Capitalogix

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

This photo would be so "perfect" ...

The Romney family misspells their own name in what might be the greatest Freudian slip in US history.

 

However, all you see on the Internet is not necessarily true.  Oh well, it is still funny.

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• 12 Blogs Every Small Business Should Be Reading. (SmallBizTrends)
• How NFL Scouts Evaluate Real Talent. (OpenForum)
• Why Political Convention Speeches Should Be More Like TED Talks. (Slate)
• Anything to Win: Romney Apologizes To Nation's 150 Million 'Starving, Filthy Beggars'. (Onion)
• 30 Pictures of People Freaking Out in a Haunted House. This is so telling ... look at how most people respond to the unexpected. (Funny)

 

Trading Links:

• Welcome to Lehman Brothers. We're Open for Business. (Businessweek)
• CEOs’ Vision Darkens. 34% More Apt to Fire than Hire as Fiscal Cliff Approaches. (Daily)
• Mysterious Algorithm Recently Accounted for 4% of Trading Activity. (Kurzweil AI)
• Cyber-Pearl Harbor: Panetta Warns of Dire Threat of Cyber-Attack on U.S.   (NYTimes)
• Apple Has Quietly Created the World’s Largest Hedge Fund, Worth $117 Billion. (Yahoo! Finance)

Perhaps it is Time for a Motivational Video - "I Am a Champion"

If you want a little extra motivation, this is a pretty good video to watch.

 

 

 

It was a little bit corny, but I found it surprisingly compelling and effective.  Worth watching, even if only to think about the techniques he used.

Seasonally Strong Period for Gold is Coming

Gold is entering a seasonally strong period.  The chart below shows the predicted turning points based on the past five years of historical data. 

 

 

History does not typically repeat itself, exactly; but it often rhymes.  So, it makes sense to keep seasonal tendencies in mind.  With that said, some things potentially different this year include that this is an election year and world governments are coordinating central bank stimulus actions.

However, the chart below should serve as a reminder that there a lot other markets worth trading too.  For starters, Corn is up 34.3% so far this year.

The chart shows the top-ten performing markets, ranked by yearly performance, for the past few years.   The data is color coded based on sector. The first column posts the current year's open performance followed by six columns of closed yearly market performance.

 

 
Note how much diversification there has been in the top-ten throughout the years.  Click the chart to see an expanded version of this data (showing 40 global futures markets).

That is the funny thing about markets ... something is always working.  The trick is finding it while it's working.

Can Germany Save Itself and the Euro Zone?

The Euro Zone is safe; at least someone is propping up the euro.

The picture was taken last week in the financial center of Frankfurt, Germany. The handmade signs in the foreground are part of the Occupy Frankfurt movement, which is still active a year after it started.
 

 

This visit to Germany prompted some questions. While my observations are not scientific (nor statistically relevant) I'll share a few of them with you anyway.

First, there seemed to be a pervading sense of wariness and weariness. I heard many people express concerns about the economy and the future. "Zeitgeist" is a German word that means spirit of the times ... and the spirit here seems somewhat dampened, despite a 24% gain in the German DAX Index this year.

Second, native Germans are not having babies at the rate they used to. This would typically result in an aging population. However, it seems to have triggered a major influx of immigrants from other countries in the region, like Turkey, but also from Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim nations.

Third, while stereotypical, my sense is that the German national identity was somewhat tied to "craftsmanship". But as their economy manufactures less, it's as if the nation struggles to figure out what it will become. 

Fourth, while America may be a melting pot, historically Germany hasn't been.  So, it isn't hard to imagine the cognitive dissonance felt by a Germans  who don't know how to respond to a Germany that is becoming less "German".

As a result, this newly diverse population is struggling to decide how to allocate resources.

I'm reminded of the warning flight attendants give you on an airplane; if the oxygen masks are deployed, make sure you use them yourself first, before trying to help someone else, because it's tough to help somebody else if you're incapacitated.

By many measures, Germany is the strongest nation in its region. However, the burdens of a new economy and a new world order are hard to ignore.

It may pay to remember the saying: "Pigs get meaner as troughs get smaller."

Here Are Some Interesting Links to Read This Weekend

 

 

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Startups' New Creed:  Patent First, Prototype Later. (Businessweek)
• Are We Really Getting Smarter? Why IQ Scores Have Kept Rising for the Past Century. (WSJ)
• The CIA and Jeff Bezos Bet on Quantum Computing. (Technology Review)
• The Science of Procrastination and How to Manage It (Animated). (BrainPickings)
• Deepak Chopra: The Mideast Protests, Social Networks & the Global Brain. A race between the mullahs & the iPad (TDB)

 

Trading Links:

• America's Richest Hedge Fund Managers. (Forbes)
• Investing Books That Go Above and Beyond. Nice List. (Tadas Viskanta)
• QE3 myths. Monetary Stimulus Doesn’t Punish Savers & Isn’t All About Stock Prices. (Slate)
• CEO Speaker Series: A Conversation with Ray Dalio. (Council on Foreign Relations)
• Book Review: Is “Unintended Consequences” a Scary Preview of Mitt Romney's Economic Policies? (Forbes)

The 25 Richest People Who Ever Lived – Adjusted for Inflation

How rich is "Rich"? 

