Friday, December 31, 2010
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
The fact that you are doing battle with sin is evidence that you are saved!
Why struggling is part of the Christian life
December 28, 2010
And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 17:5-6
Not long ago, a man walked up to me after church and said, "Pastor, I'm worried I might not be saved."
So I asked him, "Why?"
"Well," he explained, "I've really been struggling with sin lately and have given in to temptation in some areas. Why would I be having such a tough time if I was really saved?"
So I told him, "The fact that you are doing battle with sin is evidence that you are saved!"
When the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, God gave them a great victory when Moses struck the rock and water came out in the middle of the desert. He provided refreshing water for His people when they needed it most.
Now in 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul tells us that the rock that Moses struck is a representation of Jesus Christ, who was struck for our sins and out of his side flowed a river of blood and water.
So the children of Israel had been saved, delivered from the hand of Pharaoh. And they received the rock, which represents Christ. Then what happened? Immediately after they drank the water, they were attacked by Amalek. God gave Israel the rock of Christ and then called them to battle!
When you receive Christ and the Spirit of God takes up residence in you, a war begins. So let your struggles be a testimony to the fact that the Spirit of God is alive and active in your life!
WAGE WAR AGAINST SIN WITH CONFIDENCE BECAUSE STRUGGLES SHOW THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES IN YOU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
December 28, 2010
And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 17:5-6
Not long ago, a man walked up to me after church and said, "Pastor, I'm worried I might not be saved."
So I asked him, "Why?"
"Well," he explained, "I've really been struggling with sin lately and have given in to temptation in some areas. Why would I be having such a tough time if I was really saved?"
So I told him, "The fact that you are doing battle with sin is evidence that you are saved!"
When the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, God gave them a great victory when Moses struck the rock and water came out in the middle of the desert. He provided refreshing water for His people when they needed it most.
Now in 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul tells us that the rock that Moses struck is a representation of Jesus Christ, who was struck for our sins and out of his side flowed a river of blood and water.
So the children of Israel had been saved, delivered from the hand of Pharaoh. And they received the rock, which represents Christ. Then what happened? Immediately after they drank the water, they were attacked by Amalek. God gave Israel the rock of Christ and then called them to battle!
When you receive Christ and the Spirit of God takes up residence in you, a war begins. So let your struggles be a testimony to the fact that the Spirit of God is alive and active in your life!
WAGE WAR AGAINST SIN WITH CONFIDENCE BECAUSE STRUGGLES SHOW THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIVES IN YOU.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Faith versus Reason
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
The first battle between faith and human reason took place in the garden of Eden. Spurred on by the lies of the serpent, Eve began to look at her situation from a purely logical perspective and decided she was being cheated by God out of something good. Her faith faltered as "reasonable" thoughts of self-interest filled her mind.
I am not saying that the way of faith is never logical, but by operating only on the basis of reason, a conflict with the Lord is inevitable. The reason is that His instructions and actions don't always appear reasonable from a human perspective. Although Isaiah 55:8-9 describes God's thoughts and ways as higher than man's, many people judge divine ideas to be lower than human intelligence.
Paul emphasizes this when he points out that God's choices are illogical by the world's standards. His message of salvation seems foolish, and His messengers appear weak and unimpressive. In an age that thrives on recognition, admiration, and importance, a person who believes the Bible is considered a weakling in need of a religious crutch to cope with life. While this description is given in derision, it's actually quite accurate. Recognizing their helplessness, believers lean on Christ so He can raise them to stand with Him in righteousness.
That day in Eden, sin and self-importance entered the human heart. But all the worldly wisdom that fuels our pride is nullified by God. He is looking not for great and impressive people but for weak, humble servants who can boast only in Christ. The Savior alone is their strength and wisdom.
For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.
The first battle between faith and human reason took place in the garden of Eden. Spurred on by the lies of the serpent, Eve began to look at her situation from a purely logical perspective and decided she was being cheated by God out of something good. Her faith faltered as "reasonable" thoughts of self-interest filled her mind.
I am not saying that the way of faith is never logical, but by operating only on the basis of reason, a conflict with the Lord is inevitable. The reason is that His instructions and actions don't always appear reasonable from a human perspective. Although Isaiah 55:8-9 describes God's thoughts and ways as higher than man's, many people judge divine ideas to be lower than human intelligence.
Paul emphasizes this when he points out that God's choices are illogical by the world's standards. His message of salvation seems foolish, and His messengers appear weak and unimpressive. In an age that thrives on recognition, admiration, and importance, a person who believes the Bible is considered a weakling in need of a religious crutch to cope with life. While this description is given in derision, it's actually quite accurate. Recognizing their helplessness, believers lean on Christ so He can raise them to stand with Him in righteousness.
That day in Eden, sin and self-importance entered the human heart. But all the worldly wisdom that fuels our pride is nullified by God. He is looking not for great and impressive people but for weak, humble servants who can boast only in Christ. The Savior alone is their strength and wisdom.
For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.
Trusting God to bring order from your chaos
December 20, 2010
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:18-21
What a scandal... A respected local carpenter is engaged to a young peasant woman when all of a sudden, she turns up pregnant! I bet the town of Nazareth was teeming with rumors of Mary's love affair and questions about the identity of the father of the child. And can you imagine the looks Joseph would've been getting on the streets for being rumored as the possible father of this illegitimate child while at the same time knowing that it wasn't him?
The only way Joseph could've maintained his good name would have been to break off his engagement with Mary. And for Mary, this would have essentially meant being kicked out of her family and her hometown.
But God was in control. He knew that the accusations would come. He knew the anguish and heartbreak it would cause Joseph thinking Mary was an adulteress after she tried to convince him over and over that she wasn't. And he knew the stigma that would be attached to this family by many who didn't believe Jesus was the Son of God. So in the midst of the chaos, God sent an angel to assure Joseph that Mary was telling the truth.
