Page 84 – Kanebridge News

March 10, 2021March 11, 2021

Let’s Redesign The Laptop For A Work-From-Home Era

With remote work by and large here to stay, a lot of focus has turned toward the key work-from-home technology tool: the laptop. But relying so heavily on the laptop has raised all sorts of issues—from camera and sound quality to security and privacy.

What developments are coming to laptops to make remote work easier? And what developments should be coming? Here’s what a variety of experts had to say about that.

1. Improve the way we look on camera…

The better we get at videoconferencing, the more we notice bad videoconferencing and poor camera angles. Innovation in software will make us all look better on camera.

There’s already software to edit the view of the pupil of your eye so it looks like you’re focused on the camera. It’s not a big leap to think software will scan our faces and present a virtual camera view that shows us at our most flattering angle with a little motion thrown in for realism.

Going a step further, more workers who are in continuous meetings don’t want to stare into a camera or at a single screen all day. Having more than one camera—think a production studio for the home office—could enable meeting software to smoothly switch automatically from one camera to another depending on where you focus your eyes.

We should also see an evolution of tablet and laptop design to improve the way we look on camera. If you have a device with a detachable keyboard, you can already position your screen and its camera on a stand to get a better angle. Separating the laptop camera so you can put it anywhere is a logical step.

You already have another camera: your smartphone. With the right app, you can send smartphone-camera video to your computer, and, jumping through a hoop or two, get that video into a meeting. This could be more plug-and-play in the future, making the camera on your mobile device just another peripheral that you can put wherever you like for your computer to use.

Cameras under the screen are coming in smartphone design. That will make its way to laptops. We’ll look our colleagues right in the eye on screen and we won’t need to make any special effort.

—Adam Preset, senior research director, collaboration and employee experience, at GartnerInc., a research and advisory company

2. …And the way we sound

Perhaps the least-expensive and biggest-impact upgrade to current speaking/hearing systems on laptops would be better microphones. Not only does everyone on conferences sound echo-y and tinny, but it is hard to understand the words sometimes.

And, just as important, it can be difficult to hear those small sounds that signal approval, such as uh-huh; confusion, such as hmm; or when someone wants to speak, such as ah or mmm. The inability to hear these small signalling sounds makes conversations more stressful and less effective.

Real-time, artificial-intelligence analysis of conversations can solve this problem, providing additional cues that help people have more meaningful conversations. This really works and is available today.

In addition, research shows that the audio quality is just as important as video quality when judging the overall “quality” and “presence” of the conference experience. While microphone quality is most important to the audio experience, speaker quality is also a big factor. With additional speakers, one could have small group meetings that were much closer to the “natural” experience of in-person meetings. They would be so much less stressful and more effective.

—Alex “Sandy” Pentland, Toshiba professor of media arts and science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Better wireless connections

For most people the main form of connectivity for their laptop is wireless. Various forms of wireless connectivity are being substantially improved. The latest generation of Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi 6) hit the market in 2019. It offers increased speed, lower latency and the ability to more effectively share Wi-Fi spectrum with the ever-increasing number of connected devices in homes.

More recently, Wi-Fi 6E products have been announced that will use new spectrum at 6 GHz that the Federal Communications Commission recently made available for unlicensed access. This represents the biggest increase in spectrum for Wi-Fi in 20 years.

Looking forward, work has already begun on Wi-Fi 7. Each of these brings further performance improvements in speed and latency. In parallel, the rise of 5G cellular is enabling similar improvements for laptops equipped with 5G modems, with the added benefit of being able to easily connect when users venture out of their homes.

The improvements in Wi-Fi and 5G can enable laptops to support higher-quality videoconferencing and augmented-reality/virtual-reality applications. They will also allow users to unload much of their memory and computing into the cloud, resulting in thinner and lighter laptops with longer battery lives.

—Randall Barry, John Dever professor of electrical and computer engineering, Northwestern University

4. More, and better, screens

Screen sizes of individual devices are unlikely to get bigger, but the total amount of screen real estate will increase. People will prefer using multiple monitors for better multitasking—to access other applications while videoconferencing, for example.

