Personal Finance, Asset Allocation Strategies, prepare to get financially fit by practicing personal finance. Most of this information comes from Investopedia, Six Asset Allocation Strategies that work, which you can find online. Take a look at the references, resources, continue your research from there. This by the Investopedia team updated December 4th, 2021. In prior presentations, we've been taking a look at investment goals, investment strategies, types of investments. Keep in that mind. We're now looking at six asset allocation strategies that work. Asset allocation is a very important part of creating and balancing your investment portfolio. After all, it is one of the main factors that leads to your overall returns, even more than choosing individual stocks. So clearly we wanna think about our time horizon, what we are saving for, what's the goal putting in the strategy which will include diversification asset allocation. Establish an appropriate asset mix of stocks, bonds, cash and real estate in your portfolio is a dynamic process. So clearly some of the allocation is within the types or classes of assets we are saving in stocks, bonds, cash, real estate are the common basic spread for the individual investor. Below, we've outlined several different strategies for establishing asset allocation with a look at their basic management approaches. Number one, strategic asset allocation. This method establishes and adheres to a base policy mix, a proportional combination of assets based on expected rates of return for each asset class. You also need to take your risk tolerance and investment timeframe into account. You can set your targets and then rebalance your portfolio every now and then. A strategic asset allocation strategy may be akin to a buy and hold strategy also heavily suggests diversification to cut back on risk and improve returns. So for example, if stocks have historically returned 10% per year and bonds have returned 5% per year, a mix of 50% stocks and 50% bonds would be expected to return 7.5% per year. So you can look at the historical returns and try to consider what the future returns will be as you do taking into consideration the overall risk and play, your risk tolerance and your time horizon. But before you start investing, you should first read if you can make money in the stocks. Number two, a constant weighting asset allocation. So strategic asset allocation generally implies a buy and hold strategy even as the shift in values of assets cause a drift from the initially established policy mix. So clearly one of the issues of course with investing is one, your time horizon is changing. So the mix of assets that you want might change over time and two, even if you weren't to do anything, the mix of your assets will change due to the fact that they're gonna have different returns and grow at different rates. So you can think about how you're gonna recalibrate from time to time. So for this reason, you may prefer to adopt a constant weighting approach to asset allocation. And again, these kind of depend on the kind of assets that you're putting into place. If you're just basically picking a target portfolio for a retirement fund, for example, then it's gonna be doing its asset reallocation within basically that mutual fund that's a targeted mutual fund. If you're doing your own asset allocations either possibly buying index funds, mutual funds or different mutual funds or stocks and bonds individually, then you gotta think about how you're gonna basically re-weight or what you're gonna do as time passes due to the fact that the allocations between the asset classes will naturally change and because your time horizon will be getting smaller as you go. So with this approach, you continually rebalance your portfolio. For example, if one asset declines in value, you would purchase more of that asset, right? And you might say, well, why would I purchase more of it if it went down because you're trying to get the same constant weighted of the assets. So if and if the asset value increased, you would sell it. There are no hard and fast rules for timing portfolio rebalancing under strategic or a constant weighted asset allocation. But a common rule of thumb is that the portfolio should be rebalanced to its original mix when any given asset class moves more than 5% from its original value. So then you're gonna say, well, how often do I do this rebalancing process? Well, you might set a timeframe that you could take a look at it. And of course, if something moves a little bit out of balance, then that's always gonna happen. But you might set a threshold and say, once I get this far out of where my time, my balance wants to be, that's when I take action and possibly rebalance at that point. So in other words, and also note, of course that the market could rebalance or further extend the problem within the balance given whatever the conditions of the markets are and the returns related to your assets. So three, tactical asset allocation. Over the long run, a strategic asset allocation strategy may seem relatively rigid. Therefore, you may find it necessary to occasionally engage in short-term tactical deviations from the mix to capitalize on unusual or exceptional investment opportunities.  The more we get in there and tinker with the portfolio instead of just following the guideline as a non-professional investor, the more likely we might do something out of a panic, right? Anytime you're doing something out of panic, you want to be careful. In other words, if the stock market is going down, our natural instinct is to take the money out of the stock market and put it somewhere else. And that often means that we might be doing that at the bottom of the market, which is precisely the wrong time to do that. So you wanna make sure that if you do the tinkering type of approach that you are well-informed and you're doing your tinkering not out of fear, but out of a well-thought-out plan. So this flexibility adds a market timing component to the portfolio allowing you to participate in economic conditions more favorable for one asset class for others. Tactical asset allocation can be described as a moderately active strategy since the overall strategic asset mix is returned to when desired short-term profits are achieved. So this strategy demands some discipline as you must first be able to recognize when short-term opportunities have run their course and then rebalance the portfolio to long-term asset position. So it takes a little bit more sophistication in your calculations if you're taking that approach. Number four, dynamic asset allocation. Another active asset allocation strategy is dynamic asset allocation. With this strategy, you constantly adjust the mix of assets and market rise and fall and as the economy strengthens and weakens. Again, this is becoming more of an active manager and you wanna make sure that you have a good understanding as to what are the underlying conditions and why you are doing that because more and more you might get to the point where you're trying to kind of beat the market instead of being the long-term player looking for the long-term gains. So just be careful with that. With this strategy, you sell assets that decline and purchase assets that increase. This makes dynamic asset allocation the polar opposite of constant waiting strategy. For example, if the stock market shows weakness, you sell stocks in anticipation of further decreases and if the market is strong, you purchase stocks in anticipation of continued market gains. So you're kind of playing the market a bit more. Be careful. Number five, insured asset allocation. With an insured asset allocation strategy, you establish a base portfolio value under which the portfolio should not be allowed to drop. So as long as the portfolio achieves a return above its base, you exercise active management relying on analytical research, forecasts, judgment and experience to decide which securities to buy, hold and sell with the aim of increasing the portfolio value as much as possible. If the portfolio should ever drop to the base value, you invest in risk-free assets such as treasuries, especially T-bills, so the base value becomes fixed. At this time, you would consult with your advisor to reallocate assets, perhaps even changing your investment strategy entirely. Ensure asset allocation may be suitable for risk-averse investors who desire a certain level of active portfolio management, but appropriate the security of establishing a guaranteed floor below which the portfolio is not allowed to decline. For example, so you might say, hey, I'm gonna give some flexibility to basically allow you to deduce, but if you go below this floor, I want my assets to be then allocated towards the more secure assets, so you got that stop, that safe stop part. For example, an investor who wishes to establish a minimum standard of living during retirement may find an insured asset allocation strategy ideally suited to his or her management goals. Number six, integrated asset allocation. With integrated asset allocation, you consider both your economic expectations and your risk in establishing asset mix. While all of the strategies mentioned above account for expectations of future market returns, not all of them account for investor's risk tolerance. That's where integrated asset allocation comes into play. This strategy includes aspects of all previous ones accounting not only for expectations, but also actual changes in capital markets and your risk tolerance. Integrated asset allocation is a broader asset allocation strategy, but it cannot include both dynamic and constant weighting allocations since an investor would not wish to implement two strategies that compete with one another. So what's the bottom line in all this stuff? That's what I wanna know. Asset allocation can be active to varying degrees or strictly passive in nature. Whether an investor chooses a precise asset allocation strategy or a combination of different strategies depends on that investor's goals, age, market expectations, and risk tolerance. Keep in mind, however, these are only general guidelines on how investors may use asset allocation as a part of their core strategies. Be aware that allocation approaches that involve reacting to market movements require a great deal of expertise and talent in using particular tools for timing these movements. So again, whenever, if you're not a professional investor, you wanna make sure that you're not just reacting because if you're just reacting to the market, then you're probably reacting just at the wrong time because that's when everyone else gets scared, right? So that's what's gonna end up happening. The emotions start to drive the market and you might find yourself buying when everything is high and selling when everything is low. And that's precisely the opposite of what you wanna do. You wanna follow the old adage, I buy low sell high, that's my motto. That's how I do my investing. So perfectly timing the market is next to impossible. So make sure your strategy isn't too vulnerable to unforeseeable errors. So clearly again, nobody knows the future. There's no crystal ball reader out there.  Investopedia does not provide tax, investment or financial services and advice. So this isn't of course personalized advice is general information. The information is presented without consideration of the investment objective risk tolerance or financial circumstances of any specific investor and might not be suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. So again, no one has a crystal ball. Things could change in the future. All we can do is look at the past as a type of indicator to help us as one condition or one item that's gonna help us to kind of project out into the future. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal.


