HINDSIGHT - WRITE SOMETHING WORTH READING ABOUT OR DO SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT
Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Tuesday, August 07, 2018
With startups, BMO puts its money where its mouth is
With startups, BMO puts its money where its mouth is
After partnering with 1871, the bank becomes a client of two women-led startups
Heather Holmes of Genivity
That’s why it’s worth paying attention to a partnership between BMO Harris and 1871. It began a year ago with a mentorship program and ended with the bank becoming a customer of two women-led Chicago tech companies out of six that participated in the program.
Genivity, a 4-year-old company, makes software that assesses how long someone might expect to live based on lifestyle, medical history and other factors in an effort to make sure people don’t outlive their retirement savings. It also identifies potential financial risks related to health. The software is being rolled out to BMO Harris financial advisers in a pilot.
BMO also is using SpringFour, which makes software to help consumers at risk of missing loan payments or otherwise falling behind financially to improve their cash flow and avoid default or other problems.
Both Genivity and SpringFour participated in 1871’s WiSTEM program for women entrepreneurs.
The right formula for collaboration is still evolving; getting a foot in the door is just a start.
“Once the C-level guys say, 'Do something,' it still doesn’t happen unless they identify a business unit within their companies and some line—not staff—people who will work to actually implement something that helps both sides,” says Howard Tullman, a former CEO of 1871 and an investor in Genivity. “Small wins to start but with real P&L consequences and benefits. If you don’t get someone inside as your champion, who actually has some skin in the game and a career interest in seeing the project succeed, then you won’t be going anywhere.”
Saturday, August 04, 2018
WDIS show - Howard and Tom Trading Options
WATCH THE SHOW HERE: https://www.tastytrade.com/tt/shows/wdis-top-dogs/episodes/timing-trades-after-movement-08-03-2018?utm_campaign=archive&utm_medium=link&utm_source=social-share
Howard and Tom aim to diversify some of his underlyings today by adding a few commodities and different sector exposure.
Tom explains how to set up a Jade Lizard strategy, which is a neutral to bullish strategy in ATVI and then walks through the breakevens and probability of profit.
They get neutral in FB and then focus on TSLA with a bearish, defined-risk Iron Condor.
With Gold bouncing back a little from its lows today, they decide to hold off until Monday to see if it pulls back for better trade location.
Finally, they wrap things up with a look at Howard's portfolio greeks and add to his theta by scaling up a position in Docusign, DOCU.
Thursday, August 02, 2018
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
New INC Magazine blog post from Kaplan Institute Exec Director Howard Tullman
Facebook's
Face Plant is Just the Opening Act
The
tech giants are now trying to come to grips with problems, largely of their own
making, that they are unable to solve. Could be time for some adult
supervision.
Executive director, Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation
and Tech Entrepreneurship, Illinois Institute of Technology @tullman
Every once in a while,
even the tech untouchables make mistakes that are so obvious and obnoxious that
the world, and even the stock market, is forced to take notice. We're watching
a few of these unrecoverable errors take hold right now and slowly leak into
the consciousness of the general public. That can't be good news for these
companies.
Twitter continues to
extinguish millions of fake accounts and discloses that, as a result, its
recent apparent growth in users is gossamer. More ominously, this looks more
like a race that Twitter will never win because the machines can spawn new bots
and fake accounts much more quickly, easily and cost-effectively than the
troops at TWTR can swat them away. The situation at Facebook is no better, and
probably much worse, because at least the guys at Twitter are trying to address
the issues while the frauds at Facebook still largely have their heads in the
sand.
I've been a big fan of FB forever, but the romance is finally
over. As they lurch stupidly from one crisis to another and offer a continuing
stream of lame excuses and amateurish apologies, the youth, insulation and
inexperience of the FB management team led by the Zuck is becoming more
obvious; and he looks more foolish and out of touch every time he opens his
mouth. Anyone who thinks that there's nothing fake about denying the Holocaust
is a moron. The Zuck is leading the pack straight into the swamp and taking a
well-deserved beating at the same time.
Here's a flash. You
don't ever want to be this season's pin cushion or poster boy for arrogance and
ignorance when the world starts throwing shade. What we're seeing right now is
Schadenfreude on steroids. Ordinarily, seeing the boys get their comeuppance
would be somewhat entertaining, but unfortunately, when the big tech guys
stumble, the little guys (like us) eventually take it in the shorts.
I expect that the
longer-term (and surely negative) financial consequences are just beginning to
be felt by the masses in the market and that can't be good news for IRAs or
401(k)s, whether they're stuffed with tech stocks or just holding tracking
funds subject to the same downturns. We could be looking at the beginning of
the end of the party. The traders are already starting to make their moves and,
typically in these cases of rapid and radical downturns, we civilians are
always the ones left holding the bag because we can't get out of harm's way
fast enough. FB, Netflix (which will likely weather the storm and come back)
and TWTR are just the first dominos to fall. (Note: I do not own these
stocks.)
I say this with clear
understanding that the vast majority of traders don't care about much of
anything substantive except stock movement, velocity and volatility. For them,
any directional action is apparently equally okay as long as things just keep
moving up or down. As Jackson Browne wrote in My Opening Farewell:
"there's a train everyday, leaving either way." And, I've also come
to realize (no surprise here) that money doesn't really care who makes it and
that morals and some basic decency don't really matter much to the market.
When the world gets
sufficiently angry, and never mind the fact that these "kids" have
been given corporate protections and crazy governance provisions that
essentially make them totally secure in their positions, there will come a time
and a reckoning when even their clueless and greedy directors can no longer
take the heat and will have to make at least some cosmetic changes in the
clubhouse. They will need to bring in some grownups.
This actually isn't
good news for us or for these stocks because the grownups don't have any idea
of how to keep growing these businesses (maybe no one does at this point) and
they have even less ability to solve some of the nasty problems and clean up
the stuff that's been shoved into various closets. Worse yet, they're going to
take their sweet time in doing anything because they don't want to make things
worse if that was even possible.
All of which means
that there's only one direction for the stock prices of these companies to move
for the foreseeable future, and that's further down. Hanging on to these
stocks and hoping for the best is a lot like trying to nail Jell-O to a tree.
Even the biggest hammer and the strongest nail won't keep the stuff from ending
up in a puddle at your feet.
PUBLISHED
ON: JUL 31, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
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