Insider Trading

On October 16th, a Srilankan tamilian Raj Rajaratnam, head of Galleon Hedge Fund was arrested by the US police on charges of "Insider Trading". Let us try to figure out what this exactly means and when it is legal and when it is not.

Insider trading refers to trading of stocks or other derivatives of a publicly listed company based on potential access to non-public information about that company.

Insider Trading is legal, if in case the CEO of a comapny is buying stocks of the same company based on a non-public information, but files it within 2 days to make it public. Most of the financial websites, like Yahoo Finance have information of "Insider Trading" details of listed companies which were filed.

If the same CEO had bought the shares on his wifes name and not file it, it would become an illegal insider trading.

Another example : suppose my friend is a CEO of a company X and I happen to meet him for a drink and knowingly/unknowlingly he reveals me a private information of that company. If I use that private information to buy/sell stocks of that company or if I even have documents containing those private information, I am performing an illegal Insider Trading.

The theory behind the prohibition on insider trading is that it undermines investor confidence in the fairness and integrity of the securities markets.

The SEC lists top employees of a firm to be Insiders and makes it compulsary for them to declare their trades. Potentially, anyone could be an insider and it is very difficult to normalize the list and have very strict rules.

End of the day, we representing the firm should always remember the confidentiality signature we had signed and make sure we are morally doing justice to the firm. Most of the big shots from the top financial firms may be involved in "Illegal Insider Trading" and to charge them of this, you would have to collect a lot of evidence. For Rajaratnam, they had been observing him for 2 years. He has come out in bail and has announced he is going to defend stating he is innocent.

Final Verdict : If the BOSS has decided to screw you, there is no way you could escape :) ...

Wha about Indian Market?

Very often, one would observe share prices of firms already having moved in anticipation of a major corporate announcement. Based on market gossip, many of these pre-announcement trades are at the behest of the promoters.
While the SEBI has investigated a lot of these trails, it hasn’t been as successful in prosecution as much as SEC. To be fair to SEBI, regulators worldwide have had little success with convictions in insider trading cases. The trades are generally difficult to prove since the evidence can be circumstantial.

India seems to be in the category where insider trading laws exist, but prosecutions are too few to be noteworthy. Hopefully, the Galleon case will prompt Indian policymakers to add more regulatory measures with respect to Insider Trading.

Laziness...

I used to be atleast 50% more active in college than what I am now. It is quite evident with the number of posts I have been able to write. Its just a very abnormal measure as I used to write none in college, still was active enough. But I would consider it a reasonable enough measure for the survival of this blog :) .
Its neither that I do not have anything to write nor that writing blogs does not interest me. Just some laziness to write. Will I overcome this? To have a check on my laziness(rather activeness), I have decided to judge it based on the number of posts/month.
The count should be minimum 6 to prove I am active enough; lets see.
For October, excluding this crap, the activeness threshold is minimum three.

Hyderabad Traffic Police - Jai ho

I was amused when I saw this website: http://www.htp.gov.in/
Hyderabad Traffic Police information site, can you bilieve it. Locally speaking, kalakaraanunga :) .
It has provision to even pay fines though eSeva. It also has information about alternate routes given a traffic signal.
Even if you are not from Hyderabad, have a look at this, it is really good.
KUDOS, Hyderabad Traffic Police

Dhoni - Why are you spoiling my local Chennai team???

What an irony that the most successful captain of the Indian national side is at least 70% responsible for the unbearable and ridiculous combination of the Chennai Super Kings IPL team this year.
I am pissed off with Dhoni due to:

1) The fact that the local TN players are not given a point to prove in the side.
2) If Dhoni has some personal problem with Badrinath, he could at least relieve him from the team, so that Badri could join some other franchise where he would be respected for his middle order batting skills at no 4.
3) Promoting himself at no 4 where he is dumb and useless, just keeps rotating his bat as if he is preparing payasam.
4) Picking R. Ashwin in the main XI as specialist spinner and not giving him a single over. Also, letting him bat at no 11.
5) Batting order decision in all three matches was pathetic, the main reason for losing 2 games.


Flintoff and Morkel have been useless so far. Mr Dhoni, please come out of your ego and dumbness, give chance to some good openers like Vidyut, Badri. Else, please leave our local team and go join some franchise where you will be worshiped. We will be very happy to play with local players and small names rather than losing respect.

Who wants to be a Millionaire???

Very Interesting...Am not sure if its true or fake, but good to read considering it as fake and such a person does not exist.
Idaho resident Kathy Evans brought humiliation to her friends and family Tuesday when she set a new standard for stupidity with her appearance on the popular TV show, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.'

It seems that Evans, a 32-year-old wife and mother of two, got stuck on the first question, and proceeded to make what fans of the show are dubbing 'the absolute worst use of lifelines ever.'
After being introduced to the show's host Meredith Vieira, Evans assured her that she was ready to play, whereupon she was posed with an extremely easy $100 question. The question was: 'Which of the following is the largest?'

A) A Peanut
B) An Elephant
C) The Moon
D) Hey, who you calling large?

