Information Asymmetry

Here's an interesting topic of discussion Information Asymmetry. This means that decisions in transactions are done on the basis of one party having more information that the other. The imbalance of knowledge and power can cause moral hazard and issues.

Where it gets interesting in my opinion is this: In trading this would be considered illegal if you had information that others did not have and you use this information for financial gain then you are committing the crime of insider trading but if you use technology and resources to do a better job of researching a subject or trade then you have gained better information than your peers despite their ability to also obtain the same information. So now becomes information asymmetry but is not illegal.

There is a lot of great information online regarding this. Starting with this from the Journal of Finance http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/0022-1082.00305/abstract;jsessionid=16F9945F7AA85192C816EA7ED432EC50.f03t01

Rich Ruddie on Benjamin Dangel's Podcast

Check out my interview and podcast discussing branding and ways to improve your business online with Benjamin Dangel.

-Rich Ruddie

Topological Property

Wikipedia and James Simons give a great demonstration on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topological_property where you can read the transcript from his interview: http://www.ted.com/talks/jim_simons_a_rare_interview_with_the_mathematician_who_cracked_wall_street/transcript?language=en 

So if you watch the Ted Talk you will see a Sphere and a lattice around it. This is what was observed by Leonhard Euler the Mathematician from the 1700's. With 8 vertices, 12 edges, and six faces. If you look at the difference -- Vertices - Edges + Faces you get 2. No if you exchange that with Triangles you get 12 vertices and 30 edges and 20 faces, and 20 tiles. Vertices - Edges + Faces = 2. 

What Simons points out that I'm nerdy enough to want to write about so I can always reference this is that it doesnt change. The Euler Characteristic. This is a Topological Invariant. So no matter how you do this and how many vertices and edges are added the answer will always be the same. Pretty awesome stuff!

Another thing to note about James Simons one of the most successful traders of all time said that he hired the smartest people from science and data backgrounds and didn't do it all on his own. Definitely watch the Ted Talk.

Image of the day

So focus on the things that matter in which you can control.

San Francisco iPhone App Development Company

I am proud to say that I work with some of the most talented developers and coders in the Bay Area. Today I get to announce that I am helping to fund and grow a talented team of coders at ChartoLABS a San Francisco application development firm located downtown. Northern California is notorious for having brilliant developers because the area pulls from some of the biggest technological names in the world.

Starting with Hewlett Packard in Silicon Valley to today's top companies such as:

Oracle
Facebook
Salesforce
Google
Apple 
Twitter 
Uber

All of the above companies employ the smartest engineers and coders in the world and as you can see all have dedicated development channels. This can often be an advantage to smaller employers and startups that just want a few really talented developers (as opposed to needing hundreds) because some programmers don't want to be engulfed into these huge companies where they just become a number and rather enjoy the opportunity to shine for their work and to get a lot of credibility which intrinsically is a motivating factor for them.

Either way I'm excited to help the team grow and continue to make killer iPhone, Android, and mobile software applications.

If you are in the Bay area and want to visit the office is located at: 425 California Street.

Why EDC Reigns when other Festivals Fail

Lefsetz nailed it. Bonnaroo thought the fans were all about the experience but they were incredibly wrong. How wrong? Ticket sales speak for themselves at an all time low of 28,000. Maybe they had their run and theirs too much competition?

Electric Daisy Carnival however can throw a rave in the middle of the desert without a lineup announcement and we will all still show up. Why?

Because they are passionate about the experience and they give the fans what they want without sparring any expenses. When you do something out of passion and following your efforts you have a recipe for success and the Insomniac crew has showcased that.

Excerpt below:

"Bonnaroo ticket sales drop by 28,000, hitting an all-time low": http://goo.gl/a32UQM

The name wasn't bigger than the lineup.

Ever since Coachella went on sale without a slate, we've come to believe it's all about the experience. Isn't that what we're told millennials want?

But the drastic decline in Bonnaroo attendance tells us this isn't so. Coachella might be a rite of passage for SoCal teenagers, despite the press fawning over its musical bona fides, but every other festival in America other than EDC lives and dies on who is performing.

And the acts performing at Bonnaroo were aged, appealing to the wrong demo.

Millennials don't care about the Dead, certainly not Pearl Jam. And LCD Soundsystem peaked years ago. And only millennials want to camp out in the heat and endure the crowds to see acts in the summer in Tennessee.

Conversely, baby boomers are flocking to Oldchella because of the lineup, as stellar as has ever been put together, eclipsing even Woodstock, which didn't have either the Beatles or the Stones, but they're part of the Desert Trip. That's the buzz in L.A., who plays next year? And believe me, Goldenvoice wants to do this next year, create an institution. Do the oldsters flock for a reunion of the Kinks or to hear David Gilmour or can this only be a one time event because the assets have been strip-mined and the landscape is now empty? Furthermore, there might be a backlash, these are people who are used to being up close and personal and inherently they won't be, not with hard seats and this many in attendance, so, buzz... No, let's not kid ourselves, baby boomers will testify as to how great it is no matter how bad it is, unless it's an utter disaster. It's all about their image. We think youngsters worry about how they're perceived? Oldsters care even more, after spending thousands
they won't complain. But they may not return.

But they keep coming back to EDC, the Electric Daisy Carnival, because that's a culture, that's a scene, the headliners aren't everything. But the truth is the headliners are everything to the rest of these music-focused festivals.


Source: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Humurous Business Quotes

Found an old book that came courtesy of Ryan Insurance and wanted to have a digital file for these quotes:

• To Err is Human, To Forgive is not company policy.
• Say No, Then negotiate
• If at first you don't succeed, try, try again...Then give up. There's no use being a damn fool about it. 
• Murphy's Law: If anythingcan go wrong it will.....O'Toole's Commentary on Murphy's Law: "Murphy was an optimist."
• If you don't agree with me, it means you havent been listening 
• A billion dollars isn't what it used to be. 
• If you can't convince them, confuse them. 
• An honest executive is one who shares the credit with the man who did all the work. 
• Before you have an argument with your boss, take a good look at oth sides his side and the outside. 
• It isn't what you know that counts, its what you think of in me. 
• Rule of Failure: "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
• America is the land of opportunity if you're a businessman in Japan (Lawrence J. Peter) 
• Nothing is quite as embarrassing as watching your boss do something you assured him couldn't be done
• The mark of a  true M.B.A. is that he is often wrong but seldom in doubt (Robert Buzzell) 
• There is no job so simple that it cannot be done wrong. 
• Law of Destiny: "Glory may be fleeting but obscurity is forever. 
• A business is too big when it takes a week for gossip to go from one end of the office to the other. 
• If it ain't broke, don't fix it- unless you are a consultant 
• The mechanics of running a business are really not very complicated when you get down to essentials. You have to make some stuff and sell it to somebody for more than it cost you. That's about all there is to it, except for a few million details. 
• My decision is maybe and that's final. 
• If it's difficult we do it immediately. If it's impossible it takes a little longer. Miracles by appointment only. 
• Old salesmen never die- they just get out of commission. 
• A committee is twelve men doing the work of one. 
• Business: The art of extracting money from another man's pocket without resorting to violence. (Max Amsterdam) 
• The closest to perfection a person ever comes is when he fills out a job application form. 
• The trouble with mixing business and pleasure is that pleasure usually comes out on top. 
• Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt. 
• Never tell a lie...unless lying is one of your strong points. 
• Marketing is simply  sales with a college education
• A good business manager hires optimists as salesmen and pessimists to run the credit department. 
• No business opportunity is ever lost. If you fumble it, your competitor will find it. 
• Business is like an automobile. It won't run itself, except downhill. 
• It's not whether you win or lose - it's how you place the blame. 
• Rule of Success: Trust only those who stand to lose as much as you when things go wrong. 
• If people listened to themselves more often they would talk less. 
• Some executives call passing the buck delegating authority. 
• The golden rule: He who has the gold makes the rules. 
• If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bit you. This is the principal diference between a dog and a man. 
• A successful executive in business is one who can delegate all the responsibility shift all the blame, and appropriate all the credit. 
• When I first started working I used to dream of the day when I might be earning the salary im now starving on. 
• Anyone who thinks the customer isn't important should try doing without him for a period of 90 days. 
• The typical salesmen is a man with a smile on his face, a shine on his shoes, and a lousy territory. 
• Happiness is a positive cash flow. 
• The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. 
• An efficient businessman who found a machine that would do half his work bought two. 
• A nickel goes a long way now. You can carry it around for days without finding a thing it will buy. 
• There are some men who, in a fifty-fifty proposition, insist on getting the hyphen too. 
• If you want something done give it to a busy man and he'll have his secretary do it. 
• There is nothing more demoralizing than a small but adequate income (Edmund Wilson) 
• Among the chief worries of today's business executives is the large number of unemployed still on the payrolls. 
• Hard work is the yeast that raises the dough. 
• It is especially hard to work for money youve already spent for something you didn't need. 
• Committee work is like a soft chair - easy to get into but hard to get out of. 
• If all the economists in the world were laid end to end it would probably be a good thing. 
• Choose a job you love, and you will never have to wrok a day in your life. 
• I'm opposed to millionaires but it would be dangerous to offer me the position. (Mark Twain)
• Idealism increases in direct proportion to ones distance from the problem
• I cannot give you a formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure: Try to please everybody. (Herbert Swope) 
• There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. 
• Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. ( oscar wilde) 
• Maier's Law: If the facts do not conform to the theory, they must be disposed of. 
• Buy low, sell high collect early, and pay late (Dick Levin) 
• Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there (Will Rogers) 
• Management is the art of getting other people to do all the work. 
• I'd like to be rich enough so I could throw soap away after the letters are worn off. (Andy Rooney) 
• When they say a man is born executive they mean his father owns the business. 
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. 
• Money won't buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of alarge research staff to study the problem (Bill Vaughan)