PERU YOU ARE A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY. YOU ARE A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH. YOU ARE ON THE EDGE OF GREATNESS.
Monthly Archives: October 2014
PERU YOU ARE A FIRST WORLD COUNTRY. YOU ARE A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH. YOU ARE ON THE EDGE OF GREATNESS
Te amo Perú. Paraíso, paraíso, otro día in Paraíso! My two favorite’s mantras since I am in Peru. You know I never did anything in life just for one reason. For me to move on something, I needed at least 3-4 or 5 reasons. But there were at least 10 or more reasons for me to come to Peru. I will just give you some of them.
To my Wall St. friends, friend friends and relatives stay with me. This blog may contain answers to your most pressing investment questions: The market, the dollar, retirement and Real Estate.
Reasons I love Peru:
#1 My wife is Peruvian, she is the sweetest thing in my life. We met in Florida, Deerfield Beach in December 1999. We met at a bus stop. Neither of us was supposed to be there that day on that time of the day. My company car was being repaired and I had to take a bus to pick it up. She went somewhere in Deerfield with her daughter but the place was closed due to some holiday. So I walk to the bus stop bench, saw these two beautiful women, one young, one old. I sat next to the older one, on her right and whenever she turned to her left to talk to her daughter I would check her out, beautiful long black hair and I mean really black, on a slightly dark brown body. I always loved that combination even when I was a kid watching cowboy movies on TV, there were always an Indian girl in the show with long black hair and a well-tanned body.
Even the Howdy-Dowdy Show had Princess Summer, Fall, Winter Spring. She was beautiful, if you are old enough to remember Howdy-Dowdy. Anyway just to start a conversation, I asked her if she was waiting a long time and how often do the buses come. I didn’t know because I really never took a bus in Florida. She said one should come soon. I think it was her voice, I liked her right away. She was a little chubby, not tall but cute legs, meaning they were slightly sexy. I am Italian, so the chubby didn’t bother me because I knew I didn’t like skinny girls. I just thought her face was beautiful.
The bus finally came and we all got on and sat near each other and continued with the small talk. Then she said she had to get off soon. I said hey if you want to sit for coffee or to watch a movie sometime. I verbally gave her my phone number and she jotted it down. I never asked a girl for her phone number in my whole life, because I always felt she would change 1 or 2 digits, if she didn’t like me plus I could never handle the anticipation or figure out what to say on the first call. I just was never good in that whole area.
That day and evening passed without a call from my Indian princess and I just said oh well not meant to be. The next day, late afternoon she called. I was happy. We made a date for early evening. I picked her up and we went to Misner Park in Boca Raton for coffee, Starbucks of course. We walked around the park a bit and then all of a sudden I kissed her forehead. After that we held hands, it felt good, it felt right. After my last relationship ended in New York I wasn’t with a woman for 5 years. This was my first step back into those scary waters. I invited her back to my apartment but warmed her there was Tina Turner Concert later on TV which I was dying to see. I love Tina I must have seen 5 or 6 Live Tina Concerts. In fact, before I left NY for Florida, my daughter took me to a Tina Concert as a Good bye gift at Jones Beach which I won’t forget because the seats were so great. I think I was only 20 feet from Tina. Thank you, JoJo.
Cecilia said she liked Tina. I was surprised someone from Peru would even know Tina Turner. She explained her generation didn’t have their own music, like we only had Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett till rock’n roll came in.
So all of South Americans loves and knows our music from the Beatles till today. She didn’t know doo-op and earlier tunes. Well after watching the concert the kissing started and other stuff. I asked to move in that night. She moved in the next day, we talked about marriage within days and here it is almost 16 years later. I just feel better when she is around and I know she feels the same.
#2 The People. I love the people in Peru. They are happy, humble hardworking people. All very nice to me; Gringo Frank. They all respond with Buenos Dias when I see someone and say Hola!. I say Hola to everyone even strangers. Try that in NY.
#3 Food – Out of this world.
My favorite is sudado. It is fish in a red sauce. Probably because Angelina my grandmother made it every Friday nite in the winter, remember meatless Friday. In the summer it was always crabs and red sauce.
