RockStartup is a Web 2.0 reality TV show and I must admit that I find this to be a neat little idea. The episodes document the journey of CEO and entrepreneur Ted Murphy and his team as they try to build their company, PayPerPost.
The first episode reveals that the company was funded with $3,000,000 in venture capital money and each episode thereafter chronicles their efforts to grow the company. It’s quite the whirlwind journey that touches on everything from visiting tradeshows to meeting deadlines and trying to sign clients.
The show is very similar to the documentary Startup.com which was shot at the height of the dot com internet bubble. I thoroughly enjoyed Startup.com and RockStartup looks just as promising. So far there are 26 episodes in the series, most around 6 minutes each, and a new one is added every week. Click here to check out the show.
With Treasury Bonds being in the news lately I thought I’d take a look at what ETF options are available for investors wanting to take advantage of moves in the bond market. After some quick research, I found only two exchange traded funds in this category which have decent daily trading volume.
- iShares Lehman 20+ Year Treasury Bond - Ticker Symbol: TLT
- iShares Lehman 1-3 Year Treasury Bond - Ticker Symbol: SHY
For more info on these you can visit the iShares website.
The 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) only invests in bonds that mature in 20 years or more and thus is the more volatile fund of the two. TLT has traded in a range of 82.20 to 91.80 in the past 52 weeks. On the other hand, The 1-3 Year Treasury Bond ETF (SHY) has traded in a narrow range of 79.26 to 80.60 in the same time period. Thus, the 20+ Year ETF is the best way to play the volatility in the bond market.
Keep in mind that both of these funds pay dividends each and every month so if you decide to short them you will need to pay the dividend out of your own pocket.
Sports Illustrated is out with their yearly Fortunate 50 list which ranks the highest paid athletes for the year. Tiger woods took the top spot by earning a whooping $111,941,827. Oscar De La Hoya was second, earning $55,000,000 and Phil Mickelson took home the third spot with $51,256,505 in earnings. The estimated totals used to compose the list include salary, winnings, bonuses, endorsements and appearances. Here is how the top 10 shook out:
- Tiger Woods, golf, $111,941,827
- Oscar De La Hoya, boxing, $55,000,000
- Phil Mickelson, golf, $51,256,505
- Shaquille O’Neal, NBA, $35,000,000
- Kobe Bryant, NBA, $33,718,750
- LeBron James, NBA, $30,828,089
- Kevin Garnett, NBA, $29,000,000
- Derek Jeter, MLB, $29,000,000
- Alex Rodriguez, MLB, $28,000,000
- Dale Earnhardt Jr., auto racing, $27,111,735
To see the full list, click here.
One thing that stands out is LeBron James’ endorsements which netted him $25,000,000. So if that figure remains, and his salary catches up to that of Kobe’s or Shaq’s, LeBron will earn over $40,000,000 a year and become the highest paid team sports athlete.
Another thing to note is the arrival of Michelle Wie to the list. The 17 year old golfer became the highest earning female athlete by earning $20,235,224. Over 96% of that total came from endorsements.
While the numbers these athletes rack up in the paycheck category are impressive, they are still dwarfed by that of Wall Street’s top earning traders.