Immediately Mrs. Evans was struck with an all consuming panic as she realized that this was a question to which she did not readily know the answer.
'Hmm, oh boy, that's a toughie,' said Evans, as Vieira did her level best to hide her disbelief and disgust. 'I mean, I'm sure I've heard of some of these things before, but I have no idea how large they would be.'
Evans made the decision to use the first of her three lifelines, the 50/50. Answers A and D were removed, leaving her to decide which was bigger, an elephant or the moon. However, faced with an incredibly easy question, Evans still remained unsure.
'Oh! It removed the two I was leaning towards!' exclaimed Evans.. 'Darn. I think I better phone a friend.'
Using the second of her two lifelines on the first question, Mrs. Evans asked to be connected with her friend Betsy, who is an office assistant.
'Hi Betsy! How are you? This is Kathy! I'm on TV!' said Evans, wasting the first seven seconds of her call. 'Ok, I got an important question. Which of the following is the largest? B, an elephant, or C, the moon. 15 seconds hun.'
Betsy quickly replied that the answer was C, the moon. Evans proceeded to argue with her friend for the remaining ten seconds.
'Come on Betsy, are you sure?' said Evans. 'How sure are you? Duh, that can't be it.'
To everyone's astonishment, the moronic Evans declined to take her friend's advice and pick 'The Moon.'
'I just don't know if I can trust Betsy. She's not all that bright. So I think I'd like to ask the audience,' said Evans.
Asked to vote on the correct answer, the audience returned 98% in favor of answer C, 'The Moon.' Having used up all her lifelines, Evans then made the dumbest choice of her life.
'Wow, seems like everybody is against what I'm thinking,' said the too-stupid-to-live Evans. 'But you know, sometimes you just got to go with your gut. So, let's see. For which is larger, an elephant or the moon, I'm going to have to go with B, an elephant. Final answer.'
Evans sat before the dumbfounded audience, the only one waiting with bated breath, and was told that she was wrong, and that the answer was in fact, C, 'The Moon.'

Naan Kadavul - Review

First of all, If you want to enjoy this movie, have a open mindset. Any movie could be criticized, I would like to take the positives of the movie. Firstly, I liked the two faces of the movie. One is about aghoris and their lifestyle and what their ideology is. Bala could not open up fully in this case as censor board would never allow him to show or even mention that they feed on corpses. Second is the life of beggars, what difficulties they face and how they are marketed to date like slaves. Why I liked them most is because they are real, ruthlessly real.

Aarya has suited perfectly to the role. His height and skinny body has given him the perfect look. Pooja too has acted exceptionally. But the best actor(s) award would go the numerous handicapped and old men/women who have acted with so much dedication. The comedy sequences involving them is awesome and so practical that I started wondering whether to laugh or think. Hats off to Bala. The best thing about the movie is our realization of the fact that we know these beggars exist and their life is miserable, but we never realize it so much. Bala makes us reach that level.

One positive thought while watching the movie was everyone knew for sure the "Mottai" chapter is over when our hero meets him. Aarya would thrash him to death. That makes you feel good and you keep waiting for that moment. Some scenes in the climax were censored. Pooja's dialogues in the last scene when she pleads for mercy is so touching and is the reality and what Aarya does to her after that, only Bala can do it.

When I heard the songs, except for Om Siva om, I did not like the other songs. I realized in the movie, the reason for these numbers, all are songs sung by beggars.

Great job Bala. I am sure many won't like this movie. But for people who want to see something different but real, even though reality hurts you a lot, go for it. For people who are very emotional and cannot face reality so easily, please go for it with a positive mindset. The movie would be adorable. Even if you donot like the movie, it is worth your money. At least you did not waste it on crappy masala.

Rafa means Positive Energy

I could not digest the scene after the so called "epic" finals played in Melbourne on Feb 1st 2009.
Rafa played like a champion, which no one can deny and hence he won. I wanted to see a ceremony that would honour him for his great tennis and his improvement as a hard court player. But what I saw was one sided comments from the organiser who was announcing the results. He invited 4 great legends so that they could witness the graceful Roger get his 14th Grand Slam. Openly, he says he wished Federer to win. And then, the great champion can't even take a loss. He was proud, happy and humble after wining so many Grand Slams, mercilessly destroying careers of many good tennis players like Roddick, Hewitt, Nalbandian etc. But when he cannot defeat Rafa, he cries. Should Roddick commit suicide for being humiliated by Federer?
And the worst thing about the presentation ceremony was when the organizer saw Fedex cry and says, " We shall give him some time to settle. In the meantime, we shall meet our champion." When I heard these words, I felt like killing him on spot. No fool would prefix "In the meantime" when a champions time comes to lift the crown. A losers cry is more important than a great tennis champ who shed energy and sweat and worked so hard for this.
Rafa, you are too humble, just like Roger and continue to be the way you are. Roger, you are great, charming and graceful but I did not like you stealing the show of the champion just because you felt bad losing.
This blog does not question the talent in Fedex nor his sportsmanship and is all to do about the presentation ceremony. I have moderated the comments and I will not be posting any of the Fed support ones if they are one-sided and pointless as far as yesterdays presentation is concerned.
Rafa means nothing but Positive Energy. The World has to accept this.