People will benefit from software that can flexibly migrate their work across multiple screens, ranging from situated workstations to laptop computers to mobile devices. For instance, people might want to move their meeting to a different device to enable a walk outside or a move to the kitchen.

If there is a strong demand for working outside, software interfaces will have to become more adaptive, adjusting contrast and brightness.

We will need longer-lasting batteries to power brighter screens. And computer processors and operating systems need to be smarter to allocate resources from elsewhere if maximizing screen brightness is a higher priority. We might even see alternate display technologies (such as head-mounted retinal displays) that can avoid the impact of outdoor light.

—Xiang “Anthony” Chen, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering

5. Nix the noise

All sorts of audio issues arise with work-from-home use of laptops. Roommates quarrelling, pets barking or just the hum of the city have been hard to suppress while laptop users are in video or audioconferences. However, help is on its way.

Algorithms on laptops will soon be able to separate out background noises, and do so fast enough that the disturbances get continuously filtered out before leaving the laptop. The same can be done at the receiver’s end: If Bob’s laptop cannot filter out its own background noise, his counterpart Alice could run the filtering, so her laptop speakers only play Bob’s clear voice.

Of course, random background noises are harder to eliminate than steady, familiar noises. But these filtering algorithms can retrain themselves to become better gatekeepers the next time around.

Peering further down the audio road, it might even be possible for laptops to create sound bubbles around the user’s head. This means the laptop speakers would radiate the sound in a way that’s clearly audible around a user’s ears, while ensuring near silence close by, say where the user’s roommate is reading.

—Romit Roy Choudhury, professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of Illinois

6. Sharpening the background

Virtual backgrounds are on their way to being a necessary part of the online meeting experience.

As a host, dynamic background images can go a long way in differentiating your 10 a.m. Zoom meeting from the 3:30 p.m. meeting. Likewise, as a meeting attendee, you can make your contributions more memorable by either removing the distractions of your living room or by using a background that might complement the subject matter or time of day of the meeting.

Good lighting and a laptop camera that can place you in front of an abstract design or tropical background without looking like you were cut out and pasted in with a pair of safety scissors will aid in making virtual meetings feel more professional.

—Peter Plotica, manager of web and digital design, Data Science Institute, Columbia University

7. Security inside and outside the laptop

Working from home creates a number of security concerns for companies, which will lead to enhancements for laptops that you can and can’t see.

As for those that are visible, we’ve already started to see laptops adopting new fingerprint recognition to unlock a device. Similarly, laptop manufacturers may adopt facial recognition or other biometric unlocking software similar to what we have grown accustomed to on cellphones.

Beyond the device itself, we may see a rise in personal and corporate virtual private networks and multifactor authentication. In addition, companies may focus on post-quantum security, leveraging cryptographic algorithms in their systems.

—Mark Gibson, U.S. technology, media and telecommunications leader, KPMG

8. High-tech lost and found

Laptops are coming with various hardware and software to track them if they are lost or stolen.

The most obvious method is GPS tracking of laptops. There are software tools available with all popular laptop operating systems that use GPS to find the device. Still, GPS tracking can be disabled, and its effectiveness can be compromised indoors.

The second line of defense is radio frequency identification tags. The low-cost RFID tags put on machines in retail stores don’t work well, due to the presence of significant amounts of metal in laptops. To ensure high read rates at a distance, metal mount tags can be placed on the laptop. Then a corporation can use its existing RFID-based tracking system to keep tabs on its laptops.

One issue with the surge in tracking is whether the user’s privacy will be breached. There’s the perennial dilemma between privacy and utility. It will be essential for lawmakers to roll out legal guidance as to how such ubiquitous tracking information can be used by law enforcement in cases involving private citizens.

—Somali Chaterji, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, Purdue University

9. Keeping the laptop safe (from kids and others)

Individuals and companies are focusing on how to protect work laptops now that they are being used more often from the home. There are a number of basic security hygiene rules that can be put in place to protect a device.

