At the behest of my bosses at work to stop going in and losing too much money every day in this crappy market, I will be on a trip to Vegas from Jun 24 to Jul 3. My plan is to play the 1500PLO8 tourney, and then just chillax from there. The good news is that between redeeming credit card miles, using Hotwire, and getting three free nights at the Bellagio based on my last visit there, the trip expenses for 9 nights will only be about $400 of cash out of pocket.
However, as I really want to play that tourney, I probably won't be doing much in the way of gambling otherwise. So I am looking for:
Anybody who wants to come join me or knows locals they want to introduce me to.
Anybody who wants to back me to play some poker.
Any show/comedy recommendations.
Any restaurant/local food recommendations.
Right now I have my sights set on "O" or "Ka", maybe even Carrot Top, and perhaps Robuchon for a meal although it's really out of my price range.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Detox over (food)
I lasted 5.5 days. The half day was because one of the days I had to eat something or else I was going to faint, and so I bought a turkey and swiss sandwich from Starbucks (I can't believe I paid $6 for that thing). I wouldn't consider this detox I went through to be particularly healthy. To put it in perspective, in those 5.5 days i lost about 8 lbs. But I felt like I needed a shutdown reboot of my body and I felt that this was the best way.
To restart my palate, I'm going to go with light (not American) Chinese food. Since it'll mostly be fish, chicken, vegetables, and rice, you could say that I'm continuing my diet. Chinese food is also cheap (from Chinatown), which is a very good thing for me right now. I continue to suck at work, and even though I sound like I'm making excuses, I probably shouldn't have been trading during this detox.
Besides work, my mood certainly isn't helped by this awful weather. Raining and humid all the time it's like I'm back in Hong Kong. I remember those days of stocking up on luncheon meat (think SPAM) and canned fish as June is generally typhoon season in Hong Kong.
To restart my palate, I'm going to go with light (not American) Chinese food. Since it'll mostly be fish, chicken, vegetables, and rice, you could say that I'm continuing my diet. Chinese food is also cheap (from Chinatown), which is a very good thing for me right now. I continue to suck at work, and even though I sound like I'm making excuses, I probably shouldn't have been trading during this detox.
Besides work, my mood certainly isn't helped by this awful weather. Raining and humid all the time it's like I'm back in Hong Kong. I remember those days of stocking up on luncheon meat (think SPAM) and canned fish as June is generally typhoon season in Hong Kong.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Detox and Food Inc. (food, entertainment)
After going crazy last week food-wise, I just started a personal detox on Saturday. This was much needed, as I ate at Prime House (the 65-day dry aged ribeye, superb), Eleven Madison Park (for lunch, again), L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon (one of my favorite places, see my review from 2 years ago ), revisited all my favorite sandwich places, and drank 3 cartons of chocolate milk all in the same week.
Although it hasn't even been 48 hours, I'm suffering. Maybe it's withdrawal. It's not that I'm not eating at all, but I'm eating very little and whatever I do eat doesn't have much taste to it. Perhaps I shouldn't have started this detox on a weekend, seeing as how when I have more free time I have more of an itch to eat. I'm only hoping to last through the week, after which I'll start eating sensibly, but adding flavor back into my diet.
Speaking of my favorite sandwich places post, I forgot about Dogmatic. Dogmatic (http://eatdogmatic.com) is on 17th St and Broadway, and serves gourmet sausages in minibaguettes with fancy sauces. They source their food from sustainable farms and they heat the minibaguettes with spikes so that the sausage and sauce inside stay warm (often hot). My favorites are turkey sausage with truffle gruyere sauce, lamb sausage with mint yogurt sauce, and pork sausage with chimichurri. For less than $5, one will do for lunch, although I usually end up having two.
Another food-related thing I've been meaning to do is go see the documentary Food Inc. Here is their website http://www.foodincmovie.com and the trailer looks pretty good. I don't know how much new information will be in this movie, but I think I will appreciate the movie and the reviews have been quite good so far.
Although it hasn't even been 48 hours, I'm suffering. Maybe it's withdrawal. It's not that I'm not eating at all, but I'm eating very little and whatever I do eat doesn't have much taste to it. Perhaps I shouldn't have started this detox on a weekend, seeing as how when I have more free time I have more of an itch to eat. I'm only hoping to last through the week, after which I'll start eating sensibly, but adding flavor back into my diet.
