“Economics,” as I was told early in my undergraduate career, “is really just common sense, codified.” This seems true enough. Economics is fundamentally concerned with scarcity and opportunity costs—the intuitively obvious, yet often overlooked ideas that that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and that if you spend your money on one thing, you can’t spend it on something else. It gives us the tools to understand and measure these concepts in the world around us.
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Drunken Protection
Have you ever stumbled back to your dorm drunk, with one shoe on, both socks missing, someone’s hat on your head, and marker covering your face? Have you ever witnessed a drunk and sloppy friend embark on his homeward adventure, concerned, and eager to call him later to ensure he arrived safely?
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China's Twitter Twin
Last Thursday (April 17) Weibo (WB), a premier Chinese social media company, began trading on the NASDAQ. Weibo’s social media app is widely considered to be the “Chinese” version of Twitter (TWTR). Most interest in Weibo’s IPO stems from investor concern over future Chinese listings on American exchanges. For many prospective investors, Weibo is considered a case study meant to reflect the success of Alibaba’s future IPO.
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Beating The Odds
In my previous article, Getting Back To Basics, I explained why long-term investing is a viable strategy for new investors and provided numerous examples of basic investment fundamentals. This week, I aim to build upon those fundamentals by introducing two more investment concepts, diversification and index investing, while also describing how exchange traded funds (ETFs) help investors mitigate risk.
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Practice Safe Text
Mark Cuban continues to expand his already impressive portfolio by entering the social media market with a new iOS messaging app, Cyber Dust. The billionaire has invested heavily in the development and promotion of Cyber Dust, describing the app as a combination of Snapchat and WhatsApp. However, unlike Snapchat, Cyber Dust focuses on providing users a secure mobile messaging experience.
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Getting Back To Basics
Last Friday concluded one of the worst weeks for the stock market in recent memory. The Nasdaq took the largest hit, losing 3.1% for the week (its biggest single week loss since 2001). The S&P 500 finished down 2.6%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 2.3%. Inspired by this sharp turn in the market, panicked investors went on a selling spree, specifically towards the end of the week.
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Never Leave Your Wingman
Ever wanted to join the mile high club? There’s an app for that and its name is Wingman: a new application that aims to be the “Tinder of the skies.” The apps’ purpose is to connect people that are at the same airport, or even on the same flight (for better or for worse). The application is still in its beta stage, but is supposed to have a design similar to that of Tinder.
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