These include screen-lock timers, so kids can’t access a device when the employee has left the room; limiting administrative-level privileges to the general workforce, so others can’t download inappropriate products onto a device; and using complex passwords or multifactor authentication to provide foundational defence against misuse by casual threats, such as family members, friends or domestic workers.

Meanwhile, security-conscious organizations are placing added security tools and layered encryption onto devices to protect them not only from family members, but also nation-state actors and the common thief. These tools can limit unauthorized user behaviour, such as plugging in removable media devices or using Wi-Fi at a local coffee shop.

Organizations also might deploy a heartbeat security model. That’s when devices have an authorized amount of time they are allowed to work outside organization-owned buildings or off the enterprise network. In addition, laptops can be equipped with advanced security software that takes defensive actions, such as powering off devices to wipe clean the entire hard drive if the device doesn’t check in within the approved intervals.

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021

Wage Growth Halts Rate Rise

Reserve Bank of Australia governor, Dr Philip Lowe, has dented any suggestion of a pending rise in official interest rates, citing slow levels of wages growth, inflation and current unemployment figures as factors that will see maintained rates through until to at least 2024.

His comments come as the Australian housing market engages unprecedented levels of growth — with many tipping a necessary increase in rates given the stronger than anticipated march out of the pandemic.

Speaking at the Australian Financial Review’s Sydney business summit, Dr Lowe said that despite the strong economy, interest rates – which the bank cut to a record low of 0.1 per cent in 2020 – would only start rising when wages were growing fast enough to lift inflation.

“The point I want to emphasise is that for inflation to be sustainably within the 2-3% target range, wages growth needs to be materially higher than it is currently,” Dr Lowe said.

Wages growth currently sits at a record low of 1.4 per cent.

“The evidence strongly suggests that this will not occur quickly and that it will require a tight labour market to be sustained for some time. Predicting how long it will take is inherently difficult, so there is room for different views. But our judgment is that we are unlikely to see wages growth consistent with the inflation target before 2024. This is the basis for our assessment that the cash rate is very likely to remain at its current level until 2024.”

March 9, 2021March 9, 2021

Perth To Lead National Property Market Recovery

Perth’s residential market is on track to record double-digit growth in 2021 for the first time in 11 years.

That’s according to CBRE’s 2021 Australia Real Estate Market Outlook Report which predicts Perth’s house prices to grow between 9% – 12% and unit prices to lift 5%-7% in 2021 which will lead the nation’s property market recovery post-COVID-19

The growth is forecast off the back of positive interstate migration, solid resources outlook and Federal Government incentives such as Homebuilder and additional State support packages that are boosting the construction sector.

“Supply also remains tight [in Perth] with vacancy already sub-1% which is leading to strong rental growth and providing attractive opportunities for investment in 2021,” said CBRE’s Head of Residential Research Craig Godber.

“For investor markets, the supply/demand imbalance will tip towards oversupply until international migration resumes, although, markets with low levels vacancy (e.g. Brisbane and Perth) will recover more quickly than the Sydney and Melbourne, where vacancy remains elevated.”

Sydney is expected to see house price growth of between 7%-10%, while units will experience a 0%-3% rise. Similarly, 7%-10% growth is forecast for Brisbane’s housing market and units are on track to record a 3%-5% value uplift.

The report predicts 5%-7% growth for both Adelaide and Canberra’s housing markets, with the former expecting a 3%-5% rise in unit prices and the latter tracking an uplift of 0%-3% for units.

A longer recovery is expected for Melbourne, with house prices expected to lift 3%-5% in 2021 and no increases for unit values.

March 9, 2021March 11, 2021

Handsome Humidifiers To Make Your Home Healthier

The chemist humidifier has been a sick-day essential since the 1920s, when the electric version replaced its predecessor, the perilous open-flame alcohol croup kettle. But it’s also essential to maintain moisture in your everyday air, said Dr. Stephanie Taylor, an infection-control consultant at Harvard Medical School. Our immune systems function best when indoor relative humidity levels are at 40%-60%, she said. That ideal range can also decrease the number of harmful airborne particles—including respiratory viruses like Covid-19—in indoor environments.