The first Christmas began not with joy, but with heartbreak and anguish. Yet in the midst of the chaos, God brought order. Whatever difficulties you may be going through today, God is the only one who can bring order to your chaos. So trust fully in him to bring you through the hard times you face.
TRUST IN GOD TO TURN YOUR CHAOTIC SITUATIONS INTO BLESSINGS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:18-21
What a scandal... A respected local carpenter is engaged to a young peasant woman when all of a sudden, she turns up pregnant! I bet the town of Nazareth was teeming with rumors of Mary's love affair and questions about the identity of the father of the child. And can you imagine the looks Joseph would've been getting on the streets for being rumored as the possible father of this illegitimate child while at the same time knowing that it wasn't him?
The only way Joseph could've maintained his good name would have been to break off his engagement with Mary. And for Mary, this would have essentially meant being kicked out of her family and her hometown.
But God was in control. He knew that the accusations would come. He knew the anguish and heartbreak it would cause Joseph thinking Mary was an adulteress after she tried to convince him over and over that she wasn't. And he knew the stigma that would be attached to this family by many who didn't believe Jesus was the Son of God. So in the midst of the chaos, God sent an angel to assure Joseph that Mary was telling the truth.
The first Christmas began not with joy, but with heartbreak and anguish. Yet in the midst of the chaos, God brought order. Whatever difficulties you may be going through today, God is the only one who can bring order to your chaos. So trust fully in him to bring you through the hard times you face.
TRUST IN GOD TO TURN YOUR CHAOTIC SITUATIONS INTO BLESSINGS.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
Sunday, December 19, 2010
God's School of Obedience
1 John 1:3-6
Starting at age five, our children are enrolled in school and given lessons to learn each year. We are students too. At salvation, we became participants in the Lord's school of obedience. There, we are discovering the necessity of trusting Him and waiting for His direction. We are taught the importance of commitment and learn to search His Word for guidance. God also wants us to learn these lessons:
• Listen attentively to the Spirit's promptings. Our God does not speak in an audible voice, but He makes Himself heard quite clearly through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Spirit is our Helper who will bring to mind Scripture passages we have studied (John 14:26) and show us how they apply.
• Obey the next step. Abraham was called to leave his home and journey to an unknown destination (Gen. 12:1). He obeyed even though the way was unclear to his human mind. We, too, must step out in faith even when we do not know all the details of the itinerary.
• Expect conflict. We can't live obedient lives without having trouble with the world (John 16:33). Our friends or family may drift away when they realize certain interests of ours have changed. Some may hurl criticism our way or call us unkind names, while others may reject us completely.
Practicing a lifestyle of obedience doesn't mean we'll never make mistakes. But it does require diligence if we are to succeed. Obeying the Father was Jesus' priority and purpose in life, and we should make it ours as well. Which of these lessons do you want to tackle first?
For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.
Watch Online Videos of Dr. Charles Stanley and In Touch Ministries at LightSource.com
and
Listen to Dr. Charles Stanley Online Broadcasts at OnePlace.com.
Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2009 All Rights Reserved. < body>
Starting at age five, our children are enrolled in school and given lessons to learn each year. We are students too. At salvation, we became participants in the Lord's school of obedience. There, we are discovering the necessity of trusting Him and waiting for His direction. We are taught the importance of commitment and learn to search His Word for guidance. God also wants us to learn these lessons:
• Listen attentively to the Spirit's promptings. Our God does not speak in an audible voice, but He makes Himself heard quite clearly through the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the Spirit is our Helper who will bring to mind Scripture passages we have studied (John 14:26) and show us how they apply.
• Obey the next step. Abraham was called to leave his home and journey to an unknown destination (Gen. 12:1). He obeyed even though the way was unclear to his human mind. We, too, must step out in faith even when we do not know all the details of the itinerary.
• Expect conflict. We can't live obedient lives without having trouble with the world (John 16:33). Our friends or family may drift away when they realize certain interests of ours have changed. Some may hurl criticism our way or call us unkind names, while others may reject us completely.
Practicing a lifestyle of obedience doesn't mean we'll never make mistakes. But it does require diligence if we are to succeed. Obeying the Father was Jesus' priority and purpose in life, and we should make it ours as well. Which of these lessons do you want to tackle first?
For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org.
Watch Online Videos of Dr. Charles Stanley and In Touch Ministries at LightSource.com
and
Listen to Dr. Charles Stanley Online Broadcasts at OnePlace.com.
Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2009 All Rights Reserved. < body>
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
What Liquidity Is and Why It Matters
Your 200-year old professor probably told you that liquidity is the degree to which an asset can be bought or sold in the market without affecting its price. While there's nothing wrong with your professor's adage, I like to think of liquidity as an asset's popularity.
A "popular" asset would have hordes of groupies and haters, or in geek speak -buyers and sellers. As an example, consider my twin, Brad Pitt. As a popular A-list celebrity, he would probably pay less attention to one hateful tweet than a washed up D-lister like Pauly Shore would.
Also, the positive comments from his numerous fans will cancel out any negative comments from the haters. Besides, Brad would probably be too busy minding his beautiful family, fame and fortune to notice such an insignificant event.
In the same way, a single buy or sell order would have less impact on the price of a highly liquid currency pair as more buyers and sellers cancel each others' positions over the pair.
During the holidays (Thanksgiving, New Year, BabyPips.com day, and the like), liquidity in the forex market usually dies down because the big boys of trading usually go on vacation. This can be very problematic for small traders as it leaves price action purely in the hands of bigger traders.
