On Dec. 1, 2019, a patient in Wuhan, China, started showing symptoms of what doctors determined was a new coronavirus. Since then, the virus has spread to infect more than 100,000 people. Here’s how the virus grew to a global pandemic.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Like many other viruses and influenza outbreaks, COVID-19 appears to spread more easily between people in close quarters. Person-to-person spread of COVID-19 is occurring across the globe and many countries are reporting both travel-related cases and community spread of the disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has conveyed that COVID-19 is deadlier than the flu. It’s deadlier for young adults. It’s deadlier for older adults. In China, early data shows that it was 10 times deadlier. This chart from Business Insider compares US flu deaths to deaths in China from COVID-19.
The seasonal flu kills less than 1% of infected people who are over age 65. By comparison, Chinese authorities reported that COVID-19 has killed 8% of those infected who were 70-79 and almost 15% of those infected who were age 80 or older. That’s a statistically significant difference.
Google’s Response to COVID-19
Google is working on a website for coronavirus testing, according an announcement by President Donald Trump on Friday. During the press conference announcing a state of emergency Friday afternoon, President announced that Google has their engineers working on developing a screening website.
The screening website from Google Verily will allow people to fill out a questionnaire and learn how they can get a test for the coronavirus. Americans will be able to learn from the websites more about risk factors and symptoms of coronavirus. It is anticipated that the U.S. would have 1.4 million coronavirus test kits available within a week and around 5 million kits within the next month.
The triaging tool from Verily will help people find COVID-19 testing sites in the U.S. The company says this tool will target the San Francisco Bay Area, though they hope to expand coverage to more regions. The move is part of a public-private partnership to dispense COVID-19 testing to “millions of Americans” in the weeks ahead at places like Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart parking lots, according to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.
Public health officials and authorities from effected countries have used AI as part of solutions to detect and fight COVID-19 since the novel coronavirus emerged in December 2019. Testing to confirm COVID-19 infection has been a critical part of response plans in other countries around the world.
Preventing Spread
It has become clear that people with underlying conditions such as heart disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes, and other conditions that cause suppression of immune system particularly among the older adults, are at a high risk of serious disease if infected with the novel coronavirus.
To best protect these vulnerable individuals, we recommend that such individuals avoid situations that increase their risk of acquiring infections. This entails avoiding crowded places, avoiding non-essential travel such as long plane trips, and especially avoiding embarking on cruise ships.
Sources:
Common-sense investing insights we forget during stock-market panics
Many people seem to invest rationally, until the going gets tough. Then we often throw our reasoning out the window while making a mad dash for the exits.
It shouldn’t be like that. Here are some common-sense reminders that are worth heeding during volatile stretches in the stock market like now, with coronavirus anxiety seemingly everywhere.
You’re not going to lose everything
During times of heightened market turbulence, how often have you heard someone voice the fear of “losing everything” or getting “wiped out?” Sure, that’s a possibility, albeit remote, with an individual stock if the company suddenly gets hit with massive lawsuits, spirals toward bankruptcy or faces other cataclysmic obstacles.
But it’s not going to happen with broadly diversified mutual funds or exchange-traded funds, which have increasingly become investment mainstays. To lose everything in an index fund pegged to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, for example, each of those 500 companies would need to go belly up for you to lose everything. That just isn’t going to happen.
Read more: https://apple.news/ALqODekypQVOlpEk_S7kndQ
Still much we don’t know about this global coronavirus pandemic.
These are challenging times as the world prepares for, and responds to, the worldwide novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Pandemic of Fear
Pandemic means sustained and continuous transmission of the disease, concurrently in more than three different geographical regions. Pandemic does not refer to the lethality of a virus but to its transmissibility and geographical extension.
What we certainly have is a pandemic of fear and uncertainty. The prescribed cure for the pandemic of fear and panic is not to rush to your local Costco or neighborhood grocery store to purchase a year’s worth of toilet paper. Instead, it’s to step away away from your television and keep everything in prospective. Additionally, it’s important to comprehend that it’s going to get better.
The health risks posed by COVID-19 are real and the short-term business impact has been significant. The economic and financial market consequences, however, are unlikely to be long term. In the short-term, we’re seeing the markets plummet as investors process that uncertainty and participate in panic selling.
