Fashion Institute of Technology

Reia attended her last day at a short course at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. FIT as it is called has several short courses for high school students.

http://fitnyc.edu/5915.asp

These are held either on Saturdays or Sundays for 3 hours. They last for about 3 months and has around 11 to 12 classes.Reia took a beginners course in fashion design. And when she entered the classroom knew nothing about fashion design except that it was something she wanted to do.

3 months and 12 classes later she still knows very little. But knows she knows very little and yet knows much more than she did when she started.

On Day 1, the first thing the professor got the class to do was create a design based on what they knew. And on the last day, they were asked to once again create a design based on what they now knew.

The finale was to be the comparing of the 2 designs. Great idea. Except in New York. The professor had his stuff stolen and so the original designs were lost. But having learnt her lesson, Reia took photographs of the designs that she still had.

And her final design below is a gown for Taylor Swift. Who knows? One day, she might actually design a gown that Taylor Swift or the latest teen sensation wears.

Thanks FIT. Investing in school students is a great idea. For them . And for you.

Midas Relived

This week I attended an intensive course on Trading in the US Markets. It was supposed to be a Professional Traders course. Yet most of the participants had not only never traded in all their lives, but had zero to very little idea of trading. Not to worry. They were reassured that at the end of 7 days they would be proficient traders. And by trading a couple of hours would be able to generate such huge returns that they would be able to fulfill all of their dreams. And almost everyone who attended believed.

I was there to understand how the US markets work and thereby appreciate the subtle differences that may exist between the US and Indian markets. Unfortunately the Professional Traders class spent more than 30 percent of the time teaching how to use a trading platform. And another 40 percent in doing simulated trading, all of which could and should be done at home or work by anyone who aspires to trade.

A large amount of what time was left was spent in explaining the major differentiators in trading that would make everyone rich. The theory of Supply Zone and Demand Zone, as opposed to the traditional Support and Resistance Zones. And in identifying patterns that would identify these zones and good trading opportunities. Once again, there was no consistency in identifying and it seemed to depend more on if the resultant proved the theory, the pattern was correct, else it had something missing.

The rest of the time was spent in convincing the participants how the current course was not sufficient to become rich, you needed to do the next levels which would guarantee success. And the numbers made no sense to me. If you have $5,000 to invest, you should take the $15,000 course and if you have 10,000 the $25,000 and if you have more than $25,000 the $50,000 course. In other words you would need to get a return of over 100% annually for over 3 years just to recover your learning investment. And yet almost every one who attended took the next course.

I interacted with each of the participants and all of them were very nice, intelligent people. Yet the age old lure of easy money blinds all of us. The course conductors at every stage kept talking about how everyone lies when they want something. The professionals lie to get the amateurs to invest so they can gain and we will lose. How the TV channels lie on behalf of those with vested interests, so that they can gain and we can lose. How the management of companies lie so that they can benefit and we will make losses.

Ironically, they are probably right. But forgot to mention that it applies equally to them. All of what they projected has a minimal probability of being true, just as anyone who buys a lottery ticket has a possibility of getting a few million dollars. And just like I hope each of my friends who buys a lottery or goes to Vegas is a winner, I do hope that each of my classmates in the last week find a pot of gold. But I hope even harder that in case they don't they learn quickly enough that the only certainty in trading as in life is uncertainty.

Some myths

• Professionals make money. Amateurs lose.
  Anybody who has ever bothered to read the results of professional traders quickly realises how untrue this is. The second part about Amateurs losing is probably true. However since 90%+ of all trading is carried out by professionals and since most trading is a marginally negative sum game, a large number of professionals, in fact close to 50% will need to lose for the other 50% to profit.

