Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - November 18th, 2018

This is how we warm-up for Thanksgiving in Texas ...

 

 

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

Lighter Links  

• Is this AI? We Drew You a Flowchart to Work It Out. (TechReview)
• In Defense of "Designer Babies". (Reason)
• China's Artificial Sun is Now Hot Enough for Nuclear Fusion. (Futurism)
• Science Confirms: Earth Has More Than One 'Moon'.(BigThink)
• Sign Your Address up for USPS Informed Delivery Before Scammers Do. (LifeHacker)

Trading Links

• Billionaire Ray Dalio Says Capitalism is Not Working for Most People. (Barrons)
• Bank of Japan's Balance Sheet Now Larger Than Country's GDP. (Reuters)
• Meat Has a Replacement but No One Knows What to Call It. (Bloomberg)
• Here are the Most Outrageous Incentives Cities Offered Amazon in Their HQ2 Bids. (Buzzfeednews)
• A Virtual Assistant Called Abbie is Picking the Best Bonds for Traders to Buy or Sell. (TechReview)

 

Eight Major Forces Shaping Our Global Economy

In trading, the holding period (or "time in trade") is shrinking.  Consequently, there is less focus on predicting markets ... and more focus on determining which techniques are making money most predictably.

Markets are not the same as the economy ... and on a macro scale, it is possible to understand and predict the major forces shaping our global economy.

Jeff Desjardins, of the Visual Capitalist, recently highlighted some of the major forces that are changing our global economy.  Here is a summary.

 

The Tech Invasion ... and its Accelerating Progress

 

If you were to look at the biggest companies globally - almost all of them are in tech. Fifty years ago, the largest companies were in commodities (like oil, steel, etc.). Even 5 years ago, the biggest companies were widely "goods" centric. 

 

via Visual Capitalist

But it's more than just the biggest companies. We're experiencing a technological revolution in many subspaces - AI, 3D printing, gene editing, quantum computing, etc.   

Yet, for all the change and disruption we've experienced until today - understand that it is going to get faster, and more pronounced, in the future. 

And, it isn't just the tech that is new.  The pace of its adoption across industries is a game-changer as well.

 

via Visual Capitalist

We are at a point where new technology often gets released before the previous iteration can fully take hold and mature.

It is not just trading that is getting faster, product cycles are compressing, and foundational technologies are disrupted and replaced (or made obsolete) faster than ever as well.

Even global adoption cycles have become viral and near instantaneous.  Think about how fast Pokemon Go (AR) got adopted, or new Smartphones became mainstream.

 

The Evolution of Money, a Changing Wealth Landscape, ... and China

 

Money's definition is changing.  Cash is becoming less common (with the increasing use of credit cards, electronic payments, and payment services like Paypal, Venmo, and ApplePay).  In addition, the public has maintained its interest in cryptocurrencies.

Ultimately, our perception of money may radically change how global economies work. 

On top of that, money is changing hands, the ultra-wealthy are from different industries than before, and the wealthiest countries & companies widely influence politics. 

 

via Visual Capitalist

Consider the economic rise of China. Even though we've been watching China grow for decades, the scope of its population and economic impact can still be difficult to understand. China has over 100 cities with more than 1,000,000 inhabitants.  Even scarier, perhaps, is that China now has more honor students than we have students. 

 

Conclusion

 

Obviously, the global economy is changing.  To see more about the eight forces shaping it, read this.

We live in interesting times.

Onwards.

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

Reminder: election day is this Tuesday. 

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

Lighter Links  

• Radical Candor the Surprising Secret to Being a Good Boss. (FirstRound)
• 21 Lessons from Jeff Bezos' Annual Letters to Shareholders. (CBInsights)
• When the 80/20 Rule Fails: the Downside of Being Effective. (JamesClear)
• Stephen Hawking's Final Book Tackles the Big Questions. (BigThink)
• This Chart Shows How Everything Has Changed since Trump Became President. (CNBC)

 

Trading Links

• What Investors Can Learn from Gamblers. (Wall Street Journal)
• A Wealth Management Point of View on Blockchain and Bitcoin.(TheReformedBroker)
• Google Drops out of Pentagon's $10 Billion Cloud Competition.(Bloomberg)
• Bezos Sets New Wealth Record, Losing $19.2 Billion over Two Days.(Bloomberg)
• Godfather' of Chart Analysis Says Damage Done to the Stock Market' is Much, Much Worse' Than Anyone is Talking About. (MarketWatch)

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.

