Business

  • Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading – November 4th, 2018

    Reminder: election day is this Tuesday. 

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

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  • Real or Fake? Data Science Debunks Internet Rumors

    A French team, Escalenta, put together a series of debunking videos called "DATA SCIENCE vs. FAKE". 

    Here are five that are short, educational, and entertaining. 

    These days, it's easy to be confused by fake news, misleading statistics, and hyperbole. 

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    Hope this serves as a reminder to check your sources and remain healthily skeptical of random factoids delivered through the intertubes. 

  • Is the Market Sell-off Going to Continue?

    October has been tough on equity markets this year. 

    For example, the S&P 500 opened to a sea of red this past early last week.

     

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    McDonald's was one of the few green spots on that heat map.  Which reminds me, Mickey D's is becoming a little more modern by adding online and touchscreen ordering.

    For some context, the S&P is on pace for it's worst sell-off since 2010 … while the NASDAQ hasn't been hit like this since post-Lehman in 2008. 

    Is it a correction or a blip?

    Historically, midterm elections inspire uncertainty among investors that dissipates quickly as soon as they're over. Once that uncertainty is resolved, the S&P gains an average of 31% the following year.

    Markets exist to trade … and confusion is a primary catalyst.  As such, many people believe the market will rally … while others believe that the traditional midterm effect could be blunted. 

    For all the confusion in today's society, it's good to see that some things don't change.

    Onwards.

  • Farm Tank Podcast – AI Trading, The Cowboys & Pablo Escobar

    I was recently on Jordan Van Trump's Farm Tank podcast. 

    On the podcast, we talked about artificial intelligence & trading, the Cowboys, my trip to Columbia, and a bunch of other things. 

    Worth a listen. Check it out. 

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    Here are some highlights:

    • "You have to really enjoy the people you do business with. It's important to know who's fun to be around, who's going to be a net add, who's going to create energy, and who's going to have ideas." (5:55)
    • "I had a computer. Back then, only secretaries typed. I had a lot of people telling me it looked bad for a lawyer to have a computer, but I loved it and pretty quickly it became a competitive advantage." (15:20)
    • "One of the most important business lessons I learned is you have to understand what you want. So much of what I see in business is people telling me what they don't want." (19:00)
    • "I found that 10 times better is often easier to achieve than 10% better. If you're going for a 10% change, then you're bringing the past forward and you're trying to figure out what you can adjust." (20:00)
    • "Learning and growing are huge. For me, it's about raising the standard, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, seeing the bigger picture, and creating breakthroughs. In order to do that I surround myself with people who think differently." (22:45)
    • "There's a difference between good and great and that difference is infinitesimal. You have to find not only what you're excellent at, but also what gives you energy because every day you fight the good fight and compete with everybody else."(58:00)

     

    I'll be at The Van Trump conference, in Kansas City, on November 28th. Hope to see you there.

  • This Year’s Most Brutal Campaign Ad

    2018 has been stranger than fiction in many regards … Regardless of your political leanings, some of the recent news has seemed more like a sitcom than usual. 

    For all the different ridiculous headlines, this still stands out. 

    Six siblings are running campaign ads against their brother. 

    Yes … You read that right. 

    Check it out. 

     

    Brill For Congress via Youtube

    Here are some quotes from Congressperson Paul Gosar's (R-Arizona) siblings.

    • "He just doesn't appear to be well"
    • "It would be difficult to see my brother as anything but a racist"
    • "Where is his integrity? I don't know"
    • “There isn’t a kooky, crazy, nutty thing that he isn’t a part of …What are we supposed to do?”

     

    Weird. 

    Make sure you're registered to vote in the upcoming madness (sorry, I mean midterms). 

  • Does Entry Level Still Mean Entry Level?

    We often hear millennials complaining about today's job climate.

    How can I get job experience if I can't even get a job to get experience?

     Is there any validity to that belief system?

    Apparently, yes. 

    According to TalentWorks, after analyzing a random sample of over 95,000 job listings they discovered that 61% of full-time "entry-level" jobs require 3+ years of experience. 

     

    4132018 entry-level-jobs-years-experience-1via TalentWorks

    Turns out "Experience Inflation" is a real thing.  Brings context towards the shift away from traditional education I mentioned a couple months ago. 

    TalentWorks also found that three, five, and eight years are the magic numbers for upgrading your job title.

    Mid-level jobs open up to you after five years, and senior level jobs open up after eight.

    I guess Millennials get a pass on this one … just this once. 

    With that said, we've had great success with the few high school interns we hired.  Perhaps the passion and interest that caused them to look for serious work, so early,  was a great way for them to get experience (and an early indicator of true talent)?

  • The World’s 20 Largest Tech Giants

    Today, the technology universe is more uniform than you'd think.  All of the top 20 technology companies are based in America and China.

    Since 2013, China has added 5 to their side and America has lost 1. 

    Here is the list.

     

    Visualizing The World's 20 Largest Tech Giants

    via Visual Capitalist

    It's also interesting to note that there's a steep dropoff between the "giants" and the companies lower down the ladder. There isn't a single company with a valuation between $200 billion and $450 billion. 

    To put it in a different perspective, here's a pie chart showing the market capitalization of the top 5 tech companies in comparison to the bottom 282 S&P 500 companies. 

     

    via Michael Batnick

    It can be hard for a tech company to break into the upper echelons.  However, with tech, change is the only constant. 

    What are some of the companies you think have a chance to enter the realm of these giants?

  • Something To Celebrate …

    Capitalogix hosted a party for a private group of investors, partners, and friends this week.

     

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    We celebrated how far we've come and how excited we are about where we're going. 

    I am grateful for all the help and advice that got us here.  If the past is any predictor, we're going to need a lot more. 

    Thanks for being a part of our journey.

    Onwards!

  • Entrepreneur Weekly Podcast – AI and the Futures Industry

    You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.  ~ Jim Rohn

     

    2Surrounding yourself with the right people, and joining peer groups like Strategic Coach, Genius Network, Vistage, or the Entrepreneurs' Organization is vital to your growth. They bring together brilliant minds and industry transformers together in forums focused on innovation, creative disruption, and possibility. 

    Peer groups help you set (and raise) standards. They help bring new capabilities, but also new possibilities, new found energies and a reconnection to your purpose, mission, and values. 

    If you're not ready for that commitment, listening to podcasts from those people that have done what you want to do and gone where you want to go is a great step towards reaching those same goals.

    In that vein, I recently went to Alaska with some friends.  While there, I got to be on Entrepreneur Weekly with some of my close friends from Genius Network.

    The following podcast features me and these guys:

     

    The entire episode is less than 39 minutes. My piece starts around the 11:30 mark and goes for about 5 minutes.  I open with a pretty big claim … Check it out! 

     

    Pursue Passionately 

     

    If you understand what you really want and if you focus on that, rather than what you don’t want or all the things that are wrong; as long as you’re moving in that direction, and you don’t give up,  the result is inevitable.  ~ Howard Getson

     

    When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine being where I am today … nor could I imagine the path that took me here. 

    Looking back, it all makes sense. I didn't always know where I was going … but I was passionate about business, and I was driven towards a greater purpose.  From selling painted sand terrariums at the farmer's market to building an artificial intelligence powered hedge fund there's a common thread and a driving force. 

    Don't be afraid to take the risks that may injure your present to make way for your future. 

     

    The Fourth Industrial Revolution

     

    The advent of AI is going to be as dramatic for society as the invention of electricity.  ~ Howard Getson

     

    Artificial intelligence will solve problems and create opportunities on a scope and scale that is beyond our current comprehension. 

    I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time to build this company and capitalize on this opportunity.  Realize, however, that I had to recognize the vision before there was an opportunity to capture. 

    Life is about making your future bigger than your past.  There are plenty of opportunities out there if you know what you want.

    Let me know what you are passionate about.  I'd love to help.

  • A Rennaissance in Mathematics: The Mathematician Who Cracked Wall Street

    Jim Simons is a mathematician and cryptographer who realized that the complex math he used to break codes could help explain financial patterns – and he made billions because of it in his notoriously secretive hedge fund firm called Renaissance Technologies. 

    He is famous not only for the duration of his success and the size of his results … but also for the way he made his money (with much lower volatility and risk than his peers and competitors). 

    His background is impressive.  Simons taught at Harvard and MIT and worked with the NSA.  Here is a video where he shares some thoughts in a 2015 TED talk interview.  It's worth a watch. 

     

    TED via Youtube

    Interesting stuff … I hope you got something from it. 

    Despite advanced math still being a mystery to many,  most rely on it more than ever … for example, look at what we're seeing with the growth of machine learning and AI.

     

    The Heart of AI is Still in Humans

     

    Simons built a team of mathematicians whose motivation was doing exciting mathematics and science (rather than hired guns who could be lured away by money).

    That doesn't mean money wasn't a motivator, but it hits on something important. 

    The heart of good math and good AI will always benefit from the quality of the humans around it. You still have to champion integrity, culture, and purpose.

     

    Better Math as a Competitive Advantage

     

    We stayed ahead of the pack by finding other approaches and shorter-term approaches to some extent … but the real thing was to gather a tremendous amount of data – Jim Simons

     

    If you've been to our office, or heard me speak, you know how important I believe those ideas are to continuing prosperity. 

    Constant innovation on a massive scope and scale create more ways to win.

    Onwards!