All - been monitoring some other dinar sites out there...things are a bit quiet in here. But I thought I'd report that some folks are feeling like we're getting close to the end of this thing. Maybe in the next week or two.
He is a Bible Prophecy expert. In this youtube video he discusses what the Bible says about Iraq in the last days. And according to Joel Rosenberg in this video, the Bible says Iraq will be one of the richest nations on earth in the last days, if not the richest. Check it out...it begins talking about Iraq at about the 4:10 minute mark.
I have not seen any enemy activity for a long time, it seems like the Iraqis are way past that point now.
Like the old Nazi empire, there are still a hardcore click in existence. Very small groups, and they do damage, mostly by killing insdiscrimitely.
They really don't create any followers for their cause that way.
Any organized insurgency is done and over with now.
The Iraqis here are slowly starting to get jobs, and are earning money now, still there is a lot of jobs needed, but they seem to move along now.
Traffic have increased quite a bit in the time I have been here. At first the convoys was the only thing on the roads, now, even if we drive at night only, we see busses, civilian trucks, pu trucks full of grown vegetables, people walking on the side of the road, ligths starting to come up everywhere....including Sattelite TV.
Doesn't matter if it is a mudhut, or they have built a shack right on the city garbage dump, you will se a generator humming, and a sattelite on the roof top.
That is in itself a very good sign, if changes are to take place, it has to be by information coming in from the outside.
If it is good or bad programming doesn't really matter, they see new cars, orderly societies, clean clothes, and new technology.
They see viewpoints that are different from their tribes culture, and a life that functions well beyond their own cultural bubble.
Change will probably not come in one sweeping revolution, but it seems though that it goes in waves here.
Perhaps the similarities would transform more to the evolution we ourselves have had in the past.
The way people was thinking in the 30's ultimately lead up to a very big revolution, or better say a war,starting in the last days of the 30's to set things right.
The racial things we did up until the mid 50's and early 60's was terrible things, but hey, that was the way we were acting and thinking, and at the time it seemed very normal.
The 60's era, all the good and all the bad together changed us pretty much, ...it was, for good and bad, a sexual revolution, and cultural up heaval both in art and culture....
Plateau shoes and disco was the hot deal in the -70's. For many the -70's seems like a dead end.
Anyhow, you got the idea, no need to go into too much detail, but the point is the changes we have all experienced, when many rights now were wrongs then, and many wrongs then are right now.
I can feel being here, experienced Iraq for a while, that one big era have passed, the consensus is that many of the things they did in the past, is now just plain wrong.
You could tell when the Beatles was over, it was an era, and after that it was just that...over.
Would The Beatles come today, the way they did back then, they would probably not make it to such a big stardom as they did back then. They would still be good, but there is a time for everything, they came at the right time, for them, but as I said....it's over.
That particular, end of an era, have come and gone here.
The political scene have grown from the very first election, where most of the voting was based on religious affiliation.
Now most religious affiliated political movements are seen upon with deep suspicion, it brought the people so much slaughter and mayhem when they were operating with big powers.
The political awareness have now gravitated very much into ( as predicted) the classical left/right that all known democraties are operating under.
It has changed from the early days of democracy here. The religious factions that had an immediate success here, was shooting themselves in the foot ...big time.
The era of strong religious political factions are gone.
Iraq changes the whole time, and it is easy sitting an ocean away and think that this place is exactly as described five, three or even one year ago, it isn't.
America two years ago, had another outlook, another priorities, and another set of problems than it has now.
The same social dynamic that starts and end eras in the US, or anywhere else in the world, is also hard at work here in Iraq.
Hi dinar train gangand Roger in iraq,good to here from you roger,and please keep us informed on what is going on there in the sand box.MAY GOD BLESS US ALL AND IRAQ.
The clamour has been growing in the Gulf in recent months for increased regulation to be applied to Gulf stock exchanges in a bid to attract more retail and institutional investors, who it is claimed are often put off by the current extreme volatility and are in fact vital players for the long-term sustainability of the regional markets – and as such, need to be protect from often ultra-local factors.
(www.noozz.com)
Hi
I have been reading the posts for a while on this page and first off, to Dean, I know a large group of ultra conservatives who have their retirement tied up in Dinar who think that the dinar RV is going to determine the coming of the Apocolypse. This is to the point that they think it is terrible that I am so young and am destined to die before my thirtieth birthday so avoid the people who buy into that theory too much because they are terribly depressing to be around.
Also, I am not a dealer, so do not worry David but we have a lot of people that do extensive research concerning the dinar and things are looking good for the next couple of weeks for the RV. The sanctions have been lifted from Iraq as we know and Iraq turned down the loan money from the IMF which is a good sign also. The oil contracts are in the works which is a vital part of the need for the RV.
I have dinar and I know a lot of people who have invested way too much into such an insecure investment and they have been waiting for the RV for 6 years. For those who have invested in the last twelve months can you imaging the emotional rollercoaster of the waiting game continuing for 6 years? I would like to offer a suggestion for some feedback. It is going to cost Iraq a fortune to RV their currency considering the inflation rates, so what are the odds of them choosing to demonitize rather than RV? Just curious.
This is from today; hang on to you're hats.
__________________________________________________________
An official in the Central Bank of Iraq
That the lifting of the zeroes of the Iraqi currency printed depends on the new currency soon to be issued in both Arabic and Kurdish.
The source added to the reporter (and the Iraqi News Agency Information / INA) that there are other reasons prevented the lifting of the zeroes of the associated logistics, including the public and we must carry out education in addition to that there is an urgent need for some legal and legislative frameworks that protect citizens from fraud and loss of rights because of fluctuating exchange rates.
The source noted that there is a constitutional rule provides for the printing of new currency in both Arabic and Kurdish.
New currency will leave all of us hoping for the stars with nothing but dust. As long as they are not gradually strenghtening their currency we will not get our fortune we dreamed. Can't make it any simpler, I cringe every time I hear RV or zero lopping. That does nothing for this 6 year adventure except finally make me move on if and when it does happen. Frack
The article I posted a few days ago concerning the lifing of zeros and the several comments by the Iraqi's relating to this may be a ploy in order to shake investors and retrieve as much of the outstanding monetary units as possible.
With de-dollarization underway the retrieval of outstanding monetary units will reduce the number of units foreign circulation.
I am not convinced a three zero lop is warranted much less beneficial to the Iraqi's. The amount of currency in circulation is high; this is the current method employed to stem that number.
In my view, I am holding all the way to the end. If this ends with a three zero lop I am glad I got to play the game.
There are two possible scenarios that I see to be likely -
The first is a lop, with a resettling of the value of the dinar at $3+ per dinar. That would mean that 1M Dinar would be worth 1K Dinar, but the exchange rate after the lop would be something like $3.42/dinar. To clarify that by rounding off some numbers (this will be somewhat crude), let's say you bought 1M Dinar for $1,000. After the lop, and resettling at $3.42, your dinar would be worth $3420. Not a bad return on your investment.
The second is that the rv will set the value of the dinar at $3+, but with no lop when exchanging dinar for $. That is the scenario we're all hoping for, where a million dinar is now suddenly worth $3+ million.
There is evidence, precedence, and valid argument for either scenario (not to mention others). Whichever scenario pans out, so many indicators seem to show that we will find out very soon. Perhaps before Ramadan.
It would not surprise me if the news reports one thing and then the opposite happens.
It might be in their best interest to make investors dump Dinar and then do a big up value.
I don't think there is a very big chance it will go this way either !
There are many ways this could play out and I bet when it happens it is a surprise.
Every year for the past 3 or 4 years we have heard from an Official from the Central Bank telling us they are going to lop off 3 zeroes
This is a Official form what department of the CBI? the cleaners, tea makers
When it is all over the CBI site then it is the real deal, until then it is so much BS
I think Iraq with the RV have got themselves into a catch 22 situation
They should have RVd a few years ago, but now they will have to RV big, if they RV small then the likes of George Soros and the rest will be in there buying dinars up by the boat load
So Im going for a good RV rate, before the big money men step into the game, it will be better for Iraq this way, or they are screwed if they RV small
There is a buzz around for the begining of Ramadan, that there will be a, Geopolitical Statement, it would be a good time for some good news
The sound of this silence is not golden - it's shameful.
The reason for the silence is that there were just a few knuckleheads who couldn't handle people being people, who didn't like people talking about things that people talk about (like religion, politics, life circumstances and happenings) along with and in context with the dinar. That minority of people complained. Loudly. And they won because apparently it's better to be PC than it is to be human. Sarah's gone. Carl is gone. Carole is gone. And all the rest. So many people who were committed to sharing their information, insight, and yes, their lives with each other were pushed out in the name of being topical and inoffensive. This is a perfect object lesson in the consequence of politically correct speech: Blandness and conformity to the point of irrelevance.
And the conversation died.
Shame on us for being bullied into obsolescence. Likewise the site admin who should have had a spine and protected and encouraged the freedom we once had here. In the big scheme of things, Truck and Barter doesn't matter. But it's an indicator. This same freedom is being usurped from Americans in small ways just like this. In the aggregate, it does matter. A lot.
I have contributed very little to this blog but I have been a participant since its beginning some
four or five years ago. It was a nightly ritual with me to come down to my office in the basement
at 9:00 P.M., where I had a refrigerator with ice maker, mountain dew and a bottle of vodka and have a couple of drinks and read truck and barter.
I have found this site to be educational and entertaining along with the good information about the dinar. Sometimes the cut and paste posts were a little boring to me but I am sure that many others enjoyed them so I would just scan past something that I did not find interesting to me but overall this blog has meant a great deal to me and it hurts me deeply to see it decline the point that it is currently.
If Sara would come back, I believe that many of the old timers would come back too so Sara I am putting the entire burden and responsibility for the future of the T&B on your capable shoulders so please don't let us down. Come on back and lets revive this site. NEIL
David-
Get a grip, if you are gonna piggy back on somebodies comments then leave them in text. The silence is golden because it shows all of the soap box preachers about the Dinar is doomed never happened. The Dinar is revaluating tomorrow at noon. The only relevant posts were the cut and pastes that you are complaining about. I don't want somebodies (dinar hit the jack pot view point) which we all have and have had for 5-6 years, when there is a news article out there that somebody copied and pasted. The useless religious post were where most followers stop posting. Sounds like you need some drama in your life and now T&B isn't the place for you. Try Face book and take Neil with you.
