BitClout the ‘influencer stock market’ going for the Millions

 

BitClout, a blockchain-based social network, lets users speculate on the social clout or influence of personalities. Such celebrities that have verified their accounts to claim their Creator Coins include Tiffany Trump, Jake Paul, Ashton Kutcher, Jordan “Wolf of Wall Street” Belfort, Cameron Winklevoss, Grant Cardone, and Tyler Winklevoss among others.

Its backers include prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists, including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital and Social Capital, North Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, TQ Ventures, Social Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Polychain, Digital Currency Group, and Pantera Capital, who have invested close to $100 million in the platform.

 “They are truly the first tool we have as a society to trade ‘social clout’ as an asset. If people understand this, then the value of someone’s coin should be correlated to that person’s standing in society,” according to the white paper on BitClout.

Essentially, BitClout wants to work as a stock market in which, instead of companies, people invest in the reputations of individuals. There are two types of crypto assets available on the platform. The first is BitClout, its native cryptocurrency. The second is creator coins, which are unique crypto assets for each creator on the platform. Users invest in creator coins using BitClout.

The price of a creator’s coin depends on their ability to create value for their investors through their posts, other content, or actions in the real world. Consumers and fans can in turn speculate on the price of these digital assets.

For now, you can directly buy BitClout, which as on May 5 is worth about $170 a coin, only by transfering bitcoin to get BitClout but I can really say that by using the platform there is a sense of community that I have never experienced before.

In just over a month, bitcoins worth $227 million have flowed into the platform, with over 205,000 total users included myself and 1,600 users Verified with an impressive 20% growth in the last 10 days

BitClout's founders have remained anonymous. The CEO goes by “Diamondhands” on the platform. However, there is speculation that Nader Al-Naji, former founder of cryptocurrency startup Basis, is the man behind the platform. I would definitely recommend to use the platform play with it and enjoy the sense of community find me there as @Millionairedad And if you happen to try it follow me, comment and let me know.  I will Invest in all the readers of this article.

Covid 19 and The Trillions: The Worst Economic Downturn In History

 It’s been a long time since I wrote in this blog, but recent events caused by an organized pandemic made me write and give my take on the current situation.

Our world has changed dramatically in the past three months. A rare disaster, a coronavirus pandemic, has resulted in a tragically large number of human lives being lost. As countries implement necessary quarantines and social distancing practices to contain the pandemic, the world has been put in a Great Lockdown. The magnitude and speed of collapse in activity that has followed is unlike anything experienced in our lifetimes.

This is a crisis like no other, and there is substantial uncertainty about its impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. A lot depends on the epidemiology of the virus, the effectiveness of containment measures, and the development of therapeutics and vaccines, all of which are hard to predict. In addition, many countries now face multiple crises—a health crisis, a financial crisis, a psychological crisis  and a collapse in commodity prices, which interact in complex ways. Policymakers are providing unprecedented support to households, firms, and financial markets, and, while this is crucial for a strong recovery, there is considerable uncertainty about what the economic landscape will look like when we emerge from this lockdown.

Under the assumption that the pandemic and required containment peaks in the second quarter for most countries in the world, and recedes in the second half of this year, in the April we  could project global growth in 2020 to fall to -3 percent. This is a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from January 2020, a major revision over a very short period. This makes the Great Lockdown the worst recession since the Great Depression, and far worse than the Global Financial Crisis.

Assuming the pandemic fades in the second half of 2020 and that policy actions taken around the world are effective in preventing widespread firm bankruptcies, extended job losses, and system-wide financial strains, we could expect global growth in 2021 to rebound to 5.8 percent.

This recovery in 2021 is only partial as the level of economic activity is projected to remain below the level we had projected for 2021, before the virus hit. The cumulative loss to global GDP over 2020 and 2021 from the pandemic crisis could be around 9 trillion dollars, greater than the economies of Japan and Germany, combined.

This is a truly global crisis as no country is spared. Countries reliant on tourism, travel, hospitality, and entertainment for their growth are experiencing particularly large disruptions. Emerging market and developing economies face additional challenges with unprecedented reversals in capital flows as global risk appetite wanes, and currency pressures, while coping with weaker health systems, and more limited fiscal space to provide support. Moreover, several economies entered this crisis in a vulnerable state with sluggish growth and high debt levels.

