Crazy article in Bloomberg Markets - Baghdad Broker Dodges Bombs to Rack Up Stock Trades

This article is insane. You got to read it, especially if you think your morning on the trading floor is rough.

Article: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-15/broker-shwan-taha-dominates-fo…

It was exceptionally cold in Sulaymaniyah, a city in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, on the morning of Dec. 22. Shwan Taha was sitting in the airport lounge with a bag of gifts, waiting to get back to his wife and children at home in Istanbul.

Just before boarding, he got a call on his mobile phone from Rabee Securities, the Baghdad-based brokerage he owns, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its December issue. The manager was on the line to report that a car bomb had exploded next door at the government anti-corruption agency.

I've thought for a while now that Iraq would become an interesting frontier market now that the security situation has stabilized. It's at an economic crossroads between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iran. The work force is also reasonably educated for Middle Eastern standards, and there is a tremendous amount of untapped natural resources in the northern Kurdish areas, although I've read Statoil and some Chinese firms have beat the American firms up there.