As I've said in the beginning, the more liquid a financial instrument is, the smaller the effect large trading volumes have on price. The opposite also holds true: the less liquid a financial instrument is, the larger the impact huge trading volumes have on price.
Look at what happened to EUR/USD and GBP/USD Monday. While you could say that it was Moody's credit downgrade warning that caused the pairs to drop, you can't deny that it was mostly the low level of liquidity that allowed the bulls to push the pair so strongly in one direction.
Now, what good would all this knowledge be if we couldn't apply it to our trading? Let me give y'all a few tips on how to make the most of the holiday season's low liquidity. Who knows, you might just earn yourself a few extra bucks for some last minute shopping!
1.Stick to the pairs that are most frequently traded, such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and GBP/USD. Not only are they the most liquid pairs around, but they also tend to exhibit recognizable price patterns that you may be able to capitalize on.
2.Consider trading other time frames. If you want action, lower time frames are where it's at! The hourly and 15-minute time frames can present plenty of opportunities for those who can act fast. But if you're looking for a smooth, slow ride, then maybe you ought to consider the daily and weekly charts.
3.Know which trading sessions to trade. Market players are aplenty and the markets are most liquid when the London session and New York session overlap from 1:00 pm GMT to 5:00 pm GMT.
4.Be on the lookout for breakout plays. Times of low liquidity can be marked by dull price action followed by sudden, explosive movements. Stay alert and be ready to trade any breakouts that may emerge!
5....or don't trade at all. If you're really not comfortable trading under these conditions, then hang up your trading gloves early and get a head start on the holiday celebrations! 'Tis the season to be jolly, after all!
There you have it, folks! With these tips, maybe you'll find yourselves ho-ho-ho-ing your way into 2011!
A "popular" asset would have hordes of groupies and haters, or in geek speak -buyers and sellers. As an example, consider my twin, Brad Pitt. As a popular A-list celebrity, he would probably pay less attention to one hateful tweet than a washed up D-lister like Pauly Shore would.
Also, the positive comments from his numerous fans will cancel out any negative comments from the haters. Besides, Brad would probably be too busy minding his beautiful family, fame and fortune to notice such an insignificant event.
In the same way, a single buy or sell order would have less impact on the price of a highly liquid currency pair as more buyers and sellers cancel each others' positions over the pair.
During the holidays (Thanksgiving, New Year, BabyPips.com day, and the like), liquidity in the forex market usually dies down because the big boys of trading usually go on vacation. This can be very problematic for small traders as it leaves price action purely in the hands of bigger traders.
As I've said in the beginning, the more liquid a financial instrument is, the smaller the effect large trading volumes have on price. The opposite also holds true: the less liquid a financial instrument is, the larger the impact huge trading volumes have on price.
Look at what happened to EUR/USD and GBP/USD Monday. While you could say that it was Moody's credit downgrade warning that caused the pairs to drop, you can't deny that it was mostly the low level of liquidity that allowed the bulls to push the pair so strongly in one direction.
Now, what good would all this knowledge be if we couldn't apply it to our trading? Let me give y'all a few tips on how to make the most of the holiday season's low liquidity. Who knows, you might just earn yourself a few extra bucks for some last minute shopping!
1.Stick to the pairs that are most frequently traded, such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and GBP/USD. Not only are they the most liquid pairs around, but they also tend to exhibit recognizable price patterns that you may be able to capitalize on.
2.Consider trading other time frames. If you want action, lower time frames are where it's at! The hourly and 15-minute time frames can present plenty of opportunities for those who can act fast. But if you're looking for a smooth, slow ride, then maybe you ought to consider the daily and weekly charts.
3.Know which trading sessions to trade. Market players are aplenty and the markets are most liquid when the London session and New York session overlap from 1:00 pm GMT to 5:00 pm GMT.
4.Be on the lookout for breakout plays. Times of low liquidity can be marked by dull price action followed by sudden, explosive movements. Stay alert and be ready to trade any breakouts that may emerge!
5....or don't trade at all. If you're really not comfortable trading under these conditions, then hang up your trading gloves early and get a head start on the holiday celebrations! 'Tis the season to be jolly, after all!
There you have it, folks! With these tips, maybe you'll find yourselves ho-ho-ho-ing your way into 2011!
TAi ying hoong Daryl Guppy V FAi chai ttlim/FAigangster
By Daryl Guppy.
We do not have to trade every day.
The best traders wait for the best trading conditions to develop which are compatible with their trading style. The inexperienced trader explores many different trading styles. All of these include the well established basics of trading.
These are learnt through the knowledge which has accumulated in years of experience in other traders’ trial and error. Studying the experiences analysed in books provides a short cut to developing the basic skills of trading.
Master traders move beyond these basic skills because they know when to apply them, and when to stand back from the market and just wait. A master trader has these attributes.
Deep knowledge of the markets, not just the area he trades
Mentally and financially prepared
Employs the best tools available
Uses reason, not feeling to make trading decisions
Exercises patience
Controls emotions
Follows a trading plan with discipline
Holds winning trades to collect the best profit
Stops trading and examines trading methods when losing trades develop
Constantly looks for improvement in trading methods as market conditions change
Doesn’t confuse being correct in analysis with being profitable. Understands that profitability comes from being able to adjust quickly to changing circumstances.
Doesn’t waste time worrying about inevitable trading losses
Understands market psychology of fear and greed and understands how this applies to his own trading decisions.
Understands that sometimes the best reaction to the market is to stop trading
This may seem a long list, but it takes a long time to develop the skills necessary for long term success in the market. Understanding the basics of trading is just the beginning.
We do not have to trade every day.
The best traders wait for the best trading conditions to develop which are compatible with their trading style. The inexperienced trader explores many different trading styles. All of these include the well established basics of trading.
