Quants-R-Us?
Algorithmic Trading Trickles Down To Individual Investors: Armed with $4.5
million in funding, the 2011 Harvard grad recently launched a Web-based
platform called Rizm, designed to let individual investors with no coding
skills build computer programs that select and trade stocks automatically,
similar to the trading programs used by quant funds and high-frequency trading
firms. [Note: The alpha-capture game of trading is getting harder and harder,
no?]…Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2013/09/04/quants-r-us-algorithmic-trading-trickles-down-to-individual-investors/
The Dubious Future of
the American Car Business—in 14 Charts: From GM Research, the overall recovery had
been slow w/ weak job adds, but auto sales have kept pace with past recoveries
as the total cost of operating a car keeps going up + inflation-adjusted price
of an average new vehicle is near all-time highs. Meanwhile, inflation-adjusted
gas prices have scarcely been higher – bringing us to an older and richer U.S.
Car Market…Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/09/the-dubious-future-of-the-american-car-business-in-14-charts/279422/
Why
Is Chicken More Expensive? Ask McDonald's: When McDonald’s (MCD) introduces
a new menu item, the entire food industry feels it. The company added apples to
its menu and became one of the country’s largest apple buyers. It put cucumbers
on its new McWrap and now expects to buy 6 million pounds of cukes this year.
Now Mighty Wings are coming back. From Sept. 9 through November, McDonald’s is
expected to sell a grand total of 250 million wings, and some analysts say
McD’s wing-buying spree for this promotion last year drove up wholesale
prices…Source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-28/why-is-chicken-more-expensive-ask-mcdonalds
The
biggest risk Zillow faces isn’t what you think it is: YELP. “All I’m
pointing out is that in an increasingly social online experience, the value
proposition of selling leads slowly gives way over time to recommendations,
reviews & referrals from trusted online sources. Yelp is the leader in the
overall online space, and at some point will need to think carefully about home
to position itself in the real estate vertical. And if Yelp does make the
decision to compete more forcefully, what does that do to Zillow?... But what
if Yelp decides to disrupt that model, much like Zillow has do in the past to
its’ former competitors? It’s not a stretch to see Yelp buying Move (Nasdaq:
MOVE), which has the largest in-house proprietary database of listings in the
online space. Yelp could then overlay its extremely large database of
recommendations alongside all property searches. Looking up an apartment on
Telegraph Hill? Yelp could provide you with the top recommended movers,
painters and vermin extinguishers in the neighborhood. Wouldn’t that site be a
better value proposition for the consumer long term? Source: http://www.littlebear.us/the-biggest-risk-zillow-faces-isnt-what-you-think-it-is/
Put
away the knitting, Video games improve cognitive ability in the elderly: The prefrontal
cortex, a region of the brain responsible for attention, is one area being
explored by researchers. In the meantime, the gaming and brain-training
industry might find new customers. With more disposable income, free time and
discipline to play games in moderation, older people could be a healthy market
for a whole new generation of video games.
Note: The 1980s mark
the 1st decade where video games enter the masses; for the 18
year-olds at that time who grew up with this culture, 2020+ will be the decade
when they retire and commit to video games en masse (at least some of them). To
the video game industry, the biggest bull market is yet to come. And you want
to long a platform company.
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