Hey guys, what's up? It's Kinsey and welcome back to my channel I'm so excited for today's video because it's going to be my fall essentials Basically like a fall favorites video, but just pieces that I've actually like used Used worn out what I don't know these are just items that I always go back to the fall and things that I feel like should be on everyone's fall essential list I Love fall comment down below your favorite season if it's a if you say summer that's it. We're done I'm a fallen one-tier girl through and through anyways. I have some teas listening to John Mayer and Frank Sinatra And I'm just really feeling this fall by today. Oh the candles burning my office. What's new? We already know I'm doing that Anyways, you guys like this video be sure to let me know by Subscribing giving it a thumbs up and comment down below what time it is where you guys are watching this and also if you Guys have any fall products. Let me know I get all the product recommendations that you guys send me I normally buy them immediately So please if you guys have any products that you think that I would like let me know I'm in a shopping mode. This is really for me. Let me know. I'm trying out some new stuff constantly I'm always doing Friday favorites on my Instagram story check those out because that has a bunch of like that's just like more frequently I talk about their products. So anyways with that being said, okay, so I wanted to quickly say Thank you to Kara for working with me on this video I have wanted to work with Kara for so long Like I feel like I started seeing them in like this spring and I was like that is so freaking cool guys You have no idea like this is literally the coolest thing ever anyways You guys are not familiar with Kara of Kara is essentially like a personalized vitamin pack for you. It's really cute Look it says made for Kenzie. I love personalized things even if it's jewelry So I'm just like a sucker for this stuff. Maybe I'm just a narcissist I don't know what I love that stuff. You just go online to their website Which I will have linked down below and you take a five-minute quiz It's super easy Just ask like really basic questions and then just things that you struggle with everything from like skin health to like If you're tired a lot of your exhausted just things like that I'll just go through and ask you a bunch of questions and then at the end of that five-minute quiz It like puts together all these vitamins that would be really helpful for you And then you get this in the mail and it says care of it's so freaking cute You have these little vitamin packs and it says hi Kenzie today's pack Then you just take them daily with water. It's so cool And I don't know I'm someone who's super into like lifestyle like health like rent and stuff like that like that It's so right in my alley. I love this stuff But um, I also am just like not with the most educated on it Like I don't know what I should be taking my so I'm the doctor so I'll texture and I'll be like is this good You know that's right, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge So I love care of because it just puts everything together for you this box comes with 30 packs And it's just awesome Also, you can like it's good for travel because you can just throw them in your bag Literally, I'm so obsessed with this here is my vitamin pack and care of was actually kind enough to give us a 25% off for the first month Offer so if you guys want to use my promo code I will have it on the screen and then I will have all of it linked down below So you guys can check it out. I just like really need energy and to be able to focus I like that's just like my main thing and sometimes my skin gets stole So that's what I put on my thing and these are the vitamins that they gave me, but yeah I'm so excited. I've really seen a difference. I love care of like this is the coolest thing ever This is something I want to keep for like years and years and years and always use them So if you guys want you guys can check them out down below. Thank you to care for sponsoring this video I'm gonna go back to miscellaneous stuff at the end I just wanted to make sure you guys saw that cuz it's freaking awesome. So onto my fashion essentials for fall I love fall clothing I love fall winter clothing because there's texture the clothes are cooler and you can wear layers And it's just fun in the summer. It's too hot and I'm like, I don't like any of this Um, I absolutely you guys are gonna see okay. Whoa all this is gonna fall my number one basic for Just the fall time. I actually got this one last night. I have so many I just keep buying them But a black children act this one's for brandy, and it's super soft I feel like brandy basics don't get enough credit. I forgot about them for a while, but yeah super soft It's just so nice like I have them to wear even if I just a glare I look a big t-shirt on over them, which I probably will do tonight I think I'm thinking of my outfit tonight, so I love that it's super soft And then if you just wear on your own you can dress it up You can put it under a dress and put under a hoodie that there's so much you can do with just a black Basic long sleeve love that and also that's the softest one I own I also have like a bodysuit one and I also have one from the Kendall and Kylie line from Pakistan from like three years ago Then I still wear all the time and it's in the wash So that shows you how much I wear it literally like at least once a week Next thing I have is just a good denim jacket. This one is I think it's oh no It's just from Princess Polly But this is like my favorite one. I have probably like seven denim jackets I'm not exaggerating, but this is the best one that I've had, but I really love it I really like any denim from Princess Polly. Actually, I'm a big fan. So love that So I love this jacket. It's like a corduroy trend that we have going Also, this color is very in for fall I've actually had this for like a year, but it's like a crop corduroy jacket It's just super different and it's really good for LA because it doesn't actually get cold here And it's just nice to like have something to throw over but this is just like a fun little piece Like if I was like dressing up tonight I would even want to wear this like over the sweater like it's fun Maybe I will but I probably won't let's be real. I want to wear a hoodie Okay, you guys are like you'll see my animal print that I have going on for a lot. So I have this cheetah Fur jacket guys, I just can't say enough about this this jacket I literally got a fair return to one I probably should invest in a nice one because I got so much like use out of it But it's amazing like I you guys have seen this if you guys have been watching my videos for any amount of time Yeah, it's one of my favorite things that I own and then also something I've been wearing a ton lately It's just this cheetah skirt if you guys watched my outfit of the week video you guys should I'll have a link down below I wore it there, and I'm also obsessed with it. It's like the best thing ever last animal print thing These I actually just got in the mail from a doll's kill just cheetah leopard cheetah I should know the difference. I don't know whatever Yeah, they're just really cool. I like when when pants like are slim and they kind of like flare out a little bit It's fine. I'm not super into like super skinny I'm not into skinny jeans or pants or whatever, but these are just super fun They're just like a nice thing to have for fall. I just think that they're cool. Oh my gosh Okay, you guys are gonna literally throw me off a cliff after this one my I am Gia I don't even know if these are called actually I thought I was like they were like the teddy coat But it's not called that I don't know these jackets I have the black one and then I have a tan one and the red one the red ones actually from garage But these two are from I am Gia. I got this one of her just probably about that one from like I am Gia I bought that one from I am Gia before it was like even popular like I was on pre-order I waited for it for two months, right? So basically I'm a psychic, but anyways, um, yeah I'm absolutely obsessed with these I wear them all the time like literally I wear them all the freaking time at least Well today, I'm wearing one of them. It's really bad But it's just like there's the best jackets and like I said, it doesn't really get cold or yeah It doesn't really get cold in LA, but at night there's like a nice breeze so I'll wear them even if it's hot I suck it up. Like that's much. I love these jackets or my early morning divos. That's what I wear the most But seriously like there's amazing. I know that they're like upwards of like a hundred dollars or something I don't remember exactly, but if you're someone who's like looking to get them I get DMs about them all the time get it. It is worth it. Also, I get a size medium and large I could definitely do a small I could do a small and everything but I always do medium and large is that like oversized stuff But I need to stop doing that cuz sometimes it's too big But anyways, it's amazing. This is actually like literally from Zafal, but it's one of the thickest like Best quality sweaters that I have but it's just this long sweater. It's super thick I love the look of this with like light gray sweats and like just a t-shirt It's just super coming just like cozy and I just am obsessed with it Then I feel like this is like a really basic thing to have none of these are like super cool random cool clothes that I own These are just literally essentials. I've had this sweater from cotton on for probably like five years now It's just a really good like cowl-neck thick sweater. I think I wore it in high school Thanksgiving like that that long ago. I mean, I'm only a junior. I don't know why I was 10 years ago But yeah, this is just an amazing sweater. It's a great basic How many times am I gonna say that I'm saying about everything in this video? I'm sorry The airplanes are always here guys always the last thing I have are these boots Which I honestly have not worn enough lately, but they're amazing. These are black booties from free people Wow, these are incredible. I'm such a fan I feel like just a staple boot is so important to have even if you're lazy like me and wear sneakers and hoodies every single day It's really bad, but I love these so much. I just think they're the best and I feel like it's really important I also love square-tone Big fan love that now. We're gonna get into my random accessory phase If you guys want like watch my vlogs or you follow me an Instagram or anything, which I'm assuming guys do You know that I'm such a scrunchies like I'm wearing literally a cheetah Leopard whatever scrunchie right now that I got in Georgia, but I just keep buying scrunchies everywhere I go I have like 9 or 10 now and I had like one last week. It's really a lot for me. I love velvet scrunchies I think those are super fun. I just got these from brandy last night. I like how these are thicker I love the animal print like I just have a scrunchie in my hair at all times a scrunchie and hoops and like lip balm and my Like eyebrows brushed out and that's like pretty much my look right now. It's the best thing ever Speaking of hoops. I have these so I love gold jewelry as you guys can tell for the fall. I'm obsessed with gold jewelry I used to be a silver girl and now I'm gold gold just for the fall is like my vibe I think these are like the perfect like thick hoops They're a little bit big like they're not like a perfect every day because I feel like they're just gonna like Fought of my ears, but they are good for when you're just putting them on for like a few hours And these actually all of this is from princess Polly. I really like my princess Polly And then I also have these earrings that I just picked up last night I really like just like small dainty or little gold jewelry for the fall time. I think it's super fun really for any time But especially right now, you know, alright, so I have a few like little makeup skincare things You know me. It's normally skincare. I'm I have the beauty counter brightening and vitamin C facial oil This stuff is next level. I wish that I would have used this before my skincare video because I would have talked about it I've been using this recently and I think oh, it's a fly on my hands been getting so many compliments on it I just think it's the best. It's so good. It feels like luxury like luxurious You know, I just feel good on your skin really brightens up your skin and it keeps your skin looking glowy and moisturized the whole day Like it doesn't dry your skin out I feel like some serums do that with this it like really locks it in for the entire day And then I have a new moisturizer that I've been loving.  