Have not been to any movie in the last couple of weeks. Nothing out there seems worth watching. I am waiting for "Bourne Ultimatum" as well as "Rush Hour 3". On the indy side, have not seem a good one out the past couple of weeks. I did hear that "Once" is good.
I know this is late but apparently "Inland Empire" will be out on DVD soon. A couple of friends were talking about having a David Lynch screening nite once that DVD is out in the market-that should be fun!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Columbia MBA Application update
I have been corresponding with an Associate Director of Admissions at Columbia and I have to say she has been super nice about responding to my questions. Emails from her as well from a recent Columbia MBA alum inspired me to approach a manager level person at my current firm about giving me a reference and it turned out to be great. Looks like I will be getting a great one. One problem solved there.
The rest of the application:
ESSAYS
Essay1: I sent out a draft of my first essay to a few people late last week. It definitely did not look spectacular, so kinda worried me. Today I had an idea to completely change the format of the essay. My new idea should address all issues concerning my application especially as to how everything I have done so far in my career will translate into a successful financial career. I will draft it this weekend. Scrap the earlier version!
Essay 2, 3, and 4: Have a good idea on their contents but have not started writing any yet. Again this weekend I should get these going as well.
Essay 5 (optional): I decided to write this optional essay where the applicant is asked to explain anything else to the committee that will let them know me better. I have decided to write this as well to explain an anamoly in my academic performance. Should work well.
REFERENCES
All taken care of. As soon as the 2008 ED application is available online, I will include the email IDs of my references so that they can start working on them.
The plan is to submit the application by August 10.
The rest of the application:
ESSAYS
Essay1: I sent out a draft of my first essay to a few people late last week. It definitely did not look spectacular, so kinda worried me. Today I had an idea to completely change the format of the essay. My new idea should address all issues concerning my application especially as to how everything I have done so far in my career will translate into a successful financial career. I will draft it this weekend. Scrap the earlier version!
Essay 2, 3, and 4: Have a good idea on their contents but have not started writing any yet. Again this weekend I should get these going as well.
Essay 5 (optional): I decided to write this optional essay where the applicant is asked to explain anything else to the committee that will let them know me better. I have decided to write this as well to explain an anamoly in my academic performance. Should work well.
REFERENCES
All taken care of. As soon as the 2008 ED application is available online, I will include the email IDs of my references so that they can start working on them.
The plan is to submit the application by August 10.
Red Sox
I went to the SoSH website today after a few days and not surprisingly saw signs of nervousness creeping in. You know people are nervous when a thread titled "Remain calm, All is well" started 24-36 hrs ago has almost 70 posts already! oh boy! For those outside the East Coast baseball world, the Spankees have cut the Red Sox lead to 7 games at the start of the day today.
I am not too worried. I just hope Papi is atleast at 75-80% on his bum leg. With ma man Manny's power dropping this season so far we would need a power bat in the lineup to scare pitchers. There are rumors of the Sox acquiring Texeira from Texas which I think would be a good move. Hope Schilling comes back and gives the team atleast 12-15 quality starts the rest of the way.
No need to panic RS Nation, the fundamentals are in place this year: Pitching, Pitching, Pitching!
Let's see what the lead is by the middle of August.
I am not too worried. I just hope Papi is atleast at 75-80% on his bum leg. With ma man Manny's power dropping this season so far we would need a power bat in the lineup to scare pitchers. There are rumors of the Sox acquiring Texeira from Texas which I think would be a good move. Hope Schilling comes back and gives the team atleast 12-15 quality starts the rest of the way.
No need to panic RS Nation, the fundamentals are in place this year: Pitching, Pitching, Pitching!
Let's see what the lead is by the middle of August.
Finance - State of the Portfolio
DISCLAIMER: I am an amateur investor doing this strictly for entertainment (and self-education) purposes. None of the information or recommendations listed in this blog should in any way be considered an endorsement (positive or negative) of the companies that will be discussed. I bear no responsibility whatsoever of the usage of information posted here.
Whew, that was a whirlwind few days there! Have not had time to blog these past 3 days.
anyway, looks like my Energy and Metals portfolio is holding up ok so far.
NUMBERS:
-COP: -3.12% since 7/16/07
-CCJ: +1.96%
-E -1.66%
-PAL +10.17%
-CHK +1.76%
Overall, the pot's present value: $10,037 (-0.06%). Not too bad.
POSITIVES
-General opinion on COP seems to be good. Expected to ride the oil wave.
-CCJ is rumored to be in a bid to acquire Paladin, an Australian uranium miner. This could be a good buy for CCJ which revealed earlier this week that their Cigar Lake mine will be production later than expected this bringing output down. Paladin had been rated high on most reports I have read so far.
-CHK announced a deal with APC which would let CHK explore and evaluate a substantial area of land in West Texas. I need to do more research on what is going on with APC and what exactly are they looking for.
-PAL is really looking good so far. 2Q production numbers were great and this helped push them higher this week. Let's get more of that Palladium people!
NEGATIVES
-COP got retro-taxed by the Chavez regime in Venezuela for getting out of the contract. Surprisingly this has not affected them so far. Plus their CEO wants the govt to introduce and oil price insurance to promote alternate fuel development.
-CCJ kinda worries me a bit as every article I read it becomes clearer that we have more uranium in stock than we need. All evidence points to Uranium stocks being highly overvalued at this point. Maybe I got in at the wrong side of the curve. But then again, maybe not. The markets for some reason are still in love with Uranium.
-The biggest power generating Nuclear reactor in Japan was hit by a earthquake this week. Dodgy estimates of radioactive spills into the nearby river are being reported. There is a danger that as soon as the general public and the investors hear radioactive spills, Cherbobyl will come to mind. See above point why there is concern for Uranium related stocks.
SUMMARY AND LINKS
Overall, it was a pretty educational week for me. Keep upto date with all 5 holdings and followed the news. I really like the zman blog for oil (it is in my links, check it out). Rajiv forwarded an interesting link energy investment strategies (google the whole phrase). I have to say that site was pretty informative about the oil industry and investment strategies. The guy who runs it apparently a Harvard alum who invests his family's money exclusively in the energy sector. His synopsis about 'Peak Oil' is worth a read.
Whew, that was a whirlwind few days there! Have not had time to blog these past 3 days.
anyway, looks like my Energy and Metals portfolio is holding up ok so far.
NUMBERS:
-COP: -3.12% since 7/16/07
-CCJ: +1.96%
-E -1.66%
-PAL +10.17%
-CHK +1.76%
Overall, the pot's present value: $10,037 (-0.06%). Not too bad.
POSITIVES
-General opinion on COP seems to be good. Expected to ride the oil wave.
-CCJ is rumored to be in a bid to acquire Paladin, an Australian uranium miner. This could be a good buy for CCJ which revealed earlier this week that their Cigar Lake mine will be production later than expected this bringing output down. Paladin had been rated high on most reports I have read so far.
-CHK announced a deal with APC which would let CHK explore and evaluate a substantial area of land in West Texas. I need to do more research on what is going on with APC and what exactly are they looking for.
-PAL is really looking good so far. 2Q production numbers were great and this helped push them higher this week. Let's get more of that Palladium people!
NEGATIVES
-COP got retro-taxed by the Chavez regime in Venezuela for getting out of the contract. Surprisingly this has not affected them so far. Plus their CEO wants the govt to introduce and oil price insurance to promote alternate fuel development.
-CCJ kinda worries me a bit as every article I read it becomes clearer that we have more uranium in stock than we need. All evidence points to Uranium stocks being highly overvalued at this point. Maybe I got in at the wrong side of the curve. But then again, maybe not. The markets for some reason are still in love with Uranium.
-The biggest power generating Nuclear reactor in Japan was hit by a earthquake this week. Dodgy estimates of radioactive spills into the nearby river are being reported. There is a danger that as soon as the general public and the investors hear radioactive spills, Cherbobyl will come to mind. See above point why there is concern for Uranium related stocks.
SUMMARY AND LINKS
Overall, it was a pretty educational week for me. Keep upto date with all 5 holdings and followed the news. I really like the zman blog for oil (it is in my links, check it out). Rajiv forwarded an interesting link energy investment strategies (google the whole phrase). I have to say that site was pretty informative about the oil industry and investment strategies. The guy who runs it apparently a Harvard alum who invests his family's money exclusively in the energy sector. His synopsis about 'Peak Oil' is worth a read.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Catastrophic Sports Moments
I was reading an article about an ailing Jean Van de Velde visiting Carnoustie this weekend for the British Open (in Golf!). For those who are not aware what transpired with Van de Velde 8 years ago on the last hole on Sunday at the British Open, here is a brief summary: Van de Velde played beautifully for the first three days and up until the last hole of the tournament. He was leading by 3 strokes going to the last hole where he butchered it! He ended up triple bogeying to get into a playoff which he of course lost.
There are few equivalents in sports to a disaster like this. Let's see, a baseball equivalent would be to be up by 5 runs in Game 7 of the World Series and then lose by giving up a Grand Slam with 2 outs and 2 strikes. Yup, that bad! In basketball it would be like losing to a four point play as the clock expires-yeah, as an opposing fan you have to watch the guy nail a free throw after making an improbable half-court three pointer.
Given the magnitude of this, it screwed Van de Velde so bad that he lost his appetite, sleeps long and apparently is suffering from some mysterious illness now. Poor fella!
Everyone makes such a big deal out of spectacular failures in sports that it almost makes you feel sorry for these athletes but not so fast! All the adulation that they receive is soaked in but failures like these are not handled well. I think it is fair although the press does prolong this more than they should.
Which made me think, what are the catastrophic sports failures that you experienced as a fan . Here are mine:
-Growing up, I was a huge Cricket fan, so that last ball 6 that freakin' Javed Miandad hit to beat India in the early 1990s (not sure what year it was) stayed with me for a long while. Multiple subsequent crushings of Pakistan did not lessen the bad memory, will always remember the cocky Miandad walking off the field after hitting one out!
-India's loss to England in the 1987 Cricket World Cup Semi-Final when Graham f'in Gooch (or whatever his name was) swept India out. England had no business being in the Final. I remember my dad telling me after that match that he would not waste his time on Cricket anymore.
