Amateurs Beat the Profs

How Amateurs Beat the Profs

You and Your Friend Have a Good Chance of Beating the Market

You are afraid to deep into the stock market alone? You can try an investment club, a group of like-minded people who pool their time, skills and money to research and invest in stocks. There are nearly 15,000 investment clubs in the United States, with more than 300,000 members holding an estimated $70 billion of stocks. The average club has a portfolio of $95,000, although the average member`s portfolio is $200,000.

Small wonder. Today, 50% of investment clubs perform as well as or better than the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index, according to the National Association of Investors Corp., the parent organisation of Investment Clubs of America. Fewer than 25 percent of Wall Street heaviest hitters beat the S&P during any given period.

The stock-picking credo of NAIC group is simple. First, look for companies with five-year growth rates in earnings and revenues of about 15 percent a year or more. Try to buy stocks when the price earnings ratio (share price divided by the company’s earnings per share), is at or below their average price/earnings ratio over the past five years.

Once you’ve picked a stock, stick with it. Reinvest dividends and earnings and don’t sell unless the company really sours. One or two down quarters isn’t enough to trigger a sell. So long as the company’s underlying financials are still healthy, it may be a good time to buy. Finally, diversify your portfolio to spread the risk.

Manhattan Island. Photo by Elena

How to Start an Investment Club

Want to launch your own Investment Club? Here are some tips of how to get it off the ground:

• Invite interested family, co-workers or friends to a meeting. Ask each of them to bring someone else but limit the total number to fewer than 30. Your goal is to have 10 to 15 members of varied interests and ages. Be sure all prospective members know they are expected to investigate and analyze securities and make periodic reports. Screen out those who are joining as a way to get rich quick. NAIC officials have found that 40 percent of clubs break up within two years.
• At the first meeting discuss how much money each member will invest. Most groups set a monthly figure of $20 to $200 per person, although many allow members to occasionally invest larger sums.
• Choose an investment strategy. Will the club buy stock for long-term gain or current income?
• Pick a broker or a discount brokerage. In many cases you can buy stock directly from companies through dividend reinvestment plans, sidestepping commissions and management fees.
• Join the National Association of Investors which provides a wealth of educational materials, including step-by-step guidelines and a sample partnership agreement. An investor’s manual helps you get your club together, tells you how to conduct meetings, find and pick stocks, maintain tax records, and other basics. Consult annual membership costs for the club and for each member.
• If you’d rather join an existing investment club, you’ll have to do some digging to locate one in your area. Most investment clubs are also social groups, and members save opening for other friends. The NAIC doesn’t release names and addresses of clubs in your area, but some sites and magazines carry lists of regional contacts who may be able to steer you. Once you have found a club in your area, try to attend at least one meeting as an observer. See if the personalities and investment goals fit your own before you sign on.

Ladies’ Clubs

Curiously enough, women who make up their Ladies exclusive investment clubs enjoy an impressive percent average return of portfolios fewer than 20 stocks. In the old bestseller The Beardstown Ladies Common Sense Investment Guide (Hyperion, 1994), a group of the Beardstown Ladies Investment Club of Illinois revealed their top ten reasons for choosing a stock, as adapted below:

• The company is ranked in the top of its industry by Value Line.
• The Value Line timeliness rating (how fast it will grow relative to other stocks) is one (highest) or two (above average).
• The Value Line safety rating is one (highest) or two (above average).
• Its total debt is no more than a third of total assets.
• Its beta falls between 0.90 and 1.10 (Beta compares the volatility of a stock’s price relative to the total market).
• The company has had five years of growth in sales and earnings, and is projected to grow 12 to 15 percent in the next several years.
• Its price per share is $25 or less.
• The price-earnings ratio is below the company’s average p/e ratio for the last five years.
• Its upside-down ratio is at least 3 to 1. (The upside-down ratio evaluates the relative odds of potential gain versus the risk of loss for a given price per share).
• The company has competent and experienced management.

E-Business Development

E-Business Development

The advent of the Internet allowed previously unseen interaction. People all over the world are now able to instantly communicate, despite divergences in location or life paths.

