Author: Lawrence Chan

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Not All Display Port to HDMI Adaptors are Created Equal


Over these few weeks, thanks to my Lenovo Yoga died on me (mentioned here), I have to buy a new set of external adaptors. Since the Lenovo Yoga has two USB-C ports but no regular USB port, I have to purchase external adaptor that is built for USB-C. It has its advantage for sure since I just need to use one single port for connection to my 4K HD monitor with ports for networking and other USB devices all in one compact device.

Now that I am using Microsoft Surface Pro 6, all these gadgets no longer work. Trust me. I tried. I even found a USB-C convertor to plug into the Surface USB 3.0 port and no luck. The USB ports on the adaptor kind of work but not the networking port. Definitely no output to the monitor either.

So I have to give them all up and buy myself a new all-in-one adaptor which I found on Amazon.

 

It works … except that the HDMI port does not produce the 4K resolution on my 4K HD monitor. I tried everything including direct changes to the resolution settings. It just cannot get my 4K monitor to display 4K.

So, I tried this on my 4K TV. And it worked. Damn, that’s annoying.

So I ordered a simple display port to HDMI adaptor hoping that it may solve the problem this time.

And nope. It has exactly the same problem. They just cannot sync with my 4K monitor.

Some people asking exactly the same question why the adaptors are not working. The vendors and some other “smart” users blame the problem on the HDMI cable saying that a low quality one will not work. Well, I am using exactly the same cable that used to connect my Lenovo Yoga to the same monitor. I also use this same cable for the connection to TV which works. Don’t tell me it is its low quality causing the problem.

The search goes on. I eventually bought this adaptor.

And it works! I finally found one that works with my 4K monitor giving me 4K resolution.

I don’t blame the other 2 adaptors for not being able to output 4K resolution on my monitor. After all they both can produce 4K output on my TV. My guess is that the 4K specification can be very tricky so a better adaptor may be able to handle more types of monitors.

Lessons learned.

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TLC Weekly Update August 23, 2019

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Hitting writer’s block over the past few days is kind of frustrating. I understand myself well enough to know that I need to work on something unrelated to these projects so that I can regain my concentration. Hence writing a short article on cold shower feels right. Here it is in case you missed that.

I also translated an old NeoTicker function Range2Period into Tradestation. It is a very useful tool for those interested in building trading strategies.

I passed my daily statements for the reference trading account to my team last week but when I check for the updated monthly performance on the site it is not there. It took me some tedious time to capture those statements from the brokerage website so I was not happy to not seeing the update a few days after. It turned out, my team uploaded the picture file but the backend of the site decided not to serve the updated picture …

And it is now fixed. For those interested in seeing the live performance for June and July you can see it finally. I will also try to write about it in next instalment of my trading automation series.

Lately I have been asked many times on how to immigrate to Canada by people from Hong Kong and other Asian countries. I do have connections that can help people out in this area. So if you are thinking about moving to Canada, drop me an email and I will refer you to the right people.

I replaced my broken Toshiba flat screen TV with one having built-in Fire TV. I never thought that it is now so much more convenient to browse the net on TV. Although I mainly use this as my big quote screen, it is nice to be able to watch something else like Prime Video or Netflix when having my lunch at home.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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How to Cold Shower

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There are many benefits with taking cold shower. I am not going to explain all that here. What I like to do is telling you a way to do it through a process that determination and will power are not needed.

First, if you are a hot shower person, start with ending your shower with “less hot” water for like 30 seconds. It has to be something you can tolerate. No point to make it an unpleasant experience. More on this “tolerance” issue later.

Just by doing this for a week, you would reap a small part of the benefits you get from taking ice cold shower.

Next, dial down the temperature of the water you use in your shower. You do not need to go all the way down to warm water until you are comfortable to do so. And remember to end your shower with water than is cooler. At this point, you can adjust the temperature of the water down quickly every few days.

The goal is to allow yourself to have a shower in just warm water and get yourself used to rinse with cooler water. Eventually you will be able to tolerate ice cold water at the end. It does not take long to do so.

Do not misunderstand that I am against taking hot shower. In fact, hot shower has its place as a way to relax our bodies. So do it occasionally when you really need to.

And there is no point to shower all the way with ice cold water either. I find that some body wash does not rinse well in cold water. So practically, just add 30 seconds to a minute of rinsing yourself in cold water at the end would do the job.

If you have never done cold shower, I can tell you that once you have trained your body to tolerate the coldness, your body would react to the cold water giving you a warmness sensation inside.

I like to point out that everywhere on the net recommends people jump into cold water rinse on day one. This is not a good idea especially for people who have weak immune system or other physical ailments. For young but not healthy people, taking a cold water rinse suddenly may ended up getting sick. For older people, ease into the practice carefully.

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TLC Weekly Update August 16, 2019

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I have been busy catching up with projects while attending multiple long business meetings over the week. The week is not quite as productive as I hope for. Things should improve though by next week.

