Trivia Nights

Do you know a lot of random facts that is seemingly useless? Feel like you wasted time watching countless hours of TV? Well, then you should come join us for Trivia Night and put all that random knowledge to use. This week in our bid to make it to the State Championship, we're going to do two Trivia Nights. The first one will be tomorrow (Wednesday) night at the aptly named Stadium Bar near the football stadium. The first question is asked at 8 p.m. The second Trivia Night will be on Sunday at Branch Street Retreat in Middleton. The first round starts 6:30 p.m.

Everyone is welcomed to join as the more people playing the better our odds of winning so feel free to bring friends. Don't feel like you're "smart" enough to play? Well your worries are completely unfounded because no one person knows all the answers. This is a team effort. We all have our strengths. So why not join us for some fun putting your random knowledge of obscure facts to use?

Please let us know if you need a ride.

Trivia Night #1
Date: Wednesday November 3rd
Time: 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Location: Stadium Bar, 1419 Monroe St.

Trivia Night #2
Date: Sunday November 7th
Time: 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Location: Branch Street Retreat, 2644 Branch St. Middleton, WI

Come take a much needed break from studying and school work.

Beaujolais Nouveau Party

Due to the popularity of our prior wine tastings, AAAGS is more than delighted to announce our next wine tasting. The wine enthusiasts or people who have lived in France out there probably can already guess what the theme for this Wine will be. That's right, it being November now (What? It's already November?!?) we're having a Beaujolais Nouveau party. For those of you not familiar with Beaujolais Nouveau and the hoopla surrounding the annual release of this wine on the 3rd Thursday of November, on the 3rd Thursday of November, everyone tries to be the 1st to serve the newly released Beaujolais Nouveau.

Beaujolais wines are a light, fruity red wine from the Burgundy region of France. There are 4 levels of quality to Beaujolais. From lowest quality to highest, we have Beaujolais Nouveau, Beaujolais, Beaujolais Village, and finally the best, Grand Cru.

Vanessa Merina has graciously offered to host our Beaujolais Nouveau party at her apartment. Please respond if you would like to attend and we will send out a confirmation e-mail with Vanessa's address.

Don't be concerned if you don't know much about wines. This is a nice way to start learning about wine while amongst the company of good friends. So just bring a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau wine or some food to share and come and learn a little more about the nectar of the gods. Mostly importantly though, come and enjoy some good wine with some good company. It should also be mentioned that drinking is not a requirement to attend. You are more than welcomed to come learn about wine and meet new people without partaking in the wines.

Date: Friday, 19th of November
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Vanessa Merina's apartment

Short Squeezes

Tonight at 8 p.m. we will be meeting in room 3119 of Chamberlin Hall as usual for the next investment meeting. We will be talking about how to find potential short squeezes. All are welcomed so feel free to bring friends.

Trivia Night

In our Fall Trivia Night debut, we are off to a great start on our quest for the State Championship winning 1st place and a $40 gift card. In our bid for the State Championship which includes a $1000 cash 1st place prize, we will be playing Trivia Night 6 times over the course of the next 6 weeks. This week we will be playing at the Claddaugh on Thursday October 21th. 1st question starts at 7:30 p.m.

Everyone is welcomed to join and the more people playing the better our odds of winning. Don't feel like you're "smart" enough to play? Well your worries are completely unfounded. No one person knows all the answers and this is a team effort. We all have our strengths. So why not join us for some fun putting your random knowledge of obscure facts to use?

Please let us if you need a ride.

Location
Claddaugh
1611 Aspen Commons
Middleton, WI

Date: Thursday October 21th

Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. (latest)

The Macro Data

The month of September wasn't the terrible month feared by many pundits. Quite the opposite in fact with the Dow gaining 7.7%, Nasdaq a whopping 8.8%, and S&P 5.6%. A lot of things have been happening. Currency intervention by the Bank of Japan (BOJ), QE2 (2nd round of quantitative easing or in layman's terms the Fed printing more money), and now earnings season has started in earnest.

