1.The Record is 11 Up Days in a Row for Nasdaq…..9 Right Now

Andrew Thrasher, CMT, @AndrewThrasher

For the 7th time since 1990, the NYSE has had 8 consecutive positive closes. The record is 11 days, set in May 1990.

https://twitter.com/AndrewThrasher/status/1359858837654802443/photo/1

1. GME Got to 9.5% of XRT Retail ETF

XRT Retail stocks ETF….This will concern regulators

1.#1 and #2 Today…Two Market Indicators…One Stocks Cheap and One Stocks 2^nd Most Expensive Ever.

S&P Dividend Yield Versus U.S. Treasuries…Above 1 is cheap

A Favorite Bullish Indicator For Stocks Is Still Flashing Green

Take a look at the chart below that shows the ratio of the S&P 500 dividend yield to the 10-year treasury yield. The ratio skyrocketed because the 10-year bond yield has plummeted, yet the S&P 500 dividend yield has remained relatively steady between 1.8% – 2%.

1. Asset Classes-Historical Average Vs. Last 10 Years

If not stocks, what else?

What about other asset classes? Take a look at the chart below, which plots each asset’s annualized inflation-adjusted return over the last decade against its long-term average. The asset that performed the worst since 2010, relative to its historical average, was gold, followed closely by international stocks and U.S. bonds.

1. Russell 2000 just had its best month ever … November’s 18.3% gain eclipsed prior record of 16.4% set in February 2000

1. Nasdaq Thanksgiving Week Volume was Double Last Year.

Dave Lutz Jones Trading–Volume on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index averaged 1.07 billion shares per day through last Wednesday — making it the biggest lead up to Thanksgiving since 2004 and almost double the volume of last year

1. M1 Money Supply Up 44% in 2020…Highest Growth Since WW II.

1. Split Congress and Historic Stock Returns.

1. From Cash Pre-Election to Tsunami of Equity Inflows Post-Election

EPFR notes there has been a Tsunami of inflows over the past 2 weeks

1.The Biggest Stock Market Reversal in History

Source: A Wealth of Common Sense  Found at Barry Ritholtz Blog

1. Top 10 Has Shown Multiple Charts on Dollar Weakness….Euro Most Common Currency Last Month First Time Since 2013

Dave Lutz at Jones Trading The euro was the most used currency for global payments last month, the first time it has outpaced the dollar since February 2013 – Data from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, which handles cross-border payment messages for more than 11,000 financial institutions in 200 countries,showedthe European Union’s single currency and the greenback were followed by the British pound and the Japanese yen.The Canadian dollar overtook China’s yuan for the fifth spot, Swift said\\

1. Russell 2000 Small Cap-Highest Percentage of Small Caps Above 200 Day Moving Average.

1. Year-End Historically Positive for Momentum Stocks

Momentum stocks may get an end-of-the-year push, history shows

Last Updated: Nov. 17, 2020 at 2:30 p.m. ETFirst Published: Nov. 17, 2020 at 7:07 a.m. ET

By Mark Hulbert

1. Small Cap Value Watch for Break Above 5 Year Sideways.

VBR-Vanguard Small Cap Value 5 Year Chart

https://ycharts.com/companies/VBR

1. Naz 100 Vs. Dow Outperformance Stops Dead at 1999 Level

Bloomberg

1. The Global Interest Rate Easing Map

1. Another Look at the Record Cash on Sidelines.

Peter Mallouk

Record cash on the sidelines missing the recovery.

1. Value Stocks and Presidential Elections.

Marketwatch–Value investing, which has been maligned for years, is about to come back in style.

Why would there be a return to favor after underperforming for so long? Because elections have a long track record of doing wonders for value stocks, whose prices are deemed low compared with business prospects. (I highlight, below, 20 value companies that may benefit as a result.)

Value stocks outperformed growth for half a year after every presidential election since 1980, according to research by Larry McDonald and his team at the Bear Traps Report.

1. S&P, Dow Jones and Dow Transports New All-Time Highs.

S&P

1. VIX Drops 38% Election Week…The Largest Weekly Drop Since Last Presidential Election.

VIX 4^thLargest Weekly Drop on Record

1. S&P Post-Election Rally Only Gains Back 2 Week Sell-Off.

S&P Still Below Sept Highs

1. The Reduction in Small Business Loans………Loans for Under $100m from Banks to Small Business Down 75% Since 2008.

I heard this stat from Joel Greenblatt interview on Masters in Businesshttps://www.bloomberg.com/podcasts/masters_in_business?sref=GGda9y2L

1. Highest Voter Turnout Since 1900

1. Commodities Hit New All-Time Lows Versus S&P 500 Blowing Thru 1999 Bottom

Commodity Index vs. S&P Historical

1. Earnings Per Share Beats are not Being Rewarded.

Goldmannotesearnings beats are not being rewardedand misses are getting sold

1. Central Banks Sell Gold for the First Time  in a Decade

Eddie Spence

1. 200 Years of Value Stock Returns….Biggest Disparity Ever.

1. Money Out of U.S. Value Strategies -600B and Counting.

WSJ-By Jason Zweig

1. Market Cap of FANGMAN Doubled from March Low

1. Mutual Fund and ETF Stock Fund Flows Have Been Straight Down Since 2016…..Negative $200B+ 2020

Do vs. say-From Advisor Perspectives

Although there is extreme speculation occurring by some cohorts of investors—especially within the options market—the same can’t be said about all behavioral measures of sentiment. Case in point would be equity mutual fund and exchange-traded fund (ETF) flows. As you can see in the chart below, there has been a steady cumulative downdraft in flows since the beginning of 2015—belying the extremes witnessed more recently in the options market. I will speculate that there may be an age/demographic bias at play; with younger traders/investors betting on a rising market (or at least a rise in the stocks on which they’re betting with call options), and older investors less sanguine.

Fund Flows’ More Somber Message

Source: Charles Schwab, Investment Company Institute (ICI), as of 8/31/2020.

1. Wall Street Will Have To Take Millennial Investors Seriously

https://www.economist.com/news/2020/10/20/soon-enough-wall-street-will-have-to-take-millennial-investors-seriously

1. Americas Top 15 Retailers Vs. Amazon.

1. October Earnings Schedule…60% of S&P Reports in Next Two Weeks.

 We get Earnings fromNetflix on Tuesday, Tesla and Verizon on Wednesday, and Intel Thursday. Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook report the following week.—Dave Lutz at Jones Trading

1. Small Value 600 52% Spread in Performance Versus QQQ YTD.

1.Value Massive Underperformance vs. Growth Shuts Down AJO One of the First Quant Value Shops…..1999 Value Shops were Closing Across U.S. Before Value had Reversion to Mean.