-Argentina losing to Germany in the 1990 World Cup is still in my memory for some reason. Was a huge Diego Maradona fan.
-The numerous times that Goran Ivanisevic lost in Wimbledon either in the Finals or semi-finals was so freakin' frustrating to watch. He just could not take the next step. It was as frustrating to watch as it was to play for him. This pain went away when Goran finally won Wimbledon recently. I always loved his game. Saw him play live at the US Open in 2001 and he seemed content.
-Game 7 1997 World Series loss by the Indians to the un-deserving Marlins. F'in Jose Mesa, blew it in the 9th inning of Game 7! I was a rabid Indians fan at the time and vividly remember staying up watching the Marlins celebrate after the miraculous comeback-not sure why. As painful as it was, I watched it. It ended at 2 in the morning and I had a Inorganic Chemistry Final in 7 hours and I had studied squat!
-Game 5 1999 Divisional Series loss by the Indians to the Red Sox. I was not a Red Sox fan in those days and imagine how painful it was to see an injured Pedro come in and no-hit the Indians for 6 innings. Despite hating at the time, it is tough not to respect someone like him who gave a crap about his livelihood (injured shoulder) and came out of the bullpen to no-hit a strong hitting team like Cleveland.
-Of course no journey in pain is complete without rehashing the 2003 ALCS Game 7 loss of the Red Sox against the Yankees. I was living in Lyon at the time but had followed the whole season from there by watching Red Sox games on MLB TV via the internet. My routine used to involve sleeping from 8 to 3 in the morning and then get up at 3 to go wake up my friend Chantal at her place to watch it on her computer. Remember Game 7 very clearly and at the time I did not think too much about Grady leaving Pedro in there after the 7th (did not know what Pedro's pitch count was). I mean even after that there were multiple chances for Grady to pull Pedro up until the 5th and tying run scored and for reasons unexplained he did not do it. I do think that sports is what it is, just sports but you should have tried explaining that to me after Game 7. I got up from my chair, it was 6 in the morning, walked down the stairs of Chantal's apt and just wandered around Lyon for 2 h. It was not a good feeling at all. Strange how sometime things like that make you feel.
ok, time to go sleepy.
There are few equivalents in sports to a disaster like this. Let's see, a baseball equivalent would be to be up by 5 runs in Game 7 of the World Series and then lose by giving up a Grand Slam with 2 outs and 2 strikes. Yup, that bad! In basketball it would be like losing to a four point play as the clock expires-yeah, as an opposing fan you have to watch the guy nail a free throw after making an improbable half-court three pointer.
Given the magnitude of this, it screwed Van de Velde so bad that he lost his appetite, sleeps long and apparently is suffering from some mysterious illness now. Poor fella!
Everyone makes such a big deal out of spectacular failures in sports that it almost makes you feel sorry for these athletes but not so fast! All the adulation that they receive is soaked in but failures like these are not handled well. I think it is fair although the press does prolong this more than they should.
Which made me think, what are the catastrophic sports failures that you experienced as a fan . Here are mine:
-Growing up, I was a huge Cricket fan, so that last ball 6 that freakin' Javed Miandad hit to beat India in the early 1990s (not sure what year it was) stayed with me for a long while. Multiple subsequent crushings of Pakistan did not lessen the bad memory, will always remember the cocky Miandad walking off the field after hitting one out!
-India's loss to England in the 1987 Cricket World Cup Semi-Final when Graham f'in Gooch (or whatever his name was) swept India out. England had no business being in the Final. I remember my dad telling me after that match that he would not waste his time on Cricket anymore.
-Argentina losing to Germany in the 1990 World Cup is still in my memory for some reason. Was a huge Diego Maradona fan.
-The numerous times that Goran Ivanisevic lost in Wimbledon either in the Finals or semi-finals was so freakin' frustrating to watch. He just could not take the next step. It was as frustrating to watch as it was to play for him. This pain went away when Goran finally won Wimbledon recently. I always loved his game. Saw him play live at the US Open in 2001 and he seemed content.
-Game 7 1997 World Series loss by the Indians to the un-deserving Marlins. F'in Jose Mesa, blew it in the 9th inning of Game 7! I was a rabid Indians fan at the time and vividly remember staying up watching the Marlins celebrate after the miraculous comeback-not sure why. As painful as it was, I watched it. It ended at 2 in the morning and I had a Inorganic Chemistry Final in 7 hours and I had studied squat!
-Game 5 1999 Divisional Series loss by the Indians to the Red Sox. I was not a Red Sox fan in those days and imagine how painful it was to see an injured Pedro come in and no-hit the Indians for 6 innings. Despite hating at the time, it is tough not to respect someone like him who gave a crap about his livelihood (injured shoulder) and came out of the bullpen to no-hit a strong hitting team like Cleveland.
-Of course no journey in pain is complete without rehashing the 2003 ALCS Game 7 loss of the Red Sox against the Yankees. I was living in Lyon at the time but had followed the whole season from there by watching Red Sox games on MLB TV via the internet. My routine used to involve sleeping from 8 to 3 in the morning and then get up at 3 to go wake up my friend Chantal at her place to watch it on her computer. Remember Game 7 very clearly and at the time I did not think too much about Grady leaving Pedro in there after the 7th (did not know what Pedro's pitch count was). I mean even after that there were multiple chances for Grady to pull Pedro up until the 5th and tying run scored and for reasons unexplained he did not do it. I do think that sports is what it is, just sports but you should have tried explaining that to me after Game 7. I got up from my chair, it was 6 in the morning, walked down the stairs of Chantal's apt and just wandered around Lyon for 2 h. It was not a good feeling at all. Strange how sometime things like that make you feel.
ok, time to go sleepy.
CCJ and shorting
DISCLAIMER: I am an amateur investor doing this strictly for entertainment (and self-education) purposes. None of the information or recommendations listed in this blog should in any way be considered an endorsement (positive or negative) of the companies that will be discussed. I bear no responsibility whatsoever of the usage of information posted here.
Well, looks like the dismal day continues for my picks with the prices of CCJ (Cameco) falling 4.3%. A couple of reasons were put out for this behavior:
-Bloomberg news reported that 22.3 million shares of CCJ were borrowed and sold (short selling) as of June 15, a 35% increase over last year. Short sellers are banking on a profit by buying back the same number of shares later at a cheaper price. In effect there are betting on the stock to fall. (Looks like it has!)
-The Cigar Lake mine in Canada will apparently open in 2011 now instead of 2010 due to water logging issues thus delaying production.
I also checked and found out that the Uranium sector stocks have gone up 5x in the last 4 years. Plus it looks like there is a Uranium production surplus at the moment. Makes me wonder if I got in here at the wrong time.
The fundamentals also look a bit scary. P/E of 59! Yikes! My thinking in picking a non-carbon fuel based stock was to hedge the losses once the oil bubble bursts.
Well, I am sticking to my guns on CCJ as well. There will be things to learn no matter which direction this goes.
Well, looks like the dismal day continues for my picks with the prices of CCJ (Cameco) falling 4.3%. A couple of reasons were put out for this behavior:
-Bloomberg news reported that 22.3 million shares of CCJ were borrowed and sold (short selling) as of June 15, a 35% increase over last year. Short sellers are banking on a profit by buying back the same number of shares later at a cheaper price. In effect there are betting on the stock to fall. (Looks like it has!)
-The Cigar Lake mine in Canada will apparently open in 2011 now instead of 2010 due to water logging issues thus delaying production.
I also checked and found out that the Uranium sector stocks have gone up 5x in the last 4 years. Plus it looks like there is a Uranium production surplus at the moment. Makes me wonder if I got in here at the wrong time.
The fundamentals also look a bit scary. P/E of 59! Yikes! My thinking in picking a non-carbon fuel based stock was to hedge the losses once the oil bubble bursts.
Well, I am sticking to my guns on CCJ as well. There will be things to learn no matter which direction this goes.
Lex Column on COP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DISCLAIMER: I am an amateur investor doing this strictly for entertainment (and self-education) purposes. None of the information or recommendations listed in this blog should in any way be considered an endorsement (positive or negative) of the companies that will be discussed. I bear no responsibility whatsoever of the usage of information posted here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here I go spend a considerable amount of time on research to pick my energy portfolio and guess what happens first thing on Monday morning! I pick up Monday's FT outside my apt door and flip to the back cover and Voila! the Lex column devoted one-third of it's content to COP (ConocoPhillips). The piece was mostly critical of COP's future. There were some positives too. The commonly held perception amongst the financial professionals is that the Lex column is the most revered piece of writing in FT. So much for that huh!
COP went down 3.37% today.
Anyway here are the highlights of the Lex article:
Positives about COP:
-$15 Billion share buyback (1/10th of Shares)
-Share price trading at a ~20% discount to the oil sector in terms of P/E multiple
Critique of COP:
-Upstream production comes from mature regions in the North Sea and US.
-High price of oil is hiding the lenient fiscal policies at company (wonder how they know this?)
-High capital intensity needed to meet 3% upstream production growth target (again?)
-Last month's nationilazation of 10% COP's reserves by Venezuela (read Chavez) diluted COP's reserves
-Susceptible to the volatile refining margins in the US (due to low reserves)
Well, that's their opinion. If I look at the fundamentals, it is not so gloomy. Cash flow is good; so is the operating margin; EPS (earnings per share) is better than the sector although this probably got boosted by the buyback recently. There are issues though.
I will ride this until the oil bubble bursts. Holding on for now.
DISCLAIMER: I am an amateur investor doing this strictly for entertainment (and self-education) purposes. None of the information or recommendations listed in this blog should in any way be considered an endorsement (positive or negative) of the companies that will be discussed. I bear no responsibility whatsoever of the usage of information posted here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here I go spend a considerable amount of time on research to pick my energy portfolio and guess what happens first thing on Monday morning! I pick up Monday's FT outside my apt door and flip to the back cover and Voila! the Lex column devoted one-third of it's content to COP (ConocoPhillips). The piece was mostly critical of COP's future. There were some positives too. The commonly held perception amongst the financial professionals is that the Lex column is the most revered piece of writing in FT. So much for that huh!
