#Intelligent Investment

[stockmarketfinancelearning]

Some Of The Great Investment Strategies In The Stock Market

Please find some general investment strategies that have been considered prudent and effective over the years. However, keep in mind that the best investment strategy for you will depend on your financial targets, risk tolerance, and time horizon. Always consider seeking advice from a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Here are some common investment strategies:

Diversification: Diversifying your investments means spreading your money across different asset classes (such as stocks, bonds, real estate, and commodities) and within each class (e.g., different industries or sectors). This helps to reduce the overall risk in your portfolio.

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): With DCA, you invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals (e.g., monthly) regardless of the market conditions. This approach can help you avoid the temptation to time the market and potentially benefit from buying more shares when prices are low.

Long-Term Investing: Investing with a long-term perspective can help you ride out short-term market fluctuations and take advantage of compounding returns over time.

Value Investing: Value investors seek out undervalued stocks or assets, believing that the market will eventually recognize their true worth, leading to potential gains.

Growth Investing: Growth investors focus on companies or assets with strong growth potential, even if they might be currently trading at higher valuations. The goal is to benefit from the potential appreciation in value over time.

Dividend Investing: This strategy involves investing in companies that regularly pay dividends. It provides a potential source of income and can be attractive for income-focused investors.

Index Investing: Index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) replicate the performance of a specific market index, providing diversification at a low cost. This strategy is popular among passive investors.

Sector Rotation: With sector rotation, investors shift their focus to industries or sectors expected to outperform the broader market in specific economic or market conditions.

Market Timing: Market timing involves attempting to predict market movements and making investment decisions based on these predictions. However, market timing is challenging and can be risky, as it often leads to poor outcomes.

Asset Allocation: This strategy involves determining the optimal mix of asset classes in your portfolio based on your risk tolerance, financial goals, and time horizon.

Remember that all investments carry some level of risk, and past performance is not indicative of future results. It's essential to have a well-thought-out investment plan and to regularly review and adjust your strategy as your financial situation and target change.

[sunnibits]

man I wish evolution wasn’t such a slow process over millions of years… like I wish that every 10 years or so every single species on planet earth would just get a huge patch notes update and scientists would publish about it so we could all get caught up on the new stuff. I wanna see the monkeys discover farming in my lifetime.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

I feel like some people putting Phineas MidstPodcast into the "nervous golden retriever from the shelter" box did significant damage to the way he's seen and thought of and talked about in portions of the fandom.

[vulpinesaint]

they are so fucking silly it might be terminal

[neversetyoufree]

Every time I think about it too much, I go utterly insane over Noé's little "I'm glad you're the person you are now" speech.

Like, no matter how you read their relationship, it's undeniable that by that point, Noé cares about Vanitas so much. He's clearly quite upset by Vanitas's "as if anyone could fall for a person like me" line. And because of that, he goes out of his way to try and reassure Vanitas that he's good and worthy of love, and he specifically crafts his reassurance in a way that he thinks Vanitas will be able to accept.

He prefaces his kind words with "I still don't like you," because he knows that Vanitas reacts poorly to outright being liked. He adds on the line about his statement being "arbitrary" in an effort to pretend that his speech wasn't prompted by hearing Vanitas spill his self-hatred. He goes to lengths to make things look as much as possible like Noé's just sharing a thought, not trying to comfort Vani, but his intent comes through crystal clear.

Yet at the same time, the way he ties his speech to his thoughts on having met Astolpho shows that he really is being genuine. He goes out of his way to say all this because he wants to reassure Vanitas, but he doesn't say a word that isn't from the heart. Regardless of whether he “likes” the way he is or not, he’s genuinely grateful to have the Vanitas that he has.

It's so telling that Noé's reaction to hearing Vanitas speak self-hatingly is to go out of his way to contradict that hatred with affection. And that he tries to go about it so delicately. It speaks so much to his depth of feeling and his emotional intelligence. It’s just such a good scene.

