Capitalogix

Some Interesting Links for Your Weekend Reading

2012-01-21T10:25:00-06:00

Big News: The Twinkie is Dead.

The Mayans may have been right; the world might be ending.

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

Lighter Links:

HBR's Most Popular Blog Posts of 2011. via Harvard Business Review (Blogs)
Dogs Can Read Our Intent. (MedicalNewsToday)
13 Ways to Get in Shape with Digital Fitness Tools. (Mashable)
Technology Waves and the Hypernet. (Roger McNamee & Mike Maples)
Amazon Takes Supercomputing To The Cloud. You may not need to use the 42nd fastest supercomputer on Earth, but if you want to, you can for just $1,279 per hour. (CNet)

Trading Links:

10 Investment Lessons from 2011. (TheStreet)
Why Is Wall Street So Bullish After Such a Weak Year? (CNBC)
CEO Confidence Index Bounces Back. (Vistage)
Iran's Real Weapon Of Mass Destruction Is Oil Prices. (Forbes)
Did You See that the Green Bay Packers Launched a Stock Offering? (Yahoo)

How Much Faith Do You Put in "As Goes January, So Goes the Year"?

2012-01-18T10:51:00-06:00

Does a market rally in January imply anything for the rest of the trading year? "As goes January, so goes the year." This particular phenomenon is what is referred to as the January Barometer.

Is it true? I don't know ... but it is fun to examine.

Many reputable services report the January Barometer's recent-history success rate at around 75%; so it is at least worth noting.

I was going through some past research and found this chart from Chart of the Day from 2009. It illustrates that the S&P 500 has performed much better (on average) during the months following a January gain. The chart is a few years old, but recent years have followed this trend as well.

John Murphy has a slightly different perspective; he says that what the market does during the first week of the new year often gives a clue about direction for the remainder of the year.

Murphy cites the Stock Trader's Almanac, "S&P gains during January's first five trading days preceded full-year gains 86% of the time". The predictive ability of the month of January is nearly as impressive. "The January Barometer predicts the year's course with a .741 batting average. 12 of the last 14 post-election years followed January's direction" (Almanac).

While the January barometer has a good record of prediction, Carl Swenlin still puts it in the "for what it's worth" column because, while it is interesting to note, it might simply be coincidental. Likewise, Business Insider questioned the significance of this indicator in a note called "Don't Be Fooled By All Of The So-Called Market Wisdom".

Nevertheless, we had a good start to that first week of January here in 2012 - and it has continued. Let's hope it keeps up.

The Two-Hour House [Time-Lapse Video]

2012-01-16T17:15:35-06:00

Is it possible to build a house in only two hours?

Proving that nothing is impossible if you commit to it, the 2-Hour House chronicles an East Texas builder’s quest to overcome the odds, and accomplish what was perceived to be the impossible task of building a 2,249 square foot house, from the ground up, in less than three hours.

To do so, they would have to pour a concrete slab that hardened in only 22 minutes and paint the house in the same time it takes to brush your teeth.

Plans called for a traditional home that met or exceeded code at every turn. It took two years of planning, 1,000 volunteers from every trade and more than a little luck to pull it off.

Here is a time-lapse video of the construction.

What this team learned about life, leadership and the persistence of the human spirit will motivate you to transform your own life, work and home from the ground up.

Records and "Rules" broken with the 2Hour House process:

*The rules say* :	2 Hour House:
• It takes a day to set the forms, dig footings and set steel.	8 min
• It takes a half a day to rough-in the plumbing.	7min
• It takes a day to pour and finish concrete.	40min
• It takes several hours to pop the lines before setting walls.	10min
• It takes at least a day to frame the walls.	15min
• It takes a day to rough-in the electrical.	15min
• It takes a day to put in the wall plumbing.	15min
• It takes a day to shingle the roof.	30min
• It takes a half a day to insulate the walls and attic.	10min
• It takes at least a day to sheetrock.	15min
• It takes at least four days to tape, bed, and texture the walls.	20min
• It takes two days to paint.	10min
• It takes a half a day to install the flower beds and trees.	10min
• It takes a day to do the final grade.	10min
• It takes a day to lay the grass.	10min
• It takes a day to set the kitchen cabinets.	15min
• It takes a day to set the bathroom cabinets.	10min
• It takes a day to install the heating and cooling.	10min
• It takes a day to do the interior doors and base boards.	15min
• It takes a half a day to install the garage door.	3min
• It takes a half a day to put in the countertops.	10min

What would it take to shift your mindset from ordinary to extraordinary? And which constraints can you re-evaluate and eliminate?

What Does The 2-Hour House Teach?

Think of the innovation, creative thinking, and break-thru communication and collaboration strategies needed to pull-this-off. What about leadership, team-building, and management expectations?

Try to imagine what type of project management process this would require?

Here is a link to videos that provide more information.

30-Story Building Built in 360 Hours [Time-Lapse Video]

2012-01-16T00:31:45-06:00

A Chinese company just built a pre-fabricated 30-story building built in 15 days.

This energy-efficient hotel was built at a fraction of normal Chinese construction costs, with no worker injuries. And the building isn't flimsy ... It was built to withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.

This is interesting because it shows what's possible. Think of how many "rules" and assumptions they had to break or get beyond to conceive and make this happen.

Here is a time-lapse video of the the construction.

What can you accomplish in 360 hours?

What Kind of Year Are You Expecting? Beware the Siren Song of Simple Stories.

2012-01-15T23:57:13-06:00

Imagine that a couple has arrived here from another planet, and it is your responsibility to explain the rules of life to these hypothetical aliens.

