Flankseven VLCC market commentary

More fixtures...

And I mean more fixtures.

Today's Platou fixtures showing another 12 VLCC fixtures ex-AG, bringing the WTD total to 40 (on a Fri-through-Thurs week basis). Clearly, another heavy week for fixtures and bringing the April program up to 80 completed to date. Based upon normal returns to the availability pool, the number of available VLs over the next 30 days is probably dropping into the high-teens. Historical relationships would suggest another $15k/day increase in TCE rates this week, or WS120 by the end of week. Average rates are nudging over WS100, but a casual glance at the fixture sheets suggest a more measured trend...

Full article available on link.

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Bob Parsons' 16 rules for survival

I was surfing around this morning and happened upon Bob Parsons' blog on godaddy.com. It's a list of the 16 rules he lives by. It's not directly related to tanker investments, but for some reason, it struck a positive chord with me. It's reprinted with expressed permission, and credit given at the bottom of the excerpt.

Hopefully some of you might find them interesting as well.

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1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think. There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what the Union Civil War general, Tecumseh Sherman said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time.”

The above article (or rules for survival) is included with the permission of Bob Parsons (http://www.bobparsons.com) and is Copyright 2005 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.

Driving your portfolio

John love_learn's getting mighty popular on this site:

"I'd characterize the change as short-term expectancy rather than hypocrisy. They dated and slept with both Miss or Mr. 50 & 49 yesterday (depending on investor preference) and now that experience is just a fond memory. Contested wills between marginal buyers and marginal sellers met on the NYSE after a pretty stable day's trading on the Oslo exchange. Then during the brief time both exchanges were simultaneously open, American market players responded to what seemed, from their perspective, to be a notch up price increase from their previous day's trading."

Entire article:

Yahoo! FRO

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