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This is a re-posting of an article from Intigril, my site on investing, trading, and personal finance. To view the original article on Intigril, click here.
This is the last article in my guide to understanding stocks. In this article, I show you what it takes to invest in stocks for the long term. If you’d like to read the last article, which described why stocks move the way they do, click here.
Image from OmirOnia
Introduction
Buying stocks for the long-term isn’t easy. In fact, most professionals, academics, and really anyone that knows about investing would probably tell you to buy a basket of mutual funds instead. It’s easier, more diversified, and considered to be safer. That, combined with the fact that there are literally thousands of highly paid professionals whose whole reason for being is to research and invest in stocks, means that you’ll be fighting uphill the whole way. In fact, there’s a whole branch of finance taught in most schools whose sole purpose is to prove that you cannot consistently outperform the market as a stock-picker.
But with all that said, you may still want to learn about how to research and analyze individual stocks. After all, you may be just as good as all those guys working on Wall Street, and if you’re dedicated, don’t get greedy, and follow some simple rules, you can definitely achieve lasting success.
No single article can turn you into an expert stock investor, but in this article I’ll try to hit some of the most important points, hoping you will continue your research and, eventually, start generating some steady returns.
Diversification
Image from worradmu / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
The most important concept in investing is risk management. Before I even bring up any ideas on analysis or research, there’s one thing you need to always remember, and that is to diversify. There are few things worse than having one bad pick wipe out half your portfolio, and believe us, that one bad pick will definitely be there.
Diversification is your friend. It exists to help you, to save you money, to reduce your risk. Use it. Don’t put all your retirement money in the stock market, and with the money that you do put in the market, spread it out over multiple stocks in multiple sectors. Never place a large fraction of your portfolio in a single stock. I’d consider 5% the maximum amount that you should put in any one position.
Diversification is extremely important, and it will usually help with preventing large losses. But there are a few “gotchas” that you need to watch out for. First, it is possible to over-diversify (the reasoning behind this is technical and gets too far into financial theory, but suffice it to say, you can have too much of a good thing). If you take on too many positions, you may be putting a pretty big dragnet on any high flying stocks that you’ve chosen. Finding the right amount of diversification for your portfolio is a fine art, and you’ll need to consistently monitor your positions to find the right level.
Also, keep in mind that owning multiple stocks doesn’t necessarily mean you’re properly diversified. The main thing to keep in mind when you diversify is that you want to eliminate stock-specific, or industry-specific risk. That means that buying Ford to diversify away from Toyota is generally not a good idea.
Know the company (fundamental analysis)
Research the business
Image from picaland
When you buy (or short) a stock into your portfolio, you’re inherently taking on the same risks and rewards that the underlying business has. That means that you better know your companies extremely well. The most diligent investors on Wall St. literally spend thousands of hours researching potential buys and sells before adding them into their own portfolios, and, for the most part, you can get the same information that they can.
Sure, sometimes they have quick access to CEOs and managers in the company, but the foundation of their research starts with information that you can get just as easily as they can. One of the best places to learn about a company is the investor relations page of its website. On that page, you should have access to details about company management, financials, and links to mandatory reports and filings that all publicly traded companies have to make.
The most important of these reports is called the 10-K, which provides more details than you’d ever want about a company. It will tell you everything from what that company does, to what its sales and profit margins are, to the terms of its leases on its most important real estate. Company management has to sign off on its accuracy, and oftentimes, the CEO and CFO provide key comments and notes that are incredibly useful for investors.
In addition to reading the 10-K, you can listen in on analyst and management conference calls during earnings season, set up news alerts on the company, and even visit some of its stores to see how sales are doing (when possible).
You can also research what management is doing with their own shares in the company. Are they buying? Are they selling? How much? Why? Sometimes the way that company management acts can be an indication of what they expect for the company’s future (just be careful about putting too much emphasis on this, as managers aren’t allowed to trade on any information that hasn’t been made public).
Your goal in all of this research should be to gain as much insight on the company as you can. Get as much information as you can, and then make an assessment on how you think it will do in the future.
Evaluate performance
Image from simonok
After you’ve done your investigative work, your next step should be to assess how the company has been doing in the recent past. Take a look at its balance sheet and income statements for the past year and compare it to the past five years. Has its debt gone up? Have profit margins dropped? Have they been gaining or losing cash? Taking a look at the cold, hard numbers is sometimes the best way to determine where a company is going.
