PipStop

I spent this morning packing up and at the mall picking things up at the Children's Place which is at Ontario Mills mall - reputed to be the largest one-story mall west of the Mississippi.

On the way to the mall I remarked to my cabbie that it seemed every office building we passed had a "for lease" sign on it. He told me that you can get office space for $2 - 3 per square foot. The economy is struggling here and the friend who I stayed with said that Ontario, Calif., has the third highest rate of foreclosures in the United States.

Reading the paper this morning, though, it's reported that Carl's Jr. will open 100 restaurants in China within the next 8 years. I don't know about you, but that's a jaw-dropper to me.

Onto the expo.

12:33 p.m. - Roaming around the exhibit hall again, it seems that there are new exhibitors. There aren't that many here, but how could I have missed any the past couple of days. Interesting.

12:46 p.m. - Came across the Daniel's Trading booth. I love their philosophy - which is based on realistic expectations. They have some great resources on their web site, which is why I'm semi familiar with them in the first place.

1:04 p.m. - Stopped Marilyn McDonald, marketing director of InterbankFX as she sat down and was about to grab her sandwich. IBFX is flying high, noticeably more since it received a round of funding last year. They are putting a great deal into marketing now and had probably the best looking booth there. I have found it interesting that IBFX has two offices, one in Salt Lake City and one in Beijing.

1:33 p.m. - In a session with Ed Ponsi, the guy from FXEducator. His topic is "Trading Forex Like a Pro." It's a pretty basic session to me, but Ed is a pretty engaging guy and it's a standing room crowd - and some guy has just started to stand in front of me as I sit on the ground.

2:01 p.m. - Ed says you can master the market just like you can master the ocean.

2:02 p.m. - I just remembered something. On Wednesday, which was my first day here, I stopped by the ODL Securities booth and Jason Yu its chief technical strategist said something that sounded a little too odd. He said that Japanese indicators (such as the Ichimoku) are better at applying on the Japanese currency pairs ... Am I totally out to lunch and have I missed that somewhere along the way on my trading journey?!?

2:31 p.m. - Ed Ponsi was leaving his session and there were people all over him asking questions. There were people who actually followed him out of the building asking questions along the way. Quite a site of zealous hanger-on traders.

3:16 p.m. - I'm getting ready to leave the expo, and it has been a whirlwind of talking and networking with solutions providers in the online trading industry. I've also spoken with many traders and overall it's been a great experience. I did drop by a booth and an exhibitor made a confession to me that they were jealous I was able to roam freely without being tied to a booth. I've enjoyed it and will look forward to attending the Forex Trading Show in Las Vegas in September.