For the first time since the Great Depression both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are in recession. For this year, growth in advanced economies is projected at -6.1 percent. Emerging market and developing economies with normal growth levels well above advanced economies are also projected to have negative growth rates of -1.0 percent in 2020, and -2.2 percent if you exclude China. Income per capita is projected to shrink for over 170 countries. Both advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies are expected to partially recover in 2021.

Alternative scenarios

What I have described is a baseline scenario but, given the extreme uncertainty around the duration and intensity of the health crisis, we also explore alternative, more adverse scenarios. The pandemic may not recede in the second half of this year, leading to longer duration of containment, worsening financial conditions, and further breakdowns of global supply chains. In such cases, global GDP would fall even further: an additional 3 percent in 2020 if the pandemic is more protracted this year, while, if the pandemic continues into 2021, it may fall next year by an additional 8 percent compared to our baseline scenario.

Exceptional and immediate policy actions

Flattening the spread of COVID-19 using lock downs allows health systems to cope with the disease, which then permits a resumption of economic activity. In this sense, there is no trade-off between saving lives and saving livelihoods. Countries should immediately  spend generously on their health systems, perform widespread testing, and refrain from trade restrictions on medical supplies. 

While the economy is shut down, policymakers will need to ensure that people are able to meet their needs and that businesses can pick up once the acute phases of the pandemic pass. The large, timely, and targeted, fiscal, monetary, and financial policies already taken by many policymakers—including credit guarantees, liquidity facilities, loan forbearance, expanded unemployment insurance, enhanced benefits, and tax relief—have been lifelines to households and businesses. This support should continue throughout the containment phase to minimize persistent scars that could emerge from subdued investment and job losses in this severe downturn.

Policymakers must also plan for the recovery. As containment measures come off, policies should shift swiftly to supporting demand, incentivizing firm hiring, and repairing balance sheets in the private and public sector to aid the recovery. Fiscal stimulus that is coordinated across countries with fiscal space will magnify the benefit for all economies. Moratoria on debt repayments and debt restructuring may need to be continued during the recovery phase.

Multilateral cooperation is vital to the health of the global recovery. To support needed spending in developing countries, bilateral creditors and international financial institutions should provide concessional financing, grants, and debt relief. The activation and establishment of swap lines between major central banks has helped ease shortages in international liquidity, and may need to be expanded to more economies. Collaborative effort is needed to ensure that the world does not de-globalize, so the recovery is not damaged by further losses to productivity.

There are some hopeful signs that this health crisis will end. Countries and leaders should succeed in containing the virus using social-distancing practices, testing, and contact tracing, and treatments and vaccines may develop sooner than expected.

In the meantime, we face tremendous uncertainty around what comes next. Commensurate with the scale and speed of the crisis, domestic and international policy responses need to be large, rapidly deployed, and speedily re-calibrated as new data becomes available. The courageous actions of doctors and nurses need to be matched by policymakers all over the world so we can jointly overcome this terrible crisis.

Bannon Takes On Europe, Populism and Cryptocurrency

Stephen K. Bannon during the early weekend in Rome and Milan, explained his modest efforts to build a vast network of European populists to demolish the Continent’s political establishment.

“All I’m trying to be,” he said, “is the infrastructure, globally, for the global populist movement.” Only months ago, Mr. Bannon was forced out of the White House and Breitbart News, the alt-right news empire he helped make into a political force, for the sharp criticisms of President Trump’s children attributed to him in a book. “He’s lost his mind,” Mr. Trump said at the time.

But now Mr. Bannon, the architect of Mr. Trump’s populist campaign message and the president’s former chief strategist, has returned with an International Nationalist Populist mission.

On Saturday, he headlined the annual conference of France’s far-right National Front in the northern city of Lille, where he was introduced by its leader, Marine Le Pen. People with knowledge of Mr. Bannon’s itinerary suggested that he might meet on Sunday with the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, but Mr. Bannon declined to say whether or not he would, only saying that he admired Mr. Orban as a “hero” and “the most significant guy on the scene right now.”

In Zurich, Mr. Bannon  had a “fascinating” meeting on Tuesday with leaders of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. 

But it is Italy, where populist forces smashed the country’s establishment by combining to win more than half the vote on Sunday, that Mr. Bannon has turned into his de facto headquarters.

He declined to name whom he had met, other than to describe them as a broad array of politicians, operatives and investors.  Aside from the occasional coffee at Campo de’ Fiori or photo-op at Piazza Navona, Mr. Bannon has been holed up in hotel rooms, taking meeting after meeting.

In Rome, he stayed at the luxurious Rafael hotel, where Bettino Craxi, the face of Italy’s corrupt establishment and mentor to Silvio Berlusconi, was pelted with coins in 1993 by an angry mob as he departed the political scene.

In Milan, he sat in a room at the grand Principe di Savoia, opposite a copy of Titian’s portrait of the Duke of Mantua, a master of intrigue in Renaissance Italy and a longtime sufferer of syphilis, surrounded by red damask wallpaper. Jams were on a room service cart, and a copy of a book titled “Headlines All My Life” was on the desk.

Duke of Mantua

He sipped sparkling water and described a grand vision for a global populist future. 

In the United States, Mr. Bannon said, he is working on a project to create a think tank to “weaponize” populist economic and social ideas.

He sees that work spreading to Europe, where a proliferation of populist websites in the image of Breitbart News, either owned by him or others, will spread those ideas, under his guidance. As a final component, he wants to train an army of populist foot soldiers in the language and tools of social media.

(Stephen K. Bannon took Zurich by storm Tuesday, addressing a sell-out crowd,” began Breitbart’s article on the speech.)

But Mr. Bannon, who said he was paying for the trip, said he was weighing whether to buy a name-brand outlet, like Newsweek or United Press International, or to start a new one, or to connect entrepreneurs with capital or invest himself. 

“Whether I do it or a local entrepreneur does it,” he said, “there are going to be these populist nationalist news sites that pop up in the next year on line. That will only take these things to the next level.”

Finally and the only positive outcome of this trip might be that he has become fascinated with crypto currencies and how they can help populist movements, the subject of a speech he gave in Zurich this week. 

In preparation for the speech, organized by Die Weltwoche, a conservative Swiss magazine, Mr. Bannon said he visited the town of Zug, known as Crypto Valley for its bustling cryptocurrency industry. He was impressed.

“If Brussels and the European Central Bank is worried about Italy going to the lira, their concerns should be that all these communities and states are going to crypto,” he said in Milan.

The Blockchain Breakout and The Millions

During the past month we all realized why Bitcoin - the much-hyped “cryptocurrency” - is the pioneer in this space and how many more BCH, ETH, LTC among others are emerging victorious down the road.

The technology powering Bitcoin is not just changing the currency industry - it’s changing IT, healthcare, banking, cybersecurity, and nearly every other industry today.

I can tell you that major companies, like IBM and Walmart, and even an entire country (Belarus) are implementing this technology in their own businesses to completely transform the way they do business:

• Reducing fraud
• Accessing transaction and product details at lightning speeds
• Securing payments and blocking hackers
• …and much, much more

Now, I’m going to show you how you can invest in it right now and take advantage of what I call the “Blockchain Breakout”… without being a venture capitalist or a super-connected angel investor by simply sending you a personal invite to Coinbase a digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco, California. One of the best broker exchanges of Bitcoin (₿), Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum (Ξ), Litecoin (Ł) and other digital assets with fiat currencies in 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide.

Here is my personal Invite: COINBASE and as soon as you use this referral you will get $10 of free Bitcoin, now bear in mind that during this season it might be possible that Bitcoin itself might be up to € 20,000 per Bitcoin so there is still a long way to profit but be cautious.

Did you know that the most exciting part of Bitcoin is not the currency itself?

The most exciting part of bitcoin is actually the technology behind the currency.

Bitcoin is run by a technology called “blockchain.”

Here’s how blockchain works:

Most people use a middleman to make transactions. The bank is an example of a middleman. If you want to buy something, you need to either get money from the bank or use a payment processor to run the transaction.

The blockchain technology allows consumers and suppliers to conduct these transactions directly, removing the need for a third party.

Now, here’s the key to the whole thing: blockchain provides a decentralized database, or “digital ledger”, of transactions that everyone can see. (here some interesting literature)

                               

The network of computers that can see the transaction must all approve an exchange before it can be completed.

This network is essentially a chain of computers that must all approve an exchange before it can be verified and recorded.

And there’s no central database to hack.

But while this sounds complicated, it all happens much faster than you think: faster than wire transfers or any other banking transactions.

The technology can work for almost every type of transaction involving value, including money, goods and property.

Its potential uses are almost limitless and people like you or me control the price, the use, and the demand. So with this brief update I just have to say Enjoy the Christmas season and The New Year and see you in the other side.

Bitcoin and The Millions

After all the ups and downs Bitcoin (btc) is proving that investing in digital currencies isn’t for the faint of heart. Lately and based in Budapest I see all the recent developments of btc, just 4 years ago I managed to secure some healthy  positions  when it was worth about 24€ per btc then mid July 2017 it went up to 2500€ per btc and during the last two months it went up to over 7000€ per btc. 

After plunging as much as 29 percent from a record high following the cancellation of a technology upgrade on Nov. 8, the largest cryptocurrency came roaring back in early trading Monday before fluctuating between gains and losses.

“Crypto trading is not for the novice investor,” said John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Securities LLC in New York.

While multiple reasons are being cited for the price volatility, one of the more viable is that some investors are switching to alternative coins. Bitcoin cash, an offshoot of bitcoin that includes many of the technical upgrades being debated by developers, has more than doubled in the same period, however I wouldn't suggest changing to other cryptocurrency alternatives since the only one I endorse and support is Bitcoin.

“We have seen similar steep falls in bitcoin throughout the year -- specifically in June and September -- but every time a considerable decline occurs, new investors jump in to experience the new asset class,” Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at ForexTime Ltd., a currency broker that uses the brand FXTM, wrote in a note Monday.

While markets had been focusing on bitcoin’s more than 500 percent surge this year, bitcoin cash was gaining popularity because of its larger block size. That’s a characteristic that makes transactions cheaper and faster than the original but I don't believe it could take over not yet.

When a faction of the cryptocurrency community canceled plans to increase bitcoin’s block size on Wednesday -- a move that would have created another offshoot -- some supporters of bigger blocks rallied around bitcoin cash.

The resulting volatility has been extreme even by bitcoin’s wild standards and comes amid growing interest in cryptocurrencies among regulators, banks and fund managers. While skeptics have called its rapid advance a bubble, the asset has become too big for many on Wall Street to ignore. Even after shrinking as much as $38 billion since Nov. 8, bitcoin boasts a market value of about $110 billion.

Supporters of bitcoin’s technology upgrade “are now switching support to bitcoin cash,” said Mike Kayamori, head of Tokyo-based Quoine, the world’s second most-active bitcoin exchange over the past day. “There’s a panic about what’s happening. People shouldn’t panic. Just hold on to both coins until we see how it plays out.”

The cancellation of last week’s bitcoin upgrade has left users to choose between the two versions of the cryptocurrency. On one side is the original bitcoin, powered by so-called SegWit technology, which aims to improve its performance by moving unessential data off of its underlying blockchain which eventually will have to evolve to be able to improve the blockchain. On the other we have bitcoin cash which we don't know too much about it.

Proponents of bitcoin cash believe their approach is simpler and closer to the original goal of bitcoin, which was described primarily as a payment system in its white paper. Supporters of the original bitcoin say that vision is too limited, and that by improving the blockchain with SegWit technology, bitcoin can become a new digital-asset class that not only supports payments but countless other functions.

Upgrade Called Off

While bitcoin cash has been around for months, it saw limited support as the community awaited last week’s technology upgrade for the original bitcoin, which promised similar features. Now that the upgrade has been called off, businesses that use the cryptocurrency primarily as a payment method are expected to increase adoption of bitcoin cash.

While bitcoin cash surged over the weekend, it hasn’t been a straight line up. The cryptocurrency was trading at $1,300 at 4:45 p.m. in New York, down from a high of about $2,478 on Sunday, Coinmarketcap.com prices show.

Bitcoin has been similarly volatile; it initially rose after news that it would avoid another split, but the gains were short-lived. Its plunge earlier Monday to as low as $5,605 compares with an intraday record $7,882 on Nov. 8.

I believe Bitcoin will still dominate the world of cryptocurrency and if you are hesitant to buy it, then you could also opt for the alternative of Investing in the stock market with The Bitcoin Group SE  a holding company focused on innovative and disruptive business models and technologies from the field of cryptocurrency and blockchain. 

The Bitcoin Group SE holds 100% of the shares of the Bitcoin Deutschland AG that operates the only German authorised trading platform for the digital currency bitcoin under the domain Bitcoin.de. and it is currently trading at a discounted price of 76€ per share. So there you have it, either buying bitcoins or Investing on them might be a move that should be made and for now let's just forget about bitcoin cash.

Meanwhile I don't want to hear about any other ICO's not even Bitcoin for a while so secure positions and see you with the Millions.

Buffet and The $1 Million bet

Protégé Partners has likely found itself on the losing end of a $1 million bet with Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett after a group of hedge funds it selected failed to beat a Vanguard Group index fund for almost a decade.

The outcome of the wager, which concludes at the end of this year, is the latest reminder of the momentum that low-cost passive investing has gained since the financial crisis. Investors have increasingly favored index funds, which track benchmarks, over paying higher fees to money managers who make active picks in the stock and bond markets.

Buffett, a billionaire investor and outspoken critic of fund managers who profit from high fees at the expense of their clients, bet in 2007 that a Vanguard S&P 500 index fund would beat five funds of hedge funds selected by Protégé Partners over the next 10 years. Buffett laid out evidence in his 2017 annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders that he’s set to win the wager as none of the funds outperformed the index fund from 2008 through 2016.

Jeffrey Tarrant, founder and CEO of Protégé Partners, an asset manager based in New York, didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The $3 trillion hedge fund industry, which has been struggling to outperform stock and bond markets, could see assets shrink by as much as 30 percent in the next three years if performance continues to disappoint, according to a report this month from Boston Consulting Group. By contrast, Vanguard, whose name is synonymous with index funds, attracted more money from investors in 2016 than all mutual funds and exchange-traded funds combined, preliminary data from Morningstar earlier this month showed.

“Though there are thousands of professional investment managers who have amassed staggering fortunes by touting their stock-selecting prowess, only one man — Ted Seides — stepped up to my challenge,” Buffet said in his letter, signed Feb. 25. So If you also want to have an edge on Investing you could also use a Percentage Calculator.

Seides was then co-manager of Protégé Partners, a fund-of-funds firm that focuses on emerging hedge fund managers. The Oracle of Omaha said in his letter that the five funds Seides selected had invested their money in more than 100 hedge funds, which meant the results wouldn’t be “distorted” by the performance of a single manager.

“I hadn’t known Ted before our wager, but I like him and admire his willingness to put his money where his mouth was,” Buffett said. “He has been both straight-forward with me and meticulous in supplying all the data that both he and I have needed to monitor the bet.”

Seides, who left Protégé in 2015 and is now a managing partner at Hidden Brook Investments, said in an email that he couldn’t comment on the bet because technically it belongs to Protégé.

According to Buffett, the five funds-of-funds gained 2.2 percent on an compounded annual basis in the nine years through 2016. “That means $1 million invested in those funds would have gained $220,000,” he said. “The index fund would meanwhile have gained $854,000.”

Under terms of the wager, the winnings will go to a charity. Buffet said the performance of the funds of hedge funds leaves “no doubt that Girls Inc. of Omaha, the charitable beneficiary I designated to get any bet winnings I earned, will be the organization eagerly opening the mail next January.”

"Black Edge" Biggest Insider-Trading Scandal in Wall Street

Every trader needs an edge, but not all edges are created equal. Recently I got in contact with Sheelah Kolhatkar, and agreed to write an article on her latest book. It is a must read! it gives a clear perspective on the use of Information while trading and we all know that in the Investing and trading scene, one of the most powerful edges is information. At SAC Capital, Jason Karp color coded information to teach his analysts "what was safe and what might be illegal." The white edge was "readily available information" - completely safe but not worth much. The gray edge might be (and probably was) material, nonpublic information. At SAC, the only way to be sure it wouldn't get the firm into trouble was to talk to its legal counsel, something few traders were eager to do. So gray slid into white. Black edge information was obviously illegal. Karp warned his analysts: "If you do one thing wrong, you're in jail and your life is ruined. There is no trade that's ever worth it." So check your Investment goals carefully with this ACalculator and the end of the second post for more Info

And yet. As one trader, asked if he knew of any fund that didn't traffic in inside information, answered: "No, they would never survive." The author adds: "In this way, black edge is like doping in elite-level cycling or steroids in professional baseball. Once the top cyclists and home-run hitters started doing it, you either went along with them or you lost."

   Agreement with Sheelah to write this post.      

Sheelah Kolhatkar's Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street (Random House, 2017) chronicles the government's ultimately disappointing effort to build a case of insider trading against the legendary Steven A. Cohen of SAC Capital. The story, extensively reported at the time, transfixed the hedge fund world and financial news junkies. A lot of people were cheering for the government.

Kolhatkar, a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the widely discussed article "What If Women Ran Wall Street?", worked as a risk arbitrage analyst at two hedge funds before becoming a journalist. For this book, she relied not only on published press sources but on "hundreds of interviews with more than two hundred people, as well as voluminous court transcripts, exhibits, deposition testimony, SEC interview notes, notes taken by FBI agents during witness interviews …, diary entries, written correspondence, and other documents." Predictably, Cohen refused to be interviewed.

Hacker One gets $40 Million in Funding

It is definitely a good time of the year to start thinking vulnerabilities on different web platforms, I just started a new project within regards of publishers and advertisements within this blog, and the information I managed to get is impressive so now while trying to avoid spying software at all cost I will  also do a total clean up and at the same time maximize every single opportunity for publishers and advertisers this idea came right on hand since Hacker One was very busy last year finding vulnerabilities in some of the most sensitive software used by the United States military. The Department of Defense selected HackerOne to run the US federal government’s first bug bounty challenge, Hack the Pentagon. 

             Some valuable stats about this blog Copyright 2017

Over the course of a month, hackers working with the company found 138 vulnerabilities. The challenge cost $150,000 to run and saved the DoD over $1 million, according to former defense secretary Ash Carter.

Next up the DoD also awarded HackerOne a $3 million contract to Hack the US Army. Between November 30th and December 21st, participating security researchers discovered 118 vulnerabilities, the first of which was found in just five minutes.

HackerOne is one of several startups, such as Synack and Bugcrowd, that organize bug bounties and vulnerability disclosures for companies. These bug bounties work by organizing security researchers to find vulnerabilities for HackerOne’s customers; the hackers in turn receive a cash reward from the company.

Today HackerOne announced a Series C financing round of $40 million, which was led by Dragoneer Investment Group. The company will use the funds “to invest further in technology development, expand market reach, and continue to strengthen the world’s largest and most diverse hacker community,” according to a press release. Among HackerOne’s other customers are Adobe, Yahoo, Uber, GitHub, Twitter, Slack, Nintendo, General Motors, Airbnb, and Qualcomm.

“Together we hit harder and the results speak for themselves,” HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos said in a press release. “There’s no such thing as perfect software and bug bounty programs are the most efficient and cost-effective solution for finding security vulnerabilities in live software. With support from Dragoneer we are in the best position to rapidly scale and empower the world to build a safer internet.”

The company currently has more than 100,000 hackers registered to hunt bugs on the platform. So far, they have resolved over 37,000 security vulnerabilities for more than 700 customers. HackerOne’s payouts for hackers are also rather high. So far, the company has awarded over $13 million in bug bounties, $7 million of which was awarded in 2016, according to a press release.

A 2016 study by the Ponemon Institute found that the average consolidated total cost of a data breach is $4 million, while the average cost of a breach in the US is $7 million. Bug bounty programs such as HackerOne have their skeptics, though, with security analysts and even founders of bug bounty startups saying that these programs are by no means a silver bullet for cyber-security issues.

It is now time to see the real results for the future, so if you have a profitable idea on this issue or if you want to publish some valuable information drop me a line or two. Meanwhile let's all be safe!

New Year +New Job = New Life and the Millions

The start of a new year is an ideal time to look for a new job – you're fresh with enthusiasm from making New Year's resolutions and you're ready to make changes to improve your life. If you're in a job that just isn't doing it for you, let me tell you something this is the time to stop and get the best job you can get,  this is the time to do it, seize this opportunity to focus more clearly on where you'd like to head career-wise this 2017 and extricate yourself from the old ways.

1-Be Positive about your abilities and the available jobs. While the economic times are not the best, your worth shouldn't be; you're a valuable asset to any company and this is how you need to think about yourself. Whatever the downturns in the economy, there are still jobs for the right person in your field, and this year it's going to be you. If you've been hunting around for a time, use the vibe of 2017 to reinvigorate your search and to get back into the swing of searching further afield with eagerness. It is important to keep in mind that your attitude and posture will impact the way that a potential employer feels about you, so if you're not feeling positive, this will come across in the interview.

• Do things that maintain your confidence up: write a blog, exercise, join social events, market yourself. The gratitude and the positive feedback will help to maintain your morale high and  can continue to show your interest in what you're doing, as well as your continued updated experience.

• If you're feeling low after a period of searching and not getting far, this is a good time to regroup and think about ways to bolster your confidence. If you're concerned that you may be suffering from a very low dip in self-esteem, get your full energy friends around and consider talking to your close friends and relatives overcome this fallen resilience.

 If you're just feeling flat, use this time to spruce up your image by getting a new haircut, buying something new to wear to interviews, or changing something about your clothes, fashion style, or makeup that represents the slightly older, slightly wiser you this year.