Some of the data you should look at include:
- Debt-to-equity ratios (many times, when debt starts to grow, you want to be cautious)
- The current and quick ratios (does the company have enough cash to pay off its immediate debts)
- Profit margins, return on equity, and return on invested capital for the past 5 years (an upward trend is always good)
- Growth in sales and profits over the past five years (have they been selling more while keeping their costs down)
The list above is just a starting point. There are a large number of different ratios, fractions, and numbers that you can examine, but in the end, your goal is to find out one thing: how’s business?
Know the stock (technical analysis)
Image from wax115
After you’ve determined if the stock you’re looking at has a good underlying business or not, you need to figure out if the stock itself is a good buy (or short). It’s entirely possible to have a good business that’s not a good stock. The first thing you may want to do is value the business and determine if the stock’s current price is overvalued or undervalued. You can either use a method of discounted cash flow valuation, or the P/E ratio, or preferably, both.
By first finding the true value of the company’s stock, and then looking at the P/E, you can find out if the market is overvaluing or undervaluing the stock both in terms of absolute dollar amounts, and with respect to how it has done so in the past. If a stock’s current P/E ratio is low compared to its historic average, it could mean that the stock is a good buy (however, it could also mean that the underlying business is in trouble, this is where your fundamental analysis can help you make a judgment).
In addition to valuing the stock, you should also take a look at the company’s earnings per share, or EPS. If this number is high compared to historical values and the company’s competitors in the same industry, it may mean that the company is doing well compared to its share price.
Some investors also like to look at chart patterns to determine whether it’s a good time to buy or sell the stock. Though I wouldn’t suggest trading stocks based on patterns alone, you could use chart analysis to time when you plan to get into, or out of, a new position. Some patterns like moving average crossovers and MACD crosses may help you get a better price on your trades.
When it comes down to it, you should always keep in mind the fundamental saying: “buy low and sell high.” It’s your job to determine what “high” and “low” mean for any given stock, but as long as you follow this rule, act greedy when others are fearful and fearful when others are greedy, you’ll make a hefty profit.
Dividends
Dividends are some of the most important things when it comes to buying stocks. A dividend is a payment from the company to you to provide you with a share of the company’s profits. Believe it or not, most of the value in owning stocks comes from dividends, not price appreciation. Owning stocks that pay dividends is extremely important. In fact, many investors only own dividend-paying stocks. You may want to consider doing the same.
Dealing with losses
Inevitably, no matter how much research and analysis you do, you’ll run into a stock that will go against you. It’s important to have a plan in place for when this happens. You have a few different options. You could always use options to limit your losses while holding onto your underlying stock. You can learn more about this possibility in other articles on this site.
You can also choose to do what’s called “dollar cost averaging,” in which you invest a small and steady amount continuously, buying more shares when prices are cheap, and less shares when prices are high. Though dollar cost averaging can potentially lower your cost basis, it’s not without its disadvantages. The last thing you want to do is catch a falling knife and invest more money when your pick is going against you. That’s why I recommend the use of stop losses.
Stop losses automatically get you out of your position after you’ve lost a certain, pre-set limit. It’s only natural for us to fall in love with the stocks we buy, and when they start going against us, our natural intuition is to hold on to them, hoping they’ll rebound. By always using stop losses, you take emotion out of the picture, and you implement a systematic way to always limit your losses.
The most important thing with dealing with losses is to actually have a plan in place before they occur. If you wait to figure out how to deal with your losses until they actually happen, chances are you won’t do what’s best for your portfolio.
Shorting
Image from iprole
Shorting a stock involves borrowing that stock from your broker and selling it on the market in hopes that the price will drop, allowing you to buy it back at a cheaper price and pocketing the difference. Shorting definitely has its merits, but shorting an underperforming company is significantly different from buying a strong, solid company. It also comes with several drawbacks, including the possibility of having to pay any dividends that have been issued while you’ve been short, having to buyback the stock immediately if the lender of the stock wants it back, dealing with possible bans on shorting (as was the case with financial stocks during the financial crisis), and maintaining proper hedges and controls on your short position, particularly in light of your entire portfolio.
Point being, unless you really know what you’re doing, try to avoid shorting stocks.
Final tips
When you find a stock that you’d like to buy or short, you may want to think about scaling into and out of positions. Consider buying (or shorting) only a small portion of it to start with, and slowly buying more if the position goes in your favor. By avoiding investing all of your money at once, you set yourself up to avoid large losses.
