Top 10 Bankruptcy

1. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.


2. Washington Mutual Inc.


3. WorldCom Inc.


4. GM


5. Enron Corp.


6. Conseco Inc.


7. Chrysler


8. Thornburg Mortgage


9. Pacific Gas & Electric Company


10. Texaco Inc.

Black Friday……

Dream city (A lot of hype and, fantasy, tall buildings and fantasy islands) causing my dreams to crash. My portfolio is down by 10-15% and still bottom seems a little bit away, Global market taking clues from Dubai episode and there is blood bath on the bourses. An Indian index has bottomed out by 3% yesterday and 4-5% today making it to 10% approximate fall from Wednesday’s level.

An old adage still hold true Spend less than you earn, and you will be always happy.

Dubai’s having heavy debts, amounting to about $80 billion including the government and the conglomerates it controls. Investors in Dubai were given an early chance to get into the spirit of things. The emirate’s government asked creditors of Dubai World, one of three big government-backed conglomerates, to agree to a standstill on repayments until May 30th 2010 at the earliest

Credit-rating have downgraded all government-related debt. Whether the standstill counts as a default depends on whether Dubai is asking investors to defer their claims or telling them to.

But i'm very optimistic about Dubai that it will come out of the situation and will not disappoint my portfolio

Image source: iacsit.org

Future in futures ….

Firstly when I came across the concept of futures I was very much thrilled and excited and I was on top of world, as to purchase anything in equity or commodity I have to shell out only 6-10% margin money. I thought I can play long and short in all the futures and make quick bucks. Though my expectations from the future market were not very high (in terms of profits) and the profit margin I was targeting was hardly .15 %, the moment I had that much margin I wanted to exit my position.

Till this time it was fine and sounded interesting, but

Suddenly I have lost my hope; my faith has also been shattered.

This has happened surprisingly, for what I was never feared.

I’m left with nothing at all, my happy time ended so small.

As I did transaction based on some assumption that how the market will react, but as you know the assumptions are not always true. The same thing happened to me in all my future transactions, market reacted reverse to my assumption and as these type of trading are high risk prone and are calculated on mark to market basis I made huge losses. The losses are enough to eat up all my profits earned till day in the equity market, but this losses gave me a lesson that the future market is when you have surety of the market movement and you should have deep pockets to enter in the future market.

How short is short

The second thing that proved deadly to me is taking a short position in the market. When you take a short position you assume that the market will fall and you will purchase at lower level, but the things turned to be reversed, Instrument appreciated and I was forced to purchase them at a higher level. I was forced because the transaction has to be squared off within the same day. (Where as if you buy something and it depreciates you have an option to hold it for a long). After making some wrong transactions I learned the lesson that you should hold the instrument to play short in the market so that in case if it appreciates then you have the instrument to settle the trade.

Image source: online-stock-trading-guide.com

Making a happy workplace

When one doesn’t like his/her job getting to the job become more difficult, but one continues with the job because of the perquisites the company is offering or during the wait time till one grabs a good job. Individual who is unhappy with his/her job even may not even understand this or need not necessarily spoke out rightly that he is unhappy with the job but there are some signals which the individual and the Managers /HR managers should understand

The Signals include feeling distracted, sluggish, angry, not sleeping well or excess sleeping, relying on alcohol comfort oneself, withdrawing from friends and activities. All this indicate underlying depression or anxiety, which shouldn't be ignore by both the parties

What the individual do to make it a happy workplace

One mantra to make one happy is; to see if he/ she can upgrade contribution to the company, and if this doesn’t work then

1) Confront the reality: Economic climate makes it more difficult to leave a job, but it doesn't mean one should feel stuck. Confront the reality "Accept that this job is not where you want to be, even if you can't make a change today. But begin taking steps to change things." McCarthy seconds this advice. "Practice radical acceptance," she says. "Tell yourself, 'This is where I am, this is where I'm going to be for a certain amount of time. You have more control over how you think than you realize. Understand what you're feeling, and that if you show up to work irritated, it affects your performance.