Well guys Its nice to know everyone has not given up on this site and as you Neil, with my beer I would sift thru and read what I liked. Been here also since the beginning when I was across the pond. I miss all the GOOD reads and Sara and Carol gave me a better outlook with my difficulties at that time. Heck Roger seems to have given up as well. So if by chance you all are lurking in the background give a hello to us who miss you and do care. David I could not of said it better. Its like were the sheep being led to slaughter. I pray daily that all this will somehow get better......Franko
With all the action being about Afghanistan it makes a person wonder what is stopping the Dinar from moving. It ceratinly isn't the strong dollar (It is about as weak as it ever has been). Contractors are present in Iraq, News is down about Iraq, Oil is pumping in Iraq, People are moving about in Iraq. Now maybe no positive news but certainly not much bad news either. So gang what is stopping the Dinar from gradually increasing in value?
With the rumors floating around about the lopping off of zeros on the dinar and the possibility of new money being isssued and the old money being exchanged for it, does anyone have any information as to the procedure to be followed in the event that we are compelled to trade in or cash in our dinars?
Several times, members of this blog have alluded to Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank exchanging dinars for dollars just like they would any other foreign currency but could not say positively that
these banks would make exchanges. We could be hit with a short-fused timetable to do something with
our dinars so if anyone has any information on this, please pass it on.
Chris used to give us a weekly posting of the dinar value against the dollar but I have not seen any info on that lately.
This is why a lot of people have an account with an Iraqi bank most with Al Warka Bank for Investment
If it all goes tits up here we can post the dinars, the large denominations that is to your bank in Iraq, = no probs
And as it only takes one Email to open an account, I fail to understand why people are so reluctant to open an account there
Once you have your account number, if you do not fund the account in six months it is binned, so you just send another Email to get a new account number
And Warka is bringing into service another Credit Card this month I think, to take over from their old card
Not sending a run signal, but if a person opens a Warka account what are the legal ramifications from the IRS? With the recent news on Swiss accounts in the UBS bank, this is money(albeit not US Dollars) but the money belongs to a US Citizen. Put one and one together and you have reportable income?
I admit I'm one of those people afraid to open an account, I have been to the Warka home page but never followed through. I'm sitting on 8.5 M of Dinars which I feeling may not be the worst but maybe it isn't the best idea to sit on it.
Ramadan is here and the Iraqis are suddenly a holy bunch, and their warrior instincts are always increasing together with their religious fever during this month.
Traditionally things that blows up, or flies in the air with lead contens, have a tendency to increase in these holy month.
This year, no exception, our group of drivers doing convoy have experienced two IED,s so far, and I can count a couple of more bullet holes in the trucks now.
When the rain season kicks in, they don't seem to be too much of an agressor.
The downside is that this country turns into a mudhole then.
Last rainseason there was not much of rain, and Iraq are experiencing a drought right now.
From what I understand the UN are now contemplating to lift all the remaining sanctions on Iraq.
There is an ever growing Iraqi account held until all the sanctions are completely lifted. The account is with reference to the oil for food program that have been held in escrow, and is now up to the astonishing ammount of 180 billion Dollars, .....thats with a B.
An injection of 180 Billion Dollars into Iraq will effectively put everything into a new perspective.
A country full of oil, debt free, and 180 Billions handed over to them....
Do a little bit of research yourself into this, and put a couple of dots together and you will see what picture I am painting.
For my own personal status here in Iraq, well I am tired, but are dragging along. We do 12 hours workdays 7 days a week, and after a while you sink into a completely different reality bubble.
One thing I have really learned by being here, is except from anything new about Iraq, our own government is waisting in any and all activity they are involved into.
Any action, movememt, planning and execution of any plan whatsoever, could be done more effective and economical if a sane person would run the operation.
It's not that there are a bunch of insane persons here, but all of us have to work in a tightly regulated pattern governed by govermental rules and regulations, and when they are to be executed, they almost never apply to the actual situation at hand, but they have to be followed with an ironfist....or else.
Kids can steal whatever they want from trucks, because ( for all the good reasons) there is a rule that you can not go outside of your truck.
Kids continue to steal, and steal and steal from trucks as they slowdown or have to stop, and no counter measures have ever been discussed or implemented, eventually this thing might get adressed a year or so in the future, and bog down in a meeting somewhere, and the issue gets dropped.
In the meanwhile they continue to steal and steal.
If all the chains, sparetires, straps and fire extinguishers are added up in a costsheet, that would probably run into very high numbers. Numbers that a private company would never accept as a loss, but the government have to consider things like our nations relationship with Iraq, and so on....so a simple solution to shoot rocksalt in the ass of the kids, and permanently handle the problem, will not even get to the level of thought.
A convoy takes a coule of hours to prepare, the papers are overwhelming, the steps to do it is a very orcestrated and strict routine, where all trucks have their given spot.
Military shows up and then the convoy and guntrucks are mixed in a certain way for best protection.
We can go through all the steps, and roll to the gate of the base, for the final ok to go. The high command might at that point decide to call it off, because there might be a certain level of dust in the air somewhere along the route, that is exceeding some standard, and we all go back and line up in staging lanes again, and wait for hours, for an eventual ok.
If the ok doesnt come until a certain time, the convoy is cancelled until next day, and we all shut down what we have and go back to the yard where our office is, at that time we still might have 3 hours left on our shift, so they don't send us home, but we have to sit out those hours in the yard.
We have to follow protocol.
This is the way things work, very cumbersome, no logic, rules, rules and rules.
If A happens then you must do B, even if B is not the best for the situation at hand.
What my worries are right now, is not so much Iraq, but the way the US is heading right now.
This cumbersome unyealding blob, called the government is like a dead whale that is decomposing on the floor, covering more and more of the floor as it rots away, until it completely covers every aspect of our life.
I am not against government, but when it takes on a life of it's own, and the people that put it there, are losing control over the ever increasing decomposing blob, tthen we have got something we don't want.
We can't use our own forest, because the forest service have bars over all the roads leading int it, in order to protect the forest from the people that owns the forest.
We are starting to get a cop in every corner, if we cant get to a WalMart from where you live without seing at least two or three cop cars...then it's something wrong.
Rights are stipped away in slices.
I think Benjamin Franklin said it best. I dont remeber the exact wquote, but his meaning when he said it was crystal clear.
It went to that effect that, if a country sacrifices some of it's freedom, in order to get a temporary security, that country will lose both.
If you're sitting on 8.5 mil and have it an a drawer, safetybox, or underneath you mattres, well it is not hard at all ot open up an account. I would do it if I were you, I have all my Dinar holdings in an Iraqi business bank now.
When it comes to IRS, yes when you get your money back, the portion you have earned interest on, or profit on, is taxable.
I would say it like this...first, make the money, and then worry about IRS.
Dont put off your investment for the fear of IRS.
It's better to have a profit, and a finacial gain, and the worry with IRS, than it is to not have any gain at all.
8.5 mil IQD's, is maybe not the biggest investment on this earth, but it is a pretty substantial sum anyway, so I would do the Warka Bank routine.
8.5 Mill IQD,s should have a Dollar value around 7000 Yankee bucks.
If you put the monay in Iraq, and they change the face value, (dropping off a couple of zeros, from the face of the currency) then it doesnt matter, you still have the value of 7000 Dollars, nomatter what the Iraqis now consider that they should value their currency in.
If they call it 850.000 Dinars, 85.000 Dinars, or 8500 Dinars, or even if they call it 10.000 railroad spikes, you still have your initial 7000 Dollar value there.
The interest you can earn is very interesting, right now it is around 7% in a savings account, far far better than you can get in any US bank.
You can also, if you decide to not touch any of the money for a while, put everything into a CD, and get even more interest. Also Warka bank is a Broker on the ISX (Iraqi Stock Exchange), and you can instruct the bank to buy or sell stocks on the Iraqi stock market.
Me I have around 10 mil in a savings account, and about 30 mil in Iraqi company stocks.
Stocks here rallied about this time last year, but during the whole last summer they pretty much traded sideways, and didn't move that much, but when the surge happened, the value of the stocks went up roughtly 2.5 -3 times.
There is a lot more movemet to anticipate in the Iraqi stock market, once the confusion is over after they recently started to trade electronically.
Again, put your money in an account, here (in Iraq), and let the money work for you, they don't do nothing for you sitting in a drawer back home.
Have a consultation with a good accountant, there is also a lot of companies that are willing to set you up with a complete offshore business solution.
There are many ways to go, and again, don't worry about the IRS, until you have made some money in the first place.
Do that first, e-mail Warka bank,(there are other banks, here in Iraq, and you are of course welcome to use anyone of your choosing, but I used Warka, and I am pleased with them) and they will send you a premade, form letter telling you step by step how to go about doing this, it's easy once you get rolling.
Here's my 2 pence worth. Like Roger and Steve, I opened a Warka account (pair of accounts - (1) USD, (2) NID) about 2 years ago. I have been happy with the service. The main reason I opened it was so that in the event of an RV (not a lop) I wouldn't have to walk into a bank with a load of notes, stand at the cashier, or sit at the desk with a manager while the public listens in on my business. Banks in the UK seem to have done away with private rooms. The other reason was that if they changed the currency (there was talk of a unified Gulf currency a while back), or the denominations, I wouldn't be in a panic wondering where I could get them exchanged safely. Sitting in the bank my original 10M dinars have increased to over 11M. This is because the bank's interest rate was 11%. That's a whole 1M IQD at no extra cost to me!!! So, even though the exchange rate hasn't moved since last year (I think someone had mentioned), my investment went up in value and I still made money - and it's real! I am holding some physical notes, but am seriously contemplating sending them over because (1) I can make more money (even though I haven't ventured into the ISX) and (2) In the event they lop off some zeros and change the notes.
I don't worry too much about tax issues yet. I am prepared to pay whatever I have to when the time comes. Paying tax won't stop me from trying to make a better future for myself.
One thing I do wonder about is what is taxed. If the exchange rate goes in our favour, I will still hold the same number of IQDs, but if I draw them out then that is profit. Until then only the interest earned would be taxable I think (even after an RV), because the money is still in the native currency. I am just speculating here. Can anyone with tax or accounting experience shed some light on this?
BritishKnite: I wish you would expound a little on your statement about exchanging Dinars at Bank in England. Do you know for a fact that there is a bank that will take your dinars and give you local currency for them or were you just citing the problems you might encounter if a bank would exchange them for you.
It appears that there is no bank anywhere in the U.S. that will exchange dinars for dollars.