[starryluvs]

Emotional intelligence and how to build it.

What is emotional intelligence or EQ?

Emotional intelligence (otherwise known as emotional quotient or EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict.

Emotional intelligence is commonly defined by four attributes:

1. Self-management – You're able to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

2. Self-awareness – You recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior. You know your strengths and weaknesses, and have self- confidence.

3. Social awareness – You have empathy. You can understand the emotions, needs, and concerns of other people, pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, and recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

4. Relationship management – You know how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict

Building emotional intelligence,

key skill 1: Self-management

In order for you to engage your EQ, you must be able to use your emotions to make constructive decisions about your behavior. When you become overly stressed, you can lose control of your emotions and the ability to act thoughtfully and appropriately.

Think about a time when stress has overwhelmed you. Was it easy to think clearly or make a rational decision? Probably not. When you become overly stressed, your ability to both think clearly and accurately assess emotions—your own and other people's—becomes compromised.

Emotions are important pieces of information that tell you about yourself and others, but in the face of stress that takes us out of our comfort zone, we can become overwhelmed and lose control of ourselves. With the ability to manage stress and stay emotionally present, you can learn to receive upsetting information without letting it override your thoughts and self-control. You'll be able to make choices that allow you to control impulsive feelings and behaviors, manage your emotions in healthy ways, take initiative, follow through on commitments, and adapt to changing circumstances.

Key skill 2: Self-awareness

Managing stress is just the first step to building emotional intelligence. The science of attachment indicates that your current emotional experience is likely a reflection of your early life experience. Your ability to manage core feelings such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy often depends on the quality and consistency of your early life emotional experiences. If your primary caretaker as an infant understood and valued your emotions, it's likely your emotions have become valuable assets in adult life. But, if your emotional experiences as an infant were confusing, threatening or painful, it's likely you've tried to distance yourself from your emotions.

But being able to connect to your emotions—having a moment-to-moment connection with your changing emotional experience-is the key to understanding how emotion influences your thoughts and actions.

Do you experience feelings that flow, encountering one emotion after another as your experiences change from moment to moment?

Are your emotions accompanied by physical sensations that you experience in places like your stomach, throat, or chest?

Do you experience individual feelings and emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, and joy, each of which is evident in subtle facial expressions?

Can you experience intense feelings that are strong enough to capture both your attention and that of others?

Do you pay attention to your emotions? Do they factor into your decision making?

If any of these experiences are unfamiliar, you may have "turned down" or "turned off" your emotions. In order to build EQ—and become emotionally healthy—you must reconnect to your core emotions, accept them, and become comfortable with them. You can achieve this through the practice of mindfulness.

[Listen: Mindful Breathing Meditation]

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment—and without judgment. The cultivation of mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, but most religions include some type of similar prayer or meditation technique. Mindfulness helps shift your preoccupation with thought toward an appreciation of the moment, your physical and emotional sensations, and brings a larger perspective on life. Mindfulness calms and focuses you, making you more self-aware in the process.

Developing emotional awareness

It's important that you learn how to manage stress first, so you'll feel more comfortable reconnecting to strong or unpleasant emotions and changing how you experience and respond to your feelings. You can develop your emotional awareness by using HelpGuide's free Emotional Intelligence Toolkit.

Key skill 3: Social awareness

Social awareness enables you to recognize and interpret the mainly nonverbal cues others are constantly using to communicate with you. These cues let you know how others are really feeling, how their emotional state is changing from moment to moment, and what's truly important to them. When groups of people send out similar nonverbal cues, you're able to read and understand the power dynamics and shared emotional experiences of the group. In short, you're empathetic and socially comfortable.

Mindfulness is an ally of emotional and social awareness

To build social awareness, you need to recognize the importance of mindfulness in the social process. After all, you can't pick up on subtle nonverbal cues when you're in your own head, thinking about other things, or simply zoning out on your phone. Social awareness requires your presence in the moment. While many of us pride ourselves on an ability to multitask, this means that you'll miss the subtle emotional shifts taking place in other people that help you fully understand them.

