Are we headed for recession? Have corporate profits peaked? Are stocks overvalued? What will be the effect of negative rates?
Evidently, none of these questions concern Facebook or its shareholders. They are looking pretty much unstoppable right now:
When is the last time you wrote a cheque? If you are under 25 years old, probably never. In fact, the word ‘cheque’ is not even recognized by the WordPress spellchecker that I use while writing blog posts. Yet when you use a bank machine you usually press the ‘checking account’ option when withdrawing cash. ‘Checking accounts’ are an anachronism – technology has long since made them unnecessary. The wallet is next on the hit list:
Here’s an amazing map of global shipping activity:
In this brief post, Seth Godin hits the nail on the head: “nothing works without demand”.
The fact that you have something does not make it desirable. You have to find a way for someone to want to buy it. That is why billions are spent on advertising.
I do, however, take issue with his comments on garage sales. They can be the very epitome of capitalism and demand fabrication.
A ‘garage sale’ is when you round up items that you no longer find necessary and put them on display on your front lawn in an attempt to sell them to passers by. They are called ‘garage sales’, because most of the items tended to be relegated to the garage before being mercifully put up for sale.
Choosing which sector to overweight and underweight can have a large impact on portfolio performance. Here’s a glimpse of sector performance in the S&P 500 since the start of the year:
Here’s a link to a great article from Morgan Housel @ The Motley Fool about how investors tend to perceive themselves:
LINK: Everyone Thinks They Are Different
I would only partially agree that “contrarianism is the key to huge outperformance”. The size of your allocation is of paramount importance as well. At the end of the day, the market doesn’t care about your style or your philosophy. What matters is whether you win or lose, and if you live to fight another day. There are no ‘beautiful losers’ in this great endeavor – contrarian or not.
It is hard to overstate just how revolutionary Virtual Reality will be for mankind.
Here’s a link to an article from Wired:
It’s a longer read, but at the very least make sure to scroll down and watch the videos.
Facebook continues to innovate in the ways it engages its users. It also faces interesting challenges in its relationship with content providers:
LINK: FACEBOOK AND THE FUTURE OF CONTENT
Here’s a graphic that demonstrates Facebook and Google’s hegemony over referrals:
And here’s a glimpse of Facebook’s road map for the next 10 years:
Here’s a great post by Josh Brown that includes a host of interesting charts about markets breaking out this spring:
And here’s some wisdom from Bion of Borysthenes courtesy of the Farnam Street blog:
Or in trader parlance: “you can’t fight the tape”…
In this link, eminent economist and market strategist David Rosenberg highlights many of the issues that are currently contributing to ‘uncertainty’ in world markets:
David Rosenberg on Yellen’s ‘Uncertainty’
For the sake of clarity, ‘uncertainty’ generally means ‘pessimism’ when used by economists. However, they should not be confused as one and the same thing.
Rosenberg lists off a number of topics that contribute to a sentiment of pessimism. Unfortunately, his argument is far too one-sided. He concludes his diatribe as follows:
