Capitalogix

Remembering Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali, considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, died last Friday at 74 years old.

Besides boxing, he was known for his quick wit, sharp tongue, and memorable quotes.  

Here's one of my favorites.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

― Muhammad Ali

 

Here's another.

  

 via USAToday.

 

Here is a link to some great photos.

There are many videos recounting his life and the times, but I like this video because it shows him doing what made people call him "The Greatest".

 

 

YouTube.

 

S&P Pit: Futures Trading Then and Now

I recently had the opportunity to visit the S&P 500 Pit after speaking at the Trading Show in Chicago. 

Compare it to the pit only 8 years ago and you'll notice an interesting change ... but it's not necessarily as it seems.

 

 

via YouTube.

Don't let the slow pace and lack of frenzy fool you ... Volume now is higher than ever.  And the change in the pit isn't a harbinger of death for futures trading;  it's the signal of a new era. 

According to the CME Group, public outcry has fallen to 1% of total volume.

As the playing field changes, so does the game.

Onwards!

A Scary Chart That Questions the Future Economic Power of the U.S.

By 2030, more than 70 percent of people will live in cities.  In many respects, these cities matter a lot more than the countries that they’re in.

Mega-city clusters will dominate the world economy.  In many countries, the capital city or financial center often represents up to half or more of the national GDP.  By 2030, we could have as many as 50 such urban hubs anchoring the global system. 

What does this map tell us?

 

Parag Khanna via Washington Post.

 

This map attempts to accurately represent not only where people will be, but also the economic value of what they will do.  It looks at the entire world’s population and plots it by density, and then superimposes the largest urban archipelagos, the mega-cities, with those ovals to show the value of those cities vis-à-vis the national economy. 

It isn't as hard to predict as you might guess.  To predict the number of 18-year-olds in fifteen years, start with the number of 3-year-olds now.

Kind of scary?

There is opportunity in knowledge.

Related articles

Almost All of the World's Biggest Cities Will Be In Asia and Africa by 2030

$60 Trillion Of World Debt In One Visualization

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Just a saw an interesting Elon Musk quote:  "Boil things down to the most fundamental truths, and reason up from there."

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• How to Build a Culture of Originality. (Harvard Business Review)
• 9 Influential Speeches that Changed the World. (BusinessInsider)
• Jet App Allows You to Share Flights with Celebrities. (CNBC)
• Questions, Answers on New Rules for Americans Visiting Cuba. (AP News)
• One of the World's Top Aging Researchers Has a Pill to Keep You Feeling Young. (FastCo)

 

Trading Links:

• Fintech’s Tipping Point is Imminent, New Report Says. (CoinTelegraph)
• BANK of AMERICA: Long Robots, Short Humans. (BusinessInsider)
• The Uberization of Banking. (Wall Street Journal)
• A 40-Person Startup Just Bought a 1,100-Person Company, Because 2016. (Mashable)
• For Stan Druckenmiller this is "The Endgame" - His Full 'Apocalyptic' Presentation. (ZeroHedge)

Borsellino: futures trading then and now

I just got back from chairing and speaking at a Quant/Algo Trading Conference in Chicago.  Very interesting!

While there, I met with Lewis Borsellino, a well-known S&P 500 and Eurodollar futures trader and author.

Here is a picture of him in the Pit, back in the day.

 

via TastyTrade.

In the mid-eighties, Borsellino claims to have been responsible for 10 percent of a day's volume in the S&P 500 pit and to have accumulated more fines for physical incidents than any other floor member at the CME.

We talked about how many of the advantages he had by being a big player in the trading pits are now being realized by algorithmic and high-speed traders.  I smiled when he called himself the "original spoofer."  

Here is a picture of him now.

 

Change is the only constant.

It's funny how despite the pace of  change, so much stays the same.

The playing field may change, but you still have to play the game.

Related articles

The CME will close most of its open outcry trading pits by this summer

Wall Street sounds off as the Chicago trading pits go quiet for the first time in 167 years

Are You In the 1%?

Where you sit in the country's economic hierarchy?

Thanks to research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a nonpartisan think tank, we now have an in-depth analysis of income distribution trends.  

   

via EPI.

 

EPI's website also has an interactive fact sheet that displays in-depth information state by state.  On those fact sheets visitors can find statistics including what percentage of income growth the top 1% has snagged since 1979 and 2007 and how much income has grown for the top 1% and the bottom 99% between 2009 and 2012.

In 17 states, all income growth between 2009 and 2012 went to the top 1%.

New York and Connecticut are the two most unequal states, with the average 1%-er earning over 48 times what the rest of those states' populations earn. West Virginia is the least unequal state with a still-huge income disparity of 16 to 1 on average.

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Somebody has to win the election.  16sucks.com hopes it will be them, by selling "Everybody sucks" 2016 campaign signs to America's feeling about the two presumed main contestants for the presidency in November. 

Presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's net "strongly unfavorable" rating is hovering at about 37% these days (around 5% higher than the previous high for candidates getting close to the general election), according to FiveThirtyEight.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes Clinton look beloved. His "strongly unfavorable" rating is sitting at about 53%, which is off-the-charts awful for a candidate who is supposed to compete for the White House. 

  

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• 4 Hard Questions to Ask about Your Company’s Purpose. (HBR)
• 25 Geniuses Who are Creating the Future of Business. (Wired)
• Can You Get Hacked Mid-Air? The Answer Is YES. (USAToday)
• Aging Runners Find Help for a Question: How Slow Will I Get? (NYT)
• 36 Pictures to See Which Muscle You’re Stretching. (LifeHack)

 

Trading Links:

• How Buyers React When Prices Rise and Fall. (New York Times)
• This is Why People Get Addicted to Gambling. (The Conversation)
• Hedge Fund Outflows Will Reach at Least $25 Billion this Year. (Fortune)
• "A Scramble for Gold Has Begun". (ZeroHedge)
• A Clever Algorithm Generating Millions of Random Ideas is Turning the Tables on Patent Trolls. (Quartz)

Medical errors now third leading cause of death in United States

Medical errors are the 3rd leading cause of death according to Johns Hopkins.

 

via Washington Post.

 

What?

Hope you stay well enough to stay out of the medical system.

 

Related Articles

The Leading And Most "Distinctive" Causes Of Death In Your State

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

The new GOP Symbol says it all.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Incredible Power of Ignoring Everything. (Washington Post)
• 3 Scientifically Proven Ways to Optimize Your Brain. (Inc)
• Will the Singularity Mean the Death of Religion? (Kernel)
• How One Doctor is Waging War on Bulls**t Science. (Huffington Post)
• If You're Alive in 30 Years, Chances are Good You May Also Be Alive in 1000 Years. (HSK)
•  

Trading Links:

• Why We Think We’re Better Investors Than We Are. (New York Times)
• These 7 Iconic NYC Properties are Now Owned by the Chinese. (Video)
• China Central Bank to Fed: a Little Help, Please? (Reuters)
• Global IPOs at 7-Year Low. (Insider)
• Dark Days are Here Again on Wall Street-Investment Banking Earnings down 36% YTD, Lowest since Q1 2009. (David StockMan's Contra Corner)

A Sophisticated Trump

What if Donald Trump had elocution lessons?

Here is a video where his voice was dubbed to sound British.  Nonetheless, all words are verbatim.

Interesting and funny.

 

 

 via YouTube.