Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The 25 Best Inventions of 2014. (Time)
• Peter Thiel's Very Negative - And Very Useful - Advice For Entrepreneurs. (Fortune)
• Google Glass Failed, but Here’s the Path Its Successors Will Take. (MIT TReview)
• Why Do People Believe in Conspiracy Theories? (Scientific American)
• Will NFL Broadcasts Ever Embrace Advanced Stats? Sabermetrics changed pro baseball. Now comes football. (MMQB)

 

Trading Links:

• The Science Behind Casino Profits. (The Week)
• Facebook 'Newspaper' Spells Trouble For Media. (BusinessInsider)
• U.S. Economy: Four Indicators Paint Very Negative Picture. (Business2Community)
• USPS Takes on FedEx and UPS with 7-day Delivery This Holiday Season. (B2C)
• Black Friday Online Sales Up 8.5% Over Last Year, 20% Of Sales Came From iOS. (TechCrunch)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

The virus on your computer is NOT Ebola.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• If Brainstorming Doesn't Work … Try This Technique Instead. (FastCompany)
• 5 Radical Business Quotes from Tesla Motors, Inc.'s CEO, Elon Musk. (M-Fool)
• Bill Gates's Favorite Business Book. (Wall Street Journal)
• 10 Malware Removal Apps Tested: Malwarebytes Comes out on Top. (Lifehacker)
• Which Country Does The Most Good For The World? (TED Talk Video)

 

Trading Links:

• Netflix Surpasses HBO in Subscriber Revenue. (Mashable)
• Harry Dent Predicts Central Banker Economies Will Collapse, Including Ours. (M-Oracle)
• New ETF Tracks the Billionaire Dream Team. (Bloomberg)
• USPS: 3D Printing Could Increase Shipping Revenue by Hundreds of Millions. (GigaOM)
• Math Nerds Are Taking Over Wall Street. (Money)

Wisdom in the Age of Information: The Future of Story-Telling

“We live in a world awash of information, but we seem to face a growing scarcity of wisdom,” states Maria Popova, Founder of the website Brain Pickings.

She believes that stories—in the broadest sense of the word—shape the meaning and momentum of everyday life.

 

 

 via YouTube.

Stories will never die, but the ways we tell them are changing.

Interesting.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

The U.S. is supposed to be the model for free market economics.  So, why do we have the highest corporate tax rate in the world?

 

Here are ten posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.

 

Lighter Links:

• These Are Some of Best Time-Saving Hacks for A Productive Day. (AlltopStartups)
• There are Now 50 Colleges that Charge More Than $60,000 Per Year [List]. (Insider)
• If Logos Had Honest Slogans ... (TwistedSifter)
• Amazon Tests Kindle Unlimited, Its Own E-book Subscription Service. (FastCompany)
• Dad Claims Kingdom So 7-Year-Old Can Be Real Princess. (HuffingtonPost)

 

Trading Links:

• The Moneyball of Quality Investing. (ResearchAffiliates)
• The Difference Between a Good and a Bad Trader: What Brain Imaging Reveals. (ZH)
• Central Bank Exec Says Stocks Are 'Irrational'; China Poised To Crash. (BizInsider)
• A Cheat Sheet for Understanding the Different Schools of Economics. (Pragcap)
• 5 Everyday Products Whose Prices Are Hitting All-Time Highs. (Fool)

What Shoulder Surgery Reminded Me About Technology

History is littered with tales of once-rare resources made plentiful by innovation. The reason is pretty straightforward ... scarcity is often contextual.

Imagine a giant orange tree packed with fruit. If you pluck all the oranges from the lower branches, you are effectively out of accessible fruit.

From that limited perspective, oranges are now scarce. But once someone invents a piece of technology called a ladder, the problem is solved.

 

Shoulder Surgery Isn't What It Used to Be.

 

 

I had shoulder surgery on Wednesday to remove some calcium deposits and bone spurs, and to clean out or fix some soft tissue damage.

 

Needless to say, I wasn't looking forward to it.  And not just to the needles and knives, I was dreading the rehab.

 

Turns out, shoulder surgery isn't what it used to be.  

 

Here is a picture from inside my shoulder (unlike years ago, they didn't have to rip me open to to gain access for the picture or the repair).

 

 

Less damage, less time, less drugs, less recovery.

Bottom-Line: I went in early, and was out before lunch.  Moreover, I was able to work and go to a reception the day after the surgery ... and go to the gym this weekend. 

Whether it is minimally invasive surgical instruments, or linking big data and elastic computing ... Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. 

Whether it is minimally invasive surgical instruments, or linking big data and elastic computing ... Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It can make the 'once scarce' the 'now abundant' (or 'readily accessible') ... and a lot less painful.

Pretty Cool!

Is the U.S. Stock Market Rigged?

Did you see the 60 Minutes report on Michael Lewis' new book, "Flash Boys," that reveals some of the ways that high speed traders work the stock market to their advantage.

 

 

Here is an excerpt from the intro.

 

Steve Kroft: What’s the headline here?

Michael Lewis: The Stock Market is rigged. The United States stock market, the most iconic market in global capitalism is rigged.

Steve Kroft: By whom?

Michael Lewis: By a combination of these stock exchanges, the big Wall Street banks and high-frequency traders.

Steve Kroft: Who are the victims?

Michael Lewis: Everybody who has an investment in the stock market.

 

The 60 Minutes piece has a interesting explanation of what is happening.

For an even better one, click to watch this Michael Lewis interview on Bloomberg, where he defends his claim that the market is rigged.