E-business relies on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to carry out its operations throughout the value chain. In his work concerning Business Process Redesign (BPR), Phan (2003) enumerates conventional forms of e-business:

•     Business to Business (B2B)
•     Business to Consumer (B2C)
•     Consumer to Business (C2B)
•     Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
•     People to People (P2P)
•     Government to Citizen (G2C)
•     Citizen to Government (C2G)
•     Exchange to Exchange (E2E)
•     Intra-Business (Organization Unit to Organization Unit)

Globalization and ICT altered the business landscape forever. An encyclopaedia (Lee, 2010) discusses Teams of Leaders (ToL), a term originating in the US Army in the aftermath of the Cold War. ToL can be transposed to business development promoting actionable understanding and restoring cohesiveness. ToL and High Performing Leader Teams (HPLTs) share information and knowledge.

Communication basics teach one that information travels horizontally (e.g. among colleagues) and vertically (top down and from subordinates up). Transparency and confidence are valued to say the least in today’s business environment, and ToL enhances trust and contributes to business growth by developing expertise, insight and multiorganizational outlook.

Three major elements of corporate strategy are customer relations, supply and management (Suchanek, 2008). E-business activity is facilitated by Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Dubbing the concept system modularity, the author talks about expanding on what is already in place. He also describes the paid Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) links as a wise investment. A campaign of the like would result in the business being easier to find as well as securing greater market share.

Letters in the Sky - Michel love. Photo by Elena

E-businesses must ensure that financial transactions take place securely and that personal information remains protected. User interface is also pivotal. As for any other form of business, investment and profits go together.

The dot-com bubble, sometimes referred to as the IT or TMT bubble, took place in the ending years of the last millennium. Like all speculative bubbles, it was characterized by increasing trading activity and then bursting, leading to price deflation. Phan (2003) presents a case study of e-business of the Intel Corporation. Intel experienced outstanding success and after its initial e-business deployment, in 1998, made an astonishing $1 billion each month. Despite the repercussions of the dot-com bubble and the recession, the processor technology and silicon innovation company has managed to thrive.

References:

•     Lee, I. ed. Encyclopaedia of E-Business development and management in the global economy: Volume II. Business Science Reference. Hershey, NY: 2010.
•     Phan, D. D. (2003). E-business development for competitive advantages: A case study. Information & Management, 40; 581-590.
•     Suchanek, P. (2008). E-business development key areas. Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Business Administration, 537-543.

Update

Updates

By Kristine Kathryn Rush. Excerpt

Interviewing people. Getting in the way of her updates. She felt a tug – a pull she hadn’t felt in a long time. The calls frightened her, and she liked Holly, but for ten years Marisa had lived for the shows. They had to continue as well.

She left the booth without saying anything. The double doors closed behind her. Kamal was still at the reception desk, looking flustered. A policeman, short and a bit stout, stood at the top of the stairs.

Marisa ignored him and ran down the steps. Sure enough, three officers were in the newsroom, and no one was working.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “but we have a newscast to put on”.

One of the officers turned around. He was slender, with dark eyes and a sharp chin. He held his cap under his arm, revealing tousled black hair. “You must be Marisa Turner.”

“Yes,” she said. “Look, I’m as worried about this as anyone, but -”

“I understand you took the first call.”

“Yes, but -”

“When was this?”

Updates. Photo by Elena

She straightened. She wouldn’t get sidelined. “I’ll answer questions in a moment. But I need to keep order here, too. You told lackburn to proceed as if nothing were happening. The only way we can do that is to put on a newscast in –” she glanced at the clock” – forty minutes.

“I apprreciate your problem, Ms. Turner, but -”

“No. I don’t think you do. Just give me a moment, and then I’ll talk to you.” She gave instructions in rapid fire, afraid that this officer would interrupt her, that the police would shut them down entirely. Joseph was to go over copy if she were gone; Naomi would double-check the studio; Rob would talk to Douglas at City Hall. Everyone else should continue their jobs, make sure the updates were finished and no stories were repeated. “And for godsakes, make sure Kamal knows the mayor is due at five past the hour.”

