Crazy Hawt

The government always wants to tax those big mean gas companies, regulate those credit card companies, and cap salaries for fatcat bankers. The average taxpayer rejoices at the idea! Let’s get rid of all that free market choice corruption! What most people don’t realize is that they end up paying for the same things in another way. USA Today reports that credit card issuers have begun adding new fees to people’s credit cards, including adding annual fees to those that were previously without annual fees.

This is in direct response to the legislation congress passed to try and protect the consumer by creating a “bill of rights” for consumers. Well, the credit card companies don’t want to lose any money. So they add fees and raise interest rates to make up the difference. Who pays these fees and higher interest rates? Taxpayers / credit card owners… those designed to be protected in the first place. Well done, Government! While the fees on my cards haven’t yet changed, I expect that they will soon…

I haven’t posted here much about money, finance, or trading, but I’m dabbling with the idea of doing so a bit more often. I’m feeling especially good about this recent trade. Oil was up over 80 for what seemed like no reason. Oil inventories were at record highs and consumption was down due to the weakened economy. Deciding to play oil on the short side as a quick trade, I bought DTO. DTO is an ETF designed to follow DOUBLE the opposite performance of Oil in a single day. So if Oil dropped 1%, this should go up 2%. The trade worked like a charm. I bought my shares at 68.85 and sold them all for 95 flat last week. I still think oil might trend lower, but I think the big run down is over. So here’s the real question… when is it time to turn back around and go long? I’m thinking that if oil hits 50, or especially 45, it might time to pile back in… Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.