COP went down 3.37% today.
Anyway here are the highlights of the Lex article:
Positives about COP:
-$15 Billion share buyback (1/10th of Shares)
-Share price trading at a ~20% discount to the oil sector in terms of P/E multiple
Critique of COP:
-Upstream production comes from mature regions in the North Sea and US.
-High price of oil is hiding the lenient fiscal policies at company (wonder how they know this?)
-High capital intensity needed to meet 3% upstream production growth target (again?)
-Last month's nationilazation of 10% COP's reserves by Venezuela (read Chavez) diluted COP's reserves
-Susceptible to the volatile refining margins in the US (due to low reserves)
Well, that's their opinion. If I look at the fundamentals, it is not so gloomy. Cash flow is good; so is the operating margin; EPS (earnings per share) is better than the sector although this probably got boosted by the buyback recently. There are issues though.
I will ride this until the oil bubble bursts. Holding on for now.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Weekend thoughts
-Put another year of life under the belt this weekend. Was an interesting year this past one. Met new people, maintained old friendships, spent quality time with mom and sister, travelled a bit, made a decision to transition to a new career, took on more responsibility at work, learnt new things, started running in 5K 'marathons' and overall had a good year. Definitely a lot more highs than lows. Career-wise it was a bit disappointing that I made it to the Haas MFE program's interview stage but was still put on hold. That however motivated me to focus on GMAT and MBA programs which turned out to be a positive. There is ongoing debate on MBAvsMFE and it is tough to argue for MFE in terms on long term impact on career. We'll see how it turns out. Travel wise, I hope to do more this year. Gotto make it happen somehow. Have to also keep at it with running. I hope to run a few more 5K races and try one 10K before the running season is over in Philly.
-Had a good time on Sat nite. Thanks to all those who showed up and to everyone for buying me my fav shots! See I told y'all Jaeger's good for the body and soul-it is 100% organic! I embarassed myself a bit at the end of the nite but it was not too bad apparently. Oh, also thanks to Marisa and Dana for the cool cards and to Kel for the Cross pen!
-Was flipping through channels in the afternoon and caught "Real McKoy" playing on a movie channel. I had seen it about 7 years ago but for some reason decided to watch it entirely again. Can't believe I saw this B grade movie again. It is a silly movie about Kim Bassinger who is a bank thief who is asked to rob a bank by some dude who is holding her child hostage. Val Kilmer is her awestruck sidekick. It was a terrible movie but it got me wondering about the careers of Kim Bassinger and Val Kilmer. I always thought Val Kilmer was a top rated actor, somehow he decided that he did not care anymore and starting putting on weight and not giving shit about anything. I mean, has he done anything in the last 7 years but show up on tabloids all bloated up. Not sure what went wrong with that brother. Kim Bassinger on the other hand had a nice career. Who would have thought that hot chick from 9 1/2 weeks would end up with an oscar (for a very underated LA Confidential). Is she doing anything good these days but fight with Alec Baldwin.
A new week awaits people!
-Had a good time on Sat nite. Thanks to all those who showed up and to everyone for buying me my fav shots! See I told y'all Jaeger's good for the body and soul-it is 100% organic! I embarassed myself a bit at the end of the nite but it was not too bad apparently. Oh, also thanks to Marisa and Dana for the cool cards and to Kel for the Cross pen!
-Was flipping through channels in the afternoon and caught "Real McKoy" playing on a movie channel. I had seen it about 7 years ago but for some reason decided to watch it entirely again. Can't believe I saw this B grade movie again. It is a silly movie about Kim Bassinger who is a bank thief who is asked to rob a bank by some dude who is holding her child hostage. Val Kilmer is her awestruck sidekick. It was a terrible movie but it got me wondering about the careers of Kim Bassinger and Val Kilmer. I always thought Val Kilmer was a top rated actor, somehow he decided that he did not care anymore and starting putting on weight and not giving shit about anything. I mean, has he done anything in the last 7 years but show up on tabloids all bloated up. Not sure what went wrong with that brother. Kim Bassinger on the other hand had a nice career. Who would have thought that hot chick from 9 1/2 weeks would end up with an oscar (for a very underated LA Confidential). Is she doing anything good these days but fight with Alec Baldwin.
A new week awaits people!
kondum Stock picks - Energy and Metals
DISCLAIMER: I am an amateur investor doing this strictly for entertainment (and self-education) purposes. None of the information or recommendations listed in this blog should in any way be considered an endorsement (positive or negative) of the companies that will be discussed. I bear no responsibility whatsoever of the usage of information posted here.
Now that the disclaimer part is taken care of, let's get down to the 'business' at hand. I am starting a mock investment portfolio where I will pick 5 stocks in the Energy and Metals sectors and simulate trading experience. It is important to understand here that I will NOT be actually investing any real mooolah. I will however, do the following:
-Start with a $10,000 pot (not real money)
-Goal: Beat the S&P index returns for the next year (July 2007-July 2008)
-Start with 5 stocks in Energy and Metals sectors
-Simulate selling and buying of the said stocks
-Post changes in portfolio as and when they happen
-Monitor movement of prices on a daily/weekly basis
-Post periodic news items about the stocks being monitored
kondum Energy and Metal picks
-COP: ConocoPhilips, US based Integrated Oil and Gas Company, $90.17 closing price on 7/13/07
-E: Eni, Italian Integrated Oil and Gas Company, $77.83
-CHK: Chesapeake Energy Corp., US based oil and natural gas exploration and production company, $36.32
-CCJ: Cameco, Canadian based Uranium mining, exploration, and sales company, $50.65
-PAL: North American Palladium, Canadian based Platinum and precious metal exploration and mining, $9.73
Total (mock) Investment as of 7/15/2007: $10043.65
(mock) first trade costs: $40
Amount Invested: $10003.65
Here we go. Let's see what's in store!
Now that the disclaimer part is taken care of, let's get down to the 'business' at hand. I am starting a mock investment portfolio where I will pick 5 stocks in the Energy and Metals sectors and simulate trading experience. It is important to understand here that I will NOT be actually investing any real mooolah. I will however, do the following:
-Start with a $10,000 pot (not real money)
-Goal: Beat the S&P index returns for the next year (July 2007-July 2008)
-Start with 5 stocks in Energy and Metals sectors
-Simulate selling and buying of the said stocks
-Post changes in portfolio as and when they happen
-Monitor movement of prices on a daily/weekly basis
-Post periodic news items about the stocks being monitored
kondum Energy and Metal picks
-COP: ConocoPhilips, US based Integrated Oil and Gas Company, $90.17 closing price on 7/13/07
-E: Eni, Italian Integrated Oil and Gas Company, $77.83
-CHK: Chesapeake Energy Corp., US based oil and natural gas exploration and production company, $36.32
-CCJ: Cameco, Canadian based Uranium mining, exploration, and sales company, $50.65
-PAL: North American Palladium, Canadian based Platinum and precious metal exploration and mining, $9.73
Total (mock) Investment as of 7/15/2007: $10043.65
(mock) first trade costs: $40
Amount Invested: $10003.65
Here we go. Let's see what's in store!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
podcast recommendations?
does anyone have any free podcast recommendations for me? I have been searching and have not found anything fun yet. Comedy, Business, whatever.
State of Red Sox Nation - Update
well, it is July 14 and the Saaawx are up 10 games over the Jays and the Spankees. Not bad, not bad at all. However, there are causes for concern in the Red Sox Nation:
- a disappointing 6-9 record since interleague play ended on June 24
- were swept in a 3 game series by the Tigers right before the ASB
- Runs per game scored in June of 4.41 which is exactly equal to the June ERA of 4.41 (not a good sign)
-Manny and Big Papi's power numbers are down big time
Manny: 2007 - 0.288/0.386/0.478 (BA/OBP/SLG), Career - 0.313/0.410/0.595
Papi: 2007 - HR: 14; 2004, 2005, 2006 ( HR Average) - 45
- Youks playing hurt with a quad
- Papi playing on a bum knee which would require surgery after the season
- Schilling on the DL still
On the bright side, the Sox are winning exactly as predicted by the Pythogorean Method (PM) so far. If they score and give up runs at the same pace PM predicts the Sox ending up with 99 wins. I will take that!
- a disappointing 6-9 record since interleague play ended on June 24
- were swept in a 3 game series by the Tigers right before the ASB
- Runs per game scored in June of 4.41 which is exactly equal to the June ERA of 4.41 (not a good sign)
-Manny and Big Papi's power numbers are down big time
Manny: 2007 - 0.288/0.386/0.478 (BA/OBP/SLG), Career - 0.313/0.410/0.595
Papi: 2007 - HR: 14; 2004, 2005, 2006 ( HR Average) - 45
- Youks playing hurt with a quad
- Papi playing on a bum knee which would require surgery after the season
- Schilling on the DL still
On the bright side, the Sox are winning exactly as predicted by the Pythogorean Method (PM) so far. If they score and give up runs at the same pace PM predicts the Sox ending up with 99 wins. I will take that!
Friday, July 13, 2007
Stocks/Options/Index
yeah, I still have not got to setting up my mock portfolio. However, I did do some research on areas of interest and hopefully this weekend I can put it all together.
Sleepy time!
Sleepy time!
Columbia MBA - Conversation with a recent Alum
Talked to a Columbia 2004 MBA class alum today on the phone.
-She is currently employed at a HUGE insurance firm on buy side research.
-She had good things to say about her current job and why she chose research despite having worked for an IBank before enrolling at Columbia. I joked with her that I was aiming for a career from which she has run away!
-According to her IBanking is not for everyone, it is pretty intense and she wanted to have a life apart from work.
-She did say that the areas I am interested in: Energy and Commodities are pretty interesting.
-She thought that my background would be a good fit with Columbia
-I told her that I was concerned about the fact that I would be a career changer and have a PhD. Her response to that was: in her Cohort about 50% of the people were career changers. She thought the fact that they dont have too many PhDs is a correlation not a causality. So I would be ok.
-Apparently, the fact that I have an engineering background would we welcomed at Columbia as they like a diverse background
-She also gave me a few tips on how to handle the interview
-She also asked me get my essays checked by people in the financial sector that I intended to be in.