You don't have to wear like a lipstick. It's annoying. Basically, that's just what I do when it works for me I actually really like the NYX lip liners I have on right now with the matte lip liner in whipped caviar and then I actually just have my By beauty agave lip mask over it. I'm not gonna talk about this in the video But that is what I have on my lips right now. Oh, it just fell my last product I have the summer Fridays Overtime mask so this mask really brightens up your skin and I find that in the fall term Especially my skin gets really dull and like dry so I just have been using this lately first off the packaging is beautiful I love it, but also it just really brightens your skin kind of exfoliates it and it leaves your skin so soft Like even this morning, which I would have done it like I did this mask like yesterday morning And then even this morning my skin was so soft from it like wow I love this I want to try a lot more summer Friday products and like the packaging on this is just absolutely incredible It doesn't screaming like post me on Instagram in a flat way. You know what I'm saying, so that's amazing So that is it for my fall essentials I really hope you guys enjoyed this video if you guys did let me know by giving a thumbs up and subscribing Also, do not forget to check out care of I will have everything linked down below I am obsessed with it. It's really helped me out and I just think it's so cool I'm just the best thing ever and it's important to take care of yourself So just something I really care about every channel. So love you guys so much I hope you guys enjoy this video and I will see you soon. Bye


Meanwhile, INEC has raised concerns over citizens' political enthusiasm as reflected in the collection of registered PVCs despite extension of the exercise. This was revealed in YOLA, the Adamastic Capital, during a town hall meeting with INEC and other stakeholders to discuss the role of the various stakeholders in encouraging and improving civil participation in political processes. According to INEC, despite recording over 95 million PVC collections, citizens still need to show more interest and improve their capacity to participate in politics. As great citizens of this country, we should often start this conversation before the nation in 2023. I'm so happy also that we are not doing this as a reminder to the support of the Irish Embassy, Irish 8, who has constantly remained a partner in progress in supporting this network for the past three years, even when I am in the humanitarian response and also the governance issue like this. And for me, and as somebody who is from here and who has worked extensively in the North East region, I want to tell you that this is where we usually surpass most of the humanitarian response you think you want to get. Because when they bring their response, it's just to support people who are affected, two of us. The people who are not sleep, who are not affected are more in London. And the people who are also affected, they need to put governance. So our ability to bring critical leadership in our policy, critical leadership in all stratas of governance speaks well and speaks about the policy of leadership and life movements after 2023. Our communities or our societies have a specific way a woman should conduct herself in a community. Most of the activity that women have in getting involved is when it comes to the electoral processes not aligning to their societal conduct. They will say there is a line where they have to be exposed to men saying them or like the security of the places or the distance to their cell zone.  So they should be aware for the electoral processes to reflect on the way a woman should conduct herself in a society. Is this place, maybe there's a polling station in a Magalisa where men gather? Another woman will feel like no, this is not my place. This is a place where my elders say I shouldn't be there. So even though she has a valid reason, there's this reluctance. So we should make sure that the electoral process reflects how a woman conducts herself in various communities, not just in the northern atmosphere. Different communities have their own different cultures. So the electoral process should reflect that and I think that will inspire women to come in. Now the youths are being disenfranchised from menstruation in the electoral process. The women are doing this as an effective electoral system for youths' participation. Today, by the knowledge of our electoral activities are technologically driven. And the youths are the category of individuals in the society that are more inclined to explain it than the sciences and the sources. For instance, during the Joseph Lude Cibia exercise, an online component for registration was placed in produce before the conventional or the physical or in-person registration. So in convolutional Cibia, total for Nigeria's and first of those 2022 stand at 12,298,944. And now the total for Nigeria's youths between the age of 18 to 24 was today its menial 784,687.


TiO2 has received tremendous attention owing to its potential applications in the field of photocatalysis for solar fuel production and environmental remediation. This review mainly describes various modification strategies and potential applications of TiO2 in efficient photocatalysis. In past few years, various strategies have been developed to improve the photocatalytic performance of TiO2, including noble metal deposition, elemental doping, inorganic acids modification, heterojunctions with other semiconductors, disensitization and metal ion implantation. The enhanced photocatalytic activities of TiO2 based material for CO2 conversion, auto splitting and pollutants degradation are highlighted in this review. This article was authored by M. Humayun, F. Razik, Akhan and others.


everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Armo with the Stock Swoosh and I'm reviewing a sales offer for this week only for the October class. There's only three more classes between now and the end of 2020. If you want to learn my system and trade with me, this is it. You can trade and learn and this is a nice offer because you'll get the trades and you'll learn the information in the October Golden Gap course. If you'd like to sign up, you can email me and Melissa at thestockswoosh.com, call me at 929-3200-GAP if you have questions. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Skype. So right now it's fall in New York. It's beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, nice out. It's a great time to trade. It's earning season. The next two weeks are some big, big earnings. Cannot wait tonight, even two actually. So the special is sign up for the class, pay the regular price $69.99 and you get one. You get the trading room and the options that are free to the end of 2020. This is a great time, a busy time and you get all the options, trades and the day trade calls. So good offer and again, learning, learning and doing, learning and doing. That's how you do it. Learning helps, doing helps. Do we make to the money? Learning helps you make the money. I understand what I'm saying. I mean, once you have conviction and you can take the trade and you can do it and you believe in it, then you take it. So email me. I'm Alyssa, thestockswish.com. If you have any questions or want to sign up. For people out there that are wanting to start, there's lots and lots of reasons why you might want to trade. You might want to do it for extra money for your family. You might want to do it for more freedom for yourself. You might want to do it because you're working from home right now. So you have time to actually trade and do your regular job. You know, a lot of people are working from home in 2020. This is a day trade we did right out of the gate, almost immediately. We shorted WFC. This is Wells Fargo. Stock close to your gap down, fell, dropped, tanked, tanking today. Entry was 2430. Stock was 2460. This was an earnings, by the way, as well. 8,000 shares was the $2,800 risk. Eggs at 2345. Boom. And again, beautiful move. Beautiful move down, drop, almost a dollar. Profit $6,800 in one day. One day. So you see really the return on investment here, the way you can flip profits around. And this is a relatively inexpensive stock, to be honest with you. And a really nice move. So you can trade from home, literally anywhere in the world. You don't have to live in the U.S. to trade in the United States market. But you've got to take it seriously. And I really think that people that take the class do better than people that don't. While you can sign up for the options newsletter with no prerequisites, you're going to trade better when you take the class. You're going to understand it. And whether you want to trade full-time or part-time, it really doesn't matter. The thing is that whenever you trade, whether it's for 30 minutes a day or six and a half hours, you have to look at this as something serious to do. It's not the time investment. It's the quality of the time that you're putting into it. When I'm full-on, I say, listen, I can be perfect, perfect in the morning. And I usually, because that time of the day into the open is the time when I'm reading the gap and seeing it and seeing everything that's going to happen. So you can make money doing options. You can make money doing day trades. You can use my system to do both. Okay? Because it is the golden gap rating system. It is the rating system that tells me, for example, today that the market was lower or that Wells Fargo was lower, which again, it was. All right? Now, this was back September here, September 14th. This was Microsoft earnings coming out of this in the next two weeks, September 14th. I called the 205 plus. Here was the day I called it, boom, dropped, fell off. Okay? And again, this is an option. So the option news under the trades get emailed to you. This was at a cost of 275, 30 contracts, risk was 82.50, sold at eight. Such a great trade. Almost 200% return on investment, 191 profit, 15,750. Now, if you want to take a smaller risk, you can 1375 risk, sold at eight profit, 2625. So you don't have to risk a big amount. You could have done one contract for $275. All right? Either way, it's the idea of going with the gap. Okay? Here's a daily chart. This is what you learn in the class. I find the stocks to trade and I pick the gap and in what direction to do it. And whether you do it as an option, whether you do it as a day train, it's the chart, it's the daily, it's the raining system. Okay? And that's how I figure it out. So say you're somebody that works very hard during the week.  That's a great, a great thing about trading for me when I was in real estate. It was seven days a week. It's not that way anymore. Hey, markets closed, done. Weekends, done. And I think that the benefit of getting the free trading room time is really having me in the room every day, like today, calling the market scene and going over the nuances. And you know, excuse me, reviewing things that are very detailed. You know, things that things that I see on the day or helping your own conviction and really having a mentor can be just invaluable, particularly in this time, in this market, this specifically. Okay. So make money doing it all is what I say. You do gaps, gaps have momentum. And again, you can work for yourself. If you really want to do this as a career, I can help you. I teach you in the class, the system, whether you're doing it for yourself or your family. And this is a great offer. And again, only three more classes in 2020. So October classes, October 24th and 25th, nine to five. Class tuition is a normal tuition for $69.99 and you will receive their room and the options that are free to the end of the year. So you get all my trade calls for the rest of the year during the earnings season period, which is huge, very busy time, like the Wells Fargo. It's already started, started last week. Don't miss out. The sooner you sign up, the sooner you can have access, email me at melissathescooch.com if you have questions or you want to sign up, you must email me for the forms and the deadline for this is Friday. Do not delay. Stay safe, everyone.


