If you scroll to the bottom of this page you will see a photo of the sign at my local church announcing that I am the guest speaker for the next few sundays.The subject of my talks is "why God plays Texas Holdem"and is an attempt to show the values that can be learnt from playing the game.
My subject yesterday was that poker teaches both mental and physical discipline as in order to play well you need the mental discipline to understand the rules,assess the game as it is played and the patience to wait for the right hands to play even if they are few and far between and you also need the physical discipline not to let your manner betray the hand you are playing.
My talk with our local congregation went quite well yesterday,helped I think by the fact that our church is attended by many lovers of the game and so let's hope next sunday goes as well.
When I decided to start writing this blog I made a descision that it would not be full of banners and Google ads etc.as this is not an attempt to earn money but simply a place to air my views on life as I see it but you will notice that on the left side of this page there is just one advertisment for a site that provides free poker teaching and $150.00 completely free to start your poker playing career without risking your own money.This is where I learnt to play and whilst I don't claim to be a great player it was nice to learn the game and have access to lots of information without parting with any cash so if you are a keen to learn or an existing player who would like a little tuition and a free bankroll the feel free to click the ad and take a look.
Well that's about that for today,hopefully there will be something in tomorrows news for me to comment on and this blog will be back to normal.
Have a great and safe day,Lou Smorals.
Monday 22 September 2008
Saturday 20 September 2008
Short selling,can it be right?
After all we have seen in the media in the last few weeks about the financial world being bought to it's knees by short sellers I decided yesterday to do a little research and see what short selling is all about.
I was amazed by what I read.I started at www.wikipedia.org and then did some archive reading at http://www.ft.com/ and I will try to explain things as I understand them.
Short sellers borrow stocks and shares and sell them in order to force down the price.Later they then buy back the shares at a lower price and return them to the owner,keeping the profit they have made from the deal.
It would seem that the really big money is being made by not what we would think of as share traders but by really clever mathematicians sitting at computer screens.I suppose this is what we call progress but what worries me about the whole thing is that the realism seems to have left the stock markets and nobody sees the bigger picture or what the outcome of their actions might be,all they see is numbers.
A classic case of this is the collapse of the share price of the UK bank HBOS this week and its subsequent purchase by Lloyds TSB,and so my point for today is this.The HBOS collapse has resulted in 1,000s of small investors losing money and the takeover by Lloyds TSB will result in probably 1,000s of job losses,and so did the short sellers see those ordinary people losing money and jobs when they pressed the button and short sold HBOS?I think not.
Have a great weekend,Lou Smorals.
I was amazed by what I read.I started at www.wikipedia.org and then did some archive reading at http://www.ft.com/ and I will try to explain things as I understand them.
Short sellers borrow stocks and shares and sell them in order to force down the price.Later they then buy back the shares at a lower price and return them to the owner,keeping the profit they have made from the deal.
It would seem that the really big money is being made by not what we would think of as share traders but by really clever mathematicians sitting at computer screens.I suppose this is what we call progress but what worries me about the whole thing is that the realism seems to have left the stock markets and nobody sees the bigger picture or what the outcome of their actions might be,all they see is numbers.
A classic case of this is the collapse of the share price of the UK bank HBOS this week and its subsequent purchase by Lloyds TSB,and so my point for today is this.The HBOS collapse has resulted in 1,000s of small investors losing money and the takeover by Lloyds TSB will result in probably 1,000s of job losses,and so did the short sellers see those ordinary people losing money and jobs when they pressed the button and short sold HBOS?I think not.
Have a great weekend,Lou Smorals.
Friday 19 September 2008
The energy company salesman cometh.
This morning we got the now almost weekly ring on the doorbell from the energy company salesman trying to get us to change to his company for our household gas and electricity supplies.
I don't know where the companies get these people from but I wonder if they have them bred specially because they are certainly in a class of their own.They always seem to be young men between about 20 and 30 in a shirt and tie with their ID badge clipped to it and no matter how bad the weather they never wear a coat.As they quite often turn up in the depths of winter,still in shirt sleeves I often ponder just what kind of energy they run their salesmen on!
