a) Training business entering a real "recession" in 2020Q3?
We capped a successful third class during the lockdown making our ERM business one of the most successful pivots into the webinar format. Now we are in the process of trying to get back to our older training format prior to the lockdown with the added obstacle of teaching while wearing facemasks. If anyone has a brand of facemasks that can reduce muffling let me know.
One of my fears is that the training business may be finally entering its first downturn as we longer have a "captive" audience for our webinars. So I gotta be careful moving forward for the next few months. Maybe the bulk of earnings in 2020 has already been earned.
Thanks to so many new market insights from running my own Python programs, we are no longer a two-day program. Students now begin on Friday night with one webinar before heading to two full days of classes.
b) Financial markets
I get the feeling that the market does not really know which way to by now with central banks beefing up fiscal support on one end and the horrible fundamentals in another. I don't have much answers myself - if you have been staying defensive through-out this period of time, things should turn out ok although dividends will be gone until 2021.
More will be said of the Dr Wealth blog this upcoming week.
c) Python Programming
As I had classes last week, I did not write any programs because I tend to ger overexcited when some parts of my code begin to work with financial data. Very likely I will get back slowly putting more emphasis on improving my unsupervised learning code to cluster stocks into useful categories. After that, I will return to writing regression code to discover new factors to invest in.
As I already have a problem domain and just want quick fix ideas, I switched to using a cookbook to answer some of the questions I have.
I managed to fix a problem I have with Seaborn library heatmaps thanks to a student. ( I have students who are decent coders and working on the same problems as I am. )
d) What I am reading
I am in the middle of reading Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho and it is a non-stop page-turner!
If you enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians and Sarong Party Girls, you will definitely enjoy reading this book that chronicles the dating life of a 30-something Malaysian Woman M&A lawyer in Singapore.
The story may have more value than just being a fictional depiction of a spinster. Folks who are entering law-school may want to read the accurate depiction of life in a Singapore law firm to get a glimpse of their future.
Perhaps a dedicated blog post on this book will come after I am done with it.
e) Hobbies and economic stimulus
I don't have much time for my hobbies as I have three consecutive weekends worth of classes. Instead, I have been trying to conduct economic stimulus, hitting my hobby shops to buy stuff from them. I bought a low of miniatures to paint in case a second lockdown was to occur.
If miniature painting is considered a non-essential activity, then buying contrast paint specifically to paint translucent plastic is even more bo liao. I paid $12 for a bottle of blue paint to create the watery effect shown above.
The work was tactically outsourced to my daughter who has taken over the work of base coating and priming my miniatures.
The COVID-19 has permanently altered my life and I'd like to preserve some of the rituals I picked up during the last three months. For one thing, my D&D game sessions are moving permanently to the web. I would also like to preserve my exercise routine. Finally, if I wish to maintain my momentum in Python programming, I can't go shopping more than once a week on weekdays.
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