I have to put the word out about a GREAT movie I saw last night that just came out: Hot Fuzz. I hadn't really hear anything about it until we decided to go see a movie and saw it was playing at the local theater. It had very good ratings from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes so we took a chance and it certainly paid off! A lot of it is a satire of cop movies from the 80's and 90's, but it's much more than just that. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard throughout an entire movie (though Borat certainly had its moments). I forget sometimes that although the price of movie tickets can be so expensive nowadays, the audience factor can be so great on a movie when an entire crowd of people is laughing together (the laughtrack effect--though I hate canned laughter on TV shows). So go see this movie in a theater while you still can!

So who else tried to make that argument in math class "How is this practical? When am I ever going to use this?" I know that I did and had fellow classmates who wholeheartedly agreed. Unfortunately for future defenders of this point of view, there is a clear cut example of just what math can do.

James Simons, a math professor and now head of a leading fund manager earned $1.7 BILLION last year. And this is not one of those cases of a CEO rolling in bonuses while the company flounders. His fund has earned upwards of 34% annual returns.

This scenario begs the moral question of whether these hedge funds (and other technical analysis traders) are contributing anything to the market which they profit from. They might argue that they are filling gaps created by market inefficiency while increasing the liquidity of financial markets, both of which can positive benefits. Federal Reserve chieftains of past and present have referred to it as 'greasing the wheels of capitalism'.

Others argue that it is manipulating wealth in a secretive manner to create more wealth while providing no good or service. It can't be said there is no argument in in this viewpoint---the methods are secretive and it is a process which leaves no tangible byproduct. It is interesting to note that the fund managers featured in the Alpha magazine report refused comment to the New York Times which might be an indication of their belief in how much water their defense holds...

When did we seem to just stop paying attention to these gas price increases? It somewhat reminds me of the casualty numbers in Iraq which were reported on a daily basis at first but then gradually slipped outside of the media's blinders. I know that some SUV or other large car owners probably won't be sympathetic, but my sedan was $1 short of 50 yesterday! We went out for dinner and a movie and the gas was more than both of those put together (even with these ridiculous $10 movie tickets nowadays)! I just looked around and apparently there are reports now that gas will soon be hitting $4 a gallon. Is there any end in sight? At least I can take solace when observing my English in-laws, some of whom pay upwards of $150 at the pump!

One of my current interests in my spare time is currency trading. I find the whole field of technical analysis of markets quite fascinating. One of the major characteristics of Forex (foreign currency exchange) is that the huge volume of the market creates extreme liquidity where one can buy and sell millions of dollars worth of currency in a matter of minutes. This 24 hour market holds many traders who make their living holding positions for just 3-5 minutes at a time, shooting for a small gain combined with the large leverage many brokers offer nowadays. This is why one trader who makes posts on some currency exchange message boards is beginning to stand out. "Jacko" as he is called, uses the single-minded strategy of only trading his favorite currency pair (the Euro/US Dollar), only in one direction and only at round numbers (1.3100, 1.3200, etc.) as well as the occasional buy on dips in the trend and 50% retracements.

Now some might be skeptical at first, saying that this is really just due to the bullish run of the Euro in recent years, but he is certainly no Monday morning quarterback, as you can see in a post he made last year predicting the huge run we've seen for over the past year.

He is a breath of fresh air among the day trading scalpers who make thousands of trades every year.

Having somewhat 'grown up' with the rise of the internet (I can remember computer labs devoted to teaching my classmates and I how to use it back in 1994), I can remember when it had an extreme biased towards younger people. As a result, your online persona never would really interact with the older generation. When Myspace, Friendster and Facebook initially came out, this seemed to be the case as well. However, as my generation has grown up and the internet expands to a larger and larger cross-section of society, this is certainly no longer the case.

Increasingly prospective employers are looking up their candidates online to gather more information on them which might not be known. This New York Times article from last year gives an example of a recent graduate who had been hearing no responses from job applications until he removed a satirical essay he had written online under his real name.

It doesn't just stop at jobs either. My wife, who recently has applied to law school, is part of an online community of fellow prospective students. Even at such a relatively small online community (at least when compared to mega sites such as Myspace), many suspect admissions committee members browse the site, connecting members accounts with their application, sometimes to adverse results if they speak ill of the institution or anything else inappropriate they might have said while under the mistaken assumption of anonymity.

