Capitalogix

Let's Do The Timewarp Again! - Weekly Reading Links - July 14th, 2017

I took this picture in Afton, Wyoming, this week.  Yes, it shows a real live Radio Shack store still open in the wild. One thing hasn't changed ... there still aren't any customers.

Here is a peek at what I've been reading lately. These are the links I saved this week. Hope you find some interesting and enjoyable tidbits. Let me know if you read something I'd like ... Or if there are other sources I should add to my weekly reading. Thanks.

Lighter Links:

This is How Google Wants to Humanize' Artificial Intelligence.(Fortune) Kasparov Thinks Deeply about His Battle with a Machine.(TechReview) Your Best Teammate Might Someday Be an Algorithm. (TechReview) What are Points & Miles Worth? July 2017 Monthly Valuations.(ThePointsGuy) Virgin Galactic Gears up for First Powered Test Flights since Deadly 2014 Crash. (CNN) Life after Armageddon: the Deep Psychological Impact of the Second World War. (NewStatesman) The Brave New World of Gene Editing. (NYBooks) Crossing the Technology Chasm Rebuild or Perish. (IAW) The Talk Business Leaders Need to Have with Finance to Drive a Digital Transformation. (Forbes) Anomaly Detection of Time Series Data Using Machine Learning & Deep Learning. (HackerMoon) Our Machines Now Have Knowledge We'll Never Understand. (Wired) The Best Books on the Psychology of War. (FiveBooks) Israeli Security Cabinet Secret Transcripts: The Accidental Occupation. (TabletMag) Richard Dawkins on Time. (Penguin) Chances It's a Friend's Birthday Every Single Day of the Year.(FlowingData) What Makes a Good Data Visualization? (InformationIsBeautiful) When Pivoting Becomes a Pitfall. (Entrepreneur) Why Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smell. (SmithsonianMag) At 37, She Has Given Birth to 38 Children. (Monitor) From Automatons to Deep Learning. (Medium)

Market-Related Links

Market Update: Sector Rotation is Bullish for Stocks. (SeeItMarket) Of Money and Morals. (Aeon) A Bank Replaced a Fax Machine with Blockchain. Was It Worth It?(Quartz) Nvidia is Set to Dominate the '4Th Tectonic Shift' in Computing (NVDA). (Markets) LinkedIn CEO Sums up Why Jeff Bezos, and Amazon, are So Impressive in One Tweet. (CNBC) Briefing: Blockchain. (PWC) Tesla Lost $700 Million Last Year: So Why is Tesla's Valuation $60 Billion? (SteveBlank) Young Men are Playing Video Games instead of Getting Jobs. That's OK. (For Now.). (Reason) IBM Launches Watson for Financial Regulation. (WSJ) Here are the Top 10 Highest-Paid Athletes in the World 2017. (CNW) Blockchain's Future in Oil and Gas. (Deloitte) Paradoxes of Probability and Other Statistical Strangeness. (Quillette) Journeys of Lactic Abstraction. (CabinetMagazine) Beating the Odds. (MilkenReview) The Top 40 Investing Books. (ValueWalk) Does It Pay to Forecast the Business Cycle? a U.S. Update and an International Perspective. (SSRN) The Quiet Master of Cryptocurrency Nick Szabo. (Tim) Housing is Shamefully Segregated. Who Segregated It? (Slate) Polanyi, the Failed Prophet of Moral Economics. (BostonReview) Why CFOs are Rethinking the Cloud (And Why You Should Too).(DigitalistMag)

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Rich People Spend Their Time Differently: An Income Distribution in Americans' Pastimes

When it comes to American pastimes, many people focus on the big 3 sports: Football, Basketball, and Baseball. Nevertheless, there are a lot of different ways people spend their time.  It is interesting to see what they watch - and what they actually play. 

Nevertheless, there are a lot of different ways people spend their time.  It is interesting to see what they watch - and what they actually play. 

There is also a big difference based on income distribution.   Here is an infographic.

