Who is Realistic?

I hate myself for jumping from FOREX to self -introspection topic for this week but could not resist my emotions on my self awareness.I have been reading couple of books (The Corner Office, Ahead of the Curve etc..) and so far very impressed with some of the key facts and real-life instances expressed by the authors. The facts have made me to think more critically about myself. I am not very sure if it helps in the long run but for now bringing the much needed clarity in my goals and aspirations.

The very fact that most of the successful people have gone through a reality test early in their life leads to a little delusion about success in the later half of the life. I thought that i have gone through the phase of reality-test in my life when i was a young boy - yes, the world was not easy then for me. The very feeling of looking at my parents struggle to feed me and put me in a school was draining ,the feeling of being deserted among the rich friends in school and the embarrassment of poorness in the face were all the good reasons for me to strive for success in every aspect of life. Now, after establishing myself in a very respectable position with the memories waning, the reality check is again questioned.

The book along with one of the articles i read lately brought me back the memories live in my mind and gave the energy to understand and correct myself where needed. I would like to list out some of my observations which could be of great use to many who are sharing similar mindset.

Battle-Hardened confidence: Fight for it guys!! Nothing comes easy and Nothing even stays if you don't fight for it.

Delusion of Success: Stay away from it.

Publicly Critical: Stop lamenting about your success and how smart you are.

Accept Failures: Winning always is not an option.


All said, i am going to grab a coffee and start working!!!

Go for ForEX

I am writing here after a long time. Its more than 6 months and definitely quite a long time for a avid blog follower and a scribbler. All these days, i have been very busy hiding and keeping up with my work but very vigilant about the stock market and all the UPs and DOWNs it goes through effortlessly sweeping the stakes of speculative crowd. One fact to be understood and believed is, the game of Stock market and money by trading is not easy for individuals in the current market and a challenge even for the institutions.

So, i was trying to cut the corners and steal the thunder from others by jumping in to ForEX. I did so a couple of months back and though did not get rewarded heavily but felt confident to stay in the game. I am going to keep this blog for the novice crowd and not add any tech mumbo-jumbo in to this.

First, ForEX according to me is simple since the Currencies you trade are limited.
Every currency is almost paried up with USD. so if you are going LONG on USD just be sure that the market data and the FED news backs you up, else go SHORT on USD.

Then comes the important reason why i would like to trade currencies is the trading is open for 24 hours, which is of great use if you are a working professional and doing parttime trading. The trading session is open from Sunday 5 PM EST to Friday 5 PM EST (Not the timings are EST- North America).

Since there are few currency pairs, you get a good amount of time to analyze and invest in them. Also, identifying a global trend is quite easy if you follow the right journals.Few currency pairs would be ideal for long term investments.

Some of the terms that you should be aware and would be if you are already in the trading world
PIPS
PAIRS
BID
ASK
SPREAD
LONG
SHORT SELL
MARGIN CALL
ROLLOVER


Major Currencies to be noted are

GREENBACK(USD)
EURO(EUR)
POUND(GBP)
AUSSIE(AUD)
KIWI(NZD)
Canadian(CAD)

Now, i am going to bring in some concepts which would be the fundamentals for Forex trading. Though i am not going to lay it out in detail, it gives you some heads up to go and explore further.
Trade Flows in and Out of a Country/Currency pair being traded
Capital Flows
Interest Rates held by the Central bank of the country (FED for US and ECB for POUND)
Inflation and CPI(consumer price Index) of the country
Geo-Political events that can have a impact
Non-farm Payrolls.


As Gordon Gekko says "Greed is good" and i am running down the same path. I am not going to say that i am right but "Think what you wish for"!!!

Till i get back, happy trading folks!!!

Start yourself here!!
www.babypips.com

Why Facebook is a success?

I always have this question in my mind. Why Facebook is more successful than Orkut or MySpace? What does it have in it to attract more crowd than what Orkut did? Is it just because Facebook had better marketing, better timing, may be really better features or something which the management theories can't explain.

I have my own reasons for Facebook to be better than either of them.