Good afternoon folks. Ted Ralston here on our show, Where the Drone Leads, ThinkTek Hawai'i Downtown Honolulu and with me are probably our highest ranking frequent fliers on this show. We have Kanoa, Jimenez, Kanoa, and we have Michael Motas. Both gentlemen are the co-founders and CEO and Chief Technical Officer of Kolea Gold, a local enterprise moving into the world of unmandered systems and the analysis and the products they produce. And the reason we're here is... Thank you for having us, Ted. Okay, yeah, you know I was just gonna say I was saying before the show began we're approaching our 100th show on this episode on this show and I think that at 100 episodes it's time to renegotiate the contract with the guy who runs the station. You see him running around here sometimes, so we're gonna be holding out for some higher level of reward of some kind starting at show 101. Stick around. You guys can share part of that. Anyway, a little negotiation in the public here, right? Yes. But it's nice to be back again. Good seeing you guys again. Last week was off for this show and the week before you ran an excellent show for us. You had some kids on from a Nui Nui school out in Palo Alto, and we'd all just got back from Palo Alto. Yes, we did. In fact, this little bird sitting right here last flew in Palo Alto air about an hour ago. Yeah, and it's unfortunate we weren't able to get those footage out today, but it was a great, you know, Aloha to the community and to everyone and letting them know we were actually the students Kaimi, Ka'uhi, and Ka'ili, or mainly Ka'ili and Ka'uhi was able to operate today and capturing the students, not the students, but the location of their property or their school. The main purpose of our whole project today was getting their footage set for their website. Ka'ikulakaya Puni o Anui Nui, where the Hawaiian emerging school out in Palo Alto. So it was a great day today. And the weather broke just in time, didn't it? The wind cooperated, the sun came out and everything. It hasn't been that way for about two weeks. So that was a pretty good pretty good piece of fortune. But what we have now in the in the data banks on this bird and on yours is enough information, video and stills to produce whatever artifacts they want on that website that would illustrate any edit, any approach, any view of this of the school, plus for the upcoming Makahiki can begin mapping out the specific locations where the people are going to be, where the entry is going to be, and where the various events are going to be, from an overhead view. Right. And so the kids can do that. So the kids can actually use this information, which they collected to generate the views that they need for their event. What are we doing here? You know, it was a it was very important to, especially for today. And thank you for clear weather. We were so worried, oh, man, it's raining again. You know, all operators, all drone operators know when it's cloudy outside, it's real tough. Or even a photographer, it's, it's tough to get clear shots. And we were able to head out to the school and the looks on their faces, the students, man, it was, it was priceless. Just seeing them ready to learn, ready to step into the unknown of unmanned aircraft. And the best part about it was explaining why we're here. You know, we're, we're individuals who believe in challenging the status quo, teaching you something that is so complex to make it more simple, how to take off, how to check your battery. Good lesson that we talked about too in the location that we were. The school is 10 miles away from the airport.  We learned that, oh, it still shows that you're still within an airspace of certain operations that you still need to question. And, and it was a good lesson for the students on how to operate within 10 miles from the airport and knowing your location. And the best part about it, I think that was the, the fact that the community in Palo Alto knew that a school was doing drone work on their campus and they approved. That's, that's like not only approved, it was done with all regulations attended to and certifications. The three of us have 107s. If that was ever an issue, we can do this under educational interpretation or under 107 as a commercial operation. Right. So everything was preset and planned. And there was no question. No. And if there's a chance to anybody had an issue, they could have raised it in advance. We could have worked it out. And before we get on to the, that aspect, I wanted to drive back to something you were talking about, about the student involvement and such. And one thing goes through my mind all the time. And this is why it's great that you have Kainoa as an engineer on the team. We look at these systems. And they're based on available technology at the time they were designed. In particular, in this case, in this particular system, the public band radios are used for communication between the ground controller and the flight unit. Those radio bands are used by a lot of things are used by wireless, they're used by garage door openers are used by medical equipment. A lot of things use an unlicensed band. So we're going to have to tackle as a group the problem of saturation and the problem of security and reliability in radio frequency communication. So one thing we have to instill in the kids is to ask that question. And you as an engineer could help me ask that question. Okay, kids, this is how it works today. How's it going to work tomorrow when we have 500 of these things trying to work together? How are we actually going to make these things operate and have them operate safely? So what is intriguing to me is always putting that question on the table. What's next? What do we have to think about in dealing with the flight operations or the technology? And that really comes down to engineering. I've been in this long enough to realize that so many people who are operators don't really see that level of depth and don't have that appreciation. Operators are great for what they do. They operate. But we've got to help them see that there's things that go beyond just the operations that we have to think about for the next stage. And in my mind, there's a long way to go here in getting all this functionality up to speed. And the kids we're dealing with, the ones you guys are working with, they're the ones that are going to do it. So great getting them started and asking questions right now. And you wonder how much engineering to try to inject into the high school system. But that's over to you to figure that one out. Well, it's all basically just one step at a time, which was the purpose of today's lesson, which was get them involved with using the material. Because I remember when we first met those two, which was Kaouhi and Ka'ili. Unfortunately, Ka'ili couldn't make it today. But Ka'ili and Ka'uhi, they both stated that they never flew a drone before. They've only seen what it looks like. And the only footage they've seen was on YouTube. So today was a good icebreaker and a groundbreaker to really utilize what all this technology in front of them does. And so it was really nerve wracking, but at the same time, awesome to watch this kid fly. I was intrigued by how quickly they picked it up. I mean, they had no problem at all with the hand controllers and the concept of eye and hand coordination and such. And so once again, their minds aren't tainted by anything that's occurred prior to it. It was their first contact and we should ask them, Okay, you guys are first timers here. What would you like to see in terms of additional functionality that would make it even easier and make it more reliable? And that's the thing we have to keep pursuing here. I just can't get off that sand box enough to say that that's what the future is. And there's no reason in Kaouhi we couldn't be part of that. No? To elaborate on that is the outcome. What I noticed is that we're always thinking outside the box and that we're always focusing on the outcome. What is the outcome of this entire industry, this entire idea or intellectual property that we're focusing on? And the beauty about it is that students, you know, all of us, operators, engineers, business, I mean, we all have that perspective of thriving. And the fact that we're doing it here in Hawaii, yeah, imagine, you know, if you imagine or we already are imagining that there's going to be a lot of UAVs in the air. Okay, how are we going to get that? If we focus on the process of getting 500 in the air, then we lose. We're going to get frustrated where we'll be like, oh my gosh, I don't know how to get all 500. But if you just keep the outcome that we're going to have, a lot of UAVs out in the open to better our community to help in individual problems that we deal with every day from traffic to providing health care for emergency situations, if we focus on that, that's the outcome of using UAVs, then the next thing we know. You just said something magic. Let me interject. We're going to have to control you like we controlled Darrell Long. He's only allowed to have one bright idea, two bright ideas for sure. We're going to have to limit you in the same way, Michael. But take today's example. The community was involved with the kids taking the story home to their parents. The kids were involved by actually hands-on and the teachers were involved. In the conversation, I can tell you what's going on and we'll go on at dinner table and breakfast table and such. Why don't we do this? Ask the kids to work with their parents and come up with three things that Polono Valley cares about that are hard to get at and would be important for them to understand. And one thing I can think of would be albizia is falling in the raised arms and such and blocking the stream or even on the power lines. So it would be really cool to get the neighborhood to think of an issue that it is dealing with that the kids can assist with with the overhead imagery. And that's how we get the overall approval from the communities because they've seen the outcome. They've seen that, okay, got these drone operators here. They're teaching kids how to solve problems. They're going to solve problems for where I live. Absolutely. Go ahead. Besides coming in and like, oh, they're invading my privacy. I don't trust them. No, our approach is a lot more different and it's not complex. It's simple. It's real simple. Just focusing on the outcome and not the process. As soon as we get into the process, it gets real complicated. So that's why I believe, like we believe that these kids, the way they learn today, the way they operated your drone, our drone, it was like they can learn so fast. I mean, just stepping into the unknown. That's why I said on the field, what are we doing here? The kids already have it mastered from that perspective. Now we've got to get them to master the engineering issues and where that future is. And Margie, I hope you're taking notes out here, but it's the outcome that ought to drive our approach. The process will have to follow and fit the outcome better than get tangled up in the process and lose sight of the outcome. That's a really important message. And I'd like to say that we are up in Alaska at the conference that University of Alaska has every year. And Alaska is the mothership in this Alaska, Oregon, Hawaii, Mississippi connection called Pan-Pacific Unmanned Air Systems Test Range Complex. And George Purdy was up there. Shout out to George Purdy. Can't shout out enough to George Purdy. He was up there and stole the show in Alaska because he had the stories about community involvement, educational involvement and such, just like we're doing here, that he's done online. And that was something that that group hadn't seen. There's sort of a lot of people there, all high-end people in terms of their business side, but they hadn't seen that outreach to education and that level of visceral commitment at community involvement level. And we had that came up again even in a discussion this week with some folks in Texas. So there's something we can export here and benefit the rest of the world by the level of direct involvement. And you guys on this island, George on Manai, Maui, and we got to figure out Kauai and Big Island too here in Molokai. But that's something that is perhaps best understood here in Hawaii. And that is a strong point that we need to think about. So let's think about that a little bit more and figure out how we're going to sort of build that into our programs after we get back from our first and only break in today's show. Yes, let's do it. Hi, this is Jane Sugimura. I'm the co-host for Kando Insider. And we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at 3 o'clock. And we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners. And I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. Aloha. My name is John Wahee. And I used to be a part of all the things that you might be angry at. I served in government here and may have made decisions that affects you. So I want to invite you in. I want to invite you in to talk story with me and some very special guests every other Monday here at Talk Story with John Wahee. Come on in, join us, express your opinion, learn more about your state, and then do something about it. Aloha. Still Friday afternoon, folks. We're still here at the Think Tech Studio in downtown Honolulu, our show where the drone leads today, the drone leads to the air over Palolo Valley and a Nui Nui school up at the top of the valley. And welcoming on our guests again. We have, once again, Kano Eminus. Aloha. And Michael Motus. Yes, Ted. And you guys are getting so comfortable on this show. Yes, we are. I bet the airspace around you starts to conform now. So it's great having you here, having this continuity. But having you share what you, the evolution of your thinking has been going on here in the six or so times you've been on this show, we've gone a long way in that thinking. We've got Nanakuli traffic coming up. Yes, we do. Today we did Palolo Makahiki preparation and we just, right on this table at the first part of the show said we're going to work with Palolo Valley Neighborhood Association and the school and figure out some tasks to take on that these systems can assist with. I'd like to highlight that, the fact that this is the 100th episode. Not quite, almost. I'm just setting up for negotiations on a salary. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Set that up because we're going to have a lot of followers in the, especially in our community. They're seeing us. We're going out. Coleg Gold, you know, we come a long way. You know, we're a young company at two years old, but we're at this stage where now we understand what we're striving for. What are the outcomes that we're looking at? I like that. The second time you've used the word outcome, first in the first half of the show and you've used it in the second half of the show, I think that's now your standard, okay? Everything is judged by the outcome. Everything, definitely. And the outcome for Kainoa and his intellectual property for, you know, the first time we got a job, we opened it up. We was repairing. And now we, now that we, you know, we're at that level where we can say, okay, we've mastered everything inside and out of this, of this drone operations and including receiving our certificates, all our Part 107. Now what? What is the outcome of this? And the outcome is going to schools, go to Onrinuea, link back to all our schools that we've been a part of, the whole community getting out there recreationally. That's very key. Recreationally and having them understand you folks can operate and learn and teach education and build this curriculum for the future because the outcome of that is understanding you're going to have many drones in the air and you got to be ready to know what exactly is happening. I don't want to, we don't want to catch anybody off guard. We want to make sure that everybody's involved. And with Kainoa's, with Kolea Gold, we're striving for manufacturing, for building. We want to build drones. We want to get to that level where not just any kind of drones, drones that is going to set the outcome of helping each and every problem. And state outcome to find drones. Rather than take a drone out of some manufacturer just as it is, create the requirements that cause that drone to be executed in a way that meets the outcome that you're looking for. Keeping it real simple because we believe, that's what we believe in. Especially here in Hawaii, we believe that we're the ones who's going to change the world when it comes to using technology, bridging culture and bridging all the necessary legalities that you think would be very difficult. But like I said, if you continued on the process, it gets real tangled up. Think about the outcome. The outcome can help you see, have that mind-sight of getting out and helping the world. I got to go back a bit. We shouted out to George Purdy. We got to shout out to you guys of Kolea Gold as well.  You got to make money to stay in business. And yet you put all your time with the schools, you put all your time with the community organizations and here on the show, and it's not making any money. So you're able to find a way to be altruistic and promote goodwill and such and also continue running the business. So that's a great compliment to you that it is not just business. It's the future that's in your mind as well as today and Revenue. We learned that if you help enough people get what they want, you can get everything you want. So we just got to make it real clear, be real detailed as to what exactly we want to do. And it was always from the beginning like, okay, we have this idea. Now it's just being general or broad if you just say, I like be one drone operator. That's not detailed enough. You got to look into the outcomes of everything that you're going to do and then you're going to notice these people need to have problems too that they need help with. Revenue is looking forward to doing their Makaiiki project. That's something that we today just helped them with. We mapped out their map for Makaiiki. Our purpose for today's class was getting their footage or aerial footage for their website so they can demonstrate their school through aerial footage and photography. Like I said, if you help enough people get what they want, you can get everything you want. And in the middle of that, the guy who translates that outcome to the system that's going to get it is the engineer. The fact that you guys have both ends of the spectrum covered is great. It is difficult getting the engineering voice in there because it does speak into process aspects but as long as we can keep the engineering focused on the end item and the outcome, that's superb. And again, we just came across this last week, same time we were up in Alaska, there was a conference in New York called the Unmanned UTM, Unmanned Traffic Management UTM. It's a NASA program and FAA program trying to figure out how these things are going to be used beyond just one up in Balolo Valley. When you have 500 over 100,000, how's that going to work? And the way it's designed right now, it's a channelizing of the airspace. You would register how much airspace you need and when you need it, the altitude and the lateral dimensions. And if you meet some performance standard, you would be then reviewed and granted the space for a certain time and then you get to use it for your mission, whatever it may be. That's an interesting philosophical thought, extremely difficult to execute and I was somewhat secretly amused by the report that was given coming out of that meeting that, hey, when everything worked, they did some testing with a bunch of different drones of different types and when everything worked, that means the pilots aren't distracted, it wasn't raining and there was no big winds blowing and there was no failures of any kind. When everything worked, everything worked, okay, I got that. As soon as there was even the smallest disruption, like an ambient airplane coming through or a performance problem or a mechanical problem or something like that, the system kind of fell apart. That is, it wasn't possible for all those drones at the same time to maintain their position, their space, and their separation. And what does that tell you? Well, that's not a surprise really, but that's where the engineering comes in. If we start, how do we prevent that from happening? Well, we're going to have to develop performance standards. There's going to have to be a certain amount of excess power, a certain amount of cost of intolerance, a certain amount of engine loss, accommodation. There's all kinds of really interesting engineering problems buried in there and I'd love to have you work with those kids that are new and new and start them thinking about that. That's what's going to separate, what's going to make the future work is something that is, as you say, is simple. It's reliable and regardless of what fails, it continues to work and perform the mission and that's something we don't have today in this world and we're going to have to work hard to achieve. Right. Well, my perspective, from an engineering perspective, to simplify it, overall, what I view the drone is, is it's pretty much a simple tool to solve all those intricate problems that you and my business partner were discussing earlier. For example, the Polo neighborhood association, there's a problem that you said with the trees and the debris and the buildup of the canals, that's a problem. Well, the drone is the perfect tool for that and that's overall, that's exactly what I was messaging and trying to incorporate and I guess give subtle hints to the students today was it's not about what kind of drone you have or what fancy material you have, it's the drone overall is a drone and it's a tool. How can you use the tool, which is the drone, to overcome any of these obstacles, which is you want to see the Makahiki. Well, no one's seen it from a bird's eye view. You can use the drone as a perfect tool to utilize that. Other parts is, for example, non-akui traffic, like a project that we are working on and hopefully hope to execute it in the near future, but we're still working on it is the drone. The drone is the perfect tool so that is what we are trying to incorporate into the community of Hawaii as well. And let's not lose sight of that Polo next step beyond Makahiki and have that wide community involvement. It's going to be just like the non-akui traffic. In fact, I don't know if you got the message I sent on it a day or two ago, but the guys in Texas are doing the Department of Transportation work bridge inspection and highway inspection. And they said, but the thing we don't have, we don't have the community involvement and the educational connection. So there's a great connection right there and we can start learning from them what they're doing about the technical things and we learn and they learn from us about how to make this thing palatable and socially acceptable within the community. We look at the community and it's real simple. You have community and you have entrepreneur. You have the two aspects that our legislatures was sharing with us is that you got community and entrepreneur. What do you do with these two and what overall can you, the bigger picture is that community is the trump card. If you have the community support you can do anything and everything. I got to tell you, the words simple in the world, the words in-state, objective and outcomes are going to help me a lot because I've got this weekend to put together our strategy coming out of the state conference we had about a month ago. And you just said it, the trump card is use that word, the trump card, but the trump card is community buy-in, community advocacy and community benefit. And that is not just the aerospace community in the case of something like this. It originated in aerospace but really it's beneficiaries are agriculture, education, school, environment coastal erosion, invasive species, all the different aspects that come together and become a quality of life are where that outcome is measured. And that's going to be an important part of the strategy because to promote growth in this capability by funding education, by funding grants and such is going to require that broad body of support from people well outside of the aerospace sector. So I'll turn to you guys to help me put that together in the terms that you have so eloquently used here today and all times of the past. Yeah, definitely. I mean we're in transition. We're not trying. We're always in the process. One thing that I can relate back to is even when I was at Kalai Law airport when we were flying with Wright Flight School, my teacher there, even in our books, they show you physics. They talk about Newton's laws. And it kind of dawned on me that I was like, man I really think that Newton's second law, you know, when we're in motion where there is no... I like that motion. I like that second law. We now have Micah's first law. And we have Kaino's second law. And that's simple and that's in-state objective and outcome. And let me thank you guys for coming on the show again. Thank you for having us. Micah, and thanks for it. Palolo today, we'll do it again. Palolo problem, not a cooling problem. Every Friday. Okay, every Friday.


