Blog Archive: April 2020

Rundāle Palace and Garden

25 April, 2020 | Tourism objects | 18 seen

Rundāle Palace  is one of the two major baroque palaces built for the Dukes of Courland in what is now Latvia, the other being Jelgava Palace. The palace was built in two periods, from 1736 until 1740 and from 1764 until 1768. It is situated at Pilsrundāle, 12 km west of Bauska.

The palace and its garden are among the top 10 destinations to visit in Latvia. 

We have been heading to Rundāle once in a while, when in Latvia, preferably in Summer.

Rundala palace and its garden

In 1735 Duke of Courland Ernst Johann von Biron bought land in Rundāle with an old medieval castle in the territory of a planned summer residence. The old castle was demolished and construction after the design of Bartolomeo Rastrelli started in 1736.

Construction proceeded slowly because part of the materials and resources were transferred to the construction of Jelgava Palace, a project which was more important for the duke. Following Biron's fall from grace in 1740, the palace stood unfinished and empty until 1762 when Biron returned from his exile.

Under the…

Guest House Old Wall in Lagodekhi

24 April, 2020 | Hotel reviews | 9 seen

Offering a barbecue and children's playground, Guest House Old Wall is situated in Lagodekhi.

Property is set within the historic walls of the old castle Lakuasti. Guests can enjoy the on-site bar. Free WiFi is available throughout the property and free private parking is available on site.

This was our first stay in Lagodekhi, during a recent trip to the region (September 2019), we arrived here after a nice and comfy stay at Akhasheni Wine Resort near Gurjaani. 

Guest House Old Wall in Lagodekhi

It was decided to use this guesthouse as a base to reach the Ninoskhevi waterfall. And seems the guest house is one of the top choices for travelers from all around the World to get there.

Rooms feature mountain or garden views. Guests can enjoy traditional Georgian dishes on site.

Interior inside guest house

Nice and cozy. We were offered a duplex room, but as we were traveling with a toddler, we asked to switch our rooms and were presented room in the first floor.

During our one night stay here we met travelers from Germany, Israel. In the evening kid hosts made a supra for us in the…

3 Trades to Generate $200/mo Selling Naked Puts on Dividend Stocks

22 April, 2020 | Options trading | 48 seen

Selling naked puts on dividend stocks is one of my favorite income-generating strategies. I've been selling options since the end of March 2019, and as a seasoned dividend income investor, I find options as one of the best inventions of our time. 

3 Trades to Generate $165 - $350/mo Selling Cash-Secured Put Options

Income from options regularly puts food on our family table (or at least buys some candies).

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I sell puts and calls. Also, I do verticals on the S&P 500 (SPX), and trade futures on Gold, and other instruments. the most important - I find a lot of fun there.

Investment Goal #7 - Selling Puts to Own / Generate Income

Recently I was reading a good article about 3 Trades to Generate $1,000 Every Month Selling Puts article, where the author talks about selling puts on Microsoft, BP, and XLF stocks. The author also finds it will require about $46,100 to generate $1,020/mo or 2.21% yield/mo. 

I decided to…

Top 12 Laptops with NVIDIA Quadro Graphics Card

20 April, 2020 | Laptop Reviews | 1,540 seen

From stunning industrial design to advanced special effects to complex scientific visualization, Quadro is the world’s preeminent visual computing platform.

Trusted by millions of creative and technical professionals to accelerate their workflows, only Quadro has the most advanced ecosystem of hardware, software and tools to transform the disruptive challenges of today into business successes of tomorrow.

Quadro delivers desktop-class performance to mobile workstations in incredibly powerful, thin, and light form factors. Access the power of RTX anywhere — tackle complex datasets with ease, render photorealistic images interactively, and develop life-like VR experiences on the go

In this article, you will find both Intel core i7 and latest Intel Core i9 powered laptops with Nvidia Quadro graphics cards, from serries of P500, P520, P2000, RTX 3000. M1200, P100, T1000, T2000, P1000 and more

You should expect to spend about $1,300 - $4,400 for  NVIDIA Quadro graphics card powered  laptop 

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page…

What Happens to Options While Stock is Doing Reverse Split

18 April, 2020 | Options trading | 142 seen

Stock splits are not rare, they happen quite often. 

In this article, I'm going to try to shed some light on what happens to options when stock is doing a reverse split.

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On March 24, 2020, I bought both call and put ratio back spread options on XOP ETF.

A couple of days later I was reading on SeekingAlpha that XOP is doing a reverse stock split (4:1)

My first question was  - what happens to my options now I'm currently holding on XOP ETF.

In today's article, I will try to find answers on two questions - what is a reverse stock split? and what happens to options hold while stock is doing a reverse split?

Reverse stock split for XOP 4:1

From SeekingAlpha:

• In the past month, XES has declined 67% to $2.13 per share and XOP has fallen 57% to $7.54 per share.
• Both ETFs will trade at their post-reverse split price-effective March 30, 2020.

I made a comment on that article:

And…

Akhasheni Wine Resort

17 April, 2020 | Hotel reviews | 18 seen

Akhasheni Wine Resort is located near the town of Gurjaani, Georgia.

This 4-star resort offers a 24-hour front desk. Guests can chill out in the outdoor swimming pool. 

