Mahant!

A cool post at Kaushik's place Fat Finger Trade

Global hackers threaten net security in cyber warfare aimed at top targets Rachel Williams The Guardian Thursday November 29 2007 A "cyber cold war" is developing as international web espionage and cyber-attacks become the biggest threats to internet security, according to a report. The computer security firm McAfee said governments and government-allied groups were engaging in increasingly sophisticated cyber spying, with many attacks originating from China. Some 120 countries could be developing the capacity for such activities. What started as probes to see what was possible have become well-funded and well-organised operations for political, military, economic and technical espionage, the report said, with perpetrators aiming to cause havoc by disrupting critical national infrastructure systems. Targets include air traffic control, financial markets, government computer networks and utility providers. In September, the Guardian reported that Chinese hackers, including som...

Wisest of wise including Buffet have been warning US for long time that outsiders are going to own major stake in its instituions. This quiet comment seems to have brought that warning to fore. Ironically, it is US that is now asking to be taken over and assisted. "China Investment Corp., the nation's $200 billion sovereign wealth fund, signaled it may invest in stocks rocked by subprime mortgage defaults. ``CIC wants to be a stabilizing force in the international capital markets,'' Chairman Lou Jiwei told a conference in Beijing today. He then cited a ``recent example'' in which a similar fund invested in a financial institution with subprime losses, without identifying the two parties. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority this week agreed to buy a $7.5 billion stake in Citigroup Inc., helping the biggest U.S. bank by assets to bolster capital eroded by credit-market losses. China Investment, which began operations in September, was set up to help improve returns on...

OPEC to Abandon Dollar? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that OPEC's members have expressed interest in converting their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating U.S. dollar, which he called a "worthless piece of paper." "All participating leaders showed an interest in changing their hard currency reserves to a credible hard currency," Ahmadinejad said. "Some said producing countries should designate a single hard currency aside from the U.S. dollar...to form the basis of our oil trade." Falkor

US company makes solar cells making the energy production cheaper than coal for the first time ever. The mass production of these new technology cells will start from 2008. And it comes with a 25 year warranty! Source

Posting this again. A must track site. http://www.ted.com/

RIYADH (Thomson Financial) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Saturday that oil prices -- currently camped out just below the 100 usd a barrel mark -- could hit 200 usd if the United States attacked Iran or Venezuela. His comments came in an opening speech at the Third OPEC Summit. "If the United States was mad enough to attack Iran or aggress Venezuela again the price of a barrel of oil could reach 150 usd or even 200 usd," Chavez said, describing 100 usd as a "just" and "fair" price. He also suggested the 12-member oil cartel should "ask the most powerful nation in the world to stop threatening OPEC", referring to the United States. "The basis of all aggression is oil. It is the underlying reason," he said, referring to the war in Iraq and US threats against Iran. "(The OPEC states) need stability, we need to know the world powers do not expect us to guarantee regular supply and stability of prices without anything in r...

SIMPLICITY If you can’t make it simple then it ain’t worth making. So said a wise old man -- but I know not who. Anyway I try to follow that motto as best as I can in these commentaries. That is also a major reason I am a technician. Technical analysis can be very simple (but too many try to make it difficult). On the other hand, fundamental analysis is just difficult -- just difficult. My hat off to those who can master it and are able to profit from it. You no doubt have noticed that in these commentaries I use the same technical concepts over and over and over again. They get to the point of being monotonous. However, they are the prime concepts in technical analysis and those presented here are among the simplest. They are trend (in the form of the moving average), trend strength (in the form of momentum) and speculative interest (in the form of volume). There are other technical concepts (Relative Strength comes to mind) but if you master these three you are well on your way to st...

“It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.” - Canada Bill Jones, 19th century poker player Investing has many similarities to poker. For example: A small minority of professionals take the lion’s share of profits. The house takes its cut from all comers with ironclad regularity. Odds allow for confidence, but never certainty - there is no hand that can’t be beaten, no hand that cannot win. Both games are heavily influenced by luck in the short run, yet dominated by skill and consistency in the long run. And success is rarely the result of any one large decision; it is rather the result of countless small decisions, built into an accumulated edge over time. The typical poker player reverts to the style he or she is most comfortable with in live play. This lack of variation gives the professional an edge (emphasis mine) , highlighting the best way to take the amateur’s money. Poker predators usually assign one of three classifications to their prey: Maniac, Rock, or Calling Station. O...

Kaushik has been doing a great job of tracking the financial markets (for a long time now). This piece caught my eye, as I hold the same sentiment on dollar depriciation. "Lehman Brothers (NYSE:LEH) said the Indian rupee may appreciate to as high as 33 per usd in the next five years and expects the Indian central bank to follow a ‘middle-path’ in handling the currency appreciation." Source 1

From an article at Rediff taking about the success about Google: "The key factors of Google's success: Nurture great ideas from all levels of the company, not just the top. Be available to employees so that they have an opportunity to get their ideas heard. Demand creativity by giving employees "free thinking time" to develop pet projects, no matter how far from the company's central vision. Acquire good ideas. Although preferring to develop new technologies in house, Google is also willing to snap up small companies with interesting initiatives." Something that I agree with. But for the reason for the post? Here comes, it quotes Marissa Mayer: "What Mayer thinks will be essential for continued innovation is for Google to keep its sense of fearlessness. "I like to launch [products] early and often. That has become my mantra," she says. She mentions Apple Computer and Madonna. "Nobody remembers the Sex Book or the Newton. Consumers remembe...

By Amol Rajan (The Indepedent) Published: 17 November 2007 With their fast cars, formidably slick outfits and flash Filofaxes they epitomised the brash consumer culture of the late Eighties, swearing by such unashamedly mercantilist slogans as "greed is good" and 'show me the money'. But, two decades on, the once-profligate yuppie is no longer the toast of the town. Today he (or she) cuts a forlorn figure, harbouring regrets over his lavish lifestyle and wishing he had put prudence ahead of pleasure. Almost half of yesterday's yuppies now "struggle financially or fail to live within their means", according to new research. More than 70 per cent acknowledge they "should have put more aside for the future", and 46 per cent have less than £250,000 of "worldly goods". Nearly one in three former yuppies is very anxious about how they would cope if their regular income stopped. Twenty years on from an age of mobile phone "bricks",...