Before you invest your first dollar, it’s important for you to commit yourself to being disciplined, developing a plan for finding new stocks, limiting your losses, and avoid getting emotional. You’ll undoubtedly experience highs and lows when investing, and as long as you don’t let them control your judgment, you can make consistent profits over the long run.
That wraps up my guide to stocks. Hopefully you feel a bit more comfortable with stocks, the stock market, and investing in general. At this point, you should keep reading and doing more research to understand if investing in individual stocks is the right process for you. If not, there are always mutual funds and options, which you can learn about from other articles on this site.
Good luck!
Image from Mike Bailey-Gates
Last year I took a class called Data Mining for Business Intelligence. It was heavy on analytics – clustering, k-means, text mining, classification trees. The sad thing is, it was oriented to business school students, which means the analysis that we had to do wasn’t even a fraction of the true analysis that practitioners, engineers, and computer scientists would normally do. Suffice it to say, the material was complicated.
One thing that interested me was that my professor in that class, along with a few of his former, incredibly bright students, had started a company built around these machine learning techniques – but they weren’t doing cryptography, security, intelligence, or other high stakes work. Instead, they took their genius to the world of digital advertising. Using their knowledge of these highly advanced analytical processes, they’re now able to deliver slightly more relevant ads to you as you browse the web.
Let’s look at another situation. I was just talking with a friend of mine from Stern, really interesting guy, he has built up a company around mobile coupon delivery and is doing quite well. As he was telling me about his app, he mentioned how he makes money off advertising. Apparently the company that he works with to deliver ads uses refined algorithms, social psychology, game mechanics, and statistics, to entice users to click on ads and increase their interaction with apps. My friend commented on the fact that a lot of the best mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers are now focusing their efforts on how to better deliver ads to us, the unsuspecting consumer.
That got me thinking about another area where high potential, analytical minds are going to – hedge funds and quant trading. Yes, it’s true that there are still boatloads of analytical minds going to work for the CIA, the NSA, security and intelligence firms, and other “high stakes” industries, but we’re starting to see more of a spread, a spread that’s likely going to continue skewing in the direction of other, “low impact” companies.
I can’t help but wonder if we changed the incentive system for these types of people, what they could accomplish. Imagine if more and more engineers and mathematicians started going into the fields of language recognition, true artificial intelligence, domestic and industrial robotics. Would we be able to advance technologically that much faster?
In our capitalistic society, it’s unlikely that our incentive structure will change significantly. The only viable entity that could enact that is the government, and to its credit, the DoD, NIH, and a slew of other organizations already provide grants and research support to a host of extremely bright people. But they’ll never be able to pay them the same way private industry can.
Maybe that’s not a big deal. Maybe we’re advancing at the same rate as if we had all of the best and brightest working on “high stakes” problems. But then again, it only takes one brilliant mind to change the world. Let’s just hope that our generation’s Einstein isn’t working on how to sell you more shoes.
My last semester started on January 30th – 2 weeks ago, to the day. I’m considering this the “real” start of my second year, since my time at Bocconi was, in all effects, an entirely different academic and social experience, incongruent with Stern. So far, things have been different.
The social scene has chilled out a bit. There aren’t as many events as there were last year. Granted, it’s the dead of winter, but it still feels like things are very low key. I don’t run into as many people as I used to. People are definitely focused on new things.
The academic scene is a bit different too. Most people either have jobs or are looking for jobs – this is the same as last year, but more pronounced. I rarely go to the main study lounge anymore, and when I do, I don’t see any second years. It’s packed with first years, though. They actually care about their schoolwork. We, well we’re more prone to coasting.
And I can see why. I don’t care as much about classes now. My focus is on how I’m going to survive after graduation, and setting myself up to transition onto the newest priorities – building out oGolf, developing better trading strategies, doing some trading consultations, possibly moving to a new apartment in a few weeks. I’m still interested in the stuff that school has to offer, and I’m even considering taking one class a semester at Stern after I graduate, but in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind if all my classes end today. I have very little interest in doing the work, and judging from the population in the study lounge, my fellow second years feel the same way.
Maybe the transition has begun.
Or maybe it’s just too cold out to focus on having fun and getting things done. We shall soon see.
In what world are random tweets that mention the weather necessary on the weather.com’s homepage?
