destress stress

The accruals problem has got the better of me and my patience is running short on it. after working on it for the past 3 days I am faced with a big question mark on how the 790+k came about. There’s a missing piece which I am struggling to locate. It’s been frustrating and i seem to be trying to grapple something in the dark. I need someone to guide me through this, just like I was on my wits’ end trying to find a mentor during my obu research.

No one. There is no one here who’ll stretch out a hand to help. You are very much on your own.

I find solace and comfort from having company of dearie and running. I just rant on and on about the day’s frustration..and going for runs helps give me mind a break.

There’s a assignment to be handed in by Friday and I am facing problems to sit down and do my reading. Much compilation of notes is required but I am no where there yet.

Everyone has their share of stress and frustration..and it’s a choice we can make to be defeated by it or be over and above it. I have a whole long list of assignments, revisions, work..etc.. waiting for me. the list is looongggg.. work is not always at its best either..because I’m like a garbage collector doing everything.. and investigation work is sometimes crap work with no leads and no guide.

Despite it all, I am girding myself to face to challenge. what is the fun of life if everything simply falls from the sky? There’ll be no sense of achievement if everything is easy within reach.

I hate assignments..i hate the tons of reading I’ve got to do.. yet when I look at it.. it’s during these times growth thrives. A person is not strengthened unless he/she is once broken. We won’t know how fast we can run until we try running fast.

I can very well identify with a kin who faces stress in her own realm of life too. my word to her is to not let stress get the better of you. take stress by it’s weakest spot and tell it that you are over and above it. stress is created by ourselves and can very well be overcome by ourselves too.

Do whatever makes you happy..have a long bath..go out for a walk..eat your favourite food..or talk to someone.. anything. After that, stand tall and brace yourself to face the challenges again.

For me, I’m going for a slow long run. After that, it’ll be assignment and reading for me. haha. can’t run away from it!

on a final note..i hope dearie gets a place at nus to do his masters!! i think the learning bug rubbed off onto him! =)

valentine's dinner

on this year's valentine's day, dearie cooked me dinner - terriyaki chicken =) here are the photos!
dearie the chefwaaaa..chicken fillet so fast turned golden brown liao!?

oooooohh..flip flip...

the final product - tenderlicious chicken with droolworthy terriyaki sauce..ooooh..slurpo!

i did my part by making pineapple cocktail as dessert

it was a simple yet meaningful way to spend the day together. well, no need for bouquets of flowers nor fanciful presents. the meal meant so much more.

thank you dearie. =)

life with no challenge is boring

There is a gargantuan universe out there I’ve been oblivious to all these while. Taking the option module opened my eyes and my mind to markets I never knew existed. I’ve been a tortoise in my shell for more than a quarter century.

There is so much to learn from marilyn and I’m thankful to have her as team mate again. having worked with her for the past 2 terms, we have generated some form of synergy in the process. Sharon is a new addition to the group.

I’m going to give this assignment a good shot and hopefully help secure a decent credit. Indeed, the modules starting from this term on are leaps from the core modules we’ve had in the last 2 terms. Fixed income starts next week and I am eagerly looking forward to discovering more about the financial markets.

The biggest word that sticks out like a sore thumb during studies is – volatility. Everyone wants to measure it.. everyone wants to use it to their advantage. But this is the “A factor” in market investing. People study the trends.. candlesticks, broomsticks, ice cream sticks.. we came up with black scholes to create a perfect risk free portfolio.. but we can never beat it.

I think that’s why some academias like to say investing is more of luck than analytics. If you are lucky..you can blindfold yourself, just throw a dart at a share or derivatives..buy it and make tons of money from it.

Okies. So much for ranting about my studies.. it is really hyped now as I’ve got to get a delta neutral hedge out by tomorrow. I wonder if this really works! We shall see!

Work continues its course. I’ve been taking on more; which includes “inheriting” the crap accounts. I have yet to understand why I’ve been asked to take this on but I am not asking. It’s mundane but I’ll do it nonetheless. This is part of how I earn my keep. Like what dearie says..it’s better to be doing more than doing less. If you’re doing nothing, that’s bad. Imagine if your work is ploughed out to others.. unless you’ve been given a promotion or transfer prior to that..else that might mean you’ll get the boot very soon!

I’m telling myself..If I can do a better job out of what the predecessors did, it’ll be a good proof of my capabilities. =)

Time passes fast these days because there is a lot more to do. so that’s not that all a bad thing..despite I don’t get paid for doing more. Haha!

Training has been more fulfilling these days. I can see my stamina picking up gradually from how I manage long runs. I can go easy for 2 hours and still feel I can do another 10km.

Weekly mileage is still below 60km currently but I foresee things should move up yet another notch soon. It’s not that bad..because running and training are already huge parts of both dearie’s and my life. these days dearie is standing in as coach for me as well – assisting me to achieve better timing.

Later this evening will be a time trial for me. it’s to gauge where I stand and if I can perform according to the split timings laid out by dearie.

