(31-08-2015, 03:46 PM)swakoo Wrote: [ -> ] (30-08-2015, 09:57 PM)CityFarmer Wrote: [ -> ]The ultimate benchmark, is the long term performance. If your friend is serious, and his performance is outstanding over years. I reckon he has a very rare talent. A talent of market insights, and able to time it right consistently over years.
The talent is different from knowledge and skill, which is transfer-able, or learn-able. We can only admire them, rather than learn from them.
Noted. Pondering and trying to break it down...
1) Determine value and safety margin
- need knowledge and skill (learnable for most people)
2) As prices fluctuate (and especially volatile in modern times), establish when difference between value/ safety margin and price is big enough to execute transaction (buy or sell) ie. timing
- need market insight (can this be acquired from experience or reading/observing?)
- need luck (sometimes)
A good summary.
Can market insight acquired from experience (and transferable)? We have been exposed to various "market insight" from books, but none seems withstand the test of time. The closest one is TA, but often fail when we need it most (unexpected swings of prices), IMO
Fed seen deferring rate hike despite unemployment fall
The Federal Reserve is expected to put off a long-planned interest rate increase this month despite another fall in the US jobless rate, placing concerns about China ahead of US data.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/busi...o.facebook
(05-09-2015, 02:58 PM)cfa Wrote: [ -> ]Fed seen deferring rate hike despite unemployment fall
The Federal Reserve is expected to put off a long-planned interest rate increase this month despite another fall in the US jobless rate, placing concerns about China ahead of US data.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/busi...o.facebook
Depending on how one interpret - the rest of the world is being caught between a rock and a hard place...
Basically, QE has emboldened global financial mkts and now the gush of printed $ is holding policy makers ransom for their doings since the last GFC
U.S. jobless rate falls to lowest level in 7 years at 5.1%
The Associated Press Posted: Sep 04, 2015 9:30 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 04, 2015 5:02 PM ET
[img=620x0]http://i.cbc.ca/1.3078866.1432044430!/fileImage/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/16x9_620/us-jobs.jpg[/img]America's jobless rate fell to the lowest level since 2008 in August, new numbers showed Friday. (Tim Boyle/Bloomberg)
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[img=140x0]http://www.cbc.ca/i/news/v10/gfx/audiothumb.gif[/img]
Interpreting the jobs picture2:13
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Related Stories- [url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-added-12-000-jobs-in-august-1.3215418]Canada added 12,000 jobs in August
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low in August as employers added a modest 173,000 jobs, a key piece of evidence for the Federal Reserve in deciding whether to raise interest rates from record lows later this month.
The Labor Department said Friday that the jobless rate fell to 5.1 per cent — a level consistent with a normal job market and the lowest since April 2008 — from 5.3 per cent.
Hiring in August was the slowest in five months, but the government revised up job growth for June and July by a combined 44,000. From June through August, the economy added a solid 221,000 jobs a month, up from an average of 189,000 from March through May. Three years of solid hiring have put nearly 8 million more Americans to work.
Friday's report appeared neither so strong nor so weak as to tilt the Fed decisively toward either a rate hike or against one. But as the final report on the job market before the Fed meets Sept. 16-17, it's one of the most significant pieces of evidence it will consider.
Muted stock reaction
Investors had a muted early reaction to the jobs numbers. Stock index futures were already sharply lower before the report came out and stayed there afterward. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note edged up to 2.14 percent from 2.16 percent late Thursday.
Many economists think the Fed will decide in two weeks to raise its benchmark rate for the first time in nine years. At the same time, stock market turbulence, a persistently low inflation rate and a sharp slowdown in China have complicated the decision.
Chris Williamson, chief economist at the financial information firm Markit, said Friday's report provided "frustratingly little new insight into whether the Fed will start to raise rates."
"A bumper payrolls number would have sealed the case for higher interest rates in many people minds, while a low number would have dealt a blow to any chances of tightening of policy at the next meeting," Williamson said.
Once the Fed begins raising borrowing rates, higher rates are likely to eventually ripple through the economy. Americans could face higher costs for mortgages and other loans, though the increases could be modest and gradual.
A key question is how a faltering China, slow growth in Europe and a strong dollar will affect the overall U.S. economy. The answer probably won't be clear for months.
Friday's jobs data was gathered before the U.S. stock market plunged in late August, after signs emerged that China's troubles were worsening.
"This report settles little, we think, leaving the next two weeks essentially as unsettled as they were prior to the report's release," said Dan Greenhaus, chief market strategist at institutional brokerage BTIG LLC.
Global economy uncertain
A stumbling global economy and stronger dollar, which makes U.S. exports costlier overseas, could slice a percentage point off U.S. growth through the second half of next year, according to economists at Goldman Sachs.
More so than other months, August's jobs totals typically undershoot the revisions that the government provides later. The government struggles to seasonally adjust the data for the millions of summer jobs that are eliminated throughout the month. August job gains have been revised higher by 79,000 over the past five years, Goldman Sachs estimates.
Smaller companies and services firms, which are largely insulated from global trends, are still faring well. Service sector companies, such as restaurants, retailers, banks and construction companies are expanding at the fastest pace in nearly a decade, according to a survey by the Institute for Supply Management.
But manufacturing firms have been stumbling amid the global headwinds. Manufacturers cut 17,000 jobs in August, the most since July 2013. Construction companies added just 3,000, even though home building and other construction have picked up.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits remains very low by historical standards — evidence that companies are still confident enough about customer demand to maintain their staff levels.
There are other signs that the U.S. job market remains solid. Americans overall have a brighter outlook: According to the Conference Board's consumer confidence survey, nearly 22 percent of Americans said jobs were plentiful in August. That matched the proportion who said jobs were hard to get - the first time since early 2008 that the two figures have been equal.
What your prediction? I "guess" it is more likely on Sep, rather than later...
Pimco's Ivascyn says below 50 percent chance Fed hikes rates this week
NEW YORK - Pacific Investment Management Co, one of the world's largest asset managers and advised by former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, puts a "below 50 percent chance" the Fed will raise short-term interest rates this week, Pimco Group Chief Investment Officer Dan Ivascyn told Reuters on Monday.
...
http://www.todayonline.com/business/pimc...rates-week
Bloomberg's view on the matter...
Why the Fed should raise rates now
NEW YORK (Sept 16): Now that U.S. stock markets have experienced their first 10% correction since 2011, investors are again looking to the Federal Reserve to bail them out. Although the Fed hasn't raised interest rates in almost 10 years, sympathetic pundits say it's still too soon to raise them now. The economist Larry Summers, runner-up for the top spot at the Fed a few years ago, says raising rates would risk "tipping some parts of the financial system into crisis."
How did our financial system weaken to the point where a quarter of a percent increase in rates is more than it can handle?
...
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/sg/article...-rates-now
The promotion of excessive comsumption and using debt to fund this desire for instant gratification. the removal of real minted coins for payment and using notes cause many problems too. online payments will cause problems too down the road. things can spiral out of control easily as monies can be shifted so quickly to destabilise an economy. Assets and debt are too interlinked...
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