On Oct 12th 2009, the day I received this fantastic offer, EMIE.PK closed at USD 4.25 but Addison Management Group Asia offered me the shares for USD 4.00 since they had institutional buying power and passed the discount on to their customers. This discount story alone should make all your scam alarms go off – there is no not such thing as a “free lunch”.

Since then, there has been pretty much no movement at all in EMIE.PK (not before Oct 12th either for that matter) and the trading volume has been just under 2000 shares spread over 5 days in the 90 day period. The current close is USD 4.50. Check it here.

The small trading volume of EMIE.PK is also a warning sign that the offer is strange. I was offered 10 ooo shares, that equals the total trading volume in the period from March 7th 2008 to Oct 12th 2009.

Looks like Addison Management Group Asia was unlike with this one – EMIE.PK didn’t live up the expectations. I suggest that Addison Management Group Asia fire their analysts and secure the services of chimpanzee Lusha instead – she’s likely to pick better stocks and at a fraction of the cost – how much is a banana in India nowadays?

One person forwarded me an email he had received from “his” Senior Account Executive at Addison Management Group Asia. The email address is mail@addisonmanagementgroupasia.com (can someone teach their IT department how to create personal email accounts?). I ran an email header tracer on the email and it originates from GoDaddy servers in Arizona. No India connection on that one as far as I can tell.

Finally, the domain name (addisonmanagementgroupasia.com) expires on Feb 3rd 2010, registered for only one year.
What’s your guess, will Addison Management Group Asia renew it and continue their “successful” business?

For some strange reason I woke up this morning and realized that I had a newfound curiosity in fraudulent online behavior.
Wouldn’t it be cool to be able to check if the sender of an email really is the person he/she claims to be?

I am familiar email headers but not until now have I had an urge to understand more about how it actually works. An email header is little message travelling with every email containing information about the sender, the receiver, the subject and a few more things.

Your email client (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) will display parts of the email header, typically From: , To: and Subject:. It is very easy to fake the From: information in an email so you need retrieve the full email header with the complete information about the email message to try to find the true origin of the email. With the full email header you can see where the email started its journey and how the email has traveled across the internet so reach your inbox.

You retrieve the full email header in different ways depending on your email client. For Outlook 2007 just right-click on the email in your Inbox (don’t open the email) and in the Internet Headers section you see the full header information. For instructions on how to retrieve the email header in other email clients just Google on: view email header [your email client]. There’s also a guide to some of the most common email clients here: http://www.ip-adress.com/faq/view_email_header/

Ok, you’ve got the full email header now! The interesting part of it is the Received: lines. Scroll through the email header and look for Received: and the text immediately following.

Here is an example from an email from I received the another day from cqmw40mmg@urscorp.com.
URS Corp is one of the largest engineering design firms in the world and a major US government contractor. I was curios to see what they wanted to inform me of but reading the mail the Subject: and the Body: of the mail seemed very strange…

Received: from jura.zsem.hr (193.198.217.4 [193.198.217.4]) by sj1-dm03.mta.everyone.net (EON-INBOUND) with SMTP id sj1-dm03.4ace186c.408bb2 for <fredrik@lyhagen.com>; Thu, 8 Oct 2009 23:03:11 -0700

You see name of the sender’s domain (jura.zsem.hr) and the IP-address (193.198.217.4) associated with that domain. Thereafter you see to which domain the email was sent (sj1-dm03.mta.everyone.net) and finally the To: information and a time stamp.

The first step to check the senders IP-address could be to just copy-paste the entire header to a web page that will analyse the header for you and return the IP-address and as much info as it can retrieve. This is likely to work if the sender is not not trying to conceal their real location and identify.

