Forbes: Colorblind Secrets Your Colleagues Won't Tell You

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It never ceases to amaze me how unaware many colleagues are about a very common affliction: colorblindness. I have it. So does Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, according to a report in the New Yorker and others.

Here’s what you need to know.

We can see colors. Total inability to see color is very rare. What we do see isn’t the same as what you see. For instance, the color red is less vibrant for me. But, there are some things I’ll be able to see better than you, like certain camouflage patterns. Seeing the world in a different way can be an advantage.

Your color presentation is incomprehensible. This is especially so when it is full of charts with seven shades of pastel colored lines. All the lines are indistinguishable. My bank does similar with a pie chart of my investments: brown, green, red, beige, and black. It’s so confusing to look at that it’s meaningless. The consultant recommendations on what colors are best for presentations are probably wrong. Go with grayscale instead, unless you want to confuse us.

Read more here.

Forbes: What Trump Brings To The Table

By SIMON CONSTABLE

If you really want change then you need to do something different. That’s more or less what Einstein said and it applies as much to Washington politics as it does to science.

Americans seem to want change from their politicians. But then when someone turns up with the capabilities to do so many people throw up their arms in horror. I write of course about presidential candidate and billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump who is doing a superb job of shaking up the establishment.

Here are some reasons to embrace him, or if not him then someone with some of his positive qualities.

Yes, he is brash and slightly crass at times. But he is a New Yorker. I live here. That’s how New Yorkers are and they usually aren’t bad people. Did anyone really think that the voice of much needed change in Washington would arrive in the guise of handsome European Prince with manners fit to dine at Buckingham Palace? Of course not.

Read more here.

WSJ: The Downside of ETFs

By SIMON CONSTABLE

There is a lot for investors to like about exchange-traded funds, but there is also a downside for the stock market, a new study says.


Many investors like ETFs because the funds are an easy way to build a diverse portfolio with fees that generally are lower than those of mutual funds.


Now a group of academics offers a different take. A working paper titled “Is There a Dark Side to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)? An Information Perspective,” by professors at the Arison School of Business in Israel, Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles, says the popularity of ETFs has led to higher trading costs for some stocks, as well as less coverage of stocks by analysts to help investors make decisions. It also has reduced the responsiveness of some stock prices to information about the companies behind them and made it harder for investors to diversify their holdings in a way that reduces their risk, the report says.

Read more here.

WSJ: What Is the Value Trap?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

What does it mean when investors talk about the “value trap”?

Broadly speaking, not all cheap stocks are a good value. If, like many value investors, you buy a stock that has a better-than-average dividend and is less expensive than other similar securities, then it could be a good deal. But there is also a chance that it isn’t. 

Put another way: Some things are cheap for a reason.

Sometimes a stock’s price falls because sophisticated investors see a longer-term problem with the company and decide to dump their positions, explains Sam Stovall, managing director of U.S. equity strategy at S&P Capital IQ. It could be, for example, that those savvy investors believe the company is in bad shape and will cut its dividend in due course.

Read more here.

OZY: Falling Gold Prices Are The Latest Signs Of Good News

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Or maybe not so much now.

When people see headlines about a market crash or some government turmoil, they tend to look for something secure, which in some cases includes stocking up on gold the way you might water bottles in a drought. (Yes, people still stick coins in their mattress and bury bars in their backyard.) And yet, with every reason to be afraid about the future of the so-called global economy staring us in the face, that doesn’t seem to be happening these days.

Read more here.

Forbes: How The Calais Crisis Sends A Message

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The so-called Calais Crisis is sending a message to the world that Britain is the place migrants want to be. Well, at least it is when compared to the other rich countries of the European Union. It’s an indicator of something, possibly an economic one. Read more here.

Photo by Jeremy Bezanger on Unsplash

OZY: Why China Might Be in for a Different Kind of Crash

By SIMON CONSTABLE

We’ve all seen the blur of headlines: China’s stock market falls. Really falls — like it was the great Wall Street crash of 1929 all over again, only over there. And then the Chinese government puts the brakes on its financial system for a while and things feel better. Then the fretting continues this week over yet another epic fall. But there is one news flash, one alert in our smartphone that we’re not getting about any of this.

Read more here.