Weekend brain food I
I have been blogging significantly lesser these days it has gotten busier at work and I just feel like chilling on weekends instead of crunching data and doing reviews. These days the stock price movements have been very sensitive to the FED and trade talk news such that I find it almost pointless to do much analysis (almost no good stocks I want to get are considered under-valued). Just glad that I have picked up some OUE reit, First reit and Capitaland in the past couple of months, regretful that I sold mapletree logistics.
Here are some recommended readings today for the bored minds:
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Heavy on either extremes but light in the middle |
"This is a problem of scale. For someone ‘big’ enough, the bets on the 10 to 15 per cent side make up for the stagnant 85 to 90 per cent. Let’s say Taleb’s net worth is $5 million. That means he’s got a whopping ~$750,000 to spread around a diversified basket of highly speculative bets. It’s highly likely that at least one will pay off.
For a small investor, that high-risk basket might only hold $10,000 or $20,000, which is nowhere near enough to play this game. Minimum buy-ins mean you’d only be able to place one or two bets; perhaps a handful at most. The chances of holding the winning lottery ticket are tiny, which means you’ll end up with nothing, while the rest of your money moulders away in the bank.
I’m not saying Taleb’s barbell sucks. The point is that when you walk into a gym, you don’t use the exact same barbell as everyone else. Instead, you choose one that suits your ability and preferences. It’s not the specific weights that are important, but the general principles: decide on an acceptable level of downside risk – which will vary from person to person, make room for as much upside potential as your personal circumstances allow, and stay the hell away from the middle."
I wonder how would this change the finance and payment landscape in SG. Will consumers then see better financial deals (like how the telco fight resulted in better deals)? Hmm...
Happy reading! Ciao~
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I love your analysis in this field of business.
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