BRAZIL - 2021/08/06: In this photo illustration the Instagram logo seen displayed on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Instagram will be experimenting with a new feature to announce when they are experiencing technical issues. Last week has been rough for Facebook who experienced outages on two separate occasions. The first one that happened on Monday was probably the worst they had ever seen.
It created quite a stir among their user base that leaves avid users questioning what might’ve led to such a thing. Instagram is now experimenting with a new feature. It will allow users to become aware of when they are experiencing technical issues on the platform.
In a recent blog post, they made it clear that they will be more transparent as to what is taking place behind the scenes of the platform.
“We’re testing a new feature that will notify you in your Activity Feed when we experience an outage or technical issue, and when it is resolved. We won’t send a notification every single time there is an outage, but when we see that people are confused and looking for answers, we’ll determine if something like this could help make things clearer. This test will run in the US and go on for the next few months. Just like any experiment, this may be something we roll out more widely, but we want to start small and learn. And if it makes sense to, we’ll expand to more people.” They said in the post.
Account Status
In the same post, they also talked about another additional feature that will enable users to see the current status. This will allow every user to see in real time where they stand and how likely they will get banned.
“We’re making changes to make it even easier to know what’s going on with your account, in a new tool called “Account Status”. Account Status will be your one-stop shop to see what’s happening with your account and content distribution.” They said in the post.
Overall, it shows that the heads of Instagram are being more transparent with their users who at times might be unaware of what’s going on. It’s a positive move that their core user base will come to appreciate.
As time goes on, it seems like the NFT market is more than a short-term fad. This year has been an emotional ride for crypto investors and NFT collectors. Investors have experienced both extreme highs and lows in the market.
Over the last recent weeks, Bitcoin has been on a great run leaving analysts to predict that it might break through its previous peak. Another part of the crypto market which is starting to gain even more recognition is NFTs.
Coinbase announces that they will be launching an NFT platform. Initially, they will be releasing a desktop version. This seems like great news for NFTs and cryptocurrencies in general.
It’s not yet verified whether it will be accessible to everyone on their platform which is over 56 million users. If that were to happen it will spread the adoption of NFTs among the average user who doesn’t even know what it is.
This move will have them competing with established members such as OpenSea. At this time they are one of the largest NFT marketplaces. Other companies who are quite active in the cryptocurrency space such as Binance and FTX have recently announced their own entries into the NFT marketplace.
This is positive news for Coinbase given their recent regulatory pressures. As for NFTs, we are only at the beginning of this trend. The market will continue to grow once Coinbase launches and the wider society adopts it.
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 08: Founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin during TechCrunch Disrupt London 2015 - Day 2 at Copper Box Arena on December 8, 2015 in London, England. (Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images for TechCrunch)
El Salvador made a controversial and game-changing move earlier in September. The government allowed Bitcoin to become a legal tender. It was controversial due to the stigma surrounding Bitcoin and the regulatory pressure it is currently facing.
At the same time, it made a statement that they are taking cryptocurrencies seriously. Despite the move, it still seems like an experiment of some sort. The faith of that experiment will be a framework for other countries to follow.
Despite the move to accept Bitcoin as the sole legal tender among cryptocurrencies at the moment. It still draws scrutiny among certain parts of the crypto-verse which leads even right up to Vitalik Buterin. In a recent Reddit discussion, the Ethereum co-founder never liked the way how it was brought to the public.
“Making it mandatory for businesses to accept a specific cryptocurrency is contrary to the ideals of freedom that are supposed to be so important to the crypto space. Nothing unpopular about this opinion.” He said.
He further went on to talk about the risk involved in pushing Bitcoin on a mostly uneducated public on the topic.
“Additionally, this tactic of pushing BTC to millions of people in El Salvador at the same time with almost no attempt at prior education is reckless, and risks a large number of innocent people getting hacked or scammed.” He further went on to state.
It’s clear that he is not too positive about the overall project. Time will tell how the overall project will go and whether they will expand into other wider cryptocurrencies adoption.
Bitcoin has been on a bull run recently and analysts are positive that it will continue. It has been up 12.7% from the previous week as of Friday. Other cryptocurrencies such as dogecoin and Ethereum also show a positive trend upward.
It is still far away from when it last peaked in February of this year. At the time it was priced at $64,863, at the time of this writing it was standing at $54,935.40. It’s still quite some distance from that figure.
Analysts and traders assume that one of the key drivers is the inflow of institutional money into the market. Large institutions are of the notion that the SEC will approve the first bitcoin futures exchange-traded funds in the upcoming weeks.
Given how strict the SEC has been over the last few months on crypto. If this materializes, it will be good news for the crypto community and a step in the right direction.