These are learnt through the knowledge which has accumulated in years of experience in other traders’ trial and error. Studying the experiences analysed in books provides a short cut to developing the basic skills of trading.
Master traders move beyond these basic skills because they know when to apply them, and when to stand back from the market and just wait. A master trader has these attributes.
Deep knowledge of the markets, not just the area he trades
Mentally and financially prepared
Employs the best tools available
Uses reason, not feeling to make trading decisions
Exercises patience
Controls emotions
Follows a trading plan with discipline
Holds winning trades to collect the best profit
Stops trading and examines trading methods when losing trades develop
Constantly looks for improvement in trading methods as market conditions change
Doesn’t confuse being correct in analysis with being profitable. Understands that profitability comes from being able to adjust quickly to changing circumstances.
Doesn’t waste time worrying about inevitable trading losses
Understands market psychology of fear and greed and understands how this applies to his own trading decisions.
Understands that sometimes the best reaction to the market is to stop trading
This may seem a long list, but it takes a long time to develop the skills necessary for long term success in the market. Understanding the basics of trading is just the beginning.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
End of Privacy: Your Facebook ID is marketers' Holy Grail
End of Privacy: Your Facebook ID is marketers' Holy Grail
.
David Goldman, staff writer, On Monday December 13, 2010, 12:21 pm EST
Armed with your e-mail address, data miners can hit Facebook and match it up with your user ID. That key unlocks a treasure trove of personal information.
At bare minimum, your ID provides access to your name and profile photo, no matter what privacy settings you have. Those who stick with Facebook's recommended settings will reveal even more: their location, hometown, list of friends, lots of photos, and many of their "likes," such as activities and interests.
That's a goldmine for companies that are trying to target their products to you.
"Once you have an ID you can look up the person," said Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeesm, a social media marketing software developer. That gives you access to all the information publicly available in their profile, and from that, "you can build correlations between all sorts of other data."
Robin Dindayal, director of product management at social marketing software company Awareness Inc., ran an experiment and plugged my Facebook ID into Facebook's Graph API. That's a tool Facebook makes available for programmers who want to connect to the site's platform.
The API returned a smattering of information about me, including my gender and geographic settings. A person -- or a machine -- can retrieve that data after starting with nothing more than my e-mail address. (You can follow our instructions on how to run the experiment with your own Facebook ID.)
"Combine this with an e-mail address and I can add you to a mailing list," Dindayal said. "Beyond that, some users within Facebook don't have their privacy settings set very high and even more information might be made available."
Facebook has technical safeguards in place intended to prevent data miners with massive lists of e-mail addresses from sucking in troves of public information about Facebook's users. But invaders keep slipping through the site's defenses.
A company named Rapleaf kicked off a backlash two months ago when press reports drew attention to its practice of collecting Facebook IDs and including them in the personal profiles it sells. The ways Rapleaf gathered the data violated Facebook's rules, and when caught, Rapleaf changed its methods. It recently deleted the Facebook information from its dataset.
But it's a game of whack-a-mole: Others have popped right up to fill the void.
Take Match Factory, a new tool launched four months ago that promised marketers it would "securely match as many e-mail addresses from your list with Facebook accounts as possible." It was created by 3dna, a Los Angeles-based software developer that makes tools for political activists.
Facebook's terms of service prohibit anyone from accessing the site or collecting user information "using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers)."
That's exactly what Match Factory did. It sent more than 37,000 automated requests to Facebook over the last few months to pull user IDs -- and didn't hear a peep from Facebook in response.
"I have not talked to Facebook," Match Factory creator Jim Gilliam told CNNMoney last week. "They haven't complained to me at all."
Gilliam said he wasn't aware that Match Factory's automated data gathering violated Facebook's policies.
CNNMoney asked Facebook about Match Factory -- and on Friday, Facebook cut off the tool's access to its platform.
"The impact was extremely small and no private information was shared," Facebook spokesman David Swain said of Match Factory's data gathering. "We were able to take immediate action to shut down the service in question."
But Match Factory isn't the only one linking e-mail addresses to Facebook identities without users' explicit permission. Other data aggregation companies, including Pipl and Wink.com, also have big stashes of Facebook IDs.
Some fly under Facebook's radar; others, like Pipl, navigate the gray area of what Facebook allows. Pipl doesn't directly sell the data it gathers -- its business model is to run ads on pages that display all the personal information it has amassed.
Right now, your Facebook user ID is mostly valuable to direct marketers and political campaigns, but insurance companies and prospective employers are starting to take interest too. Privacy experts say the market for your information will keep expanding.
The battle zone
Facebook's in an unenviable position: Its entire reason for being is to encourage members to connect and broadcast personal information. The more you share, the stronger Facebook's business model becomes. But the site is also trying to balance that against a pledge to respect its members' privacy preferences.
"Facebook is committed to providing users a safe and secure experience, and we work aggressively to develop technical and human solutions to keep people in control of their information," Facebook spokesman Swain said.
Facebook has a history of shooting itself in the foot, though, when it comes to dealing with privacy concerns.
After the Rapleaf firestorm -- which included the revelation that some Facebook application developers were selling user IDs to data aggregators -- Facebook announced that it had a solution: It would ban all applications from sharing user IDs with outside parties.
Developers freaked out, and leapt on an obvious flaw in that plan: For-profit applications often use third-party virtual currency companies like Tapjoy (formerly Offerpal) monetize their apps. So Facebook went back to the drawing board, and is working to finalize a new technical policy that will keep information from data brokers but allow developers to work with advertisers and payment companies. The new rules are slated to take effect Jan. 1.
That doesn't solve the bigger problem: Facebook is sitting on a massively valuable data stash of information that users make available publicly, and keeping it away from commercially motivated data harvesters is an arms race.
