lately,….. i’ve been getting into my car at aro…

lately,…..

i’ve been getting into my car at around 9am.

i take the gulf road into the city.

that roundabout by the seif palace has always pissed me off, and still does to this day.

i hang a left at the lights outside the stock exchange building, drive past the NBK HQ and U-turn at the roundabout, hoping the grand mosque’s parking lot aint full.

so far it hasnt been.

some days i grab a tall mocha frap from the starbucks they stuck under the escalators in the KSE, some days i dont, most days i do tho,….

so i get to say : ” just the usual today please. ”



then i head up to the balcony that over looks the floor, and say my good mornings.

lately,….

it feels more like an old mans coffee shop than a stock exchange. half the time we’re shooting the shit about stuff other than the markets. the other half of the time there are enough seats there to actually put your feet up and take a nap.

most of the day is spent reading the papers and bitching about the power cuts.

honestly, with weekdays like these who needs a fuckin weekend anyway?

they should move the KSE to the hilton and have big ass screens on the building so we can watch from the pool or the beach.

everyone would come to work in flipflops and swimming trunks.

speedos will result in your account being closed and your stocks being distributed to the bathroom attendants.

cold fruity drinks with umbrellas will come with complimentary sunblock.

loud hawaiian shirts will be mandatory.

i always see people wearing suits in the KSE when they dont have to. they obviously favour the image over trading comfortably, so all you suit wearing guys can sweat it out under the sun

every hour a barge of ice will be dumped into the immediate sea so as to keep the temperature a cool 27 degrees. the swimming pool too.

excessive body hair will result in forced waxing, restraints and sedatives will be used if necessary. ( there was really hairy bastard in my pool yesterday so i had to throw that one in there )

the great thing about this is that this would be the most comfortable mixed sex beach environment for everyone to be in.

unlike the local malls, beaches, coffee shops, etc,….. the stock exchange is probably the only place in kuwait where women are almost never ogled beyond :

“ooo something pretty there,…GOD DAMN CHECK OUT THAT PAIR OF DEALS ON MARKAZ!!!”

so attention whores, male and female, probably wont like it much there


so go on, write your local MP, and have them put the motion to parliament, actually scratch that those bloody tabtabeis will have a field day with this.

ten bucks says they wont object to fat hairy ass in a pair of speedos with a fat gold chain, but they’ll scream their heads off about a pretty analyst in a bikini.

if nothing else, thats just down right criminal!

at the risk of sounding like a tabtabei, anyone not offended by a fat hairy arse in a speedo is truely an agent of satan and should be castrated to prevent offspring!


so if you know the owner of the hilton or the sas, give them a call, tell them to put brokerages where those over priced gift shops are and their business will quadruple

i mean who the hell pays a half KD for a fuckin snickers bar from those places anyway?

see ya at the beach boys and girls, hopefully.

Phobias. so blue ice did a list of her phobias …

Phobias.


so blue ice did a list of her phobias recently, and i’ve been trying to come up with something to write about, plus i did do a “stuff that makes me grrrr” post,…..

so here goes:

-roaches!!! those fuckin lil bastards that seem to get everywhere. those big ones scare the hell out of me, so no trips to madagascar for me anytime soon. apparently, theyre the only things that would survive a nuclear attack, and they can live for up to nine days without their head,……NINE FUCKIN DAYS !!!,….even zombies dont last that long!

-slugs,….i dunno what it is that makes slugs yucky but snails relatively ok. technically a snail is just a slug with a mortgage, and yeah i do enjoy escargot whenever i’m in paris,……. so no explaining that one i’m afraid.

- certain kinds of viney plants, you know, the ones with flowers at the end, and thick stems that kinda sway menacingly in the wind,……you never know whats in those fuckers, and half the time i’m sure somethings going to shoot out from there and either cover me in gunk or attempt to digest me,…… which is why i love the dessert, nothing fucking grows !!!

-those big ass flies you get in fall and spring,…. i once swatted one and it made a godawful mess, and i could see stuff inside wriggleing around, eggs or something i dunno,… ick, even typeing about it gives me the willies.

-really really small dogs,…..theyre really more annoying than anything,…still i worry that i’ll step on one of them one day and its swing round and bite me in the arse!

- i mentioned this on tellers blog: hungover/visibly unfullfilled/bored/absent minded/tired/stoned/pissed off bank tellers who are in my account doing something like a transfer etc,…. FUCKING PAY ATTENTION !!! i’m pretty sure one day a mr mugumbo in chad will be partying cos the stoned bank teller emptied my account by accident when all i wanted to to do was pay my visa bill,… dont be fooled, those sweets arent free,… theyre there to calm you down with their sugary goodness.

- germs on handles of public toilets: yup, even in the nicer ones, i mean come on, do you really know that the guy before you didnt poke thru the toilet paper while wipeing his ass? and if he did,… well i dont see a sink in the shitter cubicle, do you?

