Capitalogix

S&P 500 at Decision Zone

As the country enters its decision zone, the S&P 500 Index is at one too.

Here is a chart that shows we are at a major support-resistance zone.

 

via StockCharts.com.

 

We just saw a long string of down days. U.S. stocks just posted their longest slide since 1980 (nine straight days).

Regardless of what happens here, I expect volatility.

What about you?

Clown Hysteria: 2016 in a Nutshell

This summer, South Carolinians started seeing menacing clowns in the woods.

As a response to clown hysteria,Target pulled clown masks from shelves , McDonalds scaled down use of Ronald McDonald, and people everywhere have been in a fervor.

Not everyone has been affected negatively though ... Surprisingly (to me), Pornhub has seen a massive increase in clown related searches. 

 

via TNW

There you have it ... hard data.

2016 continues to surprise ... Celebrities dying, phones exploding, the election, and this.

It will be interesting to see how 2016 ends, and what the future brings.

The world changes, but human nature remains relatively constant.

 

 

The Current State of Data Science via Venn Diagrams

Thought this was clever.  It shows how different capabilities combine to form specialties.

 

 via Drew Conway. 

The second diagram adds one element (and some descriptive 'color') to the combinations.

 

 via Joel Grus.

I think this helps explain a lot. 

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading Enjoyment - October 23rd, 2016

Recent polls suggest that Trump has less than a 15% chance to win.  Makes you wonder how much the media influenced that ...

 

   

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Virtue Signaling, or … Why Clinton is in Trouble. (FinancialSense)
• Clinton's Former Prosecutor Endorses Her for President. (Bloomberg)
• How to Make a Relationship Last: 5 Secrets Backed by Research. (Bakadesuyo)
• U.N. Warns Trump May Be 7 Months Away from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons. (TheOnion)
• Over the Counter Comes a New Way to Mimic Calorie Restriction. (Technology Review)

Trading Links:

• How Google is Poised to Become a Dominant Investment Manager. (QuantNews)
• Musk’s Mars Moment: Audacity, Madness, Brilliance—or Maybe All Three. (ArsTechnica)
• A Legendary Morgan Stanley Banker Reveals the Importance of 'Emotional Intelligence' on Wall Street. (Flipboard)
• It’s Not Creepy, It’s the Future. (JasonZweig)
• This Man Wants to Upend the World of High-frequency Trading. (MarketWatch)

Here Are Some Links for Your Weekend Reading Enjoyment - October 15th, 2016

A little iconic wordplay.  Let's call this "Trump Has A Potty-Mouth".

 

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• Dogs Are Better Than Humans at Resisting Peer Pressure, Filtering Bad Advice. (BigThink)
• Human Brain vs Machine Learning - A Lost Battle? (Data Science Central)
• Why the Best Leaders Want Their Superstar Employees to Leave. (WSJ)
• Here's How Quantum Computing Will Change the World. (Forbes)
• Jon Huntsman and Other Republicans Call on Donald Trump to Drop Out of the Race. (HuffPost)

 

Trading Links:

• Singapore’s Nugit Raises $5.2M to Make Sense of Big Data Using Artificial Intelligence. (TC)
• Algorithmic Trading Computers Blamed for Sterling's 'Flash Crash'. (QuantNews)
• Mohamed El-Erian: Deutsche Bank Not a 'Lehman Moment,' but Still a Big Risk. (HITC)
• 3D Printing Grows Up: Scientists are Using the Tech to Make an Earthmoving Machine. (Wired)
• President Trump’s First Term. (NewYorker)

What Does A Hurricane and Market Crash Have in Common?

Hurricane Matthew hit the east coast this week.  It was the strongest storm we've weathered in 12 years (with 125 mph winds).

As a trader, I've often thought that weather and market conditions share similarities. As a result, the techniques used to understand and predict them are similar.

Have you heard the term "Eye of the Storm"?  Well, in the context of Hurricane Matthew, it went directly over a weather buoy (Station #42058).

The chart is interesting.  Imagine being a person observing the storm.  It builds, and builds until you don't think it can get much worse.  Then, it appears to stop.  You can breathe.  You can see.  You relax ... Then it comes back faster than before.  Your nerves and reserves were already diminished.  So, it is worse.

 

 via NDBC.

Similarly, it's easy to mistake the eye of the storm (in a major market move) for a sign of safety and opportunity.

I remember 2008.  Storms like that caused many to buy wrong and sell wrong.

Humans see clear skies and walk outside.  Perhaps we can teach the computer to know better (or at least to measure and recognize what is happening better).

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

At some point, it becomes more important to focus on what you want ... rather than what you don't want.

 

 

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

 

Lighter Links:

• AI Comes to Work: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Business. (BND)
• Princeton Tops List of 2017 U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings. (USAToday)
• iPhone 7 Plus Vs IPhone 6S Plus: What's the Difference? (Forbes)
• Scientists Followed 5,000 Genius Kids for 45 Years — Here's What They Learned about Success. (Insider)
• It’s Now Possible, in Theory, to Predict Life Success from a Genetic Test at Birth. (ResearchDigest)

 

Trading Links:

• One Year Later, This is What Would Prompt Another "Risk-Parity" Blow Up. (ZeroHedge)
• Competition to Reinvent the Car is Getting Fiercer. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Fed's Next Move Will Impact Oil Markets. (OPEC)
• America Has Leverage over China Because It Owns So Much US Debt. (Trump)
• “Complacency” Indicator Implies Market Top.  (SocGen)

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)