February 28, 2008
3:00-5:00
On Thursday, Drew came at 3:00 and she helped me on my Research paper. She knew a lot of stuff that I didn't and gave me a lot of insight. She also was really good at helping me write out the thoughts in me head. This helped a lot because sometimes a have writer's block and just can't think of the right way to write something.
Basically we talked about how stock markets affect their economies and how they can accelarate their economies. We also talked about how the stock market can liquidate money to consumers and how it affects people's everyday spending. Another thing we talked about was how the stock market can show a good index on how well an economies going.
She also showed me the website that I would be using in my product. The website is called http://www.stocktrak.com/. At this website you can use two million dollars in fake money to invest in the stock market for four months and see how well you would've done. You can also look at your portfolio in graph form, look at all the publicity around your stock, and also see how well everyone in your class in doing.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Aldous Huxley's Biography
Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 in Godalming, Surrey, England. He came from what seems to be a very intelligent family. His dad was also a writer. I feel like since he was raised in such a intelligent environment that this helped him develop complex ideas. Huxley was taught by his mother for a good portion of his life but when she became terminally ill he started attending Hillside. He started college at Eton college but got seriously sick and had to drop out. Once he had recovered he got his degree at Baliol College, Oxford.
After college and in his late 20s' is when Huxley started getting serious with his novels. He wrote many novels ranging from Crome Yellow and Antic hay which describe the mood of the 1920s' to Brave New World and island which are both about utopian worlds.
I feel like Huxley got his inspiration to write Brave New World because he grew up during the industrial revolution and saw how mass production was taking over. I can really see how he thought the world was going to be like that in a few hundred years or at least come up with the aspect of it happening.
I also feel like Huxley's great sense of humor played a big influence in the book. " Oh Ford" is a very common phrase used in this book. instead of having god they look at Henry Ford as a idol. They even use the term A.F. (after Ford) as a way of measuring time e.g. B.C. A.D.. When I first heard that I laughed hard. Another thing is the way that they condition the kids to be super sexualy active.
"What's the lesson this afternoon?" he asked. 'We had Elementary Sex for the first forty minutes,' she answered." This quote is from the beginning of the book when the director is kind of giving a tour of the baby factory/daycare. This really cracked me up along with many other creepy A.F. lines.
Huxley had a pretty interesting life. When he got ill in college he lost his eyesight for a few years which actually saved him from the draft (if you think about it, if he wouldn't have gotten sick he probably would've died a lot ealier and never even write a noval.). Once he started getting better his eyesight started coming back which enabled him to go back to college to study. Around 1939 Huxley started using the Bates Method in hopes of better vision. He claimed that the Bates method helped him regain his eyesight, but some people are skeptical how much better his vision was. Though it might not have gotten that much better it compelled his to write the book called The Art of Seeing.
Another interesting aspect of Huxley's life is his involvment in hellucinagenic drugs like mescaline and LSD. Huxley truely believed that hellucinagenic drugs could open your mind up to enlightenment. He believed this so much he wrote the noval called The Doors of Perception which is a book about psychadelic enlightenment. That book became a cult noval among hippies in the 60s.
After college and in his late 20s' is when Huxley started getting serious with his novels. He wrote many novels ranging from Crome Yellow and Antic hay which describe the mood of the 1920s' to Brave New World and island which are both about utopian worlds.
I feel like Huxley got his inspiration to write Brave New World because he grew up during the industrial revolution and saw how mass production was taking over. I can really see how he thought the world was going to be like that in a few hundred years or at least come up with the aspect of it happening.
I also feel like Huxley's great sense of humor played a big influence in the book. " Oh Ford" is a very common phrase used in this book. instead of having god they look at Henry Ford as a idol. They even use the term A.F. (after Ford) as a way of measuring time e.g. B.C. A.D.. When I first heard that I laughed hard. Another thing is the way that they condition the kids to be super sexualy active.
"What's the lesson this afternoon?" he asked. 'We had Elementary Sex for the first forty minutes,' she answered." This quote is from the beginning of the book when the director is kind of giving a tour of the baby factory/daycare. This really cracked me up along with many other creepy A.F. lines.
Huxley had a pretty interesting life. When he got ill in college he lost his eyesight for a few years which actually saved him from the draft (if you think about it, if he wouldn't have gotten sick he probably would've died a lot ealier and never even write a noval.). Once he started getting better his eyesight started coming back which enabled him to go back to college to study. Around 1939 Huxley started using the Bates Method in hopes of better vision. He claimed that the Bates method helped him regain his eyesight, but some people are skeptical how much better his vision was. Though it might not have gotten that much better it compelled his to write the book called The Art of Seeing.