2-Look back over your previous job-hunting effectiveness for the past year. If you've been job-hunting for a while, this may suggest that it's time to reassess your approach and you need to inject new strategies into your job-hunting. Even if you haven't been looking until spurred by a New Year's resolution, the following tips are a good steer:

• Think about unsuccessful applications and interviews. Try to pinpoint what you did or didn't do that probably lost you the opportunity and a make a decision to remedy that part of your job-hunting.

• Go through your CV. Look at how to improve it and how to represent yourself in a stronger light. What areas are you underselling yourself in? Just as some people exaggerate their values, quite a few more people make the opposite mistake of downplaying their skills and accomplishments.

Think about what you have done so far and look for transferable skills and experiences that you can offer a new employer – this will help you to step out of the rut of staying within your same job type and will open up many more job possibilities. Stick to the truth, use concrete examples to back up your transferable skills and move yourself beyond your current or previous job description.

• Have someone else read through your CV to pick up on mistakes and to check that it is making sense in the most concise way possible. If possible, have someone familiar with the industry you're aiming at working in read through your CV to see if it would make their radar pick up. It is important not to be defensive about needing help from other people to prepare yourself as best as possible for the job market; find people you can trust and who resonate with you and you'll receive invaluable guidance.

3-Consider whether you need to brush up your professional or technical skills. This might be a great time of year to enrol in courses that build on or extend your existing knowledge, as a way to improve your job prospects. If you're already working, look for courses offered within your organization. If not, there are many opportunities offered through, summits, classes, and other courses that can boost your existing skills, all these could only add up to your college degree. Sometimes it's the smaller but more specific skills that can set you apart from the other equally qualified people seeking the same job, and if having an up-to-date first aid certificate or computing skill can boost your chances, then give the course some consideration.

4-Start looking for suitable positions. The broader your potential job pool, the better chances you'll have at finding a new job this new year. Don't be shy at selecting as many relevant jobs as possible that match your skill set and are realistically doable for you.

• Think beyond where you live. While this might be a scary thought initially, if you are prepared to relocate from where you currently live, you widen the potential job pool even more, especially if you're prepared to move to a place that is a hub for the skills you've got. Even overseas might prove a promising option if you're keen and able to move this far.

• Network more. Networking is important for socializing, and drop the stress, at the moment I´m also running this Social Networking Club of Helsinki feel free to join it could also help you to relax and meet new and successful people but it can also help you into  finding your new dream job, and normally people are more inclined to feel positively about someone they've met and connected with positively than only knowing a cover letter and CV. Don't overdo the job hunting around them though; simply be positive, interesting and interested in them, and try to keep in touch with them after meeting.

Take great care with your cover letter. One-size-fits-all cover letters are the least likely to get you the job; personalize the cover letter to the job in question every single time. Make sure the cover letter is addressed to the person who will be reading it, clearly point out how you meet the requirements outlined in the job description and keep it short.

5-Prepare well for Interviews. Common interview mistakes include dressing down, not knowing much (or anything!) about the place you'd like to work for, and poor interview mannerisms. If you have problems with interviews, it is possible to get coaching (contact me) but if that's not an affordable option, at least read as much as possible about interview techniques, and even better, have a friend or family member role play interview situations with your, using a range of normal to tricky questions. This will help to build your confidence, as well as getting you habituated to being interviewed and answering questions quickly but well.

• Anticipate the key questions such as telling the interviewer your strengths and weaknesses what you bring to the job, what interests you about the company and position, your willingness to work extra hours/travel/relocate, the ways in which your previous experience is relevant, and being asked if you have any questions. For some industries and jobs, it is also important to have a realistic but fair idea of what salary you believe is appropriate.

6-Be Patient. While this is your New Year's resolution, changing or getting a new job can take time and much of the year may pass before you find a new job. Provided you're expecting it to take time, you're less likely to fret and more likely to persist, which is important in ensuring that you don't lose sight of what you really want from your resolution to get a new job.

• Plan a timeline. While you're still feeling enthusiastic and full of renewed vigor about the New Year, making a plan for the coming year's job search is useful because it can determine your goals for job-hunting this year and it will serve as a reminder of where you're headed should you find yourself feeling off course later during the year.

So let´s go out there and let´s get the Best Job we can for this 2017 because we only live once, we can make it happen! share your ideas, tips or suggestions on the comments. And if you have the best job out there check my profile and let me know!

Economists from Finland and Britain win Nobel Economics Prize 2016

Finnish-born Bengt Holmstrom and British Oliver Hart won the Nobel Economics Prize on Monday for work that addresses a host of questions from how best to reward executives to whether schools should be privately owned.

Their findings on contract theory have implications in such areas as corporate governance, bankruptcy law and political constitutions, said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which announced the 8 million Swedish crown ($928,000) prize.

"This theory has really been incredibly important, not just for economics, but also for other social sciences," said Per Stromberg, a member of the prize committee and professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. Contract theory considers, for example, whether managers should get paid bonuses or stock options, or whether teachers or healthcare workers should be paid fixed rates or by performance-based criteria.

Holmstrom, a 67-year-old professor of economics and management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said he had been friends with Hart for decades and was thrilled to be sharing the award with him. "He's my closest intellectual friend here and a personal friend also. And he has been important for my thinking and I hope I have been important for his thinking," he told Reuters Television at his home in Boston. Holmstrom has studied the setting of contracts for workers from teachers to corporate bosses. He concluded that in high-risk industries, pay should lean toward a fixed salary, while in more stable sectors pay should be more biased toward performance rewards.

Asked at a Cambridge, Massachusetts, news conference about the current high level of executive pay, Holmstrom said, “It is somehow demand and supply working its magic.” Asked at a Cambridge, Massachusetts, news conference about the current high level of executive pay, Holmstrom said, “It is somehow demand and supply working its magic.”

But he said he was concerned about the state of income distribution and the unhappiness of many workers about stagnant wages and incomes. “I’d much rather live in a society where this wasn’t happening,” he said. “But I’m not prepared to speak about the question about how to repair it” because it would mean tinkering with complex markets.

Hart, an economics professor at Harvard University, has focused on understanding which companies should merge and with what mix of financing, and when institutions such as schools, prisons and hospitals should be privately or publicly owned.

The nine academics who won Nobel prizes this year in medicine, physics, chemistry and economics included five Britons, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, a Japanese and a Finn.

Slush 2016 Music & Tech in Helsinki

I remember last year´s Slush event in Helsinki back then I had the pleasure to meet Andreas Liffgarden  and Rasheed Richmond top tech and music  influence's, we had a brief conversation last year and we all came to the conclusion that it was only a matter of time in which Tech and Music eventually would collide to create...Magic... it seems that it might be happening soon at  Slush 2016 a two-day music and technology conference in Helsinki.

Slush Helsinki 2016 welcomes 1,500 music and tech influences to Helsinki, and most importantly, encourages honest discussion of building the future of the music industry together. Slush wants to help entrepreneurs in the music industry to bridge the gap between tech, music and entrepreneurship. “Technology both interests and frightens music people, yet many find that there are opportunities embedded in it. Since we have had requests from both music and tech influencers for this type of a catered program, it is easy, and not to mention relevant, to bring the discussion to Slush,” says Nicolas Dolenc, President and Executive Producer at Slush.Slush Music, brings together startups, innovative technologies, new platforms and plenty of entrepreneurial artists.

“Entrepreneurs of the music industry are the center of the event. Slush Music aims to be a place where you can discuss these things together, find the best parts of both music and tech worlds and maybe discover common ways to reach the future.”

Slush Music is a two-day music and technology conference, on Nov 30–Dec 1 in Helsinki. Day 1 at Cable Factory offers Slush Music attendees an exclusive platform to discuss the most striking topics in the music industry, including direct investment in music, block chain technology, tracking music ownership and live vs. VR streaming. On Day 2, the Slush Music crowd will blend in with the rest of Slush attendees at the Exhibition and Convention Center of Helsinki, and they will find five stages filled with tech experts sparking a dialogue on the future, and up to 15,000 people to connect with.

Among the announced speakers are Benji Rogers, Founder & Chief Strategy Officer at PledgeMusic, Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy Entertainment, Chris Thur, Co-founder and CEO at Yousician, Andreas Liffgarden, Co-founder of Soundtrack your Brand, Julie Knibbe, Head of Product Strategy at Deezer, and Samu Haber, Artist at Sunrise Avenue and Manager at Comusic Ltd.

The main partner of Slush Music is Finnish Composers’ Copyright Society Teosto. Other announced partners include Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony Music, Sennheiser, Radiot.fi, Nordic Music Export Office, Music Finland, Genelec and Bauer Media. 

Held during the darkest time of the year, Slush has always been characterized by a unique energy and enthusiasm, and Slush Music will not be an exception. The revolutionary event will be a music festival without any musical showcases – the creativity, desire to succeed and entrepreneurial aspects will sing for themselves, turning the event into a phenomenon every music industry professional should make sure to track. Make sure you attend this year's Event and I might find you there. You can register for the Event here:  slush.org/music