Talking about productivity drop, my four year old flat screen TV just died the other day leaving me without my real-time quotes when I am not inside my office. It is expected but four years is kind of short though. In case you do not know about this, modern electronic devices are not built to last …

I am very glad that my special recommendation worked out (so far) for my DaytradingBias premium members. It feels great to help my members making some money in this tough trading environment. The trade is still in progress. We will see how things go in coming few weeks.

I added a new reading list for aspiring traders who want to pursuit trading as a career. This time the list is not compiled by me. Instead, it is a collection of recommended books on trading by the famous traders of our time.

I am working on another webinar right now. If all goes well, I will schedule that either in late August or early September.

Time to go. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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TLC Weekly Update August 9, 2019

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All week I was troubled by bad internet connection. Slowed down progress with various projects. Just unbelievable how dependent I am these days on the need to be connected to the net all the time …

My team told me that the Gann Square Excel add-in I have created years ago, is the number one gann tool on the net based on the number of downloads. It is a pleasant surprise for me. Never thought that people like it so much. Just wondering what will happen if I charge a dollar each.

I received quite a number of requests to buy the mechanical trading strategies they see in DaytradingBias instead of subscribing to the premium service which gives full access to all the strategies. I understand what they are thinking of and I can package up the strategies as individual items in the store. The truth of the matter is, the cost of these strategies would add up to way more than the subscription fees. Anyway, I am getting my team to package up some of the items and offer them in the store.

I finally realize that I was sick after I came back to Canada last week. The symptoms were so mild that I thought I was get exhausted from the trip and all. Only until I woke up Thursday in the morning feeling all better that I figure this out.

Someone sent me this Quora answer by James Altucher on Warren Buffett. It is a good read and correct assessment of “The Oracle”. As I told many people asking me about Warren Buffett, he is not a good investor and he is definitely not a good fund manager. Now I can refer everyone to this full length article so that I don’t have to waste time explaining why.

Have a great weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update August 2, 2019

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I was so exhausted after traveling from Hong Kong back to Toronto that I slept on and off for more than a day before I can get back to my normal schedule excluding exercise. And now that it is Friday, it is my first day of resuming my daily exercise routine. My performance was bad.

What two weeks of non-stop meetings, walking in extreme heat, dining out and significant amount of alcohol can do to me?

Well, upper body strength dropped but I know I will gain it back quickly. Other than that, I do not really feel that bad. It is still too early to tell how long it will take to recover fully.

I guess the worst part of the trip was little to no option to stay away from complex carbohydrates. Every meal I was introduced to try out, with much eager by the inviting parties, has carb as the main ingredient. Exotic ramen, very fancy noodle dishes, you name it, I tried it. The end result is six pounds of fat added to my belly.

I am graceful for the chance to try out all these foods. I enjoyed every moment of having them. Doing this occasionally makes life fun. However, getting back in shape will probably be my priority over the coming few weeks.

Talking about priority, I now have time to get back on track to compile my list of books to read on basic chart reading skills. As I explained before, it is getting more difficult to do so because many of the books I like to include into the list are no longer in print. I am working on adding the alternatives in case you cannot find the ones I recommend.

In the meantime, you can read the series here.

I will get back on track to complete the trading manuals on Emini that I promised my members. It is not an easy task because writing is often a “flow” process that you need your brain to have the big picture in your mind in order to produce content that is coherent with the rest of the book. So I need to read and re-read my manuscripts to pick up from where I left off three weeks ago.

So, catch up time for me and wish you all a great weekend!

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TLC Weekly Update July 26, 2019

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I was doing a presentation in Hong Kong on alternative investment vehicles earlier this week. Some questions are quite interesting. But specifically there is this one question many readers will be interested to know the answers,

What are my opinions on the current market environment?

Here is a quick summary:

  • Brexit is good for UK. British Pound will bottom out soon after Brexit.
  • Do not short Euro now. Too crowded. Too late.
  • When every major economy are using ZIRP to stimulate the economy, there will be unintended consequences.
  • Gold is in the beginning stage of a two to multiple years rally.
  • Equities will not be the place to be for good return in coming two to three years but not necessarily a “crash” that many people wanted to see (i.e. Chicken Little syndrome).
  • Real estate will not generate good return because it always normalize to the long term bond yield which may turn negative if the central banks choose to do so.
  • US dollar will be the place to be until it gets too expensive for the 3rd world countries to service their debts.
  • The belief that you need physical gold implies you believe that the system is heading for total collapse. If that is the case, you should not pile up gold bars. You should buy guns instead. (Stolen from Tim Morge)

There is this very odd thing I like to complain about the restaurants in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. Many restaurants offering breakfast on their menu but they do not open until much later in the day. And many of them do not indicate what time they open. So I was walking up and down the street not able to find a place for breakfast even though all these places having their signs telling me the nice breakfast they serve … by lunch time.