* You are actually more likely to further your social goals by setting other thoughts aside and focusing on the interaction itself.

* Following the flow of another person's emotional responses is a give-and-take process that requires you to also pay attention to the changes in your own emotional experience.

* Paying attention to others doesn't diminish your own self-awareness. By investing the time and effort to really pay attention to others, you'll actually gain insight into your own emotional state as well as your values and beliefs. For example, if you feel discomfort hearing others express certain views, you'll have learned something important about yourself.

Key skill 4: Relationship management

Working well with others is a process that begins with emotional awareness and your ability to recognize and understand what other people are experiencing. Once emotional awareness is in play, you can effectively develop additional social/emotional skills that will make your relationships more effective, fruitful, and fulfiling.

Become aware of how effectively you use nonverbal communication. It's impossible to avoid sending nonverbal messages to others about what you think and feel. The many muscles in the face, especially those around the eyes, nose, mouth and forehead, help you to wordlessly convey your own emotions as well as read other peoples' emotional intent. The emotional part of your brain is always on—and even if you ignore its messages—others won't. Recognizing the nonverbal messages that you send to others can play a huge part in improving your relationships.

Use humor and play to relieve stress. Humor, laughter and play are natural antidotes to stress. They lessen your burdens and help you keep things in perspective. Laughter brings your nervous system into balance, reducing stress, calming you down, sharpening your mind and making you more empathic.

xoxo,f

[lakakinat]

I love being outside at midnight with no one being there🥰

[sevenines]

i’ve been listening to/watching many (many, many) reactions to steven universe (because that’s what you do when you become newly obsessed with something. see what everyone else thinks about it and drive yourself mad) and it’s so interesting to see all the unique ways people tackle it and the common threads between them all.

there’s podcast recaps (pressure to over-analyze) vs youtube reactions (pressure to overreact). everyone knowing the show (yay) vs fans guiding newcomers (interesting) vs everybody being blind (often disastrous). don’t mind silly fun? they love the first season and amethyst’s character. told about how ~deep~ it gets and expecting only that? they love pearl and have to be dragged through the beginning. even how they chunk the episodes affects things—in watching episode-by-episode, people go the most mad as they try to squeeze meaning out of episodes they can’t yet appreciate until later (or are just. bad at analyses.). in chunks of two, people assume su will have much more horror after watching frybo and cat fingers back-to-back. and chunks of 5 are completely different too!

this only skims the surface. i can watch any episode of su and point out which jokes usually make people laugh, what people pick up on, and how their opinion of the situation reflects on whether they have mommy issues.

[dkaufmandevelopment]

Blackstone Surges to Record High: A Closer Look at Their Impressive Q3 Results

Blackstone, the world's largest commercial property owner, achieved a remarkable milestone on Thursday as its shares surged to a record high. This impressive performance comes on the heels of better-than-expected third-quarter results and an improved real estate investment performance. Let’s dive into the factors driving this success and what it means for the market.

Key Highlights from Q3

In the third quarter, Blackstone invested or committed a staggering $54 billion, marking the highest amount in over two years. This surge in investment activity is attributed to the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut in September, which significantly reduced the cost of capital. The U.S. central bank’s previous rate hikes had stymied real estate deals and financing, leading to increased defaults in the office market affected by corporate cost-cutting and the rise of hybrid and remote work.

Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone’s Chief Executive, emphasized the positive impact of the rate cut, stating, “Easing the cost of the capital will be very positive for Blackstone’s asset values. It will be a catalyst for transaction activity.” This sentiment was echoed by Jonathan Gray, President and Chief Operating Officer, who noted that while commercial real estate sentiment is improving, it remains cautious.