Ted Aronson AJO Hangs It Up……”drought in value is the heart of the challenge”

5 Year small cap value vs. small cap momentum…..DWAS Small Cap Momentum ETF+69%vs. VBR small cap value ETF+18%

www.yahoofinance.com

1. 30 Year Mortgage Rates Hit Another Record Low….Average 30 Year Rate 3%

·         The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 3% from 3.01%.

·         Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 2% for the week but were 24% higher annually, the Mortgage Banker’s Association said.

·        Applications to refinance a home, which are most sensitive to weekly interest rate movements, fell 0.3% for the week.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/mortgage-rates-set-yet-another-record-low-but-applications-fall.html

30 Year Mortgage Rate 1971-2020

1. Short-Interest in Nasdaq Comp Hits Highest Level in 10 Years.

“Somebody, somewhere, still wants to bet against this market,” writes Jason Goepfert, head of SentimenTrader and founder of independent investment research firm Sundial Capital Research, in a Tuesday research note.

Goepfert writes that so-called short interest, or the total number of shares of a particular stock or fund that have been sold short by investors, but haven’t yet been covered or closed out, on stocks trading on the Nasdaq Composite COMP, -0.10% rose in the last two weeks of September to around the highest level in 10 years, at around 9.7 billion shares (see chart below expressed as a percentage below a chart of the Nasdaq Composite’s absolute value).

1. 3Q Summary-Large Growth and Consumer Discretionary Lead.

LPL BLOG

Growth beat value for the quarter despite losing ground in September. The growth style of investing continued its impressive 2020 run during the quarter, shown in the LPL Chart of the Day, but underperformed during September as markets pulled back and rotated some from the winners to the laggards. Value’s outperformance for the month was its first such feat in 12 months, based on the Russell 1000 style indexes. Over the full quarter, growth got a boost from strong gains in technology, while value was hurt by weakness in the energy sector.

Consumer discretionary topped all equity sectors for the quarter. Gains were broad-based, though homebuilders stood out with outsized gains as the housing market remains quite strong. The internet retailers lagged slightly behind the sector as some of the pandemic winners took a breather late in the quarter. Energy struggled mightily with a nearly 20% decline even though oil and natural gas prices rose, bringing the sector’s 2020 loss to 48% through September 30.

2. Hedge Funds Cut Bearish Dollar Bets to Least in 4 Months

Dollar bears are dialing back on their aggressive bets for further weakness. Net short non-commercial positions in futures linked to the ICE US Dollar Index have been cut to the least in four months. – CFTC

Chris Preston -River and Mercantile.

3. Rising Supply Chain Linkages Between U.S. and China.

Supply chain linkages

Beyond direct trade, the U.S. and China have also become “increasingly interdependent through rising supply-chain linkages over the past decade,” Fitch Ratings said in a report last month.

Supply chains are a complex network of companies that work together to provide raw materials, intermediate parts or expertise in order to produce a final product or service that can be consumed either domestically or globally. 

It’s hard to gather accurate data that breaks down specific supply chain contributions by each company. However, the OECD — or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — launched a database in 2013 that provides some insight into how global supply chains work.

Latest available estimates by the OECD showed that in 2015, foreign input accounted for 12.2% — or around $2.2 trillion — of total goods and services consumed in the U.S. China was the largest contributing country of that foreign input, the data showed.

Some manufacturers within the U.S. were especially reliant on China for intermediate input or final products, said Fitch, citing the OECD data. Those include American producers of textiles, electronics, basic metals and machinery, the agency said.    

In China, foreign suppliers made up around 14.2%, or $1.4 trillion, of total goods and services consumed within its borders in 2015, according to OECD data. The U.S. was also the largest single contributing country to that foreign input, the estimates showed.

In contrast with U.S. reliance on Chinese input in the manufacturing sector, China is “much more” dependent on American contribution in services, said Fitch.   

5 charts show how much the U.S. and Chinese economies depend on each other

Yen Nee Lee@YENNEE_LEE

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/5-charts-show-how-the-us-and-chinese-economies-depend-on-each-other.html

4. The Number of Apartments in Manhattan for Rent +200%

Rent or Buy? Eight Home Hunters Explain Their Real Estate Moves During Covid-From New York to Sydney, the fallout from the pandemic has changed the calculus for those searching for a house.By Jack Pitcher-Emily Cadman-Oshrat Carmiel-Julia Fanzeres-Kristine Aquino

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-10-12/real-estate-market-rent-or-buy-a-house-during-covid-home-hunters-explain-moves?srnd=premium&sref=GGda9y2L&utm_content=billionaires&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-billionaires&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

5. Cargo Planes and Private Planes Back to Flat…..Passenger Planes -40%

WSJ

The Oil Market Has an Aviation Problem-Passenger-flight activity is mired at around half of pre-pandemic levels, leaving a hole in global oil demand

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-oil-market-has-an-aviation-problem-11602235754?mod=itp_wsj&ru=yahoo

6. Taxes Compound Like Returns.

Fidelity

https://www.fidelity.com/wealth-management/tax-smart-investing-strategy?immid=100719&imm_pid=269257632&imm_aid=a464159896&dfid=&buf=99999999&dclid=CjgKEAjw_Y_8BRDYveS0mcrKpSsSJAA2PQjBRuAxHE-ZsoTZIaJv5tdnUnJ8jAIodbn2Kh2vEA4w-PD_BwE

7. Public Companies Who Hold Bitcoin as Asset

From Nasdaq Dorsey Wright

www.dorseywright.com

8. Summary of S&P Dividend Cuts, Suspensions, And Increases.

JP Morgan Asset

https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/gim/per/insights/guide-to-the-markets/viewer

9. The huge return on investing in coronavirus tests

Felix Salmon, author of Capital

Government spending on testingand contact tracing pays for itself more than 30 times over, according to a new paper published by the American Medical Association.

What they found: Harvard economists David Cutler and Lawrence Summers (yes, that Larry Summers) calculated the total cost of the coronavirus pandemic at more than $16 trillion in the United States alone. Of that, about $7 trillion is attributable to loss of life and long-term impairment from the disease.

• Enhanced testing and tracing would cost about $6 million per 100,000 inhabitants, they calculate. Out of that population, 14 lives would be saved, on which they place a value of $96 million, and 33 critical and severe cases would be avoided, representing savings of $80 million.
• That adds up to $176 million in benefits from $6 million in costs — before taking into account any second-order effects from even fewer cases down the road.

The bottom line: “Currently, the U.S. prioritizes spending on acute treatment,” write Cutler and Summers, “with far less spending on public health services and infrastructure.”