The week was so packed with all sorts of meetings I could not work on the book list on technical trading skills. I will catch up with that when I return to Toronto in couple of days.

And this year is first time in my life that I have so many people surprised me with birthday cakes and well wishes. I don’t usually celebrate my birthday at all for years. So it is a drastic change indeed. Thank you all of you for remembering my birthday!

For those of you who are curious about my exact date of birth for whatever reason, here is the clue – first moon landing.

Have a nice weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update July 19, 2019

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It has been an extremely busy week since I arrived at Hong Kong this past Sunday. Being busy and having a hectic schedule are not really something that pose serious challenge to me. But the hot weather is. I was effectively sweating all day going everywhere. It was only made tolerable because of the breaks I got from going inside air-conditioned buildings …

It is a more personal trip for which I am meeting with my family, across multiple generations, quite a number of times. We do not get the chance to see each other that often. It is good to see people family members are doing fine. Time is short though since I will head back to Toronto this coming weekend.

One thing I notice is that the price of everything has rise significantly in Hong Kong in just half a year since I last visited the place not long ago. I ask around to see if my observation is correct. It turns out many fast food chains and retail stores are increasing their prices due to the upward pressure of labour costs.

I was rereading the book The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz on the plane. Before all these movements of self-help and all these talks about better performance through the building of proper perspective, we have this book explaining it all way back when. It is still the one that I recommend most to young adults because of the way the message is delivered.

Looking ahead, this coming week will be as hectic as the first one since I have been providing strategic portfolio allocation advices to my clients. I am also in talk with potential investors who are interested in some of my business ventures. Even though I do not usually get myself directly involve in running the start-ups I invest in, it is a great idea to spread the words when the opportunities show up.

Weather forecast is saying that it is going to rain all week long. To me, that means lower temperature. Yay!

Have a nice weekend all!

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TLC Weekly Update July 12, 2019

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I was a happy camper 1.5 years ago with my Lenovo Yoga 920. Now that it is dead for no good reason, I have switched to Microsoft Surface Pro 6. It took me several days to copy my backup onto this new tablet / laptop plus the tedious task of installing all kinds of applications to the machine. I am glad to say, I have a new best friend!

What I learned is that the Lenovo’s approach of using the USB-C port as a charging port is in fact a very bad design decision. Many users of the Yoga laptops suffer from total loss just because the port can fry the motherboard, the SSD, the battery and the charger. In short, it is now proven that it is a stupid idea. So if laptop makers see this, please do not make new laptops that use the USB-C port for charging.

In case you are wondering why it is a bad idea for laptop but not cell phones – it is because laptops need much higher voltage output from the port for charging purpose. With clean power sources of course you will be fine. But even in major cities, power surges can still happen randomly and the risk of passing those energy spikes to the laptop greatly increases.

My work on my Emini day trading course is now disrupted until I have the necessary files restored. Originally I thought I lost all my latest set of code examples. However, during one lucky restart of my Yoga 920, I managed to launch TradeStation and did a complete backup onto my USD flash drive. The laptop then died on me again with BSOD just minutes later. This backup turned out to be good enough with 50% of the latest changes I made. So, instead of losing two weeks of work, I lost half of that.

Not bad!

Many people asked about Bitcoin lately. And many people are wondering if the Facebook crypto will change the crypto currency landscape. I am no expert in crypto but I find this short video from London Real where Andreas Antonopoulos talks about that. His point of view should be taken seriously.

Time to get packing.

Have a nice weekend all!

(This update is posted 1 day early due to my travel schedule)

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TLC Weekly Update July 5, 2019

Well, sh*t happens. My Yoga 920 laptop died on me since Tuesday. Tried everything I can think of to “fix” the damn thing but hours wasted with no clarity whatsoever what went wrong. The symptoms include random crashes that force itself to restart, battery refuses to be charged and data files corrupted. I thought I bought a great laptop that will last at least five years.  Not even at two years mark the machine already died.

So my progress in completing the Emini day trading course is disrupted. Luckily, I have backup of my TradeStation stuff so it is a matter of installing it on my other laptop (Surface Pro 6) and restore the backup there and I will be back in business. The more frustrating thing is that some of the spreadsheets I have created for the course have to be re-created from scratch …

While I was waiting for the computers doing their things like backup and restore, I get to read more chapters of the book The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. The book is huge and really takes time to read. It is also a great exercise to reflect upon the concepts to see how myself and people I know are bounded by these laws.

For those of you who email me over the past few days, you have to wait a bit longer until I have my laptop ready for that. I can only do limited online stuff at the moment. I have added a new item in my list of things to optimize in life after this incident. I will find a way to reduce my dependency of my everyday computer, or at least have a way to make the replacement process much more speedy.

For my premium members, I will travel to Asia starting next Friday. Due to time zone difference I will not be able to participate in the real-time commentary. I will see what I can do once I regain internet connection.

Have a nice weekend all!