THE EXECUTIVE BREAKTHROUGH 21 ROAD TRIPS TO THE TOP

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The Future of Asset Allocation?

Not a discussion of asset theory per se, but the author's method of allocating investments among his asset classes

Understanding Asset Allocation: An Intuitive Approach to Maximizing Your Portfolio (Financial Times (Prentice Hall))
Victor A. Canto
Manufacturer: FT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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All About Asset Allocation

Cocktail Economics: Discovering Investment Truths from Everyday Conversations

The Art of Asset Allocation : Asset Allocation Principles and Investment Strategies for any Market

Asset Dedication: How to Grow Wealthy with the Next Generation of Asset Allocation

Mastering the Art of Asset Allocation

ASIN: 0131876767

Customer Reviews:

"If you have an accurate economic forcast then....".......2006-08-22

The basic concept of this book is that cyclic asset allocation goes beyond strategic asset allocation (SAA) and improves returns by tweeking a portfolio SAA based upon an accurate economic forcast. In principle it sounds like a good idea but obtaining an accurate economic forcast is a REALLY BIG "IF". It vaguely reminds me of Will Rogers' advice to "only buy stocks that go up and if they don't go up don't buy them." The author doesn't explain how to get the accurate economic forcasts needed to implement his strategy other than some vague statement about averaging leading economic forcasts. The example in the book uses the forcasts of his own economic forcasting firm but the example is unverifiable. I'd go so far as to say that the "efficient market theory" which says that all available information (presumably including economic forcasts) is already priced into the market, precludes the user from obtaining any investing advantage using the strategies of this book.

The Future of Asset Allocation?.......2006-07-11

You would think that most would question the conventional asset allocation practice of using historical return averages and correlations after the post-Y2K bear market. The markets prove time and time again that past returns are a lousy predictor of future results; and yet, most rely solely on historical data in implementing asset allocation. This mostly leads to chasing performance and being late to the game. At best, it results in "diversified" and mediocre performance.

Dr. Canto uses history the right way- by looking at how various economic environments and fiscal and monetary policies influence relative performance between asset classes. One can then approach asset allocation in a forward manner; that is, identify which asset classes have better risk/return prospects given the current and upcoming economic and market climates.

It's too easy as an imvestment professional to sell past performance, but it's a bad way to propose an investment strategy and to manage client assets (certainly the "optimal" allocation prescribed by an historical data-fed optimizer almost never performs as well as it did in the past).

We've been pleased in using Dr. Canto's approach over the years to management client assets; and I see more and more investment shops integrating his approach. You would think that after some 50 years of Markowitz and the Efficient Frontier, investors will soon realize that like most sciences, investment theory has also evolved, producing new and improved ideas. A great book for the serious investor.

Not a discussion of asset theory per se, but the author's method of allocating investments among his asset classes.......2006-06-05

This book sure gives you a lot to think about. And while the author's method of dealing with various matters related to investing different classes of assets, it is NOT a discussion of a general theory of asset investing or portfolio theory. Victor Canto has his own approach to investing and has, for example, developed his own periodic table of asset returns. One of the first things you have to ask yourself is whether you buy into his manner of classification and if this historical data convinces you of anything about the future. A great deal of money has been lost over the years by investing in methods that fit historic data very well.

Canto has his own consulting company and what he offers here probably fits well the kind of advice you will get from his firm. I am not saying it isn't useful. Certainly, if you like to look at data closely and taking lots of factors into your investment decisions, this approach can be a great deal of fun for you. He offers insightful comments about taxes, changes in the investment environment, statistical variance and all kinds of semi-technical matters. Certainly, there is enough uncertainty that if it doesn't appear to be working for you it can be explained to you how you misunderstood this or that and didn't get things just right or it would have worked out.

Again, I am not saying the book is without value, but I am also cautioning against getting too committed to what the author has put forward. Of course, he might be absolutely right and it could make you rich. Or not.

Book Description

Moral capacity is an important feature of what it means to be human. In this volume, the contributors have taken on the daunting task of trying to distinguish between legal and moral capacity. This distinction is difficult at times for clinicians, philosophers and legal scholars alike. Part of the challenge of defining moral capacity lies in the difficulty of adequately categorizing it. For this reason, the editors have chosen to divide the book into three parts. The first looks at the concepts involved in the discussion of moral capacity; the second considers the role of moral capacity in the lives of professionals; and the final part reflects on case studies of moral capacity or incapacity illustrating the challenge that moral capacity presents - its definition lying between two seemingly incommensurable models, those of the threshold and continuum.
This volume takes a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, and ties the disciplines of medicine, philosophy and law into the health context. It will be of interest to medical health professionals as well as researchers working in the areas of philosophy and law.