• Going forward, they write, “a minimum of 5% of any COVID economic relief intervention should be devoted to such health measures.”

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-testing-investment-eca1e901-8cbe-4015-b77a-594e4dc6c16d.html

10. What Makes Some People More Productive Than Others

• Robert C. Pozen and Kevin Downey

Would you rate yourself as highly productive?

We’ve learned a lot about personal productivity and what makes some people more productive than others. Last year we published a survey to help professionals assess their own personal productivity — defined as the habits closely associated with accomplishing more each day. The survey focused on seven habits: developing daily routines, planning your schedule, coping with messages, getting a lot done, running effective meetings, honing communication skills, and delegating tasks to others.

After cleaning up the data, we obtained a complete set of answers from 19,957 respondents across six continents. Roughly half were residents of North America; another 21% were residents of Europe and 19% were residents of Asia. The remaining 10% was comprised of residents (in descending order) from Australia, South America, and Africa.

Our survey had its limits — for example, respondents were a self-selected sample of readers of HBR.org, and the ratings were self-assessments of habits rather than objective measures of people’s productivity. Nevertheless, we believe the survey results provide useful insights into important productivity habits and challenges facing professionals.

Three general patterns stood out: First, working longer hours does not necessarily mean higher personal productivity. Working smarter is the key to accomplishing more of your top priorities each day. Second, age and seniority were highly correlated with personal productivity — older and more senior professionals recorded higher scores than younger and more junior colleagues. Third, the overall productivity scores of male and female professionals were almost the same, but there were gender differences on particular habits that promote personal productivity.

More specifically, we found that professionals with the highest productivity scores tended to do well on the same clusters of habits. They planned their work based on their top priorities, and then acted with a definite objective. They developed effective techniques for managing a high volume of information and tasks. And they understood the needs of their colleagues — for short meetings, responsive communications, and clear directions.

Let’s go deeper into the survey results. On geography, the average productivity score for respondents from North America was in the middle of the pack, even though Americans tend to work longer hours. The North American score was significantly lower than the average productivity scores for respondents from Europe, Asia, and Australia. On the other hand, the North American score was significantly higher than the average productivity scores for residents of South America and Africa (though recall these were the areas where we had the least data).

Drilling down into the data, we found the higher productivity scores for Europe, Asia, and Australia were driven by strong habits in areas such as daily schedules, not constantly checking messages, focusing early on the final product, and thinking carefully before reading or writing.

While our survey turned up significant differences in productivity scores by continent, it showed minimal differences between the average scores of male and female respondents. Overall, the respondents were 55% male and 45% female.

Yet there were some noteworthy differences in how women and men managed to be so productive. Women tended to score particularly high when it came to running effective meetings — women were more likely than men to send out an agenda in advance, keep meetings to less than 90 minutes, and finish meetings with an agreement on next steps. Women were also more likely to say that they prepared their calendars the night before and responded promptly to important emails.

By contrast, men did particularly well when it came to coping with high message volume — not looking at their emails too frequently and skipping over the messages of low value. Men were also more likely than women to report keeping free slots in their daily schedules, getting quickly to the final product, and composing outlines before writing memos.

Beside geography and gender, we analyzed the responses to our questionnaire by age and seniority. There were five age brackets — with the most respondents in the under-30 bracket and the least in the over-60 bracket. We found that the productivity scores of respondents rose systematically the older they got. This trend seems to reflect the benefits of learning from years of experience how to work smarter. The drivers of these higher productivity scores for respondents in older age brackets were their stronger habits in four areas: developing routines for low-value activities, managing message flow, running effective meetings, and delegating tasks to others.

The story was somewhat similar when it came to seniority. There were five levels of seniority captured in the data, with 5 being the most junior and 1 being the most senior. The number of respondents was highest in the most junior level and lowest at the most senior level. As with age, the productivity scores rose systematically with successively higher levels of seniority. This may suggest that business professionals attain higher levels of seniority in part by cultivating good productivity habits (or vice versa, people become more senior and then have to become more productive). However, the drivers of higher scores for senior level respondents were different than those for older respondents. More senior respondents achieved high productivity from better planning of their schedules, getting a lot done, and stronger communication skills.

Finally, we focused on the tails in each of the four demographic categories. We defined tails to include all respondents whose total score fell outside of two standard deviations from the mean. The left tail comprised those with the lowest scores; the right tail had the highest scores. We didn’t find any geographic or gender patterns on either tail, though we saw a few of the youngest and most junior professionals in the right tail with the highest scores.

The professionals in the right tail with the highest productivity scores were particularly adept at overcoming procrastination, getting to the final product, and focusing on daily accomplishments. Low ratings on these three habits were typically reported by professionals with the lowest productivity scores. In addition, professionals in the right tail were much better at advance planning — reviewing schedules the night before, sending out meeting agendas, and setting success metrics for their teams. Professionals in the left tail had low scores on these aspects of advance planning. They also did not leave open slots in their schedules and did not use outlines before writing memos.

So what should professionals take away from the results of our survey?  If you want to become more productive, you should develop an array of specific habits.

First, plan your work based on your top priorities, and then act with a definite objective.

·         Revise your daily schedule the night before to emphasize your priorities. Next to each appointment on your calendar, jot down your objectives for it.

·         Send out a detailed agenda to all participants in advance of any meeting.

·         When embarking on large projects, sketch out preliminary conclusions as soon as possible.

·         Before reading any length material, identify your specific purpose for it.

·         Before writing anything of length, compose an outline with a logical order to help you stay on track.

Second, develop effective techniques for managing the overload of information and tasks.

·         Make daily processes, like getting dressed or eating breakfast, into routines so you don’t spend time thinking about them.

·         Leave time in your daily schedule to deal with emergencies and unplanned events.

·         Check the screens on your devices once per hour, instead of every few minutes.

·         Skip over the majority of your messages by looking at the subject and sender.

·         Break large projects into pieces and reward yourself for completing each piece.

·         Delegate to others, if feasible, tasks that do not further your top priorities.

Third, understand the needs of your colleagues for short meetings, responsive communications, and clear directions.

·         Limit the time for any meeting to 90 minutes at most, but preferably less. End every meeting by delineating the next steps and responsibility for those steps.

·         Respond right away to messages from people who are important to you.

·         To capture an audience’s attention, speak from a few notes, rather than reading a prepared text.

·         Establish clear objectives and success metrics for any team efforts.

·         To improve your team’s performance, institute procedures to prevent future mistakes, instead of playing the blame game.

