Trading, study and punk rock

An apparently fine trade setup first thing brings a "whipsaw" trade in the first hour. I had forgotten how frustrating such trades are. You buy and within seconds the price falls away and a sell signal occurs soon thereafter. But at least the sell signal was fine and the market dropped 0.5% over the next few hours.

While trading, I am working on various articles from The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. Much of this material is relevant for my biography project but will be hard to blend in seamlessly into a life story. I am pleased with the manner in which I am able to work and follow markets at the same time. This gives great hope for a possible future work model.

On a break late morning I watched a documentary called Punk Attitude that I downloaded the other day - a predominantly US look at punk rock. I was 13 the summer that punk first hit the UK (1976) and have continued to find all sorts of ways that it has influenced me since. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Roberta Bayley who produced some of the most iconic images of that period. I remember when Blondie first toured the UK and played venues like Friars, Aylesbury. Or Pere Ubu promoting The Modern Dance l.p. Extraordinary times.


Blondie at CBGB's, 1978, by Roberta Bayley

One other area that I was reminded of were the many punk fanzines that I used to buy. The one I remember most was Zigzag (which later became a regular music magazine - much to my disgust). I remember their reviews of live shows as being hugely influential on me - after all, I went to university at L.S.E rather than Cambridge because I wanted to be able to see great music all the time! And one of the earliest crushes I had on a punk girl was one of the members of the Runaways who featured in a comic strip in Zigzag. Wonder if I still have those magazines - they would be in the garage here if I still do.

Punk magazine -a US fanzine

Among my most recent music downloads is a show by The Tubes from 1976. I remember seeing a documentary on them about that time and was totally knocked out by the extraordinary track White Punks on Dope. I was supposed to see them in concert in London but the lead singer fell off the stage at an earlier show and broke his leg.