Deleting information after the fact -- as Rapleaf did -- doesn't wipe it from the record books.
Some Rapleaf customers, including popular e-mail add-on Rapportive, appear to still be using saved versions of the Facebook data Rapleaf previously provided. Queries run through Rapportive's system last week by Awareness Inc.'s Dindayal returned Facebook user names.
Rapportive did not respond to several requests for comment.
"The genie is out of the bottle," Dindayal said. "Once the information is out, it's impossible to know who has a copy of it."
Follow Yahoo! Finance on Twitter; become a fan on Facebook.
.
David Goldman, staff writer, On Monday December 13, 2010, 12:21 pm EST
Armed with your e-mail address, data miners can hit Facebook and match it up with your user ID. That key unlocks a treasure trove of personal information.
At bare minimum, your ID provides access to your name and profile photo, no matter what privacy settings you have. Those who stick with Facebook's recommended settings will reveal even more: their location, hometown, list of friends, lots of photos, and many of their "likes," such as activities and interests.
That's a goldmine for companies that are trying to target their products to you.
"Once you have an ID you can look up the person," said Axel Schultze, CEO of Xeesm, a social media marketing software developer. That gives you access to all the information publicly available in their profile, and from that, "you can build correlations between all sorts of other data."
Robin Dindayal, director of product management at social marketing software company Awareness Inc., ran an experiment and plugged my Facebook ID into Facebook's Graph API. That's a tool Facebook makes available for programmers who want to connect to the site's platform.
The API returned a smattering of information about me, including my gender and geographic settings. A person -- or a machine -- can retrieve that data after starting with nothing more than my e-mail address. (You can follow our instructions on how to run the experiment with your own Facebook ID.)
"Combine this with an e-mail address and I can add you to a mailing list," Dindayal said. "Beyond that, some users within Facebook don't have their privacy settings set very high and even more information might be made available."
Facebook has technical safeguards in place intended to prevent data miners with massive lists of e-mail addresses from sucking in troves of public information about Facebook's users. But invaders keep slipping through the site's defenses.
A company named Rapleaf kicked off a backlash two months ago when press reports drew attention to its practice of collecting Facebook IDs and including them in the personal profiles it sells. The ways Rapleaf gathered the data violated Facebook's rules, and when caught, Rapleaf changed its methods. It recently deleted the Facebook information from its dataset.
But it's a game of whack-a-mole: Others have popped right up to fill the void.
Take Match Factory, a new tool launched four months ago that promised marketers it would "securely match as many e-mail addresses from your list with Facebook accounts as possible." It was created by 3dna, a Los Angeles-based software developer that makes tools for political activists.
Facebook's terms of service prohibit anyone from accessing the site or collecting user information "using automated means (such as harvesting bots, robots, spiders, or scrapers)."
That's exactly what Match Factory did. It sent more than 37,000 automated requests to Facebook over the last few months to pull user IDs -- and didn't hear a peep from Facebook in response.
"I have not talked to Facebook," Match Factory creator Jim Gilliam told CNNMoney last week. "They haven't complained to me at all."
Gilliam said he wasn't aware that Match Factory's automated data gathering violated Facebook's policies.
CNNMoney asked Facebook about Match Factory -- and on Friday, Facebook cut off the tool's access to its platform.
"The impact was extremely small and no private information was shared," Facebook spokesman David Swain said of Match Factory's data gathering. "We were able to take immediate action to shut down the service in question."
But Match Factory isn't the only one linking e-mail addresses to Facebook identities without users' explicit permission. Other data aggregation companies, including Pipl and Wink.com, also have big stashes of Facebook IDs.
Some fly under Facebook's radar; others, like Pipl, navigate the gray area of what Facebook allows. Pipl doesn't directly sell the data it gathers -- its business model is to run ads on pages that display all the personal information it has amassed.
Right now, your Facebook user ID is mostly valuable to direct marketers and political campaigns, but insurance companies and prospective employers are starting to take interest too. Privacy experts say the market for your information will keep expanding.
The battle zone
Facebook's in an unenviable position: Its entire reason for being is to encourage members to connect and broadcast personal information. The more you share, the stronger Facebook's business model becomes. But the site is also trying to balance that against a pledge to respect its members' privacy preferences.
"Facebook is committed to providing users a safe and secure experience, and we work aggressively to develop technical and human solutions to keep people in control of their information," Facebook spokesman Swain said.
Facebook has a history of shooting itself in the foot, though, when it comes to dealing with privacy concerns.
After the Rapleaf firestorm -- which included the revelation that some Facebook application developers were selling user IDs to data aggregators -- Facebook announced that it had a solution: It would ban all applications from sharing user IDs with outside parties.
Developers freaked out, and leapt on an obvious flaw in that plan: For-profit applications often use third-party virtual currency companies like Tapjoy (formerly Offerpal) monetize their apps. So Facebook went back to the drawing board, and is working to finalize a new technical policy that will keep information from data brokers but allow developers to work with advertisers and payment companies. The new rules are slated to take effect Jan. 1.
That doesn't solve the bigger problem: Facebook is sitting on a massively valuable data stash of information that users make available publicly, and keeping it away from commercially motivated data harvesters is an arms race.
Deleting information after the fact -- as Rapleaf did -- doesn't wipe it from the record books.
Some Rapleaf customers, including popular e-mail add-on Rapportive, appear to still be using saved versions of the Facebook data Rapleaf previously provided. Queries run through Rapportive's system last week by Awareness Inc.'s Dindayal returned Facebook user names.
Rapportive did not respond to several requests for comment.
"The genie is out of the bottle," Dindayal said. "Once the information is out, it's impossible to know who has a copy of it."
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Monday, December 13, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
so sad..........
