“So although we didn’t join the euro…and, frankly, it’s showing to be a bit of a mess, the break-up of it would be very bad for Britain. So I spend a lot of my time putting pressure on other European leaders to come up with a solution that will actually make sure that there is stability and growth in Europe,” – U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. (WSJ)
Author: shyam
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I watched this movie called Peepli Live, produced by Amir Khan. The story revolves around an indebted farmer who, facing a large debt, contemplates suicide. Its an interesting movie. However, right at the end, there’s commentary as to how millions of low-income farmers are being forced to forgo their (small) land-holdings and migrate to the city. Here’s the thing: I don’t see it as a bad thing that needs to be reversed. Rather, the role of the government and society should be to ease the transition.
Urbanization allows efficient allocation of public services. It is easier to serve a city with 10 schools rather than 10 small villages with 1 school. The problem is that by portraying urbanization as bad, subsistence farming as good we are trying to swim against the tide and misallocating capital (like the insanely evil NREGA.) We would be better off focusing on easing the transition that is already taking place by focusing on city planning.
Subsistence farming was never a good idea. Lack of scale and under-capitalization implies that millions of farmers in India lead a hand-to-mouth existence. We should be focusing on providing better options for livelihood generation rather than putting poverty on the pedestal and trying to wish the problem away.
Urbanization is a good thing and it is going to continue being a predominant trend of our times. Deal with it.
This is a review of the 6th chapter of John J. Murphy’s Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets.
Continuation Patterns
Continuation patterns are shorter terms patterns that indicate that a current price action is nothing more than a pause in an existing trend and that the previous trend will resume later.
Triangle
There are three types of triangles:
- Symmetrical (coil): Formed out of two trendlines where the upper one descending and the lower line ascending.
- Ascending: Formed out of a rising lower line and a flat upper line.
- Descending: Formed out of a flat lower line and a descending upper line
The Broadening Formation (Megaphone Top)
It looks like a triangle turned backwards and represents an out-of-control market. Volume tends to increase along with the wider price swings.
Flags and Pennants
Flags and Pennants represent brief pauses in a one-directional market and they need to be preceded by sharp, straight line moves.
A flag should slope against the trend and volume should dry up during the formation and build again during the breakout. The flag usually forms during the mid-point of the move.
A Pennant represents a small symmetrical triangle. 
Volume should be light during its formation. The move after the pennant should duplicate the move before its formation.
Both patterns are short-term and should be completed within 1-3 weeks with volumes drying up during their formation.
The Wedge
The wedge formation is very similar to a symmetrical triangle, except that it has a prominent slant. A falling wedge is considered bullish whereas a rising wedge is considered bearish.
The Rectangle (Trading Range)
It usually just represents a consolidation area after which the previous trend resumes. A decisive close outside the upper/lower boundary signals a completion.
The Measured Move (Swing)
It describes the movement of a stock when a major advance or decline is divided into two equal and parallel moves. The moves should be fairly orderly and well defined.
The Continuation Head & Shoulders
The price action looks similar to a Rectangular pattern except that the middle trough, in an uptrend, tends to be lower than the other two shoulders. In a downtrend, the middle peak exceeds the other two peaks.
Next: Chapter 7 – Volume & Open Interest
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I still remember fooling around with Coral Draw when I was in school. I was completely in love with it back then. And somewhere in the haze of home works and exams, I lost touch with it. Today, I experienced the same old feeling watching a buddy of mine work on Photoshop. He was explaining how buttons are made: the shading, highlights, brightness gradients etc. And then it hit me: just about every form of creativity is going digital.
What started with expensive 2D animation tools for movies have crossed over to the consumer domain. Be it Photoshop, Avid, Instagram or Windows Live Movie Maker, artists have access to a amazingly powerful set of tools to express their creativity. And its not just images that have gone digital, it’s the entire universe of content including music and writing. And it is not just two dimensions either, I know at least two startups who are working on consumer 3D printing. Just like how engineers moved from the slide-rule to CAD/CAM, future artists would’ve seen the easel only in museums.
So what does it mean to the creative process? One thing for sure: more. The one giant advantage that digital creation offers is the undo button. You no longer have to throw away a perfectly good copy just because you smudged the corner. It allows the artist to be do more. And with all things digital, the artist who knows a little bit of programming would have a natural advantage in this scheme of things. Take a look at Scott Draves: a “software artist.” I ran into to him in SIGGRAPH (a computer graphics conference) where he was presenting digital art when it was still in its infancy. As tools get more powerful and mobile, we are headed towards an exciting convergence between art and computer science.
Hello Mr. Artist, got Python?
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Will UP really go bankrupt if FDI in retail were allowed? Why is TN and WB opposing foreign investment? In the meantime, why is the farmer’s association in favor of it? The funny thing is that we already have FDI in retail except that it is for cash-and-carry “wholesale” only. But whatever the original intent was, it has been diluted to mean a minimum of Rs.1000 ($20) per purchase, that can be paid using a credit-card and can include anything from liquor, food and soap! So what is the whole ruckus in the parliament really about?
The problem, apparently, is that if you give a choice between getting ripped off at the corner store and buying stuff in a clean, organized environment, the aam aadmi will chose the latter. So what are the traders in the kirana stores to do if everybody chooses to shop wisely? Its like saying, lets not build a bridge across the river because that would drive the ferry out of business. Building the bridge is a common good. It cuts down on travel time, it makes it cheaper and safer. And hence, the cost to society of the ferry going out of business is outweighed by the benefits.
Lets apply that logic to multi-brand retail. Its no secret that there’s tremendous waste and corruption not only in food-processing but in every step of our supply-chain. The government or the domestic industry, on its own, neither has the will, money or the expertise to setup a system that can fix those problems. After spending an inordinate amount of time in decision-making limbo and almost a year with inflation in double digits, the government finally mustered up the courage to put this in play. And now the peanut gallery has erupted in self-righteous rage.
So what are the nay sayers protesting against anyways? Are they against brining down inflation? Are they against reducing waste in our supply-chain? Are they against more choices for the aam aadmi? Are they against getting farmers paid market rates for their work? They are protesting against something that is for the common good; supported by trade organizations that represent the kirana stores. In the end, the aam aadmi can only vote but the traders can pay.
Support FDI in retail! It is the right thing to do.
