I've been rather busy with several things... Just a little update:

 

Bridge competition: 4/6 in the bracket... rather good for a newly-started club I guess.

 

PDS presentation on Brainteasers yesterday. It went well - felt a lot like teaching in JC again, except that I was teaching brainteasers. Quite a lot of people turned up to my surprise, as the event was only publicized the day before. Second brainteaser workshop next Wednesday!

 

IAG presentation this Friday!!! I hope the stock gets put into the club portfolio... Pity we didn't get to pitch it earlier though. I recommended AGU at 50 during the winter break, and it closed above 70 today. 40% return!!! Alex is trying to get me to run for assistant portfolio manager... It should be interesting to try out for it end of this semester.

 

Right now I'm wondering what I want to do in future - trader? Risk manager? Quant trader? Consultant??

Europe - the ancestor of America, probably the most powerful country in the world right now. Europe - a mixture... dare I say, a melting pot of cultures which span several millenia. We look at her history, her languages, the scenic views, and fall in love right away. We marvel at how a relatively small area Britain currently occupies used to span all continents except Antarctica. We marvel at how the French, currently typecasted by self-righteous, line-drawing Americans (among many others) as romantic yet overly lazy to survive in this harsh world, managed to colonize about half of Africa; even today, many Africans speak French, and some even regard themselves as French. As long as Europe's influence and presence continues to exist, so will our love for it. In fact, judging by how historians are, our love for Europe will continue to exist long after its demise (if that ever comes without necessitating the destruction of the rest of the world as well).

 

But at what cost, love? We gaze starry-eyed at European culture, but forget the blood strewn across those mosaic patterns. We forget how various ancient European empires such as Rome and the Byzantine Empire conquered many by crushing their opponents. We forget how Spain, France and Britain drove the slave trade on in the 15th to the 18th centuries. We forget how the slave trade is still going on in parts of Africa today. So I ask again: at what cost, love? Death and destruction?

 

We call our partners our "other halves", almost as if we were originally like East and West Germany, and only recently tore the Berlin wall down. Armed with this, we claim love is beautiful. We claim love is the sweet union of two mercilessly and unjustifiably divided people. This, however, is specious. No higher order dictated that we call our partners our "other halves". We coined this phrase; we beautified our love for each other. We colonize each other - Don Juan wannabes go to bars and return home (or proceed to a motel) with different women every time. Bimbotic chicks flaunt their assets to rich, older men. These people colonize other's hearts (or sexual organs), and virtually everyone else is envious of them. Why? Because by colonizing each other and building huge monuments to our ego is the only way to increase our self-esteem? Because we desire to convince ourselves that at the end of the day, we are not alone, or that we are better than others? Is that not why many European countries possess castles and cathedrals? Is that not why Portugal built a castle-fort in each African port it conquered? Is that not why Britain ventured off its island? Is that not why... we love? It seems then, that above all else, we love our god damned egos.

In my fake portfolio, I'm currently long AAPL, CROX, CSCO, FCX, LMT, RIG and RIO.

 

I don't think I need to say much about AAPL (Apple)... It's a great company with a great CEO and great fundamentals. It's currently occupying about 17% (yes... huge... but I believe in it) of my portfolio.

 

CROX (Crocs)... bought this after the momentum-initiated tumble. It's a rather risky buy, which is why I underweighted it (8%) in my portfolio. It's currently generating rather impressive returns... 22% as of market close today. Its fundamentals are sound, but I'm not entirely sure if crocs will remain popular in the years to come. This is merely a short-middle term play.

 

CSCO (Cisco) is a long-term play. It has good fundamentals, and even though it took a slight hit recently and is currently at -6%, I have faith in this company.

 

FCX (Freeport Mcmoran) is a lesser-known company. A gold, silver and copper mining company, the primary reason I played this company is the market volatility. With so much market volatility, many people would naturally turn to commodities, especially gold. Why FCX though? Well... basically it just has more attractive multiples than its competitors. I bought it the day before it took a tumble, but it has more than compensated for that temporary loss.

 

LMT (Lockheed Martin) was just put into my portfolio to hedge the risks I was taking with some of the other companies. With an ultra low beta and my ability to get it at a good entry point, I put it in to generate almost risk-free returns. I currently have a 2% gain for free from it.

 

RIG (Transocean) is another huge play I made. Standing at 18% of my portfolio, I made this play because it had just secured a 15 billion dollar contract on the day I bought it. The very next day, it pledged to reinvest the money and started ripping. Just 2 days ago, it got hit because it wanted to sell debt but its debt was rated BBB+ or something. Nevertheless, it's still giving me a handsome 12% return (its rally today made that figure what it is).

 

RIO (Companhia Vale) is a Brazilian iron ore mining company. Another commodity play, I bought it just before the commodities crash (like FCX) but I do believe that once the market mood shifts, we will see massive gains on this stock (in fact, it is already on its way up... currently giving me a 4% gain). The world is seeing quadruple growth engines in Brazil, Russia, India and China, and RIO's geography makes it well-placed to take advantage of this.

Ultra long overdue update...

 

Anyway, I just went ice skating at Bryant Park with the Actuarial Society yesterday. Isn't it great how so many things here are free if you're in clubs? Haha...

 

My first time ice skating... And I've never even roller bladed before. I think I fell like 8 times, but at least at the end of it all I could actually go a couple of rounds without falling (hooray). Many thanks to the people who taught me (essentially everyone), but especially Angel and Gary heh.

 

Right now I'm just wondering where the photos from yesterday are...

I went to Lisa's birthday party yesterday... Saw Harrison and Vanessa whom I hadn't seen in a looong time - it was great.

 

There was 160 proof at the party... It tastes like ass... seriously. It kinda burns too. When I took it straight, Ron called me a beast... lol. He was right there holding the camera expecting me to throw up or something but I was fine XD. Anyway, there was only one bottle so everyone just got a little to try haha. Ravi mixed it with grapefruit juice and it tasted like crap... But apparently, cranberry goes well with it.

 

On a side note, Dione said I look emo when I let my hair down. Wtf lol...