More amazing music - Hildur Gudnadottir

Once in a while it is important to inject some randomness into the way I select new music. I have forgotten to download my last three month's entitlement from emusic.com and only went on today because I had received an email from Amazon suggesting I buy the new Snakefarm cd (and which I downloaded instead).

My random search today settled on the category of "modern classical". A few cds of Arvo Part and Phillip Glass of course, but also some from Touch records with rather nice minimalist covers. Among these were two downloads by Hildur Gudnadottir, the full cd "Without Sinking" and the one track ep, "Iridescence". I was vaguely aware of her name via Mum and Pan Sonic, but was totally unprepared for the wonders of these two recording. Droning cello, weird electronic noises, the occasional other instrument in the background. As far as I am concerned, this is just about perfect. The louder you play these tracks, the more detail you can here. Extraordinary

I have listened to the 11 mins and 20s of "Iridescence" maybe a dozen times today.


As near to musical perfection as it can be - Hildur Gudnadottir

Some facts about language

My current "dipping in" reading is An Encyclopedic Dictionary of language and Languages from which comes the following:

Amorite - A Semitic language spoken in the area of modern Northern Syria from c.2000 to c.1500 BC. Little is known about it because the evidence for its existence comes only from lists of proper names.

Boustrophedon - Writing in which the lines runs in alternate directions; the name derives from Greek and means "ox-turning"

Cocktail party effect - The process of selective listening

Ding-dong theory - One of the speculative theories about the origin of language; it argues that speech arose because people reacted to the stimuli of the world around them and spontaneously produced sounds which in some way reflected the environment.

Epicene - A noun which can refer to either sex without changing its form, e.g. teacher, doctor

Franglais - A language variety which is a non-standard mixture of French and English, and recognised by both the French and the English.

And so on - the best toilet reading since I read a book consisting of diary entries from famous diarists which covered exactly a year.

Hawkwind - Christmas shows and a clip from Oxford

An advert in a music magazine has appeared for the annual Christmas shows of Hawkwind. They are not playing Oxford this year, but there is a Saturday night show at the O2 in Shepherd's Bush (the old Empire) which still has tickets available. I have marked this in Wife's diary without specifying what the eventy is, so hopefully that will be a nice surprise. And no doubt we could do something with Daughter earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, a clip has appeared on youtube from the show we saw last year in Oxford - my favourite track - Prometheus - with the two sexy dancers in their "Hindu goddess" outfits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRxY2vWR8yk

The mystery of the chronic toothache

On Friday there is an small sense of pain in one of my back teeth. On Saturday morning it is clearly there. On Saturday evening, a bite down on a piece of steak produces an involuntary yelp. The pain increases for the next few days.

None the less, I am slightly suspicious of it all. For one thing, I think it seems to move about slightly. When I mentioned it to Jerome, he thought it could just be a virus and have nothing to do with the tooth at all. So I set off to Tescos pre-dawn for a bottle of some sort of hi-intensity mouthwash and a supply of various headache tablets which I plan to mix and match. I will go to the dentist at the end of two days of this.

True I do then have a couple of poor night's sleep where I end up reading lots of Antony Beevor's Berlin in the middle of the night. But on the third morning, the pain has entirely gone. So perhap Jerome's theory was correct.

It has been a long time since I have felt pain as bad as this

Blonde Redhead at Route de Rock, St Malo

A flurry of live recordings of Blonde Redhead have appeared on one of the music download sites I frequent, one of which is a superb video of their show at the Route de Rock festival in St Malo in Brittany. But as has happened before recently with recordings of Boris and Current 93, I am disappointed to discover that they have just played a UK show that I didn't know about.

But putting that aside, the video is superb. Kazo Machino has definitely adopting a far sexier look in the last couple of years!

The Inbetweeners

The surprise hit of the summer has been the film version the The Inbetweeners. I had watched a couple of episodes of this when it was on tv but in the light of the media coverage about the movie, we have been working our way through the 3 series. Both Linda and I went to mixed schools and, as with just about everyone who watches this show, we both remember many very similar events to those in the show.

But a slight disagreement between us as to the best episode - Linda likes the geography field trip to the coast, I most like the charity fashion shoot.

And, like many people, I am a big fan of Will's mum. When I was about 18, there was one of my friend's mothers who was definitely viewed in the same light as Will's mum. Late one afternoon, I once went round to his house to drop off some fishing tackle I had borrowed, only to find that he was out and that his mother was there alone and seemed to have been drinking for some while. She offered me a beer, which I rather foolishly accepted and then she proceeded to discuss how, since she split up from her husband a year or two earlier, she had not had a decent f***. I made my excuses and got out of their pretty quick. But I have occasionally wondered if that was the right decision!

