Blog of Parag

Retirement comes near

1996 VW Jetta GLX: turned over 150,000 miles (240,000 Km) today.

Options trading - II

Here is a real life example of how to make money with options. The leverage you get with options compared to the underlying stock is just amazing.

Feb 16, 2006:
1 options contract for Kohls (OSSAJ.X strike price $50, expiring in Jan 2007) bought, priced at $4.50. Cost: $450. Kohls stock (KSS) closed that day at $46.85

Apr 25, 2006:
1 options contract for Kohls (OSSAJ.X strike price $50, expiring in Jan 2007) sold, priced at $9.00. Proceeds: $900. Kohls stock (KSS) closed today around $55.

For the options trade, profit was $450 (100%). For the same $450, 9.6 shares of KSS could have benn bought. In the same time period, profit on selling these 9.6 shares would have been $78.24 (17%).

After taking out $30 in commision profit for options trade was $420 (93%). Profit for stock trade would have been $48.24 (11%).

There it is. The power of options trading.

Is Ira Glass gay?

I have heard this question from many people. Sometimes, even I have wondered about it. Given that he is so smart and talented, I wouldn't be surprised if he was. But, the host of my favorite radio, This American Life is most probably not gay. In this episode titled, "Get Over It!", he talks about his ex-girlfriend. Have a listen.

Brain fried...

Yesterday, I was listening to my favorite NPR radio program, This American Life. In yesterday's episode, Fake I.D., Mira Nair read a story, "This Blessed House". It was about an Indian Hindu couple who moved into a house in Connecticut and found a lot of Christian artefacts. The story describes how they react to them differently and how that was related to their relationship. It was a very interesting story; I liked it a lot and was wondering who the author was.

At the end of the story, it was revealed by the host of the show Ira Glass. The story was from Jhumpa Lahiri's hit book, "Interpreter of Maladies". I had read that book when it came out in 1999-2000. It has been only 6 years since then, but I couldn't recall any portion of the story when I was listening to it. There was no 'deja vu' feeling. What is going on with my memory? Not that I drink much, but is my brain so badly fried not to remember something that I had read before?

It is possible that the story didn't make a great impression on me when I read it. Because I remember other stories from that book. Sometimes, the storyteller can make a story better than it is and Mira Nair narrated it very well. Go, listen to it yourself.

Will they elect her again?

Sonia Gandhi resigned from her Parliament seat because she was accused by the opposition of holding an 'office of profit' as chairperson of the National Advisory Council. A by-election is necessary to fill that seat from Rai Bareli. She filed her nomination papers to contest in the by-election. WTF? What a colossal waste of money?!? Doesn't matter who is in the race against her. Is it really possible that the drones of Rai Bareli will actually elect someone whose name is not Gandhi? Why do all the nautanki of resignation if she wanted to get back right away? What is she really traying to achieve by this?

Steve "Monkeyman" Ballmer

Saw this really bizzare video of Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft at Kiruba's blog. I was very surprised as I had never seen how CEOs of tech companies behave. My experience is limited to very formal straight-laced Pharma compnay execs and they donot jump around like this.

It is also interesting to note that this billionaire couldn't spare a few bucks to buy some antiperspirant.

Step-parents

No matter how many times I have heard it, whenever someone refers to "my dad's wife" or "my mom's husband", it takes me a second to figure out what they are saying.

Cheap memory for iMac

Bought a cheap 1GB memory stick for iMac: Patriot 1GB 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300).

It is one third the price compared to the original Apple memory that sells for $300 on the Apple website. Hopefully, cheap stuff will work alright and not cause any problems.

Haircut

After getting a series of bad haircuts, I decided to get a fresh start. So, asked the barber to give me a buzzcut. After looking in the mirror, I was worried about what everyone will say about my new hairstyle. Went home and Ashwini was the first person to see me. She greeted me with, "I like your haircut, Daddy." Then, I didn't worry any more about my look.

Don't pay off your debt

Any personal finance advisor would suggest that paying off credit card debt is the first thing to do to get one's money matters in order. If you decide to heed that advice and pay off a chunk, you could be a suspected terrorist and your accounts could be frozen by the Department of Homeland Security. I am not joking. This is exactly what happened to Walter and Deana Soehnge of Rhode Island. They paid off a $6000 balance on their JCPenney card and they got into trouble.

Anyway, if you are not borrowing money to spend on things that you don't need, you are not supporting the American economy, hence you are as bad as a terrorist. So, don't pay off your debt. Spend more, get deeper into debt and you'll be fine.

Sex and the city

Saw a post about the show and I had to post my thoughts.

Yes, I confess. I have seen every single episode of this show on HBO during its original broadcast. As it is true with almost every TV show, it was very interesting in the beginning but got boring later on. I liked the show initially, because it was about these 4 free-spirited women with fun lifestyle. Later on, they were all involved in serious relationships, getting married and having children. Who wants to watch that? It is all around us in real life. Why should I watch the same on a telly?

Anyway, Miranda was my favorite character. Smart and intelligent, totally no-nonsense woman without all the emotional crapiness of Carrie. Carrie was the most annoying of the lot. I just couldn't bear the parts with her and Aidan. Charlotte was alright and Samantha was wild. Samantha wore the most atrocious clothes. I think the director just wanted to make sure that she looked much better without them on. Carrie was just behind Samantha on the scale of horribly dressed women.

Also, it is a bore to watch the reruns on TBS/TNT without all the nudity and foul language. It takes away the punch of the original show. I am glad that I got to see all the original episodes on HBO while we were without kids. Now, there will be no HBO in our house for at least next 10-15 years.

Google Romance

Google is getting into personals ads business, too. My wife is going to kill me when she reads this. I posted an ad here, over the weekend and I already have 54 responses. Ay Caramba!

Macs do windows, too

Apple just announced the release of Boot Camp. This software will install Windows (dual boot mode) and running windows programs on a mac will be easy. I can now play my favorite games on my imac.

Best of both worlds!

Fortune cookie and Pythagoras

This is what it said at lunch time today:

The future is in your hands. Turn your fate into destiny.

Heard on a PBS program last week: Pythagoras, the father of numbers, ran a school to teach mathematics and philosphy. He was very strict about his students' diet. They had to be vegetarian and were not allowed to eat any beans. He believed that whenever someone farts, a part of their soul escapes.

OOPS! Thanks to the chinese food, I just lost some of my soul.

Know your colors

Learnt something new while watching Blue's clues with Ashwini.

Primary colors: Red, Yellow and Blue

red + yellow = orange
red + blue = purple
yellow + blue = green

I knew my colors til this point. Now, here is the new knowledge:

purple + blue = violet
purple + red = magenta
orange + red = vermillion
orange + yellow = marigold
green + yellow = chartreuse
green + blue = aquamarine

Angry or Calm?

Another wonderful optical illusion.

If you watch the above images from your seat in front of the computer, Mr.Angry is on the left, and Mrs.Calm is on the right.

Get up from your seat, and move back 12 feet, and PRESTO! They switch places!

This illusion was created by Phillippe G. Schyns and Aude Oliva of the Univ. of Glasgow.

This proves that we may not be seeing what's actually there, all the time!

Spectacular astro event tonight

Don't miss the Grand Occultation of Pleiades by Moon this evening. Here is more info. Looks like weather is going to mess up my plans of viewing.