Archives of “due diligence” tag

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Jim Rogers: My First Million

  
  Education
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jim-rogersSince Jim Rogers, 67, co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros he has worked as a guest professor of finance at Columbia University and as an economic commentator. In 1998, he founded the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI).

Raised in Alabama, Rogers started in business at the age of five, collecting empty soda bottles at the local baseball field. After graduating from Yale University in 1964, he won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. He then got his first job on Wall Street.

Rogers now lives in Singapore with his wife and their two young daughters.

Did you think you would get to where you are?

No, I am as surprised as anyone. I certainly wanted to get somewhere and was willing to work hard. I wanted to retire young, but I never thought I would retire before 40.

When you realised that you had made your first million were you tempted to slow down?

I can remember the exact day of my first million dollars’ net worth. It was in November 1977. I was 35. I knew I needed more than that to do what I wanted when I was 37 – the age I decided to stop working to seek adventure.

What is the secret of your success? (more…)

11 Biases That Affect Traders

  
  Education
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Overconfidence
As the name suggested, it is the irrational faith in one’s skills, methodology or beliefs. For example, you see a certain chart pattern and make a maximum leveraged trade, even though you understand that any chart pattern cannot predict market with certainty. Trading excessively after a winning streak also shows overconfidence.
Cognitive Dissonance
It means finding excuses for something which makes you ‘uncomfortable’. For example, jumping from one indicator to another when you face losing trades; or continuing to trade in stock even your trading methodology does not gives you a positive expectancy. 
Availability Bias
It means being biased to information which is readily and easily available. For example, people begin to trade using RSI without understanding the internal relative strength; that is, RSI is most talked about on forums so start using them without rationally researching it. Being affected from attractive advertisement or intelligent sounding articles (including this one!) without due diligence also signifies availability bias.
Self-Attribution Bias
It means giving yourself unwarranted praise for outcomes which may just be an outcome of chance. For example, people make money in a bull market through buy and hold and start begin to believe on their trading acumen rather than the market regime which favors their trading style. (more…)

Mark Cuban’s post mortem on Facebook

  
  Education
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His latest take on the facebook IPO is here. His points are in bold.

1. Say goodbye to the individual investor on Wall Street. Mr. Cuban argues that because the media hyped the FB IPO that Wall Street is to blame. OK, I agree the IPO was hyped. But is that Wall Streets fault? Isn’t it the media’s fault? Isn’t it the buyers fault for not doing their due diligence? Didn’t Morgan Stanley spend millions propping up the stock the first day?

No one has long term success by reading any single piece of media, especially without knowing the writers intentions.

Here is a brief explanation on how the market works. If there are more buyers than sellers it goes up or vice versa. Or more important right now, if they have the means to buy.

2. The Valuation Bubble in Silicon Valley is bursting – but not for the reasons you think. The idea of private investment seems great but the execution is far off. The value of any market is liquidity. That has to be one of the important factors when making an investment. You know why futures are gaining popularity and what will eventually lead to their demise? A central market place and the lack thereof. Their spawns will kill the market and liquidity. The less central a market place the more likely the forces within that market are able to take control.

Mark agrees with me on liquidity but my interpretation is that he makes an argument against his point not for it. Didn’t the public market do a much better job at pricing? Didn’t the private market fail more dramatically than the public is this case? (Some one that knows the details better than I, when they went public did private shares get converted 1 to 1? If it did not get converted 1 to 1 let me know and I will gladly change it)

I believe Shark Tank is a great reason why Wall Street will always exist. I do not feel bad for the euntrepreuners and or the Sharks. Each assume the other person will add value. Wall Street assumes the same thing but to more people But as Mr. Cuban already knows, not everyone can win. But would they do better if there were 10 sharks or 100 sharks? Would more companies get funded?

If you allow people to be stupid, they will continue to be stupid. Howard Lindzon wrote a post as well that I disagreed with on the basis of access. They are both a lot more successful than I so I could be wrong. Also both of those guys should know that you are more likely to get screwed privately than publicly. I think this might be changing but it hasn’t yet. Open is not bad, closed is not bad, bad is bad. Liquidity and cash is always king, deeper markets should lead to better pricing. (more…)

A new investment scam out there

  
  Education
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NEW SCAM100% return in 4 weeks ! (Guaranteed)
Trick 1) ; Client has to show that he has at least 1 M $USD (with due diligence done on the source of the funds)
Trick 2) ; Client’s funds are never removed from his bank (they show you their contracts, urgent you to show your lawyers, and bankers).
Trick 3) ; Bank issues a confirmation that client has the 1 M $ (clean money)
Trick 4) ; The salesmen then pretends that traders in London will borrow money based on that “confirmation document” and invested in the Forex market ; he then pretends that my client will collect 100% in 4 weeks.
Salesmen usually look above 40, well dressed.
Where is the trick ? Psychological ……….
1) Safety ; they repeat over and over that your money stays with you
2) They call you everday (after market close), and tell you what they traded 🙂
3) After 4 weeks of daily calls, you are so pumped up that you want your 100%
NOW.
4) Before paying you, they ask you to pay the traders, and the salesmen
commissions.
5) You pay 5% ……. then ? Nothing comes …….
Pure psychology ……
Pass this info around
PS : your friends will be in denial at first ; telling you that your are jealous ….

ABC’s of Stock Trading

  
  Education
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abc
This is not like any other ABC list you might have come across about trading stocks. There are no real terms here. The following is the ABC’s of successful stock trading.
A – Action, nothing happens until you DO SOMETHING.
B – Bear trap, don’t get sucked into it.
C – Cash, not making too much when you are holding cash.
D – Due diligence, don’t jump into a position blindly.
 
E – Early, the best traders make a move before its popular.
F – Fear to lose money, the hardest thing to overcome in trading.
G – Greed, try to make a quick buck, and lose a quick thousand.
H – Humbled, no trader is immune from bad trades.
I – Ignorance, following recommendations blindly puts all the blame on you.
J – Justification, the more you have to convince yourself, the less likely the trade will probably work.
K – Keep discipline, stick to your strategy and have faith it will work.
L – Losses, accept them and move on. Don’t dwindle on the past.
M – Money, what makes the world turn.
N – Never is impossible, in the stock market ANYTHING can happen.
O – Only if I had…, the worst statement a trader can make.
P – Perception, moves the market more than the actual facts.
Q – Quality vs. Quantity, which one works best for your system?
R – Realized Profit, you haven’t made or lost any money until you sell.
S – Strategy, never enter a position until you know the exit plan.
T – Trade Triangle Technology… need I say more?
U – Understatement, everybody succeeds in the stock market.
V – Value, reason traders buy and sell because they think the stock price should be higher or lower.
W – Write downs, something you don’t want to see a company do too often.
X – Xcited (I know, I know), nothing feels better than executing a profitable trade.
Y – Your alone, at the end of the day the only person who cares about your account is you.
Z – Zenith, where we would like to exit your stock position.

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