Speaking of my favorite sandwich places post, I forgot about Dogmatic. Dogmatic (http://eatdogmatic.com) is on 17th St and Broadway, and serves gourmet sausages in minibaguettes with fancy sauces. They source their food from sustainable farms and they heat the minibaguettes with spikes so that the sausage and sauce inside stay warm (often hot). My favorites are turkey sausage with truffle gruyere sauce, lamb sausage with mint yogurt sauce, and pork sausage with chimichurri. For less than $5, one will do for lunch, although I usually end up having two.
Another food-related thing I've been meaning to do is go see the documentary Food Inc. Here is their website http://www.foodincmovie.com and the trailer looks pretty good. I don't know how much new information will be in this movie, but I think I will appreciate the movie and the reviews have been quite good so far.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
The Amherst CDS trade (trading)
This WSJ article was making the rounds today:
"A Daring Trade Has Wall Street Seething"
(EDIT: It appears the link leads to the usual WSJ thing where it says you have to be a subscriber. To bypass this, type the name of the article in google, and the google link to the WSJ article will allow you to read it in full)
It was an interesting situation, and the journal article did a good job of explaining everything such that someone not in finance could still figure out what happened. In short, a small firm sold a lot of CDS on a bunch of bonds backed by subprime mortgages that were about to fail. After selling an amount that was multiples of the underlying bonds, the company "somehow managed" to get the servicer to buy up all the bonds and pay off the principal (something which was allowed only in this circumstance because what was left was 10% of the original batch) and caused the CDS to be worthless. Some of the big banks (JPM, RBS, and BofA were named) who had bought up the CDS, at 85+cents on the dollar, were now whining.
Another example of the problem when the derivative is bigger than the underlying instrument. Of course if the market was regulated and open interest was available for all to see, this coup might not have happened. Regardless, this was a great trade for whoever Amherst was representing and just an apalling oversight on the part of the named banks because this certainly had to have been foreseeable.
"A Daring Trade Has Wall Street Seething"
(EDIT: It appears the link leads to the usual WSJ thing where it says you have to be a subscriber. To bypass this, type the name of the article in google, and the google link to the WSJ article will allow you to read it in full)
It was an interesting situation, and the journal article did a good job of explaining everything such that someone not in finance could still figure out what happened. In short, a small firm sold a lot of CDS on a bunch of bonds backed by subprime mortgages that were about to fail. After selling an amount that was multiples of the underlying bonds, the company "somehow managed" to get the servicer to buy up all the bonds and pay off the principal (something which was allowed only in this circumstance because what was left was 10% of the original batch) and caused the CDS to be worthless. Some of the big banks (JPM, RBS, and BofA were named) who had bought up the CDS, at 85+cents on the dollar, were now whining.
Another example of the problem when the derivative is bigger than the underlying instrument. Of course if the market was regulated and open interest was available for all to see, this coup might not have happened. Regardless, this was a great trade for whoever Amherst was representing and just an apalling oversight on the part of the named banks because this certainly had to have been foreseeable.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Favorite Sandwiches (food)
I'm going to list some of my favorite sandwich places in NYC. All of these sandwiches are not cheap, and start above $6. If you want something cheap or something that is more of a traditional sandwich, the $5 footlong at subway really is a good deal. I usually get the banana peppers to add flavor without adding something cream/fat based. This list is by no means comprehensive, but I'm at work now with nothing to do so here goes.
Lamazou
http://lamazoucheese.com (3rd ave/27th st)
Lamazou is a small cheese shop that has a large selection of premium quality meats and cheeses. Almost every sandwich there is good. I tend to have my sandwich on their ciabatta, but I also listen to their suggestions as they seem quite knowledgable. My favorites are the 1. Smoked Salmon with Lemon dressing, Capers, Onions, Cornichons, the 4. Mortadella, Salami with Provolone cheese (must add roasted red peppers, this sandwich becomes amazing) and the 21. Chicken Salad, Cheddar & Sundried Tomatoes. Another great thing there is their roquefort egg salad. Yes, egg salad mixed with a good amount of one of the tastiest blue cheeses. Fattening for sure, but oh so good.
