Monz

"I'm tired of selling Debra futures," my friend Debs exclaimed over Sunday dim sum at the Metropole. She's been on/offing with a man since college who hasn't let her go, but hasn't progressed after years of love messaging, booty call travels, and buying Debra futures with no plans of additional investments. .
He can't think I will be there for him in the future, how we are so good together, while he is saying to both of us to date other people.

I can relate, my latest adventure in Hong Kong dating has brought me to a man who is transparently hedging his bet with me and his last/current lady friend(s). "The thing about multiple hedging is you never know which fund will outperform the other," my friend Andrew says at the table. "You can't evenly hedge, then you're just flat. You have to bet with whichever outperforms and sell the losers. So Angie, you just need to outperform her and show him how much valuable you are in his portfolio. Plus, he's not married, fair game."

"There is never a complete hedge for an investment. If you are completely hedged then you are flat and you'll never get a decent return. You have to take a view of what will outperform when investing and sell the losers. So Angie, you just need to outperform her and show him how much valuable you are in his portfolio. Plus, he's not married, fair game."

His wife, my risk manager, tells me this investment is a short term buy. why the heck would you want volatility?
for all the wrong reasons..."Get what you need, then cash out."

IT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME ANYONE'S COMPARED POTENTIAL PARTNERS TO STOCK PICKS. AFTER ALL, TIME AND AFFECTION SEEMS NO LESS AN INVESTMENT THAN COLD HARD CASH. BUT THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT BEING HEDGED AGAINST THAT'S UNSETTLING. MAYBE HE'S HAD HIS HEART BROKEN TOO MANY TIMES. MAYBE IT'S STILL TOO EARLY TO DEMAND 100% OF HIS ATTENTION. OR MAYBE... THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH DOWNSIDE POTENTIAL TO AN ANGIE-WONG INVESTMENT.

The derivative comment was just about how people can be just as volatile and unpredictable like derivatives. U can win big but lose big too when betting on people/derivatives!

I am value-packed, but I didn't realise I had to put on a talent show to play this game. So I'm making a list of awesome qualities I possess. All I have on the page is 'Just because'. This exercise might have been the biggest waste of a Sunday afetrnoon I've had in a long time.
I decide to crack open an antique cookbook I picked up in Oxfordshire. One of my value-added qualities was that I'm not afraid of the big, bad kitchen. I found a simple recipe for carmelised bacon. One pound thick stab bacon, one box of brown sugar. No indication of what a box measures back in the early 20th century, so I wing it. I made what looked and tasted very much like bacon brittle. A salty candy like swine derivative. Brown to a nutty crisp, I spread it on a baking tray then crumble it on a salad.

eating my swine candy over a bowl of greens was ridiculous. And so was thinking up ways to impress this guy.

You have to create oppurtunities for him to be the aggressor.

How do I capitalise on this?

Truth is he is not calling me. So why wait?

So how do I become a long term investment? Rather than just a flip?

From people in the business:

Offer deep value, excess returns, and reliable liquidity

You just have to keep delivering the goods year after year.
Don't forget about the compliance officer (philippe) and managing the exchange fees and stamp duties (I don't wan this role... Any takers?). Considering my success w Fio/Cahill recently, I might as well stick to my current rule as the agency broker.
Long term investments also benefit from solid parent company foundations... But not necessarily. Sometimes hidden long-term gems just need to be polished up a bit.

Risk manger:It all goes back to fundamentals.

For the rational investor that is.

The rest of you are a bunch of yahoos that don't know how to value anything on the market. Foolishly and randomly driving up the price of shit investments that look pretty at first glance....
and good companies are very picky about their investors.

Long term investments also benefit from solid parent company foundations... But not necessarily. Sometimes hidden long-term gems just need to be polished up a bit.

I think the Korean market is basically a good place for me to parking some long-term cash right now... Especially in a KR company with a JV investment in China. But yur right, a solid company like that one ain't easy to inject capital... Deffo gonna take a little more "guanxi" to be given a shot!

The master of all long-term investors, Warren Buffett, says use the following 4 criteria:

"a business you understand, favourable long-term economics, able and trustworthy management, and a sensible price tag"

...which in the present context could mean:

Someone you "get," good timing, decent brains and judgment, and not overly high maintenance.

There are some investment opportunities that I wouldn't touch witha 10-foot pole, no matter how much restructuring they've undergone or plan to. Nobody in this group, but I'm just saying :)

I think it can be ingenious to use investment analogies in romance but what differentiates love from everything else is that it is impulsive, whimsical and totally irrational. And all of the above could lead to happiness, heartbreak or utter chaos. But the point is, and maybe the investment world can take note here too, is that if we don't try we won't ever know. You find your long term fill-in-the-blank when you give your all and you don't look back. The bravest, who take the first calculated risks, are often best rewarded and laughing all the way to the bank.

The right question Angie is how do you find someone worthy of your long term investment in them? And the answer, ironically enough, is by not hedging. Unlike real world investing there are no benefits to the portfolio approach. You find the investment you like and you go all in. Caution to the wind.. You bet your life's savings and put a lot of sweat and heartache into it in the hopes that the stock goes up and up indefinitely.

No need to diversify to protect yourself from the downside. B/c if the investment crashes and burns, unlike the real world, you have total control over when, how and if you will invest again. That's the genius of it. You decide whether a failed investment takes down the whole company or not. B/c in this game, one never runs out of investable assets. You can always choose to ante up again.