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How one follower turns a dancing nut into a leader…

The video tells the story…it’s about a dancing nut…but I think it makes a very interesting statement when it comes to start ups and entrepreneurship. You see it’s about being different, having your own leadership style, and allows you, the “lone nut”, to become the leader.

CFD for a hedge, but not a sole investment.

Found a post in the Capital Markets section of LinkedIn asking whether “CFD’s or Contract for Difference are a good trading tool?” The concern I had with the question posted was that it suggested that CFDs were developed to allow investors to “receive all the benefits of owning a stock without having to physically own the stock itself.” Unfortunately too many online trading investors take this view point and very quickly see their $$$ evaporate as they are hit by margin calls regardless of whether their positions are long or short.

ABC’s Scott to face senate

EAVB_HCTIQXBLJD In addition to the 24hr News channel a “second front” has opened up in this battle between commecial media and the public broadcaster, and the concern is that in these enviroments if the ABC are allowed to compete you will create market failure – that is where private companies that have been able to operate will move away because it is economically unviable when your comeptitor can provide a superior service for free.

Poll: Would you share buy and sell details of you stock trades via a social network?

I need your input on some research I am doing so please click through to this posting. It’s all about the sharing of transaction data on Social Networks, namely if you would or would not be willing to share buys/sells in the equity market on networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. After you vote, you’ll be able to see results and analysis of how different types of professionals answered the question – and I will remind you to come back in a fortnight to check out the final results.

And be sure to leave a comment if you have an opinion…

Google says “look to your friends” for results.

When I wrote about the “Live Web” being integrated with search results the excitement was that Google was now able to serve up Twitter, Facebook and News articles in real-time as part of your search results – sort the same as a stock ticker would as trades are made. This Live Web offering was captivating because you were watching other people’s opinions pop up before your eyes as they wrote them. But Social Search is far more important because the contributions are from peers or services you know and because you control who is in and out this enhancement has so many legs to it.

No Facebook please…We’re in Financial Services…

If we take the concept of “elegant organisation” and apply what the ASX stats suggest (that is, more people look to the Internet and Friends/Family then Advisers) we can see how much of an impact that Social Media could have in this niche financial industry, the problem is what ASIC are reviewing does not consider the nature nor the dynamics of Peer-to-Peer networks.

Happy Australia Day to the Facebook nation!!!

I must say I was surprised when I found out who spent the greatest average time per user on such Social Networks as Twitter and Facebook. Australian’s consumed almost 7 hours per user, with the United States and the United Kingdom a close second and third. But if you are starting a social media venture you might want to launch in Brazil…

The ABC should not compete…

Both the ABC announcement of a new 24-hour news channel in direct competition with existing media outlets and the way they are conducting themselves demonstrates that the ABC has lost its way. What was an independent, non-competitive supplier of quality public services is now morphing in into a government funded News Corp or Fairfax.

Brittany Murphy, Google Results and the Live Web

Waking up this morning I heard the news about Brittany Murphy’s passing so I went and “googled” it and sure enough the search confirmed the story. But as I scanned through the numerous results I saw a new window embedded in the page I had not noticed before which was continuously scrolling with updates. The Brittany Murphy story was breaking before my eyes via a “dynamic stream” of real-time content from such sites as Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed, Jaiku, Identi.ca and of course Twitter. This was not static content – this was news and opinions as it happened…

Financial Responsibiliy…But “Y” online?

Gen Y has been traditionally classified as being challengers of the standards that Gen X and Baby Boomers have chosen to accept (i.e. Work more hours – Why?), more likely to rely on their baby boomer parents (the so call Peter Pan decade because they are more likely to delay some of the responsibilities of adulthood longer than most generations before them), people who embrace “Brand You” relying on word of mouth, and the heaviest users of social communications, media, and digital technologies.

But is this care free stereotype still true considering the impact of the GFC? Is Gen Y an envolving demographic that has just gone through 18 months of revolution?