I use the web to make me smarter. I don’t really mind (yet) that Companies are getting smarter as well. They should. That should make the whole experience better over the long run.

Most of you that read this blog do so for financial and market trends, but when I am not writing about stocks I am writing about the Social Web.

This last week, Mike Arrington had a series of posts on the Social Gaming System…entitled ‘Scamville’ . It’s an incredible series of posts and has led to many quick and decisive actions by many of the parties involved/accused. Today, Zynga said they will remove ALL in game ads .

It’ a stretch of course to compare Facebook and Tobacco companies, but hear me out.

Facebook and Tobacco are both addictive products.

There are TWO big differences. The first… Facebook knows EVERYTHING about you and Philip Morris needs to know NOTHING about you – you will come find them. The second – tobacco has a clear and insane profit model.

They both have pretty big responsibilities and they need to be accountable. Both need to come with warnings though as it relates to minors. It has taken 40 years to put some half decent warnings on tobacco products and we should not wait four more months for them to be seen on Facebook where minors, MY CREDIT Card and offers meet.

My kids are not on Facebook yet, but I do not want to get things charged to my credit card while they surf and play. I am pretty sure that I don’t live in a bubble/utopia so I understand that it is unlikely for my wish to come true. That said, I want my kids to be told pretty clearly that:

‘If you click here, YOUR DAD will be f@#!king pissed’ so find him and ask him.

I don’t play Social games and I don’t smoke. If you are an adult and have the time, knock yourself out on both.

I have written many times that the valuations thrust on Twitter and Facebook make me nervous. The Scamville series from Mike Arrington are exactly why.

Facebook has investors to please and I dont trust them at all. Twitter’s $1 billion valuation is now a serious pressure to perform financially no matter what insiders say.

If the main way for Social Networks to profitability and valuation is through these sleazy offers, put me in the camp for paying a monthly fee and removing all ads to me and my family.

And make that choice upfront before I use your product the first time.

Tobacco is 100 percent long-term evil, Google is ‘not evil’ (ya right) and Facebook and Twitter fit somewhere in between. They should be able to get pretty close to zero.

I joke about kicking bankers, but they are really kicking us.

I have so many friends in LIMBO’ these days. In fact, the economy is in ‘LIMBO’. The rest of the world uses the word ‘ZOMBIE’ for the economy, but it’s not accurate. None of my friends are walking around dead. They do want to kill their banker and that’s a ‘pretty alive’ feeling. They can’t get an answer. They can’t move forward. They are PISSED because they are in LIMBO.

The bank has written all the letters, but in many cases has not foreclosed. They are waiting because they can. They have it both ways.

‘Bailout Nation‘ is in full force for banks and institutions, but not for the individual who just wants to move on. That person is now being ‘SAVED’ by the administration or called a ‘ZOMBIE’ by the economists.

The only people saved economically from this administration have been the same one’s Bush put in power and tried to save as well. You hear them making the rules everyday.

Zombie’s are easy, you kill them.

The bankers and our administration are doing the worst thing possible, IGNORING the people of the LIMBO economy.

I am a member of ‘The Limbo’ economy. I own a downsized home, I have cut up my credit cards and I am living by my ‘Too Small to Fail ‘. I think it is the right way to live. I feel lucky that I have this opportunity and have been talking it up on this blog the last 18 months. I may not be actually living in LIMBO, but I know it when I see it and the LIMBO economy is factored into my investments and spending habits.

I would advise others to shut off their TV’s, listen to those around them stuck in Limbo and scale back as well. Stop spending. Save more.

You are being called a ZOMBIE and you are about to be SAVED, but I would focus on getting out of LIMBO…fast.

Seems like forever.

There are many new readers to the blog on the last two years that have never seen an episode so I will be posting my old faves now and again.

John Cambers is a good CEO.

Sure, he looks a little like ‘the Blond Fuhrer’, but that’s just on the surface and a bad barber.

I am hearing he called a bottom for the Company last night. I don’t know because I don’t follow the stock, but I hear things on this newfangled Twitter thingy.

Before Twitter when there was Television, I do I know that John Chambers NEVER called the top in 2000 and oversaw a bazillion in fake sales during their rise.