Some tips when using an online persona:

1) Google your own name--make sure nothing that comes up (that you can have an effect on) puts you in a bad light professionally.

2) Keep online personas anonymous whenever possible. If you feel the need to put your last name there so that people can find you, look into making most of your info available only when someone has been confirmed as a 'friend' through the site (an option most social networking sites have).

3) If the above two options are not heeded, at least BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY ON THE INTERNET

Sincerely,
Anonymous

Obviously an important question to ask myself when pondering attending business school is what job I want out of it? What type of job that an MBA will help me get is desirable. I found an interesting sample of some of these jobs that are recommended for twenty-somethings looking to begin their career. In other words, me. For if I don't find something in a listing of "Top 20 Jobs" that I would like, I should really reconsider what I'm heading towards.

Thankfully there definitely are some jobs in there that look interesting. The first one listed in fact, Product Manager, sounds great to me. Although it sounds like one of those jobs with a crazy amount of work, it looks like a job where I could be able to use my creativity, problem-solving and general business skills (which I assume will have been augmented after going through an MBA program.

Of course, all this is easier said than done. I imagine a job with that level of responsibility is rarely simply handed over to fresh grads...

As I pay my taxes this weekend, numerous complaints about our insane taxation policies come to mine, but the following just seems like there could be no earthly reason to justify: why can we no longer file taxes online for free?? Starting this year if your household adjusted gross income for a joint filing is a hair over $52,000, you are no longer allowed to use a free filing service. So let's get this straight. I have to PAY, in order to GIVE MONEY to the IRS in a method that makes it EASIER for them!? By submitting my taxes digitally, the IRS gets to: handle less papers that take up physical space, they can easily crunch numbers for statistics, they can easily crunch numbers to determine whether an audit might be advisable and most importantly of all, it would cut down on errors on both sides since numbers are automatically calculated for taxpayers and automatically transcribed for the IRS!! I can only come up with two possible reasons why this policy is in effect:

1) Tax preparation companies such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt have spent a great deal of money and effort lobbying the Ways and Means committee and others.

or

2) The IRS is a bureaucracy like any other, i.e. they have an inherent bias to either grow or at least maintain the status quo. After all, it would be very likely that an increase in efficiency for them would mean a reduction in employees and budget.

Meanwhile, it seems all I can really do is cling to my pipe dream of the Fair Tax where this annual headache and waste of time would be abolished.

The now-infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare in Boston has brought to light the recent increase in guerilla and viral marketing techniques from companies. The move makes sense really when you look back at the evolution of advertisements. It began with the simple testimonial approach at the beginning with '9/10 doctors agreeing', celebrities telling you their product of choice, or fellow 'housewives' telling the audience what products work from them. Then around the 80/90s there seemed to be a move towards simply placing products next to sexy images (to the point where advertisers such as Budweiser were satirical of themselves in years to come). It makes sense that this gradual move towards subtlety would eventually result a new emphasis on Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOM). I can't help but feel this really caught on with Ronco infomercials and his "if you promise to tell just 3 people..." sales pitches.

It's even got to the point where entire companies are devoted to increasing this WOM advertising, such as BzzAgent where consumers are paid to conduct WOM advertising among friends. Does this bring up an ethical question? Companies like BzzAgent claim that there is no condition that forces the product 'ambassadors' to give positive reviews--but is it not somewhat implied? When someone cooks me a free dinner, I don't give them an objective critique of their product. Heck, even at the grocery store where they are giving out free samples, I feel it impolite to say anything negative about the free food I was just given (as if the employee heating the product up in the microwave cares!).

At the end of the day though, as long as people are not being seduced into pyramid-scheme rip-offs or products dangerous to their health, does it really matter? If my friend subconsciously influences me to buy a diet Pepsi instead of Coke next time I'm at the vending machine, does it hurt anyone? (well besides Coca-Cola that is!). Perhaps the best argument against it is that we may be at beginning of a dangerous downhill slope?

Reading about successful business entrepreneurs, the lesson that seems to come through the strongest is that contrary to some public perception, having a successful business is not a easy path to riches, but one of tireless work, long hours, concentration, patience, and absolute commitment to success. Attempting to start one's own business with anything less than 100% commitment to the endeavor is the surest and quickest route to losing one's business, savings and mind. This is nothing new of course in the arena of entrepreneurship as we see in this old photo of an inventor selling his new "bulletproof" vest to the police department.