At the moment, the question that is being asked is whether it will pass that peak sometime this year? If the SEC holds true to their word it might be possible as other investors will see this as a sign of acceptance.
Expect more regulations to come as certain areas of the market can still leave customers with unpredictable risks.
Chillz Nightlife Tour is a unique tour company that offers Nightlife Experiences. The company takes its guests to the best restaurants, safest Clubs, and hottest Parties in Jamaica.
It was founded in November 2019 by its founder Gayon Robinson. Gayon is a young professional and an aspiring entrepreneur. She realized that the nightlife entertainment was missing from the guest experience while working at Bahia Principe Grand Jamaica Hotel as a Public Relations Manager.
Chillz guests enjoying themselves at a restaurant
From her time as a Public Relations Manager, Gayon saw firsthand the experiences the guests had as it relates to entertainment.
“The Hotels do have parties but they lacked the authentic Jamaican party experience that is unlike any other,” said Gayon.
Guests are taken to local restaurants where they can relax and experience authentic Jamaican cuisines. They are then taken to various clubs where they are able to party all night long in a fun and safe environment.
The rooftop of Eight Rivers Nightclub in Ocho Rios St. Ann Jamaica
Chillz partners with a variety of restaurants and clubs in Jamaica allowing it to offer exclusive VIP experiences that you won’t get anywhere else. This includes providing the guests with a whole section to themselves in all Clubs, with a fun and vibrant tour guide and a dedicated entertainment team.
This venture is really unique and brings a certain vibe to the entertainment and nightlife scene for all guests whether local or overseas. We hope to experience this ourselves and we look forward to what new concepts this company has in store for the entertainment space in the future.
In an age where the finance industry is being disrupted across the planet, it makes sense to talk about one of the pioneers of what we now know today as quantitative finance. The financial world is currently run by computer algorithms. Most of these algorithms have infiltrated the financial system to the point of ubiquity.
It was partly driven by technology that paved the way for investors to think of new ways on how to capitalize on it. One of those early pioneers was Jim Simons. He ran a company that’s been mostly driven by algorithms and perceived elusiveness that captivates even the most avid investor.
A man whose life has revolved around mathematics. When he started trading in his early 40s after he had left his successful academic career; it make sense to bring his own mathematical twist to it.
He left academia in 1978 and after 4 years of tinkering and testing out his models, he finally made the leap to start his own firm in 1982.
His flagship fund was named Renaissance Technologies. I am assuming he was inspired by the renaissance period between the 14th and 17th centuries, which is basically the foundation of our modern scientific and technological framework.
The Renaissance
Sir Isaac Newton
That period spawned scientists, philosophers, and artists who we might be familiar with through scientific notations and formulas; if we take a physics class for example.
It featured heavyweights such as Sir Isaac Newton, who was fundamental in classical physics at the time and still is today. A true genius in every sense of the word.
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was another notable scientist of that period who revolutionized astronomy. At the time that field of thought was heavily attached to theological reasoning.
Popes and their religious followers thought that the earth was at the center of the universe and everything revolves around it.
Through Copernicus’s mathematical models and discovery, he proved that concept wrong. It was a dagger in the religious community at the time. We should also take into consideration the power the church had at the time.
It was a pretty brave move that costed him to get ostracized.
Galileo Galilei
Lastly, Galileo Galilei was also another important figure who built on Copernicus’s earlier work and made lots of new discoveries in astronomy and other areas of natural science.
In summary, the main underlying theme of this period was a rebirth.
A new beginning that was detached from the antiquated physical laws laid down by early-age philosophers such as Aristotle, and Pythagoras for example.
Inspiration
Jim Simons saw Renaissance Technologies as a company that will bring new innovations to the field of finance. One of his main ideas was to remove humans from the equation and allow his entire system to be run by algorithms.
Algorithms that can interpret huge swaths of data and find patterns that the average investors couldn’t see.
While successful investors such as Warren Buffett relied heavily on the basic thinking framework of humans to solve investing problems and pick stocks.
Mr. Simons uses formulas to decipher the market. Over time his company outperformed the market. Since 1998 Renaissance’s Medallion Fund outperformed the market by over 66% percent annually without fees being taken into consideration.
If we should add fees into the equation it would outperform by 39%. His results eluded the market leaving pundits questioning if he has solved the age-old problem of profiting off of data.
Early Pioneers
Louis Bachelier
He wasn’t the first to think of applying mathematical knowledge to finance, we owe that to Louis Bachelier. Mr. Bachelier was considered the first person to have written a scholarly work on mathematical finance.
One of his most well-known works was his theory on stochastic models which we now call Brownian Motion.