I am becoming skeptical of the American banking system and many times more scared of the Iraqi banking system as I have very little confidence in their ability to do much of anything right or on a timely basis. I think right now money is safe in the Iraqi banks but if things get tight and the pushing and shoving starts, then it is anyone's guess as to what will happen.
My luck would be that I would send a bagful of dinars to some bank overthere and some upright employee would get the dinars and abscond with them and I would never even get a reply.
I have been screwed out of so much money by some smooth talking bastard who was going to make me rich that I am somewhat leery of trusting anyone. NEIL
In the UK the Halifax Bank duz sell and buy Iraqi dinars
Have a look around Warka's bank site on, http://www.warka-bank.com/news.php
Use the list on the left to check out Warka's charges and fee's
If you do send cash to Warka, Mr I and two other members of Warka staff are there when your packet is opened, where it is counted by hand and then by machine, then credeted to your account
I have only heard of a few people who lost their dinars in the post, and then it seems the Fedex workers were haveing it away on their toes with the dinars, as there was so many packets addressed to the Warka Bank in Baghdad
I would not send cash myself unless it was the only way to go under certain conditions
Sell your dinars on Ebay at a bargain price, don't worry about selling them for less than you paid for them, as when your $ dollar reach your Warka account you transfer them into your IDQ account you will get the CBI exchange rate, and a lot of people have then made more dinars than they had under the bed at home
Tip, When you go to wire your funds to your Iraq account put a message at the bottem for them to leave only the min in the $US account and put the rest into the IQD account, better rate of interest in the IQD account, and don't forget to put your Warka account number on as well
I opened my Warka account a year ago or maybe more, when the news was of the ISX going electronic, (it dident)any road up, I got into the ISX when the share prices were bumping along the bottom
So all the comps I have, have all made me money, the best one was the 2,000,000 shares I have in Warka they gave free shares to the tune of 47.5 % very nearly a mill free, Babylon Hotel is another good one I have, got to buy 50% of what I was holding for only one IQD each and as the are about 28 IQDs each, I was all over that like white on rice, that will do nicly
He who dares wins rodney, as Del boy would say
I am useing the ISX and cash dinar as my pension fund as my company pension is going to be worth the thin end of naff all
Hi, Roger here, no you don't put the money in a bag or envelope, and send it over.
It can be done, and some have done it, but as you say, some envelopes have dissapeared, so don't go that way.
When you ask the Warka bank to open up an account, you will get instructions how to wire the money. And what they need from you, in order to identify yourself.
If you are sitting on Dinars, you need to convert them into Dollars, send the Dollars via an ordinary bank money wire.
You might want to do some research of what dealer gives you the best exchage rate, I had a very good one, forgot who it was (getting too old I guess) but he was located in Bakersfield Ca.
I Fedexed him my IQD stash, he got it next day, it took him a couple of hours to run through all of it in a currency machine that verifies that it was not contraband. He sent me the Dollars to my account and the next day, at lunch time I had it all in my ordinary bank account.
In the afternoon I sent the money via wire to Warka, and funded my account.
At the time I did it, Warka didn't have a corresponding bank in the US, so I had to send it to Warka via a bank in Dresden Germany.
Nowadays Citizen bank is a corresponding bank here in the US, and you could either send it from any of their branches, or from your bank to Warkas account in Citizen bank.
Typically the lesser steps you take, the cheaper it is to send.
I am not totally sure, but if you have an account with Citizen, they might even send for free, you might want to check that out.
From the time you have given the sending bank your Dollars, you are no longer sitting on IQD's in currency,... ( in the beginning I had a slight withdrawal sympthom, but I got over it)... but have all your Dinar holdings as an account, where only the number in your account represents money.
You will actually get TWO accounts, one Iraqi Dinar Account, and one Dollar Account.
You want as much as possible in the Dinar account, but the Dollar account will be very imnportant for you when you need to send money inbetween accounts.
The minimum in the Dollar account is 150 bucks, so when you send the money to Warka, please inform them on the wire:
(there is usually a little window for notes, if not write it on the margin of the wire instruction sheet)
-"Deposit 150 Dollars in my dollar account, rest in my Dinar account".
Once the account(s) are funded, you will get a temporary code to use in order to access you account.
Change the code immediately, I am sure that there is a car license plate number or old phone number from your youth that you still remember,that only you know, that you can use.
Go to Warka banks main site, and download the e-book, that will teach you how to handle your account from a computer, best is of you print it out and make a little instruction folder out of it.
Ok, at this point, you should be set up, you can now handle your account from anywhere in the world once you get online somewhere on any computer.
At this point, you can start looking at ISX ( stocks) CD's or whatever.
Why have money in an account in Cayman Islands or Switzerland when it pays so much better ot have them in an account in Iraq?
When the Dollar arrives to Warka, a smaller transaction fee wil be takeen out, (Warka will send you all information on all the fees,) but the exchange rate will be the official rate given by the Central Bank of Iraq.
No more E-bay scams...-"get a million IQD's for the magnificient price of ONLY 1500 Dollars"
In your case, you have enought to get a decent spread of companies in a portfolio if you desire to go with stocks. I suggest ( take it or leave it) fund your Warka account, then have a look on CD's, and stocks.
The CD's are easy, a CD is a Certified Deposit, basically you make an agreement with the bank to not touch any of the money for a certain period of time, and in return you get a better interest rate.
Stocks is a bit more complex things, and you need to go to ISX official site and familiarize yourself with how it is set up. Read about trading, different companies, and do some past track research and so on.
If you decide to buy stocks, you need to send Warka a "picklist", in where you give Warka Bank your authority to take money from your account and buy stocks on the ISX on your behalf.
The transaction is very easy to do, the bank will hold the stocks in proxy, meaning, they hold it pretty much as any fund, or 401 K plan. You don't hold the stock certificates in your hand.
If you are not comfortable with that, you can of course also have the stock certificates sent to you. ( they're pretty good looking I have heard, with ornaments, and seals , and all that). But the downside with that, is that now you have to be personally on top of any stock split, reissue of stocks, or any other new development that each board is coming out with, from any and each of the companies that you bought stocks in.
It will involve so much time, and correspondence, and mailing back and forth to different companies, that as far as I am concerned, I rather have the Warka Bank hold my certificates, as a portfolio, and take a couple of % for the job. In that way, you don't have to worry about anything, Warka takes care of splits, divident payouts,(and put it straight into your Dinar account) and so on.
Another thing you should know, please don't expect to have western style same day service here in Iraq.
Any transaction can take between a couple of days to maybe a week, so if you send your money to Warka and have not heard anything for five days, don't panic, they might very well have a holy weekend here or something of that sort.
Electric supply is not 24/7 here, and computer glitches are common when a building goes suddenly dark. It'll take them some time to reboot everything.
Some of the bank employees that are working with foregin accounts, may have death threats on them, and they are actually working undercover.
This was very common, at least in the past, but there is still a grave security concern.
Everything is on right track here in Iraq, but you have also to remember that it is compared with western countries unstable.
I was personaly witness to an IED that blew pretty big holes in a truck only four trucks ahead of me, for a couple of weeks ago. The concussion rattled me and my truck pretty much.
When Ramadan comes around , they are always more wired up than they used to be.
Either way, don't invest more than you can afford to lose.
Then again, if you have 8.5 million IQD's in currency, that means, that those money invested in that currency have been locked in into that stash for some time, and if you have not been tempted to cash it in for Dollas up until now, you have already managed to have a life without those money, so it seems like you are doing ok.
The above blog should have been addressed "Fred" , but it also touches on some concerns from Neil,... so ...would an address that says "Fred and Neil" be acceptable to both???
It better be, because otherwise I have to flog myself with a used chainsaw chain.
Sorry if my posting wasn't clear, but I did say "in the event of an RV" which to me means the currency is on the open market, and you can go to any bank or money changer like with any other currency.
Roger: Thanks for the information on the procedure to open a Warka account. Even though you were responding to Fred, you answered several questions for me. Good luck and take care as you continue those dangerous missions in a hostile environment.
BritishKnite: You were very clear in how to exchange dinars once there is an RV, but what I was hoping you would tell us is "is there a bank in England where a Dinar can be exchanged today (or the next workday)? It appears that the only way to convert dinars to dollars in the U.S. is through a dinar dealer.
I am going to make a post soon on what I think is happening to the U.S. and the path to destruction
that we are following. NEIL
Your situation is primed for looking into CD's rather than just let the money sit in a savings account in Warka.
Savings accounts gives a high % interest, but as you seem to have a habit profile of sitting on it(Your dinars in the Dinar account) and not touching your stash, you would do exactly the same by putting them in a higher yeald CD.
Me, I would rather go the stock way, it is a bit more volatile, thats a given, but the potential payout is so much higher.
As you have not ventured into stocks, after having your money such a long time in your account, that shows me, (I might be wrong) that you are threading a bit more careful then I am.
That is all good, and what you are comfortable with yourself,(it has to be right in your own head, no one can force a reality onto another).
All I am saying here is that you can continue to do exactly what you are doing, and don't change anything in your strategy, and better interest if you are doing CD's.
All a CD is , is basically the same as you have now, you have the money in an account, and the only difference is that you have an agreemet with the bank that you will not touch the money for a certain amount of time.....thats all.
If you already have had the moneny for a substatial amount of time in your account, have not touched it, and dont plan to touch it for a while....then you don't change anything.
Shoot Warka an e-mail and do some inquiries about CD's.
Your situation is primed for looking into CD's rather than just let the money sit in a savings account in Warka.
Savings accounts gives a high % interest, but as you seem to have a habit profile of sitting on it(Your dinars in the Dinar account) and not touching your stash, you would do exactly the same by putting them in a higher yeald CD.
Me, I would rather go the stock way, it is a bit more volatile, thats a given, but the potential payout is so much higher.
As you have not ventured into stocks, after having your money such a long time in your account, that shows me, (I might be wrong) that you are threading a bit more careful then I am.
That is all good, and what you are comfortable with yourself,(it has to be right in your own head, no one can force a reality onto another).
All I am saying here is that you can continue to do exactly what you are doing, and don't change anything in your strategy, and better interest if you are doing CD's.
All a CD is , is basically the same as you have now, you have the money in an account, and the only difference is that you have an agreemet with the bank that you will not touch the money for a certain amount of time.....thats all.
If you already have had the moneny for a substatial amount of time in your account, have not touched it, and dont plan to touch it for a while....then you don't change anything.
Shoot Warka an e-mail and do some inquiries about CD's.