An interesting article in the BBC news today how a simple foreign accent can impart so much meaning to someone’s perception of a person, particularly in America. I was lucky enough to do a bit of traveling after high school and it was very interesting at the hostels how the Americans seemed enamored by British/Australian/New Zealand accents while the reverse didn’t seem to be true much at all. My theory is that its due to the overwhelming exportation of the American entertainment industry where other English-speaking countries are inundated with American accents to the point where it’s commonplace. Conversely, in America we only come into contact with the occasional accent in the media and it’s often used purposefully to add something to personality/character, whether the stuck-up Brit Simon Cowell, the friendly Australian Claire (Lost), the English gentleman Jude Law or the posh Robin Leach on Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous. This is where the article is particularly interesting when they interviewed a former real estate agent who used it to market a product to appear upscale which is not a rare occurrence when you think of everything from Lexus car commercials to even Sheba cat food!

I don’t like to mix politics into this blog too much but I feel like this is something any American should be educated about. Whether for or against the current action in Iraq, it is surprising how many of us (government officials included) know so little about the differences between Sunnis and Shiites (or ‘Shias’). This is a great summary of some of the primary differences between the two groups of people who we are fighting and/or helping over there. Surely a better education on this can only help general understanding of the issues often being discussed such as federalism, multiculturalism, secession, civil war, etc.

Time management has always been something that has plagued me, particularly when I was a student. Most time management advice I have read or heard has been mainly fluffy and vague. Recently, however, I came across David Allen and his Getting Things Done (GTD) approach. I’ve had a chance to read some of the stuff in his ‘free’ section (great that he gives away a fair amount of free advice instead of just teasers for his books and seminars) and in contrast to most of what I’ve read before, he has some great concrete advice such as exactly how he sets up and uses his PDA as well as specific categories he uses for organizing incoming work. Its some great stuff that I hope to learn better and try to incorporate into my day to day life. Certainly something that will come in useful should I go into business school and especially in a career in business afterwards.

This is the kind of innovative business where you're pulling for them to succeed. Pizza places seem like one of the most common small businesses to open. It seems easy--some dough, tomato sauce, cheese and cut up toppings and you get to charge 15+ bucks for it, right? The problem of course becomes that many see this and you get a litany of pizzarias opening up that all seem about the same regardless of whether they're chain or locally owned. Therefore its great when someone actually puts a little innovation into this somewhat-tired industry. The layout and functionality of the site looks great and so does the corporate culture. Hope they make it to the U.S. someday!

Well the Oscars have come and gone and I most definitely did not watch it this year you might think is strange considering I made a good effort to see most of the major movies leading up to it. Besides the fact that I wasn't greatly looking forward to Ellen Degeneres hosting (too bad Billy Crystal can't just do it forever), the movies this year have really been disappointing. With the exception of Little Miss Sunshine, I hardly cared much for anything in 2006 (Prestige is the only one I would add next to Sunshine). The Departed was a pretty unoriginal cop/mafia story that would look pretty sorry without its all-star cast. Babel seemed like it was just trying to fit the mold of a 'powerful-movie-with-a-message', but just seemed bland to me. The Queen was interesting at first since I didn't know what it was about and thought it was bold to do a movie on something so recent as that without the guide of memoirs or first-person narratives, but it somewhat bored me after a while since I knew where the story was going and nothing seemed to really grab my attention. I never quite felt in the mood for Iwo Jima, so I can't really comment on that, though it didn't seem like a movie I'd particularly love. The only war movies I've liked in the past have satirical black comedy thrown in.

It's certainly possible that I just missed the movies that I would have liked better. I still haven't seen the foreign films such as Pan's Labyrinth, the Lives of Others and The Science of Sleep.

Regardless, here's hoping 2007 picks it up!

Whole Foods has just announced that they've merged with Wild Oats. I always find this an interesting practice where companies are getting a little competition from another company so what do they do but simply buy them out. I better know "Wild Oats" as "Henry's", where I go to for the kind of items Whole Foods carries without the ridiculous markup. In the summer the differences in pricing between those two stores' produce is incredible--I remember them selling 7 lbs of oranges for $1 at one point. Hopefully Whole Foods will keep Henry's as it is and just leave it as filling a niche that their main store does not--the way that the Gap has Banana Republic, Abercrombie & Fitch and the Gap to bridge niches in the market.