Baoguette
http://baoguettecafe.com/index.html (Murray Hill, East Village, West Village)
I will not debate whether this banh mi is authentic or not, and I understand that it's hard to justify the higher price when cheaper banh mis are to be had all over NYC. However, their ingredients are fresh, the bread is nice, and I'm mostly there for the curried catfish sandwich that comes with cucumber relish, pickled red onion, and honey mustard sauce. While catfish is a relatively cheap fish, a fish sandwich for $7 is not horrible.
Num Pang
http://www.numpangnyc.com/index.html (University Pl/12th st)
The sandwiches here are amazing in their variety and the freshness of their ingredients. Whatever needs to be grilled is grilled to order before being put in the sandwiches. Everything on the menu looks good and they have a good array of daily specials that actually change frequently. While the size of the sandwich doesn't look like a lot, the semolina bread is quite hearty and should fill you up quite easily. When I ordered the shrimp and spanish mackerel sandwiches, the portion sizes were good too.
Lamazou
http://lamazoucheese.com (3rd ave/27th st)
Lamazou is a small cheese shop that has a large selection of premium quality meats and cheeses. Almost every sandwich there is good. I tend to have my sandwich on their ciabatta, but I also listen to their suggestions as they seem quite knowledgable. My favorites are the 1. Smoked Salmon with Lemon dressing, Capers, Onions, Cornichons, the 4. Mortadella, Salami with Provolone cheese (must add roasted red peppers, this sandwich becomes amazing) and the 21. Chicken Salad, Cheddar & Sundried Tomatoes. Another great thing there is their roquefort egg salad. Yes, egg salad mixed with a good amount of one of the tastiest blue cheeses. Fattening for sure, but oh so good.
Baoguette
http://baoguettecafe.com/index.html (Murray Hill, East Village, West Village)
I will not debate whether this banh mi is authentic or not, and I understand that it's hard to justify the higher price when cheaper banh mis are to be had all over NYC. However, their ingredients are fresh, the bread is nice, and I'm mostly there for the curried catfish sandwich that comes with cucumber relish, pickled red onion, and honey mustard sauce. While catfish is a relatively cheap fish, a fish sandwich for $7 is not horrible.
Num Pang
http://www.numpangnyc.com/index.html (University Pl/12th st)
The sandwiches here are amazing in their variety and the freshness of their ingredients. Whatever needs to be grilled is grilled to order before being put in the sandwiches. Everything on the menu looks good and they have a good array of daily specials that actually change frequently. While the size of the sandwich doesn't look like a lot, the semolina bread is quite hearty and should fill you up quite easily. When I ordered the shrimp and spanish mackerel sandwiches, the portion sizes were good too.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Running score (bridge, sport)
Just finished watching the early afternoon vugraph on BBO of this year's team trials for selecting the representatives for the US in this year's world championship. In two of the round of 32 matches in this session, there was a "state of the match" gamble on the final board.
In one match, one player made a leap to slam which made on some helpful lies and won the match despite trailing by 5 imps going into that board. While the auction made it seem that the jump to slam was a calculated risk, it was still very likely that the perceived score influenced the decision.
In another match, one player bid a grand and went down while the other table bid and made the small slam which decided the match. I did not kibitz this match, but I was told that bidding the grand might have also been a "state of the match" decision. The problem was that the team that bid the grand was actually up 5 imps going into that board!
This brought up a very good point among the specs. Bridge is the only sport (or mindsport if you want) where there is no running score known to the players up to the last decision to be made. In all physical sports there is a running score, in poker there are chip counts, and in a race you can always look back and see where your opponents are. In bridge, depending on the number of boards designated per set, you can only know the running score up till that last set. The only argument for a sport where the running score wasn't known was boxing, but that score is a subjective tally and I think that's different.
What's also different with bridge is that it's the only sport where there are a set number of boards that are played. Because of the need for comparisons across the duplication, this is different from a "timed" event. I'm not sure I know any other sport/game that does that. In the end, bridge cannot do a running score without slowing the game down tremendously. Because of the duplication, both sides would be restricted to playing each individual board within a specified time frame, or else the table that plays faster would be disadvantaged by the lack of score comparison. This is also why a barometer style pairs is ok, because it's normal to expect all pairs to finish a round simultaneously.