Today’s evolved humidifiers, no longer the obtrusive, glugging gadgets of the past, elevate air quality without destroying ambience. Here are four picks:

For WFH Warriors

Like a mini water cooler, Canopy’s namesake humidifier can perch on a home office desk and hydrate up to 500 square feet. Available in white and three pastel colours, it includes an old-school, paper-based filter with embedded UV lights that prevent mould. To help you focus, diffuser pucks scent the air with essential oils such as eucalyptus and lavender. A subscription option sends fresh filters and aroma-kit refills every 45 days for $25 a shipment.

For Aesthetes

If the idea of placing any kind of appliance in your living space makes your nostrils flare with indignity, look to the H4 Hybrid humidifier from the equally design-obsessed brand Objecto. Its graceful teardrop silhouette blends discreetly into any space. Ultra-quiet, the machine comes with a remote control in a matching miniature shape.

For Problem Sleepers

MistAire Cloud Ultrasonic Humidifier & Mood Light, $50, pureenrichment.com

Shaped like a cartoon cloud, Pure Enrichment’s device not only emits a cool mist, it glows. Choose a single colour for a night light, or cycle through eight for a bedtime light show. “Most people tend to sleep with their mouths open, so the already dry winter air causes our mucus to thicken, clogging our nasal passages,” explained Dr. Casey Kelley, founder of the Chicago clinic Case Integrative Health. With a humidifier, mouth-breathers can wake up less congested and dry.

For Skin-Care Zealots

Portable Facial Humidifier, $39, heydewy.com

According to Los Angeles aesthetician Shani Darden, whose clients include Jessica Alba and Chrissy Teigen, using a moisturising humidifier can help offset the aging effects of free radicals in polluted air. As compact as a coffee mug—not to mention super-portable and USB-chargeable—Hey Dewy’s facial humidifier can be used in a skin-care routine in the morning and at night or as a pick me up throughout the day. The angled spout directs the spray, evoking a fancy spa device.

March 9, 2021March 11, 2021

Being Outside Is Good For Your Health—But Does Golf Count?

In response to our recent story about the health benefits of spending time in nature, readers wanted to know: What type of nature counts?

The bottom line

Lots of studies indicate it is good for you to spend time in the woods. But what about the beach? The garden? On a motorcycle? What about a golf course? What if you don’t walk the golf course but ride in a cart? What if you’re having a really frustrating game?

Though hundreds of studies convincingly suggest that spending time in nature is good for health and longevity, scientists still don’t know exactly why. “What really is it about ‘nature’ that makes us healthier? We can’t nail it down to one thing that is true for all people,” says Christopher Minson, a University of Oregon physiology professor and chief science officer of NatureQuant, a startup working on an app for users to track the time they spend in nature.

Take golf courses, for instance. Those count as nature because they are green space. Numerous studies have associated golf with improved health. But is that because of the exercise or the nature? “No research I’m aware of has directly investigated whether the health benefits to being on a golf course can be attributed to nature itself,” Dr. Minson says.

The details

Beach time? It is good for your physical and mental health, according to a growing body of research. Adults in England who live in coastal areas “tend to be happier and healthier than similar individuals inland,” according to a study published in the journal Environment International in 2019. That may be partly because they were more physically active. They took more walks. The difference in onland physical activity between those living less than 5 kilometres—or a little over 3 miles—from the coast and those living more than 50 kilometres was equal to cycling 14 to 40 minutes a week at 15km an hour, the researchers found.

That wasn’t the only reason, though, according to the study. People living inland near “blue spaces”—rivers and lakes—also reported greater health and happiness that wasn’t associated with physical activity.

No, you don’t have to be exercising to reap the benefits of nature.

