Capitalogix

Making the Best of What Is

I had the perfect holiday gift planned. We were going to go to Cirque du Soleil's 'Kooza' show. Jennifer and Zach both missed an earlier show because they were out of town. Cirque is magical enough that I didn't mind seeing it again. So, when I saw a daily deal touting "Kazoo La La' at the Cirque Theater, I jumped on it.

On the day of the show, we got dressed up and drove downtown. Our GPS told us to go one way; but I remembered where the show was ... only it wasn't there. Since it was approaching curtain time and we were feeling the time pressure, I followed the GPS to its destination and tried not to argue.

There was a huge line, and very little organization or process (which we thought was very unlike our prior experiences with Cirque du Soleil). Nonetheless, we get to our seats, the curtain rises, and we laugh that someone struggling to do a circus act. Then we start to look at each other, because it dawns on us that the person struggling is not a clown pretending to struggle, is truly someone who's not very good at what they're doing.

To make a long story short, we bought a ticket to see Kazoo La La, which in no shape or form is related to Cirque du Soleil's Kooza.

 

 

Yes, it was disappointing, and we left  at the intermission. However, we had a great time. We laughed at the show and ourselves. Then we took the extra time we had went to marble slab creamery for ice cream.

The point is, it's not what happens, it's what you do.

This is true in trading, in business, and in life. All you can control is how you show up, what you focus on, and what you make something mean. The quality of the experience is still up to you.

I wish you peace and happiness for the holiday season.

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Science of Success. Interesting article. (TheAtlantic)
• Is Technology Making You More (or Less) of a Jerk? (Harvard Business Review)
• Why Things Fail. From Tires to Helicopter Blades, Everything Breaks Eventually. (Wired)
• Removing Earwax Isn't Good For You, Experts Say. (WSJ Video)
• Life Expectancy for Less Educated Whites in U.S. is Shrinking. (NYTimes)

 

Trading Links:

• Walmart Reports Its Best Black Friday Ever With 5,000 Items Sold Per Second. (TheNextWeb)
• Does Black Friday Correlate With Upcoming Stock Market Performance. (Bigtrends)
• Fiscal Cliff: The What, Why, When, and How - All In One Place. (Learnist)
• Reality Check: Does High-Frequency Trading Hurt the Little Guy?  (QZ)
• Anonymous Deletes The Bank of Jerusalem’s Web Database. (BetaBeat)

Perhaps it is Time for a Motivational Video - "I Am a Champion"

If you want a little extra motivation, this is a pretty good video to watch.

 

 

 

It was a little bit corny, but I found it surprisingly compelling and effective.  Worth watching, even if only to think about the techniques he used.

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Some ancient Greek dude wrote this in about 400 BC ...  amazing how profound, relevant, and true it remains today.

 

Other Isocrates quotes.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The Importance of Understanding "Why". (AONetwork)
• How Big Data Became So Big. (NYTimes)
• Finally, a Commercial Mocking Apple that Works! (Dvorak)
• Why India Wins So Few Olympic Medals. Neither the Will nor the Cash. (TheAtlantic)
• The World's First Vegetarian McDonald's. To capture more of India's $12 billion fast-food market, the burger chain will jettison meat entirely in favor of the McAloo Tikki burger and the McSpicy Paneer. (The Week)

 

Trading Links:

• Face It -- 2013 Is Going To Be a Bummer. (Businessweek)
• Wall Street Rolling Back Another Key Piece of Financial Reform | Matt Taibbi. (RollingStone)
• Apple's iPhone is Now Worth More Than All of Microsoft. (Forbes)
• When is Rapid Trading Too Fast? More Warnings About HFT. (Slashdot)
• U.S. Selling $18 Billion of AIG Stock. Slashing 50% + of the stake it took during the financial crisis. (Wall Street Journal)

Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Traders know risk control is important.   

 

Apparently, the Royals are learning new rules for the Internet Age.   

 

Perhaps Prince Harry assumed that "What Happens In Vegas, Stays in Vegas" ... unless TMZ gets it.

