Painting can’t be taught, only found – PICASSO I was watching the New England Patriot/Buffalo Bills game last night, and it dawned on me just how good professional football players are at adapting to unforeseen changes to their game plan. When necessary, professionals (in any game) will act out of instinct without hesitation. They [...]
What we see depends mainly on what we look for – JOHN LUBBOCK In his book The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama notes a Greek fable on perspective. Once there was a disciple of a Greek Philosopher who was commanded by his master for three years to give money to everyone who insulted [...]
I dream of painting, and then I paint my dream – Vincent Van Gogh Even though my father would say on occasion that I didn’t have a brain in my head, I found out later that I actually have two. The left hemisphere which controls the right side of the body, helps us with the [...]
In light of the exciting PGA Championship, I thought I would make a point with a golf analogy. No matter how professional you are in your field it seems like a loss “feels worse” than a gain “feels good”. Even Tiger Woods is affected by this pull of irrational behavior when faced with bogey vs. [...]
It is tough to make predictions, especially about the future. – YOGI BERRA I keep CNBC on all day while I work. Perhaps I think I will miss something, or maybe it’s the background noise that’s appealing. In any event, what I always find amazing is the parade of experts making one prediction after another. [...]
My 10 year old nephew Kevin paid me a visit this week. I thought he would enjoy meeting the guys I work with, so I brought him into the office one day. After looking at the screens and watching the prices go up and down, he asked, “How do you make money from all this?” [...]
If you don’t know who you are, the stock market is an expensive place to find out. – ADAM SMITH, The Money Game According to Ori and Rom Brafman in their book “Sway” the National Institutes of Health (NIH) conducted a rather interesting experiment. They gathered participants and placed them in a MRI like machine [...]
In a 2004 groundbreaking study from The Yale School of Management’s Center for International Finance titled “Facts and Fantasies about Commodity Futures”, Drs. Gary Gorton and Ken Rouwenhorst show that not only are commodity futures negatively correlated to stocks and bonds, but also that commodity returns are greater than bonds and have about the same [...]
I just read a very interesting book. It is called “Sway”: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. Max Brazerman is a professor at The Harvard Business School and introduces his new students to a game at the beginning of the semester. He auctions off a $20 bill with only two rules to the game. 1- [...]
