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Showing posts from November, 2023

Personal thoughts - November 2023

Another month has passed, and the market had been action-packed. In October, the S&P fell to the definition of a correction (-10%) and sentiments reached a low. VIX went above 20, but did not show signs of any panic, with orderly selling. At the bottom, S&P retreated to 4110. There was a FED meeting and after the decision to keep rates on hold, the mood shifted 180 degrees. The index shot up over 7 consecutive days of gains, and as of writing, the 9th day ended with 1.5% jump, closing at 4415 as of today. Since the recent low, the index had gained ~ 7% in less than 2 weeks. Forward PE is 19.37, back to where we started last month. One really has to be in the market most of the time, if not always. You just have to be there when "lightning strikes". The consequence is under performance. Bond market calmed somewhat, with 10 years yield falling from 5.1% peaks to settle around 4.6 levels. With S&P going up so sharply so quickly, it is holding me back from adding sign

Bangkok Trip - Part 1

This post is a break from finance topics. We took a short trip to Bangkok recently on a free and easy arrangement. Bought tickets and booked a hotel stay though trip.com and we flew off on a Thursday, with planned return on Sunday. There wasn't any real reason to go Bangkok. The city is not too far away and flights are cheap. Two way plane tickets are about $1300 for five travellers. Three nights stay for 2 rooms are about $600. My wife heard from Class 95 that the Muttons visited Thailand's Safari World and had a good time. So, we decided to check out the attraction as well. We arrived in Bangkok at the Suvarnabhumi airport at around 3pm. I cannot recall I had been to the airport before. The place is crowded, especially near the exit of the arrival hall. Didn't order any food in flight, so we went looking for food straightaway on arrival. From Google, we located the "Magic" food court, which has more wallet friendly prices. After finding a table, we figured how t