Capitalogix

March Madness: The Last Perfect Bracket Busted After Just 40 Games

March Madness is in full swing, and it feels like everyone (and their mom) has filled a bracket.  But how do they do it?

More importantly, how do the people that are successful do it?

The video, below, highlights the "Bracket Busters" of 2015.

 

via FiveThirtyEight

 

So, who were they?  A 13-year-old who used a mix of guesswork and preferences, a 47-year-old English woman who used algorithms and data science (despite not knowing the game), and a 70-year-old bookie who had his finger on the pulse of the betting world.  

Proof that different factors can lead us to believe we have control over something with odds at 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. For those who don't wanna do the math that's 9.2 quintillion. 

That's not to say that different factors don't provide an edge. Knowing the history of the teams, their ranks, how they performed historically in the playoffs, all provide important information, to humans and machines that try to make the perfect bracket.

The way people fill out their brackets often mimics the way investors pick trades or allocate assets. Some use gut feel, some base their decisions on rank and past performance, and some use predictive models.

Just as an FYI, this March Madness, the last perfect bracket busted after just 40 games.  This includes reporting on tens of millions of brackets from NCAA.com, Bleacher Report, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and Yahoo.

People aren't as good at prediction as they predict they are.

Something to think about. 

NFL - Bad Lip Reading

Hope you have enjoyed Super Bowl weekend so far.

Here is an oldy, but goodie.

It is kind of the opposite of one of those old Kung Fu movies where the dubbed words you hear aren't synched with the mouth movement. 

Here it looks like they are saying what you hear ... it's just that someone changed the words.  You could call it "So THAT'S what they were saying ..."

 This video works for the same reason trading often doesn't ... Humans are great at finding patterns (even when there isn't really a pattern to find).

Regardless, this was fun (and it's gotten almost 70 million views on YouTube).

 

 

Recently, they also did one with clips from Trump's Inauguration.  

Pretty funny. 

Quick, Draw!

Our non-human overlords haven't taken over yet.

However, A.I. is getting smarter faster.

Can a neural network learn to recognize doodles?

Google's Quick, Draw! will try and guess what you're drawing.

It did pretty well with mine, and I did not inherit my dad's artistic skills. 

Try it by clicking below!

 

 

Kind of cool!

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - September 25, 2016

At least in Pro Wrestling, there is usually a 'Hero' and 'Villain'

 

via Cagle

 Are you going to watch the Debate?  

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Wells Fargo Just Became the Poster Child for When External and Internal Values Don’t Match. (QZ)
• The Value Driven Product Roadmap – a New Approach. (OmriZiv)
• Mossberg: Apple, the King of Tech Taste and Daring, Takes a Breather. (TheVerge)
• The (Not So) New Data Scientist Venn Diagram. (KDNuggets)
• CIA Using Pokemon Go for Mass Surveillance. (USAPoliticsNow) 

 

Trading Links:

• Traders Watching for More Volatility. (CNBC)
• New Kind of Correlation Spotted in Factors Obsessing Wall Street. (Bloomberg)
• Wave of IPOs Could Hit Global Markets within the next 12 Months. (ValueWalk)
• AOL Co-Founder Steve Case: Third Wave of Tech M&A Coming…. (FoxBusiness)
• Apple’s Tax Avoidance Illustrates Gap between Law and Economics. (WSJ)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - August 13, 2016

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Three Ways the Tech Industry (Still) Misuses Metrics. (FastCompany)
• Machine Learning Key Terms, Explained. (KDNuggets)
• We Have Become an Idiocracy. (Time)
• Combat Juggling. (Neatorama)
• How to Use Distraction to Your Advantage. (99u)

 

Trading Links:

• Beaten-Up Hedge Fund Billionaires Reminisce About the 'Golden Age'. (QuantNews)
• A Booming Wall Street Business is Based on Guesstimates, and That Could Be A Problem. (BI)
• Authorities Want to Know If Electronic Trading Giants are Cheating Small Customers. (Fortune)
• Who Owns America's Debt? (Money)
• Megacities, Not Nations, are the World’s Dominant, Enduring Social Structures. (Quartz)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Lots of crazy stories from the Olympics.  For example, an Olympic Kayaker capsized after hitting a submerged sofa.  At least they figured out how to deal with the mosquitos.