A former President of Fidelity Investments, Robert C. Pozen is a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Kevin Downey is a student at MIT.

https://hbr.org/2019/03/what-makes-some-people-more-productive-than-others?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr

1. Tech Stocks by Decade.

1990’s  Tech grew+30%per year

2000’s. Negative-7%per year

2010’s Positive+20%per year

2020’s-?

1. The Emotional Investor—Market Participants Selling Stocks During the Entire Rally

Daniel Crosby, Ph.D. • 1stChief Behavioral Officer at Brinker Capital2d • 2 days ago

1. Enjoy Tonight’s VP Debate Just Don’t Let It Affect Your Portolio.

Looking back—Schwab Liz Ann Sonders

We use the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) as the proxy for U.S. stocks in the analyses below because of its longer history than the S&P 500, which wasn’t created until the late-1920s. Likely highlighted more by Democrats than Republicans is the fact that, since 1900, the stock market has performed better when Democrats sit in the White House than when its inhabitant was a Republican.

As you can see in the first two bars in the chart below, if an investor had invested $10,000 starting in 1900, but only had it in the Dow when Republicans were president, it would now be worth nearly $99k. On the other hand, that same $10,000 would have grown to nearly $430k if it was invested only when Democrats were president. Seems like an obvious decision to make then? Not so fast. That same $10,000 in 1900 would have grown to more than $4.2 million if the investor had remained in the market the entire time, regardless of which party has presidential power.

Staying Invested vs. Investing in Single Party

Source: Charles Schwab, Bloomberg, as of 10/2/2020. For illustrative purposes only. The above chart shows what a hypothetical portfolio value would be if a hypothetical investor invested $10,000 in a portfolio that tracks the Dow Jones Industrial Average on 1/1/1900 under three different scenarios: a Republican presidential administration; a Democratic presidential administration; or staying invested in the market throughout the entire period noted. Chart does not reflect effects of fees, expenses or taxes.

Election Blues: Looking at Election History for Market Guidanceby Liz Ann Sonders of Charles Schwab, 10/6/20

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/2020/10/06/election-blues-looking-at-election-history-for-market-guidance

2. Solar ETF $22 to $75 April to October.

TAN SOLAR ETF

3. Monthly Flows…U.S. Equities and Government Debt.

file:///C:/Users/mtopl/AppData/Local/Microsoft/Windows/INetCache/Content.Outlook/N6D9CFSL/SPDR%20ETF%20October%20Chart%20Pack%20-%20Final.pdf

4. 30 Year Treasury Yield.

30 year yield approaching May highs…+32% from lows.

www.stockcharts.com

5. Small Cap Value

Small cap value is trading at historical low valuation vs. S&P…..Chart showing some life….50 thru 200day to upside … But 200day still sloped downward.

www.stockcharts.com

6. Debt to Disposable Income is Lowest Since 1980

FRED CHARTS

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TDSP

7. Ray Dalio Betting on YUAN

Marketwatch-Ray Dalio

So what’s an investor to do?

Dalio said that China, where “almost everybody” is underweight, has fallen out of favor, but deserves more exposure, beginning with a diversified approach to investments in the region.

“That means to achieve the right kind of balance of assets in China,” he told CNBC. “Our approach is, we call it all-weather approach, it’s a certain balance in which you achieve balance without lowering the expected return. From that, you want to make the tactical moves.”

The Chinese yuan CNHUSD, 0.00%, he explained, could see greater usage outside the country as weaker global economies weigh on the the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.08% and other major reserve currencies. Dalio said that China’s interest rates are attractive, and the development of capital markets in the region has strengthened the yuan.

“You’ll see more of the internalization of the [yuan], and it’s a natural consequence because as the dollar and the major reserve currencies are having the challenges that we are talking about, some element of void will be there,” he said. “But first… get the exposure.”

Think your nest egg is safe sitting in cash? Think again — billionaire investor explains where some of that money should go instead

By 

Shawn Langlois

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/think-your-nest-egg-is-safe-sitting-in-cash-think-again-billionaire-investor-explains-where-some-of-that-money-should-go-instead-11602081310?mod=home-page

CYB-Yuan ETF

www.stockcharts.com

8. Travlers in China Back to 80% of Pre-Covid Levels.

Half a Billion Travelers Show China’s Economy Moving Past Covid

Travelers rise to nearly 80% of 2019 level but spending lags

Biggest holiday week since January will test China’s recovery

Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it’s going next.

Hotel prices shot up, ride-hailing apps crashed, tickets to the Great Wall sold out: after more than nine long, housebound months, almost half a billion Chinese people are taking a vacation.

With the Covid-19 pandemic largely under control in China, the Golden Week holiday is putting on display the country’s confidence in its economic rebound and its public health measures. Through the first four days of the week-long holiday that started Oct. 1, some 425 million people traveled domestically, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, nearly 80% of last year’s throngs.

The surge of activity stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world — the global tourism industry is expected to lose at least $1.2 trillion in 2020 — and underscores the relative strength of China’s economic recovery. As of September, the OECD forecast a 1.8% expansion this year, putting China alone among the Group of 20 on pace to expand.

That positive outlook assumes the country can avoid another wave of coronavirus and the aggressive lockdowns China’s used to quash it. As millions crisscross the country during the holiday that marks the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, no virus tests or quarantines required, the risks grow. Late last month, China opened its borders to foreign nationals holding valid residence permits.

“There is undoubtedly a risk in allowing mass tourism to resume and, in some ways, this is an early exercise in what the rest of the world will have to go through as global travel restarts next year,” said Nicholas Thomas, associate professor in health security at the City University of Hong Kong.

China hasn’t reported any local virus infections since Aug. 15, though it found two asymptomatic cases in late September, and the government has eased almost all of its peak-Covid travel restrictions. The ban on group tours was lifted in the middle of July, every district in every city has been designated ‘low-risk,’ and coronavirus test results are no longer required for cross-province travel.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-05/half-a-billion-travelers-show-china-s-economy-moving-past-covid?srnd=premium&sref=GGda9y2L

Found at Crossing Wall Street  https://www.crossingwallstreet.com/

9. What Is Precision Farming, And Who Are The Players To Watch?

Chris Versace

Lenore Elle Hawkins

Food is perhaps the best known consumable product, and the economic laws of supply and demand are pointing to an emerging pain point unlike any we have seen in recent history. To combat this looming problem, the agriculture industry is embracing technology, much of which is similar to that housed inside the smartphones we use today, giving rise to the precision agriculture market.

The problem

The current average life expectancy in the U.S. stands at 78.8 years according to a National Center for Health Statistics, which was on par with the 78.6 years in Europe reported as of 2019. By comparison, historical data from the United Nations reveals life expectancy in 1950 was 65 years in more developed regions of the world and 42 in less developed ones. The increase is driven by several factors, including a healthier lifestyle, which in and of itself has been found to add up 6.3 years for males and 7.6 years for women, according to findings from the UK Biobank.

At the same time, the United Nation’s Population Division expects the global population to hit 10.9 billion by the end of the current century compared to 7.8 billion in 2020. Rising disposable incomes among the growing population is fostering greater demand for complex proteins. More people living longer poses a challenge to the nutritious diet aspect of that healthier lifestyle, given that arable land per person is shrinking.

According to the FAO, arable land per person stood at 0.23 hectares (ha), down from 0.38 ha in 1970 and is expected to fall to 0.15 ha per person by 2050. We at Tematica describe that situation as a pain point, and pain points tend to give rise to solutions. In this case, it means we need to make better use of our existing farmlands, and that has prompted farmers to adopt technology to boost yields while helping to manage costs.

This wave of technology-meets-farming has given rise to the precision agriculture market, which is expected to reach $12.9 billion by 2027, according to Grand View Research, up from $9.65 billion in 2019.

What is Precision Agriculture?

According to the International Society of Precision Agriculture, “Precision agriculture is a management strategy that gathers, processes and analyzes temporal, spatial and individual data and combines it with other information to support management decisions according to estimated variability for improved resource use efficiency, productivity, quality, profitability and sustainability of agricultural production.”

In other words, it is about using high-tech tools to generate greater yield with less resources while minimizing any potential harm.

Just how important is this? The World Economic Forum estimates that if just 15% to 25% or farms were to adopt precision agriculture techniques, global crop yield could increase by 10% to 15% by 2030 while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions and water use by 10% and 20% respectively.

That sounds great, but do we really need to do this?

Soil today is eroding up to 100 times more quickly than it forms. Some research indicates that we may have already lost more than one-third of the planet’s arable land. Even more concerning, if the current rates of soil degradation continues, the remaining arable land could become unfarmable in the next 60 years.

How does precision agriculture help?

The market that would become precision agriculture started in the 1990s with the adoption of GPS that allowed farmers to gather data and steer equipment automatically. While it may seem somewhat pedestrian in today’s connected world, GPS tractor guidance helped farmers to improve crop production by reducing overlaps and gaps when planting, fertilizing, and protecting crops. Over the last two decades technological developments including telematics, robotics, automated hardware, agriculture drones, and variable rate technology have expanded precision agriculture to include equipment guidance and automatic steering, yield monitoring, variable rate input application, remote sensing, in-field electronic sensors, section and row control on planters, sprayers and fertilizer applicators, and spatial data management systems.

Much like we have seen technology enable a host of new applications such as video conferencing and streaming video that has altered how we work and play, technology has expanded the capabilities of precision agriculture as well:

• Choosing suitable crops with higher yields and more lucrative markets
• Measure the performance of the site by automatically capturing relevant data
• Increasing the farm’s economic and environmental sustainability
• Predicting climate changes and reacting to them proactively

Existing as well as up and coming precision agriculture players to watch

Companies participating in the precision agriculture market include agriculture equipment companies such as John Deere (DE), AGCO (AGCO), CNH Industrial (CNHI), and Kubota Corp. (KUBTY) and even drone company Aerovironment (AVAV). There are also the technology enablers that include GPS companies such as Trimble (TRMB) and the applied technology business at Raven Industries (RAVN) as well as the chip and sensor companies that range from NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) to STMicroelectronics (STM) that serve the “smart farming” market.

As a confluence of factors have raised concerns over the long-term future availability of food, venture investors have been pouring capital into agtech startups. In 2019 alone, they invested $2.8 billion into the space across the globe, a fourfold increase over 2015. According to the 2019 AgriFood Tech Investment Review, investment in digital technologies (which combines the independent sectors of imagery, precision agriculture and sensors and farm equipment) made up about 41% of 2019 deal activity.

Some examples of these investments are Farmobile and its DataEngine that ingests and standardizes farming data so that it can be shared and used to create insights; Trace Genomics that provides soil DNA sequencing services to farmers and agronomists; and CiBo Technologies that allows farmers to create “virtual fields” with real-world inputs.

With greater adoption of artificial intelligence, big data, and the internet of things in the coming years we strongly suspect there will be new applications and further advances for precision farming, much like we’ve witnessed with the smartphone and the automobile of today compared to ten years ago.

Disclosures

• AGCO Corp. (AGCO), Deere & Co. (DE), Raven Industries (RAVN) are constituents in the Foxberry Tematica Research Sustainable Future of Food Index

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/what-is-precision-farming-and-who-are-the-players-to-watch-2020-10-07

10. Nine Lessons from the Corner Office-Thrive Global

After three decades as a CEO in various organizations there are definitely distinct lessons I’ve learned.

The Thrive Global Community welcomes voices from many spheres. We publish pieces written by outside contributors with a wide range of opinions, which don’t necessarily reflect our own. Community stories are not commissioned by our editorial team, and though they are reviewed for adherence to our guidelines, they are submitted in their final form to our open platform. Learn more or join us as a community member!

By 

·         Mary Lee Gannon, ACC, CAE at The Ladders

After three decades as a CEO in various organizations there are definitely distinct lessons I’ve learned.

1. When we focus on what we have to give instead of what we get we realize our value.

Why should someone work with, do business with, hire you, or spend time with you? And why now? If you can’t answer these questions your constituents won’t know either. What makes you distinctive? What do your employees need from you to thrive in their roles? What do your customers need that they haven’t even realized yet? This probing leads to a solid value proposition that gives you fulfillment and can be communicated in your messaging.

Don’t wait for a crisis to probe for opportunity. Anticipate the needs of others, how you will uniquely meet those needs and you stand alone.

2. When we are curious and compassionate, we become servant leaders instead of command and control tyrants.

We all know leaders whose direct reports fear them. And we know leaders who are revered. Your leadership starts with an open awareness of yourself and a dedication to improve – improve yourself, improve the work experience for others, improve the products and services you offer, improve the financial stability of your organization. This service mindset requires a mindful acceptance of yourself without judgment followed by a curious mindset.

Ask questions without making assumptions. That creates space for honesty and humility while dismissing the need for perfection. Your team wants to know that you struggle with the same things they do. It is relatable to be human.

3. There is power in having your boss’s back. Find a way to do that or go somewhere you can. Don’t stay and poison yourself and the culture.