Strategic Investments and Areas of Focus

Blackstone has been proactive in planting the “seeds of future value” by substantially increasing its pace of investment. A key area of focus is the revolutionary advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and the associated digital and energy infrastructure. In September, Blackstone announced the $16 billion purchase of AirTrunk, the largest data center operator in the Asia-Pacific region. This acquisition is part of Blackstone’s $70 billion investment in data centers, with over $100 billion in prospective pipeline development.

Other notable investment themes include renewable energy transition, private credit, and India’s emergence as a major economy. These strategic areas highlight Blackstone’s commitment to innovation and growth.

Recovery in Commercial Real Estate

The Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust (BREIT), a benchmark for the industry, reported a 93% slump in investor stock redemption requests from a peak. This indicates a recovery in investor confidence and a shift towards positive net inflows of capital. BREIT’s core-plus real estate investments, which include stable, income-generating, high-quality real estate, showed a 0.5% decline in Q3 performance, an improvement from a 3.8% drop over the past 12 months. The riskier opportunistic real estate investments posted a 1.1% increase, reversing previous declines.

Student Housing and Data Centers

Among rental housing, student housing has emerged as a significant focus. Wesley LePatner, set to become BREIT CEO on Jan. 1, highlighted the structural undersupply in the U.S. student housing market, emphasizing its potential as an all-weather asset class. BREIT has consistently met investor redemption requests for several months, showcasing strong performance.

Furthermore, the demand for data centers remains robust. QTS, which Blackstone took private in 2021, recorded more leasing activity last year than the preceding three years combined. Such sectors, once considered niche, are now integral to the commercial real estate landscape.

Financial Performance and Outlook

Blackstone’s third-quarter net income soared to approximately $1.56 billion, up from $920.7 million a year earlier. Distributable earnings, profit available to shareholders, rose to $1.28 billion from $1.21 billion. Total assets under management jumped 10% to about $1.11 trillion, driven by inflows to its credit and insurance segment.

The Path Forward

As Blackstone continues to navigate the evolving market landscape, it remains focused on identifying “interesting places to deploy capital.” With a robust investment strategy and a keen eye on emerging trends, Blackstone is well-positioned for future growth.

Join the Conversation: What are your thoughts on Blackstone’s impressive Q3 performance and strategic investments? How do you see these trends impacting the broader real estate market? Share your insights and engage with our community!

[icecreamwithjackdaniels]

"And back in the spring of 1720, Sir Isaac Newton owned shares in the South Sea Company, the hottest stock in England. Sensing that the market was getting out of hand, the great physicist muttered that he 'could calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.' Newton dumped his South Sea shares, pocketing a 100% profit totaling £7,000. But just months later, swept up in the wild enthusiasm of the market, Newton jumped back in at a much higher price—and lost £20,000 (or more than $3 million in today’s money). For the rest of his life, he forbade anyone to speak the words 'South Sea' in his presence.

Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most intelligent people who ever lived, as most of us would define intelligence. But, in Graham’s terms, Newton was far from an intelligent investor. By letting the roar of the crowd override his own judgment, the world’s greatest scientist acted like a fool."

— Benjamin Graham, The Intelligent Investor, 1949

[searchsystem]

Browns / Invesco / Investment Intelligence / Newspaper / 2019

[isfjmel-phleg]

January 2024 Books

The Journey of the Shadow Bairns by Margaret J. Anderson

Decent middle-grade historical fiction. I don't recall having any strong feelings about it one way or another.

Searching for Shona by Margaret J. Anderson

I can understand why the ending of this book went the way it did, but from a thematic standpoint it was rather unsatisfying.

Thicker Than Water by Penelope Farmer

Well-written, as Farmer's books usually are, but a combination of attitudes that haven't aged well and weird supernatural elements didn't really work for me.

The Castle Family by Rosalie K. Fry

A cute story. My younger self would have been fascinated by the setting.

Between Frames by W. R. Gingell

I have nothing intelligent to say about this series, but I am enjoying the character dynamics a lot.

The Rosemary Tree by Elizabeth Goudge

Standard Goudge, with beautiful prose and thoughtfully-developed characters.

