topfield

however having reviewed about a thousand of this 42 year old married British ex public school investment banker's two thousand postings I have come to the conclusion that the man is clearly extremely bright, amusing, well informed and intelligent . An IQ of 150 perhaps ? His postings unlike mine, cover every possible subject under the sun and are well written, amusing and informative.

I would recommend anyone to read his compendium of postings for both enjoyment and pleasure and suggest even that a collection of his postings over the last two years be published. In paperback form perhaps ?

If only he would tone down his sharp aggressive wit .....but that would perhaps be out of character.

Well well well.

This is all very intriguing.

I'm surprised people see my banter with Toppy as 'personalised' . . perhaps my assessment of his hide's thickness is different to that of more sensitive folks like chiang mai. I neither know Toppy nor have any strong feelings about him, except an extreme fascination with - and admiration for - his single-minded focus on the Baht / Sterling exchange rate. I'm genuinely fascinated by it. No, really, I am.

Anyway, Topfield . . . it's nice to know you have carefully studied my posts. However, I would like to clear up a few points. I'm neither ex-public school, nor an investment banker. Sadly, I'm from rural working class origins and my days at a squalid comprehensive school in Great Yarmouth were neither happy, nor beneficial. My alma mater and I parted company on bad terms. And these days I'm forced to earn my living in a humble little law firm.

Now, back to the subject at hand. What's happening in the world of foreign exchange today? More volatility?

Hold your horses , Bendix, I do in fact have the greatest admiration for you. Your postings are witty intelligent and amusing. As mentioned were they published in paperback form as a journal of life in Bangkok over the past two years , the book would be a complete sell out.

I honestly believe your vocation should have been as a writer.

You cover every imaginable topic under the sun so perhaps its now understandable after reading over one thousand of your postings you find my interests narrow and boring. You are probably right.

As for my mistakes about you I apologigise but surely I cannot be blamed when postings over the last few days under other topics include :

"I work for the biggest law firm in the world"

...contrast that with what you write above but that makes you even more interesting !

A true Walter Mitty perhaps ?

Any how ..back to the baht......

I see neither flaming nor hostility in the gent's post. In fact, his points are valid. Certainly, the visa application centre is under contract to the embassy, and if they're wrongly applying their remit, this is worthy of mention to the embassy visa section.

The application centre recently declined to take in the application of a client of mine, but a quick fax to the embassy and it was accepted the next day without question.

Scouse.

Seems then that Mr Grant the Entry Clearance Manager is wrong ! Only last week he himself told me that they do not 'control' the VAC . They have a contract with them which sets out the guidlines / framework under which they operate and within that framework they set their procedures .

They do have regular meetings, he said, to discuss issues which presumably includes the current issue of the role of the security guards.

The fact they declined to take an application as mentioned above illustrates clearly their powers and it took a fax to the Embassy before the application was accepted.

As for your comment that the posting was not hostile these are the facts.

A posting is made describing an incident at the VAC the previous day. A posting is then made in response saying that the facts are "inflamatory" and "half the story". Please explain why a sincere and truthful posting made in good faith should be questioned in this way when only facts were related and no opinion whatsoever given ?

Please explain the comment "given your raison d'etre" if it was not intended to villify the person posting .

Thank you

A brilliant exposition !

I can add some further information .

A few years back I was able to access the visa statistics at the Singapore High Commission and I seem to remember that the was not a single refusal of a settlement visa application there.

Secondly the refusals and visas issued statistics stated that they were the "final' decisions ie there may have been earlier refusals and rejections or cases where refusals were issued but on review by the ECM the decision was reversed.

Therefore the published figures should be taken "with a pinch of salt"

VFS / VPS / ECM / Be / UKvac

seems to be a quite interesting story. that is... if one masters foreign languages

Yes , Dr Naam ,

The Embassy refers to them as the VAC...VISA APPLICATION CENTRE

Yet they call themselves VFS !

Indeed confusing !

Topfield,

Given your raison d'etre have you not contacted the ECM at the Embassy to obtain an explanation?

The Be is the principal in the conduct of UKvac who are acting under contract on their behalf.To post such an inflammatory account without first seeking confirmation is only half the story and possibly unhelpful.

Perhaps in the course of your business you could take this forward?

Regards

GENT

1. The processing centre is not controlled by the Embassy , Get your facts straight.

2. The account has been confirmed by the lady in question . The security guards at the door ARE indeed perusing and checking applications. THAT IS A FACT.

2. If a posting is made with the aim of bringing to the attention of people a new and irregular practice at vfs (thailand ) there is no need for stupid hostile and ridiculous personal comments such as 'inflammatory account' and 'half the story'

[G. if you have nothing better to do than flame other members ...and anyone reading the posting including the moderators can see your posting for what it is , you should read the rules of this forum which state that flaming is a clear breach of the rules. Your flame is very similar , and in fact uses the same wording as another member who employed the same tactic. G ..its hard to believe you are not one and the same person as the other G. ]

This afternoon a Thai lady friend returned back from the VFS absolutely fuming.

[This was not a case where a refusal was likely or even possible as two years remained of a valid five year visit visa but as a new passport had been issued to the lady, it was time to get a fresh visa in the new passport, what with the huge fee increase due from 2 April ]

On arrival at the VPS, this lady related , the security guard at the door, who she immediately saw was untrained and uneducated and neither spoke read or understod English demanded the application and accompanying documents be handed over to him for him to check !

The lady refused saying it was not the job of a security guard to peruse applications and she was not prepared to hand over important private confidential documents to him.

A senior Indian officer of the Co was called and came over to the entrance door . He explained these were new regulations of theirs and that the lady had to comply if she wished to enter the VPS.

The guards were, he said, now instructed to go through all applications and reject any applicant whose documents were not complete or in order.

The above was related to me today by the lady herself and although I find it hard to believe , she would never lie.

Has any other applicant had this experience since the start of the week and if correct could it be right for untrained security guards to check through visa applications at the VPS ?

And what about the demand draft scam ?

Cash not accepted by the cashier in payment for visa fees.

But the cashier accepts cash for a demand draft she writes out herself and then accepts !

So why not accept cash in the first place ?

Simple ! Because that way they can earn an extra 35 baht from each applicant !

Multiply that by say fifty thousand applicants and how much extra income do they get ?

A tip : buy the draft yourself from a bank ...cost ten baht !

Nothing wrong with a bit of light banter IMHO - economics can get far too serious. After all, it is the "dismal science"

Yes Bendix can be rather sharp and nasty when he wants to be : ie

"And the Victor Meldrew Award for ThaiVisa's Most Consistently Miserable poster goes to . .. . .

Are you STILL in Thailand, Old Asia Hand? It must be so horrible to be so miserable here all the time. I pity you.

however having reviewed about a thousand of this 42 year old married British ex public school investment banker's two thousand postings I have come to the conclusion that the man is clearly extremely bright, amusing, well informed and intelligent . An IQ of 150 perhaps ? His postings unlike mine, cover every possible subject under the sun and are well written, amusing and informative.

I would recommend anyone to read his compendium of postings for both enjoyment and pleasure and suggest even that a collection of his postings over the last two years be published. In paperback form perhaps ?

If only he would tone down his sharp aggressive wit .....but that would perhaps be out of character.

Nothing wrong with a bit of light banter IMHO - economics can get far too serious. After all, it is the "dismal science"

I humbly disagree ..the above posting was shere nastiness and vilification as chiangmai noted.

Was this recent posting of his more informative.....it is indeed humerous ?

"I'd also advise all pastry investors to go short on Bakewell Tarts, and long on Apple Strudel"

His dry humour resulted in this last week from a member called the Skipper :

...and maybe you (Bendix) should stop wasting bandwidth and stick to posting when you have somthing worthwhile to contribute. Agreed?

Another of his personalised postings last week :

My concern is about the baht. It's about wondering what on earth poor old Topfield is going to do with himself when this all blows over.

Why personalise ?

Do Bloomberg also give these rates side by side on their website?

--

Maestro

Before posting, checked the relevant website and only one rate given there . Of course....in the near future it may be added so dont then say I was giving incorrect info. !!

Were it on the web it would be better as we could then get cross rates ie pound/baht with the click of the mouse !!

http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/index.htm...o=intro_markets

Dear Dr Naam,

I am sure you will disagree violently but the blame for the 1992 Black Wednesday debacle was and is still placed firmly and squarely on the shoulders of the Bundesdank.

Had support been forthcoming ...and remember the DM /Sterling peg at 2.90 was what it was all about , the pound would have survived intact. John Major to this very day believes that it was hostilty towards Britain that prevented any help. When the French Franc came under pressure the Bundesbank gladly assisted. The BOE received not a pfennig of help. Indeed frantic calls by John Major were not even answered !