It was a very positive conversation and it ended with her saying that I could contact her anytime for more questions.
Time to start with the essays. This weekend, I should get going.
-She is currently employed at a HUGE insurance firm on buy side research.
-She had good things to say about her current job and why she chose research despite having worked for an IBank before enrolling at Columbia. I joked with her that I was aiming for a career from which she has run away!
-According to her IBanking is not for everyone, it is pretty intense and she wanted to have a life apart from work.
-She did say that the areas I am interested in: Energy and Commodities are pretty interesting.
-She thought that my background would be a good fit with Columbia
-I told her that I was concerned about the fact that I would be a career changer and have a PhD. Her response to that was: in her Cohort about 50% of the people were career changers. She thought the fact that they dont have too many PhDs is a correlation not a causality. So I would be ok.
-Apparently, the fact that I have an engineering background would we welcomed at Columbia as they like a diverse background
-She also gave me a few tips on how to handle the interview
-She also asked me get my essays checked by people in the financial sector that I intended to be in.
It was a very positive conversation and it ended with her saying that I could contact her anytime for more questions.
Time to start with the essays. This weekend, I should get going.
Jennifer Vs Angelina - Answers
I see some colorful comments in response to my 'Questions' post. Keep em coming.
Now, it's time for some answers in the Jennifer Vs Angelina issue:
-Hotness factor
Let's see, one is a barby goody girl while the other is a lip-pouting vixen who oozes sensuality.
Angelina.
-Ability to whup some ass if the situation demands
No debate here. Angelina has that look of a bad ass!
-Prettyness factor
Ok this one goes to Jennifer.
-Acting skillz
Well this one is an interesting debate than it looks like.
Quick! tell me 3 movies of Angelina you can remember right now. Unless you are a basement dwelling movie addict here is what you would come up with :Gia, Tomb Raider, Girl Interrupted. That's not exactly Meryl Streep territory by any means but still respectable. Good Shepard, Mr and Mrs Smith, and a couple more they are ok but you would not come out of the movie theatre gushing about her acting skillz. Remove Angelina from all of her movies and except the first three you could substitute her with anyone and that would still be ok. So three memorable movies so far. Not bad.
Now do the same for Jennifer. Office Space and maybe The Break-up. Office Space is way under-rated while Breakup is overrated. The Good Girl was ok I thought; Picture Perfect was a chick flick to the core; Bruce Almighty-did not see it but it is tough to believe Jim Carrey would let anyone else steal the show in his movies; Derailed was crap and her role was pedestrian. So one notable movie: Office Space.
We're not exactly dealing with acting legends here but will give this to Angeline in a push.
-Who has the hotter group of woman friends?
Friends was way overrated in my opinion. Formula writing and mushy-mushy stuff, please! And Courtney Cox and Lisa Kudrow are not my type sorry. Angelina on the other hand, does she even have any woman friends? I have not seen any. So, 2 women is better than none. So, this one to Jennifer.
-Dating history before getting married to the Pitt man.
This is more important than people think. Nobody wants to be with a woman who has attracted losers in her dating life. So, let's see here, not sure who Jennifer dated before Pitt but she did go out with Vince Vaughn after the thing. Vince Vaughn is cool, part of the comedic New Rat Pack. Angelina on the other hand, she was with Billy boy and Billy boy be whacko! Billy Bob is an excellent actor though. Tough choice but will have to give it to Angelina in a push. Billy boy would whup Vince's ass anyday.
-Who would win in a catfight?
Like Partha said, it dont matter as long as there IS a catfight and I get to watch it! But y'all know the BadAss would whup the Pretty girl any day. One more to Angelina.
-Who would look good without makeup?
I am reminded of a recent comment by John Stewart on The Daily Show. Angelina was on the show and was talking about filming a recent movie in Pakistan. John asked her if she wore a Burqua while in Pakistan and Angelina said yes upon John goes "I am sure even the burqua couldn't cover your hotness!". Amen brother. No burqua or loss of makeup will hold the hotness of Angelina. So what do we have so far: 6 to 2 in favor of Angelina.
-Who can have an intelligent conversation?
I can't think of Jennifer having anything to talk about but how to keep your man, how to lose weight, how to maitain free flowing hair ets. On the other hand, Angelina could probably talk about a lot of other stuff on the serious level. Maybe she is facetious but atleast she tries.
7 to 2 Angelina.
-Which one would be embarassed by Borat if he made a pass at her?
Jennifer would probably blush and get a bit embarassed. Angelina being the bad ass that she is would probably end up kicking Borat's ass! But you gotto have a sense of humor about these things and Angelina probably doesnt. 7 to 3 Angelina
-Which one would you rather see in a playboy centerspread?
I agree with Partha. Both! Push.
-Which one would make your male friends jealous if you are with her?
Again both. Push.
One final item before we give a decision
Intangibles
-Jennifer, can't think of any. Angelina on the other hand, let's see: She carried a vial of Billy boy's blood on her neck, reportedly tongue-kissed her real brother during the Oscars. Boy she is a strange cuckoo! So have to give this by default to Jennifer.
That makes it 7 to 4 in favor of Angelina.
Now, it's time for some answers in the Jennifer Vs Angelina issue:
-Hotness factor
Let's see, one is a barby goody girl while the other is a lip-pouting vixen who oozes sensuality.
Angelina.
-Ability to whup some ass if the situation demands
No debate here. Angelina has that look of a bad ass!
-Prettyness factor
Ok this one goes to Jennifer.
-Acting skillz
Well this one is an interesting debate than it looks like.
Quick! tell me 3 movies of Angelina you can remember right now. Unless you are a basement dwelling movie addict here is what you would come up with :Gia, Tomb Raider, Girl Interrupted. That's not exactly Meryl Streep territory by any means but still respectable. Good Shepard, Mr and Mrs Smith, and a couple more they are ok but you would not come out of the movie theatre gushing about her acting skillz. Remove Angelina from all of her movies and except the first three you could substitute her with anyone and that would still be ok. So three memorable movies so far. Not bad.
Now do the same for Jennifer. Office Space and maybe The Break-up. Office Space is way under-rated while Breakup is overrated. The Good Girl was ok I thought; Picture Perfect was a chick flick to the core; Bruce Almighty-did not see it but it is tough to believe Jim Carrey would let anyone else steal the show in his movies; Derailed was crap and her role was pedestrian. So one notable movie: Office Space.
We're not exactly dealing with acting legends here but will give this to Angeline in a push.
-Who has the hotter group of woman friends?
Friends was way overrated in my opinion. Formula writing and mushy-mushy stuff, please! And Courtney Cox and Lisa Kudrow are not my type sorry. Angelina on the other hand, does she even have any woman friends? I have not seen any. So, 2 women is better than none. So, this one to Jennifer.
-Dating history before getting married to the Pitt man.
This is more important than people think. Nobody wants to be with a woman who has attracted losers in her dating life. So, let's see here, not sure who Jennifer dated before Pitt but she did go out with Vince Vaughn after the thing. Vince Vaughn is cool, part of the comedic New Rat Pack. Angelina on the other hand, she was with Billy boy and Billy boy be whacko! Billy Bob is an excellent actor though. Tough choice but will have to give it to Angelina in a push. Billy boy would whup Vince's ass anyday.
-Who would win in a catfight?
Like Partha said, it dont matter as long as there IS a catfight and I get to watch it! But y'all know the BadAss would whup the Pretty girl any day. One more to Angelina.
-Who would look good without makeup?
I am reminded of a recent comment by John Stewart on The Daily Show. Angelina was on the show and was talking about filming a recent movie in Pakistan. John asked her if she wore a Burqua while in Pakistan and Angelina said yes upon John goes "I am sure even the burqua couldn't cover your hotness!". Amen brother. No burqua or loss of makeup will hold the hotness of Angelina. So what do we have so far: 6 to 2 in favor of Angelina.
-Who can have an intelligent conversation?
I can't think of Jennifer having anything to talk about but how to keep your man, how to lose weight, how to maitain free flowing hair ets. On the other hand, Angelina could probably talk about a lot of other stuff on the serious level. Maybe she is facetious but atleast she tries.
7 to 2 Angelina.
-Which one would be embarassed by Borat if he made a pass at her?
Jennifer would probably blush and get a bit embarassed. Angelina being the bad ass that she is would probably end up kicking Borat's ass! But you gotto have a sense of humor about these things and Angelina probably doesnt. 7 to 3 Angelina
-Which one would you rather see in a playboy centerspread?
I agree with Partha. Both! Push.
-Which one would make your male friends jealous if you are with her?
Again both. Push.
One final item before we give a decision
Intangibles
-Jennifer, can't think of any. Angelina on the other hand, let's see: She carried a vial of Billy boy's blood on her neck, reportedly tongue-kissed her real brother during the Oscars. Boy she is a strange cuckoo! So have to give this by default to Jennifer.
That makes it 7 to 4 in favor of Angelina.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Jennifer Vs Angelina - Questions?
ok, I know Bill Simmons @espn.com does this and Nick Backey also of the same website used to do this format before but I would like to copy that here. I think there is still some animosity associated with this topic so let's do this. Let's compare two of Brad Pitt's wives-the current and the recent ex.
Jennifer Aniston Vs Angelina Jolie:
-Hotness factor
-Ability to whup some ass if the situation demands
-Prettyness factor
-Acting skillz
-Who has the hotter group of woman friends?
-Dating history before getting married to the Pitt man.
-Who would win in a catfight?
-Who would look good without makeup?
-Who can have an intelligent conversation?
-Which one would be embarassed by Borat if he made a pass at her?
-Which one would you rather see in a playboy centerspread?
-Which one would make your male friends jealous if you are with her?
well, that should be enough topics to think about, so give it a think and post if you get a chance. I will post my thoughts in each category tommorow.
Gotto go sleepy now.
Jennifer Aniston Vs Angelina Jolie:
-Hotness factor
-Ability to whup some ass if the situation demands
-Prettyness factor
-Acting skillz
-Who has the hotter group of woman friends?
-Dating history before getting married to the Pitt man.