Prospective, Faith, Poise and Process
Our thoughts go out to the people who have been affected by this unprecedented event and we appreciate the healthcare workers, local communities, and governments around the world who are on the proverbial tip of the spear working to contain this coronavirus.
The COVID-19 virus has required all of us to be more mindful as we go through our regular activities. Daily, we must ensure that we follow guidance from the CDC and WHO on hygiene and social distancing. We must address a broad spectrum of viruses, including COVID-19, by handwashing hygiene and cleaning common surfaces in our environment.
“This too will end” is a certainty. What is unknown is when this will end. And, as a results, fear and panic has assumed a death grip on the financial markets as well as on our daily lives. Many financial and health experts recommend taking a break from the television and constants dire news report.
80% cases mild
According to Chinese officials regarding the outbreak, about 80% of novel coronavirus cases are mild. Many of those effected experience only a fever or dry cough, while some show no symptoms at all. People who showed no symptoms or only mild symptoms may mean that many cases of the new coronavirus go unreported.
Older adults and people who have severe chronic medical conditions, like heart, lung, kidney disease, or diabetes, may be at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19. If you or a loved one are at increased risk of getting COVID-19, take action now:
The U.S. Department of State recommends travelers, especially older adults and those with underlying health issues, defer all cruise ship travel worldwide. COVID-19, like many other viral respiratory illnesses, appears to spread more easily between people in close quarters. Recent reports of COVID-19 on cruise ships highlight the risk of infection to passengers and crew.
See the newest travel advice: https://bit.ly/2TWsw7H
References:
“If you are bored with life, if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.” Lou Holtz
Research shows that our brains are a goal-seeking organism. Whatever personal or financial goals we give our subconscious mind will allow it to work night and day to achieve them. However, one goal isn’t good enough for our subconscious minds.
Some goals take longer to achieve than others, like buying a house or saving for retirement. If you spend years working toward only one objective, you’re likely to get discouraged when it doesn’t happen right away.
But when you have multiple goals you’d like to achieve, goals that align with your values and beliefs, you have more to strive for, and more opportunities to check those goals off your list. And the accomplishment you feel every time you complete a goal will inspire you to accomplish even more of them
Actions overcomes fear
Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul™, states categorically that “the biggest reason most people don’t achieve their goals and realize their dreams is that they don’t take action, and the number one reason people don’t take action is fear.”
“There is a one thing that 99 percent of “failures” and “successful” folks have in common — they all hate doing the same things. The difference is successful people do them anyway.” Darren Hardy
People whom achieve their goals versus those whom fail has everything to do with overcoming the paralysis of fear versus taking action. The people who achieve great success in life are the ones who are willing to take consistent action toward realizing their dreams. They consistently push through their fear and take steps to make their goals happen, no matter what others may think or say about it.
Goal achievers make countless small decisions, they plan and they take deliberate actions every single day that keep them on target toward achieving their dreams. Because without deliberate action, your goals simply are not going to be achieved.
No matter how ambitious the goals or how brilliant the plans, if you’re not prepared to take deliberate action to reach them, they’re not really goals at all—they’re just dreams.
Every successful investing journey starts with a set of clear goals.
Appropriate financial goals for an investor should be specific, measurable, attainable, reasonable and timed with a deadline (SMART). Successful achievement of goals should not depend upon unrealistic or outsize market returns or upon impractical saving or draconian spending requirements.
Defining goals clearly and being realistic about ways to achieve them can help protect investors from common mistakes that often derail their progress. Here we show that:
Life financial goals
Make a list of financial goals you’d like to achieve in your life. Be as specific as possible. Include details such as when they will happen, where they will happen, how much you’ll make, what model you’ll buy, what size it will be, and so on.
Keep your goals somewhere you can review them every morning. Put your goals on a poster or piece of paper where you read each night before you fall asleep.