Will's mum in The Inbetweeners


And two rather more risque pictures of "everyone's favourite MILF"

The vast data-bash continues

Eventually the data bash will cover about four month's worth of data, but so far we have finished about half of it. A day for one market takes about 20 minutes to do and involves about 15 detailed calculations. I reckon I can manage about 5 hours a day of this, so process 20 market days per day, so for the three markets, I cover about 7 days per day. At this rate, the completed data-bash will take another week or two. It must be said that this is a very intense way to spend one's working day.

In addition, I need to keep Jerome up to date with my progress and also teach him the new stuff. Today he tried to process his first two days on his own and it took him most of the day. But he does think that he might be getting the correct numbers out. It is a holiday in the US next Monday and our goal is to be perfect at these calculations for the re-start of trading on Tuesday.

I am just about worn out from this process, but the results are so good. I have said to Jerome that this might be the last system upgrade and that our focus whould switch to the processing of trades only - in other worlds, no more of Jerome's "data-mined" queries for me to address.

Eating Llama

Down with Emma at her new flat in Southwark. At Borough Market, I acquired two Llama burgers for the princely sum of £5 - in the interests of exotic eating. Had them for tea on Sunday and was actually quite disappointed. They actually tasted pretty much like an ordinary beef burger - perhaps a little leaner, not sure.

Still I can add llama to a small list of exotic eating, currently headed by puffin and fermented shark blubber, both of which are Icelandic delicacies.

Cuter than a cow

Due to a diet of oily fish, puffin is quite an odd meat - like little pieces of duck breast.

And the delighful fermented shark blubber - one of the highest calorie foods in the world!

Sheba's Passing

After a illness of several weeks, Sheeba, one of our cats passed away today. It was a snowy January day nearly ten years ago when we first came across her in our front garden, eating the bread we had put out for the birds. Was she a unwanted Christmas present we wondered? Probably not. Though she was tiny, she seemed old when we found her (or she found us). We started to put food out for her twice a day and she hung around. She was named after the brand of cat food we fed in then.

Some months later, she was still unwilling to come into the house, but lived in the garden quite happily. Then we discovered her one day making herself a little home in the log shed. Some time after, she gave birth to two kittens. By moving her kittens into the house, we persuaded her to come inside, and she mainly stayed indoors there after.

Her girl kitten, Sugar, died a year or so ago, run over by a car. I was rather fond on Sugar. She used to sit on the back of my chair when I worked. But she is survived by her son, Spice, a somewhat accident prone cat who has out lasted the others, much to our surprise.

Sheba took herself out into the garden the other week and we thought perhaps she was taking herself off to die quietly as cats do. But the vet thought she might just have a mouth infection and some antibiotics seemed to perk her up a bit. But in the end she just flaked out and that was that. I took her down to the vets who put her to sleep and she is buried in the garden next to Sugar. Odd how affecting pets can be.

One of our last pictures of Sheba, taken a few days ago.

Jerome away - me trading again

Jerome has another week off this week and has gone camping with the kids. So after a day off to help move Emma into her new flat in London, I am back trading. Still not entirely used to the new formats that Jerome created on Monday, but I am slowly getting there.

It doesn't take long for me to get annoyed about things. At 9:00 our sell in DJ is picked off by just 0.5pts and the market then rallies 50 pts that bar and stops us out soon after. Then it nearly does the same at the 10:00, picking off our level by 1.5pts. This trade loses 18 in the end. So 2 specific points of move have costs us about 100 pts in losses.

Then I have time to slowly work through what yesterday would have produced - at least in pre-slippage form, what we call "raw". Sadly (an odd choice of words perhaps), yesterday would have been a really good day producing our second best result ever - about +1.9% for the day at current notional capital. CL, +183; EC +53 and DJ +303. So I am doubly annoyed that while today hasn't been going well, yesterday was great. if only Emma had moved house today.

Addendum - later this day: Finally, as the close approaches, a couple of trades give decent profits and the day ends at a small loss (-0.12%). But not a single LE all day, which is not good - there were 5 the day before

Data processing continues

Data processing - or "data bashing" as we refer to it - has continued a pace this week. Jerome has been free of distractions as the week has gone on, so he has done all the trading and I have "bashed". He is now pretty slick at the new systems, while I am not

In a change from previous projects, I have decided to try and organise the spreadsheets better and am using, as a heuristic, the idea of preparing a third-party investment proposal. At the moment this seems a far fetched idea, but it isn't impossible. So the current blind test and the future record keeping will be in a format that would enable me to put a presentation together really easily.

