http://uk.houseprices.yahoo.net/

I spent some time looking around other parts of Bloomberg on Friday (I normally spend most time on AXCD). Looking at FTSE, I was comparing the index level with BBC and Yahoo, and discovered that Yahoo leads both BBC, and surprisingly Bloomberg.

• Yahoo

• BBC

• Bloomberg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471770574/qid=1148567945/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/203-6138512-1161516

Aaron Brown posts on Wilmott regularly

http://www.wilmott.com/tombstone.cfm?ProfileID=18

and the book was discussed on here

http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=34004

This hasn't been reviewed on Amazon.co.uk yet, but has several reviews on the U.S. site

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0471770574/qid=1148567945/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-6532838-8605402?n=283155

Definitely a book worth reading - but it would be good to have a bit more written about his trading experiences rather than poker

MiFID requires that you are giving your client best execution.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/About/What/International/EU/fsap/mifid/index.shtml

http://www.exchange-handbook.co.uk/articles_story.cfm?id=54127

Section 4.29 states that CDS (single name and tranches) come under the requirement

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/discussion/dp06_03.pdf

although section 4.39 indicates that equities will require the most transparency.

The following link appeared on ContractorUK today

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002671.html

After adding a type field to our entity table today I filtered on all "Sovereign" CDS and was surprised to find there was CDS issued on IRAQ. The underlying bond is XS0240295575. Unsurprisingly of the ~100 sovereign CDS, it has the highest spread of around 420 bps for 5 year. Jamaica was second.

The Sensex was extremely volatile on Monday

with the market having to be suspended for an hour after it plunged 10%. The police have been told to watch for suicide attempts at likely spots such as lakes and canals.

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2006/may/23mkt1.htm

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_1703947,0015002500000000.htm

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=126&art_id=qw1148291100209B253

Looking at the performance over the past five years, there may still be a long way to fall

I'm coming to the end of Knight Rider Series 2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009NS9EW/qid=1148457632/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_3/203-6138512-1161516

so was pleased to discover Series 3 came out a couple of days ago on Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F9RAF4/qid=1148457632/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/203-6138512-1161516

along with Series 3 of the A-Team

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000F9RAEU/qid=1148457690/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_3/203-6138512-1161516

with Miami Vice Series 2 released in July

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BRPX3Q/qid=1148457703/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_3_2/203-6138512-1161516

http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/en/register.aspx

Several products available for download

I am going to download Office Professional Plus for my home laptop - There will come a point when I rebuild the machine on 2003 Server R2

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/default.mspx

but am not sure whether to wait until IE7 and Office 2007 are released. I also need to upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 and install SQL 2005 SP1. Or do I install Window Longhorn Server Beta 2 and treat the machine as a beta machine.

http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3608386

I downloaded IE7 beta 2 onto my machine last week and thought I'd test it by clicking on a link in an email I knew to be suspect (allegedly from Barclays). After clicking on the link, IE7 bought up the following screen.

I was impressed by this, but after navigating to another (non suspect site) was informed that the phishing service was temporarily offline.

I've no idea how you go about getting prosecuted for this!!

http://www.aatrust.com/files/reports/01042004_whoaggression.pdf

http://www.criminal-solicitors.com/bicycles.htm

I was discussing with someone recently how many countries we had been to starting with different letters of the alphabet. I thought my score of 12 would be good but was humbled by a colleague's 20.

According to the FCO, the maximum score is 25, with only "X" missing

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029390590

After attending the CQF open evening and looking at the practice test, I decided that I was in strong need of a Maths refresher - I signed up for the 7 city Maths for Quant course

http://www.7city.com/maths_for_quants.php?area=quants&outline=matqua&course=matqua

This starts on Wednesday with the CQF starting next month. I will give full feedback upon completion (hopefully!) of the CQF in December.

Aaron Brown's new book "The Poker Face of Wall Street" had been getting good reviews on Amazon amongst others

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471770574/qid=1146592674/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/026-5480746-2507658

http://www.wilmott.com/messageview.cfm?catid=11&threadid=34004

so I thought I would place an order. When I ordered it the book was priced at £14.11, so in order to qualify for free shipping I ordered some rechargeable batteries

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00064A0TG/qid=1146592868/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/026-5480746-2507658

They were priced at £4.79. However, what I didn't realise until checkout was that they were from a third party so would not qualify for the free postage. I didn't have time to go through the process again so completed the order.

The batteries hadn't turned up until this morning so I checked the order - the postage on the batteries alone was £4.50 (for 4 triple A batteries!!). After further investigation I found Amazon selling them for £5.82 - this would have qualified for free shipping. If I were Amazon I would rate prices with P&P included.

To further annoy me, the above book's price was slashed in half - I hope it's a good read!!

http://www.developerday.co.uk/ddd/default.asp

I would be tempted to go if it wasn't on a Saturday in the middle of Summer!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9033-another-fundamental-constant-accused-of-changing.html

I used to subscribe to New Scientist last year, but found most issues pretty unexciting.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/02/amazon_ditches_google_microsoft/

http://a9.com/amazon

I'm not sure how financially driven this decision was, but my (very) unscientific testing a few months ago put Google behine Yahoo and Live

http://www.noelwatson.com/blog/PermaLink,guid,e038a044-fe1d-4275-860d-f60bf549954a.aspx