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Avoid Market Volatility with a Vintage Stock Market Machine Predictor Computer

Yes folks, you too can avoid days like Tuesday and Wednesday (and today!), if only you had a Vintage Stock Market Machine Predictor Ticker Computer -- (and you know there's no way I am giving up mine!)

Well, unfortunately, you missed the opportunity, because it was up for sale on eBay, item number: 5574815810, but was sold for $167.50  as of  Apr-26-05 13:05:44 PDT

Here's the description:

Up for bid is a stock market indicator that tells when stocks should be bought or sold based on market conditions.  This would be a great gift for anyone in the stock market business.  A bit of old history right here.  This is a vintage piece which is evident by the Dow dial only going up to 2000!   The face of the unit is in great condition.  There are no major dents, dings, scratches or anything else that I could on the face or the dials.  The device is enclosed in a wooden case on five sides.  I wasn't able to get the device out of the wood box, to exam it further. There are special screws that keep it in place.  The wood, I believe is walnut and it's in good condition.  There are light scratches on it and it could use a good oiling  Only the top left and righthand corners have minor dents/bruisings.  You might be able to see them in the photo. All the lights, buttons and meter work just fine on this machine. The rotary switches turn smoothly on some knobs, and are tougher to turn on others. The DOW dial is frozen in place, however. It would need to be broken free or replaced for it to operate smoothly. I don't have the owner's manual and don't know how to operate it.

The knobs and buttons are marked as follows:

Rotary Dials:  Dow from 0 to 2000, Stock Price from 0 to 100, "A"  from 0 to 200, "B" from 0 to 240, "C" from 0 to 100.

Red Button(L) = "Push to Read", Red button(R) = "Push to Reset", Left light between red buttons = "Sell Only", Right button between red buttons = "Buy Only",

Flip Switches: Market Trends = Up or Down, Stock Price = 1000 or 100, Range = "C".   

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I think its a goof -- but apparently it was sold on eBay.

Source:
eBay
Item # 5574815810
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5574815810

>
UPDATE: May 2, 2005  7:47am

Barron's picked up this goofy little commentary -- Alan Abelson no less!

 

Demonizing Santa Claus
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB111481127270021070.html
 

I am greatly humbled . . .

Thursday, April 28, 2005 | 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)
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Comments

Cramer has a newer model of this predictor computer that how he found his investment in Lucent!!!

Posted by: Gary Marcus | Apr 28, 2005 11:00:16 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/arts/music/28rock.html

Fade-Out: New Rock Is Passé on Radio
By JEFF LEEDS

Major radio companies are abandoning rock music so quickly lately that sometimes their own employees don't know it.

Troy Hanson, the program director of WZTA in Miami, said that he first learned that his station's owner, Clear Channel Communications, had ditched the rock format - and his staff - when he tuned to the station one morning in February and heard talk-radio. His rock domain, known as Zeta, had vanished. "We didn't even get to play 'It's the End of the World as We Know It,' " the R.E.M. anthem, as a sign off, he said.

In the last four months, radio executives have switched the formats of four modern-rock, or alternative, stations in big media markets, including WHFS in Washington-Baltimore area, WPLY in Philadelphia and the year-old KRQI in Seattle. Earlier this month WXRK in New York discarded most newer songs in favor of a playlist laden with rock stars from the 80's and 90's.

Music executives say the lack of true stars today is partly the reason. Since rap-rock acts like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit retreated from the scene, none of the heralded bands from recent rock movements, be it garage-rock (the Strokes, the Vines) or emo (Dashboard Confessional, Thursday), connected with radio listeners or CD buyers the way their predecessors did.

This sudden exit of so many marquee stations has not only renewed the perennial debate about the relative health of rock as a musical genre, but it also indicates that the alternative format, once the darling of radio a decade ago, is now taking perhaps the heaviest fire in the radio industry's battle to retain listeners in the face of Internet and satellite radio competition. Many rock stations may be in for another blow when the shock jock Howard Stern departs for Sirius Satellite Radio next year....

Posted by: anne | Apr 28, 2005 11:51:22 AM

Ha!

I have an older one, it is a cube with 6 numbered sides and a small chart.

Posted by: Stirling Newberry | Apr 28, 2005 12:37:27 PM

It looks like an analog computer built to solve one equation. Sort of an electric slide rule, not that any of you young whippersnappers would know what I am talking about when I say analog computer or slide rule. Kids these days. Harrumph.

Posted by: Fred Boness | Apr 28, 2005 5:58:06 PM

Barry,

I'm on the floor, this device probably has better success than a monkey flinging darts at quotrons on the wall.

And we know the monkey has better success than most Wall Street analysts.

Posted by: The Nattering Naybob | Apr 29, 2005 8:41:39 PM