Like radio stations that play the Flock of Seagulls and barbers who know ? really know ? how to cut the high fade, investing clubs are quickly disappearing.
But is that a bad thing?
According to a recent Reuters article, there are only about 5500 investment clubs in the U.S., down from 60,000 during the tech bubble.
?Oh, the numbers are definitely down,? says Adam Ritt, communications director for BetterInvesting, the Madison Heights, Michigan-based investors? association whose members include clubs around the country. ?It?s been a steady trend downward for a long time.?
The article hypothesizes about the reasons for the investment club?s demise, citing poor stock market returns, online investment research, and less money around to invest.
But these aren?t the real reasons investment clubs are disappearing.
The real reason investment clubs are scarce
Those may be valid reasons ? fewer people are participating in the markets. ?There is a bull market in financial content. And, well, people are feeling the big hurt of the economy.
Oh, plus the fact that investment clubs don?t perform particularly well.
But, there?s a bigger reason that investment clubs are going the way of the do-do: WE DON?T NEED THEM.
Why were clubs so useful? ?They gave a framework to our investing, created accountability for shared research, made investing social, bubbled up ideas from multiple perspectives.
But today?s financial Internet ? with sites like Seeking Alpha and StockTwits?? IS inherently social.
The Tradestream is all about identifying investors with the right information and plugging into their research. ?It?s about collaboration and sharing of ideas. ?It?s about working together to validate ? or disprove ? an investment thesis. It?s about using powerful tools to automate part of the research process (like BorntoSell does with the strategy of selling covered call options).
Today?s financial Web is the largest investment club around.
So, what should we do about dwindling investment club numbers? ?Nothing, but sit back and relax, boot up your computer, log on to Finance 2.0, and plug into the tradestream.
The Samsung Transfix ($159.99 direct) is a midrange, keyboarded Android smartphone?for Cricket Wireless.
The Transfix measures 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs a surprisingly light 4.4 ounces. The phone slides open to reveal a four-row physical QWERTY keyboard with nicely sized keys, which makes the Transfix a good choice for frequent texters.
The phone is powered by an 800MHz processor, so it should be up to speed for most common tasks. It's also running Android 2.3 (Gingerbead), which should keep things moving smoothly and allows for compatibility with most of the 250,000+ apps in the Android Market.
Like most Android phones, the Transfix should be a good media player, and comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera that can record VGA video. The phone's 3.2-inch display features 320-by-480-pixel resolution. Battery life is rated at nearly four hours of talk time.
The Transfix runs on Cricket's 3G network, which works on the 850-, 1,900-, and 1,700-MHz bands, depending upon your location. Coverage is somewhat limited, so make sure to check the maps at?www.mycricket.com before buying in.
The Samsung Transfix looks like a good choice for frequent texters on Cricket, but make sure to take a look at the Samsung Indulge as well.
More Cell Phone Reviews: ??? LG Optimus Slider (Virgin Mobile) ??? Samsung Focus S (AT&T) ??? Apple iPhone 4S (AT&T) ??? T-Mobile myTouch Q ??? T-Mobile myTouch ?? more
Mobcast? Yes, yes it is. As usual, we have tons to go over this week in the Mobile Kingdom as it continues its quest for global dominance. And we'll have another special guest to add some fresh perspective; this week's honorary podcast crew member is Ian Hardy from MobileSyrup, who will join Myriam Joire, Brad Molen and Joseph Volpe at 5PM ET. And speaking of guests, please be our guests and listen in, won't you?
Note: Don't hesitate to sign up for Ustream before the show so you can join in the chat!
The Samsung Transfix ($159.99 direct) is a midrange, keyboarded Android smartphone?for Cricket Wireless.
The Transfix measures 4.5 by 2.3 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weighs a surprisingly light 4.4 ounces. The phone slides open to reveal a four-row physical QWERTY keyboard with nicely sized keys, which makes the Transfix a good choice for frequent texters.
The phone is powered by an 800MHz processor, so it should be up to speed for most common tasks. It's also running Android 2.3 (Gingerbead), which should keep things moving smoothly and allows for compatibility with most of the 250,000+ apps in the Android Market.
Like most Android phones, the Transfix should be a good media player, and comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera that can record VGA video. The phone's 3.2-inch display features 320-by-480-pixel resolution. Battery life is rated at nearly four hours of talk time.
The Transfix runs on Cricket's 3G network, which works on the 850-, 1,900-, and 1,700-MHz bands, depending upon your location. Coverage is somewhat limited, so make sure to check the maps at?www.mycricket.com before buying in.
The Samsung Transfix looks like a good choice for frequent texters on Cricket, but make sure to take a look at the Samsung Indulge as well.
More Cell Phone Reviews: ??? LG Optimus Slider (Virgin Mobile) ??? Samsung Focus S (AT&T) ??? Apple iPhone 4S (AT&T) ??? T-Mobile myTouch Q ??? T-Mobile myTouch ?? more
A new online guide is available from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help hospitals and other health care organizations anticipate, avoid and address problems that can occur when adopting and using electronic health records.
The free tool, called the "Unintended Consequences Guide," was created to provide practical troubleshooting knowledge and resources. Experts from the RAND Corporation, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Kaiser Permanente-Colorado and the American Health Information Management Association Foundation created the guide. The work was supported by a contract from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The guide can be found at www.ucguide.org.
