trading recap

“Our chief goal is to make China moderately prosperous by the end of the decade,” stated Prime Minister Li Keqiang to Congress. 2,778 delegates pushed a red button, approving the 13th Five-Year-Plan. 53 brave delegates voted against, 25 abstained. Not a bad showing for a plan that will slash 6mm steel and coal jobs, one of countless sacrifices required to execute the most ambitious and challenging economic transition

“I believe human intuition and human senses are too advanced for artificial intelligence to catch up,” said Lee Se-dol, mankind’s Go champion, a game with more possible moves than there are atoms in the universe. His opponent hummed quietly, patiently – DeepMind – the world’s most advanced form of artificial intelligence. And who doesn’t like a challenge? A little sport? Draghi does. Every central banker does.

“His promises are as worthless as a Trump University degree. He’s playing members of the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House, and all we get is a lousy hat,” announced Romney, telling Americans what to do, while trying to be funny. One 90 year old white guy laughed. “Do not come to Europe. Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money. It’s all f

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens. Long ago. A breakthrough exposed pancreatic cancer’s Achilles heel; another week, another technological triumph. Extending lives. Boston Dynamics revealed its life-sized humanoid, capable of resisting attempts to topple it, or stop it. Advancing far more rapidly than imagined, robots will solve our needs, replacing our jobs (google it

Week-in-Review: Mon: China closed for week, China FX reserves fall $99bln (better than exp), India Q4 GDP +7.3% (Q1 estimate +7.6%), Turkey IP +4.5%, Spain industrial output +3.7%, Russia vehicle sales -29%, EU financials under severe pressure, US labor mkt conditions 0.4 (exp 0.2), S&P -1.4%; Tue: HK food vendor riots, Japan machine tool orders -17.2% (prev -25.7%), Japan M3 +2.5%, JGB 10yr yields turn negative

“Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” whined the Winner, devastated, watching his odds fall faster than some drunk dude at the Trump Taj. You see, the Donald knows odds don’t lie. But they do change. His odds to win the Presidency were 3-1 before Iowa; leading Republicans by a mile. Today they’re 8-1; trailing Rubio (2-1), and Hillary (1-1). Now, if the strongest horse lost his first of fifty races by a nose, should h

“It’s a very beautiful game with extremely simple rules that lead to profound complexity,” he said, marveling at the defeat of man by machine. 19yrs after IBM’s Deep Blue checkmated Gary Kasparov, Europe’s champion conceded defeat in the infinitely more complex game of Go. Google’s Deepmind AlphaGo system triumphed in this game with more board configurations than there are atoms in the universe. Another s

“Do or do not, there is no try,” said Draghi to the mirror, psyching himself up for the press conference. “Judge me by my size, do you?” continued the European Central Bank’s most powerful Star Wars fanatic, refining his intonation, drawing inspiration from Yoda’s words. “Fear is the path to the dark side.” Draghi fell back in his chair, weary, worn thin by the Empire’s unrelenting assaults. No sooner had he launched

“Ground Control to Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom, take your protein pills and put your helmet on.” David Bowie, Space Oddity, creative genius, R.I.P. “10-9-8-7-6 commencing countdown, engines on, 5-4-3-2, check ignition, 1. Blastoff. And may God’s love be with you.” Inspired by raw ambition, our Apollo mission. “This is Ground Control to Major Tom, you’ve really made the grade, and the papers want to know wh