2) Planning : Brainstorming with trusted friends and family members about one’s ideas can help a lot . If one has suggestions, they can be discussed; as to how they will improve one performance as well as others. One could also try learning new skills, at the very least; it may help one prepare for another job.

3) Think positive: Note down all the good points about one’s job also termed as a benefit log. One may be thankful to have perquisites or like coworkers, or the fact that one has to commute short. Listing what one like about the job will help shift the perception and keep one from feeling so trapped.

Principles to Remember
Do
- Differentiate between what you can change and what you can't.
- Take responsibility for making a change.
- Focus on making the best of a bad situation.
Don't
- Assume nothing will ever change.

image source : bodybusiness.com.au

Poor…. Poverty ……!!!!!

“A country is poor because it is poor” and similarly “A person is poor because he is poor” the explanation of this concept can be given by vicious circle i.e. A complex of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop toward greater instability

Let us first talk about the country and then we will come back to individuals and will see how the vicious circle leading to perpetual events and leading to poor country or individuals

A country is poor because

1) The country have Low capital/ capital investment with the country for progressing and

development

2) Low capital/ capital investment leads to low capital formation
3) Low capital formation leads to lower growth of industries
4) Less industries results in low employment ration
5) Low employment leads to low income
6) Low income cause poverty
7) Poverty cause low saving
8) Low saving causes low investment
9) Low investment again leading to low capital


An individual is poor because

1) He is having low capital to progress and look for earning avenues
2) Low capital leads to low capital formation
3) Low capital formation leads to low income
4) Low income leads to poverty
5) Poverty cause low saving
6) Low saving causes low investment
7) Low investment again leading to low capital

Who says "Sky is the limit"

We have been using adage “Sky is the limit” many times But looking at the current prices of vegetables or food basket this adage needs an amendment to “heaven is the limit” as the prices of staple food items dosen;t seems to be coming down in the very immediate future. Prices of staple items like potatoes, onions and pulses are sky rocketing as a result the food inflation rose to 14.55 per cent in the first week of November. On a weekly basis, inflation rose 0.87 percentage points from 13.68 per cent.

If we have an yearly comparison of the commodities prices of potatoes shot up by 102.47 per cent, onions by 38.24 per cent and pulses by 27.03 per cent. Experts feel that prices of food items will continue to remain at an elevated level unless there is a bumper rabi crop.
There is virtually nothing from the food basked that is showing a declining trend in terms of pricing on a yearly basis.

Rice appreciated by 11.65 per cent, wheat by 12.60 per cent and milk by 11.29 per cent. However, on the weekly basis, poultry chicken and fruits & vegetables became cheaper by one per cent each. Some analyst believes that the inflation is because of bad monsoon earlier and things will not improve till a bumper rabi crop is harvested. (Refer How Monsoon can affect my country)

With price of commodities rising with each passing day the household budgets are getting crashed and common people are forced to compromise on many things to maintain there budget within there limits. Fruits, green vegetables and pulses are a passé for poor people, If my brothers and sisters don’t eat a proper diet, how my country will grow? Because growth of a country also depend on healthy workforce. This is a big question for which we should seek a solution.

Image source: fruitsandvegetables.org.uk

Learning Organization

According to Peter Senge the learning organization can be defined as “Organization with an ingrained philosophy for anticipating, reacting and responding to change, complexity and uncertainty.”

Learning organization learns and encourages learning among its employees. Organization promotes exchange of information between employees and hence creates a more knowledgeable workforce


Culture of learning organization and there beliefs

1. There is a Stress on continual learning.
2. Every one can be a source of ideas, so people are given access to any information that can be of value to them.
3. People closest to the problem have the best ideas to solve it, so empowerment is there.
4. Learning flows up and down the hierarchy.
5. New ideas are encouraged and celebrated.
6. Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities.
7. Organization show Holistic approach to the problem statement.
8. Organizations show Willingness to accept failure.
9. They develop a sense of personal efficacy.
10. They Develop creativity, personal flexibility and willingness to take risks.