Copy the full header from one of your email to this page and see what it returns: http://www.ipaddresslocation.org/email-tracking/email-header.php

Copying the full email header from the example above to http://www.ipaddresslocation.org/email-tracking/email-header.php I see that the email is sent from Croatia.  This email is probably not from URS Corp and they have just been used a facade to hide the identity of the true sender.

http://whatismyipaddress.com/staticpages/index.php/trace-email-source-IP-address

The email header tracing will not always give you as much information as in this example. Sometimes you only get the IP-address and you will need to check the owner of the IP-address and the domain name associated with the IP-address. Just search on DNS lookup and you’ll find plenty of sites offering this.

As an example go to http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/ and enter the IP-address: 74.125.53.100

Now, imagine that you get a call from somebody offering you a fantastic investment opportunity. Since you are a bit careful with your money you ask the person to send you an email with the offer so you can think it over properly.

You may want to run a check on the origin of the email to understand if the sender location matches with the location of the country he/she claims to be calling from. Or if the company the person is calling from has an office in the same location as the location of the IP-address in the sender’s email header.

On their site I find that the latest newsletter is from February 2009. A bit old but maybe I can learn something about their investment philosophy by reading it.

The newsletter was quite interesting  so I check to see the name of the journalist / analyst providing such insight. No references. Let’s try a little experiment:  I copy-pasted the first paragraph of the newsletter to Google search and guess what I found!

The same text, written by Manuel Schiffres, was published by Kiplinger on Dec 15th, 2008: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/2008/pick1215.htm

So I did the same on the second section of Addison Management Group Asia February Newsletter.

That text was also published by Kiplinger, on Dec 16th 2008, written by Anne Kates Smith: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/2008/pick1216.htm
I must have missed the source notation on the Addison Management Group Asia February Newsletter so I checked that again. None.

Strange, there are no references to neither Kiplinger nor the two journalists in the newsletter so I guess that can only mean one thing: Manuel and Anne both work for Addison Management Group Asia. But hang on, Manuels and Anne biographies on Kiplinger.com say that the are employed by Kiplinger. Well, well, maybe Addison Management Group Asia purchased the articles from Kiplinger and just forgot to mention the source. Shit happens!

Although Addison Management Group Asia may have forgot to give Manuels and Anne credit for their work I am sure Addison Management Group Asia has worked with many respectable private investors and institutions over the years. I turn to Google again to see if I can find any references on Addison Management Group Asia.

I find an interesting article about a court case in Florida involving Addison Management Group Inc., Addison Financial Group Inc., Addison Enterprise Inc., and a few more companies. According to the article three gentlemen used the above companies as vehicles to cheat their customers on about USD 7 million in fradulent forex options transactions back in 2005-2006.
Article: http://shareholdersfoundation.com/news/florida-federal-court-orders-nine-defendants-cftc-foreign-currency-forex-anti-fraud-action-pay-
Official Complaint: http://www.cftc.gov/stellent/groups/public/@lrenforcementactions/documents/legalpleading/libertymutualcomplaint.pdf

But, just because the names are similar and that EM International Enterprises is based in Florida as well one should not jump to conclusions.

As I said in the previous post. Addison Management Group Asia and EM International Enterprises are unfortunate in that their online image may cause potential clients to associate the companies with dubious business practices. How unfair isn’t that!

Nevertheless, looking forward to speak to Mark again in 90 days, ohh, just 88 days now! Great! Can’t wait!

Addison Management Group Asia

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from a gentleman named Mark Sherman (isn’t that an unusual name for somebody with a distinct Asian-English accent? ) from Addison Management Group Asia (http://www.addisonmanagementgroupasia.com).

Got the first call from them about 3 months ago. A very pleasant lady who’s name I didn’t take note off, explained that since I am a “successful business professional” they would like to send me an introductory information pack about Addison Management Group Asia and their wealth management services. “Fine!” I responded. About 1 month ago I received a fancy glossy brochure.