Drive to Pukaki
After departing from Queenstown, we boarded our trusty Familia and departed on the drive to Mt. Cook National Park – a scenic area close to the two famous glaciers in New Zealand. The drive, as expected, was scenic and beautiful, but otherwise uneventful. We eventually got to our “motel,” which was actually a gorgeous chalet in a small town close to Lake Pukaki. After settling in and grabbing some overpriced food (if you read any of my past posts, you should be sensing a theme at this point), we went to go explore the lake and the entrance to the park. They too were scenic and beautiful, and not quite as uneventful, as I’m pretty sure we interrupted a couple that was skinny dipping, and Leo turned Irina into a semi-professional model.
The Glaciers and Mt. Cook
The day after we drove to Pukaki we left once again, this time for Fox Glacier, one of the two famous glaciers on the south island of New Zealand. Fox Glacier township was extremely small – the quintessential one road town, but, like the rest of New Zealand and Australia, full of extremely nice and friendly people. When we first arrived, we didn’t do a whole lot (considering there wasn’t a whole lot to do). But we were all looking forward to the next day.
We had booked a helicopter tour of, and landing on, the glaciers. Considering the fact that I had never been on a helicopter up until that point, and that I also really like cool looking ice, I was definitely looking forward to it.
Of course, New Zealand’s weather had other ideas. Like the rest of our trip to that point, it was cloudy, very cloudy, and apparently the winds were too strong to take a helicopter out to see the mountains.
We scowled. We asked about alternatives. We looked at other companies. Everyone’s hands were tied. So we ended up doing the only sensible thing we could do – we got breakfast.
Helicopter tour
While we were waiting, though, the owner of the helicopter tour company that we booked came up to us and apologized for a previous mix up, offering to compensate for it by providing an uncharacteristically long flight and two landings in the now flyable sky. Considering how we thought we may have to wait til the next day (when we were leaving) before the weather cleared up, we jumped on the opportunity, so after breakfast, we trekked over to the central office and jumped into his jeep so that he could drive us to the helicopter.
The helicopter itself was uncharacteristically small, but, it did have three seats all next to windows, which delighted us all. Its blades were also alarmingly close to the doors, causing me to duck my head (unnecessarily) every time that I got in.
Suffice it to say, I survived getting into the chopper.
After we all piled in, the pilot took off without a hint of hesitation and we were soon flying off to see mountains and glaciers. The flight was awesome. Indescribable. We came within feet of the glaciers (and though we couldn’t land on them, we were able to land on the top of a nearby mountain). I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves:
After finishing up with the helicopter tour, we took a little walk around the nearby Lake Matheson, and then went off to our last and final destination: Christchurch.
The drive along the way was one of the, if not the most beautiful drive, heck, the most beautiful anything, that I’ve ever seen. We drove past unbelievable valleys surrounded by gorgeous rolling hills with snowcapped mountains in the background. We passed by a pasture where cows were grazing, and after stopping to take pictures, we watched the cows move slowly towards us over the course of 20 minutes, never losing their cautious curiosity. We saw rocks that could put Stonehenge to shame arranged on cliff sides as if they had been placed there with a purpose, though none could be found. It was incredible. No words can convey how gorgeous this drive was, and no pictures can do it justice. I will never forget it.
After we finally got to Christchurch, we headed to our suite, got some food at The Running Bull (a pretty good restaurant that is apparently also Christchurch’s only teen club, considering the long line or apparently pubescent teenagers that were waiting to get into the place late at night), and got in touch with the local hot air balloon operator to confirm our appointment for the next morning.
Wouldn’t you know it, the weather was going to prevent our balloon ride.
Seriously, as awesome as New Zealand is, its weather sucked, at least while we were there. I have no doubt that it cleared up completely the second I left.
In any case, we woke up late the next morning, grateful to have a slow morning. Later that afternoon, we ended up going to the local wildlife habitat, where I fed a giraffe and finally saw a rhino up close and personal. Those things are massive. Their legs were like mini-boulders, and their head was the size of me. Massive beasts. One of the females even went after the male’s food and they butted heads. That was a crazy site to see.
Interestingly enough, I learned that their horns are made of hair and the same material that fingernails are made of, but rhinos “groom” themselves enough (by rubbing their horns against something else) that they’re usually able to get rid of most of the hair. If you look closely enough, though, you can still see random tufts of hair sprouting from their horns. Very odd.
That night, we went to bed early – the next morning I had to be at the airport at 8 AM to fly to Auckland, after which was my flight back to the States.
