Archive for August 2020
Beware of NFC Payments!
Posted on: August 17, 2020
Near-Field Communication (contactless) payment either through your smart phone or through your credit card chip has revolutionized commerce. Instead of swiping or inserting your credit card, waiting for a printout and signing your name, you can just wave your phone, wait for the beep and go. But just a moment ago, I learned the hard way that this technology is not secure.
I went to Giant to buy a bottle of Diet Coke. I do that because I know soda is a bad habit so I don’t keep it in my refrigerator. When I want to drink Coke, I will drive to the nearby Giant and buy only one.
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Don’t Fight The Fed!
Posted on: August 6, 2020
There are three major factors that drive the stock market: economic fundamentals, investor sentiment and the Fed. Lately the Fed’s role has become more and more prominent. It’s thus very important to be able to read Fed’s moves correctly. For instance, what does it mean when The Wall Street Journal reports “Fed Weighs Abandoning Pre-Emptive Moves to Curb Inflation.”
Let me show you how I read the Fed’s moves since the onset of the Pandemic …
On March 13th, as the Pandemic was picking up in the US, the Fed announced a $1.5T injection into the market. This prompted my newsletter article “What Fed’s $1.5T Injection Means For The Market” when I wrote:
There are only three buckets into which this money “water” can go: 1) goods, 2) services and 3) assets. Do you think that over the next few months, we the people will consume more goods and services? Apparently not since we will all be hunkering down in our basements. The only place the new money can go is to purchase assets, meaning stocks, bonds, and real estate.
The Investment Scientist 