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Trading Love
Trading Love
Trading Love
Ebook204 pages3 hours

Trading Love

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Trading Love is a book that introduces financial and investment literacy through a simple story that is set in Beirut city. It is a story that most people can relate to, and mirrors investment decisions with relationship decisions.


Arian builds up a portfolio of her relationships to gauge future ones the same way asset managers build portfolios.

 

The story ends with a strong message that will shed a mindful light on what is truly meaningful in our lives.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherSJ Saadeh
Release dateSep 30, 2019
ISBN9781393116882
Trading Love

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    Trading Love - SJ Saadeh

    Chapter 1:  

    Ithink the lives of women are in general exceptionally touching, taking into consideration that the women being talked about here are living with all the physiological means, independence and not to mention self assurance available.

    In my country women appreciate material things more than affection, but who doesn’t in this godforsaken world we live in today. However I personally decline to get bored with all these idiosyncrasies. I just want to talk about heterosexual women with all their limbs and features, enough income to support their life and have characters that are supposedly distinctive from the masses.

    So I repeat myself. It is sad being a woman, we tend to disregard love for the sake of material things, I do not just mean money but anything regarded as valuable by society at a certain point in time, and that could be as cheap as a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps, or as expensive as a husband who is emotionally available and can cook remarkably well.

    Women connive and lie and cheat and cover that up with more low endeavors making men even doubt themselves that they have done something wrong when in reality it is all part of a woman’s plan to get exactly what she wants and that can be as little as getting over a grudge that could be as old as 50 years.

    Obsessive! Right?

    This obsessive behavior is also what makes some women mistake love for egocentric problems that can date back to kindergarten.

    Is there a cure?

    Most definitely so!

    It is difficult though, for it requires a woman to lay low for a while and readjust her priorities by getting in touch with an inner peace. This requires more due diligence than investment decisions (I’ll explain more about that later).

    Is it worth it? After all time is money!

    Well I would have to agree immensely and I would love to justify it by the mere factor that getting to understand yourself brings you closer to making sound decisions in EVERYTHING you do, and by that not getting in the way of other people’s destinies and finally having less grudges in the world.

    Alright fine! I get it, that is way too idealistic!

    The cardinal rule of investing is to understand what you are getting yourself into. Capital markets are gauged in the most fabulous and numerous ways possible until a small mix of fundamental, technical, and sentimental factors attain a profitable reward for your own particular individuality. The second rule in investing is setting a strategy for what you want out of every investment. After all MORE is not a goal but a sentiment of greed and knowing what you want is way more profitable on the long run. Finally every profitable investment is the result of hard work and genuine decision making, so there are no sideway tracks or fast routes to get to that result.  

    When it comes to love or relationships, they say you should disregard external factors and listen to what is in your heart. I see this as the most ridiculous thing. In fact I believe that when it comes to love the same factors gauged in capital markets should be applied. Yes! The fundamental, technical, and sentimental factors. The reason for that is because these days, the more money the guy has the more calculating the woman becomes so it is hardly a heart matter. After all your mind and your heart are in the same body, they see the same thing and therefore your mind will tell your heart what to see. The heart and mind are positively correlated!

    Unless, you are one of the lucky few in this appalling world we live in today, where once they meet a particular person, their heart starts beating uncontrollably and their mind completely loses its grasp over their heart. Then they let go of everything in the most pleasant and yet sudden manner.  

    Why? Well they finally understand the true meaning of having absolutely no control over anything anymore.

    The sad story is that this occurrence has diminished because of the polarity of balance sheet preferences, which has increased tremendously over time, with the help of social media of course.

    In finance there is something called behavioral finance, in love however, we all know that it comes down to the behavior of women! After all women are able to make men respect them enough not to treat them with disrespect and that can vary over degrees and cases or they can pretend to be playful but that hardly ever comes out as a win for a woman because of the element of time that eats away at a woman’s purchasing power, aka youthful beauty. The problem with women and love is that women do not gauge themselves and neither do they have a preference and therefore their false assumption that all men are twisted is a clusterfuck because the ultimate end result is a false assumption that they can treat all men the same way!

    It is not a mystery that people feel excessively proud when things go their own way and then blame everything but themselves when things do not work out for them. So does this make any sense? Is this rational behavior? Is it a fair gauge?  Women even take this a step further, they actually want revenge!

    It is quite a gloomy situation!

    Sound decisions in relationships take people far, it is true that nothing lasts forever and everything passes but we hold on to the good things in our life to make the bad moments seem bearable. If we are lucky and have undergone sound cognitive and emotional decisions then our investments in love can be very long term. Sometimes not long enough!

    You see, women tend to research the subject of relationships way more than men, that is why men are able to make more sound judgments when it comes to relationships while women tend to have their decisions altered. The fact that women share their feelings is the first hurdle to sound judgment. Who said that all relationships are the same? No wait scratch that, who said that all women are the same? As a result, how on earth are women going to be able to make sound decisions during periodic gossip sessions, especially when this recurring statement is constantly emphasized: Oh my God! I went through the same thing!

    REALLY?  

    Then this ill-fated declaration is followed by This is what you should do!

    The ultimate red alert!

    So how can we gauge ourselves properly and anticipate what is coming to us in a rational manner? Well this is part of heuristic decision making.

    How often do we rationalize irrational behavior? 

    How often do we stay away from new things because of fear?

    How often do we make mistakes and never admit that they are mistakes?

    How often do we perceive the mass decision as correct over our own beliefs?

    Finally, how often do we let our emotions take over during decision making?

    The answer to this series of questions is: ALL THE TIME, even the most profound veteran of life, will cede to these questions.

    We have all heard of an infamous aphorism that says you reap what you sow; well that concept does not work in Beirut. What works here is the fastest and fattest commission and my life is set. Regardless of how that commission was achieved, if it got you the right car or accessories, then you are getting it on in Beirut. In fact it has become some sort of trend, as soon as the father of a young lady buys her a car worth around 100k USD then she is bound to get married in the next couple of months or so.

    All the reasons that led to the Great Recession in 2008; like the loose credit for unworthy people and then witnessing moral hazard and then having governments and central banks jump in to hedge Rage Funds.  Well that is a constant occurrence in Beirut!

    So if I want to gauge the behavioral factor of the society in Beirut, it would look like this:

    How often do people create justifications when fully aware that these excuses are used to support an otherwise unjustifiable decision?

    I just got accepted for a house loan that I have to pay in increments for the next 50 years of my life, it is time to get married!

    How often do people rationalize irrational behavior?

    She told me she would love me more if I got her the Givenchy Saddle bag. (Do they even sell that bag in Beirut?)

    How often do people miss out on opportunities because of the fear of what lies ahead?

    I will stick to my current job, even though I get disrespected and bullied, it is better to be secure than take a risk or find myself.

    How often do people pretend they know it all just because they succeeded at a certain task?

    I have always had a GPA of 4, I know everything.

    How often do people let emotions overcome their rationale?

    Even though she flirted with her ex boyfriend and forgot to introduce me as her fiancé, I think it was because she was trying to avoid a quarrel.

    How often do people base a decision on how the vast majority perceives that decision?

    Even though I have to pay my loans, I have to buy that Hermes bracelet.

    How often do people make mistakes, yet refuse to admit their mistakes?

    Even though I made up a story to know what he is up to, his ghosting drove me to do that.

    As you can see, people in Beirut are incredibly irrational; however you should know for a fact the reason behind what makes them this irrational.

    The ladies in Beirut!

    It is the responsibility laid upon a man to provide for his lady and her friends and her family for the rest of his life, even though she might decide not to marry him.

    In addition to that, wage rates in Beirut are so low, it is actually quite shameful, yet a lady in Beirut cannot go out without carrying a designer bag, even if her boyfriend is still an office boy. If God forbid that were to happen, then the guy is severely discarded in society.

    If he is not owned he is not worthy!

    The problem today is that there are some men these days who perceive these women as strong and worthy, so they do accept that humiliation for the sake of not having their public image distorted.

    It is remarkable how often people would not take even the smallest decision and for no valid reason at all!

    You see all that seems very well at the beginning, I mean what harm is actually happening at first. The MAN is paying for the affection of a WOMAN after all. If he is a little bit smart he would understand that she is worth as much as she actually loves and respects him and not what she actually demands from him. Then again maybe it is safer and easier to blend in with the herd behavior.

    The skirt length theory is a superstitious idea that skirt lengths are a predictor of the direction of capital markets, most specifically stocks. According to the theory, if short skirts are growing in popularity, it means that the markets are going up. A positive indicator for sure! In Lebanon I would suggest a new theory the Sweetness Indicator, the more a lady portrays kindness and sweetness the better are her circumstances of providing empathy and kindness to the people around her, and by that finding the right man to whom she should give all her love to.

    Chapter 2:

    The world has always been large enough that some people go missing and small enough that other people have nowhere to hide. The news outlets are always filled with stories of people who are randomly abducted or lost in caves in the wilderness or have just simply disappeared and are never found again. Or they are filled with stories that narrate the lives of people that have such a hard time hiding that their nightmare of persecution carries on for generations.

    Lebanon is no stranger to persecution; enmity is perhaps the innate fundamental characteristic that defines the country.  But every now and then, after immense bleakness the country would experience a very short period of stability and when that happens, Lebanon is the best country to live in.

    And so....Or perhaps maybe once upon a time....

    In a shady city that has known civil unrest since its inception, there was a famous street known for garages that repair cars, in recent years this same street became famous for laid back bars and art galleries. In a narrow alleyway that branched off that famous street was an old train station. The train station was built by the French during the period of the Ottoman Empire; it functioned properly for a couple of decades and then was set up as a rusty monument of what used to be known as a civilized nation. Ever since the Lebanese civil war’s destruction; the train station was turned into a huge dump of old rusty trains and tramways that were still aptly furnished. An ideal place for murder, only there were still government employees that clocked in working hours during the day and were still being paid salaries for doing absolutely nothing.

    An entrepreneur got the most extraordinary idea to turn this dump into an open air nightclub; the DJ was installed inside one of the rusty trains that overlooked a wide junkyard where people sat either at the square bar that was built around the most decorative overhead power line, which was an actual broken steel tower, or they sat at tables made out of round glass tops placed on tires and empty oil barrels painted in dark blue. The train track or what was left of it was kept just as it is; only a small part of the sub grade that was separated by wooden railroad ties was transformed into a see through cave with champagne bottles inside of it, the bottles were laid eloquently on top of each other on one side and strong light projectors that were pointing upwards were installed from the other side. That striking ground fissure that was covered with thick see through glass extended between the tables area and the bar area instead of the actual railway ballast. 

    The best thing about this place was that it opened at 6pm. Early happy hour drinks was boding well with a small group of single women that met at different bars every Friday to blow off some steam and perhaps meet the men of their dreams.

    As soon as Monday would arrive, the small group of four young ladies would wait anxiously for that Friday happy hour, it became more of a ritual after a couple of months and since the train station was the place to be these days, they were practically there every week sipping on their drinks until they laughed their dreadful week off.

    I would love to admit that after a long time of having just my best friend Karim to hang out with, the ladies were a refreshing addition to the list. To finally have a decent group of women that just enjoyed drinking rather than have calculating evenings to get a marriage proposal or perhaps expose a humble brag, is very difficult to

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