Close to the Year End

Usually at this time of the year, everyone tend to think of the important events over the past 12 months, and how things have changed. Well, let me also think along similar lines, and see which have been the biggest events for me:

1. Changing Jobs: The biggest surely is the fact that I have shifted my job – and though this has come close to the end of the year, this would shape my next year. If the plan plays out, 2010 would surely be rocking.

2. May Elections: I think the second most important event was the May 2009 up-circuit in the market. It changed a lot of things – just the 9/11 in the US, things would never be same again. And this is not just a random comparison, it did break a lot of things.

3. Trading Losses: I tried to time the market a few times last year, and most of times failed miserably. Hopefully things would change next year, and I would be able to trade the markets better. Losses aren’t my biggest concerns, but I did let go of some of the basic principals of risk management. Hopefully would stick to them next year.

4. Honda City: I would be buying Honda City today, and this certainly would be an important event for me. This would be my first ever car, and I certainly would have a nice time next year driving it. Hopefully would move around a lot of places in Mumbai. Along the same lines, I got my Nikon D90 camera as well – and pretty soon would be posting nice pictures taken using it.

5. HK Trip: I went to HK twice after a long time (relatively, it was just 14-15 months in absolute terms), and really had a nice time on both the trips. Planning to see some European countries in 2010, and hopefully there would be some business trip coming along :P

As for my expectations from the next year, this list is quite simple (only professional, and public-life related):

1. Do good in work, and be a better trader – want to become a better trader, and be able to trade the direction of the markets as well. Have been trading volatility for some time now, and I think I should take some sizeable bets on the direction side as well.

2. Keep Healthy, and lose some weight - Would try to lose 1 Kg weight every month, and hopefully should be 65 Kg by the end of 2010. Have been attending a lot of parties in the recent times, and that has really added to the weight problem. Would avoid fried foods, and cheesy items.

Is Change Good?

Q: Why do we like change?

A: You get to select the new ‘You’, and leave the old guy behind.

Job 2.0

I have recently switched my job, and have started going to my new office. This was after working for close to two and a half years at my first job.

Not too many things have changed, and I would essentially be doing the same things. However, this time I would also be working towards getting the business started from scratch, and hence there are additional challenges in the role. In the earlier role, everything was in place before I had joined, and hence the operational bit was quite smooth. Lets see how this pans out – would know a great deal more by the end of 2009.

Change is always good, and one should always take on fresh challenges. I realized I was getting too comfortable in my job, and didn’t really think too much about ways to generate more and more money. I think that was the prime factor which made me think about the switch – I need to be on the edge to think of ways to increase the P&L. If that is not happening, then there is something wrong. There are so many opportunities in the market place, with so many changes taking place. And the market remains inefficient, so there is plenty of money to be made.

It also gives me an opportunity to know a lot more people than I would have otherwise known. There are a lot of college seniors working at the new place, and over the course of next few weeks, I should get to know them better.

The Theory of Relativity

Everything in the world seems to be relative. When I was a small kid, the dreams were also very small. Ok, not so small, but decently small. As I grew up, everything kept changing in relation with the environment. And as things stand today, the aspirations have also become bigger.

In my school days, I used to dream of going to Europe. Not that I knew too much about the place, but somehow it was always my dream destination. I wanted to travel Europe on road. I still haven’t achieved this, but this no longer remains my dream. The dreams are now very different, and much bolder. I want to travel all around the world, and want to see the important events across the globe.

Happiness is also proving to be a relative commodity. I had initially thought that I would be very happy as I had travelled to a couple of countries in Asia. However, whenever I look at my friends travelling to more exotic locations, suddenly my happiness vanishes. And I’m left with an empty feeling of being left behind. In an absolute sense, I should be happy, and one trip per year seems reasonable. However, on the relative scale, I am very far behind my friends. Most of them have travelled more than two continents, and I still haven’t been able to add to the tally I was born with.

I wish we didn’t have such feelings, and we would be able to enjoy the life in absolute terms. It would be much more enjoyable that way.

The Last Days

I wrote this poem more than 4 years back – during my last few days at college. For some reason, I have come back to read this after every two years since then. And even though most of the things don’t hold true anymore, I always seem to connect with this one:

Silence haunts me today

Emotions follow the path of betrayal,
Hope and sorrow, joy and pain
All juxtaposed on one heart

I can feel the winds, blowing through the two doorsIn my room, 
facing each other, opened
Helped in their movement by the fan above
Colliding across my body in the middle

The end is always gloomy
There is no such thing as a happy partition
Conscious and semi-conscious minds on the roads
Endless treats and confessions and proposals

The moment is here, very close
When it all ends, life restarts
When you badly screw up your life,
You only need to format it, destructively

Old bonds broken, no strings carried forward
Ties snapping, emotions unreflected back
Present lived against the past
Past forgotten for the future

Waves in a string, all starting at a point
Some getting high, some keeping low
All enjoying life for a wavelength
And then, culminating into a node

A node, the destiny for all
The brightest and the dullest
All getting into the black hole
Getting lost, and forgotten, forever