Today I received a phone call from the brother of @dffapa/CaptainMorgan that he has passed away. With the permission of his family I am posting this so that those who were friendly with him are aware. I am not really sure what to say as I sit here hysterical at my computer other than that he left us all far too soon. I met Matt in a stock trading chat room and became close friends with him over time. Matt was a great pilot, trader, golfer and most importantly friend.
We never do know where our true friends will come but forever keep them close, as we never know when they might be gone.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

Goodbye Matt,

You will be greatly missed and always remembered.

I write this shit, not because it should be a lesson to any of you, but because this is my therapy. Public flagellation, no homo, is the only way to get this rage out of my system right now is a semi-constructive fashion. Once I have said my peace this shit is over and I move on.

I have lost a fistful of thousands via VXX fuckery and PATK black magic at the worst fucking time, right before I buy a house. My top of the line snow blower/ ride-on mower purchase will have to be put on delay. I will feel the full force of this loss via shoveling wet snow and pushing my toboggan weighted mower across a half acre in the humid New York summers. Do not worry however because I shall recoup another couple thousand over time, full on piker style via slavery, at your local candy store. If you don’t know what type of candy I am speaking of look in your Viagra cabinet, past your woman’s Xanax, and take a couple more Vicodin. In time the scars shall fade and I will be back again like a degenerate at OTB with a monthly government check.

Hopefully in my time away from trading real money I will learn some valuable lessons via paper trading, reading up, and shoveling some northeast record breaking snowfalls. Please do look view the Pope as an unbalanced figure as I always find laughter to be the best medicine, even if it at the expense of one’s self.

I shall roam the fine grounds here at iBC like a lost soul for some time but will still organize the shit out of the 2013 fall iBC fishing trip. We have a small group of great traders/people already onboard, no pun intended, and more are welcome. I am even fund raising to have The_Fly present via human surrogate.  I wish all of you the very best of trading via inevitable future QE’s.

If any upstanding individuals are up in the Saratoga region be sure to get at me for a round of golf or some wagering on the ponies over some fine scotch.

Cheers!

I have collected a list of individuals with a minimum IQ of 130. We will me meeting at an undisclosed location at some point in the future to discuss matters of high finance whilst enjoying the game of kings. If interested email me at [email protected] so I send you the proper IQ exam.

Good evening all. I am looking to feel out (no Travolta) the iBC nation to see if a small gathering amongst participants is something that would be of interest. This would be an informal gathering of top class individuals only looking to share some ideas and maybe a drink/laugh or two. I am not looking to step on anyone’s toes at iBC but rather looking to build some comradery amongst friendly members with a similar goal, banking coin. Right now I am only looking to build an email list and then we can figure out the best place/time/event for those interested. As of now rough idea would be in New York or Florida, between February 2013- August 2013, with golf/fishing then dinner/ drinks. Anything can change based on what the majority agrees upon. If interested email me at [email protected] with your iBC name in the title so I can get a ListServ going. Feel free to throw in any ideas/ places/ times that work for you and I will put them together. Cheers!

Skepticism surrounds the use of generic drugs by the public and rightly so. While I believe the vast majority of the public resembles a herd of cattle, they have every right to question what the medical community is telling them to put in their bodies. The federal government, and rightly so, grants manufacturer’s 12 years to milk the cow for as much butter as humanly possible via patent protection. Without this very lovely fact there is no incentive for pharma to create wonderful drugs like Viagra and Cialis.  Once the cow is dry and the butter has essentially made the pharmer quite wealthy the monopoly game ends and competition by way of bioequivalent competitors begins.

The root of the clinical argument between the two lies in the definition of bioequivalent. To prove bioequivalence the generic drug must exhibit the same Cmax (peak plasma concentration) and AUC (area under the concentration time curve) within a confidence interval of 90%. It has nothing to do with effect but only blood concentrations ranges. Witty drug reps will memorize this lovely statistic and state that pill to pill a generic may vary in range from 80 to125% to which I always respond, “So may the brand.” The second criticism of the bioevivalence definition is that one may easily draw two very different looking graphs that have the same area and same high water mark by simply drawing one and then looking at its mirror image, but in the eyes of the FDA they are one and the same. This is a slightly more important difference as the Tmax (time to maximum plasma concentration) is altered. Gentleman/women appreciating the effects of Viagra may notice this timing difference. The bottom line is that pill to pill and lot to lot there is naturally going to be variation. Ninety-nine percent of medication is so benign that it makes no difference. For those drugs that exhibit narrow therapeutic index (small concentration changes result in large outcomes) simply ask your pharmacist that you request to receive one type of generic manufacturer. Keep things as consistent as possible and stick with one generic manufacturer, such as Mylan or Teva. Bottom line is to save some money and not ask me questions across the counter when I am clearly helping someone else.

The financial aspect to generic drugs is much less complicated. Chain, mail order pharmacies, and PBMs strongly coerce their patients to use a generic drug in the same class because profit margins are vastly superior for them. There are actually programs designed to identify opportunities where one can switch a patient to a different “me too” medication, through prescriber approval of course, because that drug has a generic allowing for greater profit margins. Numbers are associated with these conversions and bonuses are determined off of them. While I do not find this to be an unethical practice since it does save the consumer money please do not think for a second that the company acting on your behalf actually cares about the clinical or therapeutic effect of this change.