 

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?

Understanding the Scope and Scale of Humanity (and Our Impact)

"Progress is the attraction that moves humanity." ~ Marcus Garvey

Human expansion and development is without precedent. We're in an entirely new territory. People could "only imagine" many of the things we take for granted today. 

To put it in perspective. 

• There are more than 7 Billion people inhabiting our planet today. in 1950. That number was just 2.56 billion. 
• 200 years ago there were less than 1 billion people.
• We produce approximately 1.3 billion tonnes of waste in a year.
• More data was created in 2017 than in all of history combined. 
• Here's an interactive website showing our footprint, urbanization, networks etc. 

via OurWorldInData

While growth is slowing down, and we're reaching carrying capacity, the population is still on the rise.

 

Technology is Growing Exponentially 

 

“Technology goes beyond mere tool making; it is a process of creating ever more powerful technology using the tools from the previous round of innovation.” ~Ray Kurzweil

 

The only thing that's perhaps more impressive than our population growth is our technological growth. For the first ~ 64,000 years of humanity, we relied upon the verbal transfer of information. The creation of writing and the formal recording of knowledge was the tinder for a blaze of progress.

 

 

The above graph stops in 1990, and it's almost hard to quantify the growth since then.  Nonetheless, Moore's Law does a good job of adding some context (even if it is coming to an end). 

Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years. Extrapolated outwards, we can expect more technologies to evolve every two years, if not faster. 

Information is the fuel for so much of human progress and it most embodies the future to me. We create more data today than in all of history and digest more data today than ever before.

 

As our ability to parse information increases ... so do our capabilities. 

 

History is defined by asymmetric information, but our future may not be.  The growth in information creation and digestion - I believe -  will have massive effects on how we congregate, what we create, and how we interact with each other and the corporate world around us. 

I can't begin to imagine what my children's children will have at their disposal. 

What's the coolest future-tech you expect to see in your lifetime?

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - August 26th, 2018

My experience is that you tend to see the same people on the way up ... as you do on the way down.

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

Lighter Links

• Anonymous Bidder Pays $3.3 Million for Lunch with Warren Buffett. (New York Times)
• What If Your Business Was So Intelligent that Nothing Came as a Surprise. (Medium)
• Here's Why You Shouldn't Multitask, According to an MIT Neuroscientist. (Southernliving)
• Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore. (The Atlantic)
• What is the 80/20 Rule? How the Pareto Principle Will Supercharge Your Productivity. (HubSpot)

  

Trading Links

• The Stock Market is on Pace to Hit Another, More Impactful Trillion-dollar Milestone. (Finance)
• Too Little Too Late': Bankruptcy Booms among Older Americans. (New York Times)
• THE MOST AMAZING STORY about BITCOIN YOU'VE EVER HEARD. (James Altucher)
• Why AI Isn't the Death of Jobs. (McKinsey)
• Los Angeles' Median Home Price Nears $1 Million as Fierce Bidding Wars Continue. (Forbes)

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - August 19th, 2018

Turns out, Google is tracking your location history - even when you turn off location tracking in Google Maps.

It's increasingly apparent that privacy in today's digital age is a farce. 

 

If you want to actually stop Google from tracking location (short of selling all of your material possessions and living off the grid) turn off your device information, location history and web activity here. This will depersonalize your searches as well - so your ads will (hopefully) not know your deepest darkest secrets anymore. 

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

 

Lighter Links

• 3 Key Factors that Led to Apple Becoming the World's First Trillion-Dollar Company. (Entrepreneur)
• 7 Job Skills of the Future (That AIs and Robots Can't Do Better Than Humans). (Forbes)
• This Will Help You Grasp the Sizes of Things in the Universe.(Nautilus)
• A Fascinating List of Autonomic Functions that Occur within Human Bodies Every 60 Seconds. (LaughingSquid)
• Hear Freddie Mercury & Queen's Isolated Vocals on Their Enduring Classic Song, We are the Champions. (OpenCulture)

  

Trading Links

• Here's How Fortnite Hooked 125 Million Players.(TheNextWeb)
• Six Media Giants Control 90 Percent of the Content We Consume. (PR Daily)
• Contradiction: Fund Managers Love Tech but Worry about the Trade War. (ValueWalk)
• Report: Just 12% of 2017'S $43 Billion in Music Industry Revenue Went to Artists. (CNW)
• Bill Gates Noticed a Global Economy Trend that No One is Paying Enough Attention To. (Observer)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - August 5th, 2018