Book Description

Now in a greatly expanded second edition, this book relates fractals and chaos to a variety of geological and geophysical applications and introduces the fundamental concepts of fractal geometry and chaotic dynamics. In this new edition, Turcotte expands coverage of self-organized criticality and includes statistics and time series to provide a broad background for the reader. Topics include drainage networks and erosion, floods, earthquakes, mineral and petroleum resources, fragmentation, mantle convection, and magnetic field generation. The author introduces all concepts at the lowest possible level of mathematics consistent with their understanding, so that the reader requires only a background in basic physics and mathematics. He includes problems for the reader to solve. This book will appeal to a broad range of readers interested in complex natural phenomena.

Customer Reviews:

Un libre excelente, an excellent book!.......1999-11-10

El Profesor Donald Turcotte desde principios de los 80 ha venido trabajando en el modelamiento de problemas geológicos con fractales y caos, y su libro es una de las mejores introducciones al tema. Desde su Capítulo 1 se ve claramente el estilo concreto y práctico que lo caracteriza, y la manera como introduce el concepto de la dimensión fractal por medio de ejemplos sencillos es sin duda invaluable. El capítulo de fragmentación presenta algunos modelos interesantes de este complejo fenómeno, y los ejercicios son muy ilustrativos al respecto. El capítulo de sismicidad y tectónica presenta algunos de los más importantes resultados en la caracterización de fallas y terremotos, aunque se queda un poco corto en los avances recientes a nivel de evolución de sistemas de fallamiento. El capítulo de relación entre el tenor y el tonelaje para yacimientos minerales aún tiene su vigencia dado lo poco que se ha realizado en este campo. Su relación con los procesos magmáticos de diferenciación es muy interesante y se puede realizar mucha investigación al respecto. Su capítulo de Geomorfología presente avances interesante como el concepto de ordenamiento de tokunaga, pero también se queda un poco corto en los recientes avances en este campo. El capítulo de fractales auto-afines es una de las mejores introducciones a esta temática. El autor explica de manera clara algunos conceptos importantes como el exponente de Hurst, movimiento fraccionado browniano y cálculo de dimensiones fractales con transformada de fourier, además de introducir algunos conceptos de procesos estocásticos. El profesor Turcotte dedica algunos capítulos para hablar acerca de la teoría de sistemas dinámicos no lineales y sus posibles aplicaciones en ciencias de la Tierra. Esta vez son las inversiones del campo geomagnético y la convección en el manto los fenómenos que presentan este tipo de comportamiento y sus implicaciones en la geología y la geofísica son profundas. Su capítulo de criticalidad autoorganizada presenta claramente los conceptos fundamentales de lo que hoy en día ha llegado a ser uno de los grandes paradigmas científicos. Este capítulo permite entender la manera como se aplican este tipo de ideas al entendimiento de los terremotos, y en un futuro se extenderá a muchos otros campos de las ciencias de la tierra. Enhorabuena que el Profesor Turcotte haya publicado una obra como esta, que se convertirá en obra de referencia para la futura generación de investigadores en ciencias de la Tierra.

Superb application and explanation of chaos and fractals.......1999-02-14

Dr. Turcotte explains and applies fractals to a wide variety of geological and geophysical phenomena. The writing is accessible to any educated reader who is willing to follow the mathematics. I have found it very useful in applying fractals and chaos to my own fields of study. The second edition is a great improvement over the first: it is much expanded and clearer and begins at a more basic level. The book conveys a lapidary concision of thought that is impressive even in a pure theoretical scientist. Dr. Turcotte is to be congratulated in this important contribution, which is so very useful to scientists in other fields.

Fractals and Chaos in the Earth Sciences

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Fractals and Chaos in the Earth Sciences
Charles G. Sammis , and M. Saito
Manufacturer: Birkhauser
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems

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Self-Organized Criticality in Earth Systems
Stefan Hergarten
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

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Self-Organized Criticality: Emergent Complex Behavior in Physical and Biological Systems (Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics)

ASIN: 3540434526

Book Description

Self-organized criticality (SOC) has become a magic word in various scientific disciplines; it provides a framework for understanding complexity and scale invariance in systems showing irregular fluctuations. In the first 10 years after Per Bak and his co-workers presented their seminal idea, more than 2000 papers on this topic appeared. Seismology has been a field in earth sciences where the SOC concept has already deepened the understanding, but there seem to be much more examples in earth sciences where applying the SOC concept may be fruitful. After introducing the reader into the basics of fractals, chaos and SOC, the book presents established and new applications of SOC in earth sciences, namely earthquakes, forest fires, landslides and drainage networks.

Book Description

The discovery of high-temperature superconductors in 1986 by Bednorz and Müller led worldwide to an explosive growth of the field of superconductivity. This new interest extends to both the fundamental aspects and the technological appli- cations of superconductors. The monograph Magnetic Flux Structures in Superconductors provided an introduction to this field, covering the developments up to its first publication in 1979. Soon after 1986 the book went out of print. However, it continues to be widely used and quoted, and due to the ever growing interest in Magnetic Flux Structures in Superconductors, a second edition is now being made available. An extensive new chapter gives a comprehensive review of developments relevant to high-temperature superconductors. This new edition provides researchers, engineers and other scientists with an introduction to this field; it will also be useful as supplementary reading for graduate courses in low-temperature physics.

Customer Reviews:

A useful reference in type II superconductors.......2000-04-12

This book constitutes a standard reference for those who work in scientific and/or technological aspects of type II superconductors. It reviews in a quite condensed fashion a great deal of the present knowledge on the vortex state of type II superconductors, although it does not include the -intensively explored-mixed state of HTc materials. Quite "esoteric" subjects as the Corbino disk, or the influence of contacts in the noise spectra of type II superconductors are presented. Due to the extension of its scope within the field and its conciseness, it constitutes a nice reference book for those who work in type II superconductors. The only practical drawback is that units and notation are sometimes tricky. Other books in its same style, such as "Irreversible properties of type II superconductors" by Ullmaier (1975) might have the same usefulness, though.

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American Revolution Reference Library: With Cumulative Index
Linda Schmittroth
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUC3GC

Book Description

Building on a Borrowed Past: Place and Identity in Pipestone, Minnesota traces the result when one culture absorbs the heritage of another for civic advantage. Founded in 1874, Pipestone was named for the quarries where regional tribes excavated soft stone for making pipes. George Catlin and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described the place and its tribal history. Promotion by white residents of the quarries as central to America's Indian heritage helped Pipestone obtain a federal Indian boarding school in the 1890s and a national monument in the 1930s. The annual "Song of Hiawatha" pageant attracted tourists after World War II. Sally J. Southwick's prize-winning study demonstrates how average, small-town citizens contributed to the generic image of "the Indian" in American culture.Examining oral histories, memoirs, newspapers, federal documents, civic group records, and promotional literature, Southwick focuses on middle-class individuals as active in establishing historical, place-based identity. Building on a Borrowed Past reveals how identities form through adapting the meanings of cultural, spiritual, racial, and historical symbols. The ways in which town residents produced and maintained the place's image illustrate white Americans' continued assumption of Indian heritage as a usable past.Sally J. Southwick is a native of southwestern Minnesota and lives in St. Paul. An independent scholar, she has written on Native American and western history.

Building on a borrowed past: History, place, and identity in Pipestone, Minnesota

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Building on a borrowed past: History, place, and identity in Pipestone, Minnesota
Sally J Southwick
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

In this broad and provocative collection of original essays on artificial intelligence today, eighteen distinguished scholars set out to explain why and how certain discoveries about the human brain have or have not been used by the AI community, and whether the AI endeavor has increased out, understanding of human cognition. Their exploration focuses on the many controversies and debates that continue to vitalize the field.

Contributors include Jack D. Cowan, Daniel C. Dennett, Hubert L. Dreyfus, Stuart E. Dreyfus, Gerald M. Edelman, W. Daniel Hillis, Anya Hurlbert, John McCarthy, Pamela McCorduck, Seymour Papert, Tomaso Poggio, Hilary Putnam, George N. Reeke Jr, Jacob T. Schwartz, David H. Sharp, Robert Sokolowski, Sherry Turkle, and David L. Waltz.

Customer Reviews:

Genuine Insight.......2001-06-20

If you want to understand the fundamental issues related to the issue of artifical intelligence, especially relating to the war between the formal systems advocates and the neural network folks, this book is invaluable. It is a collection of compelling essays by some of the brightest and/or most lauded researchers in the field.

One essay rips apart the seams of the phenomological challenges of making a generally intelligent system and explained why (in 1988) that the attempt was doomed to failure, at least for the foreseable future.

The sad fact is, there are still people like Steven Pinkert who continue to repeat the "Symbol System Hypothesis" with religious fervor. If you read and understand Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus's essay "Making a mind vs Modeling a Brain" you will come to understand why Artificial Intelligence has failed its promise for more than 30 years and why it is such an incredibly difficult problem to solve.

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The Artificial Intelligence Debate: False Starts, Real Foundations
Stephen R. Graubard
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Artificial Intelligence | Computer Science | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000OQJRNQ

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