Woman ignores son’s pleas and jumps to her death
By CHITRA S. NATHAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
SEREMBAN: A 10-year-old boy’s pleas to his mother not to jump went unheeded as the woman leapt 13 floors to her death from a block of flats in Jalan Tun Dr Ismail here.
The 37-year-old woman, known only as Loh, ignored appeals from her son and residents in the 3pm incident yesterday.
It is learnt that Loh, from Seremban 2 here, told her only child that they were going to meet a friend but instead brought him with her to the flats.
Residents were alarmed when they heard the boy crying and screaming hysterically.
A resident, who wished to be known only as Ng, said she heard the boy asking his mother who they were going to meet.
“I listened to their conversation in the lift as the woman did not seem to be a resident of the flats.
“She kept telling him to be patient and it was only after the incident that I realised she was the one who jumped,” she said.
Another resident claimed that Loh said she wanted to commit suicide due to her husband’s gambling habit.
“I was having a nap when I heard the son crying and the mother insisting that she wanted to kill herself.
“When I came out of my unit, I saw other residents trying to plead with her not to jump,” he said.
Loh’s husband and sister arrived at the scene a short while later but were too distraught to speak to reporters.
The woman’s body had been sent to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital for a post-mortem.
When contacted, a Seremban Befrienders spokesman said it often received calls from people depressed about their spouses’ gambling habits.
He advised people facing such problems to contact their counselling line and not to take their own life.
The Befrienders can be reached at 06-765 3588 in Seremban.
By CHITRA S. NATHAN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
SEREMBAN: A 10-year-old boy’s pleas to his mother not to jump went unheeded as the woman leapt 13 floors to her death from a block of flats in Jalan Tun Dr Ismail here.
The 37-year-old woman, known only as Loh, ignored appeals from her son and residents in the 3pm incident yesterday.
It is learnt that Loh, from Seremban 2 here, told her only child that they were going to meet a friend but instead brought him with her to the flats.
Residents were alarmed when they heard the boy crying and screaming hysterically.
A resident, who wished to be known only as Ng, said she heard the boy asking his mother who they were going to meet.
“I listened to their conversation in the lift as the woman did not seem to be a resident of the flats.
“She kept telling him to be patient and it was only after the incident that I realised she was the one who jumped,” she said.
Another resident claimed that Loh said she wanted to commit suicide due to her husband’s gambling habit.
“I was having a nap when I heard the son crying and the mother insisting that she wanted to kill herself.
“When I came out of my unit, I saw other residents trying to plead with her not to jump,” he said.
Loh’s husband and sister arrived at the scene a short while later but were too distraught to speak to reporters.
The woman’s body had been sent to the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital for a post-mortem.
When contacted, a Seremban Befrienders spokesman said it often received calls from people depressed about their spouses’ gambling habits.
He advised people facing such problems to contact their counselling line and not to take their own life.
The Befrienders can be reached at 06-765 3588 in Seremban.
TAi ying hoog versus FAi chai..............
What Happened to the Rally? Why Markets Are So Worried
.
Companies:ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury.Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
TBT 38.22 +0.73
{"s" : "tbt","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} On Wednesday December 8, 2010, 3:06 pm EST
Even though investors seem to have gotten everything they've wanted over the past month or so-political changes, Fed help and tax relief-the markets are still full of jitters.
Over the past few trading sessions, bond yields have jumped, commodity prices have slumped and stock prices haven't done much of anything, despite optimism that a tax accord in Washington would be the final push the market would need to close out 2010 on a strong note.
Market pros give a variety of reasons for the market churnings, from a strengthening dollar to worries about the global economy to simple sector rotation. The prevailing sentiment is that wobbles in the various capital markets are likely to be temporary yet typical of a market where volatility should be on the rise.
"We know we had a really big rally, so it seems like we're catching our breath here. It's not like we're selling off massively by any means," says Ryan Detrick, senior analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati.
"Most of the hedge fund managers and institutions are still underinvested and they're trailing the market for the year," he adds. "Any dips will be aggressively bought as institutions and mutual funds continue to pour money into the market to meet their benchmarks."
Some of the more interesting trading has happened in the bond and commodity markets.
The 10-year Treasury yield has hit a six-month high above 3.25 percent on a combination of stronger economic data sapping the safety bid that fixed income attracts, and increased worries that Federal Reserve liquidity policies will generate inflation.
Long bonds are taking a beating in particular, with investors piling into the ProShares Ultra Short Lehman 20-Plus Year (NYSEArca:TBT - News) exchange traded fund. The ETF has jumped more than 12 percent in December and 29 percent since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated in late August that the central bank would start another round of its Treasury-buying quantitative easing program.
Yields on Treasurys jumped Wednesday but eased a bit after a modest reception for a sale of 10-year notes. Both bonds and stocks were pressured from a rise in the dollar (New York Futures - CEC: .DXY), which gained as much as 0.5 percent Wednesday against a basket of foreign currencies.
"We think the rally in the dollar makes sense, and that investors are right to be skeptical about the implications for US equities and commodities," John Higgins, senior market economist at Capital Economics in London, wrote in a research note for clients. "We do not believe, however, that the adverse reaction in the Treasury market is likely to last."
Similarly, many investors were viewing a pullback in metals as a buying opportunity. Gold (CME Globex Gold: US@GC.1) has dropped more than 3 percent in the past two trading sessions, while silver (KRF - US: US@SI.1) has lost 8 percent and palladium (KRF - US: US@PA.1) has skidded 6 percent.
Oil (BIS: US@CL.1) also has been hit susceptible to a stronger dollar but has held its gains in recent sessions.
