I decided to make a log of the trades that I have done in my trading/gambling account. I have most of the portfolio in Index funds with only a small individual trading account. These are the trades from that account.
2007 Buys:
1. DBC @ 23.15
2. KRE @ 44
3. NEN @ 67.77
4. PFE @ 24.5
5. WM @ 20.50
6. WMT @ 44
No sales in 2007 except BRK & MSFT
2008 Buys:
1. JNJ @ 64.10
2. LUK @ 40.05
3. MKL @ 400
4. USG @ 20.05
2008 Sales:
1. PFE @ 19.15; Loss of $5.55/sh
2. WM @ 8.7; Loss of 12/sh
3. WMT @ 60.05; Gain of 15.84/sh
Oct 6, 2008
Feb 23, 2007
Coca-Cola Chicken
This recipe was an inspired by a post on egullet.org I made it with a few modifications and turned out be a decent recipe.
Recipe:
2 lbs chicken - thighs and drumsticks
1 liter of CocaCola
1 onion medium size
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 inches of ginger
4 small green chillies
Start by reducing a liter of coke on medium heat to half in volume. Should take about 20-30 min. Now slice the onion lengthwise and chop the garlic, ginger and green chillies. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil and with the burner at medium high add the onions, garlic, ginger & chillies. After the onions are translucent add the chicken (I removed the skin from the thighs but left it on on the drumsticks). Brown the chicken for about 10 min and then add the reduced coke syrup along with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (The original recipe called for half cup of soy sauce which is a lot!!). Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and partially cover the vessel and wait for the liquid to reduce more for about 20min. Now would be good time to get some rice ready - Cook rice in the rice cooker :-). Taste the sauce and add some pepper, pinch of salt and some tobasco sauce. Serve hot and enjoy. Worth making again, I might try it to make some wings. I took some pictures of the leftovers and will post them soon.
Recipe:
2 lbs chicken - thighs and drumsticks
1 liter of CocaCola
1 onion medium size
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 inches of ginger
4 small green chillies
Start by reducing a liter of coke on medium heat to half in volume. Should take about 20-30 min. Now slice the onion lengthwise and chop the garlic, ginger and green chillies. Add a couple of tablespoons of oil and with the burner at medium high add the onions, garlic, ginger & chillies. After the onions are translucent add the chicken (I removed the skin from the thighs but left it on on the drumsticks). Brown the chicken for about 10 min and then add the reduced coke syrup along with 2 tablespoons of soy sauce (The original recipe called for half cup of soy sauce which is a lot!!). Bring the liquid to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and partially cover the vessel and wait for the liquid to reduce more for about 20min. Now would be good time to get some rice ready - Cook rice in the rice cooker :-). Taste the sauce and add some pepper, pinch of salt and some tobasco sauce. Serve hot and enjoy. Worth making again, I might try it to make some wings. I took some pictures of the leftovers and will post them soon.
Feb 21, 2007
Colorado Ski Trip Report
This is my second trip to Colorado for a ski trip(Feb15-19). Last time we stayed at Winter Park and skiied at Winter Park(2days) and Brekenridge(2days). This trip we decided to make Summit county our base and ski as many different resorts as possible. We stayed at Gateway Condos in Keystone(found through vrbo.com). We were 2 skiers and 1 snowboarder(me) and we ended up skiing Keystone(2days), Vail(2days) & Breckenridge(1day).
The best thing we did was stay outside the Eisenhower Tunnel - this helped a lot because the tunnel & Loveland Pass were closed for a couple of days because of snow, bad visibility & road conditions. This resulted in less Denver crowds which was great. The ski resorts got about 20" of snow over the first 3 days of the trip and then it was bright and sunny the rest of the time.
Powder boarding is a completly different ballgame compared to the groomed and icy trails of the northeast. I took an all day lesson at Vail on my second day, and this was one of the days with bad conditions. The instructor was great and though it was a group lesson there were only 2 people in the group. Because of the bad conditions most of the back bowls and lifts wer closed, but the instructor did take us through tress etc which was fun. The trick was to ski as close to the trees as possible to avoid the wind. The ski school is worth the money for the shorter lines.
We went back to Vail for a 2nd time when it was sunny and for my money Vail is the best ski area for a advanced skier. We started at 9am and till 2pm in the back bowls and they were awesome! The crowds are very thin in the back bowls and you can most of the time make a track and check it out from the lift. Also the blue sky basin was fun for glade skiing. I think Vail is one of the few places that I think comes close to Whistler for size and variety of skiing.
Keystone and Breck were good too, esp Breck because we went there after they had about 12" of fresh powder. For Breck I highly recomment Peaks 7 & 10 because they are not accessible by car and they crowds are lesser. The T-bar to the top was very chilly and windy and we found out about the new lift to the top bowls only later. But the bowls weren't as much fun as Vail. My friend took a all day skiing lesson at Keystone and had the instructor all himself after lunch. Breck I think gets more crowds from Denver than Vail.
Overall we had a great trip and my body is still a long way from recovering from the 30+ hrs of skiing. Also I have a new tree friend that I met on the last day at Keystone, when it got a but icy and I missed a turn. Thank god for all the snow on the previous days :-)
The best thing we did was stay outside the Eisenhower Tunnel - this helped a lot because the tunnel & Loveland Pass were closed for a couple of days because of snow, bad visibility & road conditions. This resulted in less Denver crowds which was great. The ski resorts got about 20" of snow over the first 3 days of the trip and then it was bright and sunny the rest of the time.