 

 

via Bloomberg Television's “Market Makers.”

 

Let me know if you want to talk about high frequency trading or what is likely to happen as a result of press coverage like this and the ensuing regulatory scrutiny.

 

We live in interesting times.

 

Related articles

Michael Lewis Explains How HFTs "Screw" Investors Every Day.

Big Picture - More Videos: On how the U.S. stock market is rigged?

Wall Street Pit: On How 'Rigged' The Stock Market Really Is

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Shared Wisdom: Thoughts From Some of the Industry’s Best VCs. (PandoDaily)
• How Slot Machines Raise Our Hopes, Even When We’re Losing. (NYTimes)
• Finding Value in Information Super-Abundance. (Economist)
• How Nate Silver Got It Right. It's not how much data you have, it's what you do with it. (NYBooks)
• Big Data Can Tell By Your Tweets If You’re a Psychopath. (GlobalMail)

 

Trading Links:

• Small Hedge Funds Outdo Elite Rivals. (FT)
• What If They Held a Bull Market and No One Came? Disinterest in the Dow's new high. (WS&T)
• Buffett Picks Douglas Kass as His 'Bear' for Berkshire’s Annual Meeting. (Dealbook)
• Could North Korea Really Nuke the United States? Threat of a "Preemptive Nuclear Attack" (TW)
• As Budget Cuts Loom, Austerity Kills Off Government Jobs. What effect will that have on the economy? (NYTimes)

Related articles

ART CASHIN: The Experts That Traders Go To For North Korea Intel Are Getting Worried

A Question for Warren Buffett

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Who put Washington in charge of the ball drop this New Year?

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Year in Photos. Photos of the Year 2012. (WSJ Graphics)
• The Best Books of 2012. Interesting list with some unusual choices. (BrainPickings)
• The Best City Time-Lapse Videos of 2012. (TheAtlantic)
• Life's Work 2012. Highlights from Interviews of 10 Intriguing People. (HarvardBizReview)
• How to Keep Your Resolutions. 25 apps for a happier, healthier, better 2013. (VentureBeat)

 

Trading Links:

• Why 2013 Will See Faster, Stronger Global Growth. (CNBC)
• How to Play the 4 Likely Potential Economic Scenarios Over the Next 3 Years. (Forbes)
• The Fiscal-Cliff Fix: Winners and losers. (The Week)
• Defying Mao, Rich Chinese Crash the Communist Party. (Wall Street Journal)
• Amateur Investors Are 3.2 Percent Worse Than Chimpanzees at Picking Stocks. Fear, greed, and mistakes are a bitch to deal with (BusinessInsider)

Your Weekend Reading Linkfest

Lots of good stuff this week to distract you from the bad.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Why it’s Not All Bad to Be Bored. (NYTimes)
• Alec Baldwin Puts the 'Fear' Into Christmas with Glengarry Christmas Spoof. (CX)
• Spotify's 10 Most Popular Tracks of 2012. (TheWeek)
• The Purpose Of War? Thought provoking commentary. (ABC)
• Human Modification. Scientists are experimenting with different ways to enhance humans. What's possible? (TheBrowser)

 

Trading Links:

• The World’s 200 Richest People. (Bloomberg)
• Investors’ 10 Most Common Behavioral Biases. (RPSeawright)
• Market Data Firm Spots the Tracks of Bizarre Robot Traders. (TheAtlantic)
• Book Recommendations from Nassim Taleb. (FarnamStreet)
• With Profits Dropping, High-Speed Trading Cools Down. (NYTimes)

Listen In as Michael Covel and David Stendahl Discuss Trading Strategies

Michael Covel is the President TrendFollowing.com and TurtleTrader.com. 

In addition, he has a popular interview series where he talks with great traders and about a wide range of topics.  We are honored that he chose to interview our portfolio manager, David Stendahl.  Here is a link to the Interview.

 

 

The interview is simple enough for a novice, but nuanced enough for advanced traders.  Some of the topics include:

• Stendahl's world is 100% systematic, and he has been involved in conceptualizing and thinking up systematic approaches to trading the market for decades. But what is a system? Stendahl's explanation may surprise you.
• Stendahl's approach is that a system should have as few moving parts as possible; it should be simple enough to be explained on the back of a cocktail napkin.
• Stendahl explains that your system doesn't have to be complex to work. Sometimes the best system can be only four lines of code.
• Covel and Stendahl make an analogy to cars, and how you can easily fix a simpler car in your garage as opposed to a complex Lexus.
• Stendahl explains that everyone is using a system in one way or another: every time you make a decision to buy or liquidate, whether it's based on a real system or based on advice from someone on the television, it's systematic in some regard.
• If you can talk it, you should be able to quantify it. If you can't quantify it, it might not really be there.
• Find out how Stendahl's dyslexia played a role in his technical trading, and how he turned this disadvantage into an advantage.
• Covel and Stendahl discuss Ray Dalio of Bridgewater, who says that he is 100% systematic, but doesn't use any technical information.
• Covel and Stendahl also discuss position sizing and money management, and how you can approach this systematically.

 

There is a lot of good stuff in the interview.  Hope you enjoy it.

Here is a review of Trend Following and the post on Trend Commandments.

See the list of all Covel's Trend Following Manifesto Podcasts in iTunes and here for a more complete description of each recording.  Check it out; he has produced a bunch of terrific interviews that are worth listening to because of their educational content, and because they will make you think.

 

Related articles

• Listen In As Michael Covel and Howard Getson Discuss Trading Strategies (capitalogix.typepad.com)