Random Ramblings #5

Kind of an underwhelming month to be honest after what we had in April but I suppose you cannot expect the mayhem to continue forever. All in all a decent month regardless. Reviewing what I had written earlier, the Gold call played out pretty well & US mkts better than expected- the best May in history! Brazil remained flat but China did well. India played out decently. Not bad. Bitcoin had a nice rally & I hate myself for missing out but we move. Mid Month I faded an Oil rally which was nice. Start of month saw some insane action in Taiwan FX market which led me to read some interesting stuff about their insurance industry. Lots of stuff to unpack about a different world. Worth reading if anybody interested.

Now for June:

1. S&P 6000 incoming & then pullback likely. I think Markets are becoming immune to Trump threats but that Taco episode was hilarious & remains a risk. Who knows what he will do.

2. No idea re India, Brazil or China. I will probably stop watching Brazil because I am not interested there anymore. Long term I believe Indian manufacturing & pharma remains a play. Will maintain longs in India & China. Pharma longs for long term will probably be diabetic treatment providers & other obesity related drugs. People have bad eating habits.

3. I see no major upside in Gold or Oil or Bitcoin. Owning some Gold as a hedge anyway for crazy manias. JD Vance is advocating Bitcoin & there is a bit of a meme ongoing of him being a death reaper so I'd be scared for the short term for BTC. Anyways, to reiterate, Crypto is overrated beyond some uses.

4. Bonds look attractive. For FX, in USD land I think again no large upside possible in DXY. But I don't really follow that space closely so probably missing more than I should.

5. Now for random thoughts, it is funny how I read about balance diets in school in like first or second grade & we have people still arguing about diets. Just, follow a normal diet.

6. This was a funny tweet from Jebus: "When you die you’re much more likely to wish you played more video games than wish you watched more 15 second videos"

7. Champions League final: PSG vs Inter. Feels so good that you will watch a big game while being completely neutral. May the best team win.

8. Tried rope climbing in the gym cuz it looked cool & this skinny dude was making it look easy. Couldn't do shit.

9. Bryan Johnson is wrong about some things like eating over 4 hrs before bed, exercise 6 hrs before bed. It really doesn't matter just focus on getting workouts & good food you are done with like, 99% of what is needed. All these small things make up 1% & are not worth the effort & the results are.... unknown anyway.

10. I am convinced most football "fans" don't actually watch football nor do online financial "gurus" actually trade markets.

11. Can't put it in words nor I have any evidence, but there is something seriously off about most pro crypto people. Don't think it is my personal bias because some I really like, but for the most part something is seriously off about crypto folks.

12. Amazon needs to fix its fake goods problem I find myself buying things more & more directly from sellers.

13. Something called a Matcha is getting popular. Kids these days need help!

14. Xabi is now Madrid's coach. They will continue to give me heart attacks.

15. China is not a peaceful power. They have plans to conquer those around them and control Asia.

16. Via Tim Urban: The observable universe is overrated. It's just the tiny speck of the universe our telescopes can see. According to Brian Greene, if the whole universe were scaled down to the size of earth, the observable universe would probably be much smaller than a grain of sand. Shit is big.

17. Blueberries are overrated.

18. India should focus on HSR. Build.

19. Australia does not make cars & the last manufacturing plant closed in 2017. Why they joining Europe lol. Common sense out the window.

20. Anti-sunscreen movement is funny.

21. It is so cute when naive people say democracy is retarded because avg voter is a moron blah blah. Then fail to consider the alternative & its effects. Kind of proving the point that we need democracy without realizing it. Cute indeed.

22. Luka Modric retired. A true hero of mine. His longevity & work rate speak for themselves. I hope I can be like him when I am his age.

23. This was a good thread: https://x.com/GabrielPeterss4/status/1923993624607588852

24. Not that my handwriting was ever great to begin with, but day by day the concept of writing by hand is becoming more alien to me lol. Feels strange when I use a pen, which is very rare. And it looks horrible.

25. You do not need a trainer to train. Will probably not last long that way. The drive should come from within.

26. Moody downgraded US debt. Probably does not matter though.

27. I am just realizing it was a long month because I forgot Andor finished this month! Same for the Coinbase KYC leak.

28. There's only one effective technique to shield your data from being leaked. DON'T GIVE IT TO ANYONE. Never use your real data. Bail if they try to force you! Corporations (and governments) are notoriously bad at protecting data they forcefully collected. Don't get trapped! Via KatanaQuant on Twitter.

29. Normalize wearing hats.

30. Again via Twitter: People talk about AI being a “friend” but my real friends would never hesitate to infringe on Disney intellectual property if I needed help designing a birthday card.

31. Pakistani men saying they’ll “accept” Indian women and convert us to Islam is absolutely vile. When we say Hinduphobia is real, this is exactly what we mean—and most people still aren’t ready to have that conversation. Imagine if the roles were reversed. There would've been a global outrage. But since it’s about Hindus and India, everyone stays silent. The double standards are loud. This is again via Twitter but a good point.

32. The view that India still needs to “build a narrative” to prove itself right to the West—even after Osama bin Laden was found hiding in a Pakistani garrison town near its top military academy—says more about the rotten state of the West than about India.

33. This dude at the gym brings his 3-4 yr old daughter with him to hang out & I think it is the cutest thing ever.

Alright that's a wrap. Let's see how June plays out. Hopefully we make money.