When I was in Hong Kong, thoughts about moving there crossed my mind, but then, I noticed that things were a lot more expensive than I remembered them being. Hong Kong used to be a shopper's paradise, but on this trip, I found this is no longer the case when you're using the USD. Chinese tourists have driven up prices for everything so significantly that it's rather scary and inflation is unpredictable. It was classic too much money chasing too few goods. Over the course of 6 days, I saw 5 women with a Hermes Birkin. No cowhide, thank you. The HK ladies are into crocodile and ostrich!
I visited a tonne of restaurants this time around - something I usually don't do, thinking I'd split it with the IRS. I especially loved Le Soleil Vietnamese Restaurant, L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at Landmark, Inagiku at the Four Seasons Hotel, and discovered a lovely wheatgerm bubble tea at Greenland Taiwanese Cuisine in Wanchai. On any given day, I'd hop from North Point to Causeway Bay to Wanchai to Central. Taxis are still inexpensive enough that one can basically ride them everywhere, although I used the trains as well - much more reliable than any of my stock market plays lately.
Just when I thought that nothing could be uglier than the stock market, I saw the following in Hong Kong:
Now, it's back to work as I battle the bears and daydream about my next project with 9FM. This has to be a home run for me and I think that once he sees the results of my previous project with him, it'll set the tone for future collaboration possibilities.
As far as trading is concerned, I think we've got a potential arbitrage opportunity with TGB. Gold prices are reflecting December 2011 delivery dates and the TGB earnings announcement is on 10 November 2011. This means that the company still stands to benefit from a year of bullish gold prices, regardless of whether gold now dips. Previous prices have been locked in and the correlation between the movement of gold and TGB share price has remained firmly negative. I contemplated buying more TGB today, but didn't know whether it would be able to hold above $2.50. Finally, we closed above it, albeit not above my preferred 50% daily Fib level.
Yet this is the first time in a while that my portfolio has been able to close by holding onto some gains. So is this the turning point? Let us pray in the confessional booth...
+1.05% SBA
+2.13% Roth IRA
+1.30% DJIA
-0.43% Nasdaq
+0.81% S&P
P.S. Something interesting I learned from a HK taxi driver: certain public projects - such as some tunnels - were funded by private investors who have the right to collect toll for a period of up to 30 years. The government then takes over the tunnels following this period. I really believe we need to start doing this in the US. Our infrastructure is a minimum of 50 years behind other countries. NYC's subway system and bridges are hundreds of years old. Kind of embarrassing if you ask me. I'm quite sure that since Warren Buffett has openly asked Obama to raise taxes on everyone, he'll have no issue with investing in some infrastructure projects that actually give people some ROI.
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