Happy Birthday to me.

Well, it's come and gone...the party was pretty good. We had pizza, Chinese food and 2 cakes (Spencer really wanted a strawberry one in addition to my Black Forest kind) and shared 2 cans of beer between 4 of us. Just the in-laws and our little family, a pretty good scene. After that I had a nap (hey, I'm the birthday boy...who can challenge me?...oh, my wife can).

This morning I got a good present. Weighed myself and the number was '88' (double happiness and also means wealth for Asians). Ah...but just being at 88 kg is a feat. For years I've been at 93 then saw 90 a little while ago, but couldn't believe it, but being down 5kg (1kg=2.2 pounds, so that means a drop of 10.1 pounds) is enough to announce. But, I fear it is because I am losing muscle. My workout schedule has been pretty light lately (and muscle weighs more than fat) but I have been bench-pressing the kids everyday and carrying them a lot. Not to mention walking 20-40 minutes every morning to the train station or bus stop. Then, when downtown I walk everywhere too. Hmmm...could I be getting healthy in a stealthy way?

On another topic, on Friday , yesterday (yes, on my birthday, I always seem to work on my birthday since I was 16) and today I am helping man the booth at the Financial Forum. When I was with RBC Dominion Securities I was in their booth in '97 and '98...about the time that discount brokers were the big thing (and every investor was a genius and could make money without advice). The Forum then was packed with people and booths. Now, after a bear market, it looks like half the booths and fewer people milling around. All we need are a few more good years and things will go crazy again, though, they always do.

I loitered by the SFU GAWM MBA booth for a while ingratiating myself on the guy there...he is on the admissions committee. One gal came by and grabbed a pamphlet. She was not your typical MBA gal...middle aged, scraggly looking, in fact more like a bum than a money person. He asked her if she was looking into an MBA and she said she would see what the options were. Later he said that she is not one who could make it. (More on her later.) A guy also came up and I (being rather effervescent and knowing about the program) started explaining it to him with the actual booth-minder. The guy said that I was a perfect guy to be an MBA...something that I didn't let get by Mr. Admissions.

Anyhoo, back at my booth that gal came by as well. She noted that she wanted to get into Thai investments and if iUnits could do that for her. One of the guys with me (who supposedly has 15 years experience) said that you could buy Thai funds on the NYSE but then the USD exchange rate would come into play. She, rightly, said that it would be logical to look at the CAD/baht rate more than the CAD/USD rate and the USD/baht rate because in the end the USD will cancel out (or wash out) won't it? His response: not necessarily; it's something you have to look at carefully. My (thought) response: bullshit. (If you do the math: CAD/baht is about 36, USD/baht is about 38.535 CAD/baht is 31.165 and CAD/USD is 1.2368. So: 38.535/31.165=1.23648 or a difference of just 0.03% of what we'd expect.) Well, I had to tone it down as I sided with her...I really can't handle someone who doesn't know about finance thinking that because they did a few trades on unrelated markets that they can give advice on such things. As well, she asked about buying gov't or corporate bonds in Thailand and he had no idea (at least he knew when to stop there) so I offered a few words: basically, corporate governance is brutal there, don't bother. Then I got to thinking...from what she was saying and how her logic flowed she could be an MBA candidate (assuming she has a bachelors and can get a good GMAT and such). Man, looks can be deceiving.

Now for options. Beside us was The Options Industry Council, which basically publicizes options and what you can do with them (unfortunately, the people at this booth were not very proficient in options; I'm starting to think that all of these booth-people, except me, are all rookies to their area). For those in business school or looking into investing or in the industry I'd say: go to the site and learn as much as you can about these things. You may never use them, but they are not only imbedded in some bond prices, in many structured notes and fund structures, but the theory behind them (which is over 30 years old) is a part of finance and money the world over. Volatility and time value and the other measures can be extracted from most asset prices and knowing options theory can get you a good foundation into understanding pricing and forecasting values (this, of course, can make you a lot of money if you are right, or righter, and everyone else is off the mark).

That was a long one...got to go now, have a great day!