If you're just saying yes and no to things based on your mood or how you're feeling, there's no consistency in that. For me, I've learned to be able to say no respectfully, with tact, and to be polite if something is not a good fit. If you're asking me to do something that is taking me away from that North Star, then it's most likely not the wisest investment of my time or energy, and I'll politely decline.


A penderfyniad rai, mae'n ynig i'n newid o'r Bwysig yn gweithio i Mooshe 3994 i fofio John Mason o'r cyfr攻adau Scotland y fath, ac yr fath yn gy harvestingau maes iawn. Rwy'n mynd i'n mynd i chi i ei wneud gweithio i ddarllenu cyfrmwneidol, i bobl sy'n gweithio i bwysig i wedi meddwl y cwmpasol, a i wedi gweithio i gŵr ar y cyfr-gwyr i gael i gyd, i gael chi'n John Mason will open the debate for around seven minutes, Mr Mason. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I'm very grateful to the chance to have a member's debate in my name today. It takes quite a lot of time to get people to agree with much that I say. This is a subject that has concerned me for quite some time, and if we lose business headquarters and ownership from Scotland, does that not mean that there is a negative effect on the Scottish economy? Does that not mean that a time of downturn is not more likely that a Scottish branch of a business that is perceived to be far away from the centre will be closed down if there is apparently overcapacity? We have seen this quite recently with McVittie's in my constituency, which was floated as a public company many years ago, has suffered from a lack of investment and is now being closed. That is despite the fact that the Scottish food sector as a whole is doing well, and people around the world are willing to pay a premium for Scottish products. Other biscuit companies such as Walkers, Border Biscuits and Tunox appear to be doing very well. A few years ago, when I visited the Faroe Islands, they even had tunox tea cakes in the local shops. However, that is a much wider issue. Over the years, we have lost Stacus, Quickfit, Scottish and Newcastle, Bank of Scotland, and we do not even have the name of the Clydesdale bank on the high street anymore. Right up to date, we are seeing firstly stagecoach almost taken over by national express. Even though it was called a merger, it would have been 75 per cent national express with the HQ down south. Although now it looks like stagecoach will be owned by German investment company DWS infrastructure, which at least would mean some HQ functions staying in Scotland. Then again, we have Capricorn, which used to be called Cairn Energy. It is looking at being taken over by Tullow Oil. Simon Thomson was chief executive of Capricorn and was asked about having a London HQ. He said, quote, that this is all about creating value for shareholders, unquote, and it is reckoned that if that goes ahead, redundancies will be expected to cost some $50 million. Again, we have first group currently rejecting a bid from I-squared capital. I understand that the competitions and markets authority was looking into the national express stagecoach deal. They are clearly a reserved body and we would need to consider an equivalent body in the event of independence. However, their focus seems to be on competition concerns with the assumption that mergers and takeovers should go ahead unless there are serious reasons not to do so. I am just floating some ideas today, but I wonder if we should be reversing that thinking. For example, by assuming that takeovers and mergers should not go ahead unless there are compelling reasons why they should do so, such as a declining market or strong foreign competition. Indeed, I think that one of the interesting things about the point that he just raises there is that there is a lot of academic work and theory showing that mergers very often decrease value rather than add to the value. Is that something that he thinks that we should give more thought to? John Mason. Yes, it was a point that I was going to refer to later on, although I may not actually get that far, but the point that a merger or takeover generally does not increase value, but it shifts value often away from the staff, the employees, towards shareholders. Of course, shareholders are vital and they should always have a way out when they want or need to sell their shares, but other European countries seem to be better than the UK's at keeping more control of their important businesses. We saw that, especially with the Dutch national railways, effectively running ours too. Now, why should that be a good thing? Going further back, Scottish Power was taken over by Ebert Drola in 2007, with no benefit that I can see to Scottish workers or energy users. I should probably declare an interest here, as my father spent his whole working life with Scottish Power, or SSCB, as it was previously was, which, as far as I can see, was a successful company. Why did it not need to be taken over? Of course, electricity should never have been privatised in the first place, and once you float a business on the stock exchange, you lose control. Anyone can then buy and sell it so that you are the mercy of those who want to make a quick buck. As a general rule, we know that the short term overrules the longer term. However, I am not saying that public ownership is always a success. British Airways was not that successful while nationalised, nor was British Rail or in the car industry British Leyland. However, Scottish Power, Scottish Water, Lothian Buses and others have been broadly good organisations in public ownership. I recently realised that the water and sewage systems in every country in the world are in public ownership except in England and Wales. Of course, there are other models of ownership, too. Family businesses, such as Scottish Leather Group, are one of the top leather businesses in the world. The Scottish Family Business Association pushes for continuation of family-owned businesses or models other than flotation. Employee ownership is another model, such as John Lewis's partnership and now Wes Brewery in my constituency. Social enterprises and co-operatives are other options, and I note that Paul Sweeney has a motion on co-op fortnight, and I was happy to put my name to that. However, does it really matter who owns the business and where the HQ is? Some would say that profitability, productivity and efficiency are the only things that matter. However, the HQ function also means that the top-paid jobs and the taxes that they pay will be in the home country. Auditors, lawyers, consultants and other suppliers will tend to be there as well. There is usually the spin-off of local hotels and restaurants benefiting, too. In our own case in the Scottish Parliament, as many of us use Edinburgh hotels, restaurants and pubs during the week. I will finish with a few points and quotes that were made in academic and newspaper articles over a number of years. Scott Wright in The Herald on 2 June talked about the loss of headquarters, being a loss of prestige and the global reputation of Scotland as a place where a business of significant size can be built and, crucially, can remain. However, he says that arguably not a lot can be done to stop a takeover. Boards have to maximise shareholder value. Again, in The Herald on 17 June, Colin McLean writes about how change of corporate control in the UK is easier than in other European countries and the potential for headquarters to move or activity to be relocated. Too often, takeover promises have later been set aside. Both Ireland and Denmark have major listed companies on a scale well beyond Scotland's sector. He points out that this takeover trend is concerning. To finish, I have to say on a more positive note that it was good to see that Inverness-based Carleton Bingo, with 209 staff, is becoming Scotland's largest employee-owned firm, well done to them. Maybe I am raising more questions than giving answers today. However, as I said, this is a subject that has concerned me for a while. I think that we, as a Parliament, should be looking at it going forward. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr Mason. I now call Liz Smith. He will be followed by Paul McLean in around four minutes. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank John Mason for bringing what I think is an important debate to the chamber. It goes without saying that all of us in this place, irrespective of our political views, are rightly very proud of our Scottish companies and their Scottish heritage. Mr Mason has spoken about several key companies, companies with very distinguished and long-standing Scottish heritage with names renowned across the world. Sometimes there are sound economic reasons, often related to economies of scale, as to why some Scottish companies may wish to give up some control of their assets. However, there are clearly trends of companies in Scotland giving up significant control of their businesses to foreign firms. I can understand why Mr Mason has concern about that. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we work together in this chamber to provide support where it is needed and ensure that, as many companies are able to remain independently competitive. Over my 15 years as an MSP, I have worked very closely over a range of issues for companies such as stagecoach in my own Perth region. Most of my interactions with stagecoach representative have been entirely productive and their willingness to engage constructively with me and other representatives and my constituents has always been greatly appreciated. Moreover, I was relieved to hear, as Mr Mason mentioned, that the new deal between DWS and stagecoach means that the headquarters will now remain in Perth, which would not have been the case if the previous national express merger had taken place. Many of the services that stagecoach run across Mid-Scotland and Fife are absolute lifelines for elderly constituents attending medical appointments, for example, and for students attending their educational establishments. It is important that we continue to support company-like stagecoach through this transition so that those lifeline services continue to operate as frequently as possible. Similarly, I commend the work of John Mendes, most especially as it has had to deal with the exigences of the pandemic. The aviation sector across the world bore the brunt of the Government's all-governments, not any specific government policies, to stop the spread of the virus, and it is obviously very worrying but somewhat unsurprising that the companies in this sector will have to make significant compromises that would not have been the case in normal circumstances. A year ago, I was one of the members of this Parliament, some of them present this evening, who stood outside this Parliament when various representatives from the aviation sector came to tell us exactly what their plight involved. It was not funny, to be honest, listening to some of their stories about their experiences, so I was not surprised when the news came through of the full takeover of a business by Q8's national aviation services. While it goes without saying that the examples of the loss of independent control in Scottish businesses is disappointing and, in some cases, very worrying, I