tjbresearch.com
Monday, July 12th, 2010
pick up the pieces

When asked, “What do you do?” I have a variety of potential answers.  In many cases, it is easiest to say, “I’m in the investment business,” and leave it at that.  In other situations I try to give an elevator speech, hopefully keeping the information content and sales pitch in appropriate balance.  Or I may list all the parts of the business I stick my fingers into, or grasp for a descriptive phrase that encompasses my activities, hopefully one that matches the industry familiarity of the person with whom I am conversing.

At its roots, my work is about ideas.  Creating new ones, acting as a broker of information, and, to use a term in vogue in the blogosphere, serving as a “curator” who provides new discoveries as well as perspective and (perhaps) guidance for investment travelers.

As a consultant, advisor, and writer, I am in the business of unearthing ideas and applying them for my clients.  Some I share with a wider audience.  This blog consists of longer pieces (by the standards of the day) with fresh insights or different perspectives — big chunks of content that hopefully make a splash and some waves when thrown into the great waters of market discourse.  I also provide a few Twitter updates here and there, typically links to items of particular note or brief observations (and no “lifestream” updates on my latest doings) — mere pebbles that might create interesting ripples to watch if you happen to be looking.

In addition, today I started a brand new service called research puzzle pix.research puzzle pix | This first effort includes the “yield curve accordion.” You can think of it as a weekday digest of items that might trigger your curiosity or tickle your (investment) fancy.  Each edition is anchored with a chart; a small version of the current one appears in the sidebar on this site, along with a brief description of other included items.  pix is meant to be a fast read, with enough verbiage provided for you to see if any of the topics are worth pursing before taking the time to click through to the referenced sites.  You will not get a long list of links, nor what’s hot off the wires.  Other sites do that better than I ever could.

I hope that you’ll choose to sign up for email notifications or put the new site into your RSS reader, and that you’ll find pix a useful and regular part of your information diet.

As with my other activities, the goal is to expose you to ideas in new ways, to pose questions and provide connections that might lead to discovery.  I’ll keep throwing pieces onto your game table; I hope that you pick them up and see which ones fit into the research puzzle you are trying to solve.