"Gold is a great long-term investment but is a very difficult short-term investment because of price fluctuations like we've seen in the past two days," says Matt Grossman, chief equity market strategist at the Adam Mesh Trading Group in New York. "These pullbacks are serving as great opportunities to layer in to price positions. We could come off more, but the lower we go the happier I am."
In addition to providing potential buying opportunities, the moves out of gold also could represent a sector rotation in which fund managers trying to window dress are looking for cheap stocks and other assets.
Financials, which trailed this year's nearly 10 percent stock rally, were leading the Standard & Poor's 500 (INDEX: .SPX) in Wednesday's seesaw trading. A search for value could be a major trend as the year closes.
"The feeling is we need to consolidate in here. A lot of guys are seeing the (S&P 500) 1,200 level as a key area to hold and consolidate between 1,200 and 1,235," says Dave Lutz, managing director of trading for Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "Then we're anticipating some window-dressing that could push us toward our expectations of 1,250 by the end of the year."
There also seems to be some worry over whether the tax deal between President Obama and congressional Republicans will gain enough votes for approval. The pact resolved a dispute over whether across-the-board tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 that were to sunset at the end of this year should continue for the highest wage earners.
"The left wing of the Democrat Party is about to put the economy in very real jeopardy if they do not vote to support this compromise," hedge fund manager Dennis Gartman wrote in his daily Gartman Letter. "Economic plans on the part of individuals, corporations and partnerships have to be made for the next year, and if one does not know the tax consequences of one's decisions then one's propensity to take action shall be greatly (reduced)."
The level of uncertainty is threatening a rally across markets, even at a time when many economists are raising their growth forecasts for 2011.
"Momentum is clearly subsiding despite the rampant positive sentiment, and negative divergences are highly evident," David Rosenberg, economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto wrote in his daily analysis. "Just as the economics community was doing radical surgery right at the July-August lows in the market, it is now raising its growth projections right at the highs. That is a contrary warning shot."
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
One of the Most Important Principles in Reading the Bible
John Piper
Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.
That is not right.
There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.
Here is one example to show what I mean.
In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.
True.
But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?
No.
Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: "I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart."
So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.
So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.
This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God's blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God's prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.
Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God's is. "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.
Sometimes readers of the Bible see the conditions that God lays down for his blessing and they conclude from these conditions that our action is first and decisive, then God responds to bless us.
That is not right.
There are indeed real conditions that God often commands. We must meet them for the promised blessing to come. But that does not mean that we are left to ourselves to meet the conditions or that our action is first and decisive.
Here is one example to show what I mean.
In Jeremiah 29:13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart." So there is a condition: When you seek me with all your heart, then you will find me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding him.
True.
But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to seek the Lord? Does it mean that our action of seeking him is first and decisive? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?
No.
Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24:7 to those same exiles in Babylon: "I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart."
So the people will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason they returned with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know him. His action was first and decisive.
So now connect that with Jeremiah 29:13. The condition there was that they seek the Lord with their whole heart. Then God will be found by them. But now we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24:7 is that God himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to him with their whole heart.
This is one of the most basic things people need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God's blessings. But God does not leave us to meet them on our own. The first and decisive work before and in our willing is God's prior grace. Without this insight, hundreds of conditional statements in the Bible will lead us astray.
Let this be the key to all Biblical conditions and commands: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13). Yes, we work. But our work is not first or decisive. God's is. "I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).
By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Who Needs Jobs When Wall Street Has the Fed?
.
Topics:Economy, Government & Policy.On Friday December 3, 2010, 3:42 pm EST
Pay no attention to those 15.1 million unemployed people-Wall Street instead is more focused on the man behind the Fed curtain and what he'll be doing to fire up the equity markets.
Friday's significantly disappointing jobs report, which under normal circumstances would have sparked a significant selloff in the stock market, instead was greeted only with more expectations that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will continue aggressive monetary easing policies.
Stocks were down mildly through the day, but the 9.8 percent unemployment rate seemed to take a back seat to other issues.
In other words, it was business as usual for a market that has come to rely on the dual hopes of gradual improvements in economic data along with accommodative policy from the central bank-like the Great Oz orchestrating a recovery.
"Markets will interpret this negatively at first. They will focus on the chronic unemployment that is growing more pervasive in the US," David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, wrote in an analysis for clients.
But "financial analysts will realize that this will extend the already 'extended period' of Fed QE for many more months," he added, referring to the central bank's quantitative easing plans. Finally, he noted that "expectations were jerked back to reality today" but that "we remain fully invested in the US stock market."
Investors, indeed, looked to put a bright side on numbers that Paul Dales, US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, said showed that "economic recovery is going nowhere at a time when companies are unwilling to boost hiring significantly."
Familiar refrains about unemployment being a lagging indicator permeated many analyses, and there were few market pros willing to budge from the notion that while the recovery indeed will be slow, one month's jobless numbers don't equate to the dreaded double-dip back into recession.
"The November reading was as disappointing on the downside as the October number was a surprise to the upside," said Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board. "This underscores the Fed's latest decision to engage in more quantitative easing. It supports the notion that further monetary easing was appropriate."
The Fed has just kicked off what many in the market call QE2-a second round of asset purchases, this time worth $600 billion, aimed at injecting money into the system, pushing down interest rates and driving investors into risk assets like stocks.
For investors who feared that the Fed might succumb to political pressure and curtail its aggressive easing programs, a weak jobs number helps squelch that kind of talk and gives rise to the notion that stocks could head higher or at least hold steady.
"There is huge and growing liquidity with no place to go," Kotok wrote.
The liquidity issue also is likely to be an important one as fund managers head into the end of the year and have to shore up their portfolios to reflect a strong year.