After sudado I love picante de camarones, Ceviche and Jalea, Chinese food is very popular here but not like American Chinese food. On one visit to the States my daughter took me to PF Changs on Long Island. I loved it. Every Chinese restaurant here is like PF Changs.
#4 The Music
Ah.. The music is very emotional. Go to you tube search Alejandra Guzman. Song: Yo Te esperaba. If you can watch and listen to that song and not cry, there is something wrong with you. I also love Carlos Vives, Unicornio by Silvio Rodríguez, Thalía- Estoy enamorada. But my favorite is Mana, watch the concert at Vina del Mar on You Tube. Our wedding song is Vivir sin aire by Mana.
#5 The weather is beautiful.
The average winter temperature is 58 degrees. In the summer the average temperature is 88 degrees. It’s funny as soon as it goes below 65 degrees people here start wearing heavy coats, hats and hoods, gloves and boots. It’s crazy. But you know what is really crazy? In the 12 or 13 years I am here I haven’t seen one homeless person. You see poor people during the day, but they don’t beg they are selling candies, clothing, books, or toys.
Peru is very family oriented; it reminds me of South Philly 40 or 50 years ago. Every home has an old person in it, either a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle. Others with no family to care for them are put in old age homes which are paid for by the social medical system. No homeless people sleeping on cardboard boxes trying to keep warm.
#6 The Luxor.
There are a lot of Casinos here. All sizes. Big (Atlantic City size) and small. But most are in between in size. My favorite is Luxor probably because I was usually lucky there. Luxor is in Monterrico but what I love about it are the workers and the owners. They are the nicest people in the industry. I love Jessica and Nestor and one of the owners Victor. My wife and I don’t go anymore because they used to serve two hot meals a day which they stopped. The best part is you give them US 100 dollars they give you 290 soles, enough to play for a couple of hours.
Peru on the brink of greatness!
TO BE CONTINUED
To my Wall Street friends: I was looking for a bigger correction and I laughed when they celebrated the passing of the anniversary 1987 crash.
Be careful October isn’t over yet and the great crash of 1929 started on October 24th with its worst days being October 28th and 29th.
For the record, I still don’t like the market.
THE SON OF A BRICKLAYER
October 6th
I woke up this morning feeling depressed and I’ve been a little depressed for a couple of months. This morning I said to myself: “ What the fuck is going on in your head?”
I thought about my last blog I didn’t like some of the things I said or maybe it was because I spoke to my youngest son Greg. He said “Dad your blog was good but little strong”.
I know what he really wanted to say, probably something like “Dad your losing your fucking mind, straighten your ass out.” But Greg would never talk to me like that and my other two, Joanna and Frankie would never correct me, say something nasty to me or just tell me off, when I deserved it. And let me tell you, over the years I’ve given them plenty of reasons to do so.
They are just beautiful people, you have no idea. Pick two or three people in your life that you really think that are nice or good or beautiful, multiply that feeling by 10 and you might get close and you know what? Now that I think about it, not one of them even raised their voice at me. Thank you Jesus! For that blessing: my children.
I was a good father, not a great father and I was a lousy husband and I loved them with as much love as I could.
They are the way they are because they all take after their mother.
She would try to explain to them that my capacity to love was limited, I gave the most love I could but it was limited, she often described me as a lost soul.
It hurt at first but as the years past I realized she was right.
I think that’s because my parents were not affectionate. Don’t get me wrong God knows they were good parents. My mom hit me almost every day but I deserved it. I was really bad.
Every day some neighbor would ring the doorbell and start yelling “Betty, do you know what your son is doing?” And I would get hit.
When I got older I got faster and he got fatter, she couldn’t catch me anymore, so she started throwing things at me, until one day in a rage, she picked up one of her favorite crystal plates and threw it at me, I ducked, it hit the wall and shattered, she never threw anything at me again.
Boy! did she love her crystal stuff.
So now she would wait for my father to come home and as soon as he came through the front door she would yell to him
“Frank hit him. He was bad today”. Now, Dad was a bricklayer and when he got out of the car and walked to the front door, he couldn’t stand up straight from bending over hundreds of times a day to lay each brick one at a time, maybe more than 100 times a day.
He didn’t straighten up and walk upright until after dinner. I remember him always yelling back to my mother “Betty leave me alone, I ‘am tired”.
He hit me once on a weekend when he was well rested. I was a big teenager, 6 ft. tall and slightly fat; he punched me in the chest. I said “Dad, why did you hit me?” he said “That’s for all the nights last week when I was too tired to hit you”.
He walked away holding his wrist, he sprained it when he hit me and lost 5 days of work.
Bad news: In those days you didn’t get paid if you didn’t work.
As for Jo, my first wife, she didn’t deserve me, she deserved a lot better. I left a good woman for a pair of great legs. I’m a leg man, they are “The Gateway to Heaven” Al Pacino said from the “Scent of a woman” Whoa!!.
Lesson! Don’t underestimate the power of the sex drive in a man even if it lasted for only a couple of years or until the next great pair of legs comes along.
But don’t blame us; we are just fucking idiots with our brains in our dicks. God made us that way.
Even though my parents didn’t show any affection I know they loved me, my 2 brothers and my sister. Mom would be up until 2 or 3 am ironing our starched white uniforms shirts and blouses, it was mandatory dress code at St. Rita’s Grade School in South Philly.
Dad laid brick until he died at 61 years of age. When he died, I cried every morning when I woke up for almost a year. The day I left for Fort Knox Kentucky to start Basic Training for the Army, my Dad hugged me, hard and kissed me on the cheek, with tears in his eyes, he walked away without saying a word.
I was shocked. He didn’t have to say anything. I know he was thinking what every father thinks when he says goodbye to his son who is leaving for military service. “I may never see my son again”.
I was lucky; my two boys were not at the right age to be drafted when we were at war. Thank you again Jesus.
I dedicate this story, against to all our elected assholes that have no idea of what life is like for the average Americans.
George Bush Senior, during his presidency announces he and his wife are going on a shopping spree because the country was in a recession at that time.
All the TV cameras were there when he handed the cashier 3 pair of socks like this was really going to help the recession and as the cashier passed the socks over the points of sales scanner he turned to his wife with a stupid look on his face and asked “What is that?, what is the cashier doing? “
The points of sales scanner was in stores for at least 2 or 3 years at that time.
That shows you how little they knew about life in America. For us it’s citizens. They are in a totally different world than us. I really don’t like picking on these guys bit they are so pickable, if that’s a word. I don’t think they are worth my time or even the paper and ink I waste on them.
Low-lives!. What got me started on them?
I woke up this morning, made my coffee and the turned on my computer while drinking my first cup of the day and randomly choose any of the 20 or 5 non mass media websites I like.
This morning I hit www.blacklistednews.com another superior web site and there it was, the headlines ‘IS YOUR CONGRESS MAN REGISTERED AS A PAID FOREIGN POLICY LOBBYIST FOR ISRAEL?
Those low-lives bastards!. Please go to www.blacklistednews.com October 6th, they not only list the names of these low-lives but also give the amount of money they got. I don’t think any of their children will shed any tears for these guys. If they do, they will be tears of joy for all the money they are going to inherit if they can figure out which foreign banks they hide their money in.
To my Public Servants:
Try to go out just for 2 or 3 days, something in between your vacations and be a bricklayer and you might understand a little why I feel the way I feel.
Anyway, after reading these headlines I closed my eyes and asked my Best friend Jesus, “Am I going crazy? Why Am I so depressed?”
And he answered loud and clear. “NO, you are not crazy, but you are very depressed because you see the world falling apart and you are worry for your children and their children and all those you love.”
Then I asked ”Jesus are you going to help us out of this mess?”
No answer. Just silence.
Now I’m not only depressed but scared also.
Why should he help, we shut the door on His Face too many times.
Last week the Market broke below its 200 day moving average trend line. Friday it rallied back to just under the line, as it usually does.