• Make small losses. And large gains.
  You can easily say that if you have a stop loss at 1x and a target at 3x, then even if you lose 3 times, and gain once, you will break even. What they haven't taken into account is that because of the difference in distance between the stop loss and the targets the probability of this happening is also close to 3:1 and so the probability of being profitable remains exactly the same. 50 : 50

• Risk is limited
  This is the part where historically people have lost and will continue to. By putting a small stop loss, no one is guaranteed a limited loss. Any major event that leads to a large difference in opening or sharp movement could end up in the stop loss either not getting executed or you losing significantly more than anticipated when your trade does get executed.

• Trade Station reimburses the fees
  This is the part that almost everyone got carried away with. And no one bothered to read the fine print. Trade station gives a 20% rebate within a 1 year period of the commissions, excluding the exchanges fees, taxes, ... The average person spends around $15,000. Which means he'll have to have commissions of $75,000 in 1 year. Which roughly works out to trades of over a million dollars. And the average investment in trading. Under $10,000. How likely are they to ever recover their fees?

It would be unfair to end without highlighting the various positives of the academy. They allow you to take the classes as many times as you want. And several were there for the second time, and at least 1 person for the 5th time. The instructors believe in what they say. And are themselves successful traders. And so in spite of my reservations of what they do, I have no hesitation in recommending the institute and the courses.

As long as you remember, "Caveat Emptor", an English phrase, meaning "Let the buyer beware". To which I would like to add, "Be Aware". And evaluate everything you hear. Logically. And Sensibly. And finally, there is no gold to be easily found, and even if you do manage to find it, remember what happened to the last person who did have the golden touch, "Midas".

McDonalds - Like it. Hate it. Can't ignore it.

Whenever we discuss going out for a meal, the first suggestion made when I'm around is McDonalds. It a way to joke about my known preference for the fast food giant, largely unpopular amongst the middle and upper class of Americans.

The primary grouse against fast food restaurants is that they are unhealthy and responsible for all the ill health that is prevalent. To begin with, no one got obese by eating sensibly at fast food restaurants. It might have helped, but what made them obese was their inability to being sensible in their food habits. Everything done in excess has a negative impact.

As far as I'm concerned I do like McDonald's. And find that they are responding to creating healthy alternatives. You have salads, low calorie sandwiches and now even egg white breakfast sandwiches.

However, what I like most about McDonalds is the fact that even in 2013 they have managed to maintain the dollar menu. Every time I visit a McDonalds I'm choked to see several proud people, many of them elderly having the dollar menu sandwiches and a large cup of coffee, for 2 bucks. In these economically challenging times its heartening to see a recognizable restaurant that is also affordable. The McDonalds dollar menu has made it affordable for millions to get a meal at a price that is relatively inexpensive.

But what makes me a McDonalds fan is not the cost effectiveness and affordability. Truth be told, on most occasions I only visit McDonalds for their coffee. Any size. Just 1 buck. And that to me is great value. But more importantly irrespective of the cost, its the quality of the coffee that makes me visit them. I truly enjoy the coffee. Believe it or not, I think its better than Dunkin and Starbucks.

An Electric Car that works

On Friday, I drove to Springfield in Massachusetts for a meeting with an innovative VoIP company. It was a long drive of almost 2 hours each way. We broke for lunch and our hosts wanted to take us to a Mexican place. The most interesting part was the journey to lunch. To and fro. It was in a Tesla, the world's first truly usable electric car. It was my first experience in a Tesla, as even a test drive needs you to book one after paying $5,000. And then wait for over a year before you can get it.

An electric car was a dream. All of the pundits debunked it as something that is not practical. The hybrid is the closest they came to being environmentally friendly. And then along came the Tesla. An amazing story. And an amazing car. But I'll allow Tesla to tell their story as they do it it much better than I ever could. All I can say is it was an  interesting and enjoyable experience. And I do hope to own one, soon.

http://www.teslamotors.com/

A Pleasurable Shopping Experience - Thank you P C Richards

These days I do all of my shopping online. And so when I wanted to get a TV for my new home, I went online. During the previous month when I had gone grocery shopping to Costco, I had noticed and noted the prices of TV's in general. And so I had a minor shock when I realized that not only were the online offers not significantly cheaper as in most other items, they seemed to be more expensive.