Yes Myspace was definitely more buggy than Facebook. Facebook is very smooth and easy to use.Some features that makes facebook stand out are
Clean layout
Less advertisements
Popular games
Better privacy
Ahead of the curve.
This gives some reasons why Myspace didn't gain much audience like facebook.


Lets now compare Orkut and Facebook. Definitely Orkut is a worthy competitor than MySpace. Orkut has a better share outside U.S and as i am writing this today ,"Facebook overtook Orkut in India with 21 million against 20 million users". But Facebook is picking up more steam than Orkut does and its hard to see why Google could not get a hold in Social networking ideas.
I personally see Facebook having much better professional layout than Orkut. The Facebook's mini feed feature is very interesting. The new Facebook places is going to be a real challenge for Orkut.Some of the usability features like searching friends and drag and drop features are quite impressive. Even orkut have some features which i don'd find in Facebook like "viewing anyone's profile" and "Knowing No of times some one visiting your profile". Still these doesn't stand out much and the new applications developed around Facebook have much value addition than anything that's available in Orkut.

Though i feel sometimes that Facebook takes away the personal touch, it still pays me back with new friends and making me stuck with my iphone more than what i used to be...


People need change and may be there's a new Facebook in making in some corner of the world!!!

I like chubbybrain.com

I keep browsing with the hope that someday an awesome idea will strike me and i will make a Google out of it. I had something in my mind about linking a business creator (startup) with a VC and thought there is no such venture. But i came across this one through one of the Linked In profiles "www.chubbybrain.com".

To my surprise it was not just a premature site and had almost 30k startups in its inventory.I really liked the overall way the site was built and how it inspires even normal people to feed their inputs into the site. Start up comparison is a very cool feature that i was impressed with. Let's say if couple of startups like to go public and if you want to invest on one of them, the comparison feature can give you some real insight about the past performances, capital investment, market exposure, profit predictions etc...I am not sure how they do startup certification. I wish i could know what is the process behind it. Unfortunately i don't have one to get certified.


I am not sure about the exposure of this site in the startup arena. May be Silicon valley is but the Indian entrepreneurs should tap on this and try to lure some investments from VCs. For them its all about brilliant ideas and bright business models. If you can justify yours these kind of platforms can be well utilized. I tried even adding one of my friend's startup in this. I am waiting for some feedback to understand how it approves and evaluate a startup.


Certainly this venture was a needed one and my only frustration would be that the ideas that come to me are already in existence. I pity myself!!!

Business- Is it by Skill or by Luck?

I always keep wondering why there is less people who want to start a business and manywho just want to get employed and be happy. Is this a normal human thought process or the social values that the society instills keeps you complacent of what you are? Having said this, i keep looking at everyone's approach silently for their penchant towards business ideas. Many engage in great conversations when you provoke them by telling the fruits of a successful business but hardly they get to the next step of doing anything.

Well, you could ask me, how about you? Unfortunately, i need to accept the fact that i myself has never been a successful entrepreneur. But i keep experimenting with my ideas like many does.

So i keep checking about successful businessmen and their strategies. I found much depends on

• Business starting period
• Kind of Business
• Society in which you live
• Educational background of the consumers
• Economic strength of the country
• Cultural facets

So if some one understands these factors would have made more sensible decisions.

Is Staffing a Business?

I always try to understand why there are swarms of companies which call themselves Staffing firms when hardly they do anything more than body shopping. I have nothing against the business model but i don't see a value to the society or the economy as such. Is this just Capitalism to the core where business means money and nothing more? This would make more sense for those who are in someway or other being impacted by this industry.

Scenario: Manager need a position and informs one staffing firm with a requirement. The message spreads to hundreds of staffing firms but the requirement becomes from 1 page to one word requirement. Finally 10 resumes are sent which is not even the closest match. Manager has no time to screen more people and picks one among this unfit 10.

This is what happens in most cases and this is why the value of consulting and the efficiency of the industry is going down day by day. I am not sure why this model is being encouraged and supported by the management and the government.

I wish i have an alternative when i write about it but there is not much that i can write down here as a solution. Having wrote down the problem, i know i will think of a solution or some one will after reading this.

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