Thanks for that. I will look into it. I don't know much so will have to research the topic of CDs. As for the ISX, I'm not sure there is sufficient back data to test how a company is doing. I'm just guessing here, but I thought the ISX has been running for only a few years.
The ISX took over from the Baghdad Stock Exchange, so you can go back a few years to see what was doing good and maybe use some of that info to help you pick a few stocks
Go onto the ISX home page
Click onto Bulletins & Reports
Then Daily Bulletin
Then EX Bulletins
Then pick a year
Then pick a month
Then pick a tradeing section, to see what comps were worth then, here is a few to give you an idea of what they may become in the future
Baghdad soft drinks 21.000
Alhilal products 28.500
Light products 19.050
Chemical products 54.000
Alkindi for Inoculations 21.000
Modern Paint 50.100
Ishtar Hotel 280.000
Baghdad Hotel 500.000
Warka Bank 10.000
Correct, it is a very young enterpise. The ISX and the CBI was set up by the first American Occupational forces, and is pretty much a copy of the American system.
Before the invasion, there was no such thing as an independent company, Saddam was running this country in super socialistic style, you can say Stalinistic slyle if you wish... that is probably most close to the true picture.
So as you say, there is not much to look back to and try to geet a time track, or reference to earlier history, because there was none.
GM Ford, and GE have been around for quite some time, and you know those products.
Alibabas Construction company , may have started very recently.
However the companies that are currently on the ISX is a core of previously state owned companies (actually almost all of them that is on ISX) that have been around for a while.
The state have a little bit or a big chunk in almost all of them, they ARE independent companies, and all have state minority , but the interesting aspect of this is, that when contracts are dished out, the state will probably give the companies that they have shares in, the contract.
Also as most of them have once been completely state owned, the mothers, brothers, aunt, nieces, and oncles are intertwined, plus the bribe system is well developed. So the "grease line" is well established.
A brand new company coming in on the scene is in that sense a bit of an outsider.
You also have to see it in this way....the stodks have had an upswing, and are curretly flat, buyt the upswing gave me approx 2.5 or 3 times the value of the stocks, BUT....they are still worth only a few Dinars.....maybe a penny or two.
Take for example the bank sector, y9ou can go to most any stock market in the world, and have a look at what stocks in a certain bank is worth, and you will find that it is between a few bucks, to maybe close to a hundred bucks.
You are buying shares of banks for about a cent right now...food for thought.
I would say, familiarize yourself with the ISX, go back in its history and check things out, and kick it in your own head until you start to develop a strategy that makes sense to you.
If you still don't think stocks are your way...well at least go the CD way.....or I will flogg you with the now well known chainsaw chain.
Kin great I get a aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh on no probs but when I try for a bit more all I get is whats is name saying the firewall is a dum arse and postings end up in his bin, so try looking in it some time
===
It is at your end, there are no comments stuck in the filter at T&B. It must be a personal firewall.
Sorry for your troubles.
DinarAdmin
Thanks for the guidance. I contacted Warka and they sent me the current CD rates which they say are not fixed. I was also sent a template letter of authorisation. I also found the information on their site just now while I was searching for bank account interest rates to compare them with.
I'm curious as to why anyone seeking at least a year would take the 1 year CD instead of going for 2 6 month terms? Unless of course it's a cost thing.
Interest Paid Annually on Savings Accounts:
1. IQD savings accounts: 7% per year.
2. USD savings accounts: 4% per year.
Oh how I miss the 11% I got last year. Still, the rates are a lot better than what the British banks are giving. Unless you have a massive amount of money, you can get a whopping 3.5%/annum with a table topping account. Maybe I should get my pay cheque paid into my IQD account. Ha ha ha!
The CD rates are good though.
Right now though, I would like to get my physical holdings sent over there, but not quite sure how to go about it from the UK.
Hi buddy, naa, I believe a shotgun with rocksalt will take care of the problem.
Great posting of yours, with a lot of very useable links, I suggest to evewryone to put that particular posting in a file, or if it is possible, to put it in the favorite section, for a quick reference.
BritishKnite,
Hey, you're on it. You definitely have the momentum now.
I think though that on one piece of the pie, I need to explain something.
(I am just making up numbers here for the example)
If you get 8% interest on a 6 months CD, that does not mean that you will get 8% interest on that CD after 6 months...????....read on.
Interest is anually, so if you get 8 % interest on a 6 months CD, you get the interest 8% would create during a 6 months period.
So if you have a one year CD and it gives 10%, then you would get 1 million Dinars if you put in 10 Millions in the CD.
If you put in 10 Million Dinars in a 6 months CD for 6 months, and then did it again for antoher six months, and you get 8% interest, you will then "only" get 800.000 Dinars. (You have now done one year)
So if you want higher interest rate, do the longer term CD's.
All,
There have been some hopla lately on some other sites about what currency to use on the bases, in the PX'es.
(For you who does not know what the term PX is, it is originally meant to be an abbreviation of Postal Exchange, but it has, as the years passed by, developed into an almost WalMart type superstore, some bigger some smaller depending on the size of the base, anyhow, that is the place where contractors and soldiers, buy ciggs, underwear, knifes, magazines, and deodorants)
There was a proposal out that in order to help the Iraqi economy, only Dinars had to be used, coming now Oct 1st.
That in itself is pretty dumb, because the PX chain is a US run business, existing only on US bases, where US Dollar is the method of pay.
On bases, we also have a lot of Haji stores (nick name for any Iraqi enterprise) where the Iraqis are selling most anything they can.
(Illegally strong green lasers, spring knives, Rolex copies, whatever, it doesn't take much for them to show you what they have "in the back")
It is on many bases like a bazaar, where the stores are side by side.
Now, THOSE stores are the real Iraqi business on base.
The fun thing is, when PX announced that they would only use Dinars, at the same time, the business owned by the Iraqis announced at the same time that THEY would continue to accept Dollars.
The PX announcement reached some people on another blog site, and the speculation about an imminent RV reached new heights.
All this was, was a stupid decision by someone that don't have a clue, that the American business in Iraq would use Dinars, and the Haji stores run by the Iraqis, would continue to use Dollars.
Only the best works in our govt.
Today someone finally got smart and cancelled the proposed PX Dinar program.
That program is now in the garbage bin, but it amazes me very much, how some bloggers can take most anything they read, and create a scenario in where this is the definite proof of an RV.
Method of payment on military bases in their convenience stores,... versus,... a nationwide revaluation of a currency.
Those two concepts doesn't even blend.
If an elephant has two ears, and a rabbit has two ears...therefore ....an elephant and a rabbit must be the same thing....and therefore .....it must be an RV coming up next Thursday.
I BELIEVE THAT WE ARE GOING TO GET A REVALUATION SOONER THAN EXPECTED?
In economics the inevitable always happens, and while the Gulf States have definitely rejected the idea of unilateral revaluation by individual countries, there is now almost a universal sentiment that revaluation is going to be a natural part of the currency union. It seems that the 2010 currency union, in some form at least, is really going to happen.
The sudden plunge in the US dollar’s fortunes over the past year, with a reverse of the previous bear market rally, just underlines the importance of revaluing Gulf currencies as a part of the change to a single currency.
Basket of currencies
This is indeed what the central banks now appear to be working on with the Gulf States moving to a currency valued against a basket of currencies, of course dominated by the US dollar but also including the euro, and perhaps even gold and silver. Mexico is working on plans for a new currency that include silver, while the idea of a Gold Dinar for the GCC has been around for years.
As a timely report from the Dubai International Financial Centre’s economics department concluded that the new GCC currency is likely to be in great demand as a global reserve currency, given that it will effectively be backed by the hydrocarbon assets, oil and gas revenues and sovereign wealth of the Gulf States.
The DIFC report concentrates mainly on the mechanisms that might be used in the running of the new Gulf Central Bank which are clearly important but not the main interest for the public and business in the region.
The attention is bound to focus on two issues: how much of a revaluation will the new currency include (if it does)? And how much will interest rates rise (or fall) as a consequence of the introduction of the new currency and central bank?
Big questions
These are not easy questions to answer, and the finest minds of economics are going to be occupied over the next months in debating the answers. It would be a little inflated of a humble local business columnist to attempt a definitive solution to such a complex matter.
However, let me put a few thoughts onto the table. If the US dollar weakens suddenly and severely over the next few months – and the $2 euro has been suggested in this column before, and it does not look so unlikely today with the ongoing US financial crisis – the new currency presents a generational opportunity to break with the US dollar.
We all know that having the GCC currencies, pegged to the US dollar has been a source of stability in the past. But it no longer seems appropriate to follow the fiscal and monetary policies of a failing US economy in the booming oil states.
This mismatch of interest rates alone is overheating local economies while the falling dollar is boosting imported inflation.
Now the Gulf States will have to consider very carefully how the mandate of the Gulf Central Bank is framed. If it is to target inflation then interest rate rises will need to be cleverly phased so as not to suddenly deflate booming local economies or be overly attractive to foreign investors.
However, a well managed currency will hold its value as a new reserve currency of the world. You also have to wonder if the idea of a currency basket will not be just a prelude to a free floating currency, effectively valued against every other free moving currency in the world, and on a par with the dollar and euro.
Why should the Gulf single currency be a proxy for other currencies? It ought to stand as a currency on its own given the population size and economic importance of the region.
Opportunities
At the same time the opportunity for local and global financial institutions to develop a far more sophisticated and diverse regional financial system around the new currency is obvious. There will be far more demand for sukuks and equities issued in the new currency, and these markets will have greater depth and liquidity.
For a single currency is also a demonstration of political will and confidence in the future. It says that the Gulf States are serious about economic growth and prosperity and creating a modern financial infrastructure. This will not go unnoticed among global business and finance, and it will tend to be a self-fulfilling prophesy about the future.
The single currency is a great project and recent unity among the main actors suggests that the reality that is coming may be a pleasant surprise to us all.
Though I do not post much here I wanted to share that I took the first steps this morning to open my Al-Warka account. I have been on the fence concerning an Iraqi bank account for sometime; it just seems like the right time to repatriate my dinars back to Iraq and use those funds to invest in the ISX. Anyone have stock tips? Those offering stock tips can you provide with reasoning why investing in those companies?
rob n: Rebuilding Iraq will take a lot of cement. Cement is very heavy and costly to move, so they will use local cement companies. Making glass is tricky. To move it from country to country means it might break. They will use local glass companies.
Rob also glass is made of sand and you need a lot of energy to make. Iraq has lots of both. You need limestone and clay and sand or shale to make cement. Iraq has lots of this. You also need water and gravel and a lot of energy to make these. Iraq has all this. They can make it cheap. Cement is low-tech and easy to make. They will buy local.
I sent my required documents through the Al-Warka's website does anyone know how long it takes to receive an bank account number, password, and log in?
It only takes a few days for your account number and it is sent with the info on how to fund your account,s
If it takes any longer Email Mr I on, ifrd@warka-bank-iq.com
Go to this site for the comps that are State Owned with a %percentage in private hands plus they say what the company makes which gives you more info on picking some stock, as it also has much more info on the site as well, its a good read
If you go up about 9 postings you will see a way to look at what the comps were worth 5 years ago, as this may help you
Do a bit of research to find out what comps did very well when they did a bit of cleaning up of Kuwait after the Iraqi's went walkabout in 1990
There are no cement comps on the ISX yet and their Float Glass factory is still in a mess from when the brain dead Iraqi's looted their entire country, throwing themselves and the country back in time by about 100 years, if the numb nuts had left it as it was the whole country would no doupt be in a lot better shape then it is at the moment
The supply of electric to the Iraqi homes is stil iffy as they are always playing catch up with the Iraqis buying more items that use more electric
Think of the things you need at home for you to survive, that should show you some of the comps to think about buying
If you would like some Hotel stock but the 200,000 min buy in each comp is a bit off putting, no probs, buy the min 200,000 then put in an order to sell 150,000 that leaves you with a nice round figure of 50,000 shares in a Hotel or whatever amount you would like
Here is a good comp with a good future its the Iraqi Carton Manufactures as Im sure they also make the big paper bags for the cement comps, so when they get busy so shall they
You pick whatever comps you will be happy with as it is up to you
The one and only site that will determine the Dinar/Dollar exchange is the official site of Central Bank of Iraq.
Any bankrate, dealer rate or whatever, is based on that rate.
NYSX is in a dump right now, but heard that it is recovering. It is cyclic, and have been so since it's first existence.
Any stock exchange is cyclic, and there are also smaller cycles within the main sequenses.
Acxtually , NYSX might not be too bad a place to be in right now , after all, the old saying goes, buy low sell high.
So right now is actually a pretty good time to get in on the stock exchange.
However I am biased towards Iraq stock exchange, as the growth potential is very very high here.
Iraqi stock exchange will, as any other stock exchange also be cyclic.
If you go into stocks here, I would not get a nervous breakdown if the index falls for two days in a row, or go out on the balcony with your nickel plated pocket pistol if it goes down three days in a row.
Reminds me about the old 10CC song....-"you've got to be cool on Wall Street, when your index is low"...
Bad news,....invest.
Good news....too late.
Let the Main Stream Media do the bodycount, and deep analysis of why Iraq is a failure, ....let them really spread the bad news.
For our part, as Dinar investors, we just smile and continue to invest, where the bad news is.
Truth be told, i'm pretty good at buying at the "low" peaks, only to wait out the stock breaking down through "solid" floors, over and over, until utterly dark and lonely nothingness - except, of course, for the screaming voice in my head. SIRI comes to mind, we laugh together i'm sure.
My beautiful wife - and one who normally doesn't suffer silently - has been too kind by not reminding me practically every day of my certainty regarding satellite radio. lets move on, although before we do I'd like to assure you that my attitude is generally good.
So, anyway, thank you, Roger, somehow I feel that you (and other regarded forum participants) can help me get started into something new, i.e. ISX, if you are willing.
Point blank; I've got $25,000 to put into the ISX. My thoughts are to put 10 of the 25 into a one year CD (thinking of my marriage) and the balance into the even more speculative positions I have not yet chosen. Warka will likely open an account, pursuant to my application of last week, and then I'll fund it through a Citibank transfer. I still need to satisfy the additional documentation/process in order to authorize Warka as my broker.
I often travel back and forth to Alaska (day job) and so there'll be delays on my part and periods of no communacotto. That said, i do look forward to getting this idea going as soon as practical.
Main Stream Media. Well, I just finished a book called "Beyond The Green Zone" written by an un-embedded reporter covering 2003-2007 Iraq (Dahr Jamil). Not really light reading for a guy that likes to keep things light, but I did get through the book and now wonder WTF.
I'm rambling.
I'll post my stock picks before trading and hope for forum comments.
If I may....you might want to modify the plan a little bit. It sounds pretty good to me, but I would do a little bit of adjustment to it. Not much though.
Let me give you a couple of inns and you will see the point.
The state of Iraq had, during Saddams regime, made sure everything and his brother was stateowned.
So, in all essential we took over a nation that had all it's assets under the state, and there was not much that was privately owned, or even operating under any condition that would come close to our definition of an independent company.
Ok suddenly it said ...pop... and the Yanks was walking the streets of Baghdad, and Saddam was hanged.
Unfortunately for the world, it is very easy to socialise something but very hard to undo it.
Same with Iraqi companies. The Iraqi state is however trying to wean off their companies from the governmental bottle, and again make them independent companies.
There are still stateowned companies that are waiting to get independent, last year I read a report that they thought that next year ( that is now year) they would get their books in order and be able to break out most of them.
I do , as a sidenote, believe that any Iraqi oilcompany in existence, the state will continue to own them.
Knowing that it is a physical impossibility to get more than 2-3 hours worth of work from any Iraqi, any given day, without the distribution of pain, and it is an impossibility to take a decision what so ever, as it might be contradictory to what Allah had in mind in the first place. ( According to these guys, life is already pre planned, and the participants in this life are merely spectators, and not willing to be responsible to Godly decisions, and his already pre determined events)
So when any stateowned company will breakout, is very hard to tell....it just kind of "happens".
However, almost all the participants of the current Iraqi Stock Market (ISX) have been former state owned companies, and in fact the state have still some percentage of shares in most of them.....guess they have a hard time to let go.
So.....
After you have got a nice pick list and bought you shares in the selected companies of your choice, it might be an idea to have a decent sum available if and when one of the state companies break free, and come on the market.
For that reason only, I have decided to stay with about 10 mil in my savings account.
CD,s will bind up your cash.
If you were to ONLY put the money in the bank, I would recommend CD's over a savings account, but as you are venturing into the stock market, you need top have some mula available when the companies come on the market.
Put five Millions in a CD and five M's in savings, rest in ISX.
The portion you put in the savings account still pay 7% so you're still doing good, but you will now have it handy if you need to jump.
You're interesting. I'm inclined to ask more but won't quite yet. I have to think and do some research so that I don't waste your time.
I'd like to thank you kindly for your thoughts and generosity.
Would you like me to send you some freshly smoked canned salmon? My friends and I smoked-up and canned about 90 lbs. of sockeye and coho at my house over the last couple of weekends. I was basically raised on the stuff in Alaska and would be happy to share.
Thanks for the offer, but I suggest tht we save the Alaskan fish for other opportunities, who knows, we might meet one day. I live in CA when I am not in Iraq, so it is not too far.
We had a smaller sandstorm yesterday and the Medavac was red, so no convoy. ( well if it is high priority load we go anyway, but we didnt have that)
Today it seems like the dust have settled, have seen spydrones, and Apaches flying so I assume that Medavac can fly too.
We actually get very very good food at our dining facilities, we have lobstertails, and Kingcrab (Alaskan I presume) , ribeye , Chinese food, Mexican and anything inbetween you can wish for here, including any desert of your choice.
Knowing that you are such a lousy stock picker, I suggest you stock up on the food.
...they're calling me on my handheld radio now, and gotta go back to the war.
Maybe I should come to your dining facility for dinner... and I thought I ate well. Okay i do.
Food can be a great pleasure, and that kind of pleasure, i would guess, you appreciate between sandstorms and other surroundings.
I work for a large seafood company and host guests at our home fairly often; you would be most welcome when you pass through, or otherwise.
Trust me, I'm stocked-up on food, just not on stocks worth a double-darn.
My latest strategy has been China plays (water-filtration/purification, cement, fertilizer). The thing is that even though the positions are in China they all seem to follow the American stock trends like a dog chasing a stick. That worries me. I'm trying to break free of the AMX even if it means getting "lost" on purpose to find my way out with something entirely new: ISX.
I still think water/virtual-water plays are worthwhile because they feel right, but so far they've been elusive good investments. I'm slightly ahead with respect to returns but at this rate I'll probably still need my Roth and 401, which is another thing that worries me - even though my salary is currently pretty good. Dianr tomorrow?
I received the following today from Mr I: "Thank you for choosing our bank I look forward to providing you with my full cooperation and support. We are happy to have as our client and I am positive that you will be overwhelmed and highly delighted with our service as our number one priority is serving you best. I have instructed my customer accounts department to setup and open your USD and IQD savings account details of which will be provided shortly."
Take care and best regards,
Mr. I
I am on my way now; once I recieve my account information I will begin funding my account.
Helicopters that have medical emergency capabilities, that are able to land close to an incident that have caused injury to one or more persons, such as traffic accidents or war engagements.
Chinas stock market have not risen in tuned with their national production rise.
While the production have risen perhaps 8 or 9 % a year, the average Chinese stock market value have been pretty much around 3% or so annualy.
Me personally I am pretty lukewarm about China. They are right now facing some pretty drastic changes and some big challenges if they are to continue this steady uptrend in yearly production.
Their whole infrastucture, roads electric, telecomunication, fuel, food etc is in dire need of improvement, not to talk about their environmental challenges they have to deal with. It's such a toxic place right now that it's a wonder they can live there.
The Chineese have cheated for quite some time, selling stuff to us for Dollar, then turning around and giving the working class almost worthless money that is manipulated to have lower value than it's real value.
The end product is a country where workers cant afford to buy the goods they produce, and the Chineese government are stashing Dollars in sky high piles.
This is now coming back and biting them, as they are more and more thirsty for oil, and as oil is traded in Dollar....and the oil, even though it had a dip recently, are going up...up and up, the Chinese have no other means other than giving back the Dollar for every drop of oil they consume.
They still have a very big stash, so big that they can't get rid of it, because that would make the Dollar worthless would they flood the market with all their Dollar holdings.
So...their plan have backfired on them, now the Dollar is going lower, and their biggest market, the US, can't buy as much as they did in the past from China, so people have to be laid off....in China.
US is, despite the idea that China have taken over everything in this world, producing, in net worth of goods, 2.5 times more than China.
