Just waiting for President Obama to deliver the State of the Union address. I like this particular political ritual. There’s something old-worldly about it. But I’m annoyed at the same time because I know Obama will take credit for the growing economy. Then Republicans in their response will say, no, it’s not Obama’s policies, it’s […]
Expect more volatility as interest rates drop
Markets have been rather tetchy recently, and analysts are scratching their heads. Is it the price of oil? The Swiss National Bank’s ditching of the Euro peg? Nervousness about a bubble in stocks, dangerously inflated by loose monetary policy? The reason for historically high P/E ratios is indeed low interest rates, but not because monetary […]
School shootings data visualization: putting information into context
A lot of fuss has been made over the map below that shows school shootings since Newtown. This visualization was put out by Everytown for Gun Safety, and republished in the Huffington Post. The problem? The below dots represent all shootings even near schools, even those that didn’t result in a death. Now, I don’t […]
When to go interactive: data visualization of census business stats
With most data visualizations, interactivity is wasted on your visitors – they take a look at the graph, get the gist, then move on. But there are times when you want interactivity. Mainly, this is when you want it to act as a reference. Below are some visualizations using census data. I transformed the raw […]
Why the Swiss Franc has markets in a tizzy
It’s interesting to read stories on the Swiss Franc today because it’s not the case study we’re all used to hearing. Normally a country is forced to devalue in order to save its economy from higher interest rates elsewhere. The Swiss National Bank is instead saying it is forced to RE-value because it can’t, what […]
How to get creepy with a basic Google Analytics account
How the Fed makes or breaks stocks
When we invest in stocks or bonds, we’re buying the right to cash flow. Bonds usually pay a higher % because companies must pay interest on time or face bankruptcy. Stocks are riskier because companies don’t have to disperse cash to shareholders. They can lose money for years on end with no dividend in sight, or they […]
Quick securities analysis with Morningstar data
Whenever I’m scouring the markets for investment ideas, I try to fish in pools where there’s value rather than growth. For example, when using Google’s stock screener, I’ll look for low P/E ratios, low price/book ratios, low price/sales ratios, large 52-week negative declines, a reasonably-sized market cap and decent dividends. Maybe all of those will apply, maybe just […]
Did quantitative easing work? A visualization on jobs, interest rates & QE
It looks like Republicans want a little credit for the growing number of new jobs. No doubt Obama will point it out incessantly when he speaks for the next Democratic nominee for President. But you won’t be hearing about the Bernanke or the Yellen economy. The folks that do the most to steer aggregate demand […]
Schooling Nate Silver on Data Visualization
First of all, every election season I devour Nate Silver’s blog FiveThirtyEight.com, and I loved his book The Signal and the Noise. So it’s with great pleasure, and maybe a little regret, that I get to show the folks at fivethirtyeight a thing or two about data visualization. I just read the article Dear Mona, I Masturbate […]