-Who would win in a catfight?
-Who would look good without makeup?
-Who can have an intelligent conversation?
-Which one would be embarassed by Borat if he made a pass at her?
-Which one would you rather see in a playboy centerspread?
-Which one would make your male friends jealous if you are with her?
well, that should be enough topics to think about, so give it a think and post if you get a chance. I will post my thoughts in each category tommorow.
Gotto go sleepy now.
Requests
well, I did receive a couple of requests: one was why I have not talked about women yet and the other was from a self-proclaimed admirer who wanted to know what my daily routine is. The next post will cover a couple of women and about my routine, I gotto look up that Super Bowl routine that my ex-roomate Colin sent out in January. I will post it when I find it.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Time to whup Sean's ass in Squash!
Thursdays are squash days from now on apparently. After Miss N-S left town it has been a struggle to find a competent squash partner until a couple of weeks ago. Sean and I played last week and it was good. The level of play is similar so should be fun. Like I said, tomm will be whuup Sean's ass day!
Long day today!
Long day today!
Taxing Private Equity/Hedge Funds
Congressional hearings were held today to discuss the merits/demerits of taxing private equity/hedge funds in a higher bracket. I did some research on the actual issue here and this is what I found out:
US Taxation
- Income or Corporate tax is about 35% (average let's say)
- Capital Gains tax (tax assessed on any investments made) is 15%
- Law for Capital Gains tax was made in the early 20th Century to encourage people to invest
money and start business from scratch. The low 15% tax bracket was a way of rewarding their hard work as well for taking risk by investing THEIR OWN money in a business.
- Since the 1920s Capital Gains has been assessed to profits made via any investment (stocks, bonds, etc). Again remember in a majority of the cases you are investing YOUR own money.
UK Taxation
- Capital Gains tax is roughly 10%. Income and Corporate tax is higher than in the US
Current Operation of Private Equity firms and Hedge Funds
-Majority of the time money from a "third party" is used for investment.
-Some of the time the firms themselves contribute to the investment pool.
-Profits from these investments are divided up this way:
Hedge Fund Charges: 2% of Total Assets being managed (regardless of profit or loss on investment)
Hedge Fund Profit: 20% of Total profit from investment. (this will be zero if there is a loss)
Investor: Remaining profit
Current Tax Brackets for Hedge Funds and Investors
- Investors: 15% of remaining profit
- Hegde Funds: 15% of Hedge Fund Profit+Charges
So, the debate now is that some government types (probably jealous that the Hedge Funds and Private Equity types are reeling in all this money) want the Hedge Fund profits to be taxed in the 35% bracket instead of the current 15%. Why? Because they claim that when these Hedge Funds and Private Equities are not actually investing THEIR OWN money why should they be able to claim the Capital Gains Tax bracket (remember this was constitutionally created to encourage risk taking by investing own money). Hedge Funds and their lobbyists are claiming that by moving to the higher tax bracket investors will be discouraged to take risks in the financial markets (as returns will be low) and this in the end will affect the economy negatively (they have other reasons in there as well).
My opinion: Politicians are raising this up to show that they care about the common man/woman and in the process improve their electoral chances. They are also probably jealous that all this money is being made. On the other side, hedge funds and private equity firms are taking advantage of a loophole that currently exists. Can't blame them for that. However, the the Hedge Funds and Private Equities and their lobbyists contention that this will affect the markets is bogusl-people will do whatever it takes to make money, a little higher tax is not going to discourage people in the long term. But this sort of behavior by both parties is expected since this is politcal theatre.
Here a couple of articles that discuss this issue:
Economist.com: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9302718
seeking alpha blog: http://financial.seekingalpha.com/article/40097
US Taxation
- Income or Corporate tax is about 35% (average let's say)
- Capital Gains tax (tax assessed on any investments made) is 15%
- Law for Capital Gains tax was made in the early 20th Century to encourage people to invest
money and start business from scratch. The low 15% tax bracket was a way of rewarding their hard work as well for taking risk by investing THEIR OWN money in a business.
- Since the 1920s Capital Gains has been assessed to profits made via any investment (stocks, bonds, etc). Again remember in a majority of the cases you are investing YOUR own money.
UK Taxation
- Capital Gains tax is roughly 10%. Income and Corporate tax is higher than in the US
Current Operation of Private Equity firms and Hedge Funds
-Majority of the time money from a "third party" is used for investment.
-Some of the time the firms themselves contribute to the investment pool.
-Profits from these investments are divided up this way:
Hedge Fund Charges: 2% of Total Assets being managed (regardless of profit or loss on investment)
Hedge Fund Profit: 20% of Total profit from investment. (this will be zero if there is a loss)
Investor: Remaining profit
Current Tax Brackets for Hedge Funds and Investors
- Investors: 15% of remaining profit
- Hegde Funds: 15% of Hedge Fund Profit+Charges
So, the debate now is that some government types (probably jealous that the Hedge Funds and Private Equity types are reeling in all this money) want the Hedge Fund profits to be taxed in the 35% bracket instead of the current 15%. Why? Because they claim that when these Hedge Funds and Private Equities are not actually investing THEIR OWN money why should they be able to claim the Capital Gains Tax bracket (remember this was constitutionally created to encourage risk taking by investing own money). Hedge Funds and their lobbyists are claiming that by moving to the higher tax bracket investors will be discouraged to take risks in the financial markets (as returns will be low) and this in the end will affect the economy negatively (they have other reasons in there as well).
My opinion: Politicians are raising this up to show that they care about the common man/woman and in the process improve their electoral chances. They are also probably jealous that all this money is being made. On the other side, hedge funds and private equity firms are taking advantage of a loophole that currently exists. Can't blame them for that. However, the the Hedge Funds and Private Equities and their lobbyists contention that this will affect the markets is bogusl-people will do whatever it takes to make money, a little higher tax is not going to discourage people in the long term. But this sort of behavior by both parties is expected since this is politcal theatre.
Here a couple of articles that discuss this issue:
Economist.com: http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9302718
seeking alpha blog: http://financial.seekingalpha.com/article/40097
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Energy and Commodities - Equities, Options, and Index
I have decided to start monitoring a few stocks in the Energy sector starting this week.
The plan is:
- to monitor 3-4 stocks, have a 3 month goal, simulate buying and selling of these equities to arrive at this goal.
-to monitor simulate buying/selling of call and put options for some or all of these equities as well
-to group a basket of energy and commodity equities, give each equal weightage, and call it kEi (kondum Energy index). kEi will be monitored and posted daily (hopefully).
I have a rough plan in mind and will put in some time this week to iron the issues out. Hopefully things will start rolling next week.
Nighty nite.
The plan is:
- to monitor 3-4 stocks, have a 3 month goal, simulate buying and selling of these equities to arrive at this goal.
-to monitor simulate buying/selling of call and put options for some or all of these equities as well
-to group a basket of energy and commodity equities, give each equal weightage, and call it kEi (kondum Energy index). kEi will be monitored and posted daily (hopefully).
I have a rough plan in mind and will put in some time this week to iron the issues out. Hopefully things will start rolling next week.
Nighty nite.
Mohd El Erian-Avoid systemic financial shocks
Mohammed El Erian, the stud fund manager of the Harvard Endowment wrote a nice comment piece in today's FT. He suggested that a way to avoid future systemic financial shocks due to failures of groups investing in the ever-growing complex financial instruments (CDOs for example) is to educate all the parties involved in the party.
According to him the three parties involved: the institutions that come up with these models, the end users to whom the ultimate risk is shifted to, and the credit rating agencies that rate these models should all be equally educated in these instruments. Today apparently the later two have limited knowledge of the instruments.
It does make sense to me. My intial response after reading 1/5th of his column was that if someone wants to look at a new career in the financial sector, working for a credit rating agency in the short-term after having a MFE type education would be ideal. Wouldn't probably pay-off initially but a 3-4 year stint at a rating agency (Fitch/Moody's) would place you in a nice position to go work for anyone after that.
According to him the three parties involved: the institutions that come up with these models, the end users to whom the ultimate risk is shifted to, and the credit rating agencies that rate these models should all be equally educated in these instruments. Today apparently the later two have limited knowledge of the instruments.
It does make sense to me. My intial response after reading 1/5th of his column was that if someone wants to look at a new career in the financial sector, working for a credit rating agency in the short-term after having a MFE type education would be ideal. Wouldn't probably pay-off initially but a 3-4 year stint at a rating agency (Fitch/Moody's) would place you in a nice position to go work for anyone after that.
More comments about Mr. Moore
okkkkay. Looks like I am getting a decent audience on this blog thing.
Kevin, looks like this Saturday will be spent well (a dash of politics along with your Jaeger please!). Robert did respond to your comment about Mr. Moore-check it out.
Robert, what is this incident that Mr. Moore got into with Wolfy? I missed it.
Yeah, John Stewart was great on "Crossfire" a few years ago. Stripped Tucker Carlson and his bow-tie wearing ass on his own show. Isn't there a link for that on Youtube somewhere? ah yes, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
Kevin, looks like this Saturday will be spent well (a dash of politics along with your Jaeger please!). Robert did respond to your comment about Mr. Moore-check it out.
Robert, what is this incident that Mr. Moore got into with Wolfy? I missed it.
Yeah, John Stewart was great on "Crossfire" a few years ago. Stripped Tucker Carlson and his bow-tie wearing ass on his own show. Isn't there a link for that on Youtube somewhere? ah yes, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFQFB5YpDZE
Monday, July 9, 2007
Monday's Financial Tidbits
-Gazprom apparently will allow foreign companies to be equity partners now in the Shtokman gas field. I guess Putin realized that he could not do much without the technological help from the oil companies. I checked the stock price of ConocoPhillips-COP (one of the foreign companies involved) and looks like they went up about 4% today. Not bad.
-Moody's pissed off about all this private equity buyouts and has decided to issue statements criticizing the excessive use of debt by private equity companies for the buyouts. Wonder what pissed them off. Moody's apparently will challenge the perception being put out by the private equity types that having private equity is better in the long term. Interesting! Wonder how this impact the KKR listing being prepared for listing.