It is only apt to have another meeting to learn how all this comes into play. So let's meet this Thursday, October 14th at 7 p.m. in room 3119 of Chamberlin Hall. We'll continue going over the basics of investing in stocks and learn how the macro(economic) data affect the markets.

For the time being, the market has an asymmetric risk profile with a bias towards the upside. Good news is good news and the market will up because it means the economy is improving. Bad news and the market will still go up as evident by last Friday's poor jobs report (95,000 jobs lost for the month of September) and the markets rallied strongly. Why is this? Because right now bad news means the Fed (Federal Reserve) will act sooner to help keep the recovery on track by engaging in a 2nd round of quantitative easing (QE2), Wall Street gibberish for the Fed printing money up the wazoo. The market is banking on the fact that QE2 will occur during the Fed's meeting next month and for the moment the market will be paying more attention to the macro data (the Fed and QE2) than the micro(economic) (earnings of the individual companies).

Next PFD meeting cancelled

The next investment meeting scheduled for September 29th is cancelled due to a recent development. Also as Wednesdays are a bad time for people, we're shifting the meetings to Thursdays at 8 p.m. in room 3119 of Chamberlin. Starting either October 14th or 21th, the investment group will meet regularly every other 2 weeks.

Apple Picking

Is there any other activity that just screams fall than apple picking? Many of you probably have fond memories of this fall classic and now you can relive this part of your childhood. Now if you were unfortunate enough not to have experienced such a fall classic then the only thing to say is you poor "deprived" child, but that can easily be rectified as the UW Association for Asian American Graduate Students is going apple picking at Eplegaarden, a quaint Norwegian apple orchard just outside of Madison.

Yeah, it being Wisconsin (nothing but farmland for miles all around once you leave Madison; I know, what were we thinking?), we'll have to drive to the orchard, but rides can be set up if needed.

In addition to picking fresh apples right off the trees, there's pumpkins from the patch and raspberry picking available. Eplegaarden also has a store where you can buy fresh apple cider among other things (wouldn't surprise me if there's apple pie but no guarantees).

Location:2227 Fitchburg Road (in Fitchburg, WI)
Time:11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Fall Mixer

It's that time of year again. Classes have started, September hits and the weather instantly turns to autumn (this is what we get for going to Wisconsin), and beginning of the semester socials to meet new people and catch up with old friends. Speaking of which, AAAGS will be having their Fall Mixer this Friday, September 10th from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Terrace. Drop by to catch up with friends regaling them with stories of your summer adventures or meet new ones.

Getting in the Game

Welcome to the start of a new academic year. With the start of a new academic year, it's time to start over with the investment group started up last year. Our first meeting will be next Wednesday, September 15th at 7 p.m. in Chamberlin Hall room 3119. The plan is to meet every other Wednesday afterwards. We'll be learning the basics like what a mutual fund is and the differences between bonds and stocks are along with going over the some Wall Street gibberish like "asset class allocation", "underexposed to equities", and "hedging against a correction by shorting the common against calls".

Corn Festival

All you out of towners if you're looking for a Midwest thing to do, well you can't get anymore Midwest than going to a corn festival. That's right, you read correctly. The annual Corn Festival in Sun Prairie is this weekend where you can eat lots and lots of corn (told you you couldn't get any more Midwestern than this). Witness this spectacle of corn consumption (over 70 tons according to the website) for yourself. If consuming copious amount of corn doesn't appeal to you (and we aren't suggesting that you gorge yourself on a bushel even though the corn is so delicious. All in moderation.), there are also a few demonstrations and shows going on. I wouldn't surprise me if there was also music playing. It seems hillbilly enough.

A group is planning to go on Sunday at 2 p.m. If you're interested in going to the Corn Festival and need a ride, please let us know so that we may coordinate accordingly. Those who want to drive their own car there can coordinate to follow the carpool. Have some cash on hand for admission ($1) and corn ($6/tote, $1.50/ear).

Bring along friends and share this unique experience that can only be found in Wisconsin.