Don’t be a victim or a toxin. It strips your executive presence, stagnates your career and is weak. If you are unhappy in your role you have three choices: 1) Find another position and leave. Make sure the problem is not your perspective which you will carry with you to a new role and still be unhappy; 2) Stay where you are, shift your perspective and focus not on office politics but where you can find fulfillment in new responsibilities; 3) Leave and go somewhere more in alignment with your values. It will take you a while to achieve the level where you are now but accept that if this choice fulfills you. Don’t do what complainers do – quit and stay.

4. Good people leave organizations because of bad managers who don’t position them to learn and advance. Mediocre people leave organizations for $1 more an hour, free lunch and a pool table in the break room.

Organizations are acutely aware of onboarding costs for new employees. Retention has become one of the most important focuses for corporate human resources departments. Most major consulting companies and large organizations have created elaborate coaching programs, scheduled feedback systems and shadowing arrangements to retain and position top talent. Benefits packages have become less important than the skill of leadership in recognizing the unique aptitude of each individual and positioning them with professional development opportunities that interest them.

5. ‘A’ people hire ‘A’ people, ask for their insight, and get out of their way. ‘B’ people hire ‘C’ people and micromanage them.

Leaders sometimes get caught in the trap of thinking they must understand everything everyone is doing. Not so. Hire people who have your weaknesses as their strengths. Then allow them to create. Ask questions to understand and challenge their perspective. Never feel threatened by them. If their posturing creates insecurity, coach around that to help them understand the effects of their behavior.

6. Emotional leaders hardly ever advance. Practice a good poker face.

Self-management is essential for a high performing leader. It starts with self-awareness and self-acceptance. Mindful daily practices that keep you in the moment such as meditation, deep breathing, creative projects, help to increase your awareness of your thoughts and your power over them. The goal is to increase the space between when you feel an emotion and act on it so that the choice is not to react but to remain calm, think through the assumption behind the emotion and release it.

7. Narcissistic leaders thrive on keeping their teams in chaos and fear so that nobody notices their ineptness. Stay off their radar screen by making sure they know you have their back, giving them all the glory and presenting your work with confidence so they can trust it. Then work on your exit strategy. Things will not get better.

It is no mystery how narcissistic leaders rise to power. They are charismatic, have certainty and people trust their confidence. Yet they lack integrity, a moral compass, and any semblance of collaboration or compassion. This makes them dangerous. You know you are dealing with a narcissistic leader if you liked them at first but something in your gut tells you that you can’t trust them. You feel as if you must be overly cautious in what you say and do. Over time you find that you are questioning your own relevance around them because they are more of a dictator than a seeker of alignment. Pacify them with complete honesty, good work, relevance, and trust. Then move on.

8. When we can look ourselves in the eye and not expect to be perfect, we give ourselves room to be human and walk in the shoes of others. When we try on a lot of different shoes, we become grateful that they are not all the same size.

Perfectionism kills careers. Done is better than perfect. Humility trumps being right. Humanity is diverse. And diversity adds perspective. Perspective only brings value when we hear it. We can’t hear it if it isn’t in the room. We won’t apply new ideas if we are married to the assumption that change compromises our own security. What we believed yesterday need not be what we carry forward today. The agile leader with grit who can adapt mid cycle opens to opportunity. The stuck leader stagnates and loses ground.   

9. Executive presence is the ability to observe yourself from a third-party perspective and admire what you see.

The single biggest reason people don’t advance in their careers is because they feel they are not worthy – they don’t belong. Coincidentally, the single biggest reason people are unhappy is because they feel they are not worthy and don’t belong. So, to counter this achievers often misguidedly spend time and energy on the treadmill to nowhere working harder, reading self-help books, updating their resumes, firing off online applications, taking classes, only to find that nothing changes except now they are exhausted. Seeking fulfillment externally on issues that are internally motivated is not productive. Executive presence and confidence expand when we challenge our internal assumptions against what is actually true about ourselves. Here we begin to align with our values. There is much there to admire when the dust of business settles and the brilliance of clarity appears.    

For more executive presence tips here is a link to Mary Lee’s 31 Executive Presence Practices for Leaders in the Corporate World.

Mary Lee Gannon, ACC, CAE has a unique perspective as an award winning certified executive coach, author and 19-year corporate CEO who helps leaders have more effective careers, happier lives and better relationships while it still matters. She is the founder of MaryLeeGannon.com, a coaching and consulting firm that helps leaders position their mindful impact – the same impact that took her from welfare to CEO of organizations worth up to $26 million. Schedule a call or get her free leadership tools at MaryLeeGannon.com

— Published on October 6, 2020

https://thriveglobal.com/stories/nine-lessons-from-the-corner-office/

Disclosure

Lansing Street Advisors is a registered investment adviser with the State of Pennsylvania..
To the extent that content includes references to securities, those references do not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold such security as information is provided for educational purposes only. Articles should not be considered investment advice and the information contain within should not be relied upon in assessing whether or not to invest in any securities or asset classes mentioned. Articles have been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. Securities discussed may not be suitable for all investors. Please keep in mind that a company’s past financial performance, including the performance of its share price, does not guarantee future results.
Material compiled by Lansing Street Advisors is based on publicly available data at the time of compilation. Lansing Street Advisors makes no warranties or representation of any kind relating to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the data and shall not have liability for any damages of any kind relating to the use such data.
Material for market review represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results.
Indices that may be included herein are unmanaged indices and one cannot directly invest in an index. Index returns do not reflect the impact of any management fees, transaction costs or expenses. The index information included herein is for illustrative purposes only.

1. Video Gamers Since 2001 Launch….+1600% vs. S&P 330%

Videogame Stocks Have Soared for 20 Years. They’re About to Get Another Boost.By Max A. Cherney

https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-are-a-huge-deal-for-gamers-heres-what-it-means-for-investors-51601682443?mod=past_editions

2. Average Short Interest By Sector

Nasdaq Dorsey Wright  www.dorseywright.com

3. MLP ETF Still -50% From Highs.

AMLP 2020

www.stockcharts.com

4. More Oil Companies Likely to Come Out of S&P

LizAnnnotes Given persistent weakness in certain sectors, a growing number of companies are at risk of rebalancing out of S&P 500 due to shrinking market caps …6.3% & 6.2% of Real Estate & Energy members, respectively, may drop out