-CBOT takeover to be voted in today looks like. CME may end up getting what it wants.
-In related news Nymex is asking for regulating ICE! Not sure why exactly?
-The Lex column had an interesting piece about Hedge FundsVsPrivate Equities. Do check it out.
Ok time to go sleepy now.
-Moody's pissed off about all this private equity buyouts and has decided to issue statements criticizing the excessive use of debt by private equity companies for the buyouts. Wonder what pissed them off. Moody's apparently will challenge the perception being put out by the private equity types that having private equity is better in the long term. Interesting! Wonder how this impact the KKR listing being prepared for listing.
-CBOT takeover to be voted in today looks like. CME may end up getting what it wants.
-In related news Nymex is asking for regulating ICE! Not sure why exactly?
-The Lex column had an interesting piece about Hedge FundsVsPrivate Equities. Do check it out.
Ok time to go sleepy now.
Energy Options Trading
Found a cool website hosted by this dude who calls himself zman. zman monitors the oil, gas, and the energy market (I have added his website to my links). He likes his Options trading it looks like. I picked up a few things browsing through this morning. I will keep monitoring his postings from here on.
Kevin frothing at the Mouth
Ahhh! Good to see Kevin got started already (see his comment on my FT Editorial posting) . Kevin, I am too tired today to respond but rest assured we can pick the conversation up on Saturday.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Financial Tidbit from Miss M.
One final thing before I go to bed. My friend Miss. MK wrote to me this evening after reading my blog entries. She works for Covidien (COV, formerly Tyco Healthcare) and wanted to share info about the split-up of Tyco into 3 groups. Like she said, COV started trading last Monday (opened at $43 and last traded at $42.3 on Friday).
Probably a good thing Tyco got split up. Now the units can focus on growth under a new name and leadership and in specific sectors. Not sure if the initial signs are good though, Fitch cut the credit rating for Tyco after the split. The growth forecast in the short-term is not positive. Another sign that the market is lukewarm to this sector is that the market cap for COV is about $517 K. The long term growth prospects have been said to be good though.
Probably a good thing Tyco got split up. Now the units can focus on growth under a new name and leadership and in specific sectors. Not sure if the initial signs are good though, Fitch cut the credit rating for Tyco after the split. The growth forecast in the short-term is not positive. Another sign that the market is lukewarm to this sector is that the market cap for COV is about $517 K. The long term growth prospects have been said to be good though.
Program Research - NYU Stern and MIT Sloan MBA
Spent an hour or so researching a bit more about the MBA curriculum at NYU Stern and MIT Sloan today. I had already looked into both programs earlier this year and had come away unimpressed. Today was a different story though:
NYU Stern:
-The concentrations appear to be very well defined especially in Finance.
-I counted three specific Finance concentrations which covered a lot of areas.
-There is a specific Quantitative Finance concentration as well. Courses under this concentration include Stochastic Methods which is pretty intense.
-NYC location which is always good.
-Student body seems pretty diverse.
-I thought the total number of students that are accepted every year was rather low at ~400. But that should be a good thing right?!
-My friend K went there for the part-time MBA program and liked it.
-However, another friend of mine (let's call her Mrs. Doooo who currently is at Wharton) thinks I should not apply there. (Brand name not as shiny as Wharton/Columbia or other Ivvies apparently!).
MIT Sloan:
-Finance concentration not very well defined (atleast on their website!)
-More emphasis on Leadership and Technology here.
-I have to say their website is not very friendly or informative for prospective students. Is it just me or does someone else feel the same? I do not mean to be a d**k about this but those are my honest observations.
-It appears to me that prospective students interested in operations and technology management should target Sloan. No doubt there are pretty high in quality there.
-And I read that they are starting a MFE type program in 2008. That I am assuming will rise to the top very quickly.
Well, after today I am leaning towards applying to NYU. I need to schedule a campus visit this month. One thing to note though is that NYU announces it's first round decisions only late in the year or even in early January 2008. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
NYU Stern:
-The concentrations appear to be very well defined especially in Finance.
-I counted three specific Finance concentrations which covered a lot of areas.
-There is a specific Quantitative Finance concentration as well. Courses under this concentration include Stochastic Methods which is pretty intense.
-NYC location which is always good.
-Student body seems pretty diverse.
-I thought the total number of students that are accepted every year was rather low at ~400. But that should be a good thing right?!
-My friend K went there for the part-time MBA program and liked it.
-However, another friend of mine (let's call her Mrs. Doooo who currently is at Wharton) thinks I should not apply there. (Brand name not as shiny as Wharton/Columbia or other Ivvies apparently!).
MIT Sloan:
-Finance concentration not very well defined (atleast on their website!)
-More emphasis on Leadership and Technology here.
-I have to say their website is not very friendly or informative for prospective students. Is it just me or does someone else feel the same? I do not mean to be a d**k about this but those are my honest observations.
-It appears to me that prospective students interested in operations and technology management should target Sloan. No doubt there are pretty high in quality there.
-And I read that they are starting a MFE type program in 2008. That I am assuming will rise to the top very quickly.
Well, after today I am leaning towards applying to NYU. I need to schedule a campus visit this month. One thing to note though is that NYU announces it's first round decisions only late in the year or even in early January 2008. Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
Wimbledon - Men's Final
well, that was a great match! High quality play throughout, it was amazing. That Nadal kid is not too shabby huh?! Federer really looked out of it in the 5th set but somehow hit a couple of amazing shots and hit big serves when down a couple of breakpoints. Too bad Rafffa, next year!
Am I the only one wondering why both of them (especially Federer) stayed on the baseline for most of the match. I mean, c'mon people this is Wimbledon, get you asses to the net as often as possible. Maybe Federer was tentative. He needs a couple of quick grass court tutorials from Pete Sampras! Speaking of him, I read somewhere that Pete was dissing Federer (not exactly sure why?). Gotto find that link.
Am I the only one wondering why both of them (especially Federer) stayed on the baseline for most of the match. I mean, c'mon people this is Wimbledon, get you asses to the net as often as possible. Maybe Federer was tentative. He needs a couple of quick grass court tutorials from Pete Sampras! Speaking of him, I read somewhere that Pete was dissing Federer (not exactly sure why?). Gotto find that link.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Financial Markets - Weekly Summary
Brief summary from this week in all the markets:
Bonds
-10 year treasury yield rose 15 basis points for the week to end at 5.19%. FT seems to think the release of strong economic data including the fact that roughly 132,000 jobs were created this month contributed to this rise. Logic seems ok to me. Rosy economy numbers are not welcome in the bond markets is what I have read so far.
-10 year gilt also rose 10bp to 5.56% while the 10 year Bund gained 12bp to 4.68%. Again FT suspects these rises were in anticipation of higher interest rates in the eurozone and the UK.
Equities
-Apparently the Bond market had little impact on the equities which continued to rise this week. Blackstone's acquisition of the Hilton Hotel group and other M&A deals including that by AMO for Bausch and Lomb appear to have driven the equity markets. All the major indices in the US, UK, and Japan along with those in Seoul, HK, and Mumbai gained.
-Apple, Research in Motion, Intel, and Google all went up.
-One interesting observation was that FT claimed a strong increase in short-term call options due to unsubstantiated takeover rumors drove some stocks high this week. When I looked up three of the stocks that went up due to high volume of call options, nothing stood out. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) which is in the agricultural products sector gained 6.2%; Verasun Energy (VSE) is in the ethanol production business (5.7%); while Quest Diagnostics
provides medical testing services. No common theme sector wise was observed. The speculation is that these are all targets of private equity buyouts.
-Wonder how long this buyout spree will last. How high do the interest rates have to go before this madness ends?
-Second Q earnings are expected to be out starting next week and positive results are expected which might further drive the equity markets upwards.
-KKR filed for an 1.25 B IPO this week. Not sure when they will start trading. Oh, by the way Blackstone went over $31 this week.
-CME increased their bid for CBOT but the new bid is still short of the ICE offering.
Currency
-Sterling is @ $2.02 which is a 26 year high.
In other news, there appears to be a man richer than Bill Gates: Some Mexican dude by the name of Carlos Slim whose net worth as of this week is supposedly $67 B! Take that Billy boy!
Bonds
-10 year treasury yield rose 15 basis points for the week to end at 5.19%. FT seems to think the release of strong economic data including the fact that roughly 132,000 jobs were created this month contributed to this rise. Logic seems ok to me. Rosy economy numbers are not welcome in the bond markets is what I have read so far.
-10 year gilt also rose 10bp to 5.56% while the 10 year Bund gained 12bp to 4.68%. Again FT suspects these rises were in anticipation of higher interest rates in the eurozone and the UK.
Equities
-Apparently the Bond market had little impact on the equities which continued to rise this week. Blackstone's acquisition of the Hilton Hotel group and other M&A deals including that by AMO for Bausch and Lomb appear to have driven the equity markets. All the major indices in the US, UK, and Japan along with those in Seoul, HK, and Mumbai gained.
-Apple, Research in Motion, Intel, and Google all went up.
-One interesting observation was that FT claimed a strong increase in short-term call options due to unsubstantiated takeover rumors drove some stocks high this week. When I looked up three of the stocks that went up due to high volume of call options, nothing stood out. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) which is in the agricultural products sector gained 6.2%; Verasun Energy (VSE) is in the ethanol production business (5.7%); while Quest Diagnostics
provides medical testing services. No common theme sector wise was observed. The speculation is that these are all targets of private equity buyouts.
-Wonder how long this buyout spree will last. How high do the interest rates have to go before this madness ends?
-Second Q earnings are expected to be out starting next week and positive results are expected which might further drive the equity markets upwards.
-KKR filed for an 1.25 B IPO this week. Not sure when they will start trading. Oh, by the way Blackstone went over $31 this week.
-CME increased their bid for CBOT but the new bid is still short of the ICE offering.
Currency
-Sterling is @ $2.02 which is a 26 year high.
In other news, there appears to be a man richer than Bill Gates: Some Mexican dude by the name of Carlos Slim whose net worth as of this week is supposedly $67 B! Take that Billy boy!