29 days of traveling. A 16 hour time difference. My 6th continent. Tons of friends. Beautiful scenery. Great experiences. I don’t take many trips where I’m left wanting more after 2 weeks. This was most definitely not one of them. I’m going to miss this place.
Getting to New Zealand
Think of the most beautiful places you’ve ever been. What comes to mind? If I were asked this question last month, I might answer with Switzerland, Costa Rica, Thailand.
But the majestic beauty of each of those places is dwarfed by that of New Zealand. When Leo and I left Melbourne, we only had a slight idea of what we’d find in New Zealand. We knew it was gorgeous, but we had no idea just how beautiful it would be. My time in Australia was defined by fun experiences with good friends. My time in New Zealand was characterized by unbelievable scenery and vistas with small group of people close to me.
Leo and I landed in Queenstown, affectionately known as the adventure capital of the world. But instead of parking ourselves in this town of excitement, we actually picked up a car and drove to (relatively) nearby Milford Sound, known to many as the eighth natural wonder of the world.
Milford Sound
The drive itself took a few hours, but it was all through towering mountains surrounding large blue lakes, picturesque pine forests, and winding hilly roads seen only in movies and postcards. After we reached our hostel, we settled in for the night, since we had an early morning kayak around the sound scheduled for the next morning (and if you remember, we didn’t get any sleep the night before – all thanks to a certain mischievous Aussie and his wife).
Our kayak around the sound was scheduled for 6 AM the following morning, and since our hostel was still more than an hour’s drive from the sound, we told ourselves we’d wake up around 4 AM and leave for the sound around 5.
Isn’t it funny how plans tend to be changed last minute?
We actually did wake up at 4. The first time. Then at 4:15 the second time. 4:30 the third time. By around 4:40 we were finally conscious enough to realize that we needed to book it. Which we did.
After sprinting out of bed, we jumped in the car and drove through even more winding roads, pine forests, and possibly even Mordor, all to get to the sound. We got to our meeting point at 6:10 only to find that the group had already left us. As luck would have it, though, we randomly ran into Yair, Liz, and Zain (who I traveled with in Port Douglas and Melbourne), and we were able to jump on the 7:15 tour, which they were also on.
- Foggy drive through a tunnel to Milford Sound
Kayaking
Our tour company was Roscos Milford Kayaks, and they provided us with a complete outfit for kayaking. Though, I’m pretty sure they pulled a practical joke on us as they gave all of the guys pink tights with big blue stripes to wear. I’m not providing pictures. In any case, after we got all of our gear on, we jumped into our kayaks and pulled out into the sound.
Unfortunately for us, the whole area was blanketed in low cloud cover, so the views we got weren’t as spectacular as we were expecting. This was actually the case throughout our time in New Zealand, which was a bit of a shame, but since there was nothing we could do about it, we resolved to enjoy our situation.
We kayaked for a few hours, which really took all of our energy. By the time we were done we could barely walk, but it was a good time. The sound is actually interesting in that humans lose all depth perception when they’re kayaking through it. Because the cliffs jut out so high, we’re not able to perceive distance. This was evident when our guides asked us how far away we thought a particular waterfall was – we all said 2-4 KM when in reality it was 8 KM away, so far, in fact, that the curvature of the earth prevented us from seeing where the falling water met the sound.
After we finished kayaking, we all changed out of our Peter Pan suits and piled into the little Mazda Familia that Leo and I had rented and headed to a cafe for lunch. After getting some food to recharge us, we helped Yair find his lost car keys (you’ll have to ask him about that one), sent them on their way, and proceeded to explore the rest of the area.
Exploring Milford Sound
We came across a huge cavern, aptly named “The Gorge.” It was an enormous drop off framed on one side by a flowing river over rocks, and on the other side by a forest. The Gorge was so oddly shaped that pictures of it actually confuse me when I look at them; suffice it to say it was an awesome view.
After exploring a bit more, we drove back through Mordor and the enchanted forest to our hostel, where we passed out from exhaustion. The next day, we began our drive back to Queenstown.
The brook on one side of "The Gorge"
Back in Queenstown
Once we got back to Queenstown we had about a day and a half to take advantage of all the adventures that were available to us. Leo and Irina were both adamant about not going bungee diving, and Irina was dead set against skydiving. Fortunately, there were two other activities that had already captured my attention – jet boating around the canyons of the Shotover River and “luging” down the mountain.
