Capitalogix

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading - May 21, 2017

The "He Said – She Said" loop is funny ... But it is still giving me a headache.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Here are the Ridiculous Things Celebrities Demand Backstage. (BusinessInsider)
• Garry Kasparov on AI, Chess, and the Future of Creativity. (Medium)
• The Ultimate Guide to Personal Productivity Methods. (Todoist)
• Hundreds of Privacy-invading Apps are Using Ultrasonic Sounds to Track You. (ZDNet)
• Why Would Aliens Even Bother with Earth? (LitHub)

  

Trading Links:

• Elon Musk Says Robots Will Help Tesla Catch up to Apple in Value. (Fortune)
• Retailers Look past Apps to the next Frontier of Digital Shopping: Chatbots. (WashPost)
• Vending Machine-like Skyscraper Concept Plans to 3D Print Custom Homes. (Mashable)
• Indonesian Islamist Leader Says Ethnic Chinese Wealth is next Target. (Reuters)
• Financial Technology is Proving Less of a Battleground Than Feared. (Economist)

 

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. 

I've Been Going to the Gym Again ...

I've been going to the gym again ... and a lot of what I see there doesn't look like exercise. 

On the other hand, you have guys like this, doing 20 different types of push-ups: 

 

 

I used to do that.

But, I can do anything I commit to do.

So, I can do that.

Time to do that.

Why Are The Patriots So Good?

Some things speak for themselves.

The Patriots just came back from a 25-point second-half deficit to win the Super Bowl.

There is a difference between 'luck' and 'skill'.

Nonetheless ... luck favors the prepared.

And, in life as in sports, hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard.

The Patriots, under Bill Belichick, epitomize that. 

Belichick has been a coach in 10 of 51 Super Bowls (seven of them with Tom Brady).

When you see this picture from the 2000 NFL Combine, it's hard to believe that Tom Brady would be a 3-time Superbowl MVP taking the Patriots to their 5th under his reign.

 

via CBS Sports.

It didn't happen by accident.

The Patriots are a well-oiled machine, and it's not because their players are better than the rest.  

Keep in mind, the NFL is a league at the top of the food chain (their athletes are the best of the best).  Moreover, the NFL actively creates rules designed to level the playing field and create parity.

So, it is hard to create a team that 'can't be beaten' –  When it happens, it happens because of culture, coaching, and process.  Ultimately, somehow, winners find a way to win. 

Bill isn't known as the friendliest (and he's certainly not known for dishing out praise) – but he is known for discipline (and lauding hard work when it's deserved). 

More importantly, Belichick created a framework of success that isn't reliant on the individual - and it is that which allows the individual to shine. 

Frameworks create the structure that allows, focus, specialty, and the freedom to improvise.

The System is the 'system'; but, within it, you can measure what works, who contributes, and use it to identify the best things to try next.

Win, lose, or draw ... some things speak for themselves.

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. 

Where Does America Get It's Oil?

When people think oil, they think Middle East.  But, in reality, our biggest importer is Canada (with 3,169,ooo barrels a day imported in 2015).

The chart is a little old, but is interesting nonetheless.

 

see U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Perhaps more surprising is that America gets most of our oil internally ... with 8,796,000 barrels produced last week. 

Meanwhile, we are using approximately 19,400,000 a day.

Crazy numbers. Do you think they'll go up, or down, in 2017?

 

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

While conspiracy theorists argue whether the NBA rigged the finals to get to get to game 7, I find this more disturbing ... it's a photo combining Hillary and Trump into a Clump.

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• 12 Neglected Questions Successful Leaders Keep Asking. (LeadershipFreak)
• The 5 Books Bill Gates Wants You to Read this Summer. (Inc)
• Netflix Launches Fast.com, a Dead Simple Way to Test Your Internet Speed. (Mashable)
• Your Life in Weeks. (WaitButWhy)
• The 8 Most Elite Special Forces in the World. (BusinessInsider)

 

Trading Links:

• Buffett Becomes Apple’s 56th Largest Shareholder with $1 Billion Investment. (BuzzFeed)
• Apple's Latest Billion-dollar Business: Venture Capital? (Mashable)
• 22 U.S. Companies that Just Keep Getting More Profitable. (MarketWatch)
• What Current Trends Tell Us about the Future of the Hedge Fund Industry. (QuantNews)
• JPMorgan Has New Theory about What Really Caused the Flash Rally. (Bloomberg)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading

A friend of mine just bet me that Trump would win the election.  So far, Trump has offended a lot of "interest groups" with campaign remarks.  But, then there is Hillary.  It is going to be close.

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• 17 Surprising Interview Questions these CEOs Always Ask. (Inc)
• Should We Be Afraid of AI? (Aeon)
• Don't Read This! (It's Only the Most Valuable Psychology Hack You Can Learn.). (Entrepreneur)
• Liberal Brains are Different from Conservative Brains, with Psychiatrist Gail Saltz. (BigThink)
• Jerry Jones Disinterested in Presidential Run, but “Proud” to See Hillary Clinton Earn Democratic Nomination. (Star-Telegram)

 

Trading Links:

• Delinquency Rates Surge in 2016, Poised to Head Higher. (FinancialSense)
• 4 Blockchain Companies that Could Change Everything from Accounting to Money Transfers. (MarketWatch)
• In the U.S. and Abroad, More Young Adults are Living with Their Parents. (PewResearch)
• Top 100 Economics Blogs of 2016. (Ritholtz)
• How Much Did the Clintons Make from Paid Speeches in 2015? (CNW)

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.