Steady on there ! Maybe John Major does believe it to be the Bundesbank's fault, but then he wouldn't want to take the blame for entering the UK into a flawed system, would he ? It was he, then as chancellor, and Douglas Hurd the Home Secretary who pressured Mrs Thatcher to join, when the UK economy was in a very weak position. Many eminent economists of the time, in parcular Sir Alan Walters, argued strongly against joining partly on the grounds that it would weaken the economy even further.

OK EVEN IF I accept your argument it was not the Bundesbank to blame for refusing to help Britain out in her need, the weak financial position of the UK was ,if my memory serves me right, not ever mentioned as the cause....Economists believe it was that the rate pegged at 2.90 to the DM was too high.

Had 2.60 been chosen for the ERM then many believe the fiasco would not have occured . Had 2.50 have been chosen most believe it would never have happened. In order for us to join the ERM a precursor to the Euro a rate HAD to be chosen under the rules.

Finally and uniquely for the very first time we can see and compare both rates together.

Today Bloomberg tv has started to quote continuously 24 hours a day

1. Baht offshore

followed by

2. Baht (Thailand)

These rates can be seen on UBC, Asiasat 3 , ABS 1 & Dream (on Agila )

[To the Moderators : this is a new topic as only this way can this important news be made known to ALL those in the business section of the forum.]

"The Sterling Area was a good example of that. As the UK's economic problems mounted, it became inevitable that the pegs would have to go. unofficial markets in currencies began, and money changers prospered. There were no behemoth hedge funds to jump on board in those days, so the process took longer, but in the end the result was the same."

OOPS Dragon! i think you forgot George Soros. in fact it was George and his Quantum fund who gave Sterling the coup de grâce down in summer 1992 and made a killing.

quote:

Soros' Quantum Fund, then and now managed by Stanley Druckenmiller, stepped into this crisis environment to bet against the Italian lire and then the British pound. Indeed, the British position seemed so untenable, Soros "coached" Druckenmiller to leverage an enormous bet of $10 billion. Even as the British government announced a 2% rate hike, Soros kept selling sterling.

By evening of that day, the British were forced to rescind the rate increase and withdraw the pound from the ERM altogether. Sterling immediately plunged relative to the mark, and Soros' hedge fund walked away with more than $1 billion in profits. As the financial writer Adam Smith would later say, "It was the coup of a generation."

p.s. i made a killing too by shorting GBP. not based on speculating but solely to protect my GBP-investment which at that time amounted to more than 25% of my total holdings.

.................

Dear Dr Naam,

I am sure you will disagree violently but the blame for the 1992 Black Wednesday debacle was and is still placed firmly and squarely on the shoulders of the Bundesdank.

Had support been forthcoming ...and remember the DM /Sterling peg at 2.90 was what it was all about , the pound would have survived intact. John Major to this very day believes that it was hostilty towards Britain that prevented any help. When the French Franc came under pressure the Bundesbank gladly assisted. The BOE received not a pfennig of help. Indeed frantic calls by John Major were not even answered !

"The Sterling Area was a good example of that. As the UK's economic problems mounted, it became inevitable that the pegs would have to go. unofficial markets in currencies began, and money changers prospered. There were no behemoth hedge funds to jump on board in those days, so the process took longer, but in the end the result was the same."

OOPS Dragon! i think you forgot George Soros. in fact it was George and his Quantum fund who gave Sterling the coup de grâce down in summer 1992 and made a killing.

quote:

Soros' Quantum Fund, then and now managed by Stanley Druckenmiller, stepped into this crisis environment to bet against the Italian lire and then the British pound. Indeed, the British position seemed so untenable, Soros "coached" Druckenmiller to leverage an enormous bet of $10 billion. Even as the British government announced a 2% rate hike, Soros kept selling sterling.

By evening of that day, the British were forced to rescind the rate increase and withdraw the pound from the ERM altogether. Sterling immediately plunged relative to the mark, and Soros' hedge fund walked away with more than $1 billion in profits. As the financial writer Adam Smith would later say, "It was the coup of a generation."

p.s. i made a killing too by shorting GBP. not based on speculating but solely to protect my GBP-investment which at that time amounted to more than 25% of my total holdings.

No, I didn't forget. It's just not relevent to the dismantling of the Sterling Area - it happened in 1972.

It does, however, reinforce what I said about pegged exchange rates.

Correct the Sterling Area about which I have not even thought for 20 years and George Soros are different matters.

My recollection was that it was a wonderful institution . It opened the monetary prison doors for us in the UK where a fifty pound annual allowance was our only escape to monetary and even personal freedom.

We could not afford to visit the Americas nor most of Continental Europe but most of Asia, Africa and Australasia was open to us. Even in Europe the Scandinavian countries were open to us as they were included in the Sterling Area.