Powder boarding is a completly different ballgame compared to the groomed and icy trails of the northeast. I took an all day lesson at Vail on my second day, and this was one of the days with bad conditions. The instructor was great and though it was a group lesson there were only 2 people in the group. Because of the bad conditions most of the back bowls and lifts wer closed, but the instructor did take us through tress etc which was fun. The trick was to ski as close to the trees as possible to avoid the wind. The ski school is worth the money for the shorter lines.
We went back to Vail for a 2nd time when it was sunny and for my money Vail is the best ski area for a advanced skier. We started at 9am and till 2pm in the back bowls and they were awesome! The crowds are very thin in the back bowls and you can most of the time make a track and check it out from the lift. Also the blue sky basin was fun for glade skiing. I think Vail is one of the few places that I think comes close to Whistler for size and variety of skiing.
Keystone and Breck were good too, esp Breck because we went there after they had about 12" of fresh powder. For Breck I highly recomment Peaks 7 & 10 because they are not accessible by car and they crowds are lesser. The T-bar to the top was very chilly and windy and we found out about the new lift to the top bowls only later. But the bowls weren't as much fun as Vail. My friend took a all day skiing lesson at Keystone and had the instructor all himself after lunch. Breck I think gets more crowds from Denver than Vail.
Overall we had a great trip and my body is still a long way from recovering from the 30+ hrs of skiing. Also I have a new tree friend that I met on the last day at Keystone, when it got a but icy and I missed a turn. Thank god for all the snow on the previous days :-)
Feb 4, 2007
SuperBowl Menu
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Hummus
- Tomato Basil hummus
- Lemon Parlsey hummus
Quesadilla
- Chicken
- Shrimp
Brownies with white chocolate & Walnuts
Irish Cheesecake
Hummus
- Tomato Basil hummus
- Lemon Parlsey hummus
Quesadilla
- Chicken
- Shrimp
Brownies with white chocolate & Walnuts
Irish Cheesecake
Feb 1, 2007
Ideas & Earnings Evaluations
1. Breakthrough Ideas for 2007 from HBR Hat-tip to MarginalRevolution
2. Matrix USA LLC Independent Stcok Analysis Firm - Quantitative but pick what you use for data.
3. SternStewart The reasearch firm Matrix(see above) is based. They have some good reading material on their site. This is a story based on the SternStewart work.
2. Matrix USA LLC Independent Stcok Analysis Firm - Quantitative but pick what you use for data.
3. SternStewart The reasearch firm Matrix(see above) is based. They have some good reading material on their site. This is a story based on the SternStewart work.
Snowboard Racing Wk5
44.6s & 44.28s
Today was a frustrating day of Racing. I thought I would improve on my unofficial 42s from last week. I fixed a bunch of things - got my board waxed, got rid of my jacket and raced hard and low. But both my races were ugly, I bailed out of my turns to hit the gates and never got a good flow going. I think my mistake was not boarding on Tuesday. I thought the weekend Sunday River trip gave me overconfidence about my turns and I couldn't replicate that today. My runs after the race were much cleaner.
Theme for this season: 40sec or Bust :-)
Today was a frustrating day of Racing. I thought I would improve on my unofficial 42s from last week. I fixed a bunch of things - got my board waxed, got rid of my jacket and raced hard and low. But both my races were ugly, I bailed out of my turns to hit the gates and never got a good flow going. I think my mistake was not boarding on Tuesday. I thought the weekend Sunday River trip gave me overconfidence about my turns and I couldn't replicate that today. My runs after the race were much cleaner.
Theme for this season: 40sec or Bust :-)
Jan 30, 2007
AA Changes - 2
My first AA change was a minor change which resulted in an 1% increase to my Commodities exposure. My second change that I performed in the last week of Jan'07 was one with more impact on my AA. I think I violated some of the principles of AA in doing this change. First the details of the change.
I exchanged 1/3rd of my REIT's(VGSIX) allocation into Domestic Large Value(VIVAX). I have to accept the fact that this is dirty market timing. The exchange resulted in my moving away for my AA targets but the fundamentals behind REITs looked really poor. Also the following factors convinced me that REITs were due for a correction:
1. REIT yields compared to Treasuries. Right now REITs are yielding less than treasuries, which means that all the returns from thsi asset class have to come from price, P/E increases. This after REITs returned 35% in 2006 and 22% annualized over the last 5yrs, which leads me to believe that a price or P/E expansion is really difficult.
2. Also there is a lot of activity in the REIT market. Private Equity groups and other REITs are looking into a $40billion buyout/takeover. There is still a lot of money looking to invest in REITs when at the same time the individual home sales are crashing and bubble blogs are getting record number of hits.
I exchanged 1/3rd of my REIT's(VGSIX) allocation into Domestic Large Value(VIVAX). I have to accept the fact that this is dirty market timing. The exchange resulted in my moving away for my AA targets but the fundamentals behind REITs looked really poor. Also the following factors convinced me that REITs were due for a correction:
1. REIT yields compared to Treasuries. Right now REITs are yielding less than treasuries, which means that all the returns from thsi asset class have to come from price, P/E increases. This after REITs returned 35% in 2006 and 22% annualized over the last 5yrs, which leads me to believe that a price or P/E expansion is really difficult.
2. Also there is a lot of activity in the REIT market. Private Equity groups and other REITs are looking into a $40billion buyout/takeover. There is still a lot of money looking to invest in REITs when at the same time the individual home sales are crashing and bubble blogs are getting record number of hits.
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