On May 6th 2010 the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1000 points intraday and magically “recovered” to end the day 348 points down. The Massive drop was blamed on a trader that placed a SELL order of “Billion” instead of “Million”. The theory goes that once this sell order happened the Triggers that are setup to Sell on Exchange Trading software kicked in. This started the 1 Hour freefall. Kinda like a Domino effect.

Obviously the Market was in freefall, but who or what kicked in to break the fall and lift the market back up by the end of day. Robert Kiyosaki has his theory over at Conspiracy of the Rich, which speaks about “The Plunge Protection Team”.

JohnA over at Current.com voices this opinion:

“Trader error”, it was a “glitch”, BULLSHIT! Your telling me I can buy a stock for a penny that 15 minutes ago was worth $40 and 20 minutes from now it will be worth $39, and that is a “glitch”. Bull Shit. They hit P&G, a Dow component, so the Dow Jones goes down, so goes the S&P, so every other stock goes down, then the trade triggers kick in, the computers take over, and late enough in the trading day so all the market circuit breakers are turned off, and it’s a “glitch”? Bull. Someone made a shitload of money today, more money in thirty minutes than most of us will ever see in a lifetime. The House Finance Commitee is already calling hearings and the NASDAQ is canceling trades. Heads will roll over this, as well they should. But those that lost their money will never get it back. All in one day. “

Some pertinent questions need to be asked:

- How can someone(Plunge Proctection) so easily regulate the Stock Market, considering that we are made to believe that the Market is driven by the exchange of stock.

- Will the JSE remain unaffected by a US Market crash, and how are we preparing for it?

- What does this kind of volatility mean for the global outlook of the financial markets, and is it time to move your paper assets to physical commodities like gold?

One thing I do know for sure. There are many people who will lose vast sums of money, and a few that will make amazing wealth.

-A-

On the 21st of March I got Married! It was EPIC beyond all proportions. I think the only day that could surpass it is when I become a Dad one day (just had a weird thought that my kids might read this one day… ).

We held the Nikkah in Grassy Park and then went for the obligatory photo sessions at Rhodes Memorial, Camps Bay and Claremont Gardens.
The Reception was held in the Bo-Kaap Kombuis restaurant in Bo-kaap (obviously) just before sunset. As the sun set and the city lights sparkled we lit the table candles as we did the speeches.
I could go on and on but the pictures below say it all!

All dressed and ready to leave mums house

My Bride and her Bridesmaids

Camps Bay

On the beach in a Suit, wont happen anytime soon...

The EPIC Beach Photo

Someone asked me to explain what it felt like to be Married. I was speechless for a bit and then said “We were driving in our car the day after the wedding and thought how we were the same two people in the same car but yet something had changed, something unexplainable. My best attempt to put it into words would be to say that it feels like a heightened sense of commitment to the person you love”
Till my next post,
A Happily Married, Aslam

With Blogging and Micro-blogging the “new frontier” on the web we start to find that people are searching for content specific to theirs needs. My position as the eMarketing Coordinator at Cape Town Tourism should be a good foundation to show the work being done in the Tourism as they look to extend themselves onto ePlatforms.

The Official Cape Town Tourism Website at www.capetown.travel was designed with interaction with the consumer in mind. I will elaborate more on how our site and blog aims to bridge our entry onto rich media web platforms in up coming posts.

My challenge with Tourism is how to make locals feel that the term “Tourism” does not exclude them while at the same positioning Cape Town as a Premier Long Haul Destination to our Key Target Markets. Cape Town Tourism has 20 Visitor Information Centres scattered all over Cape Town. With so much free information on offer, how is it that locals don’t know about this, and how can the ePlatform create the required awareness?

As this is my first post, I feel that I’ve got some people to thank that got me to this point.
Number 1 of course, my girlfriend Suzanne, my source of motivation and inspiration.
Friends, collegues and Family. Far to many to mention them all but Thurston deserves a special Thank you.
Then, all the guys on my social networks for pioneering the path I’m following, your work impresses me.
Charl Norman, this site wouldn’t be here without you – Thanks

So with all formalities over, let’s get this up and running! YEAH!!

-A-