(Somewhat OT) Time allocation, trading, bargain hunting, and dissertating <g>...
Fair question, Spots--one would wonder whether or not I'm making much progress (certainly my family does!)
Seriously, this does raise the interesting subject of how the regulars on this thread work what can be a time-sucking professional requirement/hobby: computer building, tweaking, and support. (I think most of us would fall into both the work related and hobbyist categoy here, just in varying degrees.)
I would be curious to hear how other folks structure their time. Let divide our common activities (somewhat artificially) into trading, computer tinkering, and (other) "working." Who trades while working? Who trades while tinkering? Who works by tinkering (e.g., Sean, Spots) ? You get the idea. :)
I usually swing trade or buy and hold, with a little day trading thrown in on occasion. Often, I'll have Quotetraker in the background, giving me alarms when various pricing targets for stocks I'm watching are hit. Meanwhile, in the foreground, I'll alternate between dissertating, e-mailing, news reading (financial and otherwise), and shopping. (Like Sean, an increasing amount of all of my non-food shopping is done online. Even big items like our car, apartment, mortgage hunting, etc. are increasingly best done on line.)
As long as I'm in between periods where I should focus on the trading action (and I really only focus hard for about 3-10 hours a week), all this stuff happens pretty easily.
Lately, I've spent quite a bit more time than usual computer shopping . A few main reasons for this.
First, I've never seen bargains like I have these last two months. Absolutely unbelievable. I've gone from one current and one old desktop at home to 3 desktops at home in the past month, all of which perform much better than anything I had 4 months ago. That makes it more worthwhile to look for "stuff," for myself, my friends and (now only occasional) clients.
Second, my DSL hookup makes a huge difference. Between that and my faster, more RAM loaded machine, doing spot checks on prices and products is almost effortless and much less time consuming then with a dial-up modem. I have all the key products I'm interested it hotlinked at shopper.com and buy.com, so checking them on a daily basis is easier than looking up a stock quote. This becomes increasingly useful as the volitility of components increases. (Indeed, there are several interesting analogies one could pursue between things like the computer parts market and other commodities markets, even the stock market.)
Third, it is much easier to make this "shopping" a part of my routine than any other forms. No doubt, I spend lots of time spec-checking, bargain hunting, etc. But even though work with computers (and relatively unsavvy users who need advice) all the time, the only time I need to spend doing shopping "trips" is occasional runs to Comp USA to fleece them out of their loss leaders. :) So I save lots of time this way.
Finally, it's fascinating, and even useful from an investment perspective, to watch and study the evolution of e-commerce in real time. Take buy.com as an example. How does their proprietary software "work?" How much revenue does a place like that generate? What's their on-line experience like? To what degree do customers respond to it? How does its comically low prices affect its competition? Were I doing a PhD in business or economics, I'd do a dissertation on questions like these. (Then, I could get hired to consult companies who are scared stiff by the net, and probably make far more $ in a month than I ever could in a year as a philosopher. Just don't tell my folks. :) )
Whew, guess I went off on a bit of a tangent there.
In any case, I find the shopping and research much more profitable (both literally and figuratively) than much of the computer tinkering I do. The learning curve on the latter can be dauntingly steep, as several on this thread have observed. Happily, resources like this thread make it easier.
Well, I'll stop rather abruptly for now, as I've rambled on long enough. I would, though, be interested in anything you all have to say on these or related matters--we'll try not to stray too far OT. After all, I'm an inquiring, navel gazing academic first, and a computer/investment geek second: it's in my nature!
How's that for a rationalization, Spots? <ggg.>
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