Hi pezz, Tonight's Report: spent the equivalent of a few platinum watches and committed to spend a few more by January if events go against me. My wagers were driven by my desperation to start funding Christmas goodies.
It is dangerous to get out of bed late night and listen to W speech -
Message 17737782
went long: unt hoff epex usu
went short: BP and VZ January puts 40/25 respectively
This morning, here in Hong Kong, I went crazy:
Message 17736433
<<So I bought another tranche of paper gold and Canadian Dollars this afternoon.
I was looking for an out, any out, of the situation where everything goes down naturally, except the evil yellow metal, which goes down unnaturally, or at least does not go up so much, yet, unnaturally. I failed to find an out, except for a little bit, this way:
Message 17736386
and directly invested (my investments and speculations has little to do with politics) in the continuing televised success of WAT-WOT-whatnot via the London Stock Exchange:
online.wsj.com.
“First, Hubco's strong cash flow allows it to pay a historically rich cash dividend, now about 31%, which amounted to nearly 40% of its earnings per share in fiscal 2001. Second, Pakistan is in the midst of a regulatory overhaul of its utilities sector, which analysts say will benefit Hubco's business in the long run. Third, at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 4.4, according to Jehangir Siddiqui, it trades at a significant discount to the Karachi market”
Pakistan government had never honored the contract from day 1 of Hub operation until WAT started, and US rescheduled Pakistani debt, and Britain tagged along with some moral support. Hub has many international institutional shareholders, controlled by International Power of Britain, and owes 49 international banks a bundle of money.
The business model of Hub is simple: the US deploys its troops, the Japanese pumps in its money, Russia offers its verbal support, China chucks in its acquiescence, Britain proffer its shoulder, India shouts threats, Iran does whatever, Hub Power gets paid its contractual tariff rate for power generation, and a Trini in Hong Kong can thus fund more platinum watches.
What do I know about Pakistan? Nothing except:
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"An aside: The driver used to work for my buddy who is now managing a foreign direct investment in Pakistan. I had dinner with the friend in early March while he was on R&R. He tells me Pakistan is no fun, especially with 3 armored cars, 6 bodyguards, hand guns and grenades (I taught him that trick because he shouldn’t do TV style shoortout agaist professionals within the confines of his living room) around the house, and no clubs for entertainment. He has a box of shoe polish for instant-melanin-enhancement and a presto-life-preserving robe in his attaché case at all times and is friend with all the generals. He misses his China posting, but getting lots of fiat paper for his troubles."
Chugs, Jay
P.S. The fact that I do a lot of work in China power generation sector, and that I have a European friend who used to work in China and now in Pakistan, riding around in armored cars and hobnobing with generals, and that I am now buying Hub Power only means that I read the above quoted WSJ article, and thought it a good idea, unlike Martha whatshername who traded on inside information.>>
Chugs, Jay |