Remember in the early 60's the man fined his lwhole ife savings for "arranging" a wedding gift to his daughter in Israel ? By the late 60's the same man could send what he liked to his daughter as long as a East Jerusalem bank was used !!

Since no info forthcoming on Singapore's role in the sterling area first mentioned by sonic I will try to find a book on the history of the Area.

In the meanwhile I paste an interesting article on the area which was considered a part of the British Financial Empire ..something that had not even occured to me at the time !

................................................................................

......................................................................

The dream of Britain as a global power also included the ‘invisible empire’ of the Sterling Area, to which Britain chose to play the banker. This was despite the fact that her reserves of gold and dollars were well known in Whitehall to be far too scanty for this role. By the end of 1947, the American dollar loan had already been largely spent, but the gulf still remained between the cost of Britain’s self-inflicted global commitments and her inadequate earnings from exports. Without another huge dollar handout, Britain would have to give up all her global strategic commitments, as well as her role as the banker to the Sterling Area, and accept that she was now only a second-class power.

................................................................................

.........................................................................

Sometimes I truly believe that they dont know what they're doing at the BOT. Honestly !

The admitted acknowledged aim of the BOT is to bring down the high flying baht. A trillion baht has been spent buying dollars doing this.

Yesterday rumours spread in the market that the baht would be pegged at 36. For the first time in months the baht started to fall a little.

What did the BOT do ? Instead of keeping quiet and allowing the rumour to persist ....resulting in the aim being achieved through market sentiment ..........

They call a press conference to announce that they have no intention of allowing a baht peg !!

The BOT thus shot itself in the leg and damaged its own self interest .

Are they just stupid or what ??

by the way who or what is Mustafa?

Mustafa Centre, in the indian section. Home of an (in)famous money changer that made a killing when the Sterling Area was dismantled in the 70's (apparently)

Now that I did not know. Mustafa Centre is a 24 hour department store now with probably the largest turnover of any store in Singapore and a huge moneychanger section.

Bv the way is there anywhere I can look up that astonishing fact mentioned ?

What I do know is :

1. The '67 war opened up a huge hole in the sterling area system when East Jerusalem ..Jordan then part of the Sterling Area ....came under Israeli dollar area control ! One could cross the street and change pounds into dollars.

2. The infamous Kuwait Gap where sterling was easily exchanged for dollars

Singapore must have been in the Sterling Area as British. Would just love to know what happened there.

Dear Meerkat,

A very fair and reasonable reply . A sincere apology if you were inconvenienced.

I see. Hmm glad I didn't transfer the money fully, off to the bank tomorrow to drag the funds back.

Thanks for the second opinion

Here's a third opinion....Sonic is 100 percent correct in my view. Also its 15 percent over the whole period NOT PER YEAR.

If you are a non UK resident and not liable to UK Income and Capital gains tax, ...something you can check up on, ....why choose an investment structured mainly to avoid / mitigate UK income and gains tax ?

Ok, so to avoid upsetting anyone by sending unwanted PMs, and to avoid discussing anything not allowed on TV (??), does anyone have a URL that can give me a better idea what alternatives I have if I want a UBC replacement...?

jsat.tv

Also see the websites below then talk to :

1. www.satthai.tv

2. http://bkkcabletv.com

both Thai Co's speaking some English so none of the high falang prices of our Kiwi friend and sat guru Jon Clarke (jsat)

Apology for what ? You gladly and happily told everyone in detail about your superb sat system on this very same section of this forum and then blame people for passing on the good news and recommending you as an expert . Come off it !

What do others think ? Was this a breach of TV rules or of polite behaviour or just passing on knowledge for others to benefit ? Or would you have prefered that people were told : dont pm that guy for info ...he's a nasty b****** . For Heaven's sake you were recommended as an expert, man !!

That's the whole point.

I am not an expert. My field of expertise (ironic seeing as it's you with whom I'm having this discussion) is interbank FX and rates.

I'm just a bog-standard customer of the company concerned who posted his experiences, and pointed out that interested parties should go direct to the company's site for more information. You made me out to be the expert and recommended people mail me as such - I even had somebody today mailing me as to whether he could pay me a subscription to run his system!

Thus my first post to you this evening; if you want to pump me up as an expert, perhaps you should have had the common decency to check with me first. I appreciate you were only trying to help, but your good intentions proved a pain in my backside because of your ill judgement.

To those who have pm'd me over this affair: I think I've replied to everybody, and I've tried to provide the best information that I could in a limited time-frame (a had a tee-time... ), but as I think I put in all your messages, check out Jsat (a company I have no connection with aside from being a happy custie).

