This Saturday I tested out the green room at Youtube Tokyo with my colleague from OmokageDevTV. My manager is going to kill me for dressing like “a homeless” and not fixing my hair, but who knew I was going to be doing an interview?! In reality we just had some fun in front of the screen and I will share what Omokage-san comes up with (he’s a budding effects enthusiast) – make sure to check him out and subscribe even if you don’t speak Japanese – learn Japanese and support the blue belt community!
So this week we ran into some PC problems, delaying the release of “Flipper Girl”, but we are on the case and hope to have it finished this week. As that project was on hold I started working on my Movember tribute video, a music instructional on my pre-bed meditation. Just so I have something to show I uploaded the track to SoundCloud – check it out and chill to some sweet Tesh-like strains!
It’s getting a bit cumbersome to list out everything I ate, and though I’m sure people are totally interested in what I had for my afternoon snack, going to stick to what I got pic’s of going forward. This week by far the star was my one and only’s Moroccan roasted vegetable couscous with falafel (see Thursday).
Sunday, Nov 9: open face black bean and cilantro pesto wrap by thug kitchen, awesome (recipe)
Monday, Nov 10: Palak Paneer – I’m choosing this to be one of my specialties and this week was my best attempt so far, using this recipe and pan-frying the paneer in ghee, awesome
Tuesday, Nov 11: post-yoga sesh dinner of wheat-grass banana smoothie and mixed salad, lovely
Wednesday, Nov 12: pan-fried kale and daikon over rice, oh yeah
Thursday, Nov 13: Winner, Winner, Winner! Moroccan couscous with roast vegetables, falafel, and yogurt sauce (recipe)
Friday, Nov 14: more makeshift meals, this time warm granola with soy milk, avocado salad with roasted almonds, pan-fried spinach stems, here’s to wasting nothing!
Saturday, Nov 15: double-header, I made cauliflower carrot salad for lunch (check it for how to make vegan sour cream, pretty cool), my one and only made kinpira for dinner, delish
On tap for this week: vegetarian minestrone, paneer masala, garlic pepper knots
Personal production: started editing the video for “Stir to Sleep”, a music instructional on my pre-bed breathing meditation. This week will revive “My Little Flipper Girl” and aim to have the song and video finished by the next weekly.
YouTube inspiration: Why Poverty – Welcome to the World
Music inspiration: “Imagine” by John Lennon – I heard this playing at the meat store no less (I was buying vegetables :). I had never listened to the lyrics – has anyone else? This is as strong a message as ever, and everything he says is true – all we need is imagination to realize it.
Current listening: TP’s June playlist
Podcasts: What On Earth is Happening #43 (The Tarot)
During the course of every practice I thank someone or something in my life. Here is a selection from this week’s yogic prayers of gratitude:
Thank you Breath, for filling me with life, for nourishing me, and for giving me a voice to do good. May we honor you, take the time to appreciate you, and use you to spread peace through the world. Namaste.
(Note: charts taken from www.sentimentrader.com)
Let’s take a look at some QE trades this week. We know from the past that when a Fed bond-buying program (i.e. QE) ends, stocks falter and bonds rally. The main question we need to ask is “is this end of QE different”? I think it might be, in that they might not initiate QE4 (or whichever incarnation it is now), but I don’t think we should bet on the market behaving any differently than previous ends.
In fact, I pulled the trigger last week and bought puts on the S&P. It feels a bit dumb given the strength of the trend and the fact that we are past the May-October negative seasonal, but volatility is cheap now, sentiment is bullish, and the Fed just pulled out support for the market. A closer look at previous peaks in stocks after the end of a QE shows that the market took over 30 calendar days before entering free fall in 2010 and around 20 days in 2011. If we get into mid-December and the market is still making new highs, the short trade is probably not going to work.
And how about bonds? The way to trade is actually that we remain in a long-term bull market and 10y yields will eventually fall past the post-QE2 low of 1.40. This seems outlandish even to me but if the world’s risky markets falter the US has the most attractive yields of any safe haven country. I am not quite buying call options on TLT, the bond ETF, but I covered any trading shorts and maintain about 25% of my investments in bonds. How the market and sentiment move over the next few months in response to there being no QE will be informative of how we should trade in the next year. My impression is that if the Fed really stops buying bonds we should be entering a bear market for treasuries, and I will look for a rise in bullish sentiment to reduce bond holdings.
In other markets, the US dollar is pushing up against important resistance and buying EUR looks attractive as a trade here. This one could be dangerous, as if 1.22 (in EUR/USD) breaks down we could be looking at 1.02 from a technical standpoint. Oil is in a similar position and is trading right at multi-year support. I would bet on a range trade here where oil eventually sees 100+ again, and will consider buying something like BPT or one of the oil majors.
