Gen X stymied by baby boomers hanging on to jobs

NEW YORK -- In Tiffany Spaulding's 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she has worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states.

Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Conn., she hasn't had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary.

Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the relatively small group called Generation X, 46 million Americans born between 1965 and 1978: They're ambitious, squeezed by debt and frustrated by people who aren't retiring on schedule. More than a third hope to leave their jobs in three years, a survey of more than 1,100 members of Generation X by the Center for Work-Life Policy found.

I think we're gonna have to break the news to Troll Vulcan gently:

We're just not that into you.

You guys can't keep your story straight. First I'm a worthless punk know-nothing slacker who lives in his momma's basement and hasn't done an honest days work in my life, next I worked TOO MANY hours to become successful and am a worthless punk-ass poseur who's motivated by the wrong things because I worked TOO hard.

Umm, we've been trying to follow YOUR constantly shifting stories.

I think it's fascinating how you started the thread bragging about optimizing the pick/ship performance of a distribution center for Wal-Mart, then changed gears to have become a commodities or options or something trader in Chicago, then have stayed at the distribution center while starting your own business. And all the time bragging that you could learn someone else's job and take over for them. Because you've known mechanics who repaired their own cars for years who suddenly couldn't keep up with repairing the new-fangled computer-laden cars of today^TM.

Look at the history of the thread...who *asked* you in the first place?

Then, you tried to goad people by saying keeping track of the performance metrics represented math that was too hard...then when I responded with *real* math, you tried to trump everyone talking about metrics for trading.

There are two lessons it would behoove you to learn in life, which your conduct on this thread alone has shown you to be woefully lacking :

1) As C.S. Lewis pointed out in one of the Screwtape books, nobody who says "I'm as good as you" believes it. So your constant protestations and clamour had exactly the opposite effect from what you intended, by highlighting your sense of inferiority front and center.

2) The true measure of a man's stature is given, not but what he brags about, but by what he takes for granted. So when you started talking about kurtosis and all, I realized that you were merely threatened that I had so casually brought up mathematics, and were trying to blitzkrieg your way out. It's not impressive.

Grey_whiskers - seriously, did you type in options on Google so you could pretend to be an expert? Sure seems that way by the number of times you said 'Black-Scholes' to show how smart you are. This perfectly illustrates the egotistical penis-waving boomer and why the world is so tired of their know-it-all peter pan attitude.

The Black-Scholes wasn't Googled, but I was thinking of your earlier posts where you talked about having traded in Chicago earlier in life; so when I saw kurtosis etc. etc. I thought, "Yeah, Chicago, that means options."

If you knew what you talking about instead of trying to be a google expert, you'd realize that it's an asinine statement. How close I get to expiry is already defined by theta, I know the time decay value. What I'm trying to determine is whether the size and speed of the move will overcome that.

That just reiterates my point. The size and speed of a move by definition are related to how long of a time period you are looking at: and for investing, this implies the "order of magnitude" of the move you are trying to catch. The movements which interest a day trader are just high-frequency noise to a buy-and-hold guy like Buffett: but the long term movements are gradual secular trends to a day-trader.

Which is why I also mentioned skew and kurtosis, because I'm not talking about hedging, I'm talking about buying open puts and calls.

Skew and kurtosis deal with statistical distributions...so by definition you need a distribution...and for any kind of trading that means a time series in lieu of an ensemble. Think of analogies to the ergodic theorem. Incidentally, you've never heard of placing offsetting puts and calls as a hedge?

"We're just not that into you" -- just because people don't guess the secret card in you hand, doesn't mean that they're incompetent, or stupid -- it just means there's a whole wide world out there, and people are often concerned with other things than what interests YOU.

All this was outlined in the excellent works of DeMark and Natenburg who pioneered day trading open options, something you won't find on google.

You're lying.

I Googled "DeMark" --> "DeMark Indicators" --> "DeMark Indicators Book" and found this.

On walmart.com of all places.

So much for trying to intimidate with esoterica.

Unless, of course, you're deeply intellectually threatened by Wally World.

You guys are like another glorious icon of your generation - Al Gore. Say anything, even if it contradicts what you said 5 minutes before, because who cares about your integrity as long as you 'win' the argument. Jesus walks on water? Well Jesus can't swim! He ain't got nothin' on me, cuz he ain't no baby boomer!

Stop projecting, it's unhealthy.

Now I know why your parents generation thought you guys were a bunch of spoiled, over-educated punks.

Ahh, we come to it. You mention "over-educated" -- put that together with your prior posts that one has to keep up or experience won't count; your posts about mechanics falling behind.

Hmmm, that almost makes it sound like you're sensitive about a LACK of education and are over-compensating.

No need to do that: just pull your own weight, in whichever fashion you choose, and then stop trying to throw your weight about.

People will respect that a LOT more than getting "in your face" and challenging people you don't even know.

Here's one more piece of advice for you:

Cheers!

Yeah grey_whiskers, you've shown your classic smarmy, smirky, fact shifting, playground bully, superiority complex boomer butt for all to see on this thread.

I realize you're not that into us. You're way into yourselves. Self-appointed, self-anointed masters of the universal, the focal point of all history, the keepers of all knowledge. Just ask you...

