because of his personality issues, but he is one talented player. Stay tuned on this one.

Link: Ron Artest

posted by StonecoldJZ @ 12/12/2005 06:47:00 PM 0 comments
More to the story than being said

Is what is going down in Miami. It has been rumored for months that Riley would take over for the Heat and today Stan Van Gundy stepped down as head coach. Van Gundy sited personal reasons of wanting to spend more time with his family, but he just realize he is a busy man now? I think Riley told him to go home and spend more time with his family due to the Heat’s 11-10 record.

Story: Miami Heat

posted by StonecoldJZ @ 12/12/2005 06:41:00 PM 0 comments

http://www.golfnuggets.com/associations/golf-association-barbados.html
http://www.golfnuggets.com/associations/golf-association-bolivia.html
http://www.golfnuggets.com/associations/golf-association-bulgaria.html
Make Up Your Mind Miguel

After requesting to be traded at the end of last week it seems Miguel Tejada has changed his tune. I swear between Schizo Ramirez and Manic Tejada there is never a dull moment.
“The Alphabet”: ABC Network (example:”As web heads and industry insiders geared up for Day 2 of upfront madness with Tuesday’s presentations from ABC, speculation centered on where the Alphabet might deploy its most potent new weapon, “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Private Practice.”)
In currency trading, the Euro bought at $1.3430, down from $1.3460 late Wednesday. The greenback traded at ¥121.42, down from ¥121.65 in the previous session.

The AAS Market Model turned Bearish as of the close Tuesday, May 15, 2007. The total universe of stocks, ETF’s and mutual funds which we review on a daily basis is 1831. Of those reviewed, 568 are rated “Buy,” 687 are rated “Sell” and 576 “Neutral”. The recommended allocation in the Model Fund Portfolio’s is 50% invested and 50% in cash, while in the Model Stock Portfolio the allocations have been reduced as individual securities lose their directional trend or violate an internal Sell rule.

The tone for the coming week will be set by the heavy dose of the economic data scheduled to be released which will give investors something new to digest. The FOMC meeting minutes will be released on Wednesday. The Q1 preliminary GDP is due on Thursday. And the most important data for the week is probably going to be the May employment report due out on Friday.