Triple bottom line

The triple bottom line abbreviated as "TBL" or "3BL", and also known as "people, planet, profit". Triple bottom line accounting means expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance. A commitment to corporate social responsibility implies a commitment to some form of TBL reporting.


“People” Component means fair and beneficial business practices toward labour ,community and region in which the organization conducts its business.

“Planet” this component implies that the organization is reducing its ecological footprint by carefully managing its consumption of energy, reducing manufacturing waste and emitting less toxic waste.

“Profit" As we know and understand is the economic value created by the organization after deducting the cost of all inputs from its revenue

Image source: novonordisk.com

Gold Gold & Gold

All those who have invested in gold are delighted and counting there profits with every passing day (with gold touching new highs every day) but the sad part is for the thousands of people who are into jewelry making business. With gold touching it all time high, the demand of jewellery has drastically fallen giving a tougher time to the Artisans who were earlier employed with the jewelry shops are now at the mercy of market realties

With each rising day the loyalty of gold lovers is getting tilted to pure gold bars as compared to ornaments & jewellery, artisans believe that this is a temporary phase and people will come back to what they like the most (jewelleries) as soon as the prices get stabilized.

But there are no concrete reasons of gold pricing hitting back to price of (10000- 12000 per 10 gms) instead a price of 20000 per 10 gms seems to have concrete reasons.

China is emerging as super power in Gold, it have gold reserves of 1054 tonnes as on April, 2009, 1200 odd mines and still striving to increase the production. This move might be to safeguard itself from $ fluctuation and for diversification of the reserves.

Recently India's central bank bought 200 metric tons of gold from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month. This is again a move to diversify its foreign-exchange reserves.

With two major consumer countries (known to me) opting for God to diversify there foreign exchange reserves I believe more countries will join this rally and demand for gold will be there, so the question of price coming down is ruled out.

Apart from this India is an importer of gold, whatever we produce is not sufficient to fulfill our demand, so gold import will be there and will provide more support to high price of gold.

image source: http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/

Will it shine more?

Right from the investors to traders everyone seems to be happy with the recent spurt in the prices of gold. Analyst are predicting the prices to shoot up to 2000 $ per ounce but even there are predictions of the precious metal touching 800 $ per ounce.

The argument for the 2000$ price tag being that the US economy require further stimulus packages, which will weaken the dollar and the current rally in gold is because of dollar getting weaken.

The argument for 800$ price tag being that the U.S. economy is emerging from the recession and the gold prices are rising without any fundamental factors so it is bound to come down.

But as of now the gold prices are high as investors are option the precious metal instead of currency market.

Image source http://www.crestock.com/

Networking sites

People get introduced to each other; know each other liking/disliking, hobbies, aspirations and interest and finally agreed to each other as partners.

You will ask what’s new about that. This is what generally happens before one prepares himself/ herself for any sort of partnership.

Well the new thing here is the platform through which people are getting introduced, yup you guess right I’m talking about the internet as a medium and networking sites as platform.

This is not a new buzz I’m sharing with you; even you might have some real examples in your friend’s circle of marriages and relationship happening over internet.

But the latest buzz is the euphoria created about the networking sites, I’ll not name the site but the fact is that everyone (corporate, individuals) are hooked for creating there profiles on such networking sites. I do not know the utility of creating buzz and making people follow you, but the fact is that the concept is getting accepted by people now a day.

The current offerings of social networks are imitations of things that are already available on the Internet, newsgroup, searches, chat, search colleague, friend, batch mates etc. I would like to share a survey report published on stockwatch.in. "Net working sites are the best way to reach out to friends and family, but such sites are costing the British businesses a loss of almost 1.38 billion pounds a year"

According to the survey, almost 50 per cent of the office staff is actively using these social networking sites for personal use during the office hours, which results in a waste of 40 minutes in one week. The IT services company who commissioned the survey, said the true cost to the economy could be substantially higher than the £1.38bn estimate.

I would also like to share An interesting fact with you; There are a lot of networking sites originated from India but none of them became so popular as compared to there western counterpart, may be they know how to Position there product, create branding of there product, how to pack it and how to hook people to use it.

Happy Networking......

Image source gtashuttleservices.com