Yeah except I never said any of that. It's all fantasy created in your imagination. I actually started the thread responding to your guys' pissing and moaning about how the younger generations complain and whine, are lazy and can't work, etc. by pointing out the numerous character flaws of boomers. Then you come back and say 'see X'ers are whiners' when it was YOU whining and pissing about X'ers to begin with. Typical playground stuff that boomers excel at.

You were the one that started making noises about technical things in you post #130:

There is all kinds of process knowledge, institutional knowledge, painfully accumulated heuristics which look merely antiquated until they are violated, but by then everything is in flame and ruins, beyond the point of repair... Like the strictures about 20% LTV and mortgage payments of 28% of income at most...There's such a thing a knowledge base: for most purposes, calculus and differential equations haven't changed since the 1800s. Computers still exist to add, subtract, divide, multiply, and store results in a form which is compact and enables rapid retrieval. You still have to get the oil out of the ground, refine it, and ship it to market. The IRS still has its hand out. And there's STILL no such thing as a free lunch.

But it's ok grey_whiskers, I realize boomers are historically and factually challenged on most things. Being master of the universe means never having to say you're sorry. YOU are the one who started off running your mouth, YOU are the one that tried to shoot off his knowledge. That's how it went down, all in black and white.

It was then I proceeded to talk about technical things. I was responding to YOUR post. You were talking about institutional knowledge, and I pointed out that technology is advancing so rapidly that institutional knowledge is being thrown out every day due to new discoveries. THEN I gave the example about what older mechanics told me about car technology. My reference then to 'pick/ship performance' was another real world analogy to demonstrate how technology is turning things on it's head, in response to YOUR post that YOU initiated. Are you following? Do I need to speak slower? Read post #180 again for the class.

You ran your mouth, you got answered. And I changed gears, spouted jargon? Who changed gears and talking about 'wisdom' and 'institutional knowledge' and spouted jargon like 'heuristics' and '20% LTV'? All of it unsolicited?

The true measure of a man's stature is given, not but what he brags about, but by what he takes for granted. So when you started talking about kurtosis and all, I realized that you were merely threatened that I had so casually brought up mathematics, and were trying to blitzkrieg your way out. It's not impressive.

Pot, kettle, black:

One can create algorithms to maximize efficiency for each pick trip based on the basket of goods to be selected; beyond that, optimizing *across* baskets, then modifying the layout of the warehouse, then modifying the layout of the warehouse for current and anticipated shipments are the name of the game. It's analogous to doing Lagrangian dynamics within a warehouse but Eulerian dynamics between warehouses and the retail stores. You know, since you wanted math and science.

You are the one that tried to show the immeasurable quantity of his knowledge and technical ability, again unsolicited, and then you try to pass it off as 'casual' while say I was blitzkreiging? Who's whining now?

You tried to show someone how smart you were, but didn't like it when they beat you at your own game and had to run the mouth and dig deeper, all the while shifting and shuffling and taking whatever position you had to, even if it contradicted what you said 5 minutes before and projecting all sorts of delusional fantasies about who I am and what I said.

What are you talking about? That's right you don't know. Your area is warehouse logistics - why don't you stay there? Typical boomer, ego's too big to admit they don't know something about something. I admit I know little about warehouse logistics other than that technology has enabled businesses to do alot more with alot fewer people.

I said in my first post on the subject that I was trying to find the size and speed of the move and determine whether the option would make money by overcoming the theta and vega, if applicable. You chose to ignore and claim I didn't say it, or you didn't understand what I said. Sorry about the delusions and slow learning curve.

Which is why I mentioned skew and kurtosis, because on naked option trades you have to factor in that IV shifts independent of the market move. I.e. the option can sit there and do nothing over a large move because the IV is sliding underneath you. See Natenburg: Option Volatility and Pricing.

You're lying. I Googled "DeMark" --> "DeMark Indicators" --> "DeMark Indicators Book" and found this:

You mean this:

DeMark On Day Trading Options
0071350594, Day DeMark, McGraw-Hill, 1999-05-01
List Price: $49.95 Best Price: $19.99 or Buy New: N/A

Found here. It's a standard reference text. In fact is was the first of it's kind. You don't know jack about options or trading. You can't even follow what I'm saying and respond relevantly. You are a google expert who 'dabbled' in it some time in the past and thinks they're a trading Einstein.

I'll concede my knowledge of warehouse operations is limited. I only set out to make the point that technology is rapidly changing the business. But you can't possibly concede that you don't know jack about options or trading, because as a typical boomer, your ego is to big to admit you're not an expert at everything. It's the massive projecting, ego-driven hypocrisy, which goes right back to my first post. Thanks for making my point for all to see.

Stop projecting, it's unhealthy.

Pot, kettle, black. You started the whole ball rolling with the X'er's are lazy whiners meme.

Ahh, we come to it. You mention "over-educated" -- put that together with your prior posts that one has to keep up or experience won't count; your posts about mechanics falling behind. Hmmm, that almost makes it sound like you're sensitive about a LACK of education and are over-compensating.

Yeah, that projection. Hypocrisy, a boomer specialty.

No need to do that: just pull your own weight, in whichever fashion you choose, and then stop trying to throw your weight about. People will respect that a LOT more than getting "in your face" and challenging people you don't even know. Here's one more piece of advice for you:

Here's a piece of advice for you: how about taking your own advice? You can't even live up to the standard you project on other people. You do something then get pissed when people do it to you. How about growing up beyond playground bully?

Physician, heal thyself.

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