"The goal is to provide administrators, technology officers and health care providers with information that will help them successfully adopt and use electronic health records," said Spencer Jones, an information scientist at RAND and a co-author of the guide. "Moving from paper records to electronic records is a major undertaking and the 'Unintended Consequences Guide' is an essential tool to help that migration."
"One of the purposes in funding this effort was to help health IT implementers understand the interactions between humans and technology that are often the source of unintended consequences," said Michael Harrison, a senior social scientist with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and a collaborator on the guide.
"Having recently completed the largest civilian roll out of a national electronic health record system in the United States, we want to share our knowledge about implementation and how electronic records can transform health care delivery," said Dr. Ted Palen of the Kaiser Permanente-Colorado Institute for Health Research.
Use of electronic health records is growing rapidly among hospitals and other health care providers in the United States, spurred in part by major federal investments in the technology. Legislation approved in 2009 eventually may provide as much as $30 billion in federal aid to hospitals and physicians that invest in electronic health records.
The guide was developed for use by all types of health care organizations -- from large hospital systems to solo physician practices.
The creators anticipate that the primary users will be those responsible for adopting electronic health records, including federally designated Regional Extension Centers, chief information officers, directors of clinical informatics, electronic health records "champions" or "super users," administrators, information technology specialists and clinicians involved in adoption of the technology. Frontline users of electronic health records such as physicians and nurses also may also find the guide useful.
The online resource is based on the research literature, other practice-oriented guides for electronic health record adoption, research by its authors and interviews with leaders of organizations that have recently switched to electronic health records. The guide represents a compilation of the known-best practices for anticipating, avoiding and addressing unintended consequences of adopting electronic health records. However, researchers say, this area of research is still in its infancy.
###
RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation, is the nation's largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on health care costs, quality and public health preparedness, among other topics.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Online guide helps health organizations adopt electronic health recordsPublic release date: 14-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
A new online guide is available from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help hospitals and other health care organizations anticipate, avoid and address problems that can occur when adopting and using electronic health records.
The free tool, called the "Unintended Consequences Guide," was created to provide practical troubleshooting knowledge and resources. Experts from the RAND Corporation, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Kaiser Permanente-Colorado and the American Health Information Management Association Foundation created the guide. The work was supported by a contract from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The guide can be found at www.ucguide.org.
"The goal is to provide administrators, technology officers and health care providers with information that will help them successfully adopt and use electronic health records," said Spencer Jones, an information scientist at RAND and a co-author of the guide. "Moving from paper records to electronic records is a major undertaking and the 'Unintended Consequences Guide' is an essential tool to help that migration."
"One of the purposes in funding this effort was to help health IT implementers understand the interactions between humans and technology that are often the source of unintended consequences," said Michael Harrison, a senior social scientist with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and a collaborator on the guide.
"Having recently completed the largest civilian roll out of a national electronic health record system in the United States, we want to share our knowledge about implementation and how electronic records can transform health care delivery," said Dr. Ted Palen of the Kaiser Permanente-Colorado Institute for Health Research.
Use of electronic health records is growing rapidly among hospitals and other health care providers in the United States, spurred in part by major federal investments in the technology. Legislation approved in 2009 eventually may provide as much as $30 billion in federal aid to hospitals and physicians that invest in electronic health records.
The guide was developed for use by all types of health care organizations -- from large hospital systems to solo physician practices.
The creators anticipate that the primary users will be those responsible for adopting electronic health records, including federally designated Regional Extension Centers, chief information officers, directors of clinical informatics, electronic health records "champions" or "super users," administrators, information technology specialists and clinicians involved in adoption of the technology. Frontline users of electronic health records such as physicians and nurses also may also find the guide useful.
The online resource is based on the research literature, other practice-oriented guides for electronic health record adoption, research by its authors and interviews with leaders of organizations that have recently switched to electronic health records. The guide represents a compilation of the known-best practices for anticipating, avoiding and addressing unintended consequences of adopting electronic health records. However, researchers say, this area of research is still in its infancy.
###
RAND Health, a division of the RAND Corporation, is the nation's largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on health care costs, quality and public health preparedness, among other topics.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
JAKARTA (Reuters) ? Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion's Indonesia CEO will be charged with negligence after a sale last month of its smart phones turned into a stampede, police said on Monday.
The police said Andrew Cobham was responsible for the promotional event on November 25 in Jakarta, which attracted a crowd of about 5,000 people. Police halted the sale after dozens passed out in the crush.
"The suspect has been banned from travelling overseas. He must go through the legal process here," said police investigator Budi Irawan.
Cobham has not been detained. The maximum penalty for negligence is nine months in jail.
Police also named a security consultant hired by RIM, an event organizer and a manager of the sale's shopping centre venue, as suspects who are likely to be charged.
RIM was offering a 50 percent discount to 1,000 people at a launch of its latest phone in Jakarta, with people starting to queue since before midnight.
Indonesia is one of the fast growing markets for the Blackberry, with about two million users.
The strong demand reflects booming consumption among an emerging middle class in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, with the country having been a bright spot for a firm that capped a dismal year with a profit warning last week.
There was no immediate comment from either RIM or Cobham.
(Writing by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Jonathan Thatcher)
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Public release date: 14-Dec-2011
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