| Profilo di Kar Sengpoppycock and tommyrot, ...FotoBlogElenchi |  Strumenti  Guida |
|
20 febbraio looong overdue updateI'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?? 09 gennaio Love?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. 06 dicembre amateur opinionIn 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. 04 dicembre ice skatingUltra 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... 17 novembre 160 proofI 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... 09 novembre BirthdayThanks everyone for making my 21st birthday special!
Firstly, my parents and brother sms-ed me to wish me happy birthday haha.
On the night of my birthday, Joanna treated me to some japanese food after IAG, and then Marcus came along and we shared one tokkuri of sake. The jap food was good - their beef teriyaki was more like a medium steak in teriyaki sauce, and it was really really nice.
Tonight er... yesterday night, we had our first bridge&spades @NYU club meeting. It was pretty good - about 10 people came. Not a fantastic turnout, but definitely rather good for a fledgling club. I then went out for dinner with Chase, Shyam, Neerja and Ambica. We went to Uno's, and I had some Chicago deep dish pizza and a cocktail. I can't remember the name now, but it had absolut vodka and gin in it. The waiter even asked for it to be extra strong since it was my birthday haha. It was good - not too alcoholic, and not too sweet.
Once again thank you everyone! 03 novembre DSTIt just occurred to me that I've to change my clock tonight because of DST. 1 extra hour of sleep!!! Ahem... I meant work... update2 mid-terms next week - macroeconomics and calculus.
I'm not sure what's supposed to be nice about burritos. I tried one from chipotle and I didn't like it very much... I guess it's just not to my taste.
Anyway, had a rushed (but pretty good) dinner earlier tonight. There was chicken ortega in Hayden dining hall today. I've no idea what they put into it... but from what I could see/taste... There was tortilla chips, salsa, tomatoes, mushroom, onions chicken, lots of cheese and... grease lol. Super fattening but it was good - finally some nice, spicy food! As usual, the rice at Hayden sucks... thank goodness for Kimmel! Chicken ortega is different from chicken parmagiana, which usually has BREADED chicken in marinara sauce, and put in sesame bread. I tried some at Mercato's (wait did I mention this before?) and it was great - I know I'm going back there some time; probably a lot of times given how cheap it is. You need only pay 3.50 (if I don't remember wrongly) for the chicken parmigiana/lasagna/2 slices of pizza and a drink, and given the dropping USD it's getting cheaper lol.
I don't think I've ever said this before, but I really like how the dining halls make sandwiches. I usually get either roast beef or turkey+ham together with lettuce, pickles and mustard in sun-dried tomato focaccia. Grilled. Absolutely wicked combination. 28 ottobre Palladium BrunchFinally got to try the famed Palladium brunch. There was such a wide spread of food! From the normal bacon, sausages, eggs, muffins, mashed potatoes, rice, french toast, omelettes, cookies, cakes and salad to roast beef brisket, turkey, smoked salmon, cinnamon rolls, yoghurt parfait, cheesecake, eclairs and croissants, among many many others. This is most probably the best meal you can ever get on campus. It was well worth the walk :) 24 ottobre cosco cookies/october fest/communication classI tell you... American food gets a lot of flak, but Cosco cookie are freaking ORGASMIC. My suitemate brought a box of them from home. They're not too sweet, and have just the right hardness. They're not too dry either, and leave a very lasting sweetness in one's mouth. Oh and they're pretty cheap. $6 for a big box. Unfortunately, you need to pay a $50 annual fee just to buy from the store. Yes the $50 applies even if you do not buy anything - they're so good that they can brazenly charge this way.
Oh, and tonight was October Fest. It's some German festival where everyone just eats and drinks a lot. Hayden dining hall styled their dinner after this festival. They had super good frankenfurters and roast beef. They also served root beer and ginger ale (remember, we aren't allowed to drink till 21 in America). I got a roast beef, swiss cheese, lettuce, pickles and mustard sandwich, a frankenfurter and a pasta. Oh and I also got a bottle of ginger ale. So, so good haha. I'm sure I'm gaining weight like crazy here...
By the way, my communication for professionals class started this Monday. It's pretty enjoyable, but slightly intimidating. It seems the class is aimed at seniors and grad students - I think I'm the only freshman there. Also, almost everyone else has attended a communication course before. Ah well, I guess I'll just catch up by reading the textbook, which is incidentally a pretty interesting read! 20 ottobre of food and writing...2 days ago was vegan night at Hayden dining hall... The funny thing is that even at vegan night, there was chicken and meatballs haha; but virtually everything else was vegan. It was pretty good actually, even for a carnivorous person such as myself, which says a lot.
Just yesterday night, a friend brought my suitemate and I to a Japanese curry store at St. Mark's place. I never really liked Japanese curry because it is too sweet, but this one I tried yesterday was really, really good. It was not too sweet, and I feel, it had just the right saltiness. They also put some Japanese pickles on the side, so you could mix it into the curry to give it a sweeter flavor - probably aimed at the Japanese population here. 5.50 USD for the japanese curry with rice, salad and a drink - not a bad deal, especially when you consider the cost of living here.
Writing the Essay is getting quite tough. I'm not totally sure what is required of me; I'm too used to writing argumentative essays. We were supposed to write a letter addressing a "void" in an essay we chose. I'm not exactly sure what we're supposed to be doing for such assignments, but I know what I did is wrong because I essentially went Dear (author), you're a complete idiot, regards. My prof says that we have to note that these writers are fantastic writers, and that if something is not there, it's not meant to be there. Somehow we're supposed to find bigger concepts which the author may be addressing - we're supposed to analyze striking sentences and discuss what they may mean. I've absolutely no idea how to put it into an essay.
Oh well... I think that for now, I'll just pick out sentences and explore concepts, and try to come up with something. 17 ottobre kati rollsThis is weird... I've never had such good Indian food in my life even though I'm from Singapore. Regardless... A couple of Indian friends of mine brought me to this place about 2 minutes away from my dorm. It sells kati rolls for 4 bucks per roll - steep, but it was really good. Essentially it's a roti prata with your choice of stuffing, and they roll it up like a po piah. I chose beef (of course) and it was really, really good :) Spicy but not overpowering, tender but not soft, slightly burnt but not just totally disgusting.
Ok back to work... 12 ottobre chocolateThe weather is finally getting colder! It already dropped below 10 degrees celsius today :) and I think people think I'm crazy cos I still haven't broken out the sweaters.
Anyway, I went to Max Brenner's yesterday for Derui's birthday party... Chocolate place. It was mad. There were chocolate pizzas, chocolate soup, chocolate fondue etc. It was all good but so sweet and oh so sinful haha... Nice experience though. 07 ottobre quartersI have started collecting quarters ^^
Why? You may ask... after all... washing machines and dryers now use campus cash for payment so we no longer require lots and lots of quarters. The reason is this: collectors' items!
Normal quarters have a picture of George Washington on one side, and the picture of the presidential coat of arms (eagle with outstretched wings) on the other side. However, some of them have state maps on the side meant for the presidential coat of arms! I think there are 51 altogether (number of states in the USA), and so far I've 4 - Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and Rhode Island. :) 05 ottobre falafelI have never had falafels before... and we were treated to some at Investment Analysis Group today. It was ok I guess... I'm not crazy about it, or maybe it's just the wrong kind of meat they put in (for my taste).
Today's IAG meeting was highly productive, if full of contention. Caraustar was the company chosen to be dissected today. Boy... were the presenters flamed. They claimed that Caraustar (laden with high debt and apparently, not a profitable business plan) could turn things around by selling off their non-profitable parts. Hmmm... I don't really like that idea. It's going to be really hard to sell their company when the paper industry is shrinking or remaining stagnant year on year, there is a huge possibility of outsourcing and the other companies in the sector are probably not even operating near full capacity (especially probable when you take into consideration the stagnation of the industry). Of course, I don't have any figures to back me up so... this is all talk.
I finally woke up from my FSX slumber today, and purchased a few stocks - Oracle (ORCL), SanDisk (SNDK), China Mobile (CHL) and WalGreen (WAG). Fine this is not very diverse, but I couldn't be bothered to spend too much time on FSX. Actually I bought Oracle yesterday, and it has already risen 3% today. However, that profit is not a good gauge since the market was rather bullish in general today. I believe Oracle will hit 24 within this year, which will give me a sweet 11% profit. There'll be a shareholder meeting in early November so we'll see how things go then.
SanDisk will be announcing their quarter soon and I expect it to be good news (post holiday sales). It went down for no good reason (as far as I can see) today so I bought it just before the close.
China Mobile should be a good medium-term stock. With so much growth potential (China, need I say more?), I don't really see it dropping. I'm with it until early 2008.
Walgreen... long-term stock. Probably not for the day trader. I'm keeping it till it shows 10% returns. It has a good amount of revenue and may even be up for a buyout.
Disclaimer: Everything above is merely an opinion... Buy at your own risk. 29 settembre homeworkI'm actually liking writing the essay. It's ultra time-consuming cos we've to write at least 2 essays per week but it's pretty fun and thought-provoking.
I've so much homework this weekend though. Essay writing, another essay for my world cultures class, a macroecons test, a macroecons assignment and a calc assignment ALL due on Tuesday. I probably shouldn't be spending time online and procrastinating, espsecially since I'm not entirely sure what to write for my essays. Bye for now... 24 settembre You and I bothJason Mraz - You and I Both Was it you who spoke the words that things would happen but not to me? Jason Mraz is talented... I think I am only just starting to appreciate how much meaning his convoluted lyrics have. 22 settembre sighSomeone from NYU committed suicide earlier today... Hmmm mixed thoughts. I don't even know the person, but one of the residential advisors in my hall seemed rather disturbed (even though she doesn't know the person either). The person who committed suicide isn't even in my hall. I wonder how people are supposed to feel in such situations - sad? I don't know... 21 settembre clubbing sux I can't believe I paid 20 dollars to have loud music increase my blood pressure and be squashed into a tiny area, totally unable to move or even hear my own thoughts. Wtf...
Life is so god damn boring. I wish I could find at least ONE thing I truly enjoy... 17 settembre FOODA gastronomically delightful day!!!
Today was my mom's and grandma's last day in New York before flying back to Singapore. For those who are puzzled as to why the hell they were here for so long, they actually toured Canada for some time before coming back to New York and taking a direct flight back to Singapore.
Well... we grabbed pizza at Famous Famiglia's. Seriously, I believe their claim when they say they've the best pizza in New York. The 10% student discount is a huge cherry on top of the cake. We then grabbed ice cream at Cold Stone haha.
Dinner was the highlight though. I can't really remember the name of the restaurant... Knickerbocker's Bar and Grill or something... We ordered a lobster bisque and a T-bone steak for 2 with baked potato, mashed potato and creamed spinach. The lobster bisque was really fantastic. There was half a lobster tail which was perfectly cooked (not overcooked as is usually expected with soups), the soup really tasted like lobster, and they put cognac sour cream which was a marvelous touch. The T-bone steak was like... omg... ORGASMIC. I think I nearly cummed in my pants when I ate it lol. It was seared to heavenly perfection, and was uber huge. Lol... the 3 of us couldn't finish it! The baked potato has rock salt on the outside, and was not too soft on the inside. The mashed potato had some cheese mixed in and had a really good flavour. I hate spinach... so I don't know about that lol. But the beef... omg! Haha...
Oh well... finally had some real steak here :) Next up... Jap food!!! |
|
|
