This year, 90% of asset classes are down. If the year ends this way, it would be an all-time record. This includes the Great Depression and the Great Recession. Read More: Why 2018 Has Been The Worst Year Ever, According To One Metric
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
By now, we are all familiar with Alexa. We have learned how to use the AI assistant to play music, buy things, change the temperature, turn off the lights and many other things. This is just the beginning – now that 50 million Alexa devices are in U.S homes, Alexa is moving beyond the home. Yesterday, Amazon announced the launch of Alexa of Hospitality and a partnership Marriott to roll this technology out across the world. This essentially brings the concierge and front desk to your room. Alexa will be able to handle many tasks like bringing more towels, changing temperature/lighting, ordering food, checking out and many other things. I wonder what Alexa’s next frontier is? Watch Alexa for Hospitality in Action
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
By now, anyone interested in the market has been exposed to the media explanations of what caused the recent market volatility (these quick and deep drops are the “new normal”, which I will cover in a future blog). One of the widely covered topics in the recent downdraft was the decimation of the inverse VIX funds. It occurs to me that most people might not understand what these are, or why they would blow up so easily. So, I will attempt to “laymanize” this matter. Watch Related Video: XIV is Terminated
Topics: Volatility, Artificial Intelligence
This is a bit old, but I just read about how China used more cement in three years than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century. Cement is one of the most important substances in human history and its usage is a perfect indicator for growth and construction. The fact that China used that much cement is a testament to the explosive growth they experienced. The alleged “fake cities” they built probably did not hurt this growth either. Related: U.S. Will be Bright Spot for Cement Demand in 2017
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
This will likely be the last holiday of the year. I wish all the blog readers and their families a Happy Holiday! Since some of you probably already tuned out, I will make today’s blog light and visual.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
I have written on numerous occasions (Look Back at Blog about ETF Proliferation) about the proliferation of ETFs and the unintended consequences that might come along with this trend. Believe it or not, there is now a Whiskey ETF where investors invest in the so called “Bourbon and Whiskey Economy”. I am not sure if this is more indicative of a bubble in Whiskey or ETFs, but the answer is probably both. I wonder if all of those “passive” investors out there will have an appetite, or thirst if you will, in this latest ETF? Read More: Bottom's Up: There is Now a Whiskey ETF
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
The chart below, from Strategas, highlights the fact that “low beta” stocks have dramatically underperformed “high beta” stocks over the past 65 days. I have talked about this before (Read: The Sleeping Dog has Woken), but the market has become quite comfortable with their allegedly low beta stocks over the last year or two. What they may not realize is that a massive amount of money has chased these stocks, not because they are safe, cheap or have good fundamentals, but because they pay high dividends. Dividends, of course, have become very attractive in such a low interest rate environment. This has potentially made the formerly low beta (remember, beta is a backward looking calculation) stocks into those that carry the most risk if the market begins to believe that interest rates are going higher. This has already happened to some extent. If you look at most staples, REITs, telecom or utilities stocks, which were big winners through July, they are all down measurablyfrom their highs and have been weaker than the general market.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
If I wrote the blog more than once a week or so, I would call this the story of the day. Every day, there are new stories about new developments and advancements in artificial intelligence and related technologies. One story that grabbed my attention this week (Click Here to Read It) discusses how Hanover, a Microsoft machine learning project, is using A.I. to help treat cancer. With hundreds of cancer drugs and new research being published constantly, along with the uniqueness of each patient and their likelihood to respond to a given therapy, it is impossible for doctors to know everything there is to know in order to best treat the patient. A.I. can come up with insights without being specifically programmed to do so by “reading through” research papers, clinical trials, medical records, radiology reports, etc. This is amazing technology, and we are just scratching the surface of its potential. RELATED: Why Deep Learning is Suddenly Changing your Life - this is a good intro to A.I. and deep learning.
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