- even worse: those hoses they have here…… again, dude/ette before you,…. which is why i always grab a piece of paper to flush and handle handles.


hmmm,…. i think thats about it for now.

oh one more thing.

i’m not really afraid of heights, but sometimes i catch myself looking over the side of a building, say, from the roof, and thinking,…. i could probably make the jump.

lol i know its stupid cos the first time i though that i was about 10 years old on a sixth floor balconey.

so if you ever see me looking over a balconey or side of a building, deep in tought, like i have the weight of the world on my shoulders,….. thats probably what i’m thinking.

i’m not suicidal, but if you try looking over and suspending your disbelief for a second,…. it never really looks that high.

i’m afraid that one day i’ll be bored enough, drunk enough or stupid enough to actually try it.

i think i should take up skydiving to get rid of that stupid impulse.

Did Amre Mousa have to go pee pee ? considering t…

Did Amre Mousa have to go pee pee ?

considering the gravity of todays UN security council meeting,….

considering the fact that its televised globally,…..

considering that he panders to the arab streets,…..

who were no doubt, all watching,…..

he really must have had to go, cos you know, when you gotta go you just gotta go!

how can one leave in the middle of your so called enemy’s speech?

the fundamental proverb in life and especially in war is “,…..keep your enemies closer.”

was getting up meant to make the arab streets cheer in defiance?

or was it your tailor calling about when you’ll take delivery of your brand spanking new suit? you know the one that cost so much that it would feed a palestinian village for a week.

no wonder hes had such an illustrious career full of success and triumphs,…..

ummm no wait, i’m mistaken, i was thinking of koffi annann.

.



BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

hehehe,…

one thing i keep asking when i see those two, is why the fuck are they still doing what they do?

i’m not saying they should be removed, altho they should,…..its more a personal question than one about politics.

i mean sure the positions are very prestigious, and the pay must be good, and you travel the world, and meet new people……..

all great stuff to put on your college application or resume.

sure as hell beat my ” won second place in an interschool stage performance competition”.

the question is this, why?

you know you have a ceremonial role. and that youve actually accomplished very little no matter how hard youve tried, partly cos the people youre dealing with all have their own agendas and never shall those agendas meet……,

even if they were the same.

and partly cos youre not prepared to make tough decisions and have people think that you might be an ass

dont they get fed up with accomplishing absolutely nothing? i mean your kindergarten teacher has more of an impact on the world than kofi. hitlers nanny must have been a real bitch, and saddams KG teacher was probably a registered sex offender.

one thing you can tell about the both of them, and one thing that the whole world sees,….

theyre attention whores.

they love it, and cant get enough of it.

————————————————————————————————

politics aside, cos i’m sure there will be a plethora of blogs that will criticise both sides, i found these points interesting:

dan gillerman the israeli ambasador, mentioned blogging in the UN security council. lol never thought i’d see the day. i think i read the blogg he quoted but i cant remember exactly which one it was.

amre mousa doesnt know how to work his earpiece translator thingy.

the qatari guy sure used a helluva lot of gel, or was it oil?

the chinese ambassadors tie was too tight and too high.

ghana dude, the president, seemed to get annoyed that qatar, israel and lebanon all wanted a chance for a rebuttal,… he must have a hot date lined up.

i like gillerman and i like mitri, altho i must admit i dont know mitri that well.

the syrians and iranians looked scruffy,…. they always look scruffy, so did the iraqi ambassador, what is it with tyrannical regimes? cant they afford stylists, or atleast a decent barber?

even qatari dude looked better despite the barrel of oil he used on his hair,… no wonder all they have is gas these days .


upon proof reading this post, i realised i’d never get a job on CNN’s diplomatic liscence, not even now, when the shows been canelled.

non-post: i was gonna post something. then i got…

non-post:

i was gonna post something.

then i got sidetracked.

now i cant remember what it was that i was gonna post.

guess i can make this one of those random posts, umm which i suppose isnt anything new since most of my post degenerate into randomness

i’ve got a hankering for a good hearty stew, lamb or mutton.

my cable holy grail is actually quite simple: stop trying to take something out of the market everyday….. trading turnover is what kills alot of guys on the floor, and reducing my turnover worked well on equities ( i have virtually no turnover ), and so should work on cable too.

atleast three new people i met over the course of last week all said the same thing : “i only want KD30 – KD50 a day from day trading the KSE, is that too much to ask? then i can quit my job and do this full time.”

ummm ok first off, stop kidding yourself into thinking that having seemingly modest requests makes a difference to the market. you might as well ask for KD1000 / day for all the market cares. secondly, if you can manage an active 1 KD a day day trading i take my hat off to you. thats active, not average gains over the year.

i used to be an idiot and think like that as well

but what can you say to those guys,…. no one listens when they think theyre being reasonable.

anyway back to my holy grail on cable…… systems work great if your time frame is infinte, ie it will go up or down just dont know when. so time becomes the variable. i’ve decided to take time out. which means i trade when i know when things are going to happen, ie around big news days.

hence the title of my post yesterday

its working nicely , and is alot more relaxing, and fits into my trading philosophy, and i can chill by the pool alot more which is the important thing

mmmm,.. stew,…… must have,…

arabic classes are over, so my evenings have been freed up quite a bit.

coffee anyone ?


i need to eat more fiber i think.

