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The Wealth Singularity is a point when the power of technology has become so massive that wealth and abundance becomes ubiquitous.

The theory is based on the works of leading futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Vernor Vinge, who believe that the exponential growth in computing power will lead to a Singularity. Technology, whether it’s the wheel or the personal computer, also leads to a leap in productivity and the ability to generate wealth.

That Singularity may be closer than you think.

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shioshvili @ Flickr

This isn’t New Agey hocus-pocus, necessarily.

This is reality.

The things you think about. The things you believe. The things you read and watch. The things that make you confident and the things that make you fearful are the very foundation of wealth generation–on a lot of levels.

The pricing of stocks and other assets reflect beliefs about their value. These beliefs aren’t just the thoughts and opinions of analysts and big-time market movers, they reflect your ideas, too. Now, your personal belief may just represent a fraction of that price, but when merged with the collective sense, you have mass market psychology.

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Conventional wisdom is usually not conventional and not really wise. It’s often an agreed-upon lie, at worst, or an excuse to keep trying to do the same things over and over again.

It’s a mass-thinking rut, often.

You can find examples of conventional wisdom everywhere–at work, at schools, and at the town hall. But, if you really want to see conventional wisdom at work, check out the world of investments and personal finance.

How can you tell when conventional wisdom is at work? When you hear the same debate or argument over and over again, chances are you’ve stumbled on a conventional truth.

Conventional wisdom doesn’t have to be a thought that is believed by all of  the population. Different groups have different conventional truths. Ironically, these bits of conventional wisdom can be exactly opposite of someone else’s conventional truth.

And the other problem with conventional wisdom is it leads to fatalism. You believe the conclusion of a certain “truth” is writ in stone, simply because it’s the conventional truth of so many people.

An open mind is the cure for conventional wisdom.

Here’s one way to exercise that open mind and break through the walls of conventional wisdom.

What you do is to define some challenges that are part of conventional thought–things you hear in the mainstream media, or talk about with your friends. Then, write down some options that will contradict their conclusions, or change the game entirely. Try to make them positive. Here are some of mine:

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Home of Grace Groner, secret millionaire

It’s hard to be a buy and hold investor in this economic condition. We’ve seen major companies get bailed out, or evaporate like a pool of water on a hot summer day.

But think what it was like to be a buy-and-holder in 1935, the depths of the Great Depression. That’s when Grace Groner spent $180 on three shares of her employer’s stock. Over the next seven decades, those shares in Abbot Laboratories split many times and she reinvested the dividends, too.

And guess how much she ended up with when she passed away in January?

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Stafan Baudy @ Flickr

Personal finance is really about asking the right questions.

Should you buy and hold? Should you sell and walk away?

How much should you save?

How much should you spend?

What’s the best investment?

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answers to all those questions–but a lot of smart bloggers and columnists do. And I’ll let them do the talking in this week’s edition of Weekly Wisdom.

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Thanks to you, our readers, February set all time highs for visitors and page views. There were 70,298 visitors and 150,898 page views.

The top blog posts were:

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Last week, INO released a neat video about some technical indicators for gold. It’s a cute video and it is easy to understand, so I wanted to share it with you. You can see it on the INO site here.

There is one thing that is critical to keep in mind when looking at any indicator or argument for technical analysis, and this video is a perfect example. Due to the near infinite power of our minds, it is possible to see more in technical analysis than is really there.

How is that possible?

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pic by dizznbonn via Flickr Creative Commons

The trader’s Catch 22 is that high risk can lead to high returns. Oh, and high risk can also lead to devastating losses.

But the great trading dilemma is to figure out  how much return you’ll receive for the risks you take. One way to estimate this risk-reward ratio is by using the Sharpe ratio.

The Sharpe ratio is named after Nobel-prize winning economist William Sharpe.

The  ratio is calculated by subtracting the risk-free rate – such as that of the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond - from the rate of return for a portfolio and dividing the result by the standard deviation of the returns.

This may sound a little complicated, but compared to other ways of determining risk, the Sharpe Ratio is a snap.

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I think Warren Buffett is an interesting guy.

I admire him. I read a few books that were written by him or about him. I believe–at least for my long-term holdings in my portfolio–that the Intelligent Investor, written by Buffett’s mentor, Benajamin Graham, is a must-read.

Over the years, I’ve had some disagreements with Buffett, but nothing to stop me from sitting down and having steak with him.

But there’s one thing that would: paying a million dollars for that steak.

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One day, your ability to generate wealth will be automatic and ever-present.

How can we make this assertion?

The exponential wave of technology, which is turning the globe into interconnected, untethered web of information, will eventually wash over the world of personal finance.

Those first waves have already lapped onto the shore. The tsunami, though, is building.

In this untethered world, the power of mobile financial apps are growing in power.

Here are some  great apps you can use to monitor the market and, in some cases, use to trade.

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