On the morning after we got to Queenstown, we bordered a shuttle bus that led us deep into the mountains surrounding Queenstown. We saw some gorgeous sites along the way – rolling hills, towering mountains, dispersed green valleys, trails carving through the side of cliffs. It was one of the most gorgeous drives I’ve ever been on. But you don’t have to take my word for it, just take a look:
After about an hour of driving, we got to the base – where the jet boat was waiting to whip us through canyon walls, many times on no more than 4 inches of water. The ride itself was a pure adrenaline rush – it may not have been a free fall off a bridge, but it was still a whipping, speeding, blur of close calls with canyons, shipwrecks, and rocks. You can see a few pictures of it on my albums at Picasa, but sometimes, there’s nothing like reliving the experience with a video. I recorded a 2-minute slice of our ride, check it out below, and be careful with your volume, since the only thing you can hear is the wind.
After maybe half an hour, or even an hour, I can’t really remember, we made our way back to the docking point and went to go see one of the bridges that we had passed under during our ride.
After finishing with the bridge, we made our way back into town and decided to see what the “luge” was all about. It turns out that this very well marketed attraction was actually a modified go-kart that allowed riders to travel down a part of the mountain. It sounds a bit lame, but in reality it was actually a lot of fun. All riders had to start with the “scenic” track, probably to get familiar with the brakes, but then we went on the advanced track twice. It was pretty fun, and the views from the mountain were pretty incredible.
Once we finished up with the “luge” we went back to town and grabbed some lunch. That night, we grabbed a few photos of the harbor (below), got some sleep, and got ready for our drive to Lake Pukaki the next day. Oh yeah, and we also iced Leo.
Leo getting iced
Leo got iced
Yep, Queenstown was fun.
From time to time, one of my aunts sends me inspirational or sentimental emails. Normally I read them, smile, and file them away. I received an email from her today, though, that I felt like sharing. Take it for what you will, maybe it will mean something to someone.
I took it to reinforce my belief that you should never wait to show someone what they mean to you. It shouldn’t take a special occasion to tell someone what you feel.
Enjoy.
After 21 years of Marriage, my Wife wanted me to take another Woman
out to Dinner and a Movie.She said I Love You but I know this other Woman loves you and would Love
to spend some Time with You.The other Woman that my Wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER,
who has been a Widow for 19 years,
but the demands of my Work and my three Children had made it possible
to visit her only occasionally.That night I called to Invite her to go out for Dinner and a Movie.
‘What’s wrong, are you well,’ she asked?My Mother is the type of Woman who suspects that
a Late Night Call or a Surprise Invitation is a sign of Bad News.
‘I thought that it would be pleasant to be with you,’
I responded.
‘Just the two of us.’She thought about it for a moment, and then said,
‘I would like that very much.’
That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up I was a bit Nervous.
When I arrived at her House, I noticed that she too seemed to be Nervous
about our Date.She waited in the Door with her Coat on.
She had Curled her Hair and was wearing the Dress that she had worn to
Celebrate her last Wedding Anniversary.She smiled from a face that was as Radiant as an Angel’s.
‘I told my Friends that I was going to go out with My Son, and they were impressed, ‘She said, as she got into the Car.
‘They can’t wait to hear about our meeting’.We went to a Restaurant that, although not Elegant, was very Nice and Cozy.
My Mother took my Arm as if She were the First Lady.
After we sat down, I had to read the Menu. Large Print.
Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting
there staring at me.
A Nostalgic Smile was on her Lips.
‘It was I who used to have to Read the Menu when you were Small,’She said.
‘Then it’s Time that you Relax and let me Return the Favor,’I responded.
During the Dinner, we had an Agreeable Conversation, nothing
Extra-ordinary, but catching up on recent Events of each others Life.We talked so much that we missed the Movie.
As we arrived at her House later,
She said, ‘I’ll go out with you again, but only if you let me invite you.’
I agreed.
‘How was your Dinner Date?’ asked My Wife when I got Home.
‘Very Nice. Much more so than I could have Imagined,’ I answered.A few days later, my Mother died of a Massive Heart Attack.
It happened so suddenly that I didn’t have Time to do anything for her.
Some time later, I received an Envelope with a Copy of a Restaurant Receiptfrom the same place Mother and I had dined.
An Attached Note Said:
‘I paid this Bill in Advance.
I wasn’t sure that I could be there;
But nevertheless, I paid for Two Plates –
One for You and the Other for Your Wife.