 

via VisualCapitalist

Apparently, rich people like golfing,  yoga and racquet sports ... while poorer people disproportionately liked relaxing, writing for personal interest, and having hobbies.

It is also kind of interesting to see when people tend to do certain activities.   Here is a chart showing the peak time for various sports and activities.

via Henrik Lindberg

You could build a business around data like that.

Interesting?

The Bezos Empire: Amazon, Whole Foods and More

Jeff Bezos is has acquired a lot of businesses since starting Amazon - Zappos, Audible, IMDB, and most recently Whole Foods (for $13.7 billion dollars).

On top of acquiring those businesses for Amazon - he also has diversified his own interests through Bezos Expeditions and as an angel investor. 

Here is a chart to put things in perspective.  Click on the image to see the whole infographic.

 

via VisualCapitalist

 

To grow the business, their customer base, and their competitive advantage ... Amazon and Bezos re-invest heavily by aggressively acquiring companies and technologies - even though that strategy virtually eliminates Amazon's profit.

Despite minimal profits (literally less than a handful of profitable quarters since it started in 1994), Amazon has a market cap of roughly $470 billion in market capitalization.  They've shown that there's a new algorithm for success - it's about vision and market domination. It is a long game with big stakes ... and it looks like he's winning.

They've shown that there's a new algorithm for success - it's about vision and market domination. It is a long game with big stakes ... and it looks like he's winning.

But You'd Still Call Them A Success

"Bezos recently told shareholders that the goal is to 'experiment patiently, accept failures, plant seeds, protect saplings, and double down when you see customer delight.'" 

via Forbes

It's a similar idea to one that I've adopted - though on a different scale.

When people first look at Capitalogix they see a hedge fund – but that is just an application of our core capabilities.  Internally, we know that we are an innovation engine that uses domain expertise in algorithmic trading, data science, and high-performance computing to generate something new. 

Edges decay or disappear faster than ever before - that's what drives our pursuit of more ways to win.

When changing the way people play a game -  you can't play by the same rules people used to.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - July 9th, 2017

I hate to admit it ... but this is how I watched fireworks this year. 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• When Neurology Becomes Theology. (Nautilus)
• 'Magical' Warfare Technologies and the Persistence of False Beliefs. (VoxEU)
• Who Really Needs to Be Gluten-Free? (New York Times)
• Machine Learning: The Past, Present, and Future by Tom Dietterich. (BigML)
• The Mathematical Corporation: Where Machine Intelligence and Human Ingenuity Achieve the Impossible. (BookReview)

 

Trading Links:

• Machines Now Dominate Stock Trading and It's Having Unexpected Consequences. (BI)
• China May Home Prices Gain 10.4% in May, Dip from April's 10.7% Rise. (CNBC)
• Chinese Stocks Could Attract over $400 Billion in Flows, BlackRock Says. (CNBC)
• Prada Sells $185 Paper Clip, and Twitter Can't Hold It Together. (CNet)
• 3 Stocks to Hold For the Next 50 Years. (FoxBusiness)

You Can Call Me Old Glory - Weekly Reading Links - July 7th, 2017

Hope you had a happy 4th of July - grilled out, saw some fireworks. Here's a video of Robin Williams reminding us that it's never a bad time to feel patriotism.

Here is a peek at what I've been reading lately. These are the links I saved this week. Hope you find some interesting and enjoyable tidbits. Let me know if you read something I'd like ... Or if there are other sources I should add to my weekly reading. Thanks.