From Dave Lutz at Jones Trading

5. Last 10 Years…Naz 100 Volatility Not Higher Than S&P

https://indexes.nasdaqomx.com/docs/NDX_Fundamentals.pdf

6. More Dry Powder….Record Large 3Y Treasury Auction Tails As Yield Rises From All Time Low

by Tyler Durden

Tue, 10/06/2020 – 13:19

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After three consecutive record-large 3Y Treasury auctions, which also priced at progressively (record) lower yields, moments ago the Treasury sold another record amount of 3Y paper, when it auctioned off $52BN, up $2BN from $50BN a month ago, but in a notable reversal from the recent trend, the yield on today’s auction was 0.193%, which not only tailed the 0.191% When Issued by 0.2bps, but was the first 3Y auction since June that did not price at a new all time low yield, printing 2.3bps higher than the 0.17% in September.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/record-large-3y-treasury-auction-tails-yield-rises-all-time-low

7. College Covid Map 70,000 Cases—3 Hospitalizations.

@drsimonegold

Out of 70,000+ positive reported COVID-19 cases on Universities: 3 hospitalizations 0 deaths

https://twitter.com/drsimonegold/status/1313199258393145344/photo/1

8. Passenger Airlines Turn To Cargo Delivery?

LOGISTICSAirline Industry Faces Cargo ShortsFrancis ScialabbaIf you’ve been seeing a lot more of those weird-looking planes with big foreheads and no windows at the airport, that’s because demand for airplane cargo space is sky-high.It starts with vaccines According to the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), providing a single dose to the world’s 7.8 billion people would require 8,000 fully filled 747 cargo planes, which…is a problem considering there are fewer than one thousand 747 freighters on the planet, according to the IATA’s head of cargo Glyn Hughes.Plus, vaccines are fragile. They don’t care much about legroom, but the majority of vaccines in development need to be kept at a constant, near-freezing temperature to prevent spoiling. UPS and Lufthansa have been building massive “freezer farms” to prepare, though experts in the pharma industry still expect up to a 20% spoilage rate. Santa might be late, tooThe soon-to-be-released iPhones, Sony’s new PlayStation 5, and Amazon’s Prime Day items are all set to be shipped via cargo planes in the coming holiday shopping period. “We’re planning for the mother of all peaks,” the president of FedEx’s express division told investors in September.Many commercial airlines have retrofitted aircraft to 1) meet cargo demand and 2) keep their businesses afloat during a period of historically low passenger traffic. Still, it was new territory for many legacy carriers. American Airlines was flying nearly 140 all-cargo trips per week early in the pandemic, after flying zero such trips in the past three decades. Bottom line: This isn’t the cargo industry’s first mile-high rodeo—shipping pharma products has been a fast-growing and profitable line of business for carriers over the past 10 years. But the busy holiday season + vaccine distribution + fewer flights will push it to the limit.

Morning Brew https://www.morningbrew.com/

9. Venice holds back the water for first time in 1,200 years

Julia Buckley, CNN • Published 5th October 2020

1/7

Flood barrier: The MOSE Experimental Electromechanical Module protects the city of Venice from floods. Pictured October 3, the last mobile gate is about to be lifted at the Malamocco inlet off Venice’s Lido.

ANDREA PATTARO/AFP via Getty Images

Venice, Italy (CNN) — Sebastian Fagarazzi is used to moving his belongings around. As a Venetian who lives on the ground floor, every time the city faces acqua alta — the regular flooding caused by high tides — he must raise everything off the floor, including furniture and appliances, or risk losing it.

But on October 3, with a 135-centimeter (53-inch) high tide forecast — which would normally see around half the city under various levels of water — when the flood sirens went off, he did nothing. “I had faith,” he says.

Saturday was the first acqua alta of the season for Venice. It was also the day when, after decades of delays, controversy and corruption, the city finally trialled its long-awaited flood barriers against the tide.

Content by GlobeIn

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GlobeIn is a subscription service for ethically sourced artisan goods from around the world, kind of like a club for the world traveler who can’t make their annual trek this year.

A previous trial in July, overseen by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, had gone well — but that was in good weather, at low tide. Earlier trials had not managed to raise all 78 gates in the barriers that have been installed in the Venetian lagoon.

Against all the odds, it worked.

At 12.05 p.m., high tide, St Mark’s Square — which starts flooding at just 90 centimeters, and should have been knee-deep — was pretty much dry, with only large puddles welling up around the drains.

The square’s cafes and shops, which often have to close for hours on end, remained open.

And in the northern district of Cannaregio, Sebastian Fagarazzi’s home stayed dry.

“I’d heard the [warning] sirens in the morning but I didn’t raise any of my furniture this time because the barrier lifted on the last test, and I had faith that it would work,” Fagarazzi, co-founder of social initiative Venezia Autentica, says. “This is historic.”

The defense system is called MOSE, the Italian for Moses, a name derived from the more functional Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico, meaning Experimental Electromechanical Module. It consists of 78 flood barriers installed in the seabed at the lagoon’s three main entrance points.

When the high tide arrives, they can rise to form a dam, stopping the Adriatic Sea surging into the lagoon and flooding the city.

Delays and corruption

The new flood barrier in action at the Malamocco inlet off Venice’s Lido.

ANDREA PATTARO/AFP via Getty Images

Venice’s acque alte (“high waters”) are normally seen between October and March, and last a couple of hours, predominantly affecting the two lowest (and most visited) areas of the city: San Marco and the area around the Rialto. The phenomenon is usually caused by a combination of exceptionally high tides, low atmospheric pressure and the presence of a southern sirocco wind.

In recent years, their frequency and severity have been increasing due to climate change. On November 12, 2019, the city was devastated by an acqua alta that reached 187 centimeters, with almost 90% of the city flooding. Businesses have struggled to recover since, with a sharp dip in tourist numbers on top of damage costs. The destruction, followed by the pandemic, has brought locals to their knees.

The MOSE project has been in the works since 1984, but has been so beset by delays and corruption that many Venetians never believed it would work.

Deserted Venice contemplates a future without tourist hordes after Covid-19

“It doesn’t seem true,” says Serena Nalon, at the Bottega del Mondo shop in Cannaregio. Her business — a fair trade co-operative — suffered major damages in last year’s floods.

“I was very skeptical — not least because they’ve spent so much money, without any result until now, so this morning I had minimal expectations,” she says.

“I was worried when I saw the tide predictions, then somewhere between incredulous and happy when it worked. You appreciate things more when you don’t expect it.”

Nearby, Federica Michielan, owner of bar Ae Bricoe, felt the same. “It’s great — it’s finally been resolved,” she says. “At least, I hope it has, because if it breaks, we’ll be under water.”

‘Historic day’

A test in poor weather conditions had been the next step for the MOSE, which is not yet completed. And on Friday, when a full moon and high winds were predicted for the following morning, the city council asked permission to raise the barriers.

The usual flood sirens rang throughout the city at around 8 a.m. Saturday, while the test started half an hour later. By 10.10, the barriers were fully raised — and while the water level rose to 132 centimeters outside the MOSE, inside the lagoon, it remained at 70 centimeters — enough to keep San Marco dry.

