Attending online talks

[mtbc]

Widespread lockdown seems to have increased the number of talks I can make it to. For instance, this week I listened to sessions on my employer's finances and an introduction to Emacs Lisp, next week I have an artificial intelligence symposium, Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, and the following week Charles Schwab offer their occasional Navigating Today's US Market webcast so there is quite a range of topics finding its way into my calendar. Forcing remote attendance is helpful: for example, so many of the British Computer Society events occur in or near London, which is useless for me; this year I can finally attend that annual AI symposium. Having the speaker system on my desk makes for comfortable listening.

Comments

[goldibehr]

What do you hope to get from these brokerage house webcasts? All the incentives *for them* point in the direction of keeping you invested in the market, whether the market is rising or falling.

[mtbc]

I'm curious as to what their theories are and what they can substantiate in terms of mechanisms. For example, do they think the current market buoyancy is institutional investors betting on the effect on prices of the recent surge in retail investors? (Hertz, Tesla, etc. have made amazing viewing lately.) Also, they offer a wide range of products, and even among bonds and stocks from different sectors, countries, etc., I'm curious as to what they think one should go long or short on, where the uncertainties are. But, yeah, they probably don't much like that my portfolio currently mostly just sits as cash, I tend to avoid shorting and the US markets look way overvalued to me right now.