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• There Are More White Voters Than People Think. That’s Good News for Trump. (NYT)
• Inside the Bitter Last Days of Bernie's Revolution. (Politico)
• The Pittsburgh Steelers are Practicing with Football Robots. (PopSci)
• The Craziest Predictions  From Tech BigWigs Recently. (PScience)
• Dos Equis Wants to Rank You on the "Most Interesting Person in the World" Index. (FastCo) 

 

Trading Links:

• The Big Banks are Becoming ‘Dumb Pipes’ as Fintech Takes Over. (CB Insights)
• How the World's Currencies Got Their Names. (World Economic Forum)
• Fund Managers Fear Central Banks Will Create Next ‘Lehman’ Moment. (MarketWatch)
• What Would Happen If 40 Million Americans Defaulted on Their Student Loans? (FastCo)
• Alleged Russian Spies in the U.S. Were Interested in High Frequency Trading. (QuantNews)

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

The six-year bull market has been getting carved up lately.

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• 100 Motivational Quotes from Successful Entrepreneurs. (FN)
• Siri, How Many Questions Do You Answer Per Minute? (USAToday)
• Will You Fall in Love With Your Sex Robot? (DisInfo)
• We're Doomed: Robots Can Now Learn To Adapt To Injuries. (FC)
• Cowboys to Use Virtual Reality to Help Players in Film Study. (ESPN)

 

 

Trading Links:

• Scientists Show Future Events Decide What Happens in the Past. (SN)
• Experimenting With Virtual Reality, Financial Services Enter The Matrix. (TC)
• Real Madrid, Dallas Cowboys Top Forbes Sport Value List. (Sports)
• George Soros Says America Needs To Make Friends With China. (Insider)
• China's Building the Most Extensive Global Commercial-Military Empire In History. (Qz)

 

How Not to Exercise - Video

Sometimes just knowing what you want to do is not enough.

Spending time and energy doing the wrong thing doesn't necessarily take you in the direction of your desired results.

Watch this video of people misusing their exercise equipment.  It's pretty funny.

 

 via JuJitsu Times.

You get the point.

Here Are Some Links For Your Weekend Reading

Seeming profound is easier than being profound.

 

 

Just saying ...

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Famous Business Books Summarized in One Sentence. (Business Insider)
• Windows 10 Upgrades Will Be Free for Existing Windows Users. (Infoworld)
• Sign of the Times: Sports Illustrated Lays Off All Staff Photographers. (NPPA)
• Compilation Video of People Using Exercise Equipment Wrong. (Facebook)
• World's Saddest Service Offers Make-Believe Mate.  For $25 you get 100 text messages, 10 voice mails, one handwritten note & a lifetime of secret shame. (ValleyWag)

 

Trading Links:

• Apple Now Sells More iPhones in China than the U.S. (Cult of Mac)
• Google 'To Take On Uber with Driverless Cars'. (Telegraph)
• CME To Close Open Outcry Futures Trading Pits By This Summer. (B.I.)
• Seattle Gets a Marijuana Vending Machine. (USA Today)
• The Best Investment Advice from 20 of the World's Top Market Minds. (Forbes)

There is always a way to be a little better!

I was in Phoenix for a meeting this past week. 

Usually, the highlight of a trip like that entails desert vistas.  This time, however, I had a chance to visit the stadium where the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl was held (and thanks to some friends at Infusionsoft, got to see a game there too).

 

 

It was kind of cool to watch a celebration of those just a little better than who they play against.

There is always a way to be a little better!