Today, Tuesday 7th it looks like this formation will be confirmed.
You still have time to buy some OEX-Puts or other bearish instruments.
Happy October everyone!. You ain’t seen nothing yet!
I didn’t mean to pick on Bush Senior, he was a military man. A hero in my books but I still have a vivid picture in my mind with a stupid look on his face.
TI, a fellow coworker on Wall St. and a friend I love, thank you for reminding me that “You ain’t seen nothing yet” was a BTO Bachman Turner Overdrive song. It was a favorite group of mine years ago. I didn’t think of the title because there is another part of the same song that I remember more. In fact I often use it in conversation when I disagree with someone and I’ll just say bababababy only twice baba’s, I remember three. The you tube lyrics are wrong I think they say Bababy only twice, two babas I remember three.
Did I tell you that cd’s (music) and DVD’s movies and concerts pirated cost only 4 or 5 soles, that’s like $1.50 to $2 dollars, Imagine. I once sent some to the States and they didn’t work. Most CD and DVD players there have anti pirate devices.
Did you know that 2 years ago the US Treasury Dpt. Voted Peru as producers of the most authentic copy of the US $100 bill?.
Also www.flavorwire.com, a web site I love not only about music, they cover books, films, art and design, has a great write –op on Stevie Nick’s and her new album “24 Karat Gold-Songs from the Vault” I am dying to hear it.
PS I didn’t know I was bad. I just thought I was having fun. Too many stories to tell but here is one thing you might like. Remember all those women who came knocking on my mother’s door complaining about me?
Will I Always had water gun handy, just for the fun of it and I used to fill it up with black or blue ink which was common in those days because we still used fountain pens.
Well I would go and squirt ink on all the windows I could at the houses of the old bitches who ratted on me to my mother.
Do you think that’s bad? I didn’t I thought it was fun they had to pay for a window washer to get them clean.
Don’t you think that’s fun?, yeah you do. I can tell cause’ right now you are laughing.
To my brother Larry
I think you missed one blog where I mention that I’m getting emails complaining about my spelling and grammar. My answer was “I don’t got good spelling and I don’t got good grammar and my wife who is nice enough to type my blog, barely speaks English. Most of the time it’s like the “I love Lucy Show” around here. And I told them if they didn’t like it just don’t fucking read it.
Wish Nancy a Happy Birthday, she knows I hate Birthday and I don’t send cards. Why the fuck would anyone celebrate getting a year older is beyond me. Love you, Nancy.
Jimmy Dritz was one of my bosses at Becker Paribas, you had to love this guy. When he was teaching me the ins and outs of the Risk Arb world and me being new at it I often made mistakes. He never got mad or raised his voice. He would just say. “Frankie, that’s a Cocka maymy spread you put on (spelled wrong) or that’s a Chinese Spread. Next time try it this way”.
But I always think of him this time of year. He had years of experience in Risk Arb at Drexel and Company and he would say, “Frankie at Drexel we always bought on Rosh Hashanah and sold on Yom Kippur”, and every year we lost a few bucks but I can still picture him with his brisk walk running towards my desk while scratching his head and laughing, “Frankie I think we were supposed to sell on Rosh Hashanah and sold on Yom Kippur”. I said “Jimmy it’s your theory you tell me. He would shake his head still laughing and say ah! It’s nebulous” and just walks away.
Nebulous!! that was his favorite word. I’m a laughing now just picturing him. He wasn’t a great stock picker or great at calling the market.
He was just the best Risk Arb guy on the street. He was almost never in a deal that broke, maybe 2 or 3 a year.
That’s a hell of a record!.
Miss you Jim.
AN OCTOBER BLOOD BATH IS COMING
”You ain’t seen nothing yet”
Marcello Frank Anastasi, No Al Jolson said “You ain’t heard nothing yet” The Jazz Singer.
Does anyone remember October Blood Baths? I am calling for one now.