think that we have to also ask ourselves, and Mr Mason was asking us to ask those questions, about why it is that Scottish businesses feel the need to relocate considerable control in some cases to forfeit foreign investors. Like other colleagues, I have had many meetings with business leaders throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and I have also attended several roundtables with key businesses, one of them just this morning. I think that it is very clear that business confidence in many sectors is weak. Some even feel that policy makers do not see them as a priority and they worry about the future of the Scottish economy. Mr Mason and Daniel Johnson sit on the same finance committee that I do. We know only too well what the in-depth analysis of the main forecasters is showing, and it is not a happy picture. Let us be honest about that. Businesses are facing rising costs, serious recruitment issues and rising debt, but, as well as there are longer-term structural problems in the labour market, serious productivity issues and skills shortages. Businesses want as much stability and certainty as possible, and that is something that the cabinet secretary herself said two budgets ago. However, at the moment, they do not have either. Plus, of course, they now have another referendum threat and the turmoil that that will create. None of those things is helpful to Scottish business to retain that discreet heritage that we all want to see, but also its economic viability. I think that we should worry about that. I now call Paul MacLennan to be followed by Daniel Johnson again in around four minutes. I thank John Mason for bringing forward this member's debate tonight. I first of all share his concern about the headquarters functions of Stagecoach and John Menzies who may be lost. Those companies are well known in Scotland and have had a strong presence for many years. I worked for the Bank of Scotland for 20 years from 1990 to 2010, and was working at the time of the so-called merger with the Halifax when it became HBoss. Then again, through Lloyd's decision making, it was changed overnight and I literally mean overnight, and that was very noticeable. It is very sad now to see the mound only operates as a museum and a corporate meeting venue. According to the Insider magazine in April this year, the top 10 companies in Scotland were SSC, Scottish Power, Bank of Scotland, Aviva, Royal Bank of Scotland, Virgin Money, Arnold Clark, Weir Group and Shivas Brothers. Other noble companies included Scots Widows, First Group and Aberdeen. Those were all companies that started in Scotland. How many are still headquarters in Scotland and, more importantly, where are investment decisions made? So how do we compare with countries similar in population? Let's look at two of our neighbours, Denmark and Ireland, roughly the same population as Scotland, and, noticeably, both still in the EU. Top six companies in Denmark are MERSC, Dansk, a bank, Novo, Orsted, Calisburg and Vestas. The market capitalisation of those companies is $285 billion, with assets under control of $882 billion. The top 10 companies in Denmark made a combined profit of $16.3 billion. An island market capitalisation of 10 top companies is $482 billion, with market capitalisation of $452 billion. Again, top 10 companies in Ireland with a combined profit of $19.6 billion are top 10 companies. Irish companies included Islay Dairish, Ryanair and Townlake constructions. Now, why is this important? The Danish corporation tax rate is 22 per cent. That is a boost of $3.6 billion to the Danish Treasury alone of the top 10 companies. The Irish corporation tax is 12.5 per cent, a boost of $2.5 billion. Again, only the top 10 companies. This is a prize that Scotland could have. So what do we need to do in Scotland to first retain headquarters in Scotland and attract further investment into Scotland? We need the levers of an independent country, like Denmark and Ireland. We need macroeconomic powers, and we need to be back in the EU. So what are those powers? The ability to set interest rates, the ability to set corporation tax, tax relief for investors, boring powers to support and structure, and, crucially, investment in research and development. So do we have the ability to attract investment into Scotland? It's the number of surveys that were published a few weeks ago on the FDI front, relative to other parts of the UK and to other countries in elsewhere in Europe. Scotland outpaced UK-wide progress significantly. The Irish Government declared that Scotland had made great strides as a destination for FDI in 2021, and its survey revealed that the nation's attractiveness rating from potential future investments had hit a record. It stated that, in a quote, our findings suggest that the outlook for Scotland's FDI is exceptionally bright. Scotland achieved a 14 per cent rise in the number of investment projects to 122. It put in a one-point increase in the UK in the shade, and Europe's 5.4 per cent rise in the shade. The increase in the number of investment projects won by Scotland last year was the fourth consecutive annual rise. The minister again stated that the past year has seen Scotland continue to make great strides as a destination for FDI. Minini can look to the future with even greater confidence. Scotland's record level of attractiveness is underpinned by investors' rising perceptions. The importance of such investment should not be underestimated. The FDI often brings with it very high-value jobs. Such projects are R&D-led and can involve collaborations with Scottish universities. To conclude, the UK's stewardship of the economy and its control of macroeconomic levels hinder Scotland's attracting companies to HQ in Scotland. Scotland needs to be like Denmark and Ireland to have the macroeconomic levels to attract investment and attract business to headquarters in Scotland. Does Denmark and Ireland do it successfully? Why not Scotland? I'm really pleased that John Mason brought forward this debate. I think that it does ask the sort of important questions that we need to ask and indeed the ones that Mr Mason posed, because I think that it does matter where our business and our industry is owned. In part, there is a sentimental reason and I think that Mr Mason alluded to those, that when we see companies like John Mingus, as my mother always told me to pronounce it, not John Menzies or indeed others, going to foreign ownership, it is sad. However, I think that there are actually important reasons as well. When those companies' decision making is made elsewhere, when they seek to make their investment decisions, when those decisions are being made in another place by other people, I think that there is intuitively more likely to be reasons that they will not invest necessarily in the place where their acquired business rests, although they might do. I agree with a lot of what Mr McLennan has said. I think that there are questions about the macroeconomic policies, but his contribution also hit upon one of the tensions. While he was juxtaposing those downsides, he was contrasting with foreign direct investment. I would gently point out the F-bit of FDI. We are in a global marketplace and, regardless of our different views on the constitution, at the heart of that is how do we strike that balance between indigenous growth, which we can all agree in, that we have to ensure that we have an environment where businesses are created and grown here, but also acknowledging that it is a global economy, whether we like it or not. In some ways, there are many people—perhaps my benches are not full at the moment—who might be alarmed at some of the things that I am saying, but we cannot undo the global economy. We cannot go back to the 1970s and we cannot put up the walls. I like to think about, for example, of wolves and electronics, which were very successful, founded in the 1980s. Every time I passed their office building, I wondered whether it needed to be like that, that they got bought by Cirrus. However, when you look at it, there are still 300 jobs in Edinburgh employed by them. If you look at their job sites, there are jobs being advertised for senior semiconductor engineers. There is a balance to be struck, but, ultimately, I think that we need to question what we need to do to retain more businesses that are owned in Scotland. Part of that, I think that we need to examine companies' law. I think that we make it too easy. In France, they blocked the acquisition of Danone, a yoghurt manufacturer in 2004, on the basis that that was of strategic interest to France. That is not the sort of thing that you see happening here, but I think that we need to question that. I would highlight on the fact that mergers do not tend to create value. I think that we need to adhere to the market. I do not think that we can just block things out right, but I think that there is an issue there. We also need to look at our own policies. Do we always use the right vehicles? Could we use golden shares when we are doing our co-investment through Scottish Enterprise and Scottish National Investments? Could we use joint venture structures? Yes, we attract the outside capital, but we actually build something here as well. That is something that is used in other countries. I wonder whether there were possibilities with Scotland or other future infrastructure where that joint venture means that we can build infrastructure, but at least we will retain, at least in part, ownership here. We also need to look at our wider policy landscape, because when I am talking to businesses, I know that there is a concern that we are not necessarily retaining those, such as life sciences, and there is a very active concern about whether we are retaining life science businesses. The issues there are not the big ones that Mr MacLennan was pointing to, but they are things such as planning, things such as skills policy. There are things that are absolutely within our control here. I think that there are some really good questions that have been raised. I think that there are some things that are definitely outwith the Scottish Parliament, but there are also things here. Ultimately, that is about growing businesses, which is about growing jobs and growing wages. Ultimately, while economic policy is complicated, it does boil down to those simple things. Thank you very much, Mr Johnson. I now call on Ivan McKee to respond to the debate. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It is a real pleasure this debate. It is a shame that there are not perhaps more members who want to take part in it, but the contributions have been excellent by large. I thank John Mason for bringing this debate and pursuing it in such a constructive manner. I would like to start off, first of all, by being clear about the Scottish Government's objective for our economy, which is to strengthen our domestic economy and our recently published national strategy of economic transformation, which is absolutely focused on the actions to make the Scottish economy and Scottish businesses more prosperous, more productive and more internationally competitive. The Scottish Government, alongside our enterprise agencies and partners, are prioritising creating a business environment in which home-grown businesses in key sectors can grow, develop and compete for global market share. To do that, we have to create an environment in which businesses can thrive. We recognise that investment around company growth and scaling can be difficult and limited in the small Scottish market with few players, and Scottish companies often access international investment to support their growth ambitions. We are therefore working hard to create the economic conditions in which Scottish companies can realise the benefits of keeping control of their operations in Scotland. Scottish Government-backed investment funds are designed to fill key gaps in the continuum of growth capital to enable Scottish companies to scale. At the same time, that creates a busy ecosystem of private investors in Scotland affording Scottish businesses more opportunities for growth here in Scotland. The strategic direction behind that and the policy action that we are taking is well articulated in our global capital investment plan. Through our enterprise agencies, we provide a wide range of funding and support for Scottish businesses, including R&D grants, the Scottish Co-investment Fund and the Scottish Loans scheme. It provides domestic companies with an opportunity to achieve their growth ambitions in Scotland, as well as increase productivity and enhance efficiency. However, funding growth should be appropriate for the type of business, and it is not a one-size-fits-all. That can come from a variety of sources, both private and public, and domestic, as well as international. What is important is that business gets the right investment and support the need while we build an open and effective economy. Acquisitions, when right for a business, give companies access to global technology, talent and markets and support their growth ambitions. Just because a company is acquired does not mean that there is no longer a focus on Scottish operations. Often it can mean that the acquired business has afforded the opportunity to flourish. In fact, Scotland outperforms other countries on measures of business performance after acquisitions, and there is little difference in the inward investment acquisition rates between Scotland and other small European nations. Clyde space, for example, was acquired by Swedish AAC in 2019. In that acquisition, I have seen continued investment in Scotland, providing Clyde space with access to new investment, skills and global markets. That investment is a catalyst for growing the talent base here in Scotland in the space sector. Another example that John Mason will be familiar with is soapworks in my constituency. It was a business that struggled for many years and had many difficulties operating as a private company. It was acquired by a Colombian group Dabon two or three years ago and has since gone from strength to strength for their investment, access to new markets through Dabon's global networks and a much more competitive business, saving more than 100 jobs as a consequence. The Clyde space example in particular illustrates that, in direct effect, acquisitions can have on our economy, with international investments delivering a wide range of benefits, including improving Scotland's reputation in certain key sectors. Space is one, life science and many others. It also helps to secure investment through supply chains in Scotland and unlocks a learning and experience for business leaders on how to grow their businesses. It is also worth noting that the substantial financial contribution that mergers and acquisitions make to the Scottish economy in 2021 alone, £2.8 billion in capital was raised from external investors. However, it is also worth pointing out that this is a two-way street. Scottish companies who look to grow their businesses abroad can do so in order for them to grow to an international scale that often acquires companies in target markets internationally. Earlier this year, Glasgow-based packaging distributor McFarlane Group acquired Pacman. A German business is part of its growth strategy, and that will help to move the Scottish-based firm to expand into European markets, illustrating the importance of truly international economies. Would, in where group, both substantial Scottish businesses have made significant acquisitions internationally over the years? Indeed, stagecoach has been mentioned several times in the debate that has made acquisitions in Canada and the United States and, indeed, in Poland through the course of their growth trajectory. It is very much important to recognise that that is a two-way street. Our current approach to creating an open, outward-looking internationally-facing economy requires balance, a point that was made very well by Daniel Johnstone. The best investment ecosystems contain a diverse range of sources of capital and mergers in acquisitions provide a key form of investment for fast-growing Scottish companies. The point that Daniel Johnstone also made about joint ventures is something that is very well made, and they have a key role to play in many scenarios. It was also aware that the power to regulate corporate transactions, including the ability to restrict changes in ownership where it is in the public interest to do so, is reserved to UK Government entities such as Bays and the Competition and Markets Authority, the CMA, who I met recently to discuss the various issues. The Scottish Government has no legal power to intercede in scenarios where decisions are made that do not align with Scottish policy priorities and, as part of the UK Scottish ministers, have limited ability to protect, encourage, maintain and grow our desired wellbeing economy. Additional constitutional powers will enable us to make decisions that are tailored to Scottish business needs, and, in an independent Scotland, we will have more levers and resources at our disposal to support Scottish businesses and the Scottish economy, a point that Paul McClellan made very well. Through the delivery of our national strategy for economic transformation, the Scottish Government is working hard to ensure that Scottish businesses have access to the right support, including capital to grow their businesses. We are focusing on the actions that can be taken within current constitutional arrangements to transform Scotland's economy, and we will continue to support our businesses and the individuals in upskilling, as well as to utilise new digital technologies and to create a new world-class entrepreneurial nation that is productive and innovative. Scotland's businesses will have the best possible environment to thrive and grow here in Scotland.


Excellencies, colleagues, I want to first wish Ramadan Karim to all those observing. Thank you to the Organization for Islamic Cooperation for convening this event, marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. We remember the 51 victims who were murdered exactly five years ago at the Al Nour Mosque and Linwood Islamic Center in Christchurch, New Zealand. And we remember all victims around the world who have suffered and continue to suffer the consequences of hate. We are living through an era of intensifying global crisis and conflict, spurred by deep and deadly divisions between our human family. We see these tensions and divisions rising on many fronts, including through a wave of renewed hate speech, discrimination and violence in all regions, including against Muslims. All forms of religious hatred and intolerance are unacceptable. The message today is perhaps more urgent than ever. We are all well past the hour to restore peace, tolerance and respect. We know that fear breeds hate, ignorance and distrust of the other. Islamophobia has stolen lives. It has dehumanized entire communities.  Many have been subjected to surveillance and religious profiling. Mosques have been attacked and sometimes destroyed. Counter extremism laws, policies and practices have been misused, leading to illegal arrests, arbitrary detention and violence. In the context of the current conflict in the Middle East, multiple reports have emerged showing huge spikes in Islamophobic incidents, for example an up to 600% increase in some countries in North America and Europe. One organization noted a tenfold increase in incidents between 7 and 23 October in one country in the Asia-Pacific region. The surge in Islamophobia is shocking and it is occurring as part of a broader trend. I'm also profoundly concerned about the continuing rise of anti-Semitism, Christianophobia and prejudices against people of other religions or beliefs of hatred that is directed at migrants, refugees and minorities including Roma about deep-seated racism against people of African descent and indigenous peoples and many other forms of discrimination and xenophobia. The recording and collecting of reliable data are essential for more effective response to hate speech and hate crime everywhere. More must be done to ensure incidents are reflected in official statistics and that all countries have the systems and methodology needed to record desegregated data. Excellencies, colleagues, two years ago the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 76 Stroke 254, a crucial step forward in recognizing Islamophobia around the world and the need to put an end to it. The world remains far from achieving this ambition. States must urgently step up their efforts to combat intolerance against people based on religion or belief within the parameters of international human rights law using the many tools they have at their disposal. Several frameworks already exist. Human Rights Council Resolution 16 Stroke 18 has set out an action plan for countries to address religious intolerance and the Istanbul process is a dedicated intergovernmental mechanism to implement it. The Rabat plan of action which was developed by my office and the Beirut Declaration on Faith for Rights can further guide countries' efforts. And to address the root causes of religious hatred, my office's practical guide to developing comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation is a crucial tool to support states in protecting minority rights. While states have a leading role to play in countering discrimination and intolerance, governments, religious leaders, faith-based actors, civil society organizations, social media platforms can and should all work together to bridge divides and foster deeper dialogue and understanding. Faith literacy, in other words, knowledge and understanding about the values of each religion and belief is also crucial. I urge states to include it as part of comprehensive training initiatives on combating religious hatred for law enforcement officers and the judiciary, faith-based actors, teachers and media professionals. I also urge states to define and implement clear measures to address discrimination in the job and housing markets within criminal justice systems and in national security responses. Colleagues, I'd like to think that humanity's superpower is the richness of our diversity. I sincerely hope that by embracing and celebrating our differences, we can stop these vicious cycles of prejudice, hate and violence. And in doing so, we can rebuild the space for dialogue, tolerance and respect for our fellow human beings, no matter their religion and no matter who or what they believe in. Thank you.