Wow. I’m already looking forward to finish work soon and zoom back home..prepare dinner..run out to track.. do the time trial with dearie.. cook dinner and enjoy it with dearie.. then work on assignment..and sleep! My day’s packed but I’m glad I’m learning, challenging myself and sharing life with dearie =)

black-scholed tricia

Research for options assignment has begun. The assignment was posted up by the prof yesterday and my team mates shot emails out for discussion.

I’m more than 75% done with revision of those topics covered in the 1st intensive. It’s quite an ideal time to work on assignment as I foresee more reading required.

Intuitively I googled the key words of the assignment and the whole world opened before me. Downside of that is the overload of information and the need to filter through for the relevant points.

This whole assignment is much about black-scholes .. binomial..and arbitrage volatility. While the underlying concepts are not that complex, application is. To spot the under or over priced option is the first challenge. In that market swarmed with numerous options, how to sieve out the gold from the pebbles?

We had a department lunch at tung lok yesterday. Food was pretty impressive and so was the price that came with it. Not somewhere I will treat myself to, so thankfully the bill was foot by the fc.

During the meal, ag went around the table and asked us what we would want to work as upon retirement. 2 wanted to start a f&b outlet, 2 wanted to enjoy life of a tai-tai, 1 wanted to open a fruit stall..1 wanted to open a handicraft shop..etc. my reply was simple. I wanted to trade.

“trade what?” ag asked.

“shares” I replied.

More than shares actually. I found no need to elaborate then and there.

I wanted to manage a portfolio. Trade a spectrum of shares and derivatives; putting what I am now learning into use.

Somehow, I feel trading will keep my retirement days alive as it will require me to keep abreast with what goes on in the world. From there, I must deduce how it will impact the market and how it will react. And of course, all of that requires some luck too =)

For now, back to learning the models and Greeks. It may not beat the market but at least it helps me make sound decisions. We don’t live by rules but they help set boundaries for us, isn’t it so?

cny break

We had a well-deserved break during Chinese new year. we were away for a week and during this time these were briefly what we did.

- we picked pa at senai airport on Friday evening. Senai airport is undergoing some major construction and the temporary area set up looks a tad rundown for an airport.

- we ran ah-gu route with pa, john and wendy. It was just pleasant doing it with family =)

- dearie took me along to kl for the site survey. We went to mid-valley for a few hours and we both managed to buy some things for ourselves. the highlight of it was the yummy-licious penang laksa we had. Wow.. it is the best I’ve eaten..nothing like those I’ve tried in Singapore. Dearie promised to bring me to the best penang laksa in Malaysia, located at Penang of course!

- ma cooked us wonderful meals that we could not stop eating: pork ribs, curry rendang, meatball soup.. I’m trying to pick up some of her culinary skills so I can feed dearie as good as she does it.

- we slept in late every day. napped through the noon heat and gambled at night. =)

- first time I traveled back on train back to Singapore alone. Nothing eventful because I slept through the entire trip, oblivious to what went on around me. in a train, what exciting thing can there be? Terrorist attack?

- first time in our lives we distributed ang paos. Hehe. I confess we were kind of scroog-y with them this year. we don’t have a lot to spare but we’ll try to be more generous next year. with the completion of my studies and hopefully the betterment of the economy, I believe we would have more to go around.

- we caught several good movies on dvd. I enjoyed both the kite runner and the reader immensely; ip man follows close. The Korean hunk show was a dud.. like some airhead bimbo flick. Transporter 3 was visually entertaining but lacked depth. The passenger had a good plot, similar to the sixth sense, with the unexpected twist at the end. Ponyo by the cliff was cute..simple little mermaid story.. but not many in the family were drawn to cutesy cartoon. I’ve still got juno and true heart to watch and I’m down to the last few episodes of true heart already! =)

- I concurred with dearie that cny this year has mellowed down significantly. We can’t put our finger on what the underlying reason might be. Perhaps the bleak outlook of the economy..perhaps the fear of retrenchment.. perhaps there just isn’t as much to celebrate about any more.

- oh yes, first time i tried mee bandung. mee tastes weird when it' s sweet...=X

On a separate note, options class started on Friday. The prof is really good, giving us detailed explanation and patiently going through some of the quantitative fundamentals we ought to already know. There was not a single dull moment during class; learning is always enriching.=) assignment is pretty challenging though. Personally, I am giving myself 3-4days to run through the notes in order to digest all that’s been taught. I’ll start on my computation and research on Friday. The monitoring and analysis must start by next Monday as the time span we are required to do is 2 weeks. So at least I have a few days buffer to tie the loose ends with Sharon and marilyn before submission.

The pair of ds-trainers has bided goodbye and tempo is soon on its way too. fortunately dearie bought me the pair of trail shoes for the mr training. nonetheless, when tempo is gone, I will have to get a new pair. The thought of spending on a new pair of shoes really puts me down. long gone are the days when I splurge on training equipment. I am unwilling to spend $150 on a new pair of shoes because they don’t last me very long. in addition, I don’t get good discounts like I used to. gee, why is running getting so expensive these days? =( maybe I should soon become a bare foot running advocate for nike; not because it works but because it’s low-cost (provided you step on nails and broken glass!) =P