Castle Tourmandyne by Monica Hughes

Liked it well enough, I think.

Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones

I had trouble keeping up with the worldbuilding (not necessarily the book's fault--high fantasy generally isn't my thing) and connecting with the characters, but it was a standard twisty DWJ book.

Three Margarets by Laura Elizabeth Richards

The antique edition that the lending library sent, with its beautiful cover and illustrations, was the best part. I didn't especially care for the story.

The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic by Jennifer Trafton

I liked the set-up of this one but lost interest as the plot progressed.

Ginnie and Geneva by Catherine Woolley

...I honestly have no memory of how I felt about this one. Must have been deeply impactful.

Comics

Stephen McCranie's Space Boy Omnibus 4 + all other installments to date on Webtoon

This is the one thing I got particularly excited about all month. The characters are endearing, the plot is engaging, and the themes are resonant. I think a lot of you guys would enjoy it!

Black Condor

I think I read this short-lived series because of connections to Ray's 1994 solo. A lot of unanswered questions, some elements that really really have not aged well, but the concept of a hero who doesn't consider himself a hero and just wants to be left alone to live in the woods like some kind of cryptid...has its charm. (He does not get his wish. And he ends up dying in the attack that also destroyed Grant's face.)

[not-poignant]

hi! this is “better aspects” anon!! i’ve given your reply a lot of thought, because i think i just really appreciated how academic efnisien was and how he continued to cultivate his knowledge in constellations and thought that him going out of his way to do that was an admirable aspect that i thought even a person like crielle could respect, and wanted to know if that was a factor in her continuing to raise him because that would have been a relatively “better” factor than the other reasons she continued to raise him for (like seeing a murderer in him i guess), though i guess she could’ve seen that and thought of ways he could use it to be a murderer. (and i won’t even defend mentioning “beauty” there because there is no defense i might have just been running my mouth/hands?)

anyway, your reply was food for thought for days for me. and it really challenged how i thought about things, and i found out how much i’ve been ‘tiering’ the world in unfair ways unconsciously, and i hope awareness will be the first step in changing that. so thank you!! and since this is an ask box i might as well ask: have you ever leaned toward an educational role? i think not only your reply has explained an alternative way of thinking clearly but in your fics too. and i wonder if you’d ever write a non-fic about kink one day? i really respect and appreciate all your work even more so now!

Hi hi anon!

A big thing here is just that Crielle doesn't really recognise Efnisien as a fully three-dimensional human being and she doesn't really want him to be one anyway, and she gets annoyed when he shows a capacity for that.

If he's not existing for her, doing things for her, slaving away for her, worshipping her, anticipating her needs, and sublimating his entire existence for her, suffering for her, begging for her mercy and love, and crying for her, she's not interested.

When Efnisien cultivated his knowledge outside of Crielle and not for Crielle, he was punished for it. When he showed an interest in things that had nothing to do with her, he was punished for it. If he showed any sign of independent thought that she couldn't use, find useful, find entertaining (like him tormenting Gwyn, or learning to play piano), then he was punished for it.

In fact Crielle is the one who canonically tells Efnisien to only do accounting at university, so that he flies under the radar so he could more successfully be a criminal and/or serial killer. She literally squashes his academic talent and curiosity, to a point where he has to get straight A's but not dream of doing anything that's not directly connected to her. As a result, he doesn't know what his dreams are by the time he sees Dr Gary, because he's not allowed to have any to belong to him and he's still literally learning how to be a person, because Crielle didn't want him to be a person.

It's often hard for people to understand Crielle if you've never (knowingly) met anyone like her. But people who see other people as objects, dolls, and empty spaces to fill with their own desires exist, and they do not admire independence, free will, or a person making choices beyond their control.

Crielle loved Efnisien most when he was trying to perfectly do everything she wanted automatically, and she loved him least when he was trying to be a person with his own personality.