And so I decided to do a combination of online and offline shopping. After extensive research which lasted a full 5 minutes, I narrowed down my offline shopping to Best Buy and Costco. The goal for today was to have a working TV. I already had the cable connection even before moving in, since I needed internet and the most cost effective package was the heavily advertised Optimum Triple Play, which consisted of the Cable and Telephone in addition to the Internet. Strangely enough even though I don't intend to use the telephone, it just works out cheaper to have it, than not to have it. Strange and stupid, but true.

We started with Best Buy and they had a huge collection of TV's. All shapes and sizes and brands. And they were quite attractively priced. We narrowed our choice to a Samsung 50". And then set off to compare with Costco. As we were driving towards Costco, we saw a shop, "PC Richards". Frank, who was with me, mentioned that maybe we should check it out. And since we had a full Sunday ahead of us, we decided that we had nothing to lose. And so I entered PC Richards for the very first time.

At the entrance, there was a 60" Panasonic TV with a sound bar system for just over $1,000. The Samsung 50" system we had liked was around $1,500. And now we were suddenly interested. We browsed some more and found several interesting deals. By now, I had started looking at the 60" TVs. Too big for my place, but I was beginning to get hooked. And the we saw the Bose sound-bar. Compared to the other music systems, it seemed to be in a class of its own. I was in love. But when we added all of the various items, including the 5 year support, it was adding up to a list price of over $7,000 and a discounted price of $5,000. My budget when I walked in was under $2,000. And so we decided to check out Costco.

At Costco, the pricing seemed to be at par with Best Buy. Interestingly what all of the retailers seemed to have done is have slightly different models from each other. And although the same brands were available, the models were different. And so it was not easy to compare exact pricing. By now, we were convinced that PC Richards was the place we were going to buy the TV.

And so back we went. We sought out the salesman Ahmed, who we had interacted with in the morning. He was very good. Knowledgeable and helpful, but not pushy. He had mentioned that once we made up our mind, he may be able to get his Manager to get a further discount. And that's when we decided to try our luck. I really liked the 60" Samsung 3D Smart TV with all of its cool features, including the camera, Skype, Netflix, ... Along with the Bose soundbar and wireless woofer. And a 3D DVD player. And 5 years warranties for each of them. And since we were getting a hi-fi system, we needed hi-fi HDMI cables. The discounted total for this was around $5,200. We asked Ahmed to see what he could do. I really did not want to spend so much money, so had decided that if it was any number that started with 4 or more, I would settle for a smaller TV and a not so awesome sound system. With a regular DVD player.

Ahmed came back with a number. It was the best he and his manager could do. It was $4,200. I was shocked. It was an unbelievably good deal. But I had drawn a line. At $4,000. And was unwilling to cross it. Ahmed said that maybe his Manager could help. So he got him. I spoke with him and was upfront about my problem. I had a line and wasn't willing to cross it. If he could help, great. Else I liked his store and so would pick something else. He sensed that we were genuine. He got on the phone. Spoke to his seniors at HQ and came up with $3,999.97. Unbelievable. But I was thrilled. And ended up spending twice as much as I had set out to.

In the meanwhile Frank, decided to present me with a Monster Power Cleaning system on which they gave him a great deal too. We walked out with the system and were thrilled with the human touch. As I walked out, I thanked Ahmed and his Manager and made a comment that I meant, "This is the first time I've visited PC Richard, but it certainly won't be the last."

Back home, we setup everything and watched our first movie, "Casino Royale", and were fast asleep before 007 could use his license to kill.

Incredible India

I just got back from India early today. And it was a short visit of under a week. Since I had not been to India for over 7 months, I had missed it. After all, home is where the heart is.

One of the interesting things that happened was that I came across a few people who were visiting India. As tourists. And on the way back, a couple who were returning after a trip. The way they described the country is something I hadn't thought about. Its culture. Its beauty. Its people.