A very fair and reasonable reply . I do apologise if you were inconvenienced.

Can you really blame people for contacting you ??

The beauty of a public forum is that one is able to divulge information to many people simultaneously, without having to rehash everything to each and all individually. If you note my post, which you so graciously cross-posted from another thread, you'll read that I referred people to the company involved rather than ask to be contacted directly. The private messages only started after you pimped my name.

A simple apology would have sufficed.

"you'll read that I referred people to the company involved " [meerkat]

Yes indeed , you refered to jsat ( saying they were rather expensive) TO HAVE THE WORK CARRIED OUT !

People want to contact you for ADVICE and guidance following your posting directed at ALL TV members.

I saw nowhere a request that members not to seek your help !

Can you really blame people for contacting you ??

The beauty of a public forum is that one is able to divulge information to many people simultaneously, without having to rehash everything to each and all individually. If you note my post, which you so graciously cross-posted from another thread, you'll read that I referred people to the company involved rather than ask to be contacted directly. The private messages only started after you pimped my name.

A simple apology would have sufficed.

i

Apology for what ? You gladly and happily told everyone in detail about your superb sat system on this very same section of this forum and then blame people for passing on the good news and recommending you as an expert . Come off it !

What do others think ? Was this a breach of TV rules or of polite behaviour or just passing on knowledge for others to benefit ? Or would you have prefered that people were told : dont pm that guy for info ...he's a nasty b****** . For Heaven's sake you were recommended as an expert, man !!

Can you really blame people for contacting you ??

The beauty of a public forum is that one is able to divulge information to many people simultaneously, without having to rehash everything to each and all individually. If you note my post, which you so graciously cross-posted from another thread, you'll read that I referred people to the company involved rather than ask to be contacted directly. The private messages only started after you pimped my name.

A simple apology would have sufficed.

i

DEAR MEERKAT

Regarding your complaint about being refered to and recommended, this is what you yourself posted a week or so back . Can you really now blame people for seeking your help and advice ??

................................................................................

..............................

"I’ll try and talk you through it as I have a similar set-up to Ignis.

My system has three parts:

1. A dish. Moveable in my case so I can point it to various satellites visible from Thailand. You could get a cheaper fixed dish, but then you’re obviously limited to looking at one sat network. You need to make sure you can see the sky to the South (ie over the equator) – that’s where the satellites hang.

2. A box to control the dish (ie to move it). I use an old Dynasat Angelbox, but there are many available. Of course if you only go with a fixed dish, you can do without this piece of kit.

3. The actual set-top box you use to watch the signal. Again tons to choose from, but like Ignis I’ve gone with the Dreambox DM500S. The reason being that there is tons of online support and a stack of free add-ons for extra functionality.

With this set-up, you will be able to watch “Free to Air” (FTA) channels from whatever satellites are in view.

The Dreambox can also do a lot more. I’ve got three of them connected to my home LAN. I can use the Hard disk on my PCs to record programmes direct from any of the ‘boxes, then later play back those programmes to any TV connected to one of them. I can also “stream” live TV from the box to my laptop over my home WiFi network. You’ll often find me in the garden with a beer, watching live cricket on my laptop – no cables to plug in!

Do bear in mind that to do some of the more complicated things with these boxes, you need to dig around with Linux, so not for the faint-hearted. But once they’re set-up, they seem to work brilliantly. I used Jsat to install my system, and whilst they’re more expensive than some of the other companies, you are paying for excellent after-sales service (in my experience), which for me is important. Check out their site – they have a comprehensive list of what’s available, along with prices."

...............................................................................

Can you really blame people for contacting you ??

Also pm 'meerkat' if you've got broadband. From his posting he's got the best set up in town ! Cant discuss here......its against TV rules !!

If you're going to start inviting people on multiple threads to mail me for advice, don't you think it might have been polite to have asked me first? Whilst I try to be charitable with my time, I've been inundated with requests for help that have pushed even my patience, many of whom seem to be under the false impression that I work in the industry.

Dear Friend ...sorry for that but if you did publicly openly and proudly tell everyone on the sat section of this forum about your superb system, can you not expect people to seek your help and advice ?

Will try to see exactly what you wrote but if I remember rightly you seemed quite willing and happy to share your good fortune .

As for multiple threads my goodness...its only been a couple and all were on the same section of TV namely where sat viewing was mentioned.

The moral is if you win on the pools you dont tell people if you dont want a response !!! .....