This is just something we all have to accept as bridge players, and it might also be another reason in support of why bridge is not a sport, but a game or mindsport if you will.
In one match, one player made a leap to slam which made on some helpful lies and won the match despite trailing by 5 imps going into that board. While the auction made it seem that the jump to slam was a calculated risk, it was still very likely that the perceived score influenced the decision.
In another match, one player bid a grand and went down while the other table bid and made the small slam which decided the match. I did not kibitz this match, but I was told that bidding the grand might have also been a "state of the match" decision. The problem was that the team that bid the grand was actually up 5 imps going into that board!
This brought up a very good point among the specs. Bridge is the only sport (or mindsport if you want) where there is no running score known to the players up to the last decision to be made. In all physical sports there is a running score, in poker there are chip counts, and in a race you can always look back and see where your opponents are. In bridge, depending on the number of boards designated per set, you can only know the running score up till that last set. The only argument for a sport where the running score wasn't known was boxing, but that score is a subjective tally and I think that's different.
What's also different with bridge is that it's the only sport where there are a set number of boards that are played. Because of the need for comparisons across the duplication, this is different from a "timed" event. I'm not sure I know any other sport/game that does that. In the end, bridge cannot do a running score without slowing the game down tremendously. Because of the duplication, both sides would be restricted to playing each individual board within a specified time frame, or else the table that plays faster would be disadvantaged by the lack of score comparison. This is also why a barometer style pairs is ok, because it's normal to expect all pairs to finish a round simultaneously.
This is just something we all have to accept as bridge players, and it might also be another reason in support of why bridge is not a sport, but a game or mindsport if you will.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
The greatest poker advice I've ever read (gambling)
The WSOP started a few days back and the big 40kNLHE already has a winner. While that was certainly the big news especially with all the NLHE fans out there, I was more interested in another event. The 1.5k limit Omaha/8 produced Thang Luu as the winner yet again. In the last 3 versions of this event, Thang has won it twice and come in second the other time. The only other time someone has gone 2nd or better 3 years in a row was Johnny Chan, when he lost that third main event to Phil Hellmuth.
I was reading the results on the WSOP site and came across an interview with Thang Luu. He gave one of the most ineffable pieces of advice/strategy I've ever read/heard about poker. He says, "This is Hi-Lo, not No Limit. Other players in this game wait for a big hand to come, but not me. I play every hand because every hand can win." He LITERALLY plays every hand. Not all the way to the river, but it seems like from what I've read online he does see practically every flop. Obviously he has other poker skills like people reading, but it's still an amazing strategy nonetheless. In a way, it kinda makes sense. He's playing in a weak field (not sure if he'll use the same strategy in the 10k LO8 event) so there are good value betting opportunities and good fold vig. He's right that it's limit and not NL, so no matter how huge a hand you have, you can only win so much. More importantly, it's omaha/8, so the preflop dominance isn't as big as it can be in hold'em and so if he's going to outplay people after the flop, he increases his edge by seeing more flops. With regards to play, it makes it near impossible for someone to put him on a hand, and I'm sure the stuff he shows down with will tilt a lot of people. This whole strategy goes against practically everything I've ever read about poker, but the results speak for themselves.
I was reading the results on the WSOP site and came across an interview with Thang Luu. He gave one of the most ineffable pieces of advice/strategy I've ever read/heard about poker. He says, "This is Hi-Lo, not No Limit. Other players in this game wait for a big hand to come, but not me. I play every hand because every hand can win." He LITERALLY plays every hand. Not all the way to the river, but it seems like from what I've read online he does see practically every flop. Obviously he has other poker skills like people reading, but it's still an amazing strategy nonetheless. In a way, it kinda makes sense. He's playing in a weak field (not sure if he'll use the same strategy in the 10k LO8 event) so there are good value betting opportunities and good fold vig. He's right that it's limit and not NL, so no matter how huge a hand you have, you can only win so much. More importantly, it's omaha/8, so the preflop dominance isn't as big as it can be in hold'em and so if he's going to outplay people after the flop, he increases his edge by seeing more flops. With regards to play, it makes it near impossible for someone to put him on a hand, and I'm sure the stuff he shows down with will tilt a lot of people. This whole strategy goes against practically everything I've ever read about poker, but the results speak for themselves.
Another book (entertainment, sport)
Since I'm still the market's whipping boy, I've had more time to read and just finished another book. This one is "7 Seconds or Less" by Jack McCallum about what goes on behind the scenes of an NBA team during one of the more entertaining recent playoff runs, the Phoenix Suns of the 2005-06 season. I think any real NBA fan would enjoy the book, but I especially liked the book because I'm always curious about how things (businesses, etc.) are run and I love interesting characters and that team was full of them.
Only one more book left from my recent Amazon purchase and that is "Breaks of the Game" by David Halberstam. Let's see what all the Bill Simmons fuss is about.
Only one more book left from my recent Amazon purchase and that is "Breaks of the Game" by David Halberstam. Let's see what all the Bill Simmons fuss is about.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
I finished a book!!! (entertainment, stock)
Over the week that I took off (should have taken more time off as I am still the market's whipping boy), I started and finished "A Demon of our own Design" by Richard Bookstaber.
Bookstaber was an insider and high level risk manager during the heydays of Salomon, LTCM and the big hedge fund boom. The book mixes anecdotes about some of the biggest moments in finance with technical information about trading, risk, and market crises.
I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was clear he was an academic (he began his career teaching) based on the examples he used and his knack for repeating himself every now and again. The anecdotes were great with just enough name-dropping to allow the reader to understand where the author stood in the food chain. I think it is unfair to compare the anecdotal parts to "Liar's Poker", as Michael Lewis ended up being one of the more respected writers of his generation.
The technical stuff was actually more interesting for me. It explained many trading styles, approaches, and instruments instead of just giving them names. If you asked the people on the floor that I'm trading on what stat arb is, I would assume most of them didn't know, even though they are essentially doing the same thing on a smaller scale. Bookstaber's explanations were simple enough that I think even someone without much trading knowledge would be able to understand. He also provided insight into possible reasons for certain market crises of the last 3 decades.
The more complex stuff actually came from the examples he used from other fields to describe certain phenomena, which seemed more in line with the way a well-rounded academic thinks. He seemed especially caught up on cockroach behavior. While I appreciated the examples and how they compared to real life finance, I'm not sure they'd be everyone's cup of tea.
In all, I highly recommend the book, and I took away two main things from it. First, the market in the short term is always liquidity driven. Price is useful in as much as a way for a large liquidity demander to acquire the liquidity he seeks. Second, humans tend to focus on reducing known risks, sometimes at the cost of and even being the cause of unknown risks that we can't deal with, such as certain financial crises.
Bookstaber was an insider and high level risk manager during the heydays of Salomon, LTCM and the big hedge fund boom. The book mixes anecdotes about some of the biggest moments in finance with technical information about trading, risk, and market crises.
I really enjoyed the book. I thought it was clear he was an academic (he began his career teaching) based on the examples he used and his knack for repeating himself every now and again. The anecdotes were great with just enough name-dropping to allow the reader to understand where the author stood in the food chain. I think it is unfair to compare the anecdotal parts to "Liar's Poker", as Michael Lewis ended up being one of the more respected writers of his generation.
The technical stuff was actually more interesting for me. It explained many trading styles, approaches, and instruments instead of just giving them names. If you asked the people on the floor that I'm trading on what stat arb is, I would assume most of them didn't know, even though they are essentially doing the same thing on a smaller scale. Bookstaber's explanations were simple enough that I think even someone without much trading knowledge would be able to understand. He also provided insight into possible reasons for certain market crises of the last 3 decades.
The more complex stuff actually came from the examples he used from other fields to describe certain phenomena, which seemed more in line with the way a well-rounded academic thinks. He seemed especially caught up on cockroach behavior. While I appreciated the examples and how they compared to real life finance, I'm not sure they'd be everyone's cup of tea.