Keep goals at the top of mind, you’ll be more likely to make them a reality. Reaching your retirement savings goals starts with developing a retirement plan. Fidelity Investments has developed a set of retirement guidelines based on 4 key metrics:
“Unsuccessful people carry their goals around in their head like marbles rattling around in a can, and we say goals that are not in writing are merely fantasies.” Darren Hardy
Writing your goals down is the first step in turning your dreams into a reality. If you keep goals in your head you’re not likely to focus and work on them consistently. Thus, it is important to write down all your goals. Whether it’s short-term or long-term goals, it is essential to list every goal in writing.
Writing it down will have a powerful effect on your subconscious mind to help you visualize and achieve your biggest dreams. Remember, a goal is a dream defined and written down.
Goals are a very effective way to build your self-belief because properly set goals require you to stretch a little outside of your comfort zone; causing you to expand your comfort zone as you achieve the goal.
With clear and measurable goals, investors can create a realistic plan for achieving their objectives within a certain time frame. Make a list of your short-term and long-term savings goals.
If you write down your goals, you’re more likely to achieve them. Think of them as a road map to where you want to go—and make them practical and attainable. Take a simple approach:
Goal Attainment Requires Believing in Yourself
Everything you have in your life is a result of your belief in yourself and the belief that all things are possible. According to Jack Canfield, the four most important steps to learning how to believe in yourself are:
Incorporate and practice these four steps.
Mistakes Investors Make
One of the biggest mistakes investors regularly make when goals and a plan are absent is to confuse investing with stock picking. Ask many people how their money is invested and they quickly tell you the latest hot stock they’ve purchased and the investment thesis that explains why they think it’s going to take off.
Saving for retirement and building an emergency fund should be the highest priorities, followed by other long-term financial goals, like college, travel, or a house. You can contribute a small amount to each goal or pick a couple to focus on first. Decide how much you need to save to reach those goals.
Sources:
“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.” J.P. Morgan
The earlier you get started on your financial plan to save, invest and accumulate wealth, the more influence you can have on attaining the financial life you desire. Individuals at any stage of life will benefit from a plan that will allow them to take the wheel and get pointed in the right direction.
The good news is that we have more control than most of us realize. All that matters is that you are ready for a positive change. And, that you take definitive systematic action to fulfill your financial and life goal.
People need to plan their financial lives. Otherwise, they more likely to arrive at a financial destination that they neither expect or desire. And when people don’t plan, it becomes harder to achieve their goals, if they have goals, and more difficult to save, invest and accumulate wealth.
Keep it simple
There is a great value and benefit in simplicity. It is important to simplify your personal financial plan. Whatever your goals and desires are, you must reduce the often unnecessarily complicated and complex to something simple. The simple steps are to create a purpose statement, describe your vision of the future, determine your current situation and develop specific commitments to journey to the destination.
Pursue big audacious goals and dream big, but keep it simple.
Focus on the few things that matter most
People need to focus on the few things and actions that actually make you more finally secure and improve your financial well-being. It is often the few little things that make the biggest difference.
Focus on the most important thing–how could I save more money, invest more wisely and accumulate wealth.
Master the fundamentals of the financial game
Typically, the difference in scope between being successful versus being average or unsuccessful is often small infinitesimal.
Desire is the key ingredient
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” Abraham Lincoln
Desire is about wanting to win or succeed so badly they can’t stand it. Those who do win and succeed have unyielding desire and most successful people have two things, they set specific goals and devise a plan for achieving those goals.
“Where there is a will, there is a way.” Never forget that life does not always gives you what you want, but it always gives you what you will accept.
Believe in yourself
It important to recognize the power of believing in yourself and your God given potential.
Bottomline, if you have a plan, you know where you’re going and it’s easier to achieve your goals. The following adage still applies, “A failure to plan is a plan to fail.”
Sources:
Updated: 3/13/2020 7:40 pm
The same precautions we should take to protect ourselves from colds and seasonal influenza will also help reduce our risk of contracting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Wash Your Hands
Soap works better than alcohol and disinfectants at destroying the structure of viruses.
Hand washing is critical in slowing the spread of respiratory viruses and other bugs, and it’s one of several measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends for reducing your risk of COVID-19, influenza, and more.
And CDC recommends washing your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing. Soap works better than alcohol and disinfectants at destroying the structure of viruses.
Soap dissolves the fat membrane, and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and “dies,” or rather, it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive. Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days.
