Faux Pas

During the 3 months of career change, things have been crazy. Everything from managing groups of people and Asia-Pacific markets to residential arrangement are new. But what else is a better learning opportunity than challenges?

Thanksgiving 2006

Chicago had a fabulous weather for Thanksgiving! I ate so much food. The first night was a big Thanksgiving meal, my sister cooked everything. Second day, we went to Fogo de Chao. With Brazilian churrascaria, it's all you can eat again. The salad bar was nice, but I didn't see much exotic meat. An interesting place I went was Argo Tea in downtown Chicago. It is a tea shop with Starbucks appeal. Some of its products are delicious and innovative. I think it should expand. Of course, I went to my favorite Chinese restaurant in Chicago, Joy Yee. The numerous flavors (all made from fresh fruit) of bubble tea, are the best.

(Downtown Chicago skyline.)

(Fields Museum, downtown Chicago.)

(Millenium Park, downtown Chicago.)

(Protest against war in Iraq. Hm...I thought the election was over.)

(Maddie and I!)

(Maddie and my sister, Christine. This doggie can stand!)

December Birthdays

(Lovely Christl. And my boy, Carl, the high-flying trader.)

December Wedding

(Aaron and Angel's wedding on December 2, 2006.)

(My favorite UPenn friend, Vicky.)

Investment

Obviously, the economy is booming. The stock market has been doing great, well, since the little disaster in May. I also started a personal finance (PF)/financial planning (FP) web site. Since I offer unprofessional advices based on my personal experience and disclose detailed information on my assets, it is published under a pseudonym. If you see a PF/FP web site that sounds like my words, you probably hit the target. My top 5 year-to-date (as of December 8, 2006) return-on-investment (ROI):

AAPL 61.8%
EEM 33.9%
ILF 39.6%
FXI 26.8%
BRK-B 13.3%

Compare that to SPY (13.58%) and QQQQ (8.64%), although I think I can do even better on the ROI.