In all, I highly recommend the book, and I took away two main things from it. First, the market in the short term is always liquidity driven. Price is useful in as much as a way for a large liquidity demander to acquire the liquidity he seeks. Second, humans tend to focus on reducing known risks, sometimes at the cost of and even being the cause of unknown risks that we can't deal with, such as certain financial crises.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
More great food (food)
Had lunch at Eleven Madison Park last week and it was fantastic, as expected. They do a 2 course prix fixe (app, entree) for $28 during lunch and the most impressive dish for me was the suckling pig. Everyone does suckling pig and pork belly nowadays, but this dish was just a great example of a chef who knows what he's doing. At too many places, they just give you some variation of pork belly, and the fattiness is usually all the flavor anyone gets. But here, you get a piece of extremely flavorful and tender pork loin, a square of confit, as well as a piece of pork belly. There is real pork flavor to every bite, and it's not just eating a mass of fat. I also had the 11 course gourmand tasting menu for dinner here a couple months back, and it was the best meal I had in about a year and a half. I didn't blog about that meal but I hope to go back and try it again and I promise to write about it then. Eleven Madison Park is right now on the top of my list for top end places to bring someone to impress. I, along with many foodie forum people, am still astonished that it doesn't even have one Michelin star.
Also fantastic was the ramen lunch special at Tsushima in midtown. This probably is the best ramen I've had in NYC. The noodles are thin but springy, unlike the thin and limp ones at Ippudo. The pork has the best meat to fat ratio I've seen from any of the ramen places, and they even toss in a whole scallop in the bowl (no shell). It is a shio ramen, so the best comparison is with Setagaya and not with Ippudo. Again, Ippudo does have an amazing porky broth, but like I wrote in the above paragraph, anybody can get flavor out of pork fat. The broth at Tsushima was better than at Setagaya in my opinion. It wasn't salty at all, and there was just enough of the hint of the scallop that I think it was simmered in the broth (I wish it came out more clearly though). The best part is the price. For the $13.50 set, I had the bowl of ramen and a side bowl of rice topped with ikura (salmon roe). And not just a tiny spoonful, there was a good amount of it. From what I've read online, they used to only make like 30 portions of this ramen and would sell out quickly. Nowadays I think they make more. The ramen lunch special is only available on Wednesdays, but they have very good lunch deals throughout the week, and their normal bento-like lunch special also caught my eye. One maki, one appetizer, one entree, and one dish of tempura with rice and salad for $16.
When the weather gets warm, street fairs are very common in NYC. Usually held almost every weekend, they close down about 10 blocks on one avenue (locations change) and many stalls are set up with different ethnic foods, fair foods, and even crappy game stalls with crappy stuffed animal prizes. Last weekend, I went to the ninth avenue international food festival, which is essentially a big street fair out in the Hell's Kitchen area. This one is better than most normal street fairs because there are more restaurants on ninth avenue that operate food stalls to give you a sample of their food.
Among the usual suspects in terms of food cultures were the italians (italian sausage, zeppoles), the fried foods (fried oreos, they even had a stall that did a bloomin' onion, and of course, the worst food in the world, funnel cake), the latin americans (colombian steak, tacos, tamales), the west indians (oxtail, goat curry), the indians, the thai (satay, pad thai), and desserts (pies, italian ices). In terms of stalls that I patronized as well as stalls that wouldn't necessarily be at all street fairs, there was cajun (from the Delta Grill, crawfish boil, etouffee, jambalaya), fried seafood (whole fried soft shell crabs, terrific fried scallops), fresh seafood (raw bar, I couldn't get myself to eat more than one oyster from a guy shucking in the street on a hot day), and pulled pork sandwiches (whole roast pig out in the open, run by a bar).
There were also some interesting non-food items there. There was a stall for the "super sham-wow" which is essentially a larger piece of sham-wow. I gotta say, that thing looks more and more impressive. For $20 you get essentially 6 times the amount of shamwow goodness of the TV ad. There are usually people selling sheet sets. Best deal I saw was $20 for 1000 count king size, which will easily run $120 at Macy's. Then there was the guy who was selling containers of spices. I don't care if you're the greatest, most diverse chef in the world, I'm willing to bet that you don't have that container on the right in your spice rack/cupboard.
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