Hypo Venture Capital Zurich’s Hint for Long-Term Investors: Remain Totally Invested

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Since mid-June, Traders Brains experienced the volume of bullish agents down to 37%, compared to 57.3% ten weeks before. The existing reading may be the smallest since September of a year ago, that ended up being an excellent buying prospect.
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The American Association of Individual Investors in its regular study today reveals the amount of bulls at 24%, compared to 48% bears.
The last period these were reduced had been August of a year ago, when the bullish group entered at 21%, versus 50% bears. That became a great purchasing option.
Whether or not the past is going to repeat stays to be seen, however belief along with the oversold readings have definitely shifted from the suitable course.
The CBOE (equity only) put/call percentage index had been 1.11 in June 15. A lot more puts purchased than calls. This can be the greatest single-day reading ever since the 1.18 reading in September 11, 2008, following the S&P 500 decreased 3.4% two days before.
The 'development' that induced the ultimate lack of assurance had been the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers that was officially recorded on September of that year.
The prior higher reading of 1.35 took place on March 13, 2008. The event activating that intense reading had been the entire lack of assurance in Bear Stearns’ power to remain in business.
Inside a Fed-arranged union, it had been bought out by JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Its collapse had been tracked back to subprime loans.
The existing high reading possibly relates to a probability of the default of Greek sovereign debt. In a flight to safety, MarketWatch states the fact that return achieved a great "all-time" low of 0.3% on US two-year treasury notes lately.
Clearly, complacency of late April continues to be substituted for a lot of issue that is the condition in the cycle of stock modifications.


With my impression, the existing sell-off signifies the modification in a continuing bull market. The current sell-off often had been extended late, since the Dow Industrials acquired 32% by July 2010 thru its latest peak in April 29.
Although the Russell 2000 increased 44% on the identical time-frame, which is an amazing shift considering it took place just 10 months. Every time a main bull market runs into the pullback in the present degree, this doom-and-gloomers turn out to be significantly shrill, and it may become unnerving to a lot of traders.
The facts in the issue usually modifications are generally unavoidable. The bull market is in no way the one-way highway. Actually throughout the strongest bull market, there's usually restorative action that establishes for the following progress.
A couple of the best challenging yet vital cornerstones of investment philosophy are:
Using a stop/loss approach;
Along with a ready to risk paper revenue in the course of unavoidable market modifications, using the objective for long-term profits.
At this time, the second part of the technique is basically experimented with.
With these designs in the positive setting, the guidance regarding long-term investors would be to remain totally invested. Traders are encouraged to keep track of mental stops each day.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Religious world leaders don’t always welcome Armageddon

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History tells us that nine countries developed nuclear weapons after the United States. Three were hostile dictatorships. But none ever used nuclear weapons against an enemy or gave them to terrorists.

Hawks warn that we should not be reassured by history. Iran is different, they say. Iran’s leaders aren’t merely hostile and ruthless. They are religious fanatics. “These are people who have a particular, you know, fanatically religious world view, and their statements imply to me no hesitation of using nuclear weapons if they see them achieving their religious or political purposes,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in January.

Harper is alone among world leaders in talking publicly like that. But his view is widespread.

“The mullah’s goals are metaphysical,” wrote Ed Morrissey, an influential American blogger and broadcaster. “They want their Messiah to arrive and establish a global Islamic rule. According to their view of Islam, that will come at the end of a great conflagration, and there isn’t a much better way to start one of those than by lobbing nukes at Israel, the U.S., or both.”

In the past, nuclear powers could be dissuaded from using nuclear weapons by the threat of counterattack. But that won’t work with Iran, hawks say. If the creation of God’s final paradise requires that the world end in fiery tribulation, then nuclear annihilation would not be a catastrophe. It would be martyrdom.

Martyrdom is not to be feared. It is to be greeted joyously. It is to be desired, planned for, and worked toward.

The internal logic here looks sound. Frighteningly so.

But only when viewed at a distance. Up close, it falls apart.

“Given the novelty of the martyr state argument, and how unequivocally its proponents present it, one would expect to encounter an avalanche of credible evidence,” wrote national security analyst Andrew Grotto in a 2009 essay. “Yet that is not the case.”

Of course it is true that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often mentions the return of the Hidden Imam – the messiah of Shiite Islam – in his speeches. But Ahmadinejad has actually been rebuked by leading Iranian clerics for doing so. One said Ahmadinejad “would be better off concentrating on Iran’s social problems … than indulging in such mystical rhetoric.”