Basically, the stochastic process is seen as a random walk on a graph.
If we should look across the financial landscape today and delve into the graphical representation of the markets. Most of it can be seen as a random walk. Mr. Bachelier basically tried to solve it or at least demystify the reasoning behind the market.
The Trident
Myron Scholes
His models were further built on by three very important figures to the overall industry, Fisher Black, Myron Scholes, and Robert Merton. Fisher Black and Myron Scholes collaborated on the famous Black Scholes model.
Fischer Black
That is so often used today to price options and other flavors of financial products in the derivatives market. If we should tie this into Jim Simons’ success, we can see that he was largely influenced by these paragons of finance at the time. A mere decade later he started his own firm to test his own theories.
Robert Merton
I should also give a note to Edward Thorp who was also influential in the field of mathematical investing. In his autobiography, most of his thinking derived out of probabilities and understanding chances.
The markets were usually seen as gambling houses. Even though it can still seem that way to skeptics, these men help to bring reasoning into the industry.
When other firms hired financial professionals fresh out of the ivy League, he hired scientists, physicists, mathematicians, and other professionals from fields of quantitative rigor.
This paid off pretty profitably over time. Fast forward to today’s era, quantitative trading has taken over the industry of finance and has spawned companies such as D.E Shaw which uses “ghost patterns” to predict the market.
Troubles
Even though Jim Simon’s career has been successful, like many fund managers, he had his fair share of troubles. In early September they were forced to settle a tax bill with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which is basically a watchdog when it comes on to taxes.
They settled on paying $6.8 billion in back taxes which stemmed from Renaissance tax treatment of basket options between 2005 through 2015. At the time this allowed Renaissance Technologies to convert short-term capital gains to long-term gains until July 2015 when the IRS finally gave close to the practice.
Peter F. Brown who is the CEO of Renaissance Technologies further elaborated on the subject in a letter sent to clients. It basically gave portfolio managers “The ability to receive the value of appreciation in certain portfolios, but protected Medallion against declines in excess of the premiums it paid on the options,” he said. The situation is more nuanced than what is being discussed here and will be further ironed out in other proceedings.
During the financial meltdown of the mid-2000s, the company was not immune to the financial climate at the time. Their fund fell by almost 36.73 percent between May of 2007 and April of 2009, according to HSBC.
Renaissance all over again
Renaissance Medalion Fund grew over 77% in 2020. Yet again, pretty impressive returns. If money was the topic of this piece, I could’ve created an entire essay on the financials and what to make of it. From a technological perspective, we are seeing a shift in finance. Opensource technological tools are being available at our fingertips.
As a result of this, we are seeing the average investor who has the knowledge wants to create their version of Renaissance Technologies within their home or offices.
We are seeing different experiments being applied to the market. For example, certain firms are using machine learning to do natural language processing. Natural language processing can allow them to get a sentiment of the market. It is done through analyzing large amounts of textual data derived from websites, news blogs, forums. They will then allow the algorithm to automatically predict the market or gain a certain level of inference which might lead to profitability. It’s a pretty interesting concept.
Machine learning and cognitive computing – 3d rendering
Algorithmic trading is one of the methods that are popular these days. I am sure Jim Simons may have a plethora of knowledge on this topic. It is popular because it’s currently easier to create and test a model if you have the requisite knowledge.
Algorithmic trading allows you to basically automate your trading process based on deterministic rules programmed by the subject.
In summary, with all the innovation happening around finance from cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance, artificial intelligence, etc. They are all driven by mathematical algorithms.
That was introduced by ambitious men who thought differently about the methodologies and systems behind the market. Jim Simons along with others was pivotal in this introduction.
Yesterday twitch came under heavy attack from an anonymous hacker or group of hackers.
We can confirm a breach has taken place. Our teams are working with urgency to understand the extent of this. We will update the community as soon as additional information is available. Thank you for bearing with us.
The hacker later brandishes their success on the controversial forum 4chan. In their post, they lamented that they are giving away all the data for free, while Amazon had to buy it. They further went on to state that, Twitch is going downhill given their recent wave of hate raids on the platform.
This hate raid has caused Twitch a lot of problems. They have to now do more policing as persons have been creating spamming bots, that marginalize smaller streamers by flooding their chat with hate speech.
Twitch quickly spotted those activities and is now suing two of the alleged culprits behind them.
Amazon purchased Twitch for $970 million in 2014 and the platform had grown in leaps and bounds ever since. The size of the data which was stolen from the breach is said to be approximately 125 GB.
It contains different forms of information that Twitch would’ve liked to keep disclosed. Such as the source code for Twitch.tv; information about Twitch’s mobile, desktop, and game console clients, and various other types of sensitive data.