Today, Cisco is an economy…and because US is a part of that economy, it is a slow grower. They have tremendous cash flow, great products, and great people.

The coneference call is a waste of time. Look back at the last 5 years and smooth out the line. Zip, Nada. Cisco takes it’s cash flows and buys companies. Yawnereeno for everyone but bankers and lawyers.

It would be more exciting for everyone if they just went private. It would not be as fun for the lame mutual funds that carry Cisco in their Top 10 Holdings because they would have to make commercials about their new Top holdings of companies no one has heard about and that would be risky.

I can look outside and see what’s going on in the global economy. Take a walk around, watch the action on the all-time high list.

I can catch the numbers in a tweet the next day and know that zip has changed. When you are steering a large ship or economy, it’s only the icebergs or ice ages that matter and for both I would rather be in a small, agile ship.

He also was ‘The Fly’ when we needed him for ‘Asshat of The Year’:

He is looking to make more videos and is using Kickstart to organize the process .

If you have an idea for a web video and need a pro to bring it to reality, Kickstart it with Brent Rose by making a pledge to help him Kickstart his.

I wanted Twitter to have lists for discovery purposes, but seeing myself on other people’s lists is just weird.

I was alerted via Twitter to an Inc. magazine story listing me as a top business blogger ( I love that they use Disqus as their commenting system). The joke is of course on me because next to me on the list for all of time is the mug of Jason Calacanis. To you funny…to me… grotesque.

I would never create the list of the 18 bloggers listed in the magazine, but hot damn @mrktingrenegade did. I don’t visit my own Twitter page much anymore, but the Twitter List has reignited the old ego. In scanning the new lists today, I noticed the ‘Best-Blogger’ list and clicked through.

Shazam…done for me. I followed everyone and reblocked Calacanis for good measure.

Of course last laugh on me as his avatar on the page sits next to mine.

But I digress…

I was checking out some price charts tonight after seeing that Black and Decker $bdk was purchased by Stanley Works $swk for a large premium. Black and ‘Freaking’ Decker was $70 in October 2008 and under $20 by march 2009. It will be near $60 on the open tomorrow. That’s a big swing for a bazillion dollar, boring tool company that has a brand name that EVERY American knows. That’s just one of a thousand stories.

I can live with (not forget) this type of miss, because I did not follow the likes of Dick Bove and his ‘Buy of the Century’ CNBC call on Citibank at $22 or so. I can’t forget glaring ‘asshattishness ‘ because I too was watching the Ocatabox a few times on CNBC. It was quite entertaining in a ‘train wreck’ kind of way. It cost me money. I have no one to blame but myself.

It’s exhausting to think about all the missed opportunities if you take investing seriously (I know…I am exhausted). It is exhausting to think people are not in jail for such ludicrous and irresponsible behavior and no NEW leaders in banking are emerging. I do know (hope) they should and likely will.

In hindsight:

It was an epic panic. It was relentless. We wet our pants. We shit the bed.

It was an epic run on the banks. The depression talk got to us.

It was an epic transfer of wealth that may just bury the United States.

No one can truly explain panic while it happens. We only have the benefit of hindsight. I am embarrassed to not be involved in the massive transfer of equity wealth that occurred starting in 2008. I am grateful that I survived financially. I imagine I was panicked about stocks as well, despite me buying and blogging it on March 9th from the Bahamas. Buying Russia and a few other big blunders put the fear of death into me back in 2008. I swung a few times and missed. I sold some stuff near the absolute bottom. I admit it.

I don’t believe any investor was left unscathed or unscarred. It was a horrifying collapse. Time seemed to stand still.

Our leaders are lying to us daily and it is insulting. The truth is being laughed at just SIX months later. Sixty plus percent rallies tend to do that to the negative people in the investing business. At some level it should.

The few that made big coin in the stock market – in an honest way – were those that honored price. They honored their stops on the way down through 2008 and they took their entries on the way up starting in March, 2009.

As exhausting as all the drama has been, it’s exciting to think about all the opportunities ahead in the capital markets for those that can learn to manage this simple discipline.

I remember I used to check my stats when I started blogging and obviously that happened on Twitter for a while as well.

I don’t check my personal Twitter stats anymore, but I do want to know everything about Stocktwits and companies I have invested money with.

