Posts by Vladimir Plouzhnikov

Nope

"So I can arb between the price now and the price in the future."

No, you can't. When you do that you are taking a position. The arb implies that you have no overall position.

Depending on how exactly you are doing it you may speculate on outrights (the highest possible risk) or on time-spread (usually considered lesser risk but all depends on which particular markets you are talking about).

If you are talking about commodities you can use the strategy you mention to hedge your equal but opposite position in the physical goods but even then it is not an "arb". Normally such things are known as "contango plays" - when the forward curve is going up sufficiently steeply, you can buy your physical goods now, place them in storage and sell futures for the same quantity, say 3 months forward. If the contango is large enough to cover your financing and storage costs you will make money.

But even in that case there are still risks involved, higher or lower depending on whether the futures you used are deliverable or financially settled, whether your goods are of exactly the same quality, same location as the futures delivery basis etc etc.

Top 40

"they need to be amongst the best few in the world in order to break into the top 40."

Best in the world? I think not.

Should be lucky, follow instructions from their employers and open their mouths in synch with the recording.

Dying also helps, you may find.

Telefon

An old movie with Bronson where Soviet sleeper agents in the US were being activated by code-words after receiving a phone call from their handler.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076804/

Al

"what happens to aluminium at -60 when its raised to whatever the rocket engine exhaust temp is in a short space of time, and simultaneously taken from external atmospheric pressure vs vacuum to internal pressure vs atmospheric?"

Nothing much, really.

I used to test samples of aviation alloys (including Al) to destruction, also at low temperatures (-90). Yes, everything gets more brittle at low temps but not to an extent which may affect the LOHAN test rig.

@launcap & mattyrasker

Glad to notice that people still listen to the right kind of music :-)

I for one

Have some hope for our current economic problems.

The "developed" world has to find something and somewhere to expand into, otherwise it will slip into the "third world" category.

We don't produce things anymore - the "developing" world does that.

We are not needed to design anything - things required for day to day life have already been designed and can always be improved by the same "developing" world without our help.

The financial services only matter when you have finances.

So, in the past, in situations like this there was always the conquest, colonisation and empire building option. Or, at the very least, one could go to war against a rival empire with the hope for a good plunder. Neither of these are viable options anymore.

Really, more and more we are being pushed to do something bold like building a mine on an asteroid or Al smelter on the Moon (or fade away).

BTW: That will also take care of the aimless yoof who will suddenly see better things to do than stealing a few ipads from a local electronics shop...

But that is just fiction.

Not really. Prototype air cushioned tank was built by Transmash in the old Soviet times. Had no armour though...

45,000 feet

Is well above 99% of the clouds... and it didn't explode - it was turned off.

Easy to say

"Teen spots dot on photo among many dots visible to anyone with a copy of picture"

The thing is not everyone a) got a copy of the picture and b) can be arsed no only to look at it and spot a faint fuzzy dot but also to check that no one else has seen that same dot before...

It's because

The "owner of those things" is Zuckerberg and Co. and the so-called "users" are his farm animals. Those who can be milked are kept while they still produce clicks and personal data, those sick or injured (aka "hacked") are culled.

LOL

"Why shouldn't we rise up and rip their throats out? Why are we not massing on Downing Street with pitchforks and cudgels?"

You should have done it prior to the last couple of general elections. But you were happily lapping up Labour's handouts and borrowing more money than you can possibly repay and living beyond means.

The Soviet Union needs to be recreated so that people like you could be sent there for a mandatory 15 year long reality check. That'll learn you...

@Brian Morrison

Surely, must be AW? A for Auto- and W for ...

;-)

@Stephen

Lawyers - sense of humour = facepalm

Interesting

I see that there are at least 5 members of the Windows Explorer Appreciation Society on this forum...

I did

Typo...

Hmmm

Look. I am not a psychiatrist and not going to try to cure you of your fear of women. Suffice it to say you need to consider that you may be suffering from a persecution complex.

You may have many problems in life but I can assure you they are not caused by a fringe minority of any kind (feminists or not).

There are -ists of many kinds: communists, fascists, feminists, zionists, masochists, you name it. I dislike them all but I'm not going to commit suicide just because they are there.

Your Mary Daly (never heard of her before) is dead. She can't hurt you now any more than Immanuel Kant.

Harriet Harman is a control freak just like the rest of the Labour leadership. If she is also a feminist that's like a terminal cancer sufferer having hemmoroids - irrelevant for the outcome.

@Bucky 2

When you talk about goods like TVs etc you must remember that there is competition in that markets - between manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers - they all want your custom, you can shop around and choose.

With "intellectual" property you are dealing with monopolies. Anticompetitive and restrictive market practices which are illegal elsewhere are taken as given the moment you mention "copyright".

"Piracy" is the natural reaction of the buyers against the monopoly of the sellers. It is impossible to avoid or to eliminate. Any restrictive measures in any market lead to inevitable appearance of corresponding black markets. Ration the food - you get food black market. Put excise on tobacco - you get cigarettes black market. Do the same with fuel - you get petrol black market...

Re: Been done

All that this research can prove is that you are likely to behave more aggressively towards imps, grunts and cacodemons after a session of Doom. It says nothing about your attitude towards people who did not attack you from the inside of the PC monitor...