Despite what they say....US is the place.
The investment ideas you have about China, ....perhaps I can interest you in investing in the US market????
I am not talking about the Dinar investment you are thinking about, that is an opportunity right now, but the other investment you are doing with China, if I were you, I would look at the US market instead, hands down.
The stock market is cyclic, and what you are seeing now is nothing that is new.
The trends is predictable as the come.
The sequense is pretty normal, first comes the crash ( some call it adjustment) and everybody and his brother get wet pants and hurry to withdraw from the stock market.
Then, the companies will slim down, lay off, and get rid of inventory, and trim it's budget.
Ok, now the companies are in good shape again, and the stock market starts to go up a little bit, there is always a jobless recovery first.
Then the companies are starting to hire , first carefully, but as the uptrend is going on, the positions are filled more and more.
Then within a half year or so after the companies have gotten fixed up, the unemployment starts to nudge down, this is for most people the end of the recession.
By early next year, or a couple of months into the next year, the unemployment will most probably start go down pretty noticable.
This is old and repeatable cycles, and we are actually right now, starting to get the first feelers of a pending bull market again.
So I am serious, Earl, I wouldnt mess with China if I were you, I would pull what I have in that, and get in on the US market instead.
The Dinar investment is a totally different ballgame, it is based on speculation on a country that have been released from 30 years of depression, and are sitting on richness beyond imagination in their soil.
I don't mean to blow sunshine up your kelt, but I truly enjoy your grounded, street-version, contemplative insight. My hat tips your way.
Whats drawn me to this forum is the quality of collective thought and I feel lucky to have stumbled across it.
I not sure what I’m going to do with the chinese or US markets, I’m still thinking about your comments.
I emailed Warka last week to open an account with my passport attached to the email that for some reason could not opened at the bank. As I prepared to resend the attachment I looked more closely at the details on my passport and recognized that it had expired - so I sent a scan of my drivers license hoping that it will suffice to at least open the account. I have not yet heard back from Warka.
In the meantime I have a new passport on the way (the $240.00 quick way) which should take about 5 days. My understanding is that I’ll need it to authorize Warka as my broker.
Citibank has no office branch in Anchorage or anywhere in the Northwest. I had the simple idea that while I was up here in Anchorage I’d just find a local Citibank and open an account with the $25,000.00 Wells Fargo check that I have in my pocket.
Wrong.
So now I’m thinking of opening an online account with Citibank only for fund transfers to Warka. I don’t really want to open another account at another bank with no physical location in the NW but I may have to (yes, the irony is that i’m doing all of this to fund an account in Iraq). O’h, I do laugh at myself.
On the down side, i’ll need to keep $1500.00 in the Citibank account to keep it open without monthly fees. No big deal I guess, just annoying.
An alternative possibility is to wire funds from my bank (Wells Fargo) to Citibank (acting only as an intermediary bank) to fund my Warka account through Germany. I’m not sure that would work or be cost effective.
I keep thinking all this should not be so complicated. I’ll figure it out and, if as usual, when I look back it will probably not seem so complicated after all.
ISX: I’m looking at National Chemical, Al-Warka, Al-Mansour, Al-Hilal, Fallujah Construction.
Naa, you shouldnt HAVE to open up an account with Citibank just to wire funds to Warka.
Also what you mentioned to do it via Germany is what we did way back.No need to go that route now.
Citibank IS Warkas corresponding bank here in the US, so if you dont have any Citibank in your neighbourhood, use whatever bank you wish, and just do an ordinary standard run of the mill wiretransfer, to Warkas account at Citibank.
You dont need to keep anything with Citibank att all, they are Warkas buddies here, you are getting your money to Warka, VIA Citibank, once that is done, I can't see any reason to keep up an account with Citibank in order to keep up your account with Warka.No, Citibank is just the "middleman" towards Warka, a one stop bank, an once you have used them, thankyou and goodbye.
If you have a good working account with Wellls Fargo, they might not charge you, and if they do, just tell them that you have a big account with them, and are a long standing customer, so a small little fiddly thing like a wiretransfer from Wells Fargo to a Citibank account (Warkas Citibank account), reallllly shouldnt be charged....look !!!platinum, gold, extra diamond, VIP member.....
You might be able to pull off a freebie, and if not, you can't blame a man for trying.
You have already made a couple of picks on the ISX, and I can see that you have scanned the ISX pages, good, you're getting the feel of things.
It's very few companies on ISX as we stand, the trading compared with other countries are very small, and the opportunity is right now, this IS the ground floor.
You shuld have some spread on banks as well, but if you can emphasize anything that has to do with construction, you will probably get in on a pretty good bonanza the following years.
All,
The ISX seems to work on a little different premise other than most other stock markets.
What they re doing is a clear sign of immaturity in the market, but in time they will get it straight.
Wht they are practicing right now is "inflation in stocks".
Basically, if you sell shares, you sell a part in that company, but if you issue an abundance of shares, you will have inflation in the same ay as if you print more money.
The price of shares have been rising a bit, but a very big chunk of dividents are payed in free shares.
Numbers I have got so far is between 25, and 47% in free shares.
So even if the price of shares doesnt go up that much, you will get more shares instead, and that is the way a big portion of ths stockmarket operates.
Eventually they will get a grip on it, and be more restrictive with issuance of stocks, in order to push the prices on stocks up, but in the meanwhile while they have not realy got the idea, just lean back and amass your stock volume.
If you have 1 million stocks, that is worth 1 dinar each, and you get 35% free shares....that is the same value increase like if you have 1 million in stocks, valued to 1 dinar, and the stocks go up to 1.35 Dinars per stock.
We have all kind of people working here, doctors, layed off airline captains, judges, and so on.
One guy I ran into got my attention, as he has been successful while he's been here.
It's an unmarried guy, that have a masters in Economics, and book keeping, and he have practice his knowledge in a most remarkable way, and I just thought of telling you all this little story.
It also ties back in a sense to what was discussed here earlier regarding the US stock market. It's not too bad of a place to be, after all.
He has been here for about three years and a few months, so he have quite some time under his belt here.
As a drive here, you earn quite a decent wage, this guy have no payments, and can save most anything he earns.
So he is able to invest quite a hansom sum.
During his stay here, he is doing what I am doing, going with military escort, in an armed truck to different bases, delivering for the military. We are now running together in covoys him and I.
Some bases are well built up, like a little city, but then there are a lot of bases ( now closing one by one) that are just a couple of hundred people in them, small things, where you sleep either in your truck or with military in a big tent, on a cot, not even a bed, it's just a frame with a canvas across.... very uncomfy. There might be a kitchen, with one selection of food, portajohns, that always seem to be out of paper, showers, set up in a container, (when the water truck have arrived) ....but there seems to be in all camps, a place where phones and computers are set up. sometimes it's a big establishment, but mostly on outposts, like described here, a container, with a few phones, and a couple of computers.
Anyhow, this guy opened up a trading account early when he came here, and every time he stopped by at a base, small or large, he always went to the computer room and did stock research and did some trading.
This guy ended up in our base, and we talked economics. I was amazed of this guys knowledge, and even more to what extent he put it to good use.
He had done some extensive research on the most successful stock traders , and what they did, when to buy, when to sell, and how to interpret the stock markets ups and downs, and are working with that knowledge in his daily tradings.
I got to be a good friend with him, and he showed me his trading account, and it's time track since he started, it's wins it's losses, and the netprofit.
During the time this guy have spent here in Iraq as a truck driver, he has made an additional quarter of a million Dollars.
Everytime he hit a base, he took off his Kevlar helmet, his flame resistant Nomex suit, his bullet proof vest, and just kept pecking away on any available computer.
Sensmoral of the story:
-"Why postpone anything until tomorrow.......
.....when you can postpone it until the day after tomorrow".
Okay, so, I don't think you got that right, although somehow I think I know what you mean!
Wow. Good story about your friend. Makes me want to hunker down. I did find a few more coins to invest so that's good and I'll spill my plan as soon as I can for forum comments prior to purchase.
This is great fun.
I'll approach Wells Fargo when I get back to Seattle regarding transfer. I actually do not have an account yet with Warka so, well, there are other things I can be doing...like getting the paperwork in so that Warka can broker on my behalf.
looking into agriculture plays; Al-Therar and Al-Ahliya. Telecom; Iraq Telecom(Zain and Asiacell?).
I'd like to purchase my holdings by the end of this month with the intent to hold them for 1 year while I get use to the ISX and comp trading. I don't know how that strategy will work but, in other words, I'd like to start by selecting long holdings at first just to get into it.
Tell us about construction plays that you like, if you will.
Unfortunately I have homework to do for my day job tonight so I need to sign off for now.
Flying to Kodiak in the morning and I hear its blowing the oysters off the rocks down there so I hope I can get in and out and back to Seattle over the weekend.
Good plan except one thing, this is a long term investment, and year is a little too little to keep the stocks.
The investment in ISX is ment to ride on the expansion boom, when it comes.
It is bound to come sooner or later, but in a year from now, the only difference here could possible only be an "improvement".
Iraqis go slower than molasses in a cold day.
Once the boom comes, it may be a ride that goes on for 5 or 7 years, if we're lucky maybe 10 years.
I dont think that you will be too happy with only a one year investment.
You may wnt to compare with the stock market in Kuwait, after Saddam, and you can see what potential we are looking at here.
For years after, construction companies showed 3-400%gains, and the banking industry showed 2-300% gains.
I am aware that there are differences between those two countries, and an exact copy of Kuwait is far from a gurantee, but when the boom comes, you better be invested in the different copanies, and just sit out the ride, and that operation will not go in one year alone.
Yes. One year or under is pretty short term. Especially with their small exhchange. I would consider 5+ years a long term on the ISX. That's how long I've been holding IQD's... patience my amigo.
Thanks, Roger, NeeChee, for your comments. Your sense of "long" works for me.
I was thinking, Roger, that your friend, referenced above, must have traded often within the three years that he has been active in the ISX. I felt that he may have traded more often than I was interested in and that is why I was aiming to hold a year. That is, a year was my "adjusted" sense of long. Anyway, thanks for the input which I will follow.
I'm still waiting to hear from Warka (Mr. Issa) about my account. I'm ready to go otherwise. Yes, NeeChee, "patience my amigo" hits the mark...thank you.
Warka emailed my individual account info this morning. I went to Wells Fargo and wired 20 big ones to Citibank NY to transfer over to the Warka account; minimum in USD, balance in IQD. We'll see how this works, if good, i'll wire another 20 straight away. Still waiting for passport - when it arrives I'll send documentation to embassy for notary and then on to Warka for brokerage authorization.
