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Circassian Beta: The Journey

Jan. 16, 2014 6:36 PM ET
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Since it may be fair to say, that EWO, or the Austrian ETF per se, may be a fair, "undercover" yet efficient way to invest in what was once the "Austro-Hungarian", Turkish, and Russian empires. Let us now move on to the snow-cover peaks, and "wild-west" of Russia, namely the Caucasus.

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The Caucasus, like Eastern Europe, were one divied up between several larger empires at one point in time. This topic perhaps even touches on the Sochi games to a certain extent, with many of the local tribesman from the Caucasus, and from the Sochi region in general, having at one time or another faced the brunt of a massive imperial onslaught, which interestingly enough, happened right about the same time period as our "Indian" wars per se, with similar sort of dynamics interestingly enough, being play.

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Just as it took some revolutionary Military leaders in the US, like the almost forgotten(due to neutrality in the Civil War) William S. Harney "Prince of Dragoons", to overcome the nimble, and in some sense, superior tactics of the locals in the west per, it took the heavy handed, and unorthodox approach of the famous General Ermalov, "the Lion...." to overcome the scattered tribes, which were very much on their own home turf per se, for the Russians to come away with the win in Circassia, now the Caucasus.

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In Russian literature, there is a sort of romancing of the Caucasus period, just as their is perhaps the sort of one time-mass appeal, of the Buffalo Bill Wild-West-Show, contemporaneously here in the US. Pushkin and Leromontov, captured, the fleeting lack of romance in the area with their various works like Leromontov's "A Hero of Our Time", and Pushkin's series of short stories which have a similar effect. If one is really interested, one can even note the change in timbre, per se concerning Russia's intrigue, and then disillusionment through chronologically reading works on the Caucasus per se in Russian literature. To cite a few; noting the sort of romancing of the "Circassian mystique"(somewhat romantic) in Pushkin's "captive of the Caucus", which turns into a, sort of discussion of not-so romantic realities of disposable allies, and romantic-nobility, cast aside by the progression of empire in Leo Tolstoy's "Hadji Murad". This literature its self is somewhat mysterious and beguiling, since Tolstoy seemingly wrote a book, after Pushkin with the same title; namely "captive of(or prisoner of) the Caucusus.

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Needless to say, the Caucus have a sort of split history. Their tendency towards Islam in some cases, has at times lent them a certain sense of solidarity with the Turks, acknowledged by the Russians. At times, the Russian Imperial will has forced the area into the sort of Russian empire with the unstoppable vigor with which the Russians pursued complete ownership of the area, including tribe relocations and in so many word "Trails of Tears", just as the US was doing with the native in the west.

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Either way, in a coming piece perhaps we should have the opportunity to delve further into this region, and perhaps to see if their are any good investments or proxies for "direct investment", one way or another coming away with a perhaps well studied taste for the regions financial cuisine per se.

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Perhaps for the sake of simplicity, and geography per se, it would be wise to start with the countries of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia, which are just about smack dab where the Caucus region is per se, and hopefully, we will find a way to get at that oh-so-mysterious "Circassian" aka Caucasian Beta per se, hopefully finding another unique marble per se, to through into our portfolio, to give our potential portfolios that extra bit of glimmer and shine, and resilience, in the face of whatever the financial markets may have to throw at them. Hopefully this will also allow our portfolios to be as strong as a "Circassian tribesman", while all the wilst being as seductive, as an oft(once upon a time) romanticized Circasssian beauty, and all together our portfolio's may be all the fractionally richer for it.

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Perhaps hence as we unravel the mystique of the Circassian landscape, a few decent investment ideas may also come up, and potentially leave us the richer for our troubles per se.

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I hope everyone's returns are as feroicias, as a band of cossacks, coupled with some dexterous Cirassian freedom fighters, and that all together everything is going well.

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