From alejandro-insider to be merged into this blog

Wednesday, September 15, 2010Apparently Jay-Z wants to be a boss at the Gooners
Jay-Z determined to call the shots at Arsenal
Sep 14, 2010 11:08 PM | By Staff reporter

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Rapper Jay-Z has again spoken of how much he wants to join the board of Arsenal, his favourite soccer team, and get to make decisions about how the club is run.

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Photograph by: MARIO ANZUONI
Credit: REUTERS
The First Post website reported that Jay-Z was prepared to move to London with pop star wife Beyonce to work with the club.

Earlier this year, the rapper said he'd like to invest in the club, but now he wants a "hands-on" role, the website reported.

"We would have to spend much more time in London. Bey knows how much I love sports and has known about my interest in Arsenal for a while," he said.

"I never want to be a back-seat investor. I want to be on the board, involved in the decision-making. I'm at the stage of my career where I am ready for another investment like this. "

Jay-Z, 40, already has a part share in the New Jersey Nets basketball team and was rumoured to have tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade his friend LeBron James to join the team.


So:

Jay-Z - great rapper. Good businessman. He's a real mensch but he cannot run a footie club. Can anyone?

I got 99 problems but injuries aint one
Hit me

And it's a hard knock life
For Cesc
It's a hard knock life for him
Barca has bet-ta weather
Barca has hot-ter chicks
It's a hard knock life

I love goals
goals
goals
goals
goals i do adore
put my fot to that ball run it alon the ground
long balls are so Liver-fool
Posted by Alistair Anderson at 9:57 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
Wednesday, August 25, 2010Isn't it funny how Mourinho is an authority on the premier league, even though he now works in Spain?
Jose Mourinho is the new authority on British football even though he now manages one of the most media-scrutinised football clubs on Earth, in Spain.

After Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City on Monday, he said the latter could win the league if its players were hungry enough, while the former could be written-off, along with Arsenal, as a potential champion. Well, no way Jose, but your comments are not very profound at all.

Liverpool is quite rubbish because its players have been shown for what they are – rubbish, overall.

Manchester City has to gel rather quickly in football terms. It would be tough for any group of players to click under so much pressure.

Although, Mr Mourinho may already be breaking this adage. Real Madrid has been impressive in its preseason friendlies, considering how many different combinations Jose has used. I predicted a 2 nil win against Penarol and badda bing and what excellent play from Rafael van der Vaart, who had considered leaving the club. Now, he wants to stay and that will only make the Merengues stronger.

I see them taking the La Liga and – maybe the Champions League. They are due a good run in Europe and I actually think they are better than Barcelona, on paper.

Barca is extremely talented but they play like Spain and Spain is beatable if people try to muscle them and attack against them. If nothing else, Real has a better defence than Pep’s boys. One wonders if Bayern Munich will be able to challenge Real come the Champs League semi-final – probably not. Muller may be Germany’s Pelé but Munich is still a bit flimsy at the back.

Check out the sage’s latest comments:

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2010/08/24/2086010/real-madrid-coach-jose-mourinho-claims-liverpool-have-been

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/7963315/Jose-Mourinho-lambasts-Fabio-Capello-and-Liverpool-but-respects-Paul-Scholes.html
Posted by Alistair Anderson at 3:22 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
Tuesday, August 17, 2010Oppikoppi ooky
As Published in Business Day newspaper

The Insider’s colleague remains baffled as to how the Oppikoppi music festival organisers can afford to have four fancy stages with world-class music equipment and lighting facilities and host a few international music acts to boot and still not afford more than 40-odd toilets and showers for 7000-odd people.

It may have been the way of the festival which ran over the Women’s day weekend not to wash for the three days for which the event runs and do ones business in bushes, warning passers-by of your debris by putting bits of toilet paper in trees above it but sometimes el naturale just feels too barbaric. If for nothing else, a bit more hygiene would make romantic kisses and other pleasantries with drunk people you have never met and never want to see again more bearable, especially when sweating in 30 degree temperatures with the body heat of hundreds of Valiant Swart fans crowding you.
Posted by Alistair Anderson at 12:16 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
Tuesday, July 20, 2010Sharenet releases controversial security
Alistair Anderson, courtesy of Business Day newspaper

Contributing Writer

Online market information and service provider, Sharenet has established a Contract For Difference (CFD) offering, it announced on Friday.

Some investors have been reluctant to buy CFDs worldwide in the past because of the number of risks associated with them and the ease with which people can lose their money invested in them due to those risks. They have been banned in the US because of these dangers.

However, Sharenet believed its CFD service was a good option for potential investors.

"We can proudly say that SharenetCFDs is the premier choice. Not only is it built onSharenet’s ethos and foundations of transparency, customer service and IT excellence, but (it) also capitalises on international expertise, partnering with IG Markets in the UK," Sharenet said.

A CFD is an agreement between a buyer and a seller stipulating that the seller will pay the buyer the difference between the current value of a stock and its value when the contract is made.

If the difference turns out to be negative, the buyer pays the seller. The purpose of a CFD is to allow investors to speculate on the movement of the price of the underlying stock without having to own the shares.

The company Strate is a Central Securities Depository which provides clearing, settlement and depository services for securities that facilitate the management of risk and the realisation of value for investors in SA.

People have chosen CFDs over stock options because of how simple their pricing system has been and because of their range of underlying instruments. For example, option pricing incorporates the time premium that decays as it nears expiration.

CFDs only reflect the price of the underlying security. Because they do not have an expiration date, there is no premium to decay.

The main risk of the financial instrument is that the other party in the contract would unable to meet the obligation.

Investors use a margin system to trade CFDs. This means that if the value of the portfolio falls below the minimum level, an investor is subject to a margin call.

When a person buys on margin, they take out a partial loan from a broker to cover a larger investment, a CFD, for example, than they could normally afford to cover. A margin call then occurs when the amount of actual capital the investor has falls below a set percentage of the total investment or CFD.

Profit and loss on CFD trades take place when an investor executes a closing trade.

Because CFDs can employ a high degree of leverage, investors can lose money quickly should the price of the underlying security move in the undesired direction.

Sharenet said its CFD service would not involve a securities tax or Strate fees.

CFDs have also been criticised in the past for the volatile nature.

Sasha Naryshkine of Vestact Management said his feelings against leverage-based investments were not changed by CFDs.

“I’m not a fan of CFDs. Professionals have got them horribly wrong before and now we are expecting ordinary people to manage them too. The problem is that there value is very volatile,” he said.
Posted by Alistair Anderson at 2:40 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
Monday, July 19, 2010Shiny Happy People
Forbes.com has released lists of countries where the happiest people in the world live but South Africa has made a poor showing on them.

On Forbes’ European sub-list, interestingly people resident in the losers of the Fifa Soccer World Cup Final, the Netherlands were rated to be happier than those living in the winning country, Spain.

Forbes said that the levels of happiness were to do with how wealthy people were, on average, in each country. Surprise, surprise then that the five happiest countries in the world—Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands--are all clustered in the same region.

The research was done by the Gallup World Poll, where thousands of respondents in 155 countries, between 2005 and 2009, were surveyed, in order to measure two kinds of well-being.

Subjects were asked to reflect on their overall satisfaction with their lives, and rank their answers using a "life evaluation" score between one and ten. Then they were asked about how they had felt the previous day.

Whether or not Forbes is trying to tell us that we should think more highly of Scandinavian people and other tall, blonde-haired folks, is debatable, either way, the Insider would like to know why South Africa wasn’t even on the top three African countries list.

Malawi was first Libya, second and Botswana, third. In terms of size of Gross Domestic Product, these three countries do not even rival Johannesburg. Perhaps South Africans are just pessimistic.
Posted by Alistair Anderson at 1:45 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
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