Had a brilliant time in Vegas, Frankie really organized a first class trip!

It was a trip to be remembered although I think some parts will not be remembered, maybe its better that way!  The guys really went to a lot of effort on their costumes, which was great because that got everyone in the spirit of things… party time!

The gambling didn’t go to well, I thought that I would win the blackjack, but rookie Brad took the prize… he didn’t let me forget it either, rubbed it in the whole weekend.

James was dressed as Elvis and at around 2.00am we lost him, he doesn’t even remember where he was, or at least that’s his story!  We looked everywhere… do you know how embarrassing it is to go up to people and asking them, “Have you seen Elvis?”…  People look at you as if you are crazy… “sure dude, try over there…”

We couldn’t exactly say have you seen James?  Because he was dressed as Elvis and looked just like Elvis. Eventually we gave up, found him the next morning at breakfast looking very sorry for himself.

Now its back to the 21st century and reality – back to the future.  It was quite cool to escape to the 60′s I quite liked it there.

We’re off to Vegas for a weekend – oh yeahhh!!!

Going on a Rockabilly weekend of gambling…

And the song “Viva Las Vegas” is stuck in my mind… “got a whole lot of money that’s a ready to burn, so get those stakes up higher…”

Its Frankie’s idea, he has sent out invites, put together the whole trip for us… set the theme and is making us dress up – so its time to rock ‘n roll back to the 50′s and 60′s… don’t know where I’m going to find those tight fitting clothes!

I’ve being playing casino games at an online casino to get in the mood, found one that reminds me of Vegas, so that I think I’m already there when I’m playing their casino games… gotta get into the swing of things early on…

Knowing the group that is going, a lot of time will be spent in the casino – but he has set some compulsory group activities which are a surprise… I should have an edge on the other guys when it comes to blackjack!!

“William, what do I do when I get 16?”

“Well dear do you use the blackjack strategy chart and what does it tell you to do?”

“The what?”

(oh dear this is going to take a while….)

“A blackjack strategy chart tells you exactly what to do.  The best decision, that will give you the best probability of winning at blackjack, is written down on the chart for every possible scenario of cards that you could get.  All you have to do is follow the chart”

“Where do I find a blackjack strategy chart?”

“Go online, use a search engine to find a strategy chart from a blackjack site that you can trust, print it and use it… should be self explanatory”.

Its as simple as that – making sure you make the decision that will have the highest probability of beating the dealer – What more is there to blackjack?

Just use the blackjack strategy chart and you stand a chance of beating the casino.  All the hard work has been done for you.

When a Stock Market Analyst or a Fund Manager chooses shares for their portfoilio they should look at a number of criteria, including: future earnings potential, present and past earnings, the quality of management and their strategies, sales and potential sales growth, innovation and creativeness, the debt of the company, cash flow, industry trends and worldwide macro-economic factors… to name a few of the important issues.

They love numbers and crunching them to get all sorts of ratios.  They look at all the aspects of the financial statements and end up creating fancy models based on future earnings, to see if the share price is over or under priced.  All very mathematical and based on supposedly sound principles…

But where has it got them?  Its still a gamble.

Sure you look at overall trends, apply some common sense etc… but buying shares on the stock market is gambling.  You can remove as much element of chance as you can, but you still gamble on whether the share price will go up or down.  Some factors are out of your control!

Highly paid people who gamble with other people’s money!!! Getting bonuses for making more money and payouts to get rid of them when things go wrong… they win on both sides of the equation!!

Maybe thats why traders look like crazed gambling addicts… they love the thrill of gambling on the stock market!