I'll admit, that after sending the actual cash, I'm feeling committed and nervously vested. So, good then, here we go.
I'll soon send my stock picks and percentages given a 40 to 50 thousand USD account for comment.
Roger, don't you leave my ass. Not now ol'buddy...
Good Luck, I have physical notes and with FED EX not operating in Iraq anylonger I guess I will have to see about selling the notes in order to wire funds to Warka. Did Warka provide you with the necessary information to wire through CITI Bank. If so, could you briefly comment about that process? I am still waiting on Warka to assign me my account numbers.
Warka emailed two Individual Account numbers (USD & IQD) that are assigned to me, along with the following info:
Warka Bank for Investment and Finance USD Account Number at Citibank : 36908969
Account Name at Citibank: Warka Bank for Investment & Finance
Corresponding Bank Name: Citibank NA
Branch: New York
BIC - Swift Address: CITIUS33
Fed Wire: 021000089
I went down to my bank (Wells Fargo) and they wired funds from my account to Warka using the two Individual Account numbers provided by Warka and the above Warka/Citibank info.
The only issue that came up at Wells Fargo was whether or not to send two separate wires; one to fund my Warka USD account (needs minimum balance) and another to fund the IQD account. The reason this was a question recognizes that there are, in fact, the two Individual Accounts for me at Warka, not one, and wires typically originate and terminate in one account.
What we did was wire the funds, referencing both Individual Accounts, to Citibank with the instruction to deposit the minimum amount into the USD account and the balance into the IQD account.
An alternative would have been to wire all of the funds directly into my USD account and later instruct Warka to transfer all of those funds into my IQD account, leaving the minimum amount that they require in the USD account.
The truth is we didn't know what was best but Wells Fargo felt that there would not be a problem with the transfer. If there was we will soon know about it.
We'll see how things go, but if it makes more sense to open an account at Citibank I likely will. Transfers would be easier, less expensive (per transfer) and also it may be easier to move money out of Warka back into Citibank when that time comes.
The remaining question is how/when will I know that my funds have been deposited in my Warka accounts? I have read that once the funds are in the accounts, Warka will send me notice and online account login directions. I am hoping that is true.
So, at the moment, I actually don't know where my funds are. I'll post when I know more.
The transfer from any bank to Warkas accout in citibank is ONE wire transfer.
It is a transfer to Warkas account in Citibank.
On the transfer, give the information to put 150 bucks in the US Dollar account (minimum), and the rest in the Dinar account.
About the guy that made some mula on stocks , while being here in Iraq, no he made it on the US tock market, not the ISX. He is by the way now getting in on the ISX himself after hearing what I did on the ISX market.
No... yes,... well , it is good place for business, but the Kurds, even though that they want their own idependence, are not strong enough to pull through on that deal as it stands right now.
Kurdish independence would not fly in the face of Iraq, Turkey, US and more, the whole world community are lined up on the idea to have a unified and peaceful producing Iraq, with the political borders it has right now.
I would look at Iraq as one unit, and take it from there, the ISX has started to do some interesting moves again, and I would start as soon as possible to invest in Iraqi stocks, as they are offered on the official Iraqi stock exchange.
I would invest 40 milions in the ISX, and keep about 10 millions in reserve, in your savings account (getting 7% interest)for opportunities that may come up in the future.
Do a pretty good spread on your stocks.
Right now, go just for the general stocks that are offered. I would stay away from stuff that sounds a little bit too fishy, baghdad car garage, or tourist huts close to a lake somewhere, fish hatcheries, and maybe agricultural in general.
Concentrate on industry, communication, banks, perhaps real etate investment companies and all the good stuff that will be involved in a buld up of this society.
Even if all these stocks have moved a little bit, the whole market is ( and have been since it's introduction) still pretty much an amplification of the bottom line. They're all less than penny stocks now, so just splurge on it, and get your stock volume estblished, no need at this time to be too overly concerned about movers, or monster stocks, there are none of them.
Once some of them are going over 1 Dollar per stock ( for that, you need a stock value of about 1000 Dinars or more per stock) , then perhaps you can start to be more interested in individual movers.
Normally in stock purchases, you re looking for good movers, , stagnant stocks, strong stocks and all that, but right now in the Iraq ISX game, it is more a matter of hoarding stocks,...and hoard them as early as possible, when they are only a couple of Dinars per stock.
The whole stock market here, as a generality needs to get moving much more, and only after the market has grown up, then you can start to see trends, and plan stock strategies.
See your current strategy as marbles that are on the floor, just pick them up and put them in your bag, thats all.
Simple enough Earl...it's a no brainer right now.
Step two, how to purchase on the ISX via Warka, well let us know when you are ready, either me or some of the other guys(or girls) here will talk you through the process.
In the meanwhile, do your homework, study the ISX site, and try to do a consied picklist ready, doing about 40 millions ( if you are following my advice that is, ultimately you have to follow your own decisions of course)
Good luck ad lets hear from you when you're ready for step two.
I will be travelling myself a bit the followiing days and may not be there for you for a couple of days, but if you sweat talk Steve, he can walk you through.
He's got all this down cold, so just hang in for the ride Earl.
Between missions, they're getting crazy here, plenty to move, and sometimes a whole military base will go nuts. 70 drivers just quit in Anaconda, and they have now shortage of personell in some specific areas.
That spills over in no unload, freight sitting, late deliveries, and no go on missions because of grid lock.
That means they're sending a portions of our drivers up there, making us shorthanded, working us more...on and on it goes.
Anyhow, no you don't need Warka brokerage authorization.
The bank you are with, Warka, IS a broker on the ISX.
You deal with Warka only, and Warka deal with ISX.
All you do is to authorize Warka to do what you want to do on the ISX.
As I sit right now I dont have a sample letter you can use, I am sitting right now in a very primitive place.
This is one of the points where I ask any one of the members of this blog to please step forward and show Earl a sample letter that he can use.
I know that Warka bank is developing it's ISX account site on it's mainboard, but I am not aware if it is operational right now or not.
Until it is, you need to just make a letter (the sample letter I am refering to) with your stock picks on, print it, put your signature on it, scan it and attach it to an e-mail to Warka banks ISX dep, and Warka will execute the purchase order the next following trading session.
Note, if you do a pick list of, lets say 18 companies, and only 16 was trading that day, you will get stocks in those 16 companies, ......but ....the two remaining companies you are looking at...well...you have to submit a new request if you want Warka to do another try.
The request for the two remaining companies, will not be put on a backlog sheet.
You do a stock purchase request, Warka will execute it and do what they can with it, and after that, you have to start on a clean sheet of paper again.
Reason for that is that they had a lot of confusion, lot of e-mails, and lot of lost orders, in the beginning when they started up, so Warka just ruled that , one shot is one shot, then you have to do it from scratch.
This is a condition that will eventually be worked out, as both ISX and Warka are expandiong their computer systems to cover more and more services.
I just want to mention this, because you and I as a westerner, expect service within seconds, instantly, and are getting it also.
Here in Iraq, they're just not there yet in all aspects of development....(but hey, that is exactly why this is a ground floor opportunity in the first place)
....they're screaming for me now, gotta go....
Anyone have one of those ISX sample letters to post ???, please...
S..t now the foreman comes steaming out of his office screaming my name....really gotta go now.....
I'm back in Seattle. I hope your work has settled down a bit and that you are rested.
Thanks for the comments, I really appreciate them.
You may have assumed that I have already completed the below steps of documentation. I have not. Do I still need to or can I just write the letter you suggested to accomplish the same thing?
From an Iraqi investors forum: "To purchase stock and to transfer ownership from the proxy company to the investor’s name the following documentation must be submitted and certified by the Iraqi Embassy or Consulate in your country"
1- ID Card
2- Valid Passport
3- Complete Address, Email and Telephone No.
4- Three Signature Copies (one document with 3 signatures).
I'd like to purchase stocks this week, through Warka, which is possible if I don't have to go the embassy route as indicated above.
Just read your post from Oct 14th about Fed Ex no longer operating in Iraq. That doesn't sound good. Is that Fed Ex in general, or just the US branches not accepting business? Do you know their reason(s) for pulling out? I have a few million in physical notes that I would like to send to Warka and was considering them (Fed Ex) a few months ago. However, I got side-tracked doing other stuff.
Does anyone know another way to send physical notes other than selling the notes on Ebay? Does eBay now have restrictions for Dinar activity?
Thank you for helping to get me to here. There will be more.
Time will tell, but obviously i'm optimistic.
So, well, without further a-due, here it is, round one:
Warka...,
The following ISX stock purchases are to be executed for the trading day of (28-10-09).
Purchase (10,000,000) Dinars worth of stock in each of the companies below:
• Banking Sector:
1) AL-WARKA INVESTMENT BANK
• Services Sector:
2) IRAQI LAND TRANSPORT
Purchase (5,000,000) Dinars worth of stock in each of the companies below:
• Banking Sector:
3) Al MANSOUR BANK
• Services Sector:
4) AL NUKHBA CONSTRUCTION
• Industry Sector:
5) BAGHDAD SOFT DRINKS
6) NATIONAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES
7) FALLUJAH CONSTRUCTION
8) CARTON MANUFACTORIES
Purchase (250,000) Dinars worth of stock in each of the companies below:
• Banking Sector:
9) BASRA BANK
• Hotels Sector:
10) BAGDAD HOTEL
11) AL MANSOUR HOTEL
I had a look at the FedEx website (the UK services) and saw that they do deliver goods to Iraq. I have never used FedEx before, and was a bit baffled by the website. Is FedEx a service only used by businesses, or can private individuals use it too? Do you have to have an account with them?
So, Warka did not execute my stock order as referenced above for the reasons below.
Today I sent the documents overnight to the Arab American Chamber of Commerce for certification.
Dear Earl,
According to the current regulations of the ISX to to purchase stock under your name you must first have the following documents certified by the Iraqi Embassy or Iraqi Consulate in your country.
1- Colored Passport Copy and Colored ID Copy
2- Address and contact details.
3- Three signatures for verification.
The documents must bear the Iraqi Embassy seal and are to be sent to our mailing address where it will be submitted to the ISX for verification and approval. Once approved my department will confirm and you can than proceed with purchasing stock in your good. The originals documents will be kept safely in our files.
Best regards,
Mohammad K. Issa
Deputy Managing Director
Senior Executive
International Affairs
Fedex still ships to Iraq and they do serve individuals as well as business; they do not, I am told, at this point, guarantee overnight service to Iraq. Maybe someday...
I would check to see if Fedex has a local office in your area. My experience is that they are very good.
The FedEx website is confusing as it has so much information on it and the FAQs are useless. They do have an office/depot near me, and they also offer a pick up service. I will look through their website today for more information.
For those of you in the U.S. wishing to use the services of the Arab American Chamber of Commerce (Annapolis, MD) in order to expedite Iraqi Embassy certification of documents necessary for ISX trading, note that their address has changed.
Current address, as of 10/28/09:
Arab American Chamber of Commerce
Certification Department
1615 Bayhead Rd.
Annapolis, MD 21409
Attn: Ahmad Miski
Tel: (410) 757-5544 or 1-888-999-5991
Ok Earl, you need to get a couple of concepts straight, I can see that you are going a little bit sideways here.
There are two basic ways you can own and hold stocks.
1. Proxy, this is the most common way most people own stocks. May it be a 401K, Fund or portfolios.
2. By certificate.
If you own by certificate, you are holding your companies in your own name and you are getting your certificates in your hand. The advantage with that is that there are no such things as a middle man between you and the company you are investing in.
That is very nice and ducky, but it will immediately bring with it a lot of obligations, in terms if time and attention.
You are now solely responsible for keeping track of each and every one of the companies splits, boardmeeting announcemets, yearly and quarterly reports, stockdividents etc etc, and you will have a looooot of mailing back and forth to do, plus the time you need to invest just to stay on top of all the details, is about the time you easily could spend building a lifesize model of the Eiffel tower, with glue and matchsticks.
You also need to deal with the Iraqi authorities , you have already presented a list of completely unneccessary things they need. Dont worry about Investors Iraq Forum. The members of that board that like very ornamented certificates, can have them, if they want them.
Proxy holding is when a bank, stock broker firm , fundmanager, investing company etc, holds the stock, and you only have to deal with an acount.
This is by far the most easy way to own stocks.
Any 401K is held that way, any fund is held that way, and even if you open up an account with a stock broker company, and buy the stocks yourself, like Ameritrade, E-trade etc, the only thing you see is an account, and an electronic spread sheat of the stocks you have invested in.
Hardly no one is buying stocks under his/her own name nowadays. It's like insisting on cash, when a bank account will serve you better.
I guess the feeling of holding Dinars in cash , Dollars dollars in cash , or a nicely ornamented stock certificate has its psychological allure.
If you insist that you need to have the stocks under your name , ....well the Warka bank will comply, but you have got yourself into quite a big and unnecesary operation by doing so.
Do yourself a favor and have your stocks by proxy. Warka will for a small fee, do all the legwork, and all you really do yourself will be to electronically watch your portfolio, on a computer screen, while you are sipping coffe.
You only need to tell Warka what to do and they will do it.
Read the following letter, you can use it as an example, fill in your own data and by doing this, Warka will hold your stocks, and care for the "stock maintenance". It is well worth it.
I...(Your Name)...with my own signature, hereby authorize Warka Bank ISX Dep to withdraw from my account ...(fill in your Dinar account number)...the amount given for stock purchase in this ISX purchase order.
Stocks to be purchased in IQD . Amount of stocks purchased will depend on the spot price on the ISX the trading day the transactions takes place.
All stocks, to be held by Warka.
Please Purchase:
1. Alibabas used Camels and Camel repair...................1 million IQD
2. Muhammads wife whip factory.............................1 million IQD
3. Ahmeds bribe services...................................1 million IQD
Total.............3 million IQD
Please Sell:
1. Alem O Bamas hygien articles.................................sell all.
2. Salamis Bikini shop..........................................sell all
...(Your signature)...
...(Your printed name) ....by my on hand. (Time and date)
Please acknowledge this ISX order to ...(your e-mail address)
End of letter (....well...uh...don't write in your purchase order... "end of letter")
Type it out, and print it.
Sign it.
Scan it.
Attach it to the two e-mails, you send to Warka.
Get a plastic binder, and a holepuncher.
Put your purchase orders in the binder, scan all e-mails of purchase results from Warka, and put them also in your binder.
Congratulation, you have now an ISX portfolio.
Warka is apparently not allowing proxy purchase options with new accounts any longer. They appear to be requiring that all ISX accounts transactions, through them, are coupled with the Embassy Certifications.
I sent the below request narrative to Warka early this week with the expectation that my stock picks would be purchased via proxy, until Warka received my Cert. documents:
I, (Earl…) authorize Warka Investment Bank to withdraw approximately (57,500,000) Dinars from my IQD Savings Account # (…) to purchase stocks in the following manner. Stocks are to be held by Warka Investment Bank in trust until it is legal for shares to be transferred into the name of (Earl…or until such time as (Earl…) shall instruct Warka Investment Bank to sell said shares on the Iraq Stock Exchange. It is understood between the parties that Warka Investment Bank shall receive 2% in the form of commission at the time when shares are transferred into the name of (Earl…). The following ISX stock purchases are to be executed for the trading day of (28-10-09).
Warka responded to my stock purchase request the next day with the below email:
Dear Earl,
According to the current regulations of the ISX to to purchase stock under your name you must first have the following documents certified by the Iraqi Embassy or Iraqi Consulate in your country.
1- Colored Passport Copy and Colored ID Copy
2- Address and contact details.
3- Three signatures for verification.
The documents must bear the Iraqi Embassy seal and are to be sent to our mailing address where it will be submitted to the ISX for verification and approval. Once approved my department will confirm and you can than proceed with purchasing stock in your good. The originals documents will be kept safely in our files.
Best regards,
Mohammad K. Issa
Deputy Managing Director
Senior Executive
International Affairs
So, Roger,I don't know, "in trust" may not mean "in proxy."
I'll email Mr. Issa, right now, and specifically ask that he purchase my stock picks via proxy if possible.
The way I read your request to Warka, is, that you pretty much clearly asked them that you should be a stockholder in name and be the stock certificate holder, then after they are transferrred into your name, that Warka should still hold them, and sell them for you.....pretty messy, but ok....and they replied what you have to go through in order to do that.
Selling an old bicycle is a complex affair.
Warka hold them in trust, you hold them in proxy, from the word proximity.
I am a little puzzled how complex this turned out to be. I have bought stocks on the ISX with Warka on many many occasions and it has always been a pretty fast and comparable easy affair.
***If you just use the formletter I posted above, you will be up and running again, do that, and nothing else. (rest of the bloggers, skip this sentence, Earl, you are on probation, and have to sit in detention. Before you can graduate up to your next class in the Dinar game, you must go back to the first *** mark, and read that follwing sentence three times)
As for being an idiot, ...uh...oh...well...if you say so, but I wouldn't brag about it.
As me are concerned, I suffer from insanity, ADD, LSD and UPS. (Suffer and suffer, I must admit I enjoy it, especially when I use my insane thinking hat, a beanie with a propeller on top of it)
Classic time for stocks to move on the US market stronger than usual, have historically always been from about mid fall, to mid spring.
ISX have not been around that long, but the first noticable surge in stocks was detected last year in that same time frame, so if this repeat itself, (very much a great possibility, as they already now show signs of starting to move again), and have your portfolio done pretty soon, you have a good potential of being a smiling man in about a half a years time.
Now, once established, I wouldn't touch the portfolio, just watch it, and possibly adjust it, weed out non performers after a longer trial period, and just in general just keep an eye on it for 5 to 7 years.
No, not Seattle this time around, but who knows, it may be in the future, when I am back from Iraq.
The US involvement is pretty much winding down in Iraq, and the job I have, have a forseable end to it. It's not going to be a career job.
I do transport, and will probably have a job until the end, as they have to move things until the very end. We will see how all this will play out.
There are a lot of rumors floating around, about how long this job will last, but most probably, the company leadership will not say in advance how long they need us working for them.
I do know that the contract for this job is up for bid again, and there are other companies bidding.
This will be the contract bid for the last of the time remainin in Iraq.
We will know by end of Jan or beginning of Feb who won the bid.
For the personell on the scene, it probably doesn't mean much of a difference in case another company would win, as the only thing we would do, would be to wear another name on our hats.
The base I am on, (Taji) will be handed over completely to the Iraqis by the end of Dec next year.
Then there are other unclarities. Some say we will never leave Iraq, as we are still in Germany and Japan. Some claim that we will be completely out at the announced deadline in 2011.
One military told me, we have a 99 year defense agreement with the Iraqis.
There are so much talk where I am, so I decided for my own peace of mind to just do the job as long as I can, and when it is over, it is over.
That means in order for me to get a taxfree income from this, I have to stay outside of the US borders for at least 330 days of the year. That leaves me only 35 days that I can use, to split it up in two or three R%R periods. When I am back home, I really have a lot of things to catch up with, simple but important stuff, and the short time I am back really doesnt lend itsef to travelling and sightseeing.
However when I am done with this job, I am willing to travel around and visit people again.
So for now, this blog site got to have to do. If you need any help in the Dinar game, just blog it here, me or someone else will pick up.
I am willing to tell you everything that I know. (...that will take about a minute and a half), but once I am in Iraq, I have a little bit more limited time, and are forced to use a computer system that is so restrictive and slow, that I always are running the risk of developing Rigor Mortis, when waiting for pages to load up.
So Earl thankyou for the offer to go to Seattle. It would really be a kick, but it have to wait.
I will be back in Iraq far too soon and will continue to surf the shitwave. Turds, smell and everything. A hang ten, and there will be no splashes in the face, just have be careful not to do a whipeout.
Unfortunately, I called the international desk of FEDEX and they confirmed there service to Iraq has been suspended. From the story I am told, FEDEX had an issue with one of their contract shippers there. Feel free to call them and confirm.
Just got informed, that there has actually been changes in Warkas and Iraqs policy of doing stock business.
From what I understand, new Warka customers has to go through the procedure you are telling me about.
Old customers don't.
So, we actually have a differnce here, I have not experienced any problem, and have up until now continued doing what I have always been doing, but you, as a newbie, has to go through a different procedure...seems like.
Oh well, you might as well just go through all this dodo, and have it done and over with.
Sorry, I guess you have to do what you have to do. In the past this was an issue only if you wanted to have stocks in your name and your stocks certificates sent outside the borders of Iraq.
I bet you that it will not take long before they will go retro on this and demand it from all stock holders from the past.
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