May 2021

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading – May 9th, 2021
Happy Mother's Day!

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

Lighter Links:
- IBM's New Chip Technology Shows Off the Next Big Step In Moore's Law. (SingularityHub)
- There are Only 19 Near-Perfect Movies On Netflix According To Metacritic. (Flipboard)
- Pete Davidson Describes Saturday Night Live Cast Dinner With Elon Musk. (EW)
- Elon Musk Reveals On 'SNL' He Has Asperger's. (TMZ)
- EMPATHY – Is This Simon Sinek's Best Speech? (YouTube)
Trading Links:
Tesla Dominates 15% of the World's Searches Into the Stock Market. (ValueWalk)

Dogecoin Down Nearly 40% From Record Value After Elon Musk SNL' Appearance. (Forbes)

Dallas Cowboys Named World's Most Valuable Sports Franchise At $5.7B. (SportIllustrated)

David Swensen, Yale Endowment Chief Who Changed the Course of Institutional Investing, Dies At 67. (Wall Street Journal)

The Founders of Clubhouse, Spotify, Stripe, and 42% of Unicorns Have One Thing In Common. (Marker)
May 9, 2021
Assessments and You
Over the years, I've used a number of different assessment tests on myself and our team. It's a great way to help people better understand each other and the different forms of communication and problem-solving styles we use.

Here are several of the tests that have proven themselves time and again:
1. Kolbe: measures a person's instinctive method of problem-solving, and identifies the ways they will be most productive.
2. Predictive Index (PI) – helps you understand the way their traits manifest in relation to their true nature and their perceived role.
3. StrengthsFinder: helps people uncover their talents, so they can do more of those things each day.
On top of my normal tests, as a team of data scientists, it's always fun to see what's available.

For example, Ray Dalio recently created a personality assessment called PrinciplesYou that you can take for free. I've seen a number of articles claiming that the assessment is not only accurate, but that it also has impressive insights.

Less meaningful, but still fun, I also found a website that lets you test your performance on various reaction and memory tests. Unsure how scientific it is, but it was an interesting use of 10 minutes nonetheless.

via Human Benchmark

Progress starts by telling the truth … most often to yourself.
May 9, 2021
Timeless Wisdom From Socrates

Small distinctions separate wise men from fools. Perhaps one of them has to do with what the wise man deems important.

Socrates' Triple Filter

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is Truth.  Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and…"

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness.  Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary…"

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left.  The third filter is Usefulness.  Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor even useful … then why tell it to me at all?"

With all the divisiveness in both media and in our everyday conversations with friends, family, and strangers … this is a good filter for what you say, what you post, and even how you view markets.

How Does That Apply to Me or Trading?

The concept of Socrates' Triple Filter applies to markets as well.

When I was a technical trader, rather than looking at fundamental data and scouring the news daily, I focused on developing dynamic and adaptive systems and processes to look at the universe of trading algorithms to identify which were in-phase and likely to perform well in the current market environment.

As we've transitioned to using advanced mathematics and AI to understand markets it becomes even more true.

Filter Out What Isn't Good For You.

In contrast, there are too many ways that the media (meaning the techniques, graphics, music, etc.), the people reporting it, and even the news itself, appeals to the fear and greed of human nature.

Likewise, I don't watch TV news anymore either. It seems like story after story is about terrible things. For example, during a recent visit with my mother, I listened to her watch the news. There was a constant stream of "oh no," or "oh my," and "that's terrible". You don't even have to watch the news to know what it says.

It's also true with what you feed your algorithms. Garbage in, garbage out. Just because you can plug in more data, doesn't mean that data is adding value. Deciding what not to do, and what not to listen to is equally as important as deciding what to do.

Artificial intelligence is exciting, but artificial stupidity is terrifying.

What's The Purpose of News for You?

My purpose changes what I'm looking for and the amount of attention I pay to different types of information. Am I reading or watching the news for entertainment, to learn something new, or to find something relevant and actionable?

One of my favorite activities every week is looking for new insights and interesting articles to share with you and my team. If you aren't getting my weekly reading list on Fridays – you're missing out. You can sign up here.

Getting back to Socrates' three filters and the business of trading, I often ask myself: is it important, does it affect our edge, or can I use it as a catalyst for innovation?

There's a lot of noise out there competing for your attention. Stay focused.

Onwards!

May 2, 2021
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading – May 2nd, 2021
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.

Lighter Links:
Trading Links:
This Is the Special Lesson Warren Buffett Gave New Stock Investors at His Annual Meeting. (CNBC)

Charlie Munger Calls Bitcoin 'Disgusting and Contrary to the Interests of Civilization'. (CNBC)

President Biden's $4 Trillion Economic Plan, In One Chart. (Infographic)

Private Equity and Hedge Funds, Facing a New Tax Burden, Prepare Their Defense. (WSJ)

More Than 90 New Airlines are Launching In 2021. They Say It's the Perfect Time. (Wall Street Journal)
May 2, 2021
A Wordcloud For Each of the Major Religions

The six largest religions in the world are Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

We often think about the differences between religions. However, the many similarities are obvious if you look (and may be indications of a more integral "truth".

Below is a wordcloud for each of those religions based on their major religious text.

teddyterminal via Reddit

If you find the name "Keith" it's because it was the translator's name, and the word "car" in the Hinduism wordcloud is an old-fashioned word for "chariot".

It's also worth acknowledging that this wordcloud is from the English translations so some words that may mean slightly different things in other languages can be all translated to one word in English. For example, it's very common in Biblical Hebrew to see different words translated into the same English word. A good example is Khata, Avon, and Pesha–three different ways of committing a wrong, that may all be translated the same.

May 2, 2021