Another interesting aspect of Huxley's life is his involvment in hellucinagenic drugs like mescaline and LSD. Huxley truely believed that hellucinagenic drugs could open your mind up to enlightenment. He believed this so much he wrote the noval called The Doors of Perception which is a book about psychadelic enlightenment. That book became a cult noval among hippies in the 60s.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Brave New World- Volume Three
In my last entry I was in a point of the book where Brenard (one of the main characters) sounded like a pretty cool guy and I thought his character was going to be character the plot of the book centered around, but it wasn't. Now that I'm finished with the book I think completely differently of brenard, but the plot is still kind've the same it just took a little different twist.
So once Brenard brings John and Linda back to the civilized world he becomes somewhat of a celebrity and everyone loves him and he starts getting a lot more attention, especially from girls. The bigger Brenard gets the bigger his head gets. He starts even being hateful to friends who have always been there for him. Eventually Brenard's big head puts him back where he started, being a loser.
Also while this is happening John (the savage brought back to the civilized world) and Lenina are kind of having an affair. Though they never actually do it they get pretty close at one point. The reason they never do it is because John feels like he has to prove his love to her, but Lenina doesn't care and just wants to do it with him. This just makes John extremely angry and puts him into a kind of rage like state, really scaring Lenina.
Right after John and Lenina have there huge fight the telephone rings for John. He answers and it's the hospital saying that his mom is dying. John is completely alarmed by this and immediately heads to the hospital to see his mom. When he gets there Linda (his mom) is in this really creepy hospital. The hospital is basically a giant death farm. All the rooms had the best synthetic music playing and all the patiently were in deep Zoma holidays. When John got to his mom she was basically dead in a deep Zoma holiday. He tried to talk to her but she couldn't really comprahend him and kept kind of dozing off. Then a nurse came and told John he had to be leaving because she had a batch of children coming. The nurse then brought in a bunch of kids all identical to observe the dying people. This drove John mad because he had to sit there watching his mom die with a bunch of kids all playing around like it was a gymnasium. As John is freaking out trying to talk to his mom she dies. This really puts John in a rage and he leaves the hospital, and on his way out he see's the workers of the hospitals getting there Zoma rations. In his rage and entirely fed up with the civilized world John goes to the front of the line and takes the Zomas and throw them off the air strip and started screaming " Free. Free. You're Free." This of coarse cause a giant outrage and these poilice like people came into the crowd with Zoma super soakers and sythetic music to get the situation under control ( I thought this was hilerious. It's so perfect for the world A.F.).
John, Brenard, and Helmholtz (one of their friends who got caught up in the matter also) all were sent to talk to the controller of western europe, Mustapha Mond. There the controller talked about how it is important to make sure that the people aren't exposed to certain literature, science, or solitude to insure their happiness. During this meeting John and the controller are in a constant debate about how happiness should be achieved, and matters of individuality. At the end of the meeting the Controller informs Brenard and Helmholtz that they will be sent to islands that have people like them, but says John has to stay so the experiment can continue.
John gets furious with this and decides to leave London and try to find somewhere, where he can live in solitude and support himself. He does this, and moves in an abandoned light house. During this time he feels the urge to cause massive amounts of pain on himself to purify himself to god. He feels like the civilized world has made bad and he wants to be good with god. One day while he's lashing himself some poeple see him and tell some other people and then reporters here of it and start coming by to his light house and constantly bugging him. One night John is thinking of Lenina and the pain he caused her and starts getting extremely furious makes him go into self inflicting rage. He goes outside and jumps into a thorn bush almost completely naked trying to make himself not think of Lenina. During his rage a reporter who decided to stay all night trying to get a good shot sees him in his rage and starts recording it. Within a week the video is released and becomes one of the best movies in A.F.. because of its deep pain and emotion. So the next day there is swarm of people all coming to John freak out. John tries to hide but can't, the people are everywhere. People start throwing gum and other highly civilized products at him urging him to use them just trying to egg him on. John is yelling for them to stop but they don't, they keep egging him on and start yelling for him to whip himself. Eventually John starts whipping himself and crowd goes nuts. Eventually everyone leaves, but the next day everyone shows again wanting to see him freak out. When they can't find him they go up to light house, but find him dead. He had hung himself.
