Friday Times article on the KSE: pick up a copy …

Friday Times article on the KSE:


pick up a copy of todays friday times from your friendly neighbourhood bakaala.

a couple of pages in you’ll see an article titled ” an expats guide to the KSE”.

its a nice read and definately something worth going thru if you are an expat who’s been thinking of going into the market here.



i’ll be scoping out the KSE on saturday for new suckers
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how many are going to misstime their next misstep?
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du pont and dow chemicals profits are down quite drastically,….

watch the second quarter earnings in non-oil producing countries.

cos i know something not many people know nanny nanny nah naaaaaah !

but its not a big secret and actually its not a secret at all. anyone can find out by popping down to their local airline company which is what i did the day oil hit $50

to quote a fatalist somewhere and somewhen:


“……and so it begins,…..”


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at the moment i’m full of mutton stew

what i want for xmass,…. or sooner :P preferab…

what i want for xmass,…. or sooner

preferably sooner of course

so where the fk does one go for musical instruments in this country?

if anyone has any ideas or better yet if anyones seen one of these on sale let me know.


right now to clean up my drool

a little bit of this and a little bit of that on t…

a little bit of this and a little bit of that on the KSE, Paradise Now, and junk

holy crap have i been busy. and its not the good kind of busy. its the kind of busy that just drains you of all energy while going about running errands.

and yet, while running errands are the bane of my existence, it does allow me one small pleasure during the errand running.

for some reason i find it nearly impossible to sit still at home and listen to music. i’ve always got something else going on in my periphery, be it watching bloomberg out of the corner of my eye or perhaps looking for something somewhere for some reason that i’ll forget in about 5 minutes.

right now,…. i’ve got music playing, i’m typeing this up, and theres something on cnn about a bomb in sri lanka, and i’m trying to figure out what i need to do tomorrow.

who said men cant multitask?!?!

i’m multitasking like a crack whore on,… well on crack !

but as i was saying, the car offers me the relative peace and quiet to listen without distractions. apart from the morons on the road of course, but then i avoid alot of them by doing all my stuff in between the rush hours. infact half the time i’ll take the longer way around on my way home if i’m really feelin the music

i really have no idea how people go thru rush hour traffic everyday without shooting someone. leave earlier and leave later,… nothing more to it

i’d rather a nicer drive an hour later than spending that hour going grrrrrrrr at other drivers.

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i dropped by the KSE today while i was in town. it was kinda dull there. we’re just bouncing along waiting for saudi to either crash and burn or slowly limp back. half of the seats on the floor were empty but the volume today is rather encouraging.

i didnt buy anything today, but i’m waiting to pounce on a couple of counters when the price is right,…. and theres quite a few out there trading at bargains,… and quite a few of them are bluechip companies.

i tend to stay away from anything trading below KD1.000, altho there are exceptions i’m still in the process of building my portfolio’s base so i’m not adding crap to it right now

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funny how the world works,….. oil’s at an all time high, the mideastern govts are flush with cash,….. but the average dude on the street prolly lost shit loads of borrowed money on the markets.

here, saudi, dubai, just about everywhere.

i’m sure theres a word for that,…. but right now i cant recall what it may be

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i finally watched Paradise Now.

fuck me thats a good film!

i’ll be surprised if you havent heard of it yet. its about suicide bombers in palestine.

now before you either roll your eyes or get all fanatical on me, let me tell you that this film caters to neither side. and that is what makes the film special. it neither glorifies or pardons the bombers, nor does it take the hardline stance of turning them all into monsters a la hollywood terrorists.

what it is, is a commentary and criticism of the economic realities of the occupied territories, and the exploitation of that reality by the militant groups. theres one scene in particular that sums it all up, but i wont spoil it for anyone

go watch it, you wont be sorry

but you come away from the film angry not with the bombers themselves, but rather with those involved in making those bombings.

i’ve also been reading a book called Terror Inc by Loretta Napoleoni about the finances and funding of various groups from fatah to the IRA and the involvement of the cia and other national intelligence services.

if you push politics and allegiances to one side,…. and only consider the film with its focus on the human cost, and consider the information on the funding of groups such as hamas and fatah,….. you cant help but get really pissed off at the crap thats been fed to the palestinians by their own people.

hmmm maybe this should be a post in its own right.

anyway if you get the chance, watch the film and read the book. since it covers so much of what goes on in our backyard, its only right that we be fully aware , and not rely on the propaganda machines of any side.

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i really hate celery :

zen and the art of dish washing. as odd as it so…

zen and the art of dish washing.

as odd as it sounds, the act of washing dishes is rather calming.

doing the dishes this afternoon, i spaced out as i went about the routine of soap, rinse and place on rack to dry. ( i think its called a rack, that wire thingy you pop your plates on.)

theres a whole meditative quality to it when youre able to zone out. instead of a mantra, you have the monotony of the repetition and the cycles that different types of crockery and cutlery require for a good clean washing.

plates need you to do the swirly thing with the sponge, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, then the flip and swirl, and onto the other side. or maybe you do the zig-zag thing across the surface instead.

after youve done a few of them, you mix it up a bit with some glasses and cups. you get the lip first with the sponge, which causes the suds to slide into the glass itself. then the sponge is thrust into the glass, and if you do it too hard you get a spurt of foam come flying out

and then cutlery have their own individual set of motions.

