Blog Archive: June 2024

Spot Gold (Tokenized) vs. Buying Gold Jewelry in Tbilisi

27 June, 2024 | Living in Georgia | 49 seen

Today, I spent a delightful afternoon with my 5-year-old daughter at a shopping mall in Tbilisi. Our mission was to find the perfect gold necklace, bracelet, or earrings as birthday gift to my partner. After browsing through various options, we ended up purchasing a beautiful gold ring. As a seasoned investor in tokenized gold (PAXG), I found it interesting to compare the prices of real gold versus gold in jewelry.

When it comes to gold jewelry, it's essential to understand the differences in gold purity and how it affects pricing. For example, 14K gold contains 58.5% pure gold, while 18K gold has 75% pure gold. Another term I encountered today was "Russian gold," which is related to 585 gold or pink gold, known for its unique hue.

The gold ring I bought today cost GEL 802 (USD 284) and contained 1.91 grams of gold. With the current gold price at $74.12 per gram, the gold content in the ring is valued at $141.56. This means I paid about twice the intrinsic value of the gold itself. Surprisingly, this isn't as high as some might expect when buying jewelry, which can sometimes carry markups as high as 10 times the gold's market value.

Gold Jewelry: An…

Jal Mahal / Water Palace near Jaipur

20 June, 2024 | Tourism objects | 124 seen

Jal Mahal (meaning "Water Palace") is a palace in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake in Jaipur city, the capital of the state of Rajasthan, India. The palace was originally constructed around 1699; the building and the lake around it were later renovated and enlarged in the early 18th century by Maharaja Jai Singh II of Amber.

I had a brief chance to visit and see this place from a distance during our about 3 week trip to India at the end of 2023. We arrived here in the afternoon from the Amber fort. 

The Jal Mahal Palace is an architectural showcase of the Rajput style of architecture (common in Rajasthan) on a grand scale. 

The building has a picturesque view of Man Sagar Lake, but owing to its seclusion from land is equally the focus of a viewpoint from the Man Sagar Dam on the eastern side of the lake in front of the backdrop of the surrounding Nahargarh ("tiger-abode") hills. The palace, built with local sandstone, is a three-storied building, with the third floor only existing on the eastern side of the palace. The eastern side is not visible from the road side public promenade, which is the Western side of the palace. 

The additional…

My Experience with Fundraising on LinkedIn: Part 1

13 June, 2024 | Doing Business | 32 seen

As the CEO and Founder of Terramatris, a crypto hedge fund, I've always been keen on leveraging social media to share updates and engage with potential investors. Over the past few months, I've been actively posting updates about Terramatris on LinkedIn. 

To my pleasant surprise, my followership has started to grow, reaching a little more than 200 followers. With this growing audience, I decided it was time to reach out to my connections and explore potential fundraising opportunities for our fund.

I crafted a simple yet compelling letter with the help of ChatGPT. In this letter, I highlighted our impressive performance, boasting a 540% Year-To-Date (YTD) growth. The message was clear and straightforward: Is there a way we could grow together?

Over the last two weeks, I embarked on a series of Google Meet calls with some of my LinkedIn acquaintances. My goal was twofold: to learn more about their businesses and to raise funds for our quantum fund. The experience was nothing short of fascinating. I interacted with a diverse group of individuals, including French inventors, Spanish anarchists, Russian capitalists, and even Indian quant traders.…

Exploring Real Estate Prices in Riga Compared to Gold: A 2007 vs. 2023 Analysis

11 June, 2024 | Real Estate | 30 seen

A few days ago, I stumbled upon an article or perhaps a meme on Facebook that suggested the same amount of gold from 100 years ago could buy you real estate today. Intrigued by this claim, I decided to explore further and compare real estate prices in my native Riga to spot gold prices. My findings, particularly when comparing 2007 with 2023, are quite interesting.

Let's start with some basic data:

In October 2023, the average price of standard apartments in Riga was 852 euros per square meter. This price is 47% lower than on July 1, 2007, when the average price of an unrenovated standard apartment reached an all-time high of 1620 euros per square meter.

To delve deeper, I conducted some simple calculations to compare the cost of purchasing a 50m² apartment in Riga back in 2007 with the price of spot gold at that time. On July 1, 2007, the spot gold price was 501 euros per ounce.

To buy a 50m² apartment in 2007, we would need approximately 81,000 euros (50m² * 1620 euros/m²). With 81,000 euros, one could purchase around 161.68 ounces of spot gold (81,000 euros / 501 euros per ounce).

Following the analogy mentioned earlier, if the theory holds true…

May 2024 Stock Portfolio Update ($8,907)

6 June, 2024 | Stock Portfolio | 44 seen

At the end of May 2024, the total value of our stock portfolio was USD 8,907 (EUR 8,205). While this represents a slight decrease from the previous month, it is an essential part of our journey towards long-term growth and financial stability. 

Last month, our portfolios decreased by -155.48 EUR (-1.86%). This drop was primarily due to my mismanagement of trading options on micro gold futures.

The decrease in our portfolio was a direct result of trading options on micro gold futures. Options on these futures are not very liquid, and when one of our options strikes was in the money, I was unable to adjust by rolling forward. 

This led to an avoidable loss of around USD 300. The key takeaway from this experience is to avoid trading options in illiquid markets. If you are interested in a more detailed account, you can read my longer article here: [Why I Stopped Selling Put Options on Micro Gold Futures (MGC)].

One of my short-term goals is to grow our portfolio to USD 10,000. With USD 1,100 to go, I believe this target…