Now this call about a fantastic opportunity to invest in EM International Enterprises (EMIE.PK). According to Mark, EMIE, is a furniture manufacturer and supplier to JC Penny, Nordstroms, etc and they have just signed a global preferred supplier contract with Tesco. Luckily for me the market hasn’t reacted to the news yet but when the market does (in 90 days according to Mark) the share price of EMIE.PK will move from the current level of USD 4.00 to USD 6.75. In 90 days. Blimey!

Mark offered me to buy 10.000 shares at USD 4.00 + 1% comission and when they sold EMIE at USD 6.75 in 90 days I would get my principal back and a profit of USD 26425.

“Fredrik, tell me, isn’t that a nice profit in just 90 days?” Mark continued.

Right! After some discussion Mark understood that I had some reservations about making a money transfer of USD 40 400 to a business contact I had only spoken to on the phone.

Now Mark offered me 5000 shares and explained that he was interested in getting my long-term business so he wouldn’t jeopardize “10-20 years of your future business by offering you anything less than an exceptional investment opportunity with very limited risk as an introduction to Addison Management Group Asia.”  Sounds like good business practice to me – low entry threshold and then make your clients loyal by removing risk and by creating substantial returns, time and time again!

Despite his great sales pitch I still had my reservations so after a while he was down to 2000 shares.

He kept repeating “when we sell at USD 6.75 in 90 days you will not only get your principal investment back but make a profit of XXX USD.”

I quite enjoyed listening to his sales pitch and must say that he was a skilled sales man (I have many years of experience from running tele-sales teams).

Anyway, I finished the call by thanking him for the tip, told him that I would be watching EMIE.PK the next 90 days and if the stock did get up towards the USD 6.75 mark I would be looking forward to speak to him again.

The whole conversation left me with a funny feeling. Had I just missed a fantastic investment opportunity?

I turned to Google and started  searching on Addison Management Group Asia. This forum post caught my attention: http://www.hotstocked.com/message-board/about5707-100.html

Interesting, so I did some more searching.

Addison Management Group Asia domain was registered Feb 3rd 2009 by DIRECTI INTERNET SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD for one year, expires  Feb 3rd 2010.
Directi is a domain registrar (http://customer.directi.com/) and if you Google on Directi you will get plenty of hits with Directi and scam in the same sentence.

According this report from February 2009 Directi comes out at the top of domain name registrars involved in malicious domain names: http://hype-free.blogspot.com/2009/02/why-directi-should-be-kicked.html

Example of scams where Directi may to be involved somehow:
Auction Online fraud: http://www.bobbear.co.uk/auction-online-solution.html
Sunrise Service Centers job fraud: http://www.bobbear.com/sunrise-service-center.html
Infobite Software fraud: http://suckerswanted.blogspot.com/2008/05/infobite-software-ltd.html

Ok, so Addison Management Group Asia online image looks a bit dodgy. But EM International Enterprises (EMIE.PK) could still be an interesting company to invest in right?

Mark’s background on EMIE.PK is somewhat correct, but I get a strange vibe from EMIE, their website is not what I would expect from a publicly traded company, http://emi-enterprises.com/. According to their site they deal with furniture for the North American market. However, they offer no information on their customers and no mentioning of their contracts with JC Penny, Nordstroms and Tesco.  The domain name was registered in Feb 2008, updated in Feb 2009 and expires in Feb 2010. Seems a bit strange to me that a company goes for the shortest possible domain registration. But then again, what do I know about about domain name management? I would love to learn more about EM International Enterprises so I check their contacts page. Unfortunatly, they only offer an email address to contact them. But another Google search and I found their corporate address in Florida.

I did a search on this address. I know, I’ve spent too much time on this now…
Anyway, on the same address I find another penny stock company with a name that is quite similar to EMIE so I checked them out as well.

I’ll leave the name of this other company out but I have to share this, quite funny!

The business of this other company is described as “The Group’s principal activities are restaurant operations and sewer equipment manufacturing.” and in case you are interested “Restaurant Operations accounted for 67% of 2003 revenues and Equipment Manufacturing, 33%”.

