1) Financial Nightmares: Friday the 13th's Worst Economic Disasters (Daily Finance) - It never occurred to me that the Costa Concordia disaster happened on Friday the 13 of January, just three months ago. And though I'm not sure Tupac's assassination (9/13/96) was an "economic disaster" in the strictest sense, homeboy did sell a shitload of records.
2) Drinking Alcohol May Significantly Enhance Problem Solving Skills (Medical Daily) - I've been saying it for years, and now here's scientific proof. Alcohol enhances creative thinking by shutting down memory centers. Suck it, teetotalers.
3) BlackRock Has A Plan That Could Make Wall Street Obsolete (Business Insider) - BlackRock is making an end run around Wall Street in a highly controversial move. The company is said to be developing a proprietary bond trading platform which will eliminate the need for Wall Street dealers. The company has said that bond spreads are too generous to broker-dealers, and the new platform will cut out the middle man and lower the cost of bond trading for the world's largest bond traders. Yikes.
4) JPMorgan Said to Transform Treasury to Prop Trading (Bloomberg) - JPM really appears to be attempting to corner some markets since 2008. I can't say I particularly understand or agree with the wisdom in taking a position so sizable that you can't exit it without taking a hit or messing up the market, but they've got a guy named Achilles in charge, so it's probably okay, right?
5) Why Obama's JOBS Act Couldn't Suck Worse (Rolling Stone) - Despite Wall Street's hatred of him, I generally agree with Matt Taibbi on most things banking. I can't say the same about this piece, where he lowers the boom on the JOBS Act. I get why he's pissed, because the Act does roll back a lot of safeguards previously in place, but I happen to think it's worth the risk in this case.
6) Dollar Shave Club Enters Razor Wars (Wall Street Journal) - I can't help thinking that the Dollar Shave Club was started after a goof video went viral and the owner said, "Holy shit, I guess I better make this a company." Regardless of how it started, it's for real now. 12,000 shavers signed up in the first 48 hours and the company is definitely making some waves. Any WSO members sign up for it?
7) An alternative to incubators: the co-working space (Venture Beat) - A lot of you enjoyed my week-long series on Launchpad IGNITION in New Orleans. What you may not have realized was that IGNITION is an incubator within a co-working space. For those entrepreneurs whose business model doesn't mesh well with an incubator, co-working space could be the creative and affordable answer.
8) Instagram Aftermath: It’s Time For Entrepreneurs To Go All-In (TechCrunch) - There may never be a better time in your lifetime to make a go of any harebrained idea you can come up with than right this minute. I hadn't thought about it until reading this piece, but Mint.com (an actually useful service with millions of subscribers) was acquired for a mere $170 million in 2009. With an app like Instagram fetching a billion dollars, you'd be a fool not to take a swing at this next boom. Who cares who gets left holding the bag as long as you get paid? Seriously.
9) Google's Project Glass: You ain't seen nothin' yet (CNET) - You might think it's Geek Week with all these links to tech websites, but this one is something us traders have been waiting a long time to see come to fruition. And it's not there yet, but it looks like it's getting close. Imagine laying poolside sipping a pina colada while you wear your computer glasses and trade with your eyeballs. Baller.
10) 5 Great Things About Procrastination (Altucher Confidential) - I like to plan ahead; that way, I'm never doing anything right now. Or so I've told my wife for the past decade. As a serial procrastinator (seriously - my wife calls me Last-Minute Louie), I can appreciate James's piece on my favorite activity. I'm just waiting for him to do a post on my second favorite axiom: If the minimum wasn't good enough, it wouldn't be the minimum.
The Video of the Week speaks for itself:
Have a great weekend, guys, and let me know what you thing of this week's Bananas!
Read about those glasses recently. Seems like we are moving towards that whole, "chip in the brain to control everything era." That's some scary stuff.
Also how do you think the Blackrock system will affect Wall Street salesman in the next ten years? I always kind of assumed sales at a more complex level was the one thing on the street you couldn't automate
Did an internship in a fixed income division and to be honest, salesmen were just glorified relationship holders who relied on traders/market makers giving them good spreads. Might be just how things worked at that BB, though.
Great articles, thanks!!!
Speaking for myself, I hesitate less when I either (1) work out a lot or (2) have a few drinks. Being a thoughtful/nerdy type has its advantages, but when go time comes hesitation is a death sentance. LOL my nickname back home is "Just in Time" for almost the same reasons. Glad to see I'm not the only one!The photo at the top of the rolling stone article looks like Obama is being controlled by a group of sociopaths.
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