“This was a historic day for Venice,” Mayor Luigi Brugnaro, who had watched the raising of the barriers with MOSE special commissioner Elisabetta Spitz, later told journalists.

“There’s a huge satisfaction, having spent decades watching helplessly as the water arrived everywhere in the city, causing vast amounts of damage.

“We have shown, not only with a tide that would have flooded the city but also with a sirocco wind of 19 knots, that it works.”

In the city, Venetians — many of whom had barricaded their property against the incoming water — could hardly believe their luck. At El Fornareto bakery in Cannaregio, locals grinned as they queued for bread in sneakers instead of the gumboots they’d usually be wearing. In the church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in the southern Dorsoduro district — which normally floods at 130 centimeters — the priest, don Paolo Bellio even referred to the success in his evening sermon.

“Today we were saved,” he said afterward. “We didn’t have to use the pumps. It was a surprise, but I’m happy it worked — especially as it has been so criticized. This is a day of joy for everyone.”

Calling it a “clear success,” commissioner Spitz underlined on Saturday that this is “only a fundamental step towards protecting the city and the lagoon.” The project — which also involves raising pavements in the lowest areas of the city to 110 centimeters, and permanent defense walls near the flood barriers — is due to be completed December 2021, when it will be handed over to the city.

Until then, it has been agreed that from now on, the barrier will be raised each time the tide hits 130 centimeters, meaning devastating floods such as last year’s should be a thing of the past (at least, in the medium term. Climate change means MOSE will not hold back the water indefinitely). However, once the city takes over, the barriers will go up earlier, at 110 centimeters.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/venice-flood-barrier/index.html

10. Six Ways Great Leaders Give Rise to Great Ideas

By John C. Maxwell | September 29, 2020 | 0 

If you desire to be a great leader, then you need to learn to recognize and promote the best ideas no matter where or from whom they’re coming—man or woman, young or old, black, white, upside down or inside out.

Ideas are the lifeblood of an organization. Harvey Firestone, who founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, said, “Capital isn’t so important to business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both of those. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.”

The progress and innovations of great organizations don’t come down from on high. Their creative sessions are not dominated by top-down leaders, nor does every meeting become a wrestling match to see who can dominate everyone else in a struggle to take credit. People come together as teams, peers work together, and they make progress because they want the best idea to win.

How does a great leader help create and surface the best ideas from his or her team?
I believe there are a few common ways.

1. Listen to all ideas.

Finding good ideas begins with an open-minded willingness to listen to all ideas. Mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said, “Almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced.”

During the brainstorming process, shutting down any ideas might prevent you from discovering the good ones. Group thinking (not to be confused with groupthink) can be such a positive: When we share our thinking among a group, we think faster, more innovatively and our thinking has greater value. Great thinking comes when good thoughts are shaped in a collaborative environment.

2. Never settle for just one idea.

Leaders can be so action oriented. They want to go. They want to make something happen. They want to take the hill! The problem comes when they fight their way to the top of the hill, only to find that it was the wrong hill.

One idea is never enough. Many ideas make us stronger. I once heard an analyst say he believed the reason the communist bloc fell at the end of the 20th century is because communism is built on only one idea. If anyone tried to do things a different way, they were knocked down or shipped out. In contrast, democracy is a system based on a multitude of ideas. Because of that freedom, in democratic countries creativity is high, opportunities are unlimited and the potential for growth is astounding.

3. Look in unusual places for ideas.

Good leaders are always searching for the next big thing. They cultivate their attentiveness and practice it as a regular discipline. As they read magazines, watch movies, enjoy leisure activities or engage with their colleagues, they are always on the lookout for ideas or practices they can use to improve their work and their leadership.

4. Don’t let personality overshadow purpose.

When someone you don’t like or respect suggests something, what is your first reaction? I bet it’s to dismiss it. You’ve heard the phrase, “Consider the source.” That’s not a bad thing to do, but if you’re not careful, you may very likely throw out the good with the bad.

Don’t let the personality of someone you work with cause you to lose sight of the greater purpose, which is to add value to the team and advance the organization. Set aside your pride and listen.

5. Protect creative people and their ideas.

Ideas are such fragile things when they first come to light. Advertising executive Charlie Brower says a new idea “can be killed by a sneer or a yawn… stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown.”

If you desire the best idea to win, then become a champion of creative people and their contributions to your organization. When you discover peers who are creative, promote them, encourage them, and protect them. Pragmatic people often shoot down the ideas of creative people—the very people who need to thrive and keep generating ideas for the benefit of the team.

6. Don’t take rejection of your own idea personally.

When your ideas are not received well by others, stop competing and focus your energy on creating. You will open the way for people around you to take their creativity to the next level.

I know that my ideas aren’t always the best ideas. I often think they are, but when everyone in the room has a different opinion, it pays to listen. The company owner doesn’t need to win—the best idea does.

* * *

Never forget that having a collaborative spirit helps the entire organization. When you think it terms of our idea instead of my idea or her idea, you’re probably on track to helping the team win.

That should be your motivation. Let the best idea win, and you will reap the rewards together.

Disclosure

Lansing Street Advisors is a registered investment adviser with the State of Pennsylvania..
To the extent that content includes references to securities, those references do not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy, sell or hold such security as information is provided for educational purposes only. Articles should not be considered investment advice and the information contain within should not be relied upon in assessing whether or not to invest in any securities or asset classes mentioned. Articles have been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. Securities discussed may not be suitable for all investors. Please keep in mind that a company’s past financial performance, including the performance of its share price, does not guarantee future results.
Material compiled by Lansing Street Advisors is based on publicly available data at the time of compilation. Lansing Street Advisors makes no warranties or representation of any kind relating to the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the data and shall not have liability for any damages of any kind relating to the use such data.
Material for market review represents an assessment of the market environment at a specific point in time and is not intended to be a forecast of future events, or a guarantee of future results.
Indices that may be included herein are unmanaged indices and one cannot directly invest in an index. Index returns do not reflect the impact of any management fees, transaction costs or expenses. The index information included herein is for illustrative purposes only.

1. IPO Market 12 Month Rate of Change 2020 +86% vs. 1999  +325%

Reformed Broker Josh Brown Blog

I’m showing you a chart below that Ari Wald at Oppenheimer just put out, I think it’s a good way of viewing the difference between IPO performance in this era, versus that era. One of my guests from the podcast was Kathleen Smith, whose firm Renaissance Capital is actually the sponsor of the ETF Ari is looking at here:

Here’s Ari’s take (bold is me):