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Narcissism. The Difference Between High Achievers and Leaders. (HBR)
• Made Your 200-Year Plan Yet? Also, 3 other Majorly Long-Term Projects. (TED)
• Postal Service On Edge. What Would A World Without Mail Look Like? (HuffPost)
• Walk at Work: Treadmill Desk Could Make You Envy of the Office. (Mashable)
• Robot Ethics - Morals and the Machine. As robots grow more autonomous, society needs to develop rules to manage them (Economist)

 

Trading Links:

• The Rise of Innovative State Capitalism. (Businessweek)
• 16 Cities That Are Getting Crushed By Foreclosures. (BusinessInsider)
• Muddled Models. Buttonwood argues why economics fails as a science. (Economist)
• The Dumbest Idea in Finance - A Diversified Hedge Fund Portfolio? (SeekingAlpha)
• What's Old is New Again. LIBOR scandal is no match for its medieval precedent (FuturesMag)

Here Are Some Interesting Links to Read This Weekend

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• John Cleese on the 5 Factors to Make Your Life More Creative. (BrainPickings)
• NYC Is Turning Payphones Into Wi-Fi Hotspots. (Mashable)
• Behavioral Pricing. A Consumer’s Worst Nightmare (TheNextWeb)
• ‘Plus-Size Friendly’ - Gym Bans Skinny People. Interesting business model? (Time)
• The Future of Food. How nanotechnology, vertical farms, and lab-grown meat may change the way you eat. (Slate)

 

Trading Links:

• The Real National Security Threat Is America's Debt. (LATimes)
• The Fed Should Stop Paying Banks Not to Lend. (Economix)
• U.S. Exports Growing into Emerging Markets such as Turkey & Brazil. (BWB)
• 3D Printing 'Bigger than Internet'? This will disrupt a lot of industries. (FT Video)
• I, Robot, Am a Stupid Trader. Understanding the enemy and their superstitions. (WSJ)

Do Dissolvable Energy Strips Work?

Sometimes you need a little caffeine boost.

Well, I heard about Sheets energy strips, which are a dissolvable energy-supplement, and figured I'd give them a try.

Each sheet is the equivalent of half a cup of coffe, with some vitamins and nutrients added for good measure.

They are distinctive because they are paper-thin, individually wrapped, dissolvable strips. No pills. No liquids. No sugar.  No calories.

 

I watch programmers down Red Bull, Monster, Bawls, and Five Hour Energy ... yet, somehow, I know that isn't for me.

Energy Sheets are more subtle than that.  They provide a quick and convenient energy boost without the sugar crash.  And they work and taste good enough that I now keep a few in my back pocket and computer bag so they are there when I need them.

They also have sleep-time product called Sleep Sheets. It is honey flavored with melatonin and extracts from goji berry and chamomile — which are natural ingredients purported to induce restful sleep.

All-in-all, worth a try.

Related articles

Investigation dampens Monster's energy buzz

Caffeine

The Best Energy Supplement Ever?

Small, Regular Doses of Caffeine Offer the Biggest Mental Boost [Caffeine]

212° - The Extra Degree (a motivational video)

Too many times, a brainstorming session to figure-out how to do something turns into a discussion about how or why it can't be done.

Here's to getting it done anyway!

Sometimes a little extra is all it takes.

It's the extra degree of effort that often separates the good from the great.

For example, at 211°, water is hot. At 212°, it boils.

The one extra degree makes the difference. It's that extra degree that can power a locomotive.

This simple analogy reflects the ultimate definition of excellence. Because it's the one extra degree of effort, in business and life, that can separate the good from the great.

Here is a video.

 

212: The Extra Degree.

It is from Mac Anderson's Simple Truths. I'm a fan of their work, which takes a simple idea and presents it in a memorable way ... with lots of great quotes and stories to illustrate the concept even better.

Yes, they have an iPhone/iPad app.

It's your life ... You are responsible for your results. It's time to turn up the heat!  Are you content with just being pretty good? Or are you ready to go the extra degree?

