Skip to main content

Features of the week

The most interesting stories in business and world events are right here. Let's begin!

1. Ocean freight rates (Baltic Exchange Index) hit an all time high, as capacity in dry bulk shipping is outpaced by global demand.

2. Nicholas Vardy at Seeking Alpha asks, "Are We Currently in the Middle of a Commodities Super Cycle?".

3. Bloomberg speaks with global investor Mark Mobius about emerging markets and US and world GDP figures. Thanks to Ivan of At These Levels for his comments on this clip.

4. More on the upcoming launch of uranium futures contracts on the NYMEX from MarketWatch. They pulled together some interesting quotes for this story, and its good to see them speaking with people who have been watching this market closely for the past several years.

5. Financial Times investigates the true state of the carbon trading market and finds "widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases".

6. Biofuels are speeding up deforestation, but the UN is backing an EU plan for mandatory biofuel blending in automotive fuels.

7. Philanthropy steps in where the state failed. This report will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with libertarian philosophy or pre-welfare state history.

8. Entrepreneurs say business conditions are harder. A survey of British entrepreneurs shows dissatisfaction with excessive red tape and poor worker education, key among concerns over future UK competitiveness.

Interestingly, a quarter of the survey respondants seem to think that the government should do something to better the education system. Wasn't it government that gave them the education system and regulations that are currently in place?

9. In praise of entrepreneurs. The Economist reviews a new biography of economist Joseph Schumpeter.

While their review suggests that Schumpeter's work on business cycles "is little read today because the idea at its heart has not stood up to scrutiny", some observers have apparently taken notice of Schumpeter's writing on this subject.

For more, see Dr. Marc Faber's reading list in our link section.

10. Businessweek's Spencer E. Ante on David Halberstam's Last Speech. Audio tape and transcript of Mr. Halberstam's final public speech is available.

11. Reuters: Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet. Unfortunately, a search for intelligent life on the planet has only revealed the existence of a toy-dog-in-purse toting race.

12. Economist special report on credit derivatives.

13. Bloomberg columnist Caroline Baum says, "France's Sarkozy Is No Maggie Thatcher".

14. Hedge funds for the masses? Christian Baha's Superfund Pitch.

15. Gary Dorsch and Ty Andros discuss the rise in China's dollar reserves and the rise of global inflation.

16. Bear Mountain Bull on Dow 13,000.

Read and enjoy, my friends!
Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Lessons from Hedge Fund Market Wizards: Scott Ramsey

Today we continue our series, "Lessons from Hedge Fund Market Wizards" , with a look at Jack Schwager's interview with Scott Ramsey of Denali Asset Management.  Ramsey, a futures trader and CTA who works on the island of St. Croix, spoke to Schwager about his first foray into the markets, his evolution as a trader, and the process he stands by to protect and grow his clients' money. 1) . Ramsey started trading in college. He was roped into the OTC metals market via a broker's ad in the Wall St. Journal. The broker charged customers a flat fee to buy and sell as much as they wanted in a particular market for six month. At the time, Scott was a novice and didn't know about futures, so he traded metals in this fashion through the inflationary run-up of the late 1970s. 2) . Scott had to rethink his trading strategy after he bought silver at $50 an oz., only to watch it collapse to $26 following a long string of limit-down days. He sold as soon as the market...
Read more

How to "Pull the Trigger" on Your Trading Ideas

In our last post, I quoted hedge fund manager, Jim Leitner on the importance of following up on your investment ideas.  Today I'd like to follow up and share some thoughts on how you can learn to consistently "pull the trigger" on your best trading setups and investing ideas. In order to help you do that, we'll take from the best and offer up key insights from interviews with top traders and trading psychologists like Alan Farley, Brett Steenbarger, and Doug Hirschhorn .  Now before we get to their key insights on overcoming trading anxiety and pulling the trigger on your trading ideas, let's remember what Jim Leitner said in his interview: "Learn to love to listen to people and when you hear something interesting, follow up on it. Don't just think, "Well that's an interesting idea" only to find out a year later that the company you could've bought shares in is now up 500-fold. You never want to say woulda, coulda, shoulda...
Read more

Moneyball: How the Red Sox Win Championships

Welcome, readers . T o get the first look at brand new posts (like the following piece) and to receive our exclusive email list updates, please subscribe to the Finance Trends Newsletter .   The Boston Red Sox won their fourth World Series title of t he 21st century this we ek. Having won their first Se ries in 86 years back in 200 4, the last decade-plus has marked a very strong return to form for one of baseball's oldest big league clubs. So how did they do it? Quick background: in late 2002, team own er and hedge fund manager, John W. Henry (with his partners ) bought the Boston Red Sox and its historic Fenway Park for a reported sum of $ 695 million. Henry and Co. quickly set out to find their ideal General Manager (GM) to help turn around their newly acquired, ailing ship. This brings us to one of my fav orite scenes from the 2011 film , Moneyball , in which John W. Henry (played by Ar liss Howard) attempts to woo Oakland A's GM Billy Beane (Brad Pi...
Read more