So Far So Good

Welcome back! As you all probably know over the weekend we’ve shifted all operations to a new hosting provider. And I can’t believe I’m actually saying this but the migration turned out to be a lot less messy than anticipated. Thus far I only had to kill two sys admins, after that everything seemed to be working just fine. The new server appears to even have a bit more muscle than the old one and our pages are loading extra snappy this morning. But wait, that’s not all!

I also managed to set up my own VMWare hypervisor at a remote system located in some data center in Hicksville, NC, which now runs our brand spanking new Zero VPS.

I know it’s probably all the same to you guys, but if you load the Zero indicator today then know that it’s coming from our own mini setup we have full control over. That doesn’t mean we are completely shielded from potential problems, e.g. there could be DOS attacks against the data center or uplink connectivity may break down. But when (and not if) that happens we still have our trusted PC-on-a-stick reserved just for those types of emergencies.

The Road Ahead: More Time For Trading And Expansion

With all what’s been going on over the past year(s) I’m looking forward to opening a new chapter here at Evil Speculator as well as in my own life. To put it bluntly earlier this year I somehow found myself in a spot where I had taken on several important projects that combined ended up pushing me to the edge and then some. Although I didn’t want to pass on any negative vibes to my crew here I had to finally admit that I was reaching burn out territory – on several occasions. Fortunately I managed to press on and push through it all. As the old saying goes: when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

For one I constantly had to deal with recurring problems on part of my service providers (web hosting as well as VPS hosting) and knew that I had to find more sustainable solutions to both. Which took quite a bit of time and research. And as you probably know I also engaged in a loose collaboration with a quant buddy of mine in order to explore new edges and to delve deeper into python and various machine learning topics. What I had not anticipated however was that it would quickly turn into a full scale system development project that increasingly started to occupy significant amount of my time.

And if that wasn’t enough on top of trading, blogging, and everything else I do to keep the lights on, I also bought a bunch of video and lighting equipment early this year in order to start producing educational video content, the first of which being a tape reading video series I am about to complete sometime this month. Which isn’t something I had ever done before as I’m a bit camera shy and not exactly the likes of PewdiePie or Milo. Anyway, all that stuff ties into a new marketing initiative I have been planning for a long time and Scott kept bugging me about. The goal is to expand my reach a little as Evil Speculator traffic has plateaued for the past few years due to increasing distractions competing for eyeballs.

Heading Back Home

With much of that now out of the way and the development project having reached early beta testing I will hopefully be able to spend a bit more time on myself and my family. One of the bigger tasks for the coming year or so will be planning and executing our return to the United States. After having lived in Spain for six years plus now I must say that we’re missing the good ole’ U.S. of A. Plus to be quite frank, during our time here Europe has completely screwed the pooch politically and is increasingly heading into fascist territory. I don’t want to say much more as this is not a political blog but suffice to say that it’s not a place we see ourselves retiring in.

It won’t be easy getting used to paying a fortune for health insurance, housing, transportation, and I definitely didn’t miss tipping! But as much as you may be frustrated by what’s currently going on in the U.S. – over the long term it will once again end up on being on top, politically, socially, and economically. Not Europe, not Asia, not South America, mark my words.

On the trading front I haven’t had much time to look over my charts this morning as I was putting the finishing touches on the new Zero server. I’m glad I exited my second lottery ticket long last Friday, this time a few ticks below break/even.

A drop through 2694 may unleash the floodgates but with only 1 1/2 trading sessions ahead of Independence Day we are going to see participation drop off very quickly, probably starting this afternoon. So if a sell off is on the map then it needs to get a move on and that soon. Alright, I’ll poke around a bit more and add it here if I find anything interesting.