jplewicke

10 ms·

1.
by jplewicke 8y ago
Someone actually tried to follow this advice starting in September 2007: https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5934 . Needless to say, it did not work out well for them and they almost went bankrupt due to
2.
by jplewicke 9y ago
It's actually completely normal for a small group of stocks to account for most of the index gains -- see https://www.aqr.com/cliffs-perspective/still-not-crazy-after... .
3.
by jplewicke 10y ago
I think that there's a common thread that underlies the development of intelligence in both humans and Portia spiders. We both evolved in an environment where we were at a sensory and physical disadvantage to our prey. We both relied m
4.
by jplewicke 11y ago
One of the better proposals to fix whatever market structure issues we have is to move to "frequent batch auctions", in which a micro-auction would occur every 30 seconds or minute, which would amount to a similar thing. I'm
5.
by jplewicke 11y ago
That chart understates the cumulative return of McDonalds by 20%, since it is just a graph of price appreciation and does not include the effect of reinvesting dividends. The proper cumulative return for McDonalds over that time period is
6.
by jplewicke 12y ago
I found this book helpful: The HIPAA Roadmap for Business Associates ( http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1484067010/ref=oh_aui_searc... ). It goes through some of the basics of HIPAA, what kinds of policies y
7.
by jplewicke 12y ago
Saying that we're due for another pandemic is quite simply the gambler's fallacy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy . The odds of a pandemic may well be higher than recent experience would
8.
by jplewicke 12y ago
They don't -- they are re-emitted in random directions that are statistically related to the original direction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scattering .
9.
by jplewicke 12y ago
The article doesn't get much better, but there may be a kernel of truth to the rug store angle. There's a profile of the rug store owner/prolific angel investor at http://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriabar
10.
by jplewicke 13y ago
On the other hand, there's a very good reason why HFT liquidity has evaporated in previous crashes (such as the 2010 Flash Crash) -- the exchanges broke trades in an unpredictable fashion, so that any attempt at market-making would hav
11.
by jplewicke 13y ago
Luckily, it looks like Mr. Money Mustache is already in touch with Ken from Popehat: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/03/11/mmm-receives-legal... .
12.
by jplewicke 13y ago
I don't have a dog in this fight, but Ripple Labs did set things up so they would start off with all the network currency, and still own the majority of it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripple_(payment_protocol)#XR
13.
by jplewicke 13y ago
Ripple is actually a generalized network flow problem, in which the flow through an edge can be multiplied by an exchange rate when converting between currencies. As a result, regular network flow algorithms don't apply. There's
14.
by jplewicke 13y ago
It's still necessary to consider the total number of shares. Let's say you've been issued 500,000 options with a $0.10 strike price, and the company is currently valued at $4 million. The approximate pretax value of exercisi
15.
by jplewicke 13y ago
On the face of it, this is quite clearly illegal discrimination on the basis of the prospective employee's country of origin: http://www.justice.gov/crt/legalinfo/natorigin.htm If you're from Brazil and
16.
by jplewicke 13y ago
One minor nit -- money market funds are no longer explicitly federally backed. There was a temporary guarantee program, but it expired in September 2009: http://www.ici.org/pressroom/opinions/letters/12_pss_
17.
by jplewicke 13y ago
That works well for getting just your money back. If you're upset about the whole thing and want to shut it down or get their business practices changed, a class action lawsuit is the way to go.
18.
by jplewicke 13y ago
Paypal is just an intermediary between merchants and whatever payment methods customers use to pay Paypal, such as debit/credit cards and bank transfers. And guess what? The modern financial system has no irreversible payment methods
19.
by jplewicke 13y ago
A lot of employment lawyers will take cases on in exchange for a portion of the damages if you have a valid case. Almost every employment lawyer will listen to you enough to figure out if you might have a case.
20.
by jplewicke 13y ago
They're not metal detectors -- they're RFID scanners that sound an alarm if someone tries to steal something. A lot of products have an RFID chip attached that must be deactivated at the checkout. It's for reducing shoplifti
21.
by jplewicke 13y ago
Part of it is that as the total value of the company rises as the company matures and it removes various sources of risk. The dollar value of 1% of the company could easily rise from $1 (idea on a napkin) to $2000 (early prototype in seed
22.
Foreign Airline Safety versus U.S. Major Airlines(philip.greenspun.com)
2 points by jplewicke 13y ago|0 comments
23.
by jplewicke 13y ago
I would like to see his response to this article by Phillip Greenspun that argues that the real reason why American airlines have a better track record than Korean ones is that American pilots have roughly 30 times more hours in the air by
24.
by jplewicke 13y ago
Using the rope isn't even needed for most trees. When you learn how to fell a tree with an axe or saw, you'll learn that you can alter where you make your first cut to account for the tree's center of mass, lean, asymmetric
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by jplewicke 13y ago
The point is to give the defendant a proportionately strong incentive to show up at the trial. The judge has authority to set bail at a level that makes it likely they'll actually stand trial, which has to take into account the defenda
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by jplewicke 13y ago
In a nutshell, the problem is that you can't really release the company you're investing in from potential liability from you not being accredited. If you decide after you invest that they ripped you off, you may be able to sue b
27.
by jplewicke 13y ago
The "club" would have to have at least $5 million in assets, according to current SEC guidance: http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm .
28.
by jplewicke 13y ago
There are some great Photoshopped photos showing how much more fun the Las Vegas strip would be with narrower, pedestrian-friendly streets: http://narrowstreetsla.blogspot.com/2011/07/las-vegas-strip-... http:&#x
29.
by jplewicke 13y ago
One great way around this is to alternate rounds of sortition with rounds of election: - You pick 1000 random people to serve as the House of Representatives. - They elect 100 people from among themselves to serve as the Senate. - You rando
30.
by jplewicke 13y ago
There was a recent Sell HN thread where people were posting projects they wanted to sell: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5803374 . Hopefully this will be a recurring monthly event, so you might be able to put it up t

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