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

 

Lighter Links

• The 5 Levels of Leadership. (Quartz)
• Your Obsession with Cognitive Biases is Probably Making You Dumber. (Inc)
• Apple Watch Keeps Spotting Cardiac Issues and Saving Lives, this Time in Australia. (AppleInsider)
• What is Intermittent Fasting and is It Actually Good for You? (Time)
• New Radio Telescope Picks up Mysterious Signal from Space. (CNet)

 

 

Trading Links

• Jeff Bezos' Parents Invested $245,573 in Amazon in 1995 Now They Could Be Worth $30 Billion. (Insider)
• The Biggest Thing to Happen in Blockchain since Bitcoin. (Forbes)
• Russia Dumped 84% of Its American Debt. What that Means. (Money)
• Big Pharma Would like Your DNA. (The Atlantic)
• AAPL Gets Even Closer to $1Tn Market Cap, Hits New All-time High in After-hours Trading. (9to5Mac)

 

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - July 8th, 2018

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

 

Lighter Links

• Yes, Your Phone is Spying on You and these Researchers Proved It. (BGR)
• Talking to Your Team about Cyber Threats. (Myventurepad)
• A Mesmerizing 4K Timelapse of Kilauea's Famous Lava Flow. (TwistedSifter)
• The 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Winners. (TwistedSifter)
• Harvard University is Fighting to Keep Its Secretive Admissions Process under Wraps. (MarketWatch)

 

Trading Links

• JPMorgan's Ultimate Guide to Markets and the Economy. (BusinessInsider)
• Yes, America Still is an Export Superpower. (BigThink)
• The Top 10 Biggest Airline Money Making Routes in the World (One Generates a Billion Dollars). (VFTW)
• First Commercial DNA Data Storage Service Set to Launch in 2019. (NewScientist)
• Why Quantum Computers Will Be Super Awesome, Someday. (Bloomberg)

An Investment Guaranteed to Pay Dividends

I think about investments a lot ... that makes sense given my profession.

Yet, as my kids get older, there is an investment I made that paid-off in a big way ... and I want to share it with you.

Like many parents, I wanted to teach my children that, to a large extent, they control what happens to them. One of the first ways I did that was to set up a "compensation system" for them to earn video games.

Some parents try to limit the amount of time their kids spend watching TV or playing video games. I tried something different.  Instead, my kids earned their games by reading books.  Here is a photo from way back then.

 

 

Paid With Play.

Here's how it worked. When they were younger, 10 books was enough to earn a small game. When they finished a book, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the bookstore for us to pick up the next book together. Likewise, when they finished the requisite number of books, it was their right, and my obligation, to take them to the computer store or game store for them to choose any game they wanted.

When they finished a hundred books, they got a bonus of earning the next game system. That meant if they had a Nintendo, they could now also get a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.

How Can You Encourage a Jump to the Next Level?

There came a point when I wanted one of my sons to start reading grown-up books. He was comfortable reading a certain type of book, and didn't want to read the kind of books that I read.  So, I created a bonus system that counted a particular book as three books.  I didn't force him; I just let the easier path to a reward "whisper" in his ear what to read. Once he finished that, he never went back to teen fiction.

It Is a Great Way to Learn About Your Kids.

I also used the bookstore visits to get a sense of how the boys were doing. For example, I might say "I notice that you read five books in that series, maybe you'd like this book".  Or, "That sure is a lot of science fiction; what was the last biography you read?"  For the most part, though, I didn't care what they read.  The key was to get them to want to choose certain books for their own reasons.  Ultimately, their preference meant they were learning to love reading.

It Puts Them In Control of Their Destiny and Rewards.

My younger son likes competition. He also broke or misplaced many things. So, in order to earn back the Game Boy unit that he lost, I challenged him to read five books in five days. These weren't easy books either. It was designed to stretch him, and also to teach him that he could read a book a night. The bet was that he either finished all the books in the allocated time, or none of them counted towards games or Game Boys. On the other hand, if he read a book a night for two weeks, not only would he get to have his Game Boy back, the books would count towards a game too. It worked like a charm, and we were both happy.

So, Who Got the Better Bargain?

As they started to get into their teenage years, I needed to up the ante a little. So, 500 books meant they got a laptop of their choice. Both boys cashed in ... and probably felt like they were taking advantage of their dad.

I got what I wanted, though; both my boys love reading.  And know that they can accomplish anything they put their minds to … one step at a time.

 

 

That's an investment that pays dividends for a long time.