Notes from Barron's 1/28

Bismillah. I listed some notes from Barron's articles;

Head Wind into Tail Wind, by Alan Abelson
-  equities extended longest winning streak since 2004, S&P is up above 1500
-  new claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 330,000 this week
-  per Floyd Norris, inventories of unsold houses are lowest in decades, and it is now providing a stimulus to the economy
-  Abelson doesn't believe there is any real credibility to a possible war between China and Japan

That Uneasy Feeling, by Kopin Tan
-  9 out of 10 stocks are above their 50-day averages, "a sign the market is becoming overbought in the short-term"
- S&P is trading 14 X projected profits
- stocks make up 35% of assets of US pension funds (long term average ¬44%)--> so there room for further equity buying
- Michael Hartnett, BofA Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist, "Central-bank liquidity has been by far and away the most important driver of asset prices since the great financial crisis."

Notes from listening to personal mba

Bismillah. I have been listening to The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business, Josh Kaufman. I listed some notes below.

Viewing your mind as a muscle.
Invest in yourself
How to work effectively with others?
Relationships are based on power, influence vs compulsion
Influence is more effective, people naturally desist being forced
Do things that increase you reputation and skills
Comparative Advantage (CA), Ricardo calculated that specialization is better than making everything yourself
Focus on what you are best at
CA explains why diverse teams are stronger.
Communication overhead:
Everyone had a fundamental need to feel important
Being present and focused
What got you here will not get you there. Putting down people leads to ineffective conversation
Share facts, tell your story, ask for other's story.
Treat people with appreciation, courtesy, respect,
When you assign a task, tell the why as well. Give the intent behind your plan. This allows people to act to changes.
Take responsibility and assign specific responsibility

Macro economic outlook for 2013

I was reading through some global outlook reports and wanted to share some of the reports. Here is a brief summary.

The United States government’s gridlock in the legislative houses, fears of dipping back into a recession and forecasts of 2% GDP growth lends itself to a cautiously positive economic 2013 outlook. Even with modest US GDP growth in 2012, the consistency of 34 months of job creation and stronger investor confidence led to strong 2012 stock market performance (e.g. S&P 500 gained 13.4%, Nasdaq Composite Index gained nearly 16%). In a global sense, contraction of many Eurozone member economies and less than 1% mean GDP growth for Eurozone demonstrate that developed economies are not growing strongly. Emerging countries such as Turkey are showing stronger economic growth (4%) and thus potentially are more attractive to investors. 

Global grind: The world economy’s woes are far from over, forecasts Robin Bew:

http://www.economist.com/news/21566290-world-economys-woes-are-far-over-forecasts-robin-bew-global-grind

Jan Hatzius on 2013- projects later half of 2013 to have greater growth:

http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/focus-on/outlook/hatzius-2013/index.html?cid=PS_01_20_06_00_00_00_01_a

Russell Investments 2013 Global market outlook:

http://www.russell.com/us/institutional-investors/research/global-market-outlook.page?s_kwcid=TC|18567|economic%20outlook%202013||S|p|19218821602&gclid=CPGVrfyQz7QCFUbf4AodohUAQQ

UPSIDE AND DOWNSIDE: An Excellent Overview Of The US Economy In 2013

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/t-rowe-price-us-economic-outlook-2013-2012-12?op=1#ixzz2H1f4qPLO

Doing one thing at a time

Bismillah

Interesting read about the importance of focus on projects/day to activities. Tony Schwartz advises his readers to avoid multi-tasking and to give one's undivided attention when working on a project/task. In addition, Tony believes that it is important to complete most important tasks in the morning, take breaks during the day and to plan meaningful/complete vacations from work. 

To read more, click on the link below to read full post.

http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/03/the-magic-of-doing-one-thing-a.html

It is interested that in the tradition of the Prophet (peace be upon him), he would turn his face and body to someone when he spoke to him.