Thursday, February 19, 2009
StockTwits Will Save Our Economy
Rick Santelli's "rant of the year" (see the video here) and my impending pink slip has reignited a desire within me to re-read Peter Drucker's book Innovation and Entrepreneurship. When I get discouraged because there is change in my life I recall this book from my library. I do so, because I believe that change presents individuals with opportunity, and opportunity can be turned into value. Reading this book helps me focus my sights on change so that I can use those changes to exploit opportunities.
Drucker says:
And it is change that always provides the opportunity for the new and different. Systematic innovation therefore consists in the purposeful and organized search for changes, and in the systematic analysis of the opportunities such changes might offer for economic or social innovation.
Continuing further, Drucker says:
Innovation is the specific tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit change as an opportunity for a different business or a different service.This is where I feel StockTwits fits in and how they will save our U.S. economy. StockTwits has successfully exploited a change and since has turned it into an opportunity for a "different service." What change am I talking about? The change in the desire for information from individuals (e.g., blogs and Twitter) and less information from meaningless media headlines. Not just any information, though, information that is valuable and actionable.
I'm embarrassed to say that I used to be a huge fan of CNBC and Jim Cramer. I valued their insight because I thought they were the authority on what's happening now. That was during the high-flying, good times of subprime mortgages. In hindsight it was easy for them to call a stock because everything was going up...shooting fish in a barrel.
When things went south and the housing market went bust I found myself sticking with CNBC and losing from their mistakes. I had a desire for timely, valuable and actionable information that I could apply to my portfolio. Soren (@sorenmacbeth) and Howard (@howardlindzon) were the entrepreneurs that I needed and I found them at the right time. They harnessed an already existing technology (i.e., Twitter) and added value to conversations we, the community, were already having (i.e., add a "$" in front of your ticker symbols).
More from Drucker, "...by applying management concepts and management techniques (asking, What is "value" to the customer?), [StockTwits] has [standardized] the "product" [by] designing [processes] and tools."
StockTwits will save the U.S. economy because they have laid down a platform from which every one of its 14,000+ members can use to exploit change. All of the conversations on StockTwits is about change. Prices change, markets change and macro & micro economics change. All of these variables (and more) are being talked about on StockTwits. And through the StockTwits "processes and tools" I can filter out the noise and drill down to what I perceive value to be.
So from here on out, I will use StockTwits to innovate and seek change; and by doing so I will at some point find an opportunity. It's far better to try and fail than to not try and always wonder, "what if I did try?" I'm grateful to Soren and Howard for trying and facing the risk of failing.
If we do the same, we can save the U.S. economy. Forget Obama, his "hopes" and the drones that follow him because he's a great orator. Let's seek out value through change and make our Forefathers proud of us (see @ChicagoTeaParty for more information).
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Posted by Mattrix 2 comments
Labels: Economics
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
My First House
In 2003, my wife and I bought our first house in Westminster, CA for $295,000. We financed it with a 100% loan. An 80% first lien, 40-year fixed-rate loan and a 20% second lien, fixed-rate for five years. In 2005, we sold the house for $585,000.
I stumbled across some photos of that home (see below) and laughed. The car on the right-hand side did not work and was left there by the previous owners (renters, actually). I bring this up to reflect on how wild and crazy the mortgage and real estate markets were during those times compared with today's markets and current events.
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Posted by Mattrix 0 comments
Labels: Economics
Thursday, January 22, 2009
More on Quantitative Easing
A fellow StockTwits user posted this and I thought it was a nice follow up to the quantitative easing video I posted.
@gcn1: "Dr. Bernanke Explains Quantitative Easing"
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