Anyway as usual the young man had his script to work from and began by asking who supplied our gas and electricity.When I told him he imedialtely gave me the stock reply that my company's prices were due to rise very shortly and his would be much better.Now I don't mind people trying to earn a living and these young men are doing a thankless job by trudging the streets every day cold calling members of the public but it seems that they are given no meaninfull information to work with as when I asked him by how much my company's prices were going to rise he just gave me a very blank look and when I asked what percentage his company would be cheaper by no answer was forthcoming and a look of slight panic began to cross his face.It would seem that his employers just expect him to tell everyone that they will be cheaper and he will be believed.Yes of course he will.we all blindly take as gospel the word of a travelling salesman who has just disturbed our morning,now don't we?So I suppose my point to this post is if these companies are going to send these poor individuals out in all weathers to try and earn a commission only living then at least give them the tools to have a realistic attempt at the job.
Fortunately,just before the recent 40%+ rise in gas prices we signed a 3 year fixed price deal with our current energy supplier and so we are at least safe in the knowledge that no enormous bills will drop on the Smorals doormat for the next 36 months and as much as I pity these young men who spend their days getting doors closed in their faces there is no point in them coming to our door because for the next 3 years we are tied to our current gas and electricity company and so the sign at the main gate of the Smorals estate that advises all comers that we do not welcome hawkers,tinkers,knife grinders etc,now also bears the legend "we have a 3 year deal with our energy supplier".
I don't know where the companies get these people from but I wonder if they have them bred specially because they are certainly in a class of their own.They always seem to be young men between about 20 and 30 in a shirt and tie with their ID badge clipped to it and no matter how bad the weather they never wear a coat.As they quite often turn up in the depths of winter,still in shirt sleeves I often ponder just what kind of energy they run their salesmen on!
Anyway as usual the young man had his script to work from and began by asking who supplied our gas and electricity.When I told him he imedialtely gave me the stock reply that my company's prices were due to rise very shortly and his would be much better.Now I don't mind people trying to earn a living and these young men are doing a thankless job by trudging the streets every day cold calling members of the public but it seems that they are given no meaninfull information to work with as when I asked him by how much my company's prices were going to rise he just gave me a very blank look and when I asked what percentage his company would be cheaper by no answer was forthcoming and a look of slight panic began to cross his face.It would seem that his employers just expect him to tell everyone that they will be cheaper and he will be believed.Yes of course he will.we all blindly take as gospel the word of a travelling salesman who has just disturbed our morning,now don't we?So I suppose my point to this post is if these companies are going to send these poor individuals out in all weathers to try and earn a commission only living then at least give them the tools to have a realistic attempt at the job.
Fortunately,just before the recent 40%+ rise in gas prices we signed a 3 year fixed price deal with our current energy supplier and so we are at least safe in the knowledge that no enormous bills will drop on the Smorals doormat for the next 36 months and as much as I pity these young men who spend their days getting doors closed in their faces there is no point in them coming to our door because for the next 3 years we are tied to our current gas and electricity company and so the sign at the main gate of the Smorals estate that advises all comers that we do not welcome hawkers,tinkers,knife grinders etc,now also bears the legend "we have a 3 year deal with our energy supplier".
Thursday 18 September 2008
Life with Lou Smorals a view of life from the U.K.
Hello and welcome to life with Lou Smorals a view of life as I see it from Smorals Towers here in Northern England.
I shall be trying on a day by day basis to bring you items of interest on subjects that have caught my eye that I think are worthy of discussion.there are no hard and fast rules as to the topics I shall be writing about and an average post could be any topic could be any subject from share prices to salmon and hopefully of interest not only to people here in the U.K. but readers worldwide.
I shall be trying on a day by day basis to bring you items of interest on subjects that have caught my eye that I think are worthy of discussion.there are no hard and fast rules as to the topics I shall be writing about and an average post could be any topic could be any subject from share prices to salmon and hopefully of interest not only to people here in the U.K. but readers worldwide.
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