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: EU determined to ensure eurozone financial stability

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ZURICH: The European Union is “resolutely determined” to ensure the financial stability of the eurozone, the bloc’s President Herman Van Rompuy said Wednesday.

“We are resolutely determined to guarantee the financial stability of the eurozone, the stability of the eurozone is also vital for the world economy,” he told reporters after a meeting with Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey in Zurich.

Among topics raised during the discussions were bilateral relations between Switzerland and the European Union, as well as the eurozone debt crisis.

Calmy-Rey also signalled Switzerland’s support for Brussels in its fight to contain a public debt crisis, saying that it is in Bern’s interest that solutions are found “as the crisis is impacting our country on several counts.”

European stocks closed sharply lower Wednesday over fears that Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s decision to resign spells months of political uncertainty for Italy.

In a speech later Wednesday at the University of Zurich, Van Rompuy also stressed that Brussels’ key “aim is to keep the eurozone together with all the 17 participants on board.”

Beyond guaranteeing stability, it also needs to boost growth.

“Our duty is not only to guarantee the financial stability of the euro area. It is also and at the same time to stimulate economic growth. Another major challenge,” he said.

“In the end, only sustained economic growth can bring back confidence, create jobs and absorb debts,” he added.

At the same time, Van Rompuy also called on the EU’s trading partners to do their bit in preventing the world from sliding back into recession.

“It is the own self-interest of non-euro players that we put the eurozone’s difficulties behind us,” he said.

“But inversely, it is also in Europe’s interest that the US stabilises its public debt situation, or that China stimulates its domestic demand and make its exchange rate more flexible.

“Growth is a global responsibility. Some tend to forget this,” noted Van Rompuy.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Debate on modern technology in the classroom needs a reboot

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There’s no doubt that technology brings with it some scary things. The scariest of them all is the uncertainty.

Human beings are creatures of habit and the introduction of anything new typically raises an eyebrow (at least) or pitchforks (more often). It’s a somewhat common theme that is tiresome to me, but one that provokes debate throughout the times.

The common gripe against smartphones and mobile devices is that they are shackles that handcuff an employee to their work – 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

While your boss may have an expectation that because you have a BlackBerry you should be responding to emails at 6 a.m. on a Saturday (emergency or not), this is less about your boss’s disposition and more about a lack of education as to how to use technology to get the best results.

Many people are shocked to hear my iPhone never makes a peep. I get one silent vibrate for text messages (and I’m quick to block those that I do not know) and two vibrations for a phone call.

My iPhone will not beep, vibrate or blink when emails, tweets or Facebook updates arrive. Why? It’s my job to best manage my technology (and not the other way around).

The people I work with know that email is the best form of communication with me and that if it’s an emergency, to please call.

On the other side of this communication, I check my emails (and other digital notifications) when I want to (not in the moment that they happen). The phone does ring, but it’s only on a rare occasion (for those emergencies).

There’s a macro lesson here: If you think your kid is spending too much time on their iPad and not enough time outside getting some exercise, don’t blame the iPad.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Obama sees China as a partner in Mars mission

http://hypoventurecapital-research.com/2011/05/hypo-venture-capital-zurich-headlinesobama-sees-china-as-a-partner-in-mars-mission/

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Barack Obama views China as a potential partner for an eventual human mission to Mars that would be difficult for any single nation to undertake, a senior White House official told lawmakers.Testifying May 4 before the House Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice and science, White House science adviser John Holdren said near-term engagement with China in civil space will help lay the groundwork for any such future endeavor. He prefaced his remarks with the assertion that human exploration of Mars is a long-term proposition and that any discussion of cooperating with Beijing on such an effort is speculative.

“(What) the president has deemed worth discussing with the Chinese and others is that when the time comes for humans to visit Mars, it’s going to be an extremely expensive proposition and the question is whether it will really make sense — at the time that we’re ready to do that — to do it as one nation rather than to do it in concert,” Holdren said in response to a question from Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a staunch China critic who chairs the powerful subcommittee that oversees NASA spending.

Holdren, who said NASA could also benefit from cooperating with China on detection and tracking of orbital debris, stressed that any U.S. collaboration with Beijing in manned spaceflight would depend on future Sino-U.S. relations.