The data-bash also throws up the occasional issue that requires a little clarification, but actually not that much this time.

World markets continue to be really wild but we are pretty happy with our results. We did have a small losing day yesterday - down 0.85% - when a couple of trades were just picked off by very precise moves. If these moves had been a tiny bit smaller, we would have retained winning positions rather than be reversed and whipsawed. On such tiny things does the difference between being up and being down for the day hinge. Also there was no late move which was a shame.

I have enjoyed watching CNBC during the current crisis - so much intellectual effort is put into the markets. Standing back a bit, you would think it could all be used better!

Weekend trading work

The week's trading has led to further key questions to address on Saturday and Sunday

The first question concerns exits from trades - the question of profit targets versus reversal signals. On the one hand, we seem to have missed some huge wins recently by having a fixed profit target, but at other times wins are achieved that would be missed if we just waited for a signal reversal. What is best overall? My guess is that it is better to take the profit target exits - although there seem to be loads of huge profits around, actually there are also lots of profit-target gains as well - we just don't remember them as well as the "missed" huge wins.

Secondly, there is the question of the impact of waiting till end of time period before adjusting levels, versus making intra bar adjustments. The problem here is that the latter is not testable as there are possible intra-bar whipsaws that I can't detect. So I need to ensure that the current testing is based on what we could definitely get i.e. by only changing levels at the end of the bar. Then if this result is ok, we will know that we have a result that could actually be traded.

Next, it is clear thast the protocols in place for what happens after a profit target exit has occured, need tightening. And we could do with sorting out a better opening trade methodology.

But I am also thinking about some of the parameters of the current systems and trying to bet a feel for what is the impact of changing them? e.g. if one set is changed, avoid some poor trades, but get worse fills on all trades - would it be better to get more trades but better fills? On Sunday I spent the entire day doing a test of our CL parameters for an increase in levels - more trades, but better fills. I processed 15 days, and result is clear. It is better to do more trades but at better fills. So that change will be made for certain

Late on Sunday Jerome called and we were able to run through the latest system spec and review Aug 11th in detail for new rules. He is then going to work on these during Monday and Tuesday.

Some articles in the papers this weekend about algorithmic trading and HFT, seeking to blame these for the current market vol. No doubt regular investors are not to blame in the slightest. I have actually been keeping loads of articles at the moment on the current market difficulties - will no doubt make fascinating future reading!

So this week will be about the new system spec and more research and I am hoping to process at least a few weeks from the last 3 markets. Then I am back thinking about possibly increasing my investment in the trading - maybe double current position sizes and split it 66-33

And then there is issue of other external investors. My next major review is planned for around half term in October. Maybe after that I could think about approaching one or two possible investors.

So much to think about!!

A great leap forward in the trading

It has been an extraordinarily wild week in the markets.

On Monday I traded while Jerome sought to follow everything. This went ok, but towards the end of the evening there were some huge swings and for various reasons we didn't win them all Nontheless, we were +2% for the day. On Tuesday we had early maximum wins in CL and DJ, up 200 pts in each. EC whipsaws, then explosion at 7:20. A calmer middle of the day but I struggled to stay focused and missed perhaps 4 maximum profits during the late evening. But the market moves were absurd post FOMC annoucement. The Dow falls 3% in 10 mins to 7:30, then rises 6% in the next hour. We made +2% for the day, but it could have been +4%. Wednesday, I started start the day, but Jerome was happy to take over early afternoon after morning of shadowing me. He does good job through to close. Steadier day, with a strong finish, and another +2%. Thursday, we seemed to have problems of slippage all day in all markets. Missed some good exits. Should have been +0.75%, but finish flat. Friday, horrible day in CL, lots of whipsaws. and an overall -1.5% for the day

So the week in total is just under 6% which is very pleasing indeed, especially given the market chaos at the moment. I have loads of plans for the weekend - a key set of ideas to test, then building up back test. Huge amount of work to do this - hoping for 10 hrs a day Saturday and Sunday, then talk to Jerome on Sunday night

Ihave also begun to develop some very vague ideas about approaching outsiders for additional funds. The key selling point is the high Sharpe ratio which allows the possibility of a high notional capital, but a very low upfront requirement. I am thinking of a managed account structure something like the one that Oxeye run. This could be very good, so I need to boost record keeping to support this.