No matter what though, at least I'll still have good ol' Trader Joe's!

Zillow's Report Card: Proceed with caution

Definitely one of the coolest Web 2.0 sites that can be used for business out there is Zillow. The basic premise is that it is a real estate service company which combines satellite data with value estimates of homes all across the country. Certainly not without criticism, but a recent article from the Wall Street Journal found that although it is surprisingly accurate most of the time, approximately 1 out of every 10 of these "Zestimates" can be woefully off by 25% or more. Still, as a ball park figure, it certainly can aid both buyers and sellers estimate the homes value. Furthermore, Zillow is always in development, having created a wiki recently with possibly more such tools in the future. As always though, a market comes down to how much a buyer is willing pay for the good and how eager a seller is to relinquish it. This is something a general algorithm will never be able to accomplish with complete precision.

Recently Wal-mart executives (ironically joined by union leaders from other parts of the country) made a public call for Universal Health Care to be offered by the state. Naturally, given the general public perception of Wal-mart's altruism, many are skeptical of the multi-national corporation's true intentions. Certainly it can't be ignored that getting taxpayers to fund their employees' health care benefits would save the company billions of dollars--perhaps even increase employee productivity among those who are not covered by the health plan (over half). Perhaps this is being a bit too skeptical though. I do think Wal-mart gets a disproportionate amount of negative attention simply to due to being the biggest of the retail superstores since it makes them the most cost-effective for advocacy groups to target. I must agree with them however, the current plan of depending upon employers to give health benefits is certainly not working fantastically, with 45+ million Americans uninsured, with Wal-mart being a prime example of this.

When searching for a used car to buy last month following getting rear-ended, I decided to subscribe to Consumer Reports Used Car Buying Kit, which although seemed quite expensive ($24) was probably worth it in the end given how much money was being spent on the car itself. I must say the website is very useful. From the Buying Kit, I went from being very sure I would get a used Nissan, to finding a Toyota Avalon that I am very happy with yet I knew next to nothing about the Avalon model before seeing it as a recommended car on the website. Not only was the Kit extremely helpful, but the website itself is very useful for other random consumer reviews such as: hefty being superior to glad, Trader Joe's dishwasher detergent being very good, Wal-mart's laundry detergent being easily the best buy and Sears' vacuum beating out the much fancier and expensive Dysons. I doubt I'll keep up the subscription, but I think I might print out some of these reviews while I can...

In what is probably unsurprising news to those of us at the pump, Exxon Mobil recently reported the largest annual profit in U.S. history, $377 billion (beating the previous record that was held by none other than Exxon Mobil with $370 billion the previous year). Alongside them Royal Dutch Shell set a personal best as well this year with $25 billion.

Now I am someone who respects a company with a sound business policy that satisfies customers and makes huge profits, but this is just an antitrust robbery! How else can a company make these sorts of achievements while really doing nothing to improve the way they do business? There has been no significant raise in demand for their product, yet they thrive. Obviously I'm not the only one to be a bit shocked by all this, and yet nothing continues to be done. Given the current state of affairs, it seems like an alternative product or perhaps a cut in demand for oil seems the only way Exxon Mobil et al. will cease to continue setting records at the expense of frustrated consumers.

I continue to ponder what to do with my career. I do know that I need to move my career forward somehow seeing as I want to eventually support a family, but right now I’m unsure as to ‘how’? Paying rent, bills and all other expenses at the same time as attending business school seems like so much to take on right now. I’ve had many people further in their careers warn me about the perils of taking on a huge student loan. The only solution I can really see is attending an online business school while working full-time, which seems like a lot, but could definitely be the best available option. Simultaneously I’ve been looking at learning day-trading which just from the outset, is a tidal wave of necessary knowledge and potential risk from my current perspective. Then again, I suppose going into the business world always presents significant risk as is the case in any open market. Right now I will continue to look at both options for the future, studying for the GMAT and reading up on technical analysis and hopefully come to some sort of decision.

Or who knows, maybe some day I can do both 