I actually predicted John comiiting suicide pretty early in the book, but the way it got there was crazy. The ending of the book was heart thumping with intensity. The way they egged on John was horrible. I couldn't feel worse for the guy.
Even though the end of the book was really intense and climatic it wasn't my favorite part of the book. My favorite part of the book was when John and the controller were debating means of happiness. This part of the book got very deep and was kind of hard to understand fully at times, but during this part of the book the whole point of the book was explained.
So once Brenard brings John and Linda back to the civilized world he becomes somewhat of a celebrity and everyone loves him and he starts getting a lot more attention, especially from girls. The bigger Brenard gets the bigger his head gets. He starts even being hateful to friends who have always been there for him. Eventually Brenard's big head puts him back where he started, being a loser.
Also while this is happening John (the savage brought back to the civilized world) and Lenina are kind of having an affair. Though they never actually do it they get pretty close at one point. The reason they never do it is because John feels like he has to prove his love to her, but Lenina doesn't care and just wants to do it with him. This just makes John extremely angry and puts him into a kind of rage like state, really scaring Lenina.
Right after John and Lenina have there huge fight the telephone rings for John. He answers and it's the hospital saying that his mom is dying. John is completely alarmed by this and immediately heads to the hospital to see his mom. When he gets there Linda (his mom) is in this really creepy hospital. The hospital is basically a giant death farm. All the rooms had the best synthetic music playing and all the patiently were in deep Zoma holidays. When John got to his mom she was basically dead in a deep Zoma holiday. He tried to talk to her but she couldn't really comprahend him and kept kind of dozing off. Then a nurse came and told John he had to be leaving because she had a batch of children coming. The nurse then brought in a bunch of kids all identical to observe the dying people. This drove John mad because he had to sit there watching his mom die with a bunch of kids all playing around like it was a gymnasium. As John is freaking out trying to talk to his mom she dies. This really puts John in a rage and he leaves the hospital, and on his way out he see's the workers of the hospitals getting there Zoma rations. In his rage and entirely fed up with the civilized world John goes to the front of the line and takes the Zomas and throw them off the air strip and started screaming " Free. Free. You're Free." This of coarse cause a giant outrage and these poilice like people came into the crowd with Zoma super soakers and sythetic music to get the situation under control ( I thought this was hilerious. It's so perfect for the world A.F.).
John, Brenard, and Helmholtz (one of their friends who got caught up in the matter also) all were sent to talk to the controller of western europe, Mustapha Mond. There the controller talked about how it is important to make sure that the people aren't exposed to certain literature, science, or solitude to insure their happiness. During this meeting John and the controller are in a constant debate about how happiness should be achieved, and matters of individuality. At the end of the meeting the Controller informs Brenard and Helmholtz that they will be sent to islands that have people like them, but says John has to stay so the experiment can continue.
John gets furious with this and decides to leave London and try to find somewhere, where he can live in solitude and support himself. He does this, and moves in an abandoned light house. During this time he feels the urge to cause massive amounts of pain on himself to purify himself to god. He feels like the civilized world has made bad and he wants to be good with god. One day while he's lashing himself some poeple see him and tell some other people and then reporters here of it and start coming by to his light house and constantly bugging him. One night John is thinking of Lenina and the pain he caused her and starts getting extremely furious makes him go into self inflicting rage. He goes outside and jumps into a thorn bush almost completely naked trying to make himself not think of Lenina. During his rage a reporter who decided to stay all night trying to get a good shot sees him in his rage and starts recording it. Within a week the video is released and becomes one of the best movies in A.F.. because of its deep pain and emotion. So the next day there is swarm of people all coming to John freak out. John tries to hide but can't, the people are everywhere. People start throwing gum and other highly civilized products at him urging him to use them just trying to egg him on. John is yelling for them to stop but they don't, they keep egging him on and start yelling for him to whip himself. Eventually John starts whipping himself and crowd goes nuts. Eventually everyone leaves, but the next day everyone shows again wanting to see him freak out. When they can't find him they go up to light house, but find him dead. He had hung himself.
I actually predicted John comiiting suicide pretty early in the book, but the way it got there was crazy. The ending of the book was heart thumping with intensity. The way they egged on John was horrible. I couldn't feel worse for the guy.
Even though the end of the book was really intense and climatic it wasn't my favorite part of the book. My favorite part of the book was when John and the controller were debating means of happiness. This part of the book got very deep and was kind of hard to understand fully at times, but during this part of the book the whole point of the book was explained.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Reasonings for Stock Market Crashes
Source- "Stock Market Crash." 2006. http://www.stock-market-crash.net/what.htm
Stock Market crashes always start with " Smart Money" ( corporation, big businesses, and smart investors) and end with " dump money"( average investor). What happens is when the stock market is low, big corporations and smart investors will buy a good bit of stock. Once these corporations buy these stocks, they'll start rising gaining interest from mutual funds, brokerage firms, and some smart investors. Once all these mutual funds and brokerage firms start buying the stocks they rise a little more a start making the everyday investor look more and more at these specific stocks. Once this happens a bull market is created. All investors start putting all their money into these stocks because they think they're great and will keep rising and everything is great. At this time all the "Smart Money" people are selling all those cheap stocks they bought when the market was low to the small investors who are buying at a ridiculous prices because they think the market will keep rising, what makes it worse is they'll buy on margin trying to greater increase capital.
So what happens now is the crash. Once the stock market reaches it's high it has gotten all the investors it's going to get and they have spent all the money they can in the market. So now there is no more money going into the market, it is at it's absoloute high, so the only way to go is down. Once the media catches on there's no more money everyone starts selling there stocks immediately. Once this starts to happen everyone gets nervous about buying stocks for awhile and all the people who bought on margin can't sell there stocks putting them more and more in debt. So eventually all the stock prices drop back down to dirt cheap and everyone's broke except the people who invested at the begginining when it was cheap. Well guess what, after the crash the markets cheap again and the companies buy the stock once again and renew the whole process again and again. taking all the small investors money.
Stock Market crashes always start with " Smart Money" ( corporation, big businesses, and smart investors) and end with " dump money"( average investor). What happens is when the stock market is low, big corporations and smart investors will buy a good bit of stock. Once these corporations buy these stocks, they'll start rising gaining interest from mutual funds, brokerage firms, and some smart investors. Once all these mutual funds and brokerage firms start buying the stocks they rise a little more a start making the everyday investor look more and more at these specific stocks. Once this happens a bull market is created. All investors start putting all their money into these stocks because they think they're great and will keep rising and everything is great. At this time all the "Smart Money" people are selling all those cheap stocks they bought when the market was low to the small investors who are buying at a ridiculous prices because they think the market will keep rising, what makes it worse is they'll buy on margin trying to greater increase capital.
So what happens now is the crash. Once the stock market reaches it's high it has gotten all the investors it's going to get and they have spent all the money they can in the market. So now there is no more money going into the market, it is at it's absoloute high, so the only way to go is down. Once the media catches on there's no more money everyone starts selling there stocks immediately. Once this starts to happen everyone gets nervous about buying stocks for awhile and all the people who bought on margin can't sell there stocks putting them more and more in debt. So eventually all the stock prices drop back down to dirt cheap and everyone's broke except the people who invested at the begginining when it was cheap. Well guess what, after the crash the markets cheap again and the companies buy the stock once again and renew the whole process again and again. taking all the small investors money.
Day Trading
Source- http://jobsearchtech.about.com/od/careerplanning/l/aa032999.htm
Day trading is exactly what it sounds like. It's trading stocks constantly day by day. Day traders aren't investors, they are traders. They spend every hour the market is open glued to a computer watching every cent a stock rises or falls trying to decide the absoloute best time to sell, trade, or buy. Many day traders will only hold stock's just for minutes hoping the stock will go up just a few cents so they can make a nice little return.
"For example, at 10:00 AM a day trader might buy 1000 shares of stock XYZ just as the price begins to rise on good news, then sell it at 10:04 AM when it's up by 1/2 ($0.50). The day trader makes $500, minus commission. With today's cheap commissions of $29.95 or less per trade, that's a quick $440.10 or better, excluding taxes."
There are some day traders who trade up to 100 stocks a day. They are called SOES bandits. They will usually never hold a stock overnight and might only hold a stock for a few seconds.
Day trading is exactly what it sounds like. It's trading stocks constantly day by day. Day traders aren't investors, they are traders. They spend every hour the market is open glued to a computer watching every cent a stock rises or falls trying to decide the absoloute best time to sell, trade, or buy. Many day traders will only hold stock's just for minutes hoping the stock will go up just a few cents so they can make a nice little return.
