PipStop

It's official. I'm booked my ticket for Southern California in the middle of June and will be attending the Traders Expo in Los Angeles.

I'm looking forward to connecting with others in the online trading industry. As Trading Post seeks to partner with an increasing number of the best solutions providers out there, it's important to get out there and connect.

Just received some feedback today from Kevin about our Online Training Room software Chatterbox.

Recently I've been receiving some stability and accessibility issues with the platform, and we've been looking at other possible alternatives. The web conferencing space is very competitive, and we've looked at seemingly endless platforms.

Our needs are pretty heavy, though (integrated chat, voice, white board, and ideally real-time screen share), so it's not easy to find a solution we can be entirely comfortable with.

I've appreciated the feedback, and I appreciate Peter Carlson at Chatterbox who has always been responsive to our needs and is always willing to remedy any potential issues. Peter has been super, and out of loyalty we have tried to and continue to see if Chatterbox can be a more viable solution moving forward.

Right now, though, we are coming to an important juncture where we are listening to our subscribers. You want less hassles in your online experience, and I apologize for any frustrations the technology has been causing some of you.

We just might have the ultimate solution with the Adobe Connect platform which we use for a variety of presentations, including Trading Post Tuesdays.

I just wanted to say that it's important to us to fix and we are working on potential solutions. 

As an outsider looking in (aka as a Canadian looking at Americans), I wonder how the United States manages to function - it always seems that one thing or another are at polar extremes.

The Federal Reserve and Ben Bernanke see worse economic problems ahead, and without using the "R" word (recession), when the Fed lowers its economic growth forecast for the year and at the same time raises its projections for inflation and unemployment - it's not a good sign.

I won't touch the subprime mortgage mess. Or the natural disasters - such as the most recent California wild fires (no this is not a recording).

Then there is the extreme of joy as evidenced by David Cook winning American Idol last night. In sports, 18 months after completing cancer treatments Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox pitched a no-hitter a couple of days ago.

Then there is something I can't understand, and frankly I'm just sick of it. I watch CNN and some of the Seattle affiliates we get on TV here, but when do Americans say NO MAS to the US presidential election.

Scratch that, ALL that has been going on is to determine who between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are going to be democratic nominee? As this pace, if I had the choice, I would have a hard time voting for either of them.

The bottom line is, there seems to constantly be things going on in the United States - or the center of the universe as some might admit.

Trading Site of the Week: www.traderradio.net

There is a dearth of audio trading thoughts, or let me qualify that by saying "quality" audio trading thoughts available online.

I've mentioned Rob Booker here before, and even though he's seems notorious for being too busy and isn't the most responsive guy around (perhaps he is if you actually pay him), he always seems to provide refreshing insight - in his own unique way.

Visit the website or take a listen at the latest radio show.

I'm inching closer to attending the Traders Expo in Los Angeles in June (18-21).

Actually for those who are familiar with Southern California, you know that Ontario isn't exactly L.A., but it's close enough.

I've registered, and all I have to do is book a flight. I'm excited to get out and see who is doing what in the trading world, and in such a virtual environment in which we all operate, it's nice to have a little face-to-face interaction every once in a while.

If I do go down, rest assured, I'll provide daily blogging insights.

Well tomorrow is Trading Post Tuesday, and as always it's something great to look forward to.

We've got a great lineup, including James Chen, Chief Technical Analyst from FX Solutions who will be making his debut.

Also, Nikhil Patel, a senior trading coach with Trading Post will also join us as he moves his regular online session to finish off the TP Tuesday session. So you can join Nikhil in his "Nikhil on the Markets."

It all starts at 8 a.m. PT (11 a.m. ET), and ends at 3:30 p.m. PT (6:30 p.m. ET). There is nothing like it online, and it is all free for you to attend. Join us for any or all of the sessions. Check the schedule to see exactly what you can look forward to. (It seems as though Nikhil's session isn't officially on the schedule right now, but he has been confirmed).

You can also login, as a guest directly into today's online room.

In accordance with the Canadian holiday schedule, Trading Post's office will be closed on Monday for Victoria Day.

I know it's Memorial Day in the United States next week, and it's funny having back-to-back big long weekends in neighboring countries. For all those taking this weekend for themselves (as I am) enjoy yourselves.

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Living in Canada, just across from the US border, I'm sensitive to the see-saw (or teeter-totter as my daughter refers to it) battle between the loonie and US dollar.

It's great to be at parity as a consumer, although popular sentiment seems to indicate that the loonie is heavily overvalued.

An acquaintance of mine at a major logging company in BC recently had to take a pay cut, though because the logging industry is taking it on the chin - and when your business relies on foreign exports and the loonie is bullish ... you can draw the conclusions.

I've had 24 hours to think since the technology failure of our web hosting providers last night (which short circuited the much anticipated Steve Nison presentation) and it's remarkable how beholden to technology we are.

Everything we do here at Trading Post is seemingly based on some sort of technology as is the online trading each of you do.

I think we all take for granted the convenience that we all experience with our high-powered computers and super fast Internet connections. We expect that things should be at our fingertips just a mouse click away.

Then it takes just a little something to take that all away and bring us down to earth.

Our web hosting is so important yet we have a local company with limited capabilities with our livelihood on the line. The outage last night was completely unacceptable (and not just because I was hung up on when I called In2net's emergency line), and it quickly got me to thinking of scale, and brought me to something I'd read about before which is Amazon Web Services.

One thing I know is we need continual improvement on all sides, and it's unfortunate that last night we found out the hard way in regards to our web hosting.