ROFL! Wonder what their “Soup of the Day” is?

So in summary, I had a great conversation with Mark  and I am now eagerly looking forward to see if he is calling back in 90 days when EMIE.PK hits USD 6.75.  I certainly hope he doesn’t forget so I miss out on the next fantastic investment opportunity!

Please note that Addison Management Group Asia and EM International Enterprises probably are bona fide companies of the best kind. I am not suggesting anything else, I am just a bit concerned about their online image.  Should representatives of the AMGA or EMIE read this I would like to offer my consulting services at a discounted rate to help you manage your online presence better. It could be the difference between winning or loosing that next deal.

Heel to butt, heel to butt, heel to butt...

1, It’s so smooth, effortless and joyful compared to conventional running, IF you get the technique right.
2, It’s very hard work and takes a lot of patience to reset the muscles, calves in particular, to tune into barefoot running technique.

I have searched the Internet for more guidance on barefoot running technique and reviewed a lot of videos and texts. The most comprehensive and scientifically backed approach I have found is the POSE method.

POSE and CrossFit

The POSE method is a system of teaching efficient human movement developed by Dr Romanov, former Olympic coach from Russia. In essence his method is focused on getting the hamstrings to work by pulling the heel towards the butt and then letting it fall to the ground again landing on the ball of the foot. Keep your upper arms vertical and bend at the elbow to keep your fore arms horizontal. Try this standing still in one spot. Assume the POSE and focus on pulling the heel towards your butt. When you feel comfortable with this continue the same pattern of movement and adjust your centre of gravity slightly forward. You will notice that just a little lean will make you start moving. That’s pretty much it! Check out PoseTV on YouTube for more about Dr Romanov and POSE.

So back to my own experiences of barefoot running. I have actually stopped barefoot running. Temporarily.

The new muscular stress on my calves has only become slightly milder so in a transition period to running in my Vibram Fivefingers I have bought a pair of Puma LIFT. A very light shoe with minimal cushioning and therefore very little wedge between your foot and the ground. The little shock absorption it offers makes a huge difference for how my calves handle barefoot running according to the POSE method. In one of the CrossFit videos below they talk about problems with calves in POSE running and state that it only occurs when you run on your toes. I beg to differ.  I am very conscious of landing on the ball of my foot and falling forward rather then stretching forward in each step. My problem may be that I have a calves of a bodybuilder rather than a runner and years of conventional running technique with poor stretching habits gives me a tougher starting point than the average runner.

There are two videos in particular that I strongly recommend that you watch to get the fundamentals of proper running technique .

Teaching Running as a Skill by Brian McKenzie and Intro to the POSE Method for Distance Running by Mike Collins. You will need a subscription to CrossFit Journal to view the clips but do not hesitate  - it’s only USD25 per year.  A CrossFit Journal subscription is a must have for anybody interested in perfection of motion technique to maximize your physical ability in most areas of physical exercise. For a taste of CrossFit Journal and a few previews check the running section in the open part of CrossFit.com.

Going forward..

My focus now is on POSE drills in my Puma LIFT shoes to work on technique and getting more used to the Vibram Fivefingers by wearing them as often as possible. As quickly mentioned the first part of the barefoot running series the FiveFingers do look a bit weird and I get a lot of looks and comments. Wearing them a day on town is a great way of spreading happiness, I have never had so many people looking at me, my shoes and them me again with a big smile! Vibram FiveFingers – changing the world, one step at a time! ,-)

Let me know how you are progressing developing proper running technique!

Almost barefoot running

The FiveFingers sure look funny and I have received a lot of looks and comments wearing them for walks in the neighbourhood. “Hey, have you taken up ballet dancing?” is one of many more or less funny remarks.

