Investing in Oil: How not to

Some have benefited and some got hurt by the precipitous fall in oil prices in the last few months. Oil is a commodity and it has its own cycles. It might be possible to bring some profits by contrary investing into oils rise.

Those who believe the oil prices are poised to increase and who are looking around to find the optimum investment vehicle, should be very careful in selecting the right vehicle. One of the easiest ways to get into speculation with oil prices is to purchase ETN's that follow the monthly future contracts, such as USO (United States Oil ETF). However, one needs to understand well that these products don't own physical OIL or owning them doesn't necessarily mean physically owning OIL or oil products. In fact, these follow near month future prices.

Following near month future prices doesn't guarantee being able to follow price of oil. In some cases, future contracts may get much more expensive compared to oil itself. Take a look at the table below that shows the monthly returns for  It shows monthly returns for USO since its initial offering. As you can see, it can't capture the amount of return from the crude oil. In my opinion, it's more of a speculation vehicle rather than an investment product.

Oil jumps as much as five percent from five-year low

Crude oil markets jumped as much as 5 percent on Monday, rebounding from five-year lows with their biggest daily gain since 2012, on fears that the high U.S. shale output blamed for the global oil glut may be shrinking.


Benchmark Brent crude oil settled up $2.39 at $72.54 a barrel, after a session peak at $72.73. It fell as much as $2.62 earlier to $67.53, a low since July 2009. The 3 percent gain on the day was Brent's largest since October 2012.

U.S. crude finished up $2.85 at $69 a barrel, after initially plumbing a five-year bottom at $63.72. The 4 percent rise was the largest one-day move up in U.S. crude since August 2012. U.S. crude continued to surge post-settlement, gaining almost 5 percent to $69.34 by 2015 GMT.

Brent and U.S. crude prices have fallen for five months in a row, the longest losing streak in oil since the 2008 financial crisis. Despite Monday's rebound, they are still down about 10 percent from the start of last week, before producer group OPEC decided on Thursday not to cut output despite oversupply worries.

Words from "How to Think Like Leonardo da vinci" Part Two / 1

From the book "How to Think Like Leonardo da vinci, Part Two / 1"

Unquenchable: Impossible to satisfy
In the first years of life, our minds are engaged in an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

Attune: To bring into accord, harmony
Baby's every sense is attuned to exploring and learning

Confound: To throw into amaze, confuse
His math teacher was often confounded by Leonardo da Vinci's amazing skills

Insatiable: Impossible to satisfy
Leonardo's childlike sense of wonder and insatiable curiosity never abated.

Inquisitive: Eager to knowledge, intellectually curious
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inquisitive?s=t
He turned his passion into inquisitiveness

Inquiry: A seeking or request for truth, sorgu sorusturma

Rigor: The quality of being extremely accurate
Da Vinci studied everything with the same rigor
He performed layer upon layer of rigorous examination

How to save Iphone 5s battery life

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/iphone/10457092/IPhone-hidden-features-nine-ways-to-extend-the-battery-life-on-your-smartphone.html

Turn Off Location Services
iPhones and iPads use the inbuilt GPS for many functions, including Google maps. You may be surprised about how many apps also use the GPS but it eats up battery life.
You can turn off all Location Services or just turn it off for specific apps by going to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.
You can also turn off GPS settings on Android phones which will improve your battery life.

Prevent Background App Refresh
Background App refresh allows apps to refresh their content in the background while you perform different tasks. It is a clever new function of iOS 7 that means that the apps download new content before you open them. It also eats away at your battery life.
You can disable the feature entirely or simply disable the apps that you do not want to continually refresh. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

Fetch data manually
You can set your iPhone or iPad to check your email accounts less often. Data can be 'fetched' at specific intervals. The more frequently email or other data is fetched, the quicker your battery may drain.
To fetch new data manually, from the Home screen choose Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Manually.
To increase the fetch interval, go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and tap Hourly. If you have a 'push' email account you can turn it off when you don't need it. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Fetch New Data and set Push to Off.

Don't automatically update apps
In earlier iOS versions you had to manually update App updates but with iOS 7 they automatically update when new versions are released. It can be a drain on battery life so to manually update apps go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Updates > and move the slider to off.


Auto-Lock iPhone and iPad
Always lock your iPad or iPhone when you aren’t using it. To lock, press the Sleep/Wake button. You can also set the Auto-Lock interval so your iPad will turn off more quickly after a period of inactivity.
The sooner the device goes to sleep the less battery it will drain. To set Auto-Lock, go to Settings > General > Auto-Lock and set the interval to a short time, such as 1 minute.

Disable notifications
On an Android, iPhone or iPad notifications use up battery life. In both you have to go into each app and disable the notifications individually.
Keep it cool
Whether you have an Android, iPhone or iPad exposing it to heat will degrade its battery life the most. Keep it out of the sun or warm areas.
Turn off vibration
Turning off the vibrating alerts on your iPhone, iPad or Android can help prolong your battery life. In IOS 7 you can find the option to turn off vibrating alerts in the 'Sounds menu'.