Like you, they are facing a new year.

Would you tell them to let the news broadcasters, newspaper columnists and the economists determine what kind of a year they would have? Is that what you would tell them?

Or would you explain that they have freedom of thought; that they can think and make whatever plans they choose. Their coming year can be very productive, if that is what they would like it to be and if they are prepared to do what is required to reach their chosen objective.

Admittedly, this is rather ridiculous, as we both know you are not going to be instructing any aliens. But, it is a thought that will get you focused on the positive polarity.

We are facing a new year and we do have freedom of thought. You and I can plan to enjoy tremendous results this year. However, with all the negative energy swirling around the business community, it becomes more important than ever to make those plans. Without such plans you will, most certainly, be swept into the "I can't because ..." syndrome, and you don't want that to happen.

Beware of Stories!

On a related note, here's an interesting TedTalk.

Economist Tyler Cowen loves a good story. But he asks us to step away from thinking of our lives -- and our messy, irrational world -- in terms of simple narrative.

The Moral: Pay Attention to What Is Really Happening and Respond intelligently.

Some Interesting Links for Your Weekend Reading

2012-01-15T21:55:54-06:00

S&P Downgraded France and several other Euro-Zone countries this weekend. Now what?

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

Lighter Links:

Brave Thinkers. Annual list of Big Ideas & the people who pursue them. (Atlantic)
Why Competing Through Culture Matters More Than Ever. (ChiefExecutive)
50 Most Stunning Examples of Data Visualization and Infographics. (RichWorks)
AllMyApps Makes Re-Installing Software on a New Machine Easy. (RedFerret)
Top 10 Simple Privacy Tricks Everyone Should Use. (Lifehacker)

Trading Links:

Unlike Trading, Economics Is Not a Zero Sum Game. (WallStreetPit)
Why Bad Economies Recover Fast When Governments Get Out Of The Way. (Forbes)
Is the Crisis Over? 10 Reasons It May Flare-Up Again. (MarketWatch)
The Real Point of Visualizations Is to Manage Data Overload w/o Algorithms. (Atlantic)
Doug Kass - 15 Surprises for 2012. (TheStreet)

Some Interesting Links for Your Weekend Reading

2012-01-08T23:17:00-06:00

As I'm sure you've heard, the Mayan Calendar ends this coming December. While some believe this foretells something - others argue that it doesn't mean anything.

Bad news if you were going to base your trading plan on a December Apocalypse.

With that out of the way, now you'll have more time to plan for the upcoming Chinese New Year ... Prepare to Enter the "Year of the Dragon".

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

Lighter Links:

10 Mega Business Trends to Watch For In 2012. (Forbes)
Goal Obsession: The Flaw That Creates More Flaws. (FastCompany)
Outsourcing Resolutions: How to Make Your New Year's Resolutions Stick. (WSJ)
Go 'Semi-Vegan' for a Better Diet. Dropping meat once a week helps. (Newser)
First Siri, Now Threat Detection. Inside SRI’s Amazing R&D Laboratory. (Wired)

Trading Links:

The Wisdom of Crowd Dynamics: Why Care How Pedestrians Behave? (Economist)
M&A Market: Cash-Rich Firms Sit Tight, Fearing Government Meddling. (CNBC)
What Will Happen in Europe in 2012? (RealMoney)
Indonesia Regains Investment Grade after 14 Years. (BBC)
Do Hedge Funds Have Less to Fear in 2012? (Opalesque)

The History of Digital Storage [INFOGRAPHIC]

2012-01-08T22:59:52-06:00

The Internet has changed a lot of things. Who knew storage was going to be one of them?

The whirring hard drives that once occupied entire university labs held but a fraction of the data we carry in our pockets every day — and that’s only 50 years of progress.

Today, as we move further into the cloud, and witness the latest and greatest pocket media devices, we thought it fitting to take a look back at how far we’ve come on our quest to store as much information in as little space as possible.

via The History of Digital Storage [INFOGRAPHIC].

Is the S&P 500 Index About to Flash a Major Buy Signal?

2012-01-08T10:29:00-06:00

The S&P 500 Index is flirting with a move above a key resistance zone.

This chart shows the Index for the past year. Note that Price is sitting just under major overhead resistance (both horizontal and from the downward sloping trend line).

A move higher here, would flash a buy signal that could trigger a lot of buying.

In addition, It seems that each time that stochastics and RSI hit 90 and 60, respectively, the bulls have recently run into trouble extending the rally. Currently, that's where both of those momentum oscillators sit. Add to that the negative divergence in MACD and weak buying volume ... In other words, many secondary indicators hint at the burden faced in moving higher.

Nonetheless, a sustained move above these levels would give Bulls fresh fuel. With the strong start to an election year, many traders are planning what to do during the next move higher.

As We Enter 2012, We Stand Together at a Financial Crossroad.

2012-01-02T02:33:47-06:00

As we enter 2012, we stand together at a financial crossroad.

America is the wealthiest nation on earth. Yet, the majority of American Families are failing to manage their own personal finances. More citizens (since the Great Depression) are in debt, default, or financial despair.

Americans overspend. Undersave. Overborrow. Most are undereducated about managing their personal finances. Our future generations will suffer today’s mismanagement. Statistics are alarming. The consequences are grim.

Here is a video that lays-it-out simply and quickly.

Responsible management of our personal finances is the foundation to a healthy national economy. The better our citizens effectively manage their personal savings, expense budgeting and financial planning, the stronger we grow as a culture, and as a country.

Learn more about the Financial Truth campaign, download the PDF.