"A lot of the major hedge fund guys and mutual fund guys were positioned in November and came into December with the expectation of getting long the market for the final leg of the year," said Gary Hager, president of Integrated Wealth Management in Edison, N.J. "They did so in robust fashion on Dec. 1. They added a tremendous amount of buying pressure that they didn't fully exercise yet."
That pressure, even independent of hopes for more Fed asset purchases and help from Washington in the form of tax breaks and extended aid to the unemployed, could keep pushing the market higher.
"There's an enormous amount of liquidity and buying pressure that is on top. It's almost like the consumer demand for durable and non-durable items that's been waiting and waiting," Hager said. "As soon as the dam starts to crack a little bit, all of this back pressure is going to flood out with a continual surge of bidding prices higher."
Another school of thought is that the economic data, though not standout, continues to show improving conditions, even if the long-term is less promising.
"The key here is that (the jobs report) does not damage what is otherwise a cluster of improving information and stabilizing financial markets," Kevin Ferry, president of Cronus Futures Management, told CNBC. "We feel that unemployment and this report in particular are to be looked at in terms of volatility and not real economic impact. By the time unemployment is going to become really important it's going to be 2012 and 2013 and we'll be talking about a number that will be far too great for the market to handle."
Finally, technical factors appear to be supportive. The Standard & Poor's 500 (INDEX: .SPX) and the Dow Jones industrials (INDEX: .DJIA) have survived repeated challenges to their 50-day moving averages, a trend technicians see as significant.
"The bears kept trying to knock the market down but the market wouldn't do it," said Matthew Tuttle, president of Tuttle Wealth Management in White Plains, N.Y. "At the end of the day everybody expects the jobless numbers are bad and are going to be bad for a while. It's a huge issue, but it's almost become old news at this point."
Topics:Economy, Government & Policy.On Friday December 3, 2010, 3:42 pm EST
Pay no attention to those 15.1 million unemployed people-Wall Street instead is more focused on the man behind the Fed curtain and what he'll be doing to fire up the equity markets.
Friday's significantly disappointing jobs report, which under normal circumstances would have sparked a significant selloff in the stock market, instead was greeted only with more expectations that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will continue aggressive monetary easing policies.
Stocks were down mildly through the day, but the 9.8 percent unemployment rate seemed to take a back seat to other issues.
In other words, it was business as usual for a market that has come to rely on the dual hopes of gradual improvements in economic data along with accommodative policy from the central bank-like the Great Oz orchestrating a recovery.
"Markets will interpret this negatively at first. They will focus on the chronic unemployment that is growing more pervasive in the US," David Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors, wrote in an analysis for clients.
But "financial analysts will realize that this will extend the already 'extended period' of Fed QE for many more months," he added, referring to the central bank's quantitative easing plans. Finally, he noted that "expectations were jerked back to reality today" but that "we remain fully invested in the US stock market."
Investors, indeed, looked to put a bright side on numbers that Paul Dales, US economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, said showed that "economic recovery is going nowhere at a time when companies are unwilling to boost hiring significantly."
Familiar refrains about unemployment being a lagging indicator permeated many analyses, and there were few market pros willing to budge from the notion that while the recovery indeed will be slow, one month's jobless numbers don't equate to the dreaded double-dip back into recession.
"The November reading was as disappointing on the downside as the October number was a surprise to the upside," said Kathy Bostjancic, director for macroeconomic analysis at the Conference Board. "This underscores the Fed's latest decision to engage in more quantitative easing. It supports the notion that further monetary easing was appropriate."
The Fed has just kicked off what many in the market call QE2-a second round of asset purchases, this time worth $600 billion, aimed at injecting money into the system, pushing down interest rates and driving investors into risk assets like stocks.
For investors who feared that the Fed might succumb to political pressure and curtail its aggressive easing programs, a weak jobs number helps squelch that kind of talk and gives rise to the notion that stocks could head higher or at least hold steady.
"There is huge and growing liquidity with no place to go," Kotok wrote.
The liquidity issue also is likely to be an important one as fund managers head into the end of the year and have to shore up their portfolios to reflect a strong year.
"A lot of the major hedge fund guys and mutual fund guys were positioned in November and came into December with the expectation of getting long the market for the final leg of the year," said Gary Hager, president of Integrated Wealth Management in Edison, N.J. "They did so in robust fashion on Dec. 1. They added a tremendous amount of buying pressure that they didn't fully exercise yet."
That pressure, even independent of hopes for more Fed asset purchases and help from Washington in the form of tax breaks and extended aid to the unemployed, could keep pushing the market higher.
"There's an enormous amount of liquidity and buying pressure that is on top. It's almost like the consumer demand for durable and non-durable items that's been waiting and waiting," Hager said. "As soon as the dam starts to crack a little bit, all of this back pressure is going to flood out with a continual surge of bidding prices higher."
Another school of thought is that the economic data, though not standout, continues to show improving conditions, even if the long-term is less promising.
"The key here is that (the jobs report) does not damage what is otherwise a cluster of improving information and stabilizing financial markets," Kevin Ferry, president of Cronus Futures Management, told CNBC. "We feel that unemployment and this report in particular are to be looked at in terms of volatility and not real economic impact. By the time unemployment is going to become really important it's going to be 2012 and 2013 and we'll be talking about a number that will be far too great for the market to handle."
Finally, technical factors appear to be supportive. The Standard & Poor's 500 (INDEX: .SPX) and the Dow Jones industrials (INDEX: .DJIA) have survived repeated challenges to their 50-day moving averages, a trend technicians see as significant.
"The bears kept trying to knock the market down but the market wouldn't do it," said Matthew Tuttle, president of Tuttle Wealth Management in White Plains, N.Y. "At the end of the day everybody expects the jobless numbers are bad and are going to be bad for a while. It's a huge issue, but it's almost become old news at this point."
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
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