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May 27, 2013

Solved in one hour


If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and five minutes implementing the solution."

-- Albert Einstein

If it was indeed possible to "channel" him, I suspect he would suggest approaching the market's first 55 minutes more like this:

You have accumulated certain assets. Ask yourself if they are safe. Dr. Einstein would challenge you to address asset protection, first and foremost. Issues such as insurance, estate planning, identification theft, tax planning, record keeping and the like. You have to secure what you've got.

Next, he would ask if you had thought through personal money management questions and committed yourself to a personal trading plan in writing. It's shocking how few investors actually do this. Einstein's objective here would be to make certain you grasp the full scope of the problem.

He would then question your organizational skills and ask whether you had the computer, accounting and information tools in placed to take on this moneymaking goal.
His next line of inquiry would focus on your background, beliefs and personal decision-making skills. Do you fully discern the individual traits necessary to take on the markets and profit from the experience?

He would no doubt question you about your market analysis methodology and ask if you'd tested the clarity of your vision. Have you paper traded your approach?
He would then examine the investing routine you've devised for yourself and dare you to prove that you've really got the discipline to follow it.

Finally, I'd expect Dr. Einstein to interrogate you as to where and how you expect to generate investable ideas. In doing so, he'd want to know how you plan to decipher the best ideas and decide amongst a number of attractive candidates.

-- Gatis Roze

May 6, 2013

business separates into attackers, disrupting, changing the world, and defenders, trying to de-risk


The world of business really separates into these two groups. The attackers are the entrepreneurs who are disrupting the status quo, trying to change the world, take the hill, anything is possible, and have nothing to lose in most cases. They're driven by passion and the idea and intensity. Large organizations -- and it's true of Fortune 500s and it's also true of governments and other large organizations -- are defenders. These guys aren't trying to pursue the art of the possible, how to maximize opportunity. They actually are trying to minimize the downside, and hedge risk. They're trying to de-risk situations. Entrepreneurs can't even think this way. It's not even a concept they understand.

-- Steve Case, AOL founder

May 1, 2013

We'll shout "fat, crippled banker!", perhaps in the future,


Perhaps one day, far in the future, when we hit a finger with a hammer, we'll shout "fat, crippled banker!"

-- MELISSA MOHR, author of "Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing."