i-Cthru’s consolidated time-weighted return over Q1 2017 is USD 9.83%; EUR 8.55%. This result is unleveraged, net of all trading costs, fees, dividend tax withholding for non-US clients and cost of protection of individual portfolio holdings. In regards to our investment horizon, three months are not significant and to say something interesting about such a short period of time usually ends up repeating the main newspaper events, which are thought to have had an impact on the stock markets. Even …

The weather is hot and dry in Los Angeles, California and at first sight, not much seems to be going on, on the corner of Patton and Colton Street. There are no cars and no traffic to speak of. People are hard at work with simple tools, little capital and an iron will to succeed. They want to be part of the next big boom in California. Their expectation of success fuels their ambition, which could lead to unimaginable wealth. …

OKAY – well done, you finally landed this very cool job at a new start-up, and part of your remuneration includes shares of a publicly unlisted company. Despite all the talk amongst your friends and fellow office workers about working for the greater good of the world you can not help but think about filling your bank account faster than a rocket booster. But you need your company to do well, very well and oh yeah let’s not forget you …

An increasing amount of women handle day-to-day family finance and assume leadership in investing. You should follow that lead. Five reasons why: 1. As a woman, there’s a 90% chance you will have to manage your finances on your own at some point in your life (Women in the Labor Force: A Databook,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2012) 2. Women are typically more successful investors than men, partly because their risk aversion is significantly higher. As women, we favor …

Please step into my office, share an espresso and let’s talk because I have got an investment idea for you. My office is easy to find, situated in our augmented reality suite at the top floor of the i-Cthru headquarters. Our offices are super connected, have access to more than 60 trillion webpages, more than 4 Zettabytes (= 4 billion Terabytes) of data and can communicate and trade in multiple markets all over the globe at the speed of light using …

Flipping a coin and landing heads ten times will surely increase the chance to return tails the eleventh time, right? If you answered “yes”, you are assuming your coin has some kind of built-in memory, which of course is a fallacy. I know it is not easy to admit, but jumping to conclusions characterizes many of us. We see countless relationships that have no validation whatsoever. Current headlines link the stock market movements directly to the oil price. It happened …

Getting rich and getting famous are two major life goals for many people. When we grow older, we keep hope in spite of the grotesque odds that most of us will fail during our lifetime. Our pursuit of becoming rich and famous is relentless, costly and always trumps the more easily accessible goals of happiness and health. Why do we engage ourselves in doing this? Is it because we think getting rich and famous are the media through which we …

The night is pitch-black and the wind is howling a good 30 knots. I am very tired and rolled into a ball, hurled under the dodger to stay away form the wind and salt-water spray. My watch beeps every twenty minutes to keep me honest and prevent me from falling into a deep sleep. Two of us have been sailing Makai, a 50ft pleasure yacht, for the last ten days without much sleep, from Bermuda to the Bahamas. What started …