But, if soap and water aren’t available at the moment, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that’s at least 6-percent alcohol. That’s a good practice year round.
In your home, it’s a good idea to regularly clean frequently touched surfaces, like doorknobs, handles, and counters.
Disinfectants, or liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol are not as good as regular soap. Apart from alcohol and soap, antibacterial agents in those products don’t affect the virus structure much. Consequently, many antibacterial products are basically just an expensive version of soap in how they act on viruses.
Soap is the best, but alcohol wipes are good when soap is not practical or handy, for example in office reception areas.
Importance of Social Distancing
Early data suggests that older people, and those with underlying chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disease might be at risk for more serious complications from the virus. It’s most important for people at high risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19—including older adults and those with underlying health conditions—to begin taking social distancing measures.
The logic behind social distancing rests on two key scientific facts about the virus.
The key to avoiding the disease is keeping a safe distance from sick people, from people with flu-like symptoms such as fever, cough and shortness of breath, and try to not touch surfaces that may have the virus on them. It also means washing your hands carefully, so you don’t transfer virus to your mouth, nose, or eyes, where it can enter your system.
Stop Buying Masks
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t recommend face masks for those who are well; they should be used by people who show symptoms of coronavirus to help prevent the spread of the disease to others.
Face masks aren’t an effective way to prevent the illness for most healthy people, according to the CDC and the World Health Organization. That includes plain, loose-fitting masks sometimes called surgical masks; tighter-fitting N95 respirators, which filter out 95 percent of airborne particles; and reusable face masks sometimes advertised as dust masks.
Any benefit healthy people may get from wearing a mask is likely modest. In fact, if you’re not sick or taking care of people who are, wearing a mask comes with downsides. Both surgical masks and N95 respirators are only meant to be used once and then thrown away. But consumers may be tempted to reuse them, possibly spreading the virus to other surfaces or items.
Sources:
At CES 2020, 5G wireless network technology and its potential were the talk of the Las Vegas conference back in early January 2020. The overriding view was that 5G is much more than the next generation of wireless technology–it will be a game changing wireless network technology. 5G stands for fifth-generation cellular wireless.
Essentially, 5G network technology is projected to have greater bandwidth capacity, significantly faster mobile data speeds (around 1Gbps according to Qualcomm’s CEO) and lower latency. It is expected to usher in intelligence cities and to allow vehicle-to-vehicle communications which is critical to self-driving cars.
One CES 2020 speaker described 5G as an use case technology; that it will enhance everything we do, and improve how we live, work and play. 5G is expected to deliver faster download speeds, real-time responses, and enhanced connectivity permitting improved mobile streaming and and gaming experiences. Basically, 5G will herald in new possibilities like smart cities and self-driving cars.
5G Low, Middle, and High Cellular Network Spectrum
With 5G wireless network technology, we should expect to have cable modem like speeds on any 5G enabled wireless device. Yet, the transition is not entirely smooth to 5G. To be clear, there are three major flavors of 5G being developed: low-band, mid-band, and high-band, all of which are incompatible at the moment, and perform very differently from each other.
At the moment, low-band and high-band 5G are incompatible, in that there is no consumer device that can handle both. Low-band 5G operates in frequencies below 1GHz. These are the oldest cellular and TV frequencies. They go great distances, but there aren’t very wide channels available, and many of those channels are being used for 4G. So low-band 5G is slow—it acts and feels like 4G, for now. The low-band 5G channels our carriers are using average around 10MHz in width. AT&T and T-Mobile currently have low-band.
Mid-band 5G is in the 1-10GHz range. That covers most current cellular and Wi-Fi frequencies, as well as frequencies slightly above those. These networks have decent range from their towers—often about half a mile—so in most other countries, these are the workhorse networks carrying most 5G traffic. In the US, only Sprint has the available spectrum for this approach.
High-band 5G, or millimeter-wave, is the really new stuff. So far, this is mostly airwaves in the 20-100GHz range. These airwaves haven’t been used for consumer applications before. They’re very short range; our tests have shown about 800-foot distances from towers. But there’s vast amounts of unused spectrum up there, which means very fast speeds using up to 800MHz at a time. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are all using at least some high-band.