Related articles

• Executive Coach's Tip: Problems ... What Problems? (careersuccess.typepad.com)
• TGIF ~ Another Superb Inspirational Movie (rainsoftottawa.wordpress.com)

Socrates' Triple Filter Test and the Modern World

Small distinctions separate wise men from fools.  Perhaps one of them has to do with what the wise man deems important.

 

Socrates' Triple Filter.

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.  One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything, I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right," Socrates continued.  "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test.

The first filter is Truth.  Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and..."

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness.  Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary..."

"So," Socrates continued, "You want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true.  You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left.  The third filter is Usefulness.  Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well," concluded Socrates, "If what you want to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor even useful ... then why tell it to me at all?"

 

How Does That Apply to Me or Trading?

  The concept of Socrates' Triple Filter applies to trading as well.

As a technical trader, rather than looking at fundamental data and scouring the news daily, I focus on developing dynamic and adaptive systems and processes to look at the universe of trading algorithms to identify which are in-phase and likely to perform well in the current market environment.

One of the arguments in favor of technical analysis is that fundamental data, news, and sentiment are already built-in to the chart.

 

Filter Out What Isn't Good For You.

In contrast, there are too many ways that the media (meaning the techniques, graphics, music, etc.), the people reporting it, and even the news itself, appeals to the fear and greed of human nature.

This is the main reason that I don't watch CNBC during the trading day.  Even though I like it on several levels ... I don't think it helps me.  So I filter it and get the news in other ways.

Likewise, I don't watch TV news anymore either. It seems like story after story is about terrible things. For example during a recent visit with my mother, I listened to her watch the news.  There was a constant stream of "oh no," or "oh my," and "that's terrible". You don't even have to watch the news to know what it says.

 
Focus On What You Want.

Instead, I get the news I need a different way that is more efficient and productive for me. I subscribe to certain things via e-mail, and other things via RSS feeds.  Then I supplement those with a series of search services that alert me to items that match the criteria I set. An example would be Google Alerts.  Two other nice alert services are from the Financial Times and the New York Times.  Recently I've also been using two great iPad apps - one is called Flipboard, the other is called Zite.

Check them out.  It will save you a lot of time and effort.

Personally, I care about the source of my news. It helps me identify and account for potential bias. So using subscriptions, feed readers, and alert services help here too.

Another reason I like these tools is that I can use different filters for different purposes.

 

What's The Purpose Of News For You?

My purpose changes what I'm looking for and the amount of attention I pay to different types of information. Am I reading or watching the news for entertainment, to learn something new, or to find something relevant and actionable?

Getting back to Socrates' three filters and the business of trading, I ask might: is it important, does it affect our edge, or can I use it as a catalyst for innovation?

Here Are Some Interesting Links to Read This Weekend

An Undeniable Truth:  If You Do It -- It Will Be Done!

 

via Laura McCann-Ramsey
 

Not the only way ... but it works.

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

 

Lighter Links:

• For the 3rd Time, Facebook is Poised to Build a Phone. (Newser)
• Major Movements in Philosophy as Minimalist Geometric Graphics. (Brainpickings)
• Bloomberg Plans a Ban on Large Sugared Drinks. (NYTimes)
• Wide Screen. All baby boomers should get tested for hepatitis C, CDC says (TheDaily)
• Chart Detailing How Many iTunes Downloads, Spotify Streams, and So Forth It Takes For a Musician To Make Minimum Wage. (VillageVoice)

 

Trading Links:

• Too Many Seed Investment Choices. A good sign for economy ... (Feld)
• Amazon.com Has Altered the VC Business as We Know It. (Geekwire)
• Why Investors Should Take a Long, Hard Look at Southeast Asia. (SGEntrepreneurs)
• A Rich Backlash. An influx of the super-wealthy begins to annoy Singaporeans. (Daily)
• Eurozone Equities Panic Sale Warning. Private investors have been warned not to panic-sell their shareholdings in the deepening crisis in Europe. (FT)