Sunday 10 July 2011

Los Desperados

Fridays P&L: GBP 60.00

Fridays Booze: 2 bottles of Chatau Poujeaux 2000

Fridays Soundtrack: Music to think about your girlfriends to


Friday was a difficult day for me, there was volatility in the market I was concentrating on, The DAX30, but I missed all the main action dealing with issues with the Stalker. The Europeans raised interest rates but the UK was unable to match them as they know the economy is to weak to withstand it. There is more to this than is immediately apparent. The UK doesn't have the fear of inflation that our German friends do but they are little concerned with the effects of inflation on the ordinary people. I suspect that the primary concern of the UK government is the amount of money tied up in the assets that the Bank of England has received in the form of collateral from the banking sector that they still support despite the fact the banks themselves are possibly even more mismanaged than before. The banking lobby in the UK must be very strong.
One of the strangest results of the banking crisis, which nearly destroyed the country is that the banks, which were mismanaged by out of touch old school bankers are now all run by former heads of trading. What happened to establishing a modicum of control. The nature of traders is to take risk, If you don't you will last less than six months in any trading floor in the world. It's sort of the job.

The Stalker has returned although we are still edgy around each other. She and I are constantly fencing when we should be spending what little time we may have happily. In a further complication the Lunatic has contacted me and given me an ultimatum to marry her and I have also received further contact from another ex who is Thai and slightly mad also. I am not so worried about the Thai girl as she is flirting with becoming a muslim, she lived in Abu Dhabi for some time and she knows I would never have a serious relationship with a muslim. The Lunatic however is a different matter, deep down I remember her fondly and she has even said it wasn't her that tried to kill me.

Today's music, my top five tracks:

Love Of My Life - Queen, the Lunatics favourite song. I suppose I have a soft spot for Freddie Mercury, even though the band always seemed to be deeply unfashionable. This song shows his powerful voice, but always reminds me of a party we had in her restaurant back in Indonesia. Good times. People who knew how to enjoy themselves.

I Don't Want To Lose You - A soft song from Tina Turner, Makes me think of all my serious relationships. Truth be told, all these girls are far too good for me. My father once said to me, "you know if you meet this fantastic woman, a really great girl - she is usually in love with some total asshole. Thats you".

Missing - One of my favourite songs from Everything But The Girl, The Stalker thinks this song appeals to me because of my over-dramatic personality. She may be right. When I am drunk, which is often, I like to listen to this "And I miss you, like the desert misses the rain" , all my significant relationships seem to involve this disturbing undercurrent of emotion. The Lunatic said she was completely changed and no longer felt so much for me - three phone calls later, each for several hours, and she issued her marriage demands. Just about the worst thing that could happen to me right now is for The Stalker and The Lunatic to get in contact. They both own property in Bali and in Jakarta so the last thing I want is for them to meet.

I'll Remember You - Not a huge fan of Madonna, I always got the impression she was trying too hard. I love this song mostly from the movie "With Honours". I watched this a few times, first time with The Lunatic when the homeless person died she said to me, "why do you want to be alone so much?". I hadn't realised that I did. Some things you can't learn in school.

Missing You - An eighties classic from John Waite - suits my self imposed sense of drama. I can spend a whole day listening to music like this. This song is all about how you feel when you stop seeing someone, usually its because she decided not to carry on the relationship - my specialty was behaving so badly no right minded woman would want to have anything to do with me.


In case I don't see 'ya...good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!

Saturday 2 July 2011

Unforgiven

Today's P&L: GBP 160.00

Today's Booze: 1 bottle of Russian Standard Vodka

Today's Soundtrack: Music to forget the past to


A boring day, most Americans had left the office for the thanksgiving weekend and as usual when the Americans aren't in the market it sort of dies after half past two. I made a quick 169 on going long, (buying) the FTSE100 in the morning but it was the kind of day when I may as well not have bothered. Instead I was considering the current state of the markets. I am less bemused by the continuing rise of the stock markets, obviously the reason is the continuing low bond yields which make equities attractive. If I had the money I would take a punt on 2 year Irish debt. Greek bonds seem attractive but at this stage I wouldn't pick any up until yields were over 40% because default seems inevitable, no matter how much money the Germans throw at the situation. bond YTM, (yield to maturity), is inverse to the price so as the yield rises the price drops and the bonds tend to perform like an equity. when that happens its a pure risk trade so sometimes it pays off like in Indonesia in ninety seven and other times it fails like in Argentina and before that Russia. The economy of America is frustrating. The woefully inept Bernanke announced an end to quantitative easing but this was followed up by the Fed announcing it will buy up to three hundred billion dollars of debt issued by the fed! The US debt situation is becoming comical.

I haven't posted for a while because I have been in hospital on and off. I shall be going back in at the end of July again - things don't look too good for me but who knows I feel ok more or less so I am not too worried right now.

The stalker finally seems to have had enough of me and I guess the most recent break up was inevitable. Of course I am sad about this but, to be honest, I am not what she needs in her life. She can't change me no matter how much she tries. I was considering this because I suppose I met her about twenty years ago and I have been in touch with the lunatic as well who I last saw twelve years ago. Both these women have matured and grown up in that time, it seems I have not.

Today's music, my top five tracks:

Undercover Of The Night - The Rolling Stones. Much criticized but I still love them. Tropical music for dangerous places. I have been to a few of those, the odd thing is I actively seem to seek out the worst places wherever I am.

Some Like It Hot - At heart I am still an eighties boy. The Power Station were much underrated. The two boys from Duran played some great guitar and bass and Tony Thompson on the drums, RIP Tony. Robert Palmer adds some sheen to the act, this is a good song and a great one to get drunk to.

In The Evening - Led Zep. This is the first track of the much unloved in through the out door record. At this stage Led Zeppelin were literally falling apart. The enormous success they had enjoyed was killing them. A good anecdote is when they about to perform a show and Elvis finished his set and introduced them saying "I know who your all here to see" because he was aware that for every one record he sold they sold three. At the time this was recorded Bonham was close to death and a shadow of his former self. Page was addicted to heroin and Plant was still grieving over the death of his son. This is still a great song though with a crushing guitar riff from Jimmy Page.

Only You Can Rock Me - UFO, a somewhat forgotten hard rock band from the early eighties. I saw this band live when I was about twelve. Life seemed so much easier back then, mind you its not like my life has been a struggle since then. The only person that has made things difficult for me is me.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond - The Floyd. This song is very evocative but also, for me, quite sad. It is about the founding member who went a bit mad after taking far too many drugs. Its sort of crazy to think he was out of the band before they started to enjoy their stadium rock success. I am someone who identifies with self-destructive behaviour.


In case I don't see 'ya...good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!