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Traden4Alpha
Posts: 3300
Joined: September 20th, 2002, 8:30 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 7:51 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnI just want to say one word to you - just one word. 'Plastics.' There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.I thought the answer was "Banach spaces" or has the real estate bubble afflicted normed vector spaces?
 
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Cuchulainn
Posts: 20254
Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 8:05 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: Traden4AlphaQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnI just want to say one word to you - just one word. 'Plastics.' There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.I thought the answer was "Banach spaces" or has the real estate bubble afflicted normed vector spaces?No, these days it is a Hausdorff space. In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. //(Spanning) trees and forests are a good investment if your horizon is [20, 30] years. Annual rate 10%. Barring tree disease or a comet hitting the forest, it is a reasonably good investment.
Last edited by Cuchulainn on November 7th, 2008, 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 
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trackstar
Posts: 3420
Joined: January 1st, 1970, 12:00 am

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 9:33 pm

These little guys don't bother with H1B visas, they just show up and destroy trees.Chinese Beetle
 
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Paul
Posts: 6604
Joined: July 20th, 2001, 3:28 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 10:43 pm

Something negatively correlated to the job you are going for obviously. I'll let you figure out the details!(Cuch, your 'plastics' answer is wasted on the young people on this forum!)P
 
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trackstar
Posts: 3420
Joined: January 1st, 1970, 12:00 am

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 10:50 pm

The GraduateNot wasted, but do we really want to introduce Crashed Mint to Mrs. Robinson at this vulnerable moment in his career?
 
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KackToodles
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Joined: August 28th, 2005, 10:46 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 8th, 2008, 11:30 pm

$1000 is good for a bottle of wine and a T bone steak at the chop house.
 
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Anthis
Posts: 7
Joined: October 22nd, 2001, 10:06 am

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 9th, 2008, 12:22 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: CrashedMintI must admit: The models/the math interests me, not the actual underlyers. But I have an interview next week and almost certainly they will ask this question. Is there some site on the web that has a quick daily report on the indices and interesting stocks? Something I could read in like 15minutes to get a general understanding of the current situation.And: If I asked YOU today "I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?" what would be your answer?CMIs it for for a bank interview? If yes, my proposal is "asset finance". You will invest the allocated capital in Heckler & Koch solutions, then you ll start robbing banks and bankers (at director level or above). It has a long call option payoff and your return on capital may skyrocket within weeks. You may show your commitment as a "socially responsible robber" by donating a % of your profits to charities and environmental protection funds. If you dont tax evade you will never get caught. On the contrary, see it as an insurance, one day your government may bail you out...
 
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quantmeh
Posts: 0
Joined: April 6th, 2007, 1:39 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 9th, 2008, 12:29 am

QuoteOriginally posted by: CrashedMintplease elaborate :-)the question itself is a bait. so u can use it to drag the interviewer into somewhere u like. e.g. a lottery ticket, would b an invitation to b/s about behavioural finance. obviously, it's a bit dangerous, because u got to b able to hold your own there.just google on "lottery ticket capm risk premium" or something like that. u have to b able to explain first why it the lottery ticket shouldnt cost $0. think of its expected return, it's pretty much ~$0. then u must explain why it actually makes a sense to buy lottery ticket, and why it can b a part of rational risk-averse person's portfolio etc.
 
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Cuchulainn
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Joined: July 16th, 2004, 7:38 am
Location: 20, 000

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 9th, 2008, 12:01 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: mackbarThese little guys don't bother with H1B visas, they just show up and destroy trees.Chinese BeetleThe trees that do succumb to those wood worm critters can be used as firewood. But you need a good chainsaw.
 
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Traden4Alpha
Posts: 3300
Joined: September 20th, 2002, 8:30 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 9th, 2008, 1:41 pm

QuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnQuoteOriginally posted by: Traden4AlphaQuoteOriginally posted by: CuchulainnI just want to say one word to you - just one word. 'Plastics.' There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it? Shh! Enough said. That's a deal.I thought the answer was "Banach spaces" or has the real estate bubble afflicted normed vector spaces?No, these days it is a Hausdorff space. In topology and related branches of mathematics, a Hausdorff space, separated space or T2 space is a topological space in which distinct points have disjoint neighbourhoods. //(Spanning) trees and forests are a good investment if your horizon is [20, 30] years. Annual rate 10%. Barring tree disease or a comet hitting the forest, it is a reasonably good investment.Do Hilbert nuts grow on spanning trees? Perhaps one can get a lucrative grant from the EU to go beyond B-Trees to create new carbon-absorbing C-Trees.But seriously, this question is one of those "trick" questions that has no single right answer. Depending on the job and the interveiwer, they may be looking for evidence that you are ready to take risks or are extremely cautious about risks. They may be looking for evidence that you are concise and decisive (e.g., know exactly what you would do with the money) or methodical and explanatory (i.e., can spend time explaining how you would evaluate investments and make a careful decision). The point is that your answer should be consistent with the job description, the company, and the interviewer with the proviso that no single answer may be consistent with all three.
 
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twofish
Posts: 0
Joined: February 18th, 2005, 6:51 pm

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 10th, 2008, 4:44 am

Who am I investing the money for?If I take the statement literally and someone "gives me money to invest for me". I'll go onto Amazon and buy lots of books, and perhaps a new laptop.If I am investing the money for someone else, then a lot depends on what their risk profile is. Absent any other information, I'll just put the money in a FDIC insured high yield investor checking account. If I know the risk profiile, then I'll invest in either T-bills or an open end mutual index fund.The thing to remember is that with small amounts of money, you are more interested in minimizing transaction fees than maximizing return. If you don't do anything dead simple, the transaction fees are going to eat up the principal. Also, if you spend more than fifteen minutes thinking about this, then you aren't making a very economically efficient use of your time.
 
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deepvalue
Posts: 0
Joined: April 25th, 2007, 6:08 am

I give you $1000, how do you invest the money? Why?

November 10th, 2008, 7:12 am

buy oil futures.