Lighter Links:

Will Artificial Intelligence Replace Human Intelligence, Not Just Our Processes? (Burrus) 6 Findings after Researching 1,000 Self-Help Articles.(IntelligentChange) Clean Meat: a Bold Prediction May Finally Come True. (Forbes) Language Alters Our Experience of Time. (The Conversation) Pump Action: the Heart-stopping History of Cardiac Surgery.(NewStatesman) This Emotional Intelligence Test Was So Accurate It Was Creepy.(FastCompany) Neuroscientists Figure out How to Wipe Individual Memories from the Brain of a Snail. (DT) The ABCs and Ds of Whether to Get Prostate Cancer Screening. (NYT) The Top 21 Natural Testosterone Booster Ingredients. (Visual) What Duck Sex Reveals about Human Nature. (Spiegel) The Impossible Mathematics of the Real World. (Nautilus) What is Space? (Nautilus) The Shah of Iran: An Interview with Mohammad Reza Pahlevi.(NewRepublic) From Russia with Blood. (BuzzFeed) Here's the Easiest Way to Eat More Vegetables. (Time) Crash Override: Malware that Took Down a Power Grid May Have Been a Test Run. (Networkworld) Hume's Theory of Ideas. (AutodidactPhilosophy) A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf is 8 Miles from Creating an Iceberg the Size of Delaware. (NYTimes) Athens, Sparta and Rome: The Ancient Election. (TLS) Why are Artists Now Able to Create "Photo Realistic" Paintings and Pencil Drawing that Totally Blow Classic Painters, like Rembrandt and Da Vinci, out of the Water in Terms of Detail and Realism? (Quora)

Market-Related Links

Hedge Fund Launches Back on the Rise. (Institutional Investor) The Median Price of New Homes Hits a Record High. (WSJ) Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos May Be Single-handedly Killing Inflation.(CNBC) Technological Change and the Future of Financial Intermediation.(JohnKay) China to Promote Wealth Management Investment in Commodities - Regulator. (Reuters) Debunking the Fintech is Failing' Nonsense. (TheFinancialBrand) Should Your Company Be Profitable? (AVC) On Currency. (JPKoning) This is How Big Oil Will Die. (Shift) How Vertical Farming Reinvents Agriculture. (BBC) Quantopian's Army of Analysts is Defining the Future of Investment.(Inc) The Stars are Starting to Align for Gold Bulls. (BusinessInsider) Is a $2.7 Million Lunch with Warren Buffett a Bargain? (Bloomberg) 4 Indications that Make It Painfully Obvious Trumpcare is in Deep Trouble. (Fool) North Korea behind WannaCry Ransomware Attack, British Intelligence Claims. (BGR) Mobile Data Consumption Will Soon Surpass Fixed Broadband.(Axios) How Behavioral Finance Can Help Investors in Today's Market.(ValueWalk) JPMorgan's Massive Guide to Machine Learning Jobs in Finance.(EFinancialCareers) Amazon, Whole Foods, and the Future of the (Old) New Economy.(HBR) IBM's Watson Supercomputer is Getting into Wall Street Stock-picking. (CNBC)

Let me know what you think. Thanks. Click Here To Join My Mailing List

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - July 2nd, 2017

As always - it's artificial stupidity that scares me, not artificial intelligence.

InspiroBot attempts to design "Inspirational Posters" for you ... but it doesn't always do a great job. 

 

But it is pretty fun to play with. 

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

Lighter Links:

• We Need Critical Thinking Now More Than Ever. (Google's Eric Schmidt)
• Did Jerry Jones Ask the Pope to Help the Cowboys Win a Super Bowl? (CBS)
• No Royal Wants to Be King or Queen Says Prince Harry. (Mashable)
• Democrats Just Went 0-4. When Will They Win? (CNN)
• The U.S. Just Picked Intel, IBM, Nvidia and Others to Help Make Supercomputers 50 Times Faster. (FastCompany)

Trading Links:

• Big Prize in Amazon-Whole Foods Deal: Data. (Wall Street Journal)
• IT'S WAR: Walmart is Telling Vendors to Stop Using Amazon's Cloud. (Insider)
• Saudi Arabia’s Strains. (Bloomberg)
• How Long Was China Communist? (AndrewBatson)
• The Force That’s Reshaping the Global Economy Has Big Implications for the US Dollar.  (BlackRock)

Reasons to Travel to Indonesia: Expensive Cat Poop Coffee?