They all nodded, even one of the officers, which made her realize just how strident her voice had become. She turned to the officer who had spoken to her.

“All right,” she said, “Now I’ll answer questions, but in the office, not here.”

He raised an eyebrow, but followed her. The office wasn’t really as office at all but a number of desks placed at random in the concrete basement along with boxes of old aircheck tapes and file cabinets used as room dividers. The are was dark, the only illumination coming from the stair lights and the thin light from the newsroom.

She hit a switch, and the fluorescents fluttered on. The place looked almost normal. There was never any daylight here. In the winter she entered the station in the dark and emerged in the dark, as if she were living in a night that would never ever end.

Published in September 2000, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery magazine

High Park: Discovery Walks

Toronto High Park

Welcome to one of Toronto’s largest and best known parks. High Park contains 399 acres of rolling hills, creeks, woodlands, ravines and one of the City’s largest ponds, Grenadier Pond.

High Park exists today as a result of the foresight and generosity of the original owner of the park’s central portion, John Howard, a former City Surveyor and Architect and his wife, Jemima. In 1873, Howard deeded the land to the City of Toronto, “to be forever held as a public park for the free use and enjoyment of the people of Toronto”. Their house, Colborne Lodge, now a public museum still stands in the south end of the park.

Two loonies in High Park. Photo: Elena

The Oak Woodland Communities of High Park

High Park contains approximately 110 acres of remnant oak woodland communities which were one segment on the sand plains of the Great Lakes. Today less than 0,01 percent of these oak woodland remain in southern Ontario. The large Black Oak trees (Quercus velutina) and many other plants, wildflowers, birds and insects dependent on these communities for their habitat are registered to be provincially rare by the Ministry of Natural Resources. Black Oak, found on dry woody sites throughout the southern United States, is at the northern limit of its natural distribution in High Park. Extensive development of the Great Lakes region has all but eliminated these rare and endangered oak woodland communities.

Western Ravines and Beaches: Follow scenic footpaths and a beach boardwalk. Experience natural ponds and marshes, oak woodlands and lakeshore parks.

Community involvement

The involvement of park users and residents living near the High Park has been an important part of the protection and management of High Park. The City of Toronto created the High Park Citizens Advisory Council (HPCAC) in 1993. This group of interested citizens volunteers their time to help make High Park a better place for all. The purpose of the group is to provide Toronto Parks and Recreation Division with an ongoing source of advice and assistance in all matters concerning High Park.

Volunteers from this committee are involved in a number of activities including the restoration of native park vegetation, educational programs on park ecosystems for children, park nature walks, public safety and transportation. Everyone is invited to obtain more information about such activities or to become involved, for this visit their web site at highpark.org.

One of Metropolitan Toronto`s most significant natural areas, High Park is noteworthy for its regionally rare vegetation and associated wildlife.

Keep in Mind

A little courtesy can go a long way. Each year, over one million people visit High Park. Consider the comfort of others when you use the park and tread softly in the natural areas. Exploring the ravine slopes by foot or mountain bicycle destroys plants and their roots, which hold soil in place, and leaves the slopes prone to collapse from rainfall. In order to preserve these fragile and irreplaceable environments, pleas follow these simple rules so that their unique beauty may be enjoyed by generations to come:

• Please stay on the main trails (especially in the ravine areas)
• Cycle only on the paved roadways
• Removal of any material in prohibited (wood, leaves, flowers, acorns, seeds, fungi, etc.)
• Keep your dog on a leash (except in designated off-leash areas)
• Put your litter in bins or take it with you.

Enjoy the park, but be aware of your surroundings, especially after dark. Keep the park safe for yourself and others. Let the authorities know about any suspicious activity. Dial 911 for emergency assistance or call the Toronto Police at 416-808-2222. Contact Toronto Parks at 416-392-1111 or 416-392-7251.

High Park Sakura in Spring. Enjoy your walk and come back soon. Photo: Elena

Public Transit

By Subway the closest stations are High Park at High Park Avenue and Bloor Street West, and Keele at Parkside Drive and Bloor Street West on the Bloor-Danforth Line.

By Streetcar: Route 506 Carlton streetcars enter the park at the junction of Parkside Drive and Howard Park Avenue (24 hours a day).

Route 501 Queen streetcars, south of the park along the Queensway at Parkside Drive, Colborne Drive and Ellis Avenue (24 hours a day).

High Park: Discovery Walks

Western Ravines and Beaches

Follow scenic footpaths and a beach boardwalk. Experience natural ponds and marshes, oak woodlands and lakeshore parks.

One of Metropolitan Toronto’s most significant and natural areas, High Park is noteworthy for the regionally rare vegetation and associated wildlife.

The park contains Toronto’s largest pond and approximately 110 acres of remnant oak woodland communities, once common on the Great Lakes sand plains. Its well drained acid sand supports prairies and savannah vegetation, characteristic of 4,000 years ago, when the area was warmer and drier.

The Beach. The High Park contains Toronto’s largest pond. Photo: Elena

The City of Toronto has established many parks facilities over the past years, including Hillside Gardens, a swimming pool, tennis courts, field houses and an outdoor ice rink.

For more information on area history, inquire at the Runnymede Branch of the Toronto Public Library. For more information on parks and parks programs please call 416-192-1111.

Cherry in blossom. Cherry in the park. Photo: Elena

High Park: West Ravine Nature Trails

On the West Ravine Nature Trails of the High Park you will see examples of remnant oak woodland communities on the upland slopes and locally significant wetland communities within and surrounding Grenadier Pond.

These plant communities offer the opportunity to view many rare species of plants and wildflowers including Black Oak, Wild Lupine, Cup-plant and Sweet Flag. They also provide habitat for wildlife including birds, animals, fish and insects.

There is no provision for lighting on the nature trails. These trails are intended for daytime use only. The High Park administration recommends that you enjoy secluded areas in the company of friends.

There are different levels of difficulty: from Asphalt Path (easy, level terrain) to Woodchip Path (moderately slopped terrain) and Footpath (not maintained).

Grenadier Pond. Photo: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Please help the High Park maintain its unique natural resources by observing the following guidelines:

Grenadier Pond. Photo by Elena

• Stay on the designated trails; these trails are covered with wood chips
• Leave plants and wildlife for others to enjoy
• Do not ride bicycles through the nature trails
• Put litter in the bins provided.

Sakura in blossom in High Park. Photo: Elena

Please help the High Park maintain its unique natural resources by observing the following guidelines: Stay on the designated trails; these trails are covered with wood chips. Leave plants and wildlife for others to enjoy. Do not ride bicycles through the nature trails. Put litter in the bins provided.

Succeeding in E-Business

Succeeding in E-Business

Economics is certainly a dynamic social science. Industry, and the way people do business, keeps changing with the times. For example, only in the last thousands of years, most societies in the world transitioned from a barter economy to one based on money. Money became a medium of exchange, and a repository of value, when centuries ago the first bankers would give notes in exchange of gold they kept. Today, private and central banking are the standard in most countries.

Clearly, another major development in economic history has been the Industrial Revolution, with the invention of electricity and machinery. One may argue that the Internet, together with its online transactions, social media and entirely new elements such as the “bitcoin”, has transformed commerce once again on an international scale.

So who succeeds in business?

Successful entrepreneurs share many qualities with each other. For example, they say the spirit of entrepreneurship is hardy, that such individuals usually react to challenges by trying harder rather than by giving up. When the going gets though – the though get going, as the saying goes…

Fear of failure has stopped many a potential successful businessman, or businesswoman, from pursuing their dreams and realizing their full potential. However, as another saying has it, if you try – then you already have a better chance of succeeding than the person who shies away from difficulties, or even opportunities.

At the end of the day, fear is an emotion. Fear is largely considered a negative emotion and is regulated by the amygdala (a brain structure). Fear is different from anxiety in that anxiety means fearing something unconfirmed, while fear implies a real threat. Still, it remains the result of neurons releasing neurotransmitters into synapses…

Michel love (lettering in the sky). Everyone can succeed in business. Photo by Elena