We booked this hotel at the start of September and paid about $95 for a one night stay.  

Top Gurjaani Hotels & Guest Houses

Room at Akhaseni wine resort

Simple and cozy. 

One of the main features of this hotel is it outdoor pool with warm water, taking a swim in the middle of vineyards, yes this is quite possible here.

Outdoor swimming pool 

As it was rtveli time, I asked permission to go inside the vineyards to try grapes from the field. mhm, it tasted so good. 

Boasting free bikes and a restaurant, Akhasheni Wine Resort is set in Gurjaani. This 4-star resort offers a 24-hour front desk. Guests can chill out in the outdoor swimming pool.

Free WiFi is accessible to all guests, while certain rooms come with a terrace.

The resort offers a continental or buffet breakfast.

Akhasheni Wine Resort offers a barbecue. Cycling is among the activities that…

Top 10 Laptops with 128GB RAM (Mobile WorkStations)

13 April, 2020 | Laptop Reviews | 2,069 seen

Just like 64GB RAM laptops, laptops with 128 GB RAM are specially upgraded to meet the needs for very demanding processing.

Most of the 128 GB RAM laptops come with the latest Intel Core i9 processors, but also Intel core 7 is featured quite frequently. . 

These beastly powerful mobile workstations come with a price attached, expect to spend at least $3,000 up to $7.000 for a 128 GB RAM laptop

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for laptop computers listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and are updated daily. For actual prices please refer to the product page on Amazon.

• Processor: Intel Core i9-11950H (8C / 16T, 2.6 / 5.0GHz, 24MB)
• Memory: 128 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-3200 Non-ECC;…

Hotel 'San Francisco' Milan

10 April, 2020 | Hotel reviews | 9 seen

Hotel San Francisco is a 5-minute walk from the Politecnico di Milano University. Rooms offer free Wi-Fi and a TV. Loreto Metro Station is just 300 m away.

We booked this hotel for a one night stay during our trip to Italy, Switzerland back in November 2019. The price we paid was not very high (some $60 or $80 per night)

The hotel is pretty much centrally located, as we arrived here wit a rental car we parked in on the nearby street and were paying about EUR 3 per day (they charged parking fee from 9AM tlll 13AM). This is one of the lowest parking fees in Europe I've ever seen.

Hotel San Francisco in Milan, Italy

Our room featured a small balcony with a street view.

From here we were able to walk to the "major shopping street" - Corso Buenos Aires. 

The San Francisco Hotel has excellent public transport links around the city by both tram and metro.

Simple room

Our room featured two separate beds, which was actually quite nice, as we traveled with our baby girl and she had her own bed.

Top 20 Laptops with 64GB RAM (Gaming / Business)

6 April, 2020 | Laptop Reviews | 1,194 seen

64GB RAM laptops mostly are specially upgraded by third-party resellers to meet the needs of demanding gaming experience.

Most of the 64 GB RAM laptops come with the latest Intel Core i7 processors, also the Intel core 9 is gaining momentum. Though not as popular as less RAM-enabled models, these models will find their audience among gaming enthusiasts and business users

For a better gaming performance or high-end business, use expect to spend at least $1,500 up to $4.000 for a 64 GB RAM laptop

Keep reading to find out TOP 20 laptops with 64 GB RAM memory, alternatively, see 

• Top 20 Laptops with 32GB RAM (Gaming / Business)
• Top 15 Laptops With 24GB RAM Memory - For Better Gaming Experience

A quick note: This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I might earn an affiliate income from that. Prices for laptop computers listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product Advertising API and is updated daily. For actual prices please refer on the product…

Taverna in Bauska

3 April, 2020 | Restaurant reviews | 14 seen

Taverna is a restaurant,  centrally located in the Bauska town, Latvia, serving traditional Latvian cuisine.

I have been coming to this place once in a while (if in the area), so did happen last time, back in July 2019, while we were en route to the famous Rundale castle, we made a stop in Bauska, and Taverna time it was.

Restaurant Taverna in Bauska

In a busy season (Summer) order taking could take some time and meal preparation can take about an hour, 

Outdoor deck

The long wait can be compensated with a lovely scenery

Traditional Latvian cuisine - pork chops  

March 2020 Dividend Income Report - $163.01

1 April, 2020 | Investments | 17 seen

Welcome to the thirty-fifth (#35) dividend income report, covering earnings I've made from dividend-paying stocks and peer to peer lending in March 2020.

Last March we spent both in Latvia and Georgia, due to the Covid19 outbreak we have put ourselves into a self-isolation here in Tbilisi.

Since March 17 there is a lockdown in Georgia, As preschool is canceled our daughter now is actively taking her online class. Amazing what a 20-month old can do.

Our Tbilisi balcony in HDR on the last day of March 2020

Seems we are going to spend a lot of time here for the next weeks/months, as the weather gets better, everything already starts to blossom. Pretty awesome scenery. 

From the perspective of the market, last March, just like February was a bloodbath, the Corona Virus dominated the news and streets in Europe and the US, all major indexes (S&P 500, Dow Jones) were down additional 10-15%. Our nest egg suffered a lot, and now I'm a bit worried because of possible dividends trims. 

Speaking of them (dividends) - Last March was so so,…