"I made a grand today". But you made it in a sleaz…

“I made a grand today”. But you made it in a sleazy way.

youre only ever as good as your last trade, if you’ll permit me to pervert a tinsel town saying.

“jack of all trades”

anyone ever call you that?

did you know that its normally follwed by “master of none” ?

so theyre basically taking the piss.

but heres the question:

does life favour the specialist or the generalist?

does evolution favor the book smart or the street smart?

actually, does evolution actually favor the “smart” at all?

think about it, tigers are almost extinct, and theyre extremely cunning predators, while cows are everywhere, and they shit on their food,…… there was one on my burger bun last night , and yet tigers, i suppose dont taste that good cos theyre normally not on menus.

oh and we, the brightest of the bunch, routinely go on killing sprees, and have the capacity to kill ourselves about 100 times over.

considering we’re depleting the earth, killing each other, cooking ourselves with global warming, and potentially flooding ourselves at the same time,….. perhaps we’re too stupid to just push the button and get it over and done with



but i digress…..



it must be nice to be able to say “i’m a doctor/lawyer/architect/etc” for the simple conveniance of being able to classify yourself in one short sentance. and people go ooooh or ahhhh while an air of respectability descends over you, despite the fact that you got your dental assitant pregnant, or your number one client is the local crack supplier.

on the otherhand, when i say i work the markets for a living, i, and everyone of my kind are automatically lumped into the gammblers section of society. consquently, anything gained or lost is attributed to that.


atleast thats the way it is until the next market boom, and we get all the ooohs and ahhhhs again ( barton biggs pointed that out so cheers to you old man )


which is fine by me actually

i’ll admit i didnt get into this game for the oohs and ahhs, but at the same time i’ll admit that i do enjoy them when they come

but to this day i havent got a clue what to call myself.

i’m not quite a trader, cos i dont really trade frequently enough to be called one. i take positions.

i dont like investor cos that sounds old,….. and i dont yet have hair growing out of my ears.

lol i cant even say “i’m a trader at (insert big ass firm here)”.

independant trader makes it sound like i sell banak on the street

or deal drugs lol.

damn, even “drug lord” has a nicer ring than any of the above.



so what do i put on my business card?

(right now it says adviser, but even that makes me sound 65 atleast!)



an indie trader friend of mine called us cowboys.


but i refuse to wear tassles.

and dont get me started on buttless chaps!


so i guess at the end of the day,……

“i’ll let the dead presidents represent me”



————————————————————————————————

i found my holy grail and i feel fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine

salalah anyone? :P so i’m watching the BBC weathe…

salalah anyone?

so i’m watching the BBC weather report, yet again wondering why their weather people dress so shabbily, considering the 150 plus quid per tv the entire UK population is held ransom to if they want to own a tv set…….

and the guy goes thru the gulf countries:

kuwait – hot as fuck.

dubai – not quite as hot as fuck, but humid as fuck.

saudi – more of the fucking same

salalah, oman – 24C

baghdad – hot and dangerous as fuck.

……………….. hold on !

24C ?!?!?!?!

in the middle of summer ???

wtf am i still doing here?

so i got onto wikipedia, and started researching.

at the start of summer i was planning a short trip to beirut, with the sole intention of researching the country as a potential base of operations. i must admit tho that the taxes, and living costs i heard about was dampening my enthusiasm about beirut, but it had so much else going for it.

i’ll still be going there, because i figure the best thing i can do to help the locals is spend money there at a time when no one else will be going. i wont get into my beliefs about humaintarian organisations and their relief fund usage right now, especially since immediate relief is what theyre good at,…. but i believe making a difference happens on a small scale, like finding a mom an pop restaraunt that might be struggleing and eating there exclusively during your stay, or a family run hotel that needs the customers, etc.

anyway, back to oman.

its green!

i didnt know that,….

and yeah the BBC didnt fuck up….. it really was 24C there yesterday.

its a bit humid apparently, something like 89% humidity….. but with 24C it cant be that bad can it?

and it seems to have kind of an odd and very colourful history spanning thousands of years.

and theyre “Ibadis” which is a sect of islam that i never heard of before.

all in all its gotten me really curious about the country, so if anyones been to muscat or salalah ( hehehe gotta love that name), do drop me aline and tell me what its like, where to go, what to eat and what to see and do there.

if you live there even better, lol you’ll be my second international reader that i know of

how expensive is it to live there?

and i guess the one question i cant seem to find an answer to,…. was your coast hit by the tsunami? ,…… dunno why, but that questions been bugging me all day.


————————————————————————————————


i currently have a potatoe wedges addiction.