When asked, I always tell people that you must be willing to be UNfollowed and UNread when you blog and tweet. In the stock market it is called ‘backing and filling’. It’s a healthy thing. In fact, I lost two followers from my last tweet and it feels great:

I just peed chocolate. I may pass a Starburst tomorrow.

Last week, Twitter lists launched. I believe the web of the future is all about discovery and filters. The seduction of attention has created a massive spam problem. No offense to Twitter follower leaders Ashton Kutcher, Dell and CNN, but you just won’t say anything of interest for me to follow and there is NO way Twitter is working properly for Web 4.1654 if you are.

Twitter Lists seems like a step in the right direction. I really like this post by Todd Zeigler on how twitter lists can be used to judge influence .

I know for Stocktwits it was very important to us to suggest people to follow the first time they show up. Curated lists will always be flawed because great people will be missed and left off, but it’s a start.

I/We at Stocktwits are open to all suggestions.

I would like to think that attention just gets in the way of hard work, good ideas and good execution, but Attention, like life, is not fair.

On Thursday I got to speak in front of about 80 Phoenix entrepreneurs about ‘The Real’ Tim Web. I worked hard on preparing a 15 slide powerpoint (which still came out looking like a first time user), but when my time came to speak, I got to about slide 4 and my hour ran out.

The first slide said…Thank-You

The second slide said…I Apologize.

We don’t say thank-you enough on the Social Web. Bloggers (includering Twitterers) bitch and moan about every feature or missing feature. Social Web entrepreneurs have it easy. You don’t think so, go watch Daniel Day Lewis in ‘There will be Blood’. We should be thankful in this era of the social web. I want to offer many thank-yous for that attention. I know it is fleeting.

The second slide…an apology… was for the soon to come bad grammar, expletives and lack of a cohesive thought that lay ahead in the last 13 slides.

Social Leverage gets me fired up. Of course the term financial leverage gets me fired up as well because we are years away from the middle class America being able to benefit from it again. That’s because the country treated it as a strategy, not a tool. Social Leverage is a strategy open to EVERY person with bandwith and a connection to the web. It is a tool AND a strategy that should lead to a more stable and productive growth.

Back to Attention. I am not sure there is a definitive playbook as much as their is a wrong way to chase it. I love this post from Seth Godin :

“Notice me”

If the new web has a mantra, that’s it.

So much time and effort is now put into finding followers, accumulating comments and generating controversy… all so that people will notice you. People say and do things that don’t benefit them, just because they’re hooked on attention.

Attention is fine, as long as you have a goal that is reached in exchange for all this effort.

Far better than being noticed:

* Trusted
* Engaged with
* Purchased from
* Discussed
* Echoed
* Teaching us
* Leading

Although this post has not created ‘THE ATTENTION PLAYBOOK’, I hope you realize from all my day to day blogging, linking, and interacting in other’s communities is a strategy for one day getting noticed and appreciated by your peers.

It’s fun and totally worth the voyage.

If there was, we would not have such a long list of suggested traders to follow. Our updated Suggested Lists have something for anyone that likes investing/trading and is interested in Stocktwits

Traders love chat, they love AIM, they love Twitter and now Stocktwits.

Traders and investors want flow. As the floors of the NYSE, CME and CBOE get distributed, the lightweight communication tools serve to re-aggregate.

I am surprised every time I open the ‘All’ Stream at Stocktwits. Lately, I have been amazed though at the growth of Futures and Forex Traders. One of my favorite voices is Hamzei of Hamzei Analytics . He loves tweeting, laughing, being social and also being right. None of us will always be right, but I know Hamzei is out there everyday in the electronic world as hard as he goes in the physical world. It may not be for you, but it’s just cool to watch.

Futures and Forex is a world that I don’t fully understand but I am trying to learn fast. Lucky for me there are a shitload of seriously good traders posting their thoughts. It’s like a flash community erupted.

Forex and Futures are truly the microblogging of the trading world.

In the world of e-mini’s, 5 minutes can be a lifetime.

It’s like the universe of time and investing shrunk to 5 minutes.

I would advise anyone wanting to see the power of time meets leverage, to follow some of the Futures and Forex people of our Suggested Lists.