5G is projected to offer connectivity speeds 100 times faster and five times more responsive than existing 4G LTE networks. It is expected to allow your internet of things (IoT) devices to work in near real time. It will give consumers more access to entertainment, on-line sports betting, health and wellness related information and potentially solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change.
The 5G infrastructure market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 67% over the next 10 years, the entire market is expected to go from $780 million today to nearly $48 billion by 2030.
Major US Carriers Develop 5G Wireless Network
5G is an investment for the next decade with major 5G applications expected to crop up around 2021 or 2022. But a standard doesn’t mean that all 5G will work the same—or that we even know what applications 5G will enable. There will be slow but responsive 5G, and fast 5G with limited coverage.
AT&T is developing two categories of 5G wireless network technologies, 5G and 5G+, according to AT&T’s Alicia Abella, Ph.D, Vice President Integrated Systems Engineering and Realization, AT&T Labs. There is 5G+, which is a high-band spectrum service designed to provide high speeds and extra capacity, especially in dense urban area. While 5G is for low-band spectrum services and provides broader coverage.
“Habits are the compound interest of self improvement. You are what you repeat”. James Clear
Not too many months ago, I accepted an invitation to attend a Financial Education Conference hosted by TD Ameritrade in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference focused on teaching the assembled retail stock, bond, options and future traders how to make better investment and trading decisions to meet their short, intermediate and long term financial goals.
The weekend events at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas brought together retail and professional traders of varying levels of experience and skills with financial industry employees from TD Ameritrade and several other financial companies.
How can you get one percent better today.
One of the conference’s highlights was the keynote address delivered by James Clear, author of Atomic Habits. His keynote focused on the major points of his book about how to build good habits and break bad habits.
He discussed how winners and losers often have same goals. The difference is that winners have a better system of habits. Unsuccessful individuals have the wrong system that prevents positive change. Essentially, people do not rise to goals but fall to the level of your system.
The power of tiny gains | Why habits are so important.
“Small habits and tiny gains multiply into meaningful results very quickly.” James Clear
The core philosophy of Atomic Habits is that small habits and changes compound over time will make a big difference over ten, twenty or thirty years. For example, the same way that money can accumulate through ‘magic of compound interest’, you’ll have the effects of your habits multiply over time. And it ends up generating sort of a non-linear effect.
He conveyed that this is true for both good and bad habits. This effect of 1% improvements or 1% declines can either work for you or against you. And you see this in, for example, knowledge and productivity compound. So on any given day, getting one additional task done at work doesn’t really count for a whole lot. But over the course of a career, that can end up being a really big difference between what you get done over your career and how
Small habits and little choices, slightly better, can transform us everyday. Make time work for you instead of against you Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
Change can habit plank by plank, habit by habit. The actions you take give evidence to whom you are. Every action is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.
Lasting change comes from the compound effect of hundreds of tiny decisions – doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call. He calls them atomic habits.
In Atomic Habits, Clear showed us how we too turn minuscule shifts in behavour into life-transforming outcomes. The core philosophy here is that small changes compound over time. So the same way that money can accumulate through compound interest, you’ll have the effects of your habits multiply over time. And it ends up generating sort of a non-linear exponential effect.
Focus on systems rather than goals
“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement.” James Clear
According to James, the systems is what makes the difference. The system, or habit, is the process that takes you to your goal or destination. On average, it takes sixty-six days to instill a new habit or system.
Will power is like a muscle, the more you use it…the more your power will fade and get fatigue.
Focus on building the system of behaviors first before focusing on the goals and objectives. Goals are important. Important to know were you’re going and where your headed.
David Kostin, Goldman’s top U.S. equity strategist, warned that the post 2008 financial crisis S&P 500 Bull Market will end soon.
“After eleven years, 13% annualized earnings growth and sixteen percent (16%) annualized through-to-peak appreciation, we believe the S&P 500 bull market will end soon.” Goldman-Sachs
Furthermore, Kostin expects that the S&P 500 index goes down 15% by mid-year and recovers by year end. He believes what prompts the market decline is corporate earnings recession and a wave of negative earnings revisions that are likely over the next three to six months. He projected that the S&P 500 target will be at 2,450 by mid-year.
Sources: