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Mad Hedge Fund Trader
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John Thomas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry with honors and a minor in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.) in 1974. He moved to Tokyo, Japan where he was employed by a medium-sized Japanese securities house. Thomas became fluent in... More
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  • Paris Strategy Luncheon - July 17, 2012

    Come join me for lunch for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader's Global Strategy Update, which I will be conducting in Paris on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. A three course lunch will be followed by a PowerPoint presentation and an extended question and answer period.

    I'll be giving you my up to date view on stocks, bonds, foreign currencies commodities, precious metals, and real estate. And to keep you in suspense, I'll be throwing a few surprises out there too. Enough charts, tables, graphs, and statistics will be thrown at you to keep your ears ringing for a week. Tickets are available for $259.

    I'll be arriving an hour early and leaving late in case anyone wants to have a one on one discussion, or just sit around and chew the fat about the financial markets.

    The lunch will be held at a prestigious private club in the City of Light's central Opera district, the details of which will be emailed to you with your purchase confirmation.

    I look forward to meeting you, and thank you for supporting my research. To purchase tickets for the luncheons, please go to my online store at http://www.madhedgefundtrader.com/ and click on "LUNCHEONS".

    May 13 11:17 PM | Link | Comment!
  • Special Note To Australian Readers

    Readers of the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader down under are welcome to join the online "Secure the Future" conference which I will be participating in through the miracle of the Internet. My friend, Greg Owen, created this organization to educate investors in the opportunities available in international markets by bringing in industry veterans like myself. I will be making presentations on the current state of and prospects for the global financial markets, to be followed by an extended question and answer session. No doubt I will spend a lot of time expounding on my outlook for Australian stocks, bonds, commodities, precious metals, and real estate. My schedule is below.

    Sydney on Saturday, May 12 at 2:00 PM
    Brisbane on Tuesday, May 15 at 2:00 PM
    Perth on Thursday, May 17 at 2:00 PM

    To register for the event, please click here at securethefuture.com.au/greg . In order to register, you will need to input your credit card information. However, you can attend as my guest, so there will be no charge made to your credit card. I look forward to hearing from you in the Q & A.

    May 13 11:16 PM | Link | Comment!
  • Oregon Becomes The First All Electric State

    As of this week, Oregon will become the first state to complete a chain of charging stations that will enable electric cars to travel from one end of the state to the other. It completed the last of eight 440 volt fast charging stations that allow travel for the full 310 miles on the beaver state's Interstate 5, from the Washington to the California border.

    A fleet of Tesla Roadsters, Nissan Leafs, Fisker Karmas, and Mitsubishi iMiEVs celebrated the event by traveling in convoy from one end of the state to the other. It is all part of the Electric Highway Project, which has the final goal of building an all-electric corridor from Canada to Mexico.

    The development understates how rapidly electric cars are going mainstream. Once the domain of the wealthy who bought Tesla's $100,000 two seat roadster, prices are now falling to the level of high end luxury cars. Tesla's own Model S1 Sedan, which carries a 300 mile range, will be available for $58,000. Toyota announced that its electric Rav4 SUV will cost $49,800 and will include a Tesla built drive train. My own 100 mile range Nissan Leaf cost me $38,000, and after a year has delivered me 12,000 miles of pleasant driving with zero fuel and maintenance costs. Also on the drawing board is a Tesla driven Mercedes "A" class Smart car for even less.

    Toyota invested $60 million in founder Elon Musk's fledgling car company to assure timely deliveries. Elon wisely used the cash to buy the abandoned General Motors Prizm plant in Fremont, California for pennies on the dollar with some generous US government subsidies thrown in, where Model S1 production is underway.

    Yesterday, Tesla announced it was moving the delivers up a month to June this year, causing a one day 10% pop in the stock, despite announcing a $98 million quarterly loss the day before. No doubt, the 10,000 on the waiting list for the S1are thrilled. Their $5,000 deposits have provided the company with $50 million in free financing for two years.

    When I first bought my Leaf, finding a charging station away from home required some advanced planning and guerrilla tactics. I still feel bad about depriving a parking lot attendant of his coffee maker outlet for three hours while I enjoyed the opera, but he didn't mind the $20 tip. That was back when there were only 25 charging stations in the entire San Francisco Bay area. Today there are nearly 400, with 20 new ones joining the ranks each week. Soon, every Walgreens, Whole Foods, and Best buy will have one, as will every major hotel in the city. Not a bad deal, given that none of these stations has yet to charge a penny for a single electron.

    Tesla is moving ahead to build its own network of 440 volt "supercharging stations" which can get you an 80% top up in 45 minutes. One is being built at Harris Ranch, half way between San Francisco and Los Angles, with a second in Sacramento, midpoint for a trip to Lake Tahoe. I can foresee a life of plugging in my car, going into Starbucks with an Economist, a Wall Street Journal, and a New York Times, and then zooming away 45 minutes later.

    Although the Tesla plug won't be compatible with my Leaf, the stations will carry adapters for all cars. I won't need an adapter for my Tesla Model X SUV. I am one of 1,000 on the waiting list for that futuristic, 300 mile range vehicle, which should be parked in my garage in 2 years.

    May 13 11:16 PM | Link | 2 Comments
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