“But many of us, including the president, including myself, including (NASA Administrator Charles) Bolden, believe that it’s not too soon to have preliminary conversations about what involving China in that sort of cooperation might entail,” Holdren said. “If China is going to be, by 2030, the biggest economy in the world … it could certainly be to our benefit to share the costs of such an expensive venture with them and with others.”

Wolf, who characterizes China’s government as “fundamentally evil,” said it is outrageous that the Obama administration would have close ties with Beijing’s space program, which is believed to be run primarily by the People’s Liberation Army, or PLA.

“When you say you want to work in concert, it’s almost like you’re talking about Norway or England or something like that,” an irate Wolf told Holdren, repeatedly pounding a hand against the table top in front of him. “As long as I have breath in me, we will talk about this, we will deal with this issue, whether it be a Republican administration or a Democrat administration, it is fundamentally immoral.”

Holdren said he admired Wolf’s leadership in calling attention to China’s human-rights record, but noted that even when then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan referred to the former Soviet Union as “the evil empire” in the late 1980s, he continued to cooperate with the communist bloc in science and technology if doing so was deemed in the U.S. national interest.

“The efforts we are undertaking to do things together with China in science and technology are very carefully crafted to be efforts that are in our own national interest,” Holdren said. “That does not mean that we admire the Chinese government; that does not mean we are blind to the human rights abuses.”

Holdren said that as White House science adviser, his capacity to influence the president’s diplomatic approach to Beijing is limited.

“I am not the person who’s going to be whispering in the president’s ear on what our stance toward China should be, government to government, except in the domain where I have the responsibility for helping the president judge whether particular activities in science and technology are in our national interest or not,” Holdren said.

Recently enacted legislation prohibits U.S. government collaboration with the Chinese in areas funded by Wolf’s subcommittee, whose jurisdiction also includes the U.S. Commerce and Justice departments, the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

When asked how he interpreted the new law, part of a continuing resolution approved in April that funds federal agencies through Sept. 30, Holdren said the administration will live within the terms of the prohibition.

“I am instructed, after consultation with counsel, who in turn consulted with appropriate people in the Department of Justice, that that language should not be read as prohibiting actions that are part of the president’s constitutional authority to conduct negotiations,” Holdren said. “At the same time there are obviously a variety of aspects of that prohibition that very much apply and we’ll be looking at that on a case by case basis in (the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) to be sure we are compliant.”

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, who joined Wolf last fall in opposing an official visit to Beijing by Bolden, accused Holdren and the White House of plotting to circumvent the law.

“It’s not ambiguous, it’s not confusing, but you just stated to the chairman of this committee that you and the administration have already embarked on a policy to evade and avoid this very specific and unambiguous requirement of law if in your opinion it is in furtherance of negotiation of a treaty,” Culberson said. “That’s exactly what you just said. I don’t want to hear about you not being a lawyer.”

Holdren said a variety of opinions and legal documents indicate the president has exclusive constitutional authority to determine the time, scope and objectives of international negotiations and discussions, as well as the authority to determine the preferred agents who will represent the United States in those exchanges.

Culberson reminded Holdren that the administration’s civil research and development funding flows through Wolf’s subcommittee, and that funding could be choked off if the White House fails to comply with the law.

“Your office cannot participate, nor can NASA, in any way, in any type of policy, program, order or contract of any kind with China or any Chinese-owned company,” Culberson said. “If you or anyone in your office, or anyone at NASA participates, collaborates or coordinates in any way with China or a Chinese-owned company … you’re in violation of this statute, and frankly you’re endangering your funding. You’ve got a huge problem on your hands. Huge.”

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Apple, Nokia show continued interest in InterDigital patents

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Following Google’s purchase of Motorola, a new report claims that Apple is still interested in acquiring InterDigital, as are Nokia, Qualcomm and others in the wireless industry.

Citing sources familiar with the situation, Reuters reported Wednesday that “several companies” are “pondering bids” for wireless telecom specialist InterDigital Inc. The forthcoming auction of the company will be postponed from next week until sometime after Labor Day.

More time is necessary because potential bidders have reportedly asked for more times to analyze the company’s patents. Companies in the wireless industry are interested in securing those inventions as patent infringement lawsuits involving all of the major industry players continue to mount.

Sources also reportedly said it’s unknown whether Google will remain in pursuit of the InterDigital patents. The search giant was previously named as a potential bidder, but the announcement that it will buy Motorola for $12.5 billion may have changed those plans.

Apple was first named as a likely bidder on InterDigital in July. The company has 1,300 patents related to wireless device technologies that would be of prime interest to any smartphone maker.

