Capitalogix

The U.S. Presidential Candidates Raising The Most Money

Which U.S. presidential candidates have raised the most money?

   

 via Statista, data as of June 30, 2015.

According to the Federal Election Commission, two candidates with strong family ties to the White House are in first and second place.

Jeb Bush, whose father and brother are former presidents, is in first place with $114.4 million. Former first lady Hillary Clinton is in second place, having raised $63.1 million.

Market Confidence Remains High Despite Glitch

An offline N.Y.S.E. barely made a ripple in a day’s trading a few weeks ago.  

Moreover, industry research indicates that confidence in the US Equity Market Structure is at a 5-year high, with 64% of the respondents having “High/Very High” confidence and 18% responding “Neutral.”

In years past, a shutdown like that might have stopped Wall Street dead in its tracks, with a broad range of companies’ shares sitting frozen until all technical problems were unwound.

But as the lengthy stoppage showed, the modern world of stock trading is much quicker, more complex and reliant on sophisticated computers — and in many cases able to adapt to issues that could have proved disastrous to the financial markets and the investors’ holdings.

To put it in perspective, NYSE-listed (Tape A) stocks account for approximately 53% of US National Market System (NMS) stock volume. 

Below are industry and Tape A market share metrics for Self-Regulatory Organizations (SROs) for the first six months of 2015. NYSE accounts for 23.2% of NYSE-listed stocks and 12.3% of overall equity volume.

 

 

via Tabb Forum.

Time Flies

My son and his fiancée came to visit for my birthday.

This is us getting barbecue.

 

 

I did get some gifts. It's funny how much they say a lot about you.

They got me an Amazon Echo. It is an interesting gift because it's next level technology (but probably not fully-baked yet). The good thing is the Echo's hardware component is already well-made. It has a high-quality speaker with many microphones to pick up voice commands. You use it to ask questions, listen to music, add things to your shopping list, and interact with the Internet without a computer. Cool now … and bound to get better.

My other son had my favorite Philly cheesesteak sent in from the Jersey Shore.

And I also got a little device, called 'Tile,' that helps find lost keys, wallets, or other things people notice you're prone to lose. My son says umbrellas. Hard for me to argue; because I have four of them ... and if I could find them when I needed them, I'd only have one.

Nonetheless, I can't believe how time flies. Birthdays seem to come more quickly. It makes sense, though. When you were four, a birthday represented a quarter of your life. Now, a year represents a much smaller percentage.

Reminder: while aging may suck. It sure beats the alternative.

Weekend Links

Hillary Clinton may have to deal with more fall-out from her deleted e-mail fiasco.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Economist Explains: The End of Moore's Law. (Economist)

• Big Data Explained in Less Than 2 Minutes - To Absolutely Anyone. (DSC)

• A Preliminary Taxonomy of the Voices Inside Your Head. (Digest)

• Disney’s Research Lab Figures Out How To Put Words In Your Mouth. (TechCrunch)

• 'What I Would Tell My 20-Year-Old Self'.  (Fortune)

 

Trading Links:

• Tech Boom 2015: What's Driving Investor Insanity? (Forbes)

• This Is Your Brain on Money: How Investors Trip Themselves Up. (WSJ)

• These 2 Simple Slides Show Just How Hot FinTech Is Right Now. (BizInsider)

• Soros Says China Is Major Risk For World War 3. (ValueWatch)

• China’s Yuan Has ‘Long March’ To Reserve-Currency Status. (MarketWatch)

How Not to Exercise - Video

Sometimes just knowing what you want to do is not enough.

Spending time and energy doing the wrong thing doesn't necessarily take you in the direction of your desired results.

Watch this video of people misusing their exercise equipment.  It's pretty funny.

 

 via JuJitsu Times.

You get the point.

Amazon vs. Walmart [Infographic]

Amazon celebrated its 20th-anniversary last week.

With 244 million active users, Amazon is by far the largest online retailer in the world.

But how does it stack up against brick-and-mortar retail giants?  This infographic compares the e-commerce giant to the world’s largest retailer: Walmart.

 

via WebpageFX.

Kind of surprising.

 

FsdfS

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Seems like Obama has been shopping at the Legacy Store.  Here is an article about whether he is now earning the Nobel Peace Prize he won.

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Is Internet Addiction a Real Thing? (NewYorker)
• Google Glass Failed, but Here’s the Path Its Successors Will Take. (MIT Tech Review)
• Ocumetics Bionic Lens could give you vision 3x better than 20/20. (DailyMail)
• Why Muslims are the world’s fastest-growing religious group. (Pew Research)
• The Economist Explains: The End of Moore's Law. (Economist) 
  
  

Trading Links:

• Tech Boom 2015: What's Driving Investor Insanity? (Forbes)
• This Is Your Brain on Money: How Investors Trip Themselves Up. (WSJ)
• These 2 Simple Slides Show Just How Hot FinTech Is Right Now. (BizInsider)
• Soros Says China Is Major Risk For World War 3. (ValueWalk)
• China’s Yuan Has ‘Long March’ To Reserve-Currency Status. (MarketWatch) 

China Tries to Prevent a Market Crash

It has been a tough several weeks for Chinese markets.

As such, the Chinese government has taken some extreme measures to intervene and minimize the selloff.

Some of these measures include more than half the companies on the exchange "voluntarily" suspending trading.

But, it has not worked yet.

    

via WSJ.

 

Stratfor posits:  Beijing has an underlying interest in ensuring that China's stock markets do not collapse, even though any intervention risks exacerbating whatever financial and political fallout may come from an eventual market decline or crash. Therefore, the government will likely continue to intervene to the best of its ability, propping up markets and market sentiment whenever the risk of a major sell-off becomes too great.

This does not mean that stock prices won't slide further, or that the market will stabilize — indeed, it could well become even more volatile over the coming months. Until Beijing invents more avenues for investment, or unless it embraces interest rate hikes and any post-crisis restructuring, it will have to rely on the few tools available to ensure that citizens can generate the wealth and financial security they need to consume.  

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

So, are you conflicted about Trump running for President?  

 

 

Good for entertainment ... Just not sure how good it will be for the country?

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• How to Use the Gratitude Advantage at Work. (Michael Hyatt)
• Microsoft Study Shows That Tech Is Shortening Your Attention Span. (Engadget)
• What 5 Days of Junk Food Does to You. (Time)
• The U.S. Army is Testing a Real-Life Ray Gun. (The Week)
• Science Fiction writer, Warren Ellis, Answers Your Questions about the Future. (WN) 

 

Trading Links:

• An Offline N.Y.S.E. Made Barely a Ripple in a Day’s Trading. (NYTimes)
• Are CTAs Good for a Diversified Hedge Fund Portfolio? (FINalternatives)
• The Rise of the Trader-Bots. (The New Yorker)
• Unravelling Capitalism's Hidden Networks Of Power. (New Scientist)
• The Economics of Polo, the Sport of Kings. (Forbes) 

Changing the Game: Dustin Brown's Perftect Start Against Nadal

I'm not a big tennis fan. But while flipping channels this Sunday, I saw Serena Williams hit tennis balls over 120 miles an hour in her Wimbledon win.

My son and I commented how impressive that was, and how much the game has changed.

Then, I saw this clip of Dustin Brown playing. Wow! Click it, and watch it. 

 

Dustin Brown's Perfect Start (against Nadal) at Wimbledon.

 

It surprised me by how fast the game was played, and how the ball's path seemed to bend. More importantly, one of the best players in the world seemingly had no response.

Even though Brown was defeated in the third round of the tournament ... Sometimes the game changes right before your eyes.