The Jakarta Bombings: A Personal Perspective

In the morning of Friday, 17 July 2009, two bombs exploded at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta. My wife and I were staying on the 11th floor of the Ritz Carlton when the event happened. In fact we were about 30 minutes away from having breakfast at the restaurant where the explosion happened. Fortunately, aside from the confusion and anxiety, we were able to use the emergency exit to get out of the building without harm. [Note: I posted pictures earlier on this blog here, as well as on Twitter here and here.]

A few days after the incident, all I can say is that I’m thankful that we came out okay and that I was with the person who matters the most when the event happened. I remember watching Cloverfield and thinking I would run across town to be with my wife if a monster attack ever hits Singapore. Thankfully this time I only had to run across the hotel room.

When my wife goes on a business trip, it’s common for me to come along and bring my work with me (I can work remotely with a laptop and internet access). However this time I almost did not go as I wanted to stay in Singapore to concentrate on work. I’m glad I changed my mind because I could never forgive myself if something were to happen to her and the only thing keeping me from being with her was “work.”

Let me also say that we had stayed at several Ritz Carlton hotels before and, to be fair, we were always very satisfied with their service. There are indications that the hotel security may have fallen asleep at the wheel, but the rest of the hotel staff continued to be friendly and helpful after the bombings. We were able to get our belongings from the hotel room the day after the bombings, but as I’m writing this post, our car is still secured by the police authority in the hotel parking facility. In case you’re wondering, no, we didn’t get a bill for our room (at least not yet). Actually, I’m interested to see what Ritz Carlton would do to win our hearts back. I heard plane crash survivors get lifetime air tickets.

Continuing with the positive theme of this blog post, I’m also thankful that I had stop loss and profit targets on my three open trades at that time. It would be very distracting to think about buying and selling when trying to survive a bomb attack. If any traders out there want to find an example on why discipline is important, feel free to use my experience.

Finally, let me say that my heart goes out to the victims of the bombings and their families. This was a horrible act of violence and I don’t mean to make light of it with this shallow post. There were reports that the attack was made to weaken Indonesia amidst the optimism of a stable economy following a peaceful general election. They say what does not kill you only makes you stronger. Well, from what I can see, Indonesia is still standing.