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My Experience with Fulfillment by Amazon

September 2nd, 2010

Recently I have been selling old books on Amazon. I discovered that it is actually a great way to get rid of them. The Amazon Marketplace is a very efficient and fairly easy to use system for sellers. And the prices are surprisingly high.

I tend to read books only once. I have about 10 favorite books that I can read over and over, but besides those I generally never read a book twice. If it makes a good reference book about trading or programming, then I might look at it many times. I take care of them and after I have read them they are still in new condition. That means they fetch a high price on Amazon.

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Business Strategy, Internet, Money, Success , , , , , , , ,

Tony Hsieh and Zappos

September 1st, 2010

After writing about Zappos yesterday, I remembered a few interesting things that I didn’t mention in the post about the company. I had heard about the wonderful customer service and company culture about 3 years ago. So I decided to do a little experiment. I called the customer service line to talk with whoever answered, to find out what it was like to work at Zappos.

Tony Hsieh, Co-founder of Zappos

I had heard about what a great company Zappos was, but I was a bit surprised when I actually talked to the customer service representative. Before I tell you what happened when I called Zappos, let’s think back about what a “normal” customer service call is like.

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Business Strategy, Dreams Come True, Success , , , , , , ,

Delivering Happiness – What about Money?

August 31st, 2010

Now I am reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. Tony is a co-founder  of Zappos, the online shoe company that was recently sold to Amazon for $1 billion. I highly recommend this book because it is entertaining and fun to read.

Yet it is also filled with some deep meaning. Tony shares his story about how he sold his first company, Link Exchange, to Microsoft for $265 million. His own share was $40 million. But here’s the interesting part. He would be paid $8 million for staying with the company for one year.

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Business Strategy, Dreams Come True, Great Books, Internet, Money, Success , , , , , , , , ,

New Investment System 1.0 – Part 3

August 29th, 2010

Since this new investment system does not yet have much diversity, I was looking for different investments. One of the most interesting that I found was the Euro Pacific International Value Fund. A mutual fund? Yes, I am a bit surprised myself.

After writing many posts about how bad mutual funds are, why am I considering this one? Because it makes sense. It follow’s Peter Schiff’s investment approach. I read a few of his books and I agree with his investment philosophy. You can read about it here.

Why is this mutual fund a good idea?

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Investing, Money, Success , , , , ,

Call for Traders

August 28th, 2010

Here at Online Investing AI, we are dedicated to using new technology to develop Automated Trading systems. But there is one small problem with a purely programming approach. It does not allow us to leverage off the best trading strategies that people have already developed. That’s where you come in.

Are you a successful trader? Are you looking for ways of using new technology and Artificial Intelligence to improve your trading strategies? If the answer is yes, then we are looking for you.

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Accelerating Technology, Automated Trading, Business Strategy, Success , , , , , , ,

New Investment System 1.0 – Part 2

August 25th, 2010

Here is the second installment about my new investment system. So far, I explained some trades in silver and gold. This post is about trades in the currency markets.

Unlike many currency trading system, this system is not an intraday system. I expect the trades to last for several months, at least. They are based on global economic policy, and the massive printing of U.S. dollars. These trades are based on the belief that the Indian and Chinese economies will perform better than the U.S. economy in the near future. Read more…

Investing, Money, Success, US Economy , , , , , , , , ,

New Investment System V1.0 – Part 1

August 24th, 2010

After reading about 25 books on investing, trading and automated trading, I finally came up with an investment system. Hopefully it will help crystallize your own investment philosophy.

Although there is an unlimited amount of information available about investing, it is a real challenge to find the good stuff. What is the good stuff, anyway? I think “good” information about investing (and in general) has the following characteristics: Read more…

Automated Trading, Investing, Money, Success , , , , , , , , , ,

The $45,000 Cell Phone

August 23rd, 2010

After writing yesterday’s post about the True Cost of a Car, I took a look down and saw my cell phone. I thought about how much a cell phone really costs, in the context of financial freedom.

A $45,000 Cell Phone

How much does a cell phone really cost? How much do you pay? For a cool phone like an iPhone, it costs $299 for the phone, plus $36 for an activation fee. Then, it costs about $110 per month for calls, data and text. Add taxes and other fees and it comes out to about $135 per month. Divide the startup costs by 24 (months), and the average monthly cost is $150.

Why does it cost $45,000?

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Dreams Come True, Investing, Money, Success , , , , , , , , ,

The True Cost of a Car

August 22nd, 2010

Like most things in life, we usually make snap decisions about buying a car. We go to a dealership to “look at cars”, and two hours later we are excited to discover we are driving our shiny new car home. Has this happened to you? It has to me.

Unfortunately, this is the worst possible way to buy a car. $250 per month may sound affordable, but nothing could be further from the truth. $250 per month does not come close to the cost of owning and using a car.

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Dreams Come True, Investing, Money, Success , , , , , , , , , ,

Idiocracy is Coming True

August 21st, 2010

I recently received a call from a recruiter, and he sounded like the guy from Idiocracy. Have you seen this movie? If not, you really need to see it. It is about the dumbing-down of America and the lowest common denominator of human being. It’s about drinking Gatorade and eating fast food.

The Guy from Idiocracy

After talking to the recruiter for a few minutes, I actually thought it was a joke. Why would anyone trust him to find good people? Why would anyone even bother to talk to him? His diction was so poor I didn’t really understand what he was saying. I could tell he knew absolutely nothing about programming. I just kept remembering the frustrations of the main character in the movie when he tried to communicate with the “normal” people.

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Dreams Come True, Money, Success, US Economy , , , , , , , , ,