They were very common in the 1970’s and 1980’s. I remember seeing traders who were normally strong and calm in face of some really bad days which normally occur during a normal trading year. These same traders would physically shake and have trouble speaking a clear coherent and complete sentence. Believe me when I tell you I saw one young trader actually peeing his pants when the office girl only asked him what he wanted to order for lunch. I also remember him yelling back at her, standing there with tears in his eyes while shaking and peeing and screaming at her “Do you know what the fuck is going on?” She had no idea.
I won’t mention his name because I liked him; he was really a nice guy. Even if I didn’t like him, I wouldn’t mention his name only because the whole fucking thing was not a nice thing to remember. I think of him every October. It’s one my rare bad memories of Wall Street. He didn’t come to work the next day, or the day after that, or the next either. He did come up to the trading dept. four weeks later to apologize for his behavior on that bad day. He also came to say Good Bye. He was leaving New York. He decided that Real Estate was going to be the next hot industry and he thought the Boom was already starting in California which is where he was going to. Boy! Was he right!.
That was in the late 1970’s I was happy for him, I later heard he ended up doing very well. I want to dedicate this story to all our elected assholes in Wash. DC who never put in a full work day and spend most of their time flying around on some sort of perpetual vacation, paid by hard working Americans.
The only time they stop the vacation is when they have to stop and pick-up a bribe or payoff they earned for passing a pork -belly project or a Bridge to nowhere project. And I’ll bet the really crooked politicians buy cheap Real Estate when they know a bill will be passed. But you know what pisses me off they think the American people don’t know this shit goes on. Shame on you. How come they all retire millionaires? It must be all that over time they put-in during their working careers. Oh! And the buildings in Wash. DC must all have sun tanning bulbs as lights.
Enough, I hate when this mean side of me comes out. but it makes me feel so good, I actually breath better and while we are on the subject of assholes, the MBA’s , Quants and so called pundits. September is not the weakest month of the year. October is. During October blood baths, blood runs in the streets caused by selling panics which usually exhaust themselves by mid-month or later in the month causing a sharp snap-back upward movement and thus showing a not so big % downward end result for the month.
To all those I love, things will get worse before they get better and I said it in my second or third blog. God Loves this great country, we will be back on top again. I also believe God elected every president we had, including Obama. I felt bad during the Bush Gore Election. God had to re-arrange all those hanging chads on the voting cards in Florida. I am a democrat but God put Bush in because he knew Gore would never retaliate the way Bush did. And we would be suffering many terrorist attacks like the Boston Marathon. Am i religious? Do I go to church? All I can say is Jesus is my best friend. Obama’s time to shine will come soon and he will go down in the history books as the President Most Loved by the people. I loved him from day one. “Be not afraid” my fellow Americans
PS.. No, Flushing Red signals was not a mistake, I meant it. I have never seen all 10 of my indicators go all red (SELL) or all black (BUY) they usually just go to a majority, like 6-7-or 8 out of 10. If I am reading them right, Flushing is the right word. Stocks will tank and flushed right down the toilet.
PS PS Do you remember the movie “Grumpy Old Men? Well I was a lot younger when I saw it. It must be at least 20 years old. When I saw it I said, I hope I’ll never get like that and just laughed. I thought it was so funny. Well guess what, I am worse than that, at times I have no patience and everything annoys me. Then there are times when i get so piss-off I get crazy. I guess I am trying to explain my rage against our political leaders in Wash. DC, but I do notice one good thing about getting old” You care but you really don’t give a shit”
Joan Rivers, no one makes me laugh like you did.!
I will miss you. Her charitable works are unbelievable. Search them on Google.
God Bless you Joan
OCTOBER BLOOD BATH
Starting as of today October 1st 2014. All ten of my indicators are flushing RED. That is five primary indicators and five of my secondary indicators. There will be blood on the streets. The whole article which I wrote today will have to wait till tomorrow because my beautiful wife just came back from a business trip in Cuzco and Machu Picchu. she is ready to drop and I don’t have the heart to ask her to seat and type for three or four hours.
(You ain’t seen nothing yet)
Marcello Frank Anastasi not Al Jolson he said you ain’t heard nothing yet. “THE JAZZ SINGER”
MARKET CALL ANASTASI 