The industry-wide desire for patents was predicted to drive up the price of InterDigital by as much as 50 percent. But shares of the company dropped on Monday following the news that Google will buy Motorola, as investors are now less certain that Google will make a play for the InterDigital portfolio.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines: Raising Capital? 3 Tips for Entrepreneurs

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I’ve been helping entrepreneurs raise capital as a securities lawyer for more than 17 years, and there are certain fundamental mistakes that I’ve seen entrepreneurs make over and over again. Accordingly, I thought it would be helpful to share three basic tips for entrepreneurs in connection with raising capital.

Tip #1: Only Offer and/or Sell Securities to “Accredited Investors”. As a general rule, a company may not offer or sell its securities unless (i) the securities have been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and registered/qualified with applicable state commissions; or (ii) there is an applicable exemption from registration. The most common exemption for startups is the so-called “private placement” exemption under section 4(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 and/or Regulation D, the safe harbor promulgated thereunder.

The rule of thumb in connection with private placements is only to offer and sell securities to “accredited investors” under SEC Rule 506. There are two significant reasons for this: First, Rule 506 preempts state-law registration requirements — which means, in general, that the company merely must file a Form D notice with the applicable state commissioners (together with the SEC) and pay a filing fee; and second, there is no prescribed written disclosure requirement under Rule 506.

There are eight categories of investors under the current definition of “accredited investor” — the most significant of which is an individual who has (i) a net worth (or joint net worth with his/her spouse) that exceeds $1 million at the time of the purchase (not including the value of their primary residence) or (ii) income exceeding $200,000 in each of the two most recent years (or joint income with a spouse exceeding $300,000 for those years) and a reasonable expectation of such income level in the current year. (Note that this definition is currently under review by the SEC and must be reviewed by the SEC every four years pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Act.)

If a company offers or sells securities to non-accredited investors, it opens a Pandora’s box of compliance and disclosure issues, under both federal and state securities law. Yes, there are ways for entrepreneurs to sell securities to non-accredited investors under SEC Rules 504 and 505 (and perhaps other exemptions), but it often requires that specific disclosure requirements be met and registration/qualification under applicable state law, both of which are very time consuming and costly.

Tip #2: Do Not Use an Unregistered Finder to Sell Securities. Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of retaining unregistered finders (commonly referred to as consultants, financial advisors or investment bankers) to raise capital for their companies. The problem is that finders must be registered with the SEC if they are operating as a “broker-dealer,” which is broadly defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to mean “any person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others.”

If the finder is receiving some form of commission or transaction-based compensation (which is usually the case) the finder will generally be deemed a broker-dealer and thus will be required to be registered with the SEC and applicable state commissions. If the finder is not registered as required and sells securities on behalf of a company, the private placement will be invalid (i.e., it will not be exempt from registration) and the company will have violated applicable securities laws — and thus could be subject to serious adverse consequences, as discussed below.

(Note that the Form D filed with the SEC and applicable state commissions requires disclosure of the identities of all finders engaged in the offering of securities of the company.)

Tip #3: Diligence the Investors. The most common mistake I have seen entrepreneurs make in any dealmaking context, including fundraising, is the failure to investigate the guys (or gals) on the other side of the table. Indeed, this is more a business tip than a legal one; but it is critical.

Remember: if you’re going out and raising funds, you will, in effect, be married to your investors for a number of years. Accordingly, at a minimum, the entrepreneur should get references and speak with other entrepreneurs and CEOs who have raised funds from the investors in order to make an informed judgment as to whether the particular investor is an appropriate individual with whom the entrepreneur should be partnering.

Issues to consider include: Has the investor done investments like this before? If so, how many and what role did he play? Can the investor be counted on and trusted? Will the investor add significant value (e.g., through his contacts, technical expertise, etc.)? What is the investor’s motivation to invest? Is the investor a good guy or a jerk? Sadly, there are a lot of bad apples out there, and entrepreneurs need to be very careful whom they allow to invest in their companies.

Conclusion. Non-compliance with applicable securities laws could result in serious adverse consequences, including a right of rescission for the security holders (i.e., the right to get their money back) injunctive relief, fines and penalties and possible criminal prosecution. That being said, no matter how many times I advise otherwise, there are always a handful of entrepreneurs who decide they don’t want to pay legal fees to comply with securities laws and they handle the issuance themselves. In a word: imprudent.