Sometimes when I am listening to someone, I am recording what they say.

One Day I recorded Randy Pausches’ Last Lecture.

Now, sometimes, when I perceive that someone is trying to put my dreams on hold, I replay some of the things Randy told me.

Thanks Randy.

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. If I don’t seem as depressed or morose as I should be, I’m sorry to disappoint you.

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody’s bothering to tell you anymore, that’s a very bad place to be. Your critics are the ones telling you they still love you and care.

It’s very important to know when you’re in a pissing match. And it’s very important to get out of it as quickly as possible.

You can’t get there alone and I believe in karma.

Don’t complain; just work harder.

Be good at something. It makes you valuable.

The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!

The best way to teach somebody something is to have them think they’re learning something else.

Do not tell people how to live their lives. Just tell them stories. And they will figure out how those stories apply to them.

Did you figure out the head fake? It’s not about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.

-Randy Pausch
The Last Lecture

Shortage Of Short Paper (Zero Hedge)

“All we need now is illiquidity in the bond market to follow the joke that equity liquidity has become to put a cherry on top of this utterly broken market. Either way, this will make it even more fun for the Fed to follow through with its QE [Quantitative Easing] strategy.”

QUESTIONS ABOUT GOLDMAN SACHS’ ROLE IN MARKET (New York Post)

“SOMETHING smells fishy in the market. And the aroma seems to be coming from Goldman Sachs.”

“According to the latest numbers put out by the New York Stock Exchange, Goldman did twice the number of so-called big program trades during the week of April 13.”

Mr. Know-It-All on Conspiracies (Wired)

There’s hope, but your cogent arguments are unlikely to hasten any shift in your brother’s thinking. In fact, your strenuous efforts at dissuasion could end up reinforcing his views.

Peace

Former Head of Structured Products at UBS: Game Theory Exposes Toxic Asset Plan As Fraudulent (Washington’s Blog)

“Keller presumably understands financial markets, toxic assets and game theory quite well. And he is calling Geithner’s toxic asset plan ‘fraudulent.’”

Stress Test Results To Be Delayed ‘Til Later Next Week Or Possibly Never (Dealbreaker)

“Regulators and bank executives are concerned about how the disclosure is handled because weaker institutions could suffer a collapse in their stock prices.”

The Naming of Swine Flu, a Curious Matter (New York Times Asia Pacific)

“While the new virus seems to be most heavily composed of genetic sequences from swine influenza virus material, it also has human and avian influenza genetic sequences as well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.”

Peace

In today’s edition of Trader Art, I present the S&P 500 Index. As noted on the chart, the same setup from May of last year is taking place this year.

History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.

If history has taught us anything, it’s that history teaches us nothing.

The Setup

Peace

Christina Romer, top White House aide, declares Uncertainty is biggest econ risk from flu now. (Reuters)

“A top White House aide said on Thursday that the economic fallout from swine flu would be dictated by the severity of the health problems it causes, but at the moment the biggest threat was uncertainty.”

Derivatives Hit Austrian Railroad With Record Loss (Bloomberg)

“There was a climate that pressured publicly owned companies to look for creative ways to finance themselves,” said Thomas Hofer, the Vienna-based owner of H&P Public Affairs, which advises political campaigns. “They were given the feeling of being financially negligent if they didn’t invest in derivatives.”

Flawed Credit Ratings Reap Profits as Regulators Fail (Bloomberg)

“S&P President Deven Sharma says he knows his firm is taking heat from all sides — and he expects to turn that around.
‘Our company has always operated by the principle that if you do the right thing by the customers and the market, ultimately you’ll succeed,’ Sharma says.”

Peace