You and me, anon, we get to appreciate the things about him that Crielle tried to destroy, or found tedious or annoying, or found a good reason to punish or torture him over. We get to cheer him on in therapy when he realises he likes working for an anthropologist, and when he researches different subjects on his own, and when he finally realises he can leave a job he doesn't like.

Efnisien's profound learned helplessness comes from someone with no capacity to appreciate Efnisien when he wasn't being a two-dimensional sycophant, and so we get to cheer on every moment he finds things out for himself, or asks questions, or learns more about the world. In a way, we get to go on that journey with him, and be proud of him at the same time that Dr Gary is, or smile at him at the same time that Arden does, or feel vindicated when Gwyn finally notices that Efnisien isn't just what Crielle turned him into.

Crielle never respected Efnisien in general. She only respected him in moments, and only when he was most like her, and most reflecting her desires for him. But an adult who sexually molests a child does not respect that child. She never believed in his rights or his right to personhood.

There's nothing Efnisien could have done to win that, even if he did do everything perfectly, unless he like spectacularly killed 50 people or something, and then she'd never speak to him again to protect herself, and probably admire him from afar, an imprisoned statue that she'd probably try and send little coded love letters too, which was probably part of her twisted fantasy in the first place.

Abandonment was high on the cards for Efnisien whether he got everything right, or tried to be a person and therefore got everything wrong. This is something Dr Gary knows. And it's something Efnisien will take a long time to realise for himself, because it will hurt him so much when he does. There was never an outcome where they could have been happy together, because she didn't want it.

Anyway the tl;dr is that sadly Crielle had some major issues seeing people as people and felt so entitled to Efnisien that any qualities or traits he possessed that weren't directly in service to her (with her approval) all went in the 'nope do not approve' list.

have you ever leaned toward an educational role?

This is so sweet of you anon. I sadly think I wouldn't be a great teacher because I get impatient and because I can really struggle to articulate my thoughts sometimes outside of stories. I think that's why I have to write these very long and rambling responses, and I don't think most teachers need this many words to say 'Crielle's a psychopath' sdlkfjas :D

In all seriousness, I really like sharing things through my writing. It frees me from having to get everything 'right' because it's fiction, and it allows people to engage with it on any level they want to. I'm really lucky that I can share some of my research and thoughts, and also some of a character's thoughts (I don't agree with the way all my characters think and in all the things they believe), and that a reader can sort of...I guess pick up what they need at the time?

As for kink, there are far fare better people suited to that! I'm not saying that to be modest, but like, a rope friend of mine has literally put thousands of hours just into studying and learning about kinbaku and semenawa (shibari/rope) and even she doesn't feel qualified to teach it. There's so much around physical safety and also communicating compassionately and with openness that I think would be really difficult. It's hard to capture a lot of that in books (and maybe secretly I think it's more fun to not have to be focused on safety in my writing in the same way lol)

Plus it gets to be entertaining and fun and sometimes relaxing or painful or cathartic and I guess that's something I really...feel strongly about? That's important to me in a different kind of way I think?

Honestly you're awesome for just giving a different perspective a try, I really struggle to do that, it's hard to sometimes be like 'oh this thing I used to think / currently think is maybe not how I always want to keep thinking about it.' Just the other day I realised something I thought about owning cats was actually incorrect and it was like 'oh whoops' lol. But it's the only way we keep growing. And it's cool that you're doing it!

[samglyph]

i REALLY love your lineup of all the monsters in malevolent but for the life of me i can’t place the tall figure behind Scratch/Hattie with the fur and upturned bat nose, which one is that?

That is the pit monster! In the episode it is referred to as a ghoul, but there has been some wog/fan discussion calling it a gug, so I combined some traits from both creatures and then added some things that I thought would suit its environment, like large bat ears.

[moderat50]

Apple, Nvidia, Tesla Predicted To Be Hurt By Trump Proposals

[lakakinat]

Bro just made a joke out of my name☠️ (Ignore the rest please😭)