"For example, at 10:00 AM a day trader might buy 1000 shares of stock XYZ just as the price begins to rise on good news, then sell it at 10:04 AM when it's up by 1/2 ($0.50). The day trader makes $500, minus commission. With today's cheap commissions of $29.95 or less per trade, that's a quick $440.10 or better, excluding taxes."
There are some day traders who trade up to 100 stocks a day. They are called SOES bandits. They will usually never hold a stock overnight and might only hold a stock for a few seconds.
the stock market
Source- Stock Market. Febuary 23, 2008. http/:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stock_market
Trading
trading is done by an auction market. Which means a potential buyer asks to buy a stock at a specific price from a potential seller. Once they both settle on a price an exchange is then made. Buying and selling generally is done on a floor or on the computer. Buying an selling on the floor is done by outcry ( screamning out an offer or a price.) and that's how trades are made on the floor. On computer stocks are traded and bought using the internet, it's pretty simple.
"The New York Stock Exchange is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listed exchange — only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded. Orders enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a specialist, who goes to the floor trading post to trade stock. The specialist's job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes place--in this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called "program trading"."
"The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock."
These are the two main stock exchanges that Americans buy, sell, and trade stocks in. As you can see, the New York Stock Exchange is done more of an old- fashoin style and The NASDAQ is just all on computers.
The Stock Markets Importance
The stock market is extremely useful because it gives companies ways to raise money to make capital, and give business's to go public and make lots of money. The Stock Market usually represents how the economy is going also, and how much the normal household has.
One really attractive reason to invest in stocks is you can quickly get rid of anything you don't want to invest in anymore, unlike other investment options like real-estate.
Trading
trading is done by an auction market. Which means a potential buyer asks to buy a stock at a specific price from a potential seller. Once they both settle on a price an exchange is then made. Buying and selling generally is done on a floor or on the computer. Buying an selling on the floor is done by outcry ( screamning out an offer or a price.) and that's how trades are made on the floor. On computer stocks are traded and bought using the internet, it's pretty simple.
"The New York Stock Exchange is a physical exchange, also referred to as a listed exchange — only stocks listed with the exchange may be traded. Orders enter by way of exchange members and flow down to a specialist, who goes to the floor trading post to trade stock. The specialist's job is to match buy and sell orders using open outcry. If a spread exists, no trade immediately takes place--in this case the specialist should use his/her own resources (money or stock) to close the difference after his/her judged time. Once a trade has been made the details are reported on the "tape" and sent back to the brokerage firm, which then notifies the investor who placed the order. Although there is a significant amount of human contact in this process, computers play an important role, especially for so-called "program trading"."
"The NASDAQ is a virtual listed exchange, where all of the trading is done over a computer network. The process is similar to the New York Stock Exchange. However, buyers and sellers are electronically matched. One or more NASDAQ market makers will always provide a bid and ask price at which they will always purchase or sell 'their' stock."
These are the two main stock exchanges that Americans buy, sell, and trade stocks in. As you can see, the New York Stock Exchange is done more of an old- fashoin style and The NASDAQ is just all on computers.
The Stock Markets Importance
The stock market is extremely useful because it gives companies ways to raise money to make capital, and give business's to go public and make lots of money. The Stock Market usually represents how the economy is going also, and how much the normal household has.
One really attractive reason to invest in stocks is you can quickly get rid of anything you don't want to invest in anymore, unlike other investment options like real-estate.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Stock Market Basics: Learning without Losing.
Thomas, Dwain Mandell, Phyllis Levy. School Library Journal; March 2004, Vol.50 Issue 3, p75-76, 2p. "Stock Market Basics: Learning without Losing."
Author- Thomas, Dwain1Mandell, Phyllis Levy
Source- School Library Journal; Mar2004, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p75-76, 2p
" 50 percent of Americans families currently own stocks"
This is something to look at when deciding on wether you should invest or not. It's clear to see that the market as gradually risen so as long as your cautious with your money and put it in good long term stocks, you'll make good money over the years.
Author- Thomas, Dwain1Mandell, Phyllis Levy
Source- School Library Journal; Mar2004, Vol. 50 Issue 3, p75-76, 2p
" 50 percent of Americans families currently own stocks"
This is something to look at when deciding on wether you should invest or not. It's clear to see that the market as gradually risen so as long as your cautious with your money and put it in good long term stocks, you'll make good money over the years.
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