A ton of stuff has happened recently as it relates to the past and future trips.  Let's start with the nasty developments first.

Development #1:   Income Source Hobbled by Geopolitics

The brokerage account that I use for my trading in Hong Kong has decided to cease operations and move to Singapore.  Like many businesses, they cite geopolitics as the reason.  They call it the 'rapidly changing business environment' in Hong Kong.  It's very obvious what they're talking about:  Winnie the Pooh got his paws into the Hong Kong honey.  Truth be told this was going on for a long time.  The whole place was a ghost town in 2019, even before covid Sadly things have not recovered, they have only gotten worse.  The fact that my brokerage pulled out of Hong Kong for their global strategy is maddening, but is not surprising.

They're giving us until Nov 1st to trade as normal, then for the last two months of the year we can only sell positions or transfer them to another broker.  After Dec 31st it's lights out for everyone.

The next obvious thing to do is find another broker.  I didn't waste a day on this and went through the entire application process with their main competitor.  So a trip is arranged for mid-October to Hong Kong to settle the transfers.  Most likely it will take multiple trips since my friend at work is also affected and we also need to see our main banking contacts at HSBC.  The million dollar question is "How long will all these other international banks and brokers last in Hong Kong?"  Nobody really knows.  All we can say is you don't need a crystal ball to answer with, "Not much longer"

Opening a new brokerage account in Hong Kong is at least a temporary solution.  Meanwhile there needs to be a longer term plan to get all my money out of there.  It really is astonishing how Hong Kong fell from being the most economically free global hub into the dying entity that it is today.  And it's all thanks to the Chinese Communist Party.

All this makes me feel like I got laid off from my second job and I need to find another one.  Trading has most definitely become a second job.  But one of my life coaches said it best for these kinds of situations:  "This is not a setback, this is a set up."  I will always remember her words for that.

So in short order from now, the first trip to Hong Kong is coming up to set up this new account and basically push the reset button on my trading career.  Most likely scenario is I'll have to sell off the thankfully small portion of garbage stocks and options at a loss, but so be it.

Development #2

My life insurance contact back in Canada said it's no longer possible to open a term based policy because I live in China.  We now have the honor of joining the list of sanctioned countries on the likes of Russia and Iran.   There are probably loopholes around this but I'm not going to bother.  Instead, I'm simply going to cash out the existing universal life policy.  Haven't I really learned?  Whole life and universal life is one big scam.  Moreover, there's no point in opening a new term life policy if you don't have any kids or plan to have them.  So why not just cash this shit out and put the money into the market?   Plans are moving forward on that.

Development #3

Things are starting to look up.  After long and complex negotiations with my stepmother, we avoided a court settlement and came to an agreement with her.  Against all odds, the law actually worked in our favor.  I don't know how my sister was able to pull it off with her lawyers, but she worked tirelessly to that end.  I can't thank her enough!  Long story short, my stepmother gets to stay in the house as a 'life estate' with certain rights.  Meanwhile we get the rights to own the house.  The only downside is that the lawyers will have to be paid.  But lawyers are a necessary fact of life.  It's really amazing that it took a legal battle to offset what I believe was my Dad's attempt to disown us.  It's even more amazing that we actually won.   

This really changes everything, since for the next visits I'll see my stepmother with no hard feelings.  This will also help us get back to better terms with her.  We might as well then try to make friends with her.  

Development #4

We, the next generation, also got the rights to own the family cabin.  My sister and younger brother have kids, so they use it and have obvious interests to pass this along to the next next generation.  They're essentially Generation Alpha, i.e. my nieces and nephews.  Me and my other brother travel the world, we don't have kids, and we no interest in this cabin.  So we negotiated to sell our shares to the other parties who will buy us out.

In all likelihood, I'm also going to sell my share to the house mentioned above.  But that isn't until a very long time from now.   The proceeds from all this, you guessed it, are going into the market.

Development #5

This is after all the main thrust of the journal.  The Thai condo proceeds are looking harder than ever to get out of Thailand.  I did a trial run by simply trying to withdraw cash from my Thai bank using an ATM card overseas.  It failed.  Next I tried using wire transfer capabalities with the Thai account to a Hong Kong account.  Also a fail.  

It looks like my friends in Thailand were right after all.  A more adventurous route will need to be found.  Stay tuned to this journal for all that, but I have to keep the details a secret for obvious reasons.

Summary of Developments

A whole slew of news has happened.  Not all of it is great.  It depends how you look at it.  Put everything together, I believe this is a massive win and a setup for something better.  Let's just say this:  a massive amount of money is going to get put into the market over a period of time, and it will involve very creative ways of making it happen.