The English word strategy derives from "strategos", a Greek word that means "leader of the army". Thus, strategy implies generalship.

Strategy puts knowledge, insights and experience to the best practical use.

The first rule of strategy is: See things as they are, not how you want them to be. Take a unbiased look at your assumptions and beliefs. Do not dwell on what worked in the past. Live in the present so you can clearly see what you are up against then plan accordingly.

Presence of mind is your ally in balancing out threats or challenges. Do not pay attention to what people say about themselves; judge them by their actions. Further, understand this actions as strategic maneuvers.

Don't drink your own kool-aid, in evaluating yourself, don't take account your thoughts or you ambitions, but rather your actions and result - deal with the reality the way it is. Acknowledge your current condition, however do not let it define you.

Set you mind, to that which you want to accomplish, and pursue it with all that you've got. Decision, Discipline and Diligence.

What lessons can be drawn from China's spectacular and sustained economic growth?

As Hu Jintau remarked at the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the period since the previous Congress five years ago has been extraordinary. China's economic achievements have been arousing not only astonishment and admiration but also some anxiety.
In the past twelve months alone, The People's Republic of China (PRC) has overtaken Canada as the biggest source of imports to the USA, and overtaken the USA as the biggest source of imports to the European Union. Concern about the low level of investment in Africa has been displaced by concern about the effects of the high level of Chinese investment in Africa; there is now even anxiety about the effects of investment by Chinese state-owned firms into the Western economies.

The Chinese Communist Party is also expressing concerns. The themes of its 2007 Congress included protection of the environment and the achievement of social harmony. According to some estimates, China has displaced the USA as the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases. Inequality is rising as fast as pollution: China now has over 800 individuals with a personal wealth of more than a hundred million US dollars each, up from 500 in 2006; while the average income in rural areas of China is 480 dollars per year.

How China rises - 21st Century Socialism

You don't have to look far, to see that the new captains of industry are hedge fund managers. But wanting to be like one is not the point of this blog, rather it is what can you learn from the techniques of a fund manager.

Everyone should either be an indexer - get rich slowly with some risk or a hedge funder - get rich fast with a lot of risk in their investing style. The hedge fund approach is aimed at maximizing returns irrespective of the market condition. They invest globally in all asset classes, they use leverage and derivatives and they capitalize on unique opportunities in the global market.

Get this, the most valuable thing to the hedge fund manager though is the ability to monetize the intangibles - secrecy, records of return even when the overall market is doing well, avoid being benchmarked and finally mispricings.

 I have always loved the study of economics recently this is all I have been reading. While most of the concepts were somewhere in my head, it took a while for them to come back to me.

However, validation came to me listening to Ben Bernanke this morning, his talk was lucid and his economic theory makes sense in fact often through his testimony, I felt as if he is a professor explaining economic concept to the congress men and women without being condescending like a regular prof.

Wonder if Greenspan will make sense?

What I learned this week in class.

1. The investment market is like a club, primarily to screw the investing public, but they have to keep enough people happy to keep the game going.

2. In trading, @ NYSE you are being screwed by one guy (the specialist) who has a knowledge advantage in the market. At the NASDAQ, or other electronic markets you are being screwed by a group of brokerage houses who are also trying to screw each other.

3. The market is mostly influenced by momentum, this is because most trading is institutionalized. Here is the logic, because most fund managers are ranked they have a useful life of 90 days (last quarter's performance); fund managers tend to do what makes them sucessful in the first place, hence these things gets carried to excess.

What this means for an individual investor is for long term money, identify solid companies with long term potential, for short term though, go for momentum.

Douglass - Truth Branch

The best connection I have with a community as a member of that community is the library. My local SPL branch Douglass Truth was opened last week and I visited today. I liked it and borrowed  a couple of DVDs, like the friendly librarian Lesley, the business books collection is week, but they have an awesome African American and Audio book collection, which I liked too.