Capitalogix

What Happens in a Half-Second of High Frequency Trading Activity?

What happens in a half-second of high frequency trading activity? The answer is a lot more than you'd guess or notice.

This video illustrates an actual half-second of trading in in Johnson & Johnson stock, slowed down so it takes five minutes to watch. Don't worry, you don't have to watch more than a few (slowed down) seconds to get the point. The size and scope of what is happening changes the game and the playing field.

 

 

 via Nanex.

The question isn't whether high frequency trading is about efficient allocation of capital or attempts at short-term market manipulation ... it is what you decide to do after you know it is happening and becoming the norm (rather than simply an understood but infrequent risk).

 

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Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Things are changing here in the United States. Whites’ deaths outnumbered births for first time.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Why Would Hackers Target Your Little Company? (Harvard Business Review)
• How the NSA Might Snoop Personal Web Data Without the Provider’s Knowledge. (GigaOM)
• A Box with a Hidden Video Camera Documents Its Own Journey Through the Mail. (Popsci)
• The End of Sleep? Emerging tech could radically reduce our need to sleep. (Aeon)
• 10 Reasons Why So Many People Are Moving to Texas. Half of the 10 fastest-growing cities in the US are in Texas. Why? (BBC)

 

Trading Links:

• Following the Smart Money in Asia. (Forbes)
• Doing Business in China Safely. The Due Diligence Basics. (ChinaLawBlog)
• The Only 3 Indicators Of Chinese Monetary Policy That You Need To Watch. (BizInsider)
• What Will Happen To Markets When QE Ends? (FT)
• Is Thomson Reuters Giving Elite Traders and Unfair Advantage? (Benzinga)

Michio Kaku: The Universe in a Nutshell

The Universe in a Nutshell: is an easy to understand video about 'The Physics of Everything'.

Dr. Michio Kaku, a professor of Theoretical Physics asks "What if we could find one single equation that explains every force in the universe?"

Kaku explores how physicists may shrink the science of the Big Bang into an equation as small as Einstein's "e=mc^2." Thanks to advances in string theory, physics may allow us to escape the heat death of the universe, explore the multiverse, and unlock the secrets of existence. While firing up our imaginations about the future, Kaku also presents a succinct history of physics and makes a compelling case for why physics is the key to pretty much everything.

If you are even partially a geek, this is pretty good.

 

 

Video by The Floating University.

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Advancements In String Theory - Michio Kaku Reveals His Findings In This Theoretical Physics Keynote (TrendHunter.com)

Are You More Worried that China or the U.S. Wants to Monitor You?

Are you more worried that China is cyber-snooping on us ... or that the American government admitted doing it too?

When I travel on business in a foreign country, I assume that my computer use is monitored. Likewise, many organizations are now prohibiting production laptops, iPads, or other personal electronic devices from traveling to certain countries. Instead, the users given a clean travel device and instructions on certain types of communications and activities to simply forgo until they're back in the country.

But here we are safe ... right?

 

 

Many years ago, my father told me he assumed that people could see what he did and hear what he said. With that in mind, he told me, it wasn't hard to act accordingly.

These days, it is hard for me to imagine someone being genuinely surprised to learn that nation-states monitor telephone conversations, email, or Internet usage.

Nonetheless, it is somewhat surprising that digital privacy hasn't been more a higher profile ("real") social issue in our society.

On some level, people are becoming desensitized to 'sharing' ... For example, look how much personal information people freely give out every day via social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites.

The rules of engagement will get more clear as we start to hash out the laws and protections here in America, and the conventions and accords that will at least superficially guide global behavior.

What do you think?

Rare Footage of Helen Keller Speaking

Helen Keller, the American author, political activist and lecturer, learned to talk despite being deaf and blind.

Here she is with her instructor and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan.  In this footage (from 1930) Sullivan shows the way how Helen Keller learned to talk.

 

 

via Smithsonian.

Kind of cool.