You will never know what that Night meant for Me.
I Love You,
My Son.’At that moment, I understood the Importance of saying in Time:
‘I LOVE YOU!’and to give our Loved Ones the Time that they Deserve.
Nothing in Life is more important than God and your Family.
Give them the Time they Deserve, because these Things cannot be
Put Off till ‘Some Other Time.’Pass This Along To Everyone
With An Aging Parent,
To A Child,
To An Adult,
To Anyone With A Parent.
Australia’s San Francisco
When I last left you, I had just finished reminiscing about my time in Port Douglas. I’ve since finished an awesome stay in Melbourne, which, in my opinion, is Australia’s very own San Francisco.
OK, so it’s not quite the same as San Fran. There’s no Golden Gate Bridge, and the roads aren’t really hilly (that’s a word, right?). But, there is an impressive Chinatown, a citywide network of trams, lots of good Asian food, and an environment that could make any San Franciscan feel at home.
The town
I landed in Melbourne on the 11th with my posse in tow. We grabbed an incredibly expensive cab to our hostel right in the middle of Chinatown and began to settle in. The first thing we did was visit Melbourne’s awesome Wednesday night food market. It was essentially a giant parking lot converted into an international food bizarre, with cuisine from all over the world. I ended up having a (kanga)’Roo burger with a side of emu. If you remember, it had only been a few days before that I had actually fed kangaroos and emus. Ah, the circle of life.
Over the next couple of days, I hung out with my friends Yair, Zain, and Liz. We walked around the city, took the free tram around the central business district, checked out the harbor, and met up with other Sternies that were either visiting or studying in the city. It was nice to get to know Melbourne a bit. Yair, Zain, and Liz even found a nice LEGO shop where they got in touch with their inner kids.
Late on Friday night, actually, well into early Saturday morning, I even tried to stay up all night trading. With my 5 Hour Energy shot, a two hour pre-nap, and my willpower in tow, I managed to trade from around 2 AM to 8 AM. Unfortunately, my results weren’t as successful as they have been when I was in Europe or the States.
Great Ocean Rd
A few days later, a bunch of us got some cars and headed off on the famous Great Ocean Rd. This is Australia’s version of Route 1, complete with scenic lookouts overlooking dramatic cliff faces, historic lighthouses, a gorgeous coastline, and a scenic and inspiring set of rock formations along a turquoise coast known as the 12 Apostles. To top it all off, we even saw a bunch of koalas in the wild, some of which we were able to right up close and look in the eyes.
Relaxing in Melb.
The next day my posse left me for New Zealand, so I checked into a new hotel, farther out from the city, but closer to the University of Melbourne, where the rest of my Stern crew was staying, and, unfortunately for them, studying. The next few days were pretty relaxing. I caught up with my P90X, which had been lacking significantly. I met up with a few of my friends in St. Kilda for dinner at a hotpot restaurant (Claypots), and I even had a really nice, relaxing day at the first day of the Australian Open.
One of the nights, a few of us even got a car and headed down to Phillip Island to see the nightly penguin parade – an event where the smallest penguins in the world make their way from the sea to the turf. It was pretty cool to see them up close, but unfortunately, the park authorities didn’t allow pictures, so unfortunately I have nothing to show you. You’ll just have to take my word that they’re awesome, funny, waddling little birds.
It’s all in the company you keep
The next day, Leo flew into town and we met up for our short-lived, yet extremely enjoyable, Melbourne adventure. On the first day that he was here, we went back to the Queen Victoria Night Market, this time with a different group of Sternies, Priji, my friend from Bocconi, who I’m sure you all remember from here (the end of the exchange), here (Morocco), and possibly even here (Oktoberfest), and Priji’s wife, Heather, an awesome kiwi-turned-Aussie teacher.
I had a blast at the night market yet again. It was awesome being able to hang out with both Leo and Priji/Heather, as well as Irina, who joined us again. Bringing together three different groups of friends is always a bit iffy but everyone hit it off well and, of course, used jabs against me, as an effective bonding technique.
The next day, Priji took me and Leo out on the Great Ocean Rd. I didn’t mind making a second trip, since I really liked it the first time, and I knew that Leo would be able to get some awesome pictures along the way. In fact, it was good that I went because we got to see kangaroos, get some great scenic pictures, and hang out. After the drive, the three of us grabbed some dinner along the waterfront and then met up with Heather and one of her friends. That innocent meetup turned into the five of us staying out at a club in Melbourne until 4 AM (with a brief interlude in which Priji drove me back to the hotel to change out of my shorts and into club-appropriate jeans).