And that's when it struck me that I have no idea about India, as a country. My complete outlook is based on the little I had seen and lived. And that is an insignificant part of India. The visitors knew so much more.

And so the next time I have a break, I'm taking a holiday to the one place I've never visited with open eyes. Even though I may have lived there, virtually all my life.

In the meanwhile I suggest you can enjoy some of what Incredible India has to offer. Virtually. Until you too can experience the real thing.

A Driving License - at 16

In India a milestone is the 18th birthday. In the US its the 16th. And coincidentally whilst Freia in India celebrated her 18th, Reia who's here is celebrating her 16th. Interestingly one of the main incentives for Reia to join me in the US was the fact that you could get a driving permit at 16. And she saw this as her opportunity to do something ahead of her sister who by virtue of being 2 years elder got to do everything before her.

And so a couple of months before her birthday she started finding things she needed to do to get her permit on her 16th birthday. She asked me to get the papers needed and she also got her school to give her a certified copy of her results, which was one of the acceptable forms of identification. She also did something she had never bothered for her school exams. She spoke to a few friends about what was needed to be done for the driving exams and found an app that could help her prepare. She bought the app, her first app purchase.

She used the app and prepared more than I've seen her prepare for her school exams. Which is not much, but relatively speaking quite a lot. On the eve of her birthday, she started getting a little nervous. Especially when I showed her the sample papers on the DMV site where she wasn't able to get the required  percentage of questions correct easily. She was torn between the joy of getting the permit and the sorrow of attempting and not getting it, on her birthday. She finally decided to be brave and attempt it.

On her birthday, April 2nd, I picked her up from school. And we went to the DMV. There was a long line, which is normal and we had to wait for about 45 minutes. The lady at the counter was nice, went through the papers and wanted to see Reia's marriage certificate. On realizing her faux pas, she apologized but not before pointing out that it was a long day, she was tired and that teenage marriages was not uncommon. Reia had a good laugh. Some think she's in middle school. And others think she's married. Finding the paperwork in order We were given a token number.

We had to wait for our turn and that came in another 20 odd minutes. Once again the papers were examined, the forms checked and on finding all okay, the payments received and asked to wait for the exams. The lady at the counter noticed it was her 16th birthday and wished her "Happy Birthday and Best of luck". Reia was happy. We sat just outside where the test were being conducted and waited for Reia's turn. We saw several teenagers go in for their exams. There was a mother daughter waiting too. Unlike us, they were busy. The mother was applying make-up to her daughter and the daughter too was applying makeup to herself. It was straight out of a Hollywood movie set where the makeup artist is getting the star ready for her shoot. In this case, I assume the shoot was the photo for the license.

The made up star was called. She took her vision test and color test and passed. In the meanwhile 5 teenagers who had gone came out. Some of them in tears. Others with sad faces, yet others with a grin but a negative shake of the head. They had all not made it. Reia was now scared. She started thinking of what her reaction should be after failing. Strangely enough she was now no longer nervous. Failing was the norm and so not a big deal. Whilst this happened the made up star was out. In under 3 minutes. She probably managed to get all of her first 5 questions wrong. And in true star style she had tears rolling down her eyes, and her makeup dripping across her face. I was glad I did not have to handle running makeup.

Reia was called. She too quickly cleared her vision and color test. And was taken to the dreaded computer test. 5 minutes went by. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. No sign of Reia. Others who had gone after her were coming out. Unsuccessful. 20 minutes later. Still no Reia. Finally I see Reia coming out. And the smile from cheek to cheek, lighting up the DMV told the story.

We then had to again stand in line, pay for the permit, stand in line, get the photo taken, stand in line and finally collect the license. And during all of this, which must have taken around 30 minutes, Reia couldn't stop smiling. I was relieved. I was desperate that she have a happy birthday. And it was. Probably the Happiest Birthday ever.