 

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Watch as Astronaut Chris Hadfield Covers Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ in Space

Life imitating Art.

Here is a version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

Hadfield is not only an astronaut, he is a social media star who invited the world to experience space differently by sharing the photos and videos he captured during his stay on the International Space Station.

 

 

With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here's Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. youtube.com/watch?v=KaOC9d…

— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) May 12, 2013

 

 

In the clip, Hadfield floats around the space station singing the 1969 track (with modified lyrics such as, “Ground control to Major Tom, lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on,”) and playing an acoustic guitar while gazing at Earth from space.

Kind of fun to watch.

 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Love this illustration of Thinking versus Doing.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• The 12 Things That Successfully Convert a Great Idea Into a Reality. (Forbes)
• What Will You Create to Make the World Awesome? (Harvard Business Review)
• Lost In the Cloud. How safe are your online files and secrets. (NewScientist)
• Humans Can Feel Empathy Toward Robots. That's just what SkyNet wants us to do. (Popsci)
• Iron Man 3 to Get Smell-Enhanced Screenings in Japan. (Wired)

 

Trading Links:

• 20 Dramatic Predictions for 2030. (Staff.com)
• What Nassim Taleb Misses About Technology and Innovation. (Forbes)
• Why You Should Care Cybersecurity Lobbying Doubled. (Mashable)
• How Big Data Is Changing the Whole Equation for Business. (Wall Street Journal)
• Data Leak Reveals Big Secret Trove of Global Wealth in Offshore Bank Accounts and Shell Companies. (NYTimes)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

Certainty is a 'funny' thing.  Just because you know the 'right' answer doesn't mean there isn't a different answer that might seem even more correct.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Business lessons from the Dalai Lama. (CBSNews)
• We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders. (Harvard Business Review)
• Here's What Happens Every Sixty Seconds in the World of Data. (DZone)
• The Smell of Nature Is Almost as Good For Us as the Real Thing. (TheAtlantic)
• How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes: Lessons in Mindfulness and Creativity from the Great Detective. (BrainPickings)

 

Trading Links:

• The World's Youngest Billionaires. 29 Under 40 - (Forbes)
• Retirees Set to Outnumber Canada’s Youth for the First Time. (Globe&Mail)
• An Aging Population May Be What the World Needs. (Businessweek)
• Self-Learning Algorithms. The New Frontier for Trading & Market Surveillance (AT)
• Data Shift to Lift US economy 3%. Because of this change, the U.S. economy will 'officially' grow in July ... as R&D and film royalties are added. (FT)

This Graphic Lets You Watch How Fast America Got Fat

Fit or Fat?  Data Says ... "Fatter than Ever".

It’s no secret that the US has a weight problem, but did you realize how fast the country got fat?

The U.S. has gone from a relatively thin country to a place where the norm in many areas is to be overweight or even obese.

Look How Fast It Happened.  The chart starts in 1985.

 

via The Atlantic

 

This animated map is jaw-dropping (or belt-busting).  Notice the how the rate of change accelerates when it reaches the 2000s … many states burst from around a 20% obesity level to over 30%.

It is interesting to note that Colorado remains the only state (in blue) with less than 20% obesity.

Meanwhile, Gallop recently released their Well-Being Index of 189 metro areas.  In 2012, obesity rates in all but two areas were above 15%.

Here are the Fittest and Fattest Communities in the U.S.:

 

If you live in Charlottesville VA or Boulder CO, you’re probably looking good.

 

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The Most Honest Three Minutes In Television History? [Video]

Tragedies often sound a clarion call that get people to band together and be their best selves.  

But how long will the good behavior last?  Like exercise or showers, while it is good to do ... it is better to repeat. 

It is time to take an honest look at ourselves ... and take appropriate action.

The 3 minute video below highlights some tough issues.  The hard truth is that progress starts with honesty.

 

 

 

Do you think this painted an accurate picture of the current United States?

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