There’s rich. There’s starting quarterback rich. And then there’s founder-of-Facebook rich.

But when you’re talking about the richest person ever, you have to go all the way to Timbuktu in the 14th century.

CelebrityNetWorth.com has assembled a list of the 25 richest people who ever lived, adjusted for inflation.

Topping the list is Mansa Musa I, ruler of the Malian Empire until 1337. His net worth of $400 billion was amassed through his empire’s production of more than half of the world’s supply of gold and salt.

Many of the others on the list will be more familiar. Interesting.

Here Are Some Interesting Links to Read This Weekend

Perspective is everything.   Here is a great quote about that: "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

 

 

So, are you a glass half-empty or half-full type of person?

Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• Obama's Cyber Attack. The White House's Looming Power Grab to Regulate the Internet. (WSJ)
• Stanford's Most Popular Major Is Now Computer Science. (Mashable)
• Turns Out Where You Live Really Does Shape Who You Are. (TheAtlantic)
• Pop Music Getting Sadder, More Complex. Does that signal a Bear Market is coming? (Newser)
• Emerging Threats. What do you get when robotics & nanotechnology meet 3D printing? A world full of home-made insect sized drones. (Media)

 

Trading Links:

• Unemployment falls in nearly 90 Percent of US cities. (AP)
• Is the Stock Market Predicting an Obama Win? (Businessweek)
• The 10 Craziest Things You Don't Know About the Stock Market. (Fool)
• In Defense of the High-Frequency Hackers. (TechCrunch)
• Dan Ariely’s 6 Rules to Fight Bad Decision-Making Under Stress. Behavioral economist and ‘Predictably Irrational’ author examines why sometimes it's so hard to do the right thing (AdvisorOne)

In God We Trust -- The Media, Not So Much Anymore ...

A new survey from Gallup suggests that sixty percent of Americans have little trust in the mass media to deliver the news "fully, accurately and fairly." This marks a record amount of distrut since Gallup began tracking the trend.

The question asked was: "In general, how much trust and confidence do you have in the mass media—such as newspapers, TV, and radio—when it comes to reporting the news fully, accurately and fairly—a great deal, a fair amount, not very much, or none at all?"

Sixty percent answered either "not very much" or "not at all," with the remaining 40 percent opting for either "a great deal" or at least "a fair amount."

Since you probably don't believe this information, here's the chart straight from Gallup; so you can interpret it yourself.

 

According to the pollsters, this year's drop in media trust is being fueled largely by self-identified Republicans and independents. Twenty-six percent of Republicans said they trusted the media either greatly or a fair amount, similar to the level of trust the GOP reported back in 2008, another election year.

Here is the Gallup chart:

 

 

Independents, meanwhile, are much more negative about the media than they were in 2008, something that Gallup says suggests "the group that is most closely divided between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney  is quite dissatisfied with its ability to get fair and accurate news coverage of this election."

Related articles

• Gallup: Debate Helped Romney (cnsnews.com)
• Congress Approval Rating Slides Back To All Time Lows; 83% Disapprove (zerohedge.com)
• People Are Losing Trust In All Institutions (ritholtz.com)

How Many Times Have You Heard "Gangnam Style"?

There is no escaping "Gangnam Style," the meteoric dance craze performed by South Korean rapper Psy.

 

 

 

OK, it has a catchy tune and fun dance moves ... but how do you explain the incredible global response to "Gangnam Style," a song that's almost entirely in Korean?

 

Related articles

• Filipino prisoners take on PSY's Gangnam Style (telegraph.co.uk)
• Gangnam Style Goes North as 'Kim Jong Style' (mashable.com)
• The Unstoppable Mega Super Stardom of Psy's "Gangnam Style" in Seoul South Korea: Concert Video (hollywoodpopcandy.wordpress.com)

Global Entrepreneurs Still Look to the United States

I spoke on a panel at "A New Beginning - Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation" event this week. It was sponsored by the US Department of State and EO.

Several dozen countries sent entrepreneurs to attend the session.  It was lively and fun.

 

 

 
In this picture, I am with fellow panelists, Stewart Youngblood from TechWildcatters, Tricia Bridges from Ciapas, and Greg Moore from  Blackhill.

Great to see so many countries sending entrepreneurs to the United States to participate in programs like this.

 

Related articles

• How France's Government Screwed Its Entrepreneurs So Hard They Became Pigeons (techcrunch.com)
• Research: U.S. is chasing away immigrant entrepreneurs (medcitynews.com)
• Entrepreneurs Visit U.S. for Learning Experience, Will Return Home As Seeds of Change (sys-con.com)