Leonardo Da Vinci CV's

If you need inspiration on your cover letter/CV read this letter from Leonardo Da Vinci applying for a position with the Duke of Milan:
 
 

"Most Illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below. 1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.
3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.
4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry; and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great detriment and confusion.
5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.
6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a trench or a river.
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.
9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvellous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and defense.
10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to another.
11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.
Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency - to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc."

The translation and the original letter via the Stone blog: http://www.cenedella.com/stone/archives/2010/01/leonardo_da_vincis_resume.html

 

Great post about investing in gold on The Business Insider

It's always usefull to know about the alternatives to futures, options and etf's when investing in gold.
 
http://www.businessinsider.com/11-ways-to-get-into-gold-2009-10
 

Self fulfilling profecy?

Great piece by James Saft from Reuters, according to this the markets will go up because managers need the markets to go up.
 
"With just a few short weeks until the end of the year, look for many fund managers to take on more risk in an effort to salvage their annual return figures.
This is not about fundamentals, this is about something far more important: career risk.
Hedge Fund Research's Global Hedge Fund index, which is broadly representative of the industry, is up just 11.9 percent year to date, while its Equity Hedge index is scarcely doing better, up 12.6 percent. The HFR Macro Fund index is actually down 8 percent, indicating the best paid minds in the business did not see the astounding emerging markets rally and dollar fall coming.
Given that global emerging markets are up something on the order of 60 percent this year, that all global shares are up 30 percent and even the S&P 500 is up 22 percent, we can conclude that a lot of managers are heading into the year-end reporting season with a lot of ground to make up."
 
...
 
 
"The authorities, in their wisdom, have broken the circuit of a crash by flooding the market with enough money to drive up asset prices. This is intended to bring money out from under mattresses and force people to take risks again, to make them dance even if they feel like a fool.
That is unlikely to last forever or to work forever, but a reversal is less likely before January 1 than after."
 
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2009/11/17/while-the-music-plays-funds-gotta-dance/
 

Currency evolution graph

From FT:
 
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9a2fdf12-b725-11de-96f2-00144feab49a.html
 

Derivatives have been around for a while

"The ledger of the financial broker Charles Blunt contains the details of some 1,500 transactions realized between 1692 and 1695, about a third of which regard the then novel trade in equity options (p.9). The technique had arisen in the 1620s in the commodity market and was proving very useful in the decade following the Glorious Revolution, when some 100 joint-stock companies were floated in London (p.10). During the boom of the early 1690s, it is likely that “several thousand derivatives were transacted each year”."

From Economic History Blog via FT Alphaville

http://premodeconhist.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/murphy-a-2009-the-smartest-boys-in-the-alley-early-derivatives-on-the-london-stock-market

Yes we bottle

" 63-year-old homeless Russian man has gone from street life to stock market trader after collecting thousands of empty booze bottles for cash, a popular Russian tabloid reported on Tuesday."
 
From Reuters:
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE59C1Z420091013
 

M&A Potential Targets and Acquires from Credit Suisse

Via FT Alphaville
 
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/09/17/72336/an-ma-cheat-sheet/
 
You can get the full document here:
 
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/lib/data/filecache/attachment/C/S/CS-MA.pdf