The only reason we left at 4 was because Leo and I had to get to the airport by 5:30ish to head over to New Zealand. We went straight from the club (Fusion), to our hotel, to the airport. No sleep. Well worth it.
That night ended my incredible stay in Australia. I had such a great time, and it was an awesome feeling to be able to hang out with everyone, particularly Priji and Heather, who I really missed from Bocconi, and who I may not see again for a long time. In fact, when they took me back to my hotel, I was really a bit down that I had to leave such an amazing group of people.
But, c’est la vie.
The next stop had to be explored, and that stop would turn out to be the most beautiful location I’ve ever seen.
New Zealand awaited us.
Just like before, you can see pictures from the entire trip on my album at Picasa.
Port Douglas
When I last left you, I had just finished a couple of days in Sydney and was heading to Port Douglas. I got into this small little beach town on the 5th, meeting up with a couple of other Sternies along the way. The town itself actually reminded me of the Outer Banks – a sleepy little village that sleeps early, has no qualms about going at its own pace, closes down at 10, and relishes its spot on the water.
During my first night there, my fellow Sternies and I quickly found out that nothing is open late, so a Spanish-style dinner had to be replaced with ready-to-eat burgers in a bag, Tim Tams (the Australian chocolate snack of choice), and some Yellowtail to wash it all down. That actually turned into a pretty fun night, but an important lesson was learned – don’t eat late in Port Douglas.
The next day my friends took a tour up to Cape Tribulation while I caught some much needed shuteye, but I did manage to take a walk on the beach, do a P90X workout, and then head out for some dinner.
The real fun started the next day.
The Great Barrier Reef
We decided to take a boat tour out to Australia’s famous Great Barrier Reef, so on that extremely hot, yet crystal clear day, we packed up our board shorts and bikinis and went out on a boat to a platform that had been constructed in the middle of the reef. Over the course of the day, we took a pseudo-submarine tour of the reef, did a helmet walk under the water, and snorkeled out into the open.
The wildlife we saw was awesome. On the platform’s underwater observation deck I saw a fish the size of a truck. My friends saw a giant clam when they were out snorkeling. On the pseudo-submarine we saw incredible coral formations close up. In the helmet walk, we took some shrimp with us and watched as tends, maybe even hundreds of fish swarmed within inches of our faces as they tried to get their next meal. Though we didn’t go diving like many of our friends did, we did get a taste of just how impressive the underwater world can be.
The wildlife sanctuary
After another relaxing day, some of my friends left Port Douglas to get ready for their DBi in Melbourne, while my friend Zain and I checked into our new hotel and met up with some other friends. That night, we hung out, played a little Monopoly Cards (cool game), and planned for our next day – a trip to the wildlife sanctuary.
Up to that point, one thing I had missed out on was holding a koala. A bunch of my friends did it in Brisbane after they left Sydney, but since I got to Australia after most people did, I never had that experience. One of the cool things that Port Douglas has is a wildlife sanctuary where you get to get up close and personal with animals. After reading the brochure, I thought it sounded pretty cool, so a few of us decided to check it out.
The following day, after staying up late to watch the Giants game, I didn’t really think we’d get out the door, but we did, and in the process we had one of the coolest experiences of our trip – at least, thus far. The sanctuary itself is composed of three different environments (Grasslands, Rainforest, and Wetlands), each of which offers visitors the chance to get up close to animals, usually with no barrier. It was an incredible experience.
I was inches away from endangered birds. I got to feed kangaroos and wallabies out of my hand (amazing). And yes, I even got to hold, and take a picture with, a koala (in addition to a baby croc and a snake)! The sanctuary itself was more like a safari than anything, and I’m incredibly glad I went to visit it.
Back to Cairns and off to Melbourne
A day after the sanctuary, we left Port Douglas and headed off to Cairns, a slightly larger town that was an hour away. Cairns was pretty chill, it had a cool scene, but we didn’t get to spend much time there. The following day we headed off to Melbourne, which is where I am at the time of this post.
The trip so far has been a lot of fun. I’ll be in Melbourne (more on this soon) for 5 more days before heading off to New Zealand for 9 days, and then I finally get to rest my travel-weary body in New York (well, at least for a month). Just like before, if you want to see pictures of the trip, head over to my Australia album on Picasa.