TabletPC SDK …

The TabeletPC project was over. I spent three weeks in Austin in Samsung’s Austin facility prototyping a solution to replace their current paper based auditing process in the fab.

We had to start the prototyping on XP without a TabletPC on hand. Within a week, we finally settled down the GUI design options that were best fit for our users’ taste and preferences. A lot of time we spent on was trying to explore the new features offered by the digital ink and pen. We chose two most promosing desgins with simple prototypes then presented them to the users. It turned out that they liked both:-) So we ended up a new desgin incorporating the features from both prototypes.

Soon we found out that TabletPC SDK had some undocumented limitations on how many Windows handles could be used. Our design called for a journal like interface where a user could just write down some short-hand codes, counts of violations and comments. The codes and counts are recognized and validated against a known list. Due to limited time, we had originally laid out as many rows of ink controls as we would need on the form, it turned out that SDK could not support it. We ended up using a template of controls and reused them.

Using factoids and well defined wordlists, the recognition accuracy is very high, but a traditional combobox still works very well.

The whole solution consists of a GUI frontend implemented in Windows Form and deployed via No Touch web deployment, a web site for reporting inplemented in ASP.NET and OWC, a server component implemented and deployed as .NET Remoting objects and a SQL Server 2000 as backend.

The security model is integrated Windows security all the way from user’s computer, the web server and the datbase server. It has offline feature to handle WI-FI connectivity issues when roaming in a fab lab. It’s written in C#.

How to short Bond market

If you think the bond market is close to its top, you might consider shorting it. How? Here’s one way to short bond – buy this Rydex Juno fund (RYJUX) (annual expense ratio 1.4%). The downside risk is that the interest rate may go even lower or stay low for a while. The upside is that the interest rate moves higher.

Correction or Reserval?

DOW dropped 185.58 to 8493.39 below 8500. NASDAQ closed @ 1492.77 below 1500 and Russel 2000 closed @ 408.32.

LOW dropped almost 9% due to lower than forcasted revenue. The short position opened Friday went up more than 130%!

SOHU closed with bearish harami candle posing to reverse at almost twice of average volume.

MSFT broke down the trading range and support level is @24. The long position will be opened @24 level.

Support level IBM @ 85 and CSCO @ 15.5.

OAKMX and LSCRX: the remaining positions will be closed tomorrow.

Which pond are you in?

Here’s an interesting article. Here I copied portion of it. We can figure out which pond we are in.

NAME POND HOLDING PERIOD FOOD SOURCE QUALITIES
Investors Random No clue No Clue No Clue
Mutual Funds Daily Weeks Investors Huge amounts of money, Marketing/research groups, and a tackle box full of Investrador lures.
Swing Traders Daily Days Investors Smart, careful. Decision-making after market hours.
Institutions 15 Minute Hours Mutual Funds Deep pockets, Move Markets over short timeframes, very astute, inside information.
Day Traders 5 Minute Minutes 15 Minute Fish Waits for rock solid plays. Decisive. Decision making during market hours.
Momentum 2 Minute Seconds Investradors Timing High Volume, High Volatility Stocks.
Scalpers 2 Minute Seconds Everyone Happy just going click, click, click all day long.

Basically, you are taking money from the timeframe above you and giving money to the timeframe below you. For example, if you measure your holding period by minutes, then trade off a 5 minute chart. However, you need to monitor the 15 minute and daily charts for opportunities. Likewise, use the 2 minute chart to monitor that pond for hazards. But remember if you are playing in the 5 minute pond then stay there. Don’t move from pond to pond.

Fear & Greed

There was a big sell off this morning on LOWS. My put position finally turned positive. Out of fear that it might bounce back, half position was closed at small gain. Yet, looking at the daily chart, it’s likely that it may test 50 SMA. It’s still closed lower than the open. The greedy side of me decided to keep the rest of the position. In hindsight, keeping 1/3 position might be better idea or taking the profit by closing the position entirely. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow.

Long GSF May 20C; added SLB May 40P.

OAKMX: it’s still in the short-term uptrend since its breakout of long-term downtrend. Resistence at 31.55.

LSCRX: it’s right at resistence and overbought condition.