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Monday 26 May 2014

How Do You Keep Creating “Wealth” in Today’s Economy



Increasingly often, people ask my opinion on what is likely to happen financially to the world we live in today.

Though I am no “crystal ball” reader I can assure you that the dangers are more numerous and larger than ever before in my lifetime and quite likely, I strongly believe the peak of prosperity is behind us. This is no doom-based scenario. This is the reality we live in today.

Though in the past century, protection could be obtained by keeping your net worth in cash or government bonds. Now, the surplus capacities are so great that most currencies and bonds are likely to continue losing their purchasing power or even their value altogether given the recent flirting of the US government with default.

Mortgages and other forms of debts are over tenfold greater now than ever before 1970, which can cause manifold increases in bankruptcy auctions.

Read More:
 
How Do You Keep Creating “Wealth” in Today’s Economy?

Thank you,

Friday 23 May 2014

Evaluating Crude Oil Prices – A Review of the Basics



Having been in the physical trading of commodities on and off for over a decade now, I am stunned to see how many people – mostly brokers – who claim to trade oil derivatives know so very little if any about how crude oil prices are evaluated.

So for the sake of clarifying it all to everyone concerned, I thought of sharing this blog with all our readers in the hope they become more educated brokers and traders alike.

For all of those of you who still don’t know, there have been successive price regimes since the beginnings of the 20th Century.

1. Between 1930 and 1970, it was the so called “seven sisters pricing regime”, where the prices where controlled and posted by oil companies.

2. Then, until 1985, the prices were controlled by the producing countries, a period known as the OPEC pricing regime.

3. After a short period of netback pricing regime (crude oil price was tied to the price of refined products), the reference pricing regime was adopted. This is the system that we still use today.

Read More: Evaluating Crude Oil Prices – A Review of the Basics

Thank you,

Monday 19 May 2014

About Sovereign Wealth Funds, their Rankings and their Asset Allocations Globally



Given Blackhawk’s Partners dealings with a number of private family offices and sovereign wealth funds on a global basis, we are often asked who exactly are those entities and how do they really allocate their funds globally.

We thought this blog would clarify a number of things about the myth and reality of sovereign wealth funds and set the record straight.

A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund composed of financial assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or other financial instruments funded by foreign exchange assets. These assets can include: balance of payments surpluses, official foreign currency operations, the proceeds of privatizations, fiscal surpluses, and/or receipts resulting from commodity exports. 

Sovereign Wealth Funds can be structured as a fund, pool, or corporation. The definition of sovereign wealth fund exclude, among other things, foreign currency reserve assets held by monetary authorities for the traditional balance of payments or monetary policy purposes, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the traditional sense, government-employee pension funds, or assets managed for the benefit of individuals.

Read More: About Sovereign Wealth Funds, their Rankings and their Asset

Thank you,  

Thursday 15 May 2014

Private Equity Is Serious Business - 13 Ways To Pitch Your Idea Right



I am approached by hundreds of entrepreneurs every year pitching me their respective businesses… Some are really polished and focused, and others amazingly ineffective and convoluted. I thought I’d share with you some basic tips as to how you can make your pitch as effective as can be, to capture my attention and that of my team.

It’s a fact that some CEOs are masters at communicating their ideas with their teams, others fare less well (if not miserably). Here are some key general personal guidelines for your consideration.

1. Don’t Oversell:

I understand how most successful entrepreneurs are passionate about their businesses, but please don’t bulls- hit me or sound like an infomercial. We have accumulated tons of data to call you on your bluff even before we have even met you. 

You won’t do yourself any favors by adopting an overconfident, smarmy persona who sounds at best like a lawyer, and at worst like a used car salesman. Just be yourself and never even think about getting away with any made up story about you or your track record.


Thank you,

Monday 12 May 2014

Monetizing your Blog – A Review of the State of the Art



You like blogging and you get a nice number of readers every day. It seems like a natural choice to monetize your blog and get something back for your efforts.

There is indeed a lot of press about people making a living from their blogs – and some people do, it’s true. There are a smaller number of professional bloggers out there who can also make reasonably significant money from their blog, part- or full-time wages.

I have a few friends that actually make a living from blogging and other social media ventures. I subscribe to their blogs, but always wondered how they draw an income until I did my homework and came up with the following tips which I thought I’d share.

Let’s face reality first… The small percentage of people who make real living wages off their blogs are almost always people who came to blogging already established as a popular, influential or powerful voice in their industry. 


Read More: Monetizing your Blog


Thank you,