Rediscovering the band, "Cranes"

A brief mention of the band "Cranes" reminds me of just how much I used to love them. I haven't heard a CD of theirs for some years, but was surprised to discover that I own about half a dozen of their releases. Today's listening has been focused on "Live in Italy" with great versions of later tracks like Sunrise and Flute Song.

But for me, Cranes are always associated with the harsher early tracks around the time of the two Peel Sessions. Things like Dada 331, Inescapable, Adoration, albums like Self-Non-Self and so on. Hoping to have a good listen to everything

How can it be so long since I last heard them?

The lovely Alison Shaw - one of the oddest vocalists around

A week of testing new ideas

While on holiday, I have been pondering on a major trading theme that we wish to develop, that of a collection of "slow" systems to add to what we do now. "Slow" is, of course, relative. These systems would trade each market 3 or 4 times a day, rather than the 10-12 times we get at present. They would hold out for larger gains per trade, and would be more tolerant of adverse swings, and so on.

I came back from holiday with a rough spec. Jerome was on holiday this week and so I faced a choice between doing the new research work or trading the current systems all day on my own. I have chosen the former and have made huge progress over the week. But this has meant that we haven't traded through one of the most extraordinary weeks I have seen in the markets for some while.

Monday opened with relief that the US debt ceiling would be raised, the FTSE responded by opening strongly higher and hitting a peak of about 5950. But it has been down hill all the way since then with a close on Friday of 5250, a loss of close to 12% from its high. The sovereign debt crisis in Euro-land is to blame.

And as I have processed the test of the new systems, it is apparent that they would have done very well this week. Indeed absurdly well. For instance, the US equity trading system (which trades the Dow Jones Industrial Average), would have been up 400 pts on Friday alone - that's a return of 3.5% unleveraged for one day. Incredible stuff.

However, before we get upset that we have missed out, it should be noted that one of the key features of the new approach was only devised and programmed on Thursday and it is this adjustment, that is the main reason for the fine performance on Friday. So overall I am not that bothered about missing out on a great week. What matters is the next 200 weeks.

I am dying to discuss this more with Jerome this weekend and get cracking on implimentation from Monday.

Blast from the Past - December 16th 1982

Last lecture of term (as I'm not going to Logic tomorrow) and the last class. Watkins started Spinoza this morning. I quite like Watkins as a lecturer - he has some very nice touches. He covered in an hour and a half all I've done on Spinoza in 90 pages of reading. I spent the lecture thinking about how good I would be as a Professor of Philosophy, if only I could be academic enough to get there.

Last Rise of Modern Science class, and the conclusion of the talk on calculus which I quickly lost the thread of. Sandy seemed a lot more like her usual self today. She is off to Paris this evening and has said she will buy me some port on the way back. We walked up to Holborn tube together after the class, she on her way to Maple Street, and me just for a walk with her.

Then tonight it was off to the Venue in Victoria to see Iggy Pop. I have been a big Iggy fan for the last year or so, introduced by my friend Judith who had The Idiot and Kill City. I have gradually acquired tapes of the Stooges albums from various other people, and was very impressed by the live album, TV Eye, I bought earlier in the year. The show was really excellent - he really is an energetic performer! Lots of tracks I knew - The Passenger, Sixteen, Search and Destroy, Loose, Louie Louie, etc. Great Stuff!

Addendum - so after seeing Iggy and the Stooges last week in Carcassonne, I thought I would look up when I first saw Iggy. I had told Linda it was 1984, but apparently it was a little earlier. I loved the Venue in Victoria - it was where I first saw Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and The Birthday Party.

"Watkins" is Professor John Watkins, head of the philosophy department at LSE when I was there and a staunch Popperian.

"Sandy" was Sandy Marwell, an American girl at LSE on a one year course, who I really fancied. During her year at LSE, she became a member of one of the Maoist groups! We were friends that first term, but not really in the next year.

Iggy and the Stooges - Carcassonne 2011

After seeing the Iggy and the Stooges show, I have discovered one or two clips from the show on youtube. In the clip below, from about 15 seconds in till about 30 seconds, Iggy is directly in front of Linda and me in the third row. It may be Linda caught on Iggy's microphone singing "be your dog"!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cIngAJ3OxQ

French Holiday - part 4, Bretagne

Thursday

French Holiday - Part 3, Lagrasse

Friday

Transfer day again

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

The Gorge de Brian - named after Linda's father?

Wednesday

Linda on the strange bridge between the new and old parts of Carcassonne

Awaiting our paella, pre-Iggy and the Stooges

Our seats were front-right, just by James Williamson's monitor boxes

An aged Mike Watts, James Williamson and Scott Ashton

Is Iggy looking at me or Linda?

Shake Appeal