Slap Chop and the franchise player

funny stuff

The High Life

- Wealth is the result of a particular state of mind
- You can never have more than what you are satisfied with

Billion Dollar Man

Actually he's more like a 6-10 billion dollar man. John Paulson knew what most smart people without herd mentality knew: [real estate valuation growth rates are not going to last, it is highly irrationanl, there will be an imminent decline, and when that happens who will be affected first? ding- the buyers who will have the most trouble paying. who? ding- subprime borrowers. Who else? ding- everything else guilty by association]

This was obvious, but neither I nor anyone else I knew had a good idea how to take full advantage of it. Sure, I bundled up some puts on big lenders and got some short financial etfs. But equity markets are public and emotional to start, and these bets don't work so well when laissez faire is hijacked by big strong government bailout hype (for now).

John Paulson found a much more clever avenue. I punch myself for still not knowing more about fixed income trading . Even if I did, I wonder if I would've found a similar strategy because if I had, I would be in an unthinkably different place by now. His plan netted him an estimated $3.5 Billion in 2007 according to Trader monthly, the highest earners issue. Hindsight on good opportunities are 20/15, but the hardest question is always, "but how much would you have risked?" The answer in this case, for this particular strategy, is salivating-ly easy (continued below). What interests me about John Paulson is his seeming humbleness which i think is cool, but maybe it's because he never doubted his outcome. His lowly beginning includes graduating first in his class at NYU and HBS.

I also like his daring (or calculated) decision to switch gears from a good career in M&A to money management. It's a very big shift that takes a lot of personal risk (large $), and he wouldn't be where he is today if he hadn't taken the turn. Not only does he have strong instincts, but he also executes actively and timely.

Cheers to John Paulson. I hope he remains his own maker of future decisions.

His Strategy in a nutshell: 1% risk for 100% return:

Are you tired of talking about subprime mortgages yet? (July 2007)
No, I’m still excited about it. I think we’ve got a winner with this. It’s been a very profitable investment for us, but we think we have only realized 25% of the (potential) that we expect to make in this area. The investment is very much consistent with our overall philosophy that if you watch the downside, the upside will take care of itself. What attracted us to this particular position is that overall, we feel that we are in a credit bubble. We feel that there is too much risk going long (in) credit instruments since spreads are so tight. So we concluded that the best opportunities were on the short side. The beauty of shorting a bond is that the maximum you can lose is the spread over the benchmark; yet if the bond defaults, you can potentially make more. So it’s an asymmetrical risk-return tradeoff. In the case of subprime securities, we targeted the triple-B bonds, which are the lowest tranches in the subprime securitization. In a typical securitization, you have 18 to 20 different tranches with the lowest … taking the first loss. The triple-B bond has about 5% subordination, meaning that if the loss is greater than 5%, the bond will be impaired. And if it’s more than 6%, the bond will be extinguished. The yield was only 1% over LIBOR (the London interbank offered rate) so by shorting this particular bond, if I was wrong, I could lose 1%, but if I was right, I could make 100%. The downside was very limited but it had very substantial upside, and we like those types of investments.

Full Interview with John Paulson July 9, 2007, before he made most of his killing

MGMT- Electric Feel

Oo girl

Nassim Taleb

This video only works in internet explorer

The Science of Patience

Walter Mischel, NYU and Harvard psychologist, explains some details of his devotion to the study of patience and attention, and how they both correlate with intelligence and success.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=all

Conan O'Brien Robot

in the year 2006:

Barry O'Bomber

President Barack Obama in high school


Obama, #23, was referred to as Barry O'bomber. Although he didn't play a lot of minutes, here he is contributing to his team's state championship win:

Gold vs.USD

really? inflation anyone?

Roger Federer Wins French Open

With his first French Open title, Roger Federer strengthened the argument he’s the best tennis player ever.

He completed a career Grand Slam, something only five other men have done. He won his 14th major title to tie Pete Sampras’ record. He played in his 19th Grand Slam final to match Ivan Lendl’s record.

The stylish Swiss caught a break in Paris and made the most of it, winning the title by beating the man who beat Federer’s nemesis, Rafael Nadal. Federer swept surprise finalist Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4 on Sunday.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever know who was the greatest of all time, but I’m definitely happy to be right up there,” said the 27-year-old Federer, who plans to play into his 30s. “I think it should be judged at the very end, you know. How well did I do? Good? Great? Very good? Or medium? I don’t know. It’s for other people to decide.”

“I’m obviously happy for Roger,” Sampras told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Los Angeles, where he lives. “Now that he has won in Paris, I think it just more solidifies his place in history as the greatest player that played the game, in my opinion.”

Andre Agassi, the most recent man to complete the career Grand Slam when he won at Roland Garros 10 years ago, presented Federer with the trophy. The other men to win all four major titles were Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, Don Budge and Fred Perry.

The championship came after Federer lost to Nadal at the French Open and Wimbledon last year, and at the Australian Open in February. Federer also lost the No. 1 ranking to Nadal last August.

“Sounds like an Achilles’ heel, but at the same time, what (Federer) has done is unmatched,” Agassi said. “We’re watching two guys in the prime of their years compete against each other—and Nadal has an answer for him. But what criteria do you use to judge best ever? Roger’s numbers—it’s hard to disagree with. His domination on different surfaces—hard to disagree with.”

Federer was in top form Sunday, gliding across the court and whacking winners from all angles as he raced to a quick lead. Soderling’s strokes steadied, but Federer played a brilliant tiebreaker, hitting aces on all four serves.