the beauty of it all lies in the fact that from within the purpose there is the required repetition that enables one to space out, and the required repetition completes your immediate purpose while enabling you to drift away.

and yet unlike sitting with your legs crossed while humming something unintelligible, dishwashing is about letting the world around you in, as opposed to blocking it out.
the temperature of the water, the pressure level, the density of the suds, etc…. all needs to be controlled while floating off into space on that fragrant apple vinegar scent of clean

and the thing is,… youve probably already experiened this at some point. but maybe you just didnt realise it.

who would’ve thought that tranquility is found at the bottom of your kitchen sink?

as i predicted,…….. i’ve spent hours on the h…

as i predicted,……..

i’ve spent hours on the hollywood stock exchange thingy.

its incredibly addictive, and i actually found myself reading the entertainment section in the papers today,.. something i rarely did before.

i’m afraid this might turn me into an airhead :

that might not be such a bad thing tho,.. ignorance is bliss as they say , and it does give me something more to do on the weekend as sad as that sounds

i bought shrek 3, but thats not opening until next summer, and i bought silent hill which is opening today.

so if youre reading this from the US, take as many people out to see silent hill this weekend cos i need it to make more than 60 million dollars over the next four weeks:P,…..

and if youre not in the US, take your family on an early vacation to NY to see the movie

all this movie stuff actually reminded me of the last good film i watched. its called the believer, and it was about a jewish kid in new york who’s a nazi skinhead. its well worth a couple hours of your life if you happen to come across it.

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what does it say about you when the stuff you enjoy on the weekend is so similar to your dayjob?

i’ve found this to be quite disturbing, as it is further evidence that my life is hardly a balanced one. and i dont think you can simply put it down to an occupational hazard.

i know traders who go sailing, play football, or do anything but look at markets on the weekends.

on the otherhand, i know a handfull who do nothing but look at charts all weekend. now theyre obviously not right, and in many cases theyre the ones that are lagging the market.( losing to the layman:P).

but atleast they can say they gotta put in the extra hours to make up for their losses.( altho, putting in the extra hours in this business doesnt mean squat, youre more likely to blow more by working faster and harder and trading more)

i wonder how many town planners go home to play simcity,…..

balance and harmony,…..

to begin with, how would you define balance and harmony? because surely your definition would differ from mine.

and if one were to achieve said balance and harmony,…. would that make you happy?

or would you crave spontaneity with a dash of havoc and a sprinkling of chaos?

how much energy do we spend everyday in the pursuit of harmony in our lives?

how much time is wasted trying to manage it all to fit into the rigid framework that we define as happiness?

perhaps we should just ride the wave,
aiming for the beach,
but not really caring how we get there,….
because as long as you dont wipe out on the razor sharp coral below,….

isnt it all about enjoying the ride after all?

THE HOLLYWOOD STOCK EXCHANGE,…..LMFAO!!!!! So…

THE HOLLYWOOD STOCK EXCHANGE,…..LMFAO!!!!!

So i got sent this link today in an email:

http://www.hsx.com/

now all those critics out there can make themselves heard once and for all, and maybe even make some money out of it too

you can trade what they call moviestocks (self-explanatory) and/or trade starbonds which go up or down depending on your stars success at the box office.

the basic idea on the moviestocks is to figure out what it will take at the box office the opening weekend and for the first four weeks. the HSX will make the market and by that i mean they set a price ( say USD50 mill opening), so all you have to do is decide if you think its going to be higher ( so you buy) or lower (so you sell).

now heres the intersting part,….. you can participate in two ways.

1- if you dont want to gammble with your hard earned money dont worry, the HSX site linked above is free, and you play for what they call HOLLYWOOD DOLLARS. you get 2 million to begin with ( whoohoo!!!!) and you can trade your winnings in for things like t-shirts etc.

2- if on the otherhand you think you can make a decent living doing this,…. and i think some people could, the HSX is owned by a company called CANTOR. they used to be called cantor fitzgerald. anyway theyre a reputable brokerage and they normally do otherstuff like equities/bonds/commodities as well i think. flick cnn or bloomberg on during monday to friday and you’ll see an old dude from there talking about the market openings.

anyway heres the link to them: http://www.cantorindex.co.uk/index2.cfm

if you open an account with them you can actually trade for real money. but of course they dont give you US$2 mill instead of $2 mill hollywood!

now from what little i know about islam, gammbling is a big no-no. and this site is technically a gammbling site cos they offer contracts for differences ie you buy at $1 and sell at $2 so you make $1.

bear in mind,… youre not actually buying stock in a company, which someone informed was the main differentiating factor making the stockmarket ok to speculate in.

on the otherhand,… (lol you had to know this was coming ),…..

you are buying something of value and selling it at a higher value, which is what kuwait finance house did with that loan on your car. and we all know KFH is your friendly neighbourhood sharia bank

so you be the judge

i’m already going to hell for my sins and for not being a believer, but maybe i’ll get some time off for that one warning



so if youre one of those people who enjoy saying “ITS GONNA BE MASSIVE!!” or “that looks like ass” now you can put your money where your mouth is

and if youre one of those people that go “S/HE IS FUCKIN AMAZING THEY GONNA BE A STAR!!!” or “s/he sucks ass” ,…. you too can put your money where your mouth is

i can tell this is going to waste sooo much of my time,……….