They are fantastically comfortable to walk in, like walking barefoot without worrying what to step on. You feel the surface you walk on, the Vibram sole protects you from any sharp objects and you have fantastic grip, also when wet. After the first few hours of walking in the FiveFingers it was somewhat strange to wear sneakers again – so heavy, clumsy and no feel at all. From a comfort only perspective I could wear FiveFingers only.  Not sure if Vibram has an office design of them on their product development roadmap.

Running in FiveFingers

If you’re familiar with the concept of barefoot running you will know that the barefoot running technique is different from the technique wearing modern running shoes . In essence: No heel strikes, light landing on the ball of your foot and your calves act as  springs to absorb the impact of the landing and pushing you forward into the next step. Check the videos and articles in the first part of Barefoot running in this blog for more info.

I set out along the river Vltava running south on the east bank on the asphalt walking and biking path. Maybe not the optimal surface for a test run but anyway. I felt really light running, no problems adjusting the technique to stretch out the foot to land properly, found that it came more naturally with longer strides, with shorter strides the heel tended to drop and it was more of a flat foot landing.

After only 2 km or so my calves started to protest! They are definitely not used to taking the impact full 87 kg in each step. On the 3km I started to get blisters in exactly the same spot on both feet – in the middle of the ball of the foot where I land in each step. The run went very quickly from enjoyable and refreshing to painful and awkward. I turned back and walked home.

Back home my calves were so contracted that it was very hard to stretch and with the blisters on the ball of the feet the normal calf stretching exercises with the foot firmly on the ground was quite painful. Did my best and prayed I it would not be too bad in the coming days.

One week of agony

The first couple of days after my first run in the FiveFingers were ok. My calves were hard as stone and every step was a bit stiff but not too bad. On the 4th day I did some light squats but didn’t stretch the calves afterwards. The day after my calves locked up completely – could hardly walk and getting up or down a staircase was a major undertaking. Now, on the 7th day after running I have carefully stretched the calf muscles and I am slowly getting back the flexibility in the calves.

Word of advice

I am still convinced that barefoot running is healthier and that it reduces the risk of injury but the transition period from modern running shoes to barefoot will be longer than I first thought.

- Start slowly. If you are new to barefoot running technique keep your first couple of runs to under the kilometer to slowly accustom your body, calves in particular.

- Tape your feet. I recommend a layer of textile type of tape on the ball of your feet to prevent blisters.

- Stretch. I know, rule number one after running but be extra diligent when you are learning techniques and stressing your muscles differently than normal.

Let me know how it goes!

Burpee - exploding out of the deep squat!

The burpee is a great allround exercise to build aerobic and anaerobic capacity. You build stamina through the complex movement with three jumps, you build leg explosivity in the jumps and upperbody strength in the push-up phase of the burpee.

1. Stand tall with feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Go down in a squat so deep that you can place your palms flat on the floor closely in front of your feet, you may need to balance up on your toes to be able to place your palms flat on the floor.
3. With your palms flat on the floor jump back into a straight bridge, the starting position of the standard push-up.
4. Perform a push-up.
5. Once back at the top of the push-up, keep you palms firm to the floor and jump to place your feet closely behind your hands again.
6. Remember to keep your back straight and explode upwards into a jump, reaching high with your hands.
7. Land with your feet shoulder-width apart.
8. Repeat.

Check out the burpee instructional video on www.crossfit.com!

On June 1st, time yourself completing 60 burpees. Practice hard during the month and time yourself again on June 30th!

Good luck and remember to post your June 1st time, your progress and your June 30th finish time.

Re-learn how to walk

For the past 15 years or so I have weighed in at around 85-90 kg (14 stones) and I have always had running shoes with thick cushioning to reduce the impact of all my kilos striking the ground heel first.

On top of this I have twisted both of my ankles a couple of times through the years. Last time it to 6 months before I could run without ankle pain again, I now run with extra cushioned running shoes and for a while even taped the ankles to prevent further injury.

Actually,  as a kid I was walking too much (according to whom?) on the ball of my foot and the local doctor gave me special types of clogs with high firm heels to reduce the ankle flexibility and force me to land on the heel.  It really worked….

The modern running shoe was essentially invented by Nike in 1972, and the running shoe industry has become a $20 billion industry. Loads of money involved and loads of fancy new features introduced to the running shoes every year so the shoe makers can gain market share over the competitors.

Hmm.. makes my wonder…..

Didn’t people run before 1972? If they did, was the injury levels dramatically higher than now?
Are running shoes preventing or causing injuries?

Read this article and check this video, to get a quick intro to barefoot running.

I am convinced, it all makes sense, I will retire the running shoes, get a wooble board to start building up the muscles of the foot and ankle again and investigate if to buy Vibram Fivefingers , maybe Feelmax , or have a go at making Huarache running sandals. 

More reading:

The painful truth: Are running shoes a waste of money? 

The Running Shoe Debate: How Barefoot Runners are Shaping the Shoe Industry

‘No evidence’ on running shoe safety

Join the Pistol Fight!

This is how the challenge goes:

A pistol is a one-legged squat, one legged raised in front of you and kept parallel to the floor while slowly squatting down one your other leg and then pressing up again.
Voila! Easy right?

On the first of May make as many pistols as you can alternating between your left and right leg. Practice like crazy for a month and on May 31st try again. Greatest improvement wins! You challenge yourself here so set a challenging but realistic goal!

Tips for the novice!

If you’re struggling with one pistol start with half-pistols from a chair.

• Sit on the edge of the chair with a straight back, extend one leg and position the other leg on the floor as close to the imaginary vertical line extending from head to butt.
• Extend your arms in front of you to aid balance.
• Toes and heel to the floor (avoid balancing on your toes) slowly press yourself  up to standing and in controlled movement sit back down again.
• Repeat for the other leg.

When you master 10 half-pistols on each leg I suggest you start practicing aided pistols.

The aided pistols are complete pistols but with an aid to keep balance and momentum. They can be done in two ways, start with placing a chair next to you and hold on to the back of the chair through the range of motion, using your hand to push you through the tough parts of the motion and to keep balance. One you complete 10 of these on each leg move to the 2nd type of aided pistols. Fasten the middle of  a rope in front of you in shoulder height, grab both ends of the rope and start your pistol. Use the ropes to pull yourself up to keep momentum and balance.

For more tips on the pistol see this article from Power Athletes Magazine.

One you’ve completed 10 rope aided pistols on each leg it’s time for the real stuff!

Challenge for the intermediate pistoleer

Steve Cotter Weighted Pistols

If 10 pistols per leg is a piece of cake add some weight for a weighted pistol. Grab a kettlebell, hold it close to your chest or in extended arms and get going! Check these videos for some further ideas on how to challenge yourself.

Advanced pistoleers only

Try the jumping pistols to build explosivity. Step one is to explode out of the bottom position to jump as high as you can, land on the same leg again (still the other leg extended) and rebound up to repeat.

When 10 of these on each legs is too easy it’s time to clean the kitchen table….

Start up on the kitchen table (or on any stable table / chair / bench of a height somewhere between your knees and hips). Extend one leg and jump down to the floor, all the way down through the motion of a normal pistol, round with explosivity to jump back onto the table again. As soon as your foot land on the table explode up again to jump off the table to repeat.

Be inspired by Steve Cotter in this video. Steve Cotter’s jumping pistols!

Let me know how you’re progressing!

Use the comments to post your start count, update me on your progress and I

Acemazing Balancing Weighted Pistols

look forward to hear about your results come May 31st!

Enjoy the muscle pain!

Trivia: Pistol is originally a Czech word for pipe or whistle (píšt’ala) and took it’s current meaning from the use of píšt’ala as a slang term for a light harquebus used during the Hussite wars ca. 1420-1434.