“One of greatest tiebreakers in my career,” Federer said.

He broke again to start the third set and kept that lead the rest of the way, although it wasn’t as easy as he made it look.
Switzerland's Roger Federer poses with his trophy in the players dressing room after defeating Sweden's Robin Soderling in their men's singles final match and winning the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Sunday June 7, 2009.
Switzerland's Roger Federe…
AP - Jun 7, 1:22 pm EDT

“It was very hard mentally for me to stay within the match during the match, because my mind was always wondering, `What if?”’ Federer said. “`What if I win this tournament? What does that mean? What will I possibly say?’

“I was very nervous at the beginning of the third set because I realized how close I was. The last game, obviously you can imagine how difficult that game was. It was almost unplayable for me.”

Still, Federer managed to hold in the final game. When he hit a service winner on championship point, he fell to his knees and was teary by the time he met Soderling at the net.

Debates about the greatest player ever usually include Laver, who swept the Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969. Sampras is another contender, even though he never reached the French Open final.

Soderling’s vote: Federer.

“I never played anyone playing that fast,” said Soderling, who is 0-10 against Federer. “He doesn’t have any weaknesses at all. He really deserves to be called the best player of all time.”

Source: Associated Press

Obama Cairo Speech

President of Earth Barack Obama speaking his mind in Cairo, Egypt:

Oil price history 101

Full story from last year with active links: BBC NEWS | Business | Oil hits $100 barrel

Is Howard The Next Great Endorser?

Now that Lebron has left the stage? Naturally. Waiting to see some new Dwight Howard commercials.

According to polls representing today's general population:

• 10% know who Dwight Howard is
• 36% know who Lebron James is
• 63% know who Michael Jordan is
• 84% know who Kobe Bryant is
  

Is Howard The Next Great Endorser? - Sports Biz with Darren Rovell - CNBC.com

Project Natal

Hours ago at the pre-E3 convention in Los Angeles, Microsoft presented it’s upcoming motion sensing system to compete with Wii Fit.

Microsoft's goal is to broaden the potential reach of Xbox360, betting that it can impress many of the millions of people who would never consider themselves gamers but who somehow ended up with a Nintendo Wii in their homes. Self-proclaimed gamers will be just as impressed.



Project Natal will work with XBox360 and eliminate the need for game controllers! It has full body motion control by tracking 3D movement. It also recognizes voices and lets you video-conference with other users. You can scan-in your own gear like a skate board. If the product works as smoothly as this video clip claims, Nintendo is going to have flashbacks of being dethroned and left eating video-game market dust.

Xbox Senior Vice President Don Mattrick said that Project Natal would be compatible with every Xbox 360, but didn't address how much it would cost or whether it would be backward compatible with older Xbox 360 games.

According to Brier Dudley at The Seattle Times, who's post went up soon before the press conference, the price will be around $200. The official price and release date are TBA

Arriving in Style

Richard Branson and Virgin Atlantic are having a party on cloud 9 while other airlines accept their hardships and spend time building explanations out of economic symptoms.

The company recently reported annual pre-tax profits of $109M usd, almost doubling last year's number.

How?

• "results had been helped by a rise in premium fare passengers."
  
  
• "successful hedging of fuel had helped the firm, by buying in advance before fuel prices surged."
  
  
• "Group sales, which include sales from tour operator Virgin Holidays, increased by 8.4% to £2.579bn from £2.38bn in the year before."
  
  
• Style!
  

Full BBC Article

Doc 420

What is the deal with California and medical marijuana? It is too easy to get a medical marijuana card, a license to purchase marijuana for 'medical use'. Either this is a dangerous path to be walking, or a helpful element of California's massive budget deficit solution (when there is a solution).

Sona Patel, also known as "Doc 420", is more than just your typical Indian doctor. I was given her business card recently:

ABC News: Who is Doc 420?

The Beginning of the End: A Free Market

7 months later, a random sheet of scratch-paper puts progress into perspective:

• How a radical idea from a philosophy we've been trained to hate is now common practice
• How a certain political party that designed and engineered this change is the same party that by majority is against the continuation of the same ideas now lead by an opposing party
• How urgency and fear can be convenient; how it is easy to deflect opposition and approve change quickly under these circumstances
• How even before the first of its kind of change was a reality, there seems to have already been some mapped out long-term agenda
  
• How an incubator for an infectious disease can simultaneously act as a counselor for the internationally infected
• How the domestically infected were chronilogically "saved", indebted, weakened, and/or gone

Programmable Matter

Barack Ospock Obama

Great article by NY Times' Maureen Dowd. I hope newspapers survive... a new business model?

There is value somewhere in the fact that newspapers are tangible, and businesses can take advantage of it somehow. Maybe upgrade the concept of giving free shampoo samples that sometimes come with the Sunday paper. If I got something new everyday, it would add a little suspense and excitement to getting my paper and might encourage more home delivery subscriptions. Vendors might pay publishers more for this distribution service if there's some branding value and ROI. Maybe it's a long shot but they should put up a fight soon before subscriptions dwindle.

In the end it's about what the people like. As much as people love the ability to watch tv or hulu.com at home, I think most people today still enjoy the experience of going to the movies and likewise, people like Eric Schmidt and I still enjoy navigating through a physical paper.

online-article is to newspaper as automatic is to stick-shift.

Mayweather Jr. vs. Hatton

on December 8, 2007

The build-up:


The result: