Topple the King
In Chess, it is good etiquette to topple your king when the position is hopeless. Why prolong the agony? Now, I am only a casual player of chess. I play maybe one to three games per year since I turned...
Read MoreAuthor: David Merkel
Book Review: Reckless Endangerment
This book on the crisis is different for two reasons: 1) It focuses on the causes of the financial failure, and the history behind them. It spends relatively little time on the failure in 2008. 2) It spends almost...
Read MoreCorrection: How to Make More Returns on REITs
I want to thank Geoffrey Ching for spotting an error in my post How to Make More Returns on REITs. He even came up with what I did wrong; my signal was off by one month, producing returns way too good to be true. So...
Read MorePlan Your Giving
During hard economic times, fundraisers for charities get desperate. Their endowment, if any, has shrunk, former less-well off patrons are less certain of their wage incomes, and are less prone to give; well-off patrons...
Read MoreLearning to Like Lumpiness
Simplistic financial plans assume a smooth return that the client will earn. Why? No nefarious reason, but planners don’t know the future, so they either: 1) Assume an average rate as a baseline for...
Read MoreOn Redistricting
Given all the brouhaha that exists over redistricting, I thought I would give one simple idea that would free our nation and states from tyranny. Turn the job over to a computer. Yes, take the blood and politics out...
Read MoreBook Review: Enchantment
How do you get people to like you? Love you? Be insanely passionate over you, and what you do, sell, etc? If the book “Enchantment” is correct, it means you have to become the person that inspires people...
Read MoreIndustry Ranks June 2011
I’m working on my quarterly reshaping — where I choose new companies to enter my portfolio. The first part of this is industry analysis. My main industry model is illustrated in the graphic. Green...
Read MoreSimplify Corporate Taxes
Longtime readers know that I favor a simplification of the tax code, for both individuals and corporations. Working as an actuary inside life insurance companies, I saw the complexity of accounting with up to seven...
Read MoreBook Review: Never Eat Alone
This is an unusual book for me. I’m not a natural marketer. I try to avoid tooting my own horn. But this book might help me in my weakness. I try to do it all on my own, when the aid of friends could...
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TraderPlanet’s Quick Guide to Candlesticks