Columbia MBA - Essays
The essays for the 2008 admission year are not out yet but apparently it is reasonable to expect that they will be similar to the ones from 2007 which were:
Essay 1:
Short-term and Long-term career goals. Why MBA at this point of your life? How is a Columbia MBA going to help you?
Essay 2:
Write about a manager that you had who has shown skills to handle people and tasks of diverse nature and background. Have you learnt anything from him/her?
Essay 3:
About Enterpreneurship skills. Write about an instance where you have displayed this.
Essay 4 (pick from one of the following two):
What are you most passionate about?
How would you spend a day if it was upto you? who would you meet and what would you do?
Gotto get working on these. I intend to finish them by August 15. Will start on them this weekend. Have a good idea about what I want to write for each Essay, just have to start typing and tightening each one.
Essay 1:
Short-term and Long-term career goals. Why MBA at this point of your life? How is a Columbia MBA going to help you?
Essay 2:
Write about a manager that you had who has shown skills to handle people and tasks of diverse nature and background. Have you learnt anything from him/her?
Essay 3:
About Enterpreneurship skills. Write about an instance where you have displayed this.
Essay 4 (pick from one of the following two):
What are you most passionate about?
How would you spend a day if it was upto you? who would you meet and what would you do?
Gotto get working on these. I intend to finish them by August 15. Will start on them this weekend. Have a good idea about what I want to write for each Essay, just have to start typing and tightening each one.
Columbia MBA - School visit
I am targetting the MBA program at Columbia as one of the places where I will apply. I visited Columbia roughly 10 days ago to attend an info session, see the school campus, and sit in a class.
Here is the brief summary of my visit:
-I had heard from another potential applicant that Columbia comes off as being very standoffish during their info session. It was anything but! The lady who gave the presentation was cordial and to the point and yet friendly. The professor whose class I sat in (he had a economics PhD from MIT) was also quite friendly.
-Very impressed by the program. The Finance concentration is sufficiently broad and yet narrow if one wants to pursue a particular line. Private Equity, Investment Banking, Capital Markets are some of the sub-concentrations available. I was impressed that these are so well defined.
-I liked that there are numerous student activity clubs available which organize business and social events that suit all tastes and types.
-What is impressive is that Columbia MBA students can access the resources of a large number of special centers including the language center (Chazen) to brush up their language skills and the Enterpreneurship center.
-Glitterring Alumni. Did not know that one of the KKR guys went to Columbia.
-New York City location seems to be a huge advantage compared to Wharton.
-The class I sat in was "Global Economic Environment". I sat in for about 45 min and was sufficiently impressed. Liked how the Prof started the class by asking the students about recent financial events and briefly summarized their impact on the economy. The class started by showing a bunch of curves: Interest rate Vs Salary; Inflation Vs Interest rates; etc. I followed the first few slides after which it got too technical for me. Scooted out of there!
-The only negative that I came off with was when I talked to the admissions office lady about how many PhDs they took last year. She did not have an exact number but seemed to think it was less than 1% (which makes it 8 at most). But she did say that the pool of candidates who apply with PhDs is very small, so I would have the same chance as a non-PhD applicant. She told me to make sure that my essays are good.
-Columbia has an early admission deadline which means that if one has decided that a Columbia MBA is for them, they should apply by August 15. Decisions are given out in less than 8 weeks. And if you get in, you have to pay $5000 to accept.
-I decided that I will apply for the early round at Columbia.
Here is the brief summary of my visit:
-I had heard from another potential applicant that Columbia comes off as being very standoffish during their info session. It was anything but! The lady who gave the presentation was cordial and to the point and yet friendly. The professor whose class I sat in (he had a economics PhD from MIT) was also quite friendly.
-Very impressed by the program. The Finance concentration is sufficiently broad and yet narrow if one wants to pursue a particular line. Private Equity, Investment Banking, Capital Markets are some of the sub-concentrations available. I was impressed that these are so well defined.
-I liked that there are numerous student activity clubs available which organize business and social events that suit all tastes and types.
-What is impressive is that Columbia MBA students can access the resources of a large number of special centers including the language center (Chazen) to brush up their language skills and the Enterpreneurship center.
-Glitterring Alumni. Did not know that one of the KKR guys went to Columbia.
-New York City location seems to be a huge advantage compared to Wharton.
-The class I sat in was "Global Economic Environment". I sat in for about 45 min and was sufficiently impressed. Liked how the Prof started the class by asking the students about recent financial events and briefly summarized their impact on the economy. The class started by showing a bunch of curves: Interest rate Vs Salary; Inflation Vs Interest rates; etc. I followed the first few slides after which it got too technical for me. Scooted out of there!
-The only negative that I came off with was when I talked to the admissions office lady about how many PhDs they took last year. She did not have an exact number but seemed to think it was less than 1% (which makes it 8 at most). But she did say that the pool of candidates who apply with PhDs is very small, so I would have the same chance as a non-PhD applicant. She told me to make sure that my essays are good.
-Columbia has an early admission deadline which means that if one has decided that a Columbia MBA is for them, they should apply by August 15. Decisions are given out in less than 8 weeks. And if you get in, you have to pay $5000 to accept.
-I decided that I will apply for the early round at Columbia.
11 games behind
oh yeah, in case there is a Yankee fan reading this: Red Sox lead over the morons from the Bronx is 11 games as of today! Dang, that feels good.
Music - Cuban stuff
Thanks to Robert S. I have gotten into Cuban music of late. And I gotto say I am loving the first Cuban rap CD that I burnt from Robert. The group is called Orichas and the CD that I am listening to now is called "A lo Cubano". These guys emigrated from Cuba to France (Marseilles) and started making rap records.
I didn't quite believe him when Robert said that Cuban music is different from the rest of the South American latino music. How right you were Robert! "A lo Cubano" is supposedly a rap album but it is definitely different compared to mainstream hip hop. It has rhythm, background choruses, latino instrumentals combined with the hip-hop style lyric delivery. Strangely soothing at times (for a rap CD, that's cool no?). Definitely catchy, let's just say I love it! It is on my iPod and I play it often.
Robert also gave me "Island Life" by Yerba Buena which I have not yet copied onto my iPod. It's definitely happening soon.
I didn't quite believe him when Robert said that Cuban music is different from the rest of the South American latino music. How right you were Robert! "A lo Cubano" is supposedly a rap album but it is definitely different compared to mainstream hip hop. It has rhythm, background choruses, latino instrumentals combined with the hip-hop style lyric delivery. Strangely soothing at times (for a rap CD, that's cool no?). Definitely catchy, let's just say I love it! It is on my iPod and I play it often.
Robert also gave me "Island Life" by Yerba Buena which I have not yet copied onto my iPod. It's definitely happening soon.
Wimbledon thoughts
-Watched Venus win the final this morning against this pudgy Frenchwoman named Marion Bartoli. Good to see Venus back but have to say the quality of the match was not high by any means. Both women seem to be laboring in the second set. At first glance this Bartoli girl appeared to have no business being in a grand slam final (did not appear physically fit or have a top level game) but she hung in there. Plus she was gracious during the trophy presentation speech.
-I am rooting for Nadal to win the men's final tommorrow. If I were a betting man, I would bet on Nadal for two reasons: high returns since the odds are higher against him and looks like he has gotten into Federer's head after the win at Roland Garros. That's the key at this highest level of the game, yeah Federer's game is superior on grass but execution at crucial moments is what determines the winner and I feel Federer will falter. Let's see.
-I am rooting for Nadal to win the men's final tommorrow. If I were a betting man, I would bet on Nadal for two reasons: high returns since the odds are higher against him and looks like he has gotten into Federer's head after the win at Roland Garros. That's the key at this highest level of the game, yeah Federer's game is superior on grass but execution at crucial moments is what determines the winner and I feel Federer will falter. Let's see.
Bond Yields etc - Jeremy Siegel's thoughts
Read an interesting article from Jeremy Siegel yesterday about why rising bond yields are trouble for all markets. He points out the WSJ is incorrect in saying that inflation is the reason for increasing bond yields. Here is what Prof. Siegel had to say (interpreted by me):
Siegel: Reason for high bond yields is worldwide economic growth. Interest rates are driven by two factors. Real interest rate and inflation. Real interest rate is dependent on economic growth and it is this growth that is driving the bond yields high currenly (article is from June 13 2007).
Siegel: Stock market will be affected by this rise in real interest rate much to a lesser extent than the bond market. The Real Estate market will be affected negatively by this rise as well.
My fundamental understanding of the Bond, Stock, and Real Estate markets and their relation to interest rates is this:
-Bond Yield=Coupon rate/Bond Price
-Yields rise when Bonds are being sold more than being bought (Low Bond Price)
-Bonds will be sold more when inflation is high (Face value of Bond will be worth less upon maturity in x years) and/or people can get a higher interest from other sources. Not sure if the rise in the real interest rates is directly responsible for the later. (I will need to check with Marcus and Kishore about this).
-Stock markets are directly affected by higher interest rates and money needs to be borrowed at higher interest rates to invest in the equity market.
-Real Estate market would probably also be affected the same way as higher interest rates would mean people have to pay higher mortgages.
I am not sure if Prof Siegel's analysis is correct but I do see some logic in it.
I also have to figure out the difference between the overnite lending interest rate that the Fed monitors vs the bank lending rates for mortgages and loans. (Need to check this)
Siegel: Reason for high bond yields is worldwide economic growth. Interest rates are driven by two factors. Real interest rate and inflation. Real interest rate is dependent on economic growth and it is this growth that is driving the bond yields high currenly (article is from June 13 2007).
Siegel: Stock market will be affected by this rise in real interest rate much to a lesser extent than the bond market. The Real Estate market will be affected negatively by this rise as well.
My fundamental understanding of the Bond, Stock, and Real Estate markets and their relation to interest rates is this:
-Bond Yield=Coupon rate/Bond Price
-Yields rise when Bonds are being sold more than being bought (Low Bond Price)
-Bonds will be sold more when inflation is high (Face value of Bond will be worth less upon maturity in x years) and/or people can get a higher interest from other sources. Not sure if the rise in the real interest rates is directly responsible for the later. (I will need to check with Marcus and Kishore about this).