My wife is from Indonesia, so we often go to visit her family.

As a result, I often have new and exotic experiences ...

That picture was taken in Bali, where I first met my wife many years ago. Bali holds a lot of good memories for me, but Indonesia has more to offer than just Bali.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country, but it also has famous Hindu and Buddhist temples as well - including the world's largest Buddhist temple - Borobudur in Java. 

When you hear "Java" you think Coffee ... and for good reason. 

Indonesia is famous for coffee.  For example, "Sumatra" is their biggest island – with “Java” coming in close behind.

They also make one of the most expensive coffees in the world … Kopi Luwak.

It's a "special" coffee ... made using a very particular process.

In traditional coffee production, the cherries are harvested and the beans are extracted. The beans then get shipped to a roaster, ground into a pulp, and brewed by a barista at your local Starbucks.

In contrast, with Kopi Luwak, something different happens.

The coffee cherries are still harvested, but by wild animals.

Specifically, they’re harvested by the Asian Palm Civet, a small, cat-like animal that absolutely loves the taste of those cherries.

But, if the civets eat the cherries, how can they still be used to make coffee?

Well ... that's the gross part.

The civets eat the coffee cherries, but their digestive tract can’t effectively process the beans, only the flesh surrounding them.

When the partially digested, partially fermented beans are eventually excreted, coffee producers harvest them. The beans are then cleaned, roasted, and used to make astonishingly expensive (“with retail prices reaching up to $700 per kilogram”) coffee.

Now is the coffee that mind-blowing to warrant a price north of $300 a pound?

No, not really.  In fact, many critics will openly call it bad coffee, or as Tim Carman, food writer for the Washington Post put it, "It tasted just like...Folgers. Stale. Lifeless. Petrified dinosaur droppings steeped in bathtub water. I couldn't finish it."

To be fair, the Luwak coffee industry is an experience. When I toured a plantation near Ubud, Bali, a smiling tour guide greeted and led me on an in-depth exploration of the forested property, where I was allowed to immerse myself in the various spices, roots, beans, and civets used to produce this one-of-a-kind coffee.  Here is a video I shot of the process.

 

 via YouTube.

If you think about it, I paid a premium to drink exotic cat poop coffee, but I certainly  wouldn't drink coffee made from people poop (or even domestic cat poop).

So, why would I buy the coffee then?

It’s the story that allows this not so awesome coffee to fetch awesome prices.  People are paying for the experience, not the commodity itself.

The same is true when you buy Starbucks.  The coffee at 7-Eleven is cheaper – and Consumer Reports tell us that McDonalds coffee is better.

Nonetheless, I'd still rather drink at Starbucks.

We live in an Experience Economy.

Can you think of anything else where you're buying the story/experience without actually getting a superior product?

A World of Languages

I've been in Indonesia during the past week.  I'm surprised by how little is known about it, despite its size and population.  

Here are a few strange facts.  Indonesia is the world's largest island country, with more than seventeen thousand islands.  It has an estimated population of over 260 million people and is the world's fourth most populous country, as well as the most populous Muslim-majority country.

While the official language is Indonesian (also known as Bahasa Indonesia), a variant of Malay, most Indonesians speak other languages, such as Javanese, as their first language.  More than 700 regional languages are spoken in Indonesia's numerous islands.

That got me thinking about language.

There are over 7000 known languages still spoken in the world today. 

23 of those languages create the native tongues of over 4 Billion people.

This chart below is a pretty helpful illustration of prevalence and location.

Alberto Lucas López via InformationIsBeautiful

 

While American's tend to think English is the most prevalent language, we actually come in third behind Chinese and Spanish.

While based on population density, and reproduction, it seems like Chinese (Mandarin) will only widen its lead, it's worth noting that its influence wanes greatly outside of Asia.

How long will that last?

When I was younger, English was the language of business, but it may be time for you to brush up on your Chinese.

For more, here is a link to the Washington Post's article: The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts.

向前! (Onwards!)