RealMoney's Blog Watch

In the past week, I've been in both Walt Disney World (vacation) and Las Vegas (speaking at the International Traders Expo) and it's been a bit weird getting back to "reality" after going from one fantasy world to another. That said, the blogs keep rolling, and there've been a lot of fun investment-related blog posts this past week.

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There's a lot of speculation in the press that Google (GOOG - commentary - Cramer's Take) might be the best company ever, or at least "The Next Microsoft." It would be nice to know if this was actually going to be the case, so look no further than this peek into the future: Google Blogoscoped posted this Interview With Larry Page in 2038. I liked some of the comments about ads next to "phone scribbles" and how it might be an invasion of privacy. Then there was this probing question from the interviewer:

How did Microsoft handle your "Do no evil" mantra when you acquired them in 2030?

Early talks were done in around 2029, as you may know. It was very important to us that Microsoft, even though a relatively small player at that time, would not bring their own corporate culture into the Googleplex. Really, it would have been a clash of philosophies, and we wanted to avoid that at all costs. We do a simple psychological test for every new employee, which contains a basic set of questions, like "Would you take away candy from a child" or "Would you restrict the user's rights to sharing files." Only if these questions are answered right, only if they're in tune with our own philosophy, will a person be accepted. Naturally, we had to let go of a lot of Microsoft employees, but for the rest of them, we believe we have the power to strengthen the company and its operating system at this point.

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Victor Niederhoffer has some interesting posts on his blog, Daily Speculations, about the tendency of markets to be magnetically attracted to the nearest round number. I took particular note of this from his "Roundabout" post:

As year-end approaches, I note a large number of markets near vivid points: S&P 500 at 1275, near 1300; DJIA at 10881, near 11000; gold at $507, near $500; oil at $60; Euro at $1.20; VIX at 10.7, near 10.0.

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I have a beef with Michael Covel, author of the book, Trend Following, but I won't get into that here. That said, his blog is a good source of information about the various funds that specialize in this form of investing, a style of investing that I personally would never put my money into, but nevertheless has made billionaires out of a few of its practitioners (thanks to hefty fees). In a recent post, Covel excerpts John Henry's November update. Henry is in the process of recovering from a drawdown of more than 50% (ouch!) in his flagship fund, so this excerpt is worth reading in that context:

We are often asked the question of why don't we use fundamental information. Surely the inflation numbers or unemployment reports could tell us something about the direction of market prices. Nevertheless, there is a prob- lem relying on this somewhat limited information. It just does not come that often. For example, inflation and unemployment reports come once a month. With twelve announcements each and 250 plus trading days, these announcements make up less than 10 percent of trading time. What do you do the rest of the time?

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I've been impressed with the growth of domain name provider GoDaddy.com. It has been an aggressive marketer and quickly has catapulted to a leadership position in the industry. So when GoDaddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons started a blog, I was curious to read it.

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James Altucher is a managing partner at Formula Capital, an alternative asset management firm that runs several quantitative-based hedge funds as well as a fund of hedge funds. He is also the author of Trade Like a Hedge Fund and Trade Like Warren Buffett. At the time of publication, neither Altucher nor his fund had a position in any of the securities mentioned in this column, although positions may change at any time. Under no circumstances does the information in this column represent a recommendation to buy or sell stocks. Altucher appreciates your feedback; click here to send him an email.

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