-Stock markets are directly affected by higher interest rates and money needs to be borrowed at higher interest rates to invest in the equity market.
-Real Estate market would probably also be affected the same way as higher interest rates would mean people have to pay higher mortgages.
I am not sure if Prof Siegel's analysis is correct but I do see some logic in it.
I also have to figure out the difference between the overnite lending interest rate that the Fed monitors vs the bank lending rates for mortgages and loans. (Need to check this)
Editorials in FT Weekend
Interesting articles in the FT Weekend edition today:
-Comment and analysis article about how it is not surprising that the medical profession bore the militant types in England/Scotland from last week's bomb attempts. The writer points out two luminaries of the past were notable practitioners (aka Doctors) : Joseph Guillotine (yes, he of the chopping head instrument fame!) taking part in the French revolution and the popular Che Guevara. Not sure if this proves anything though. I think a lot of thought needs to be put in to understand what is driving highly qualified and reasonably well-off individuals to pursue this type of behavior. Can't help but think of a statement I came across recently: "When one individual is delusional it is called insanity, when a group of people are delusional it is called Religion".
-Another comment article about the new Michael Moore movie "Sicko". The author (a senior editor of The Weekly Standard) of this article thinks that if the movie watcher goes to watch this movie without having a good understanding of the current health care system in the US, he/she will leave the theater will a shallower understanding of the crisis. I have to say, my opinion was along these lines a couple of weeks ago when the movie came out in Philly. I decided to not watch it until I understand the healthcare system more. I have seen earlier movies of Mr. Moore and have to say that they are long on propaganda and short on substance and solutions. But I will give him this though, atleast he brings less talked about social conscience issues to the mainstream.
-In the financial news area, FT had a piece about the outster of the UBS chief. Did not interest me much. More financial sector related news in the next post.
-Comment and analysis article about how it is not surprising that the medical profession bore the militant types in England/Scotland from last week's bomb attempts. The writer points out two luminaries of the past were notable practitioners (aka Doctors) : Joseph Guillotine (yes, he of the chopping head instrument fame!) taking part in the French revolution and the popular Che Guevara. Not sure if this proves anything though. I think a lot of thought needs to be put in to understand what is driving highly qualified and reasonably well-off individuals to pursue this type of behavior. Can't help but think of a statement I came across recently: "When one individual is delusional it is called insanity, when a group of people are delusional it is called Religion".
-Another comment article about the new Michael Moore movie "Sicko". The author (a senior editor of The Weekly Standard) of this article thinks that if the movie watcher goes to watch this movie without having a good understanding of the current health care system in the US, he/she will leave the theater will a shallower understanding of the crisis. I have to say, my opinion was along these lines a couple of weeks ago when the movie came out in Philly. I decided to not watch it until I understand the healthcare system more. I have seen earlier movies of Mr. Moore and have to say that they are long on propaganda and short on substance and solutions. But I will give him this though, atleast he brings less talked about social conscience issues to the mainstream.
-In the financial news area, FT had a piece about the outster of the UBS chief. Did not interest me much. More financial sector related news in the next post.
Friday, July 6, 2007
GMAT III
Ok, numbers now and some final suggestions:
-Total GMAT prep time: 4 weeks
-Hours spent each day on prep: 2 h (mornings)
-Kaplan CAT practice tests taken: 3
-Scores in Kaplan CAT practice tests: 550, 540, and 590 in that order
-mba.com practice tests taken: 2 (taken after the 3 Kaplan CAT tests)
-Scores in mba.com practice tests: 680 and 690 in that order.
-GMAT test score: 710 (94th %tile);Q and V %tile similar; AW:5.5
Suggestions for GMAT prep:
-Kaplan book-Highly recommended (even though everytime you finish a CAT test from their CD you want to beat the crap out of everyone in sight!)
-Take Kaplan CAT tests prior to the mba.com tests
-Spend 2h every morning taking section tests provided in Kaplan
-Keep sugar levels at reasonable levels during practice (very important! Low on sugar=Low on concentration)
-Take practice tests at the same time as your actual test time.
-Do not over prepare. Spending 2h daily is enough.
-Do not take more than 1 practice test a week unless prep time is short.
-Ideal prep time: 4-7 weeks. Anything longer=lose momentum and focus
-Take care of all test center issues before hand. Name spellings/type of scratch paper issued etc. -Take the allowed breaks in the actual (and practice tests). Bring an energy bar or fruit and water to keep the sugar levels (and concentration) at reasonable levels. Pee if you have to during the breaks. Bladders do not have a way of knowing what you are doing unless taken care of!
-Be prepared for the test. It will be brutal. Trust me. I thought I butchered the exam but my score turned out to be ok. This is where the brutal Kaplan tests help.
-Total GMAT prep time: 4 weeks
-Hours spent each day on prep: 2 h (mornings)
-Kaplan CAT practice tests taken: 3
-Scores in Kaplan CAT practice tests: 550, 540, and 590 in that order
-mba.com practice tests taken: 2 (taken after the 3 Kaplan CAT tests)
-Scores in mba.com practice tests: 680 and 690 in that order.
-GMAT test score: 710 (94th %tile);Q and V %tile similar; AW:5.5
Suggestions for GMAT prep:
-Kaplan book-Highly recommended (even though everytime you finish a CAT test from their CD you want to beat the crap out of everyone in sight!)
-Take Kaplan CAT tests prior to the mba.com tests
-Spend 2h every morning taking section tests provided in Kaplan
-Keep sugar levels at reasonable levels during practice (very important! Low on sugar=Low on concentration)
-Take practice tests at the same time as your actual test time.
-Do not over prepare. Spending 2h daily is enough.
-Do not take more than 1 practice test a week unless prep time is short.
-Ideal prep time: 4-7 weeks. Anything longer=lose momentum and focus
-Take care of all test center issues before hand. Name spellings/type of scratch paper issued etc. -Take the allowed breaks in the actual (and practice tests). Bring an energy bar or fruit and water to keep the sugar levels (and concentration) at reasonable levels. Pee if you have to during the breaks. Bladders do not have a way of knowing what you are doing unless taken care of!
-Be prepared for the test. It will be brutal. Trust me. I thought I butchered the exam but my score turned out to be ok. This is where the brutal Kaplan tests help.
GMAT II
I scored 680 on my first Kaplan 'diagnostic' test (this was available online with the purchase of the book). Not sure if this was really a diagnostic test as I had semi-seriously prepped for GRE in January so had a head start. Anyway, 680 was not bad. Marcus later told me that this was a linear test which is usually easier than a CAT test.
I have to point out here that it was invaluable for me to have Marcus telling me often about the GMAT prepping experiences of his buddies. For example, in my first CAT test I scored a 550 and felt like breaking anything in sight! At that time it was good to remind myself what Marcus had said earlier about the Kaplan CAT tests being intentionally tougher than the actual test. Marcus had also forwarded a detailed e-mail from his friend who had taken the GMAT recently where he explained how to prepare for it step by step. In that e-mail he said that the actual GMAT test score will usually be about 50 to 100 points higher than the Kaplan CAT tests.
Another important point from this e-mail was to take the two mba.com tests immediately prior to the actual GMAT as the format and the level of difficulty are similar to the actual test. This in hindsight was a great suggestion.
I have to point out here that it was invaluable for me to have Marcus telling me often about the GMAT prepping experiences of his buddies. For example, in my first CAT test I scored a 550 and felt like breaking anything in sight! At that time it was good to remind myself what Marcus had said earlier about the Kaplan CAT tests being intentionally tougher than the actual test. Marcus had also forwarded a detailed e-mail from his friend who had taken the GMAT recently where he explained how to prepare for it step by step. In that e-mail he said that the actual GMAT test score will usually be about 50 to 100 points higher than the Kaplan CAT tests.
Another important point from this e-mail was to take the two mba.com tests immediately prior to the actual GMAT as the format and the level of difficulty are similar to the actual test. This in hindsight was a great suggestion.
GMAT
On May 19 I decided to start preparing for the GMAT. Why? Well, more on that later. For now let me stick to GMAT. I started my prep on May 25 and took an appointment to take the test on June 20 at 9 AM (mornings are good for me-me no feely sleepy in the mornings!).
I bought the Kaplan Premier Book 2007 Edition with a CD that had 4 CAT tests. For anyone starting their prep for GMAT, I would highly recommend the Kaplan book. Essentially I just used that and nothing else. Midway through my prep I decided I needed more practice on the Quantitative section. I went out and bought the Kaplan Quantitative Practice Book. Not sure if this really helped (no CD room is available with this book) but I would recommend it for practice. My friend Marcus was also prepping for GMAT and he had taken the Kaplan online course ($1500). He told me that I could use some of his prep material if need be. So I did not bother to go buy anything else.
I bought the Kaplan Premier Book 2007 Edition with a CD that had 4 CAT tests. For anyone starting their prep for GMAT, I would highly recommend the Kaplan book. Essentially I just used that and nothing else. Midway through my prep I decided I needed more practice on the Quantitative section. I went out and bought the Kaplan Quantitative Practice Book. Not sure if this really helped (no CD room is available with this book) but I would recommend it for practice. My friend Marcus was also prepping for GMAT and he had taken the Kaplan online course ($1500). He told me that I could use some of his prep material if need be. So I did not bother to go buy anything else.
Background
allrite here we go:
-Single, M, Age: 32
-Place: Philadelphia
-Education: PhD, Engineering
-Work experience: 6 years in Chemical/Energy/Automotive/Commodity sectors
-Current job: Project management/coordination
-Single, M, Age: 32
-Place: Philadelphia
-Education: PhD, Engineering
-Work experience: 6 years in Chemical/Energy/Automotive/Commodity sectors
-Current job: Project management/coordination
Blog contents
oh yeah, the deviations may also extend to sports, music, books, travel, food, and scooters!
Blogging? why?
I am starting this blog to chronicle my experiences during my Quest to get admitted into a MBA or MFE program. I will post mostly about GMAT, MBA/MFE program research, applications, school visits, and interviews. In addition, I will post my thoughts about current financial sector news. As much as I would like to stay on course there maybe a deviation or two here and there where I post about random misc events: movies, women, etc.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)