The sentiment so far has been far from promising from the Twitch streaming community especially those who use Twitter. It goes to show that we still have ways to go as it regards to having a resilient online security system.
This week has been a strange week for certain tech companies where Facebook and Twitch being the most notable ones.
When we talk about investing, banking, and the overall Financial market – for a lot of women they think it is predominantly a “man’s world” and they are in large part correct. Hearing phrases like ‘high risk’ can sound intimidating especially to those whose knowledge about finance is limited.
The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) has opened its doors to the public; however, only a small amount of women actively participate. According to the Angel Investment Participation Report, roughly 28-30% of their investors in Jamaica are women.
It is not surprising that women across the world are less inclined to pursue a career in finance as opposed to their male counterparts. Throughout history men were seen as the breadwinner; they controlled the household income while women had little financial input.
Due to the absence of involvement women had in financial affairs, the by-product of such has led to a lack of confidence and financial literacy among women.
Lack of female representation is among the many reasons why women have not been as progressive as men in the financial arena.
Women need more female mentors that can tutor them in the area of finance; women who have had much exposure and success in the market and are able to pass on their financial prowess to other women.
My first experience with the stock market is similar to that of many other young women; uncertain and with little knowledge. I was not sure how it all worked. I just knew I wanted to generate a passive income and the stock market was the first avenue I chose to begin my journey.
Before I became a shareholder, I did a very detailed research into each company I was interested in before carefully making my selection.
A few of the qualities that impacted which venture I chose to invest in were the leadership/CEOs; the strengths of the business; customer service; the why for each business and is it Jamaican-owned.
No one had taught me about the stock market, so it was all new territory for me. Unlike my male colleagues, investing and trading seemed to be second nature to them.
I began investing a manageable portion of my income from my 9-5 every month, purchasing stocks from five companies on the JSE Market.
As my knowledge and experience increased, I began to add one more company every six or seven months to grow my portfolio in order to yield more dividends over time as another source of income.
Things and times are changing. Although men are still dominating the world of finance, more and more women are breaking barriers and seeking opportunities to find and learn about business and finance from mentors to help guide them.
“When I allowed myself to be the boldest version of myself, I realized I was more willing to take risks to be more powerful and my true capacity was unleashed” – Kerry Gohman
Sao Paulo de Rio Grande footballer William Ribeiro is arrested and charged with attempted murder after kicking referee Rodrigo Crivellaro while he lay on the ground; Crivellaro had failed to give Sao Paulo a free-kick; he was released from the hospital Tuesday morning.
William Ribeiro kicked referee Rodrigo Crivellaro twice during Monday’s match between Sao Paulo de Rio Grande and hosts Guarani de Venancio Aires, the second time when the official lay on the ground.
The incident happened after Crivellaro did not give Ribeiro’s Sao Paulo team a free kick.
The match was suspended and Crivellaro was taken to a local hospital after being knocked unconscious. Ribeiro was arrested at the stadium and charged with attempted murder.
Crivellaro was released from the hospital Tuesday morning. The referee told journalists he is yet to see footage of the incident.
Local police investigator Vinicius Assuno told journalists that a judge will decide whether Ribeiro will remain in custody during the investigation or be released on bail.
“His attack was very strong and violent, kicking the referee in the head and making him pass out,” Assuno said. “The referee had no chance of defending himself.”
The suspended match will be resumed next week on Tuesday. Sports Club Sao Paulo released a statement, regretting “one of the saddest episodes in their history” and that the player’s contract with the club was terminated.
The incident happened on the day that Sao Paulo was celebrating their 123rd anniversary.
StrategyR, a market research publisher predicts that artificial intelligence will help to improve productivity within call centers. They predict it will become a $3.5 billion market by 2026 in their new report. Within the report, one of the main catalysts behind the change was covid-19.
Since covid-19, certain businesses have been searching for ways to cut costs by reducing the staff and automate certain areas of their operations. Otherwise from automation, they also see other areas of their workflow being ripe for change. Such as using data to bring unseen insights to help them understand their customers better.
Another important feature is the introduction of chatbots. The chatbots can help to offload certain customer service activities that would usually take up and customer service representative’s time. Chatbots could also be used as a tool to do 24/7 marketing in which they can scale pretty quickly.
Conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a prominent trend in the call center industry owing to its ability to automate customer services and improve productivity without compromising over the service quality. Conversational AI is bound to witness extensive adoption across the industry for automating customer services and boosting revenues for brands.
At the moment, the US market seems to be where most of the growth is happening as it is currently estimated at $399.6 million in 2021. China too shows promise as they are predicting that by 2026, they will reach an estimated $380 million.
