BHZD
Notes from the desk of Ali E. Behzad. Strategy, finance, and the work between.
BHZD is the desk where I publish what I think, what I am building, and what I am watching in markets. I am Ali E. Behzad, an undergraduate at the American University in Dubai, studying business with a focus on finance. The site is named after a ticker because the writing should function the way a desk note functions: clear, dated, and accountable to its conviction.
The essays here lean toward strategy and capital. I read Machiavelli the way other people read self-help, and I think most modern strategic writing is a footnote to him. I write about markets the way I would brief a friend over coffee. Clear, opinionated, occasionally wrong, always willing to be corrected.
What you will find here
Notes are essays. Long-form pieces on strategy, finance, and the intellectual frameworks I keep coming back to. Each one carries a conviction rating and a time horizon. High conviction means I would defend it publicly. Low conviction means I am thinking out loud.
The Desk is where I post what I am tracking right now. Open positions, theses I am watching, books on my desk, charts I am following. Updated quarterly.
Projects covers what I am building. Right now that means MicroVault, a microeconomics mastery platform with an AI tutor named Aladdin. More projects will appear here as they ship.
Aladdin sits across the entire site. Open it from the corner. He has read every essay here and can pull live market data when relevant. Ask him anything.
How to reach me
Fastest way is X — @user18332033. For longer conversations, email works. For professional context, LinkedIn.
The site
Built with Next.js 14, deployed on Netlify. The ticker pulls from Finnhub. Aladdin runs on the Anthropic API. The aesthetic is what happens when you spend too much time looking at Bloomberg Terminals and FT Weekend. Everything you see was an intentional choice.
"If you venture into pursuit of glory, do not settle for less than the stars; for the taste of death in a small matter is the same as the taste of death in a great one." — Al-Mutanabbi
إِذا غامَرتَ في شَرَفٍ مَرومٍ — فَلا تَقنَع بِما دونَ النُجومِ
فَطَعمُ المَوتِ في أَمرٍ صَغيرٍ — كَطَعمِ المَوتِ في أَمرٍ عَظيمِ