The practice the Japanese call “forest bathing” is strongly linked to lower blood pressure, heart rate and stress hormones and decreased anxiety, depression and fatigue. It also is linked to decreased inflammation. Many scientists believe the benefits aren’t due just to clean air and less noise, but the substances released from trees, plants and soil. Those include organic compounds, pollen, fungi and bacteria that contribute to the diversity of microorganisms humans need for a robust and diverse microbiome—all the tiny living things on us and in us that protect us from disease. So just breathing the fresh forest air may help strengthen our immune systems, according to a review published in February in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

The benefits don’t just occur in forests. Scientists define nature as all sorts of environments dominated by living material, from a small urban park to the wilderness, according to research. Their definition of “nature exposure” ranges from plants in a room to camping trips to virtual reality.

That means you are likely to get some nature benefits from gardening, kayaking or even on a motorcycle, assuming it’s out in the country, says Dr. Minson. A lot more research is needed to know just how much.

March 9, 2021March 11, 2021

Pamela Anderson Wants $19.4 Million For Malibu Beach House

Pamela Anderson, the actress who rose to fame playing a California beach lifeguard on “Baywatch,” is putting her own California beach house on the market for around $19.4 million.

Before buying this property, Ms Anderson said she had lived right on the sand, but found that fans would come up to the property looking for her. “A girl actually ended up in our guest bedroom and had my ‘Baywatch’ swimsuit on,” she said, referring to the bright-red one-piece she was frequently photographed in. “That was it for me.”

In 2000, Ms Anderson bought a site, which backs onto a lagoon, for about US$1.8 million, records show; she said she later replaced a “shabby chic” cottage with a new home for herself and her two young sons.

“It took me 10 years to build—I put another $8 million cash into it,” Ms Anderson said in written comments.

Located in a gated community in Malibu, Calif., the three-bedroom house is about 5,500 square feet and includes a large open-plan living, dining room and kitchen area with a fireplace, a rooftop deck and an expansive pool deck with spaces for outdoor dining and sunbathing. The kitchen has slab stone counters and glass pocket doors that open to the pool. A wood-and-glass staircase leads to the main bedroom suite, which has a private balcony. There is also a one-bedroom guesthouse on the property.

Ms Anderson, who in recent years has appeared on reality television shows like “Dancing with the Stars,” noted that the property was inspired by some of California’s best known Modernist architecture, such as the Case Study Houses, experimental, modern homes designed by architects like Richard Neutra.

“I love a vintage edge/pop art sensibility and I’m an activist so it is 100% sustainable Teak that is also ‘nonconflict’ flown in from Burma,” Ms Anderson said in her comments. “I must have paid $1 million just in materials for siding. I don’t like orange—so we bleached and waxed—the finish is more blonde.”

Some of her favourite features of the property include the guesthouse, which she said has “the most beautiful view,” and the reflective mosaic tiles in the pool. Her bedroom, she said, is “just the most sensual and clean space” with a bathtub in the room and a sauna attached. Ms Anderson also installed solar panels on the property and planted an irrigated vegetable garden.

Ms Anderson, 53, said she left Canada in her early 20s to work with Playboy and is now selling to go back to her roots. She recently married her onetime bodyguard Dan Hayhurst, and the two plan to live on her ranch on the water on Vancouver Island, she said. That property was owned by her late grandmother.

“When she passed, I just let it go for 20 years while I worked and travelled,” Ms Anderson said. “I have spent the last year here renovating, landscaping, creating gardens so that we can live sustainably. Greenhouse, potter’s wheel, canning pickles and beets. I’m creating my life here now again where it all started.”

“I made it home in one piece, a miracle. I’m a lucky girl,” she said.

Tomer Fridman of the Tomer Fridman Group has the Malibu listing.

March 8, 2021March 8, 2021

One In Three Homeowners Want To Sell

Research released from Westpac shows that one in three Australians are thinking about selling their home with the effects of the pandemic easing and low-interest rates improving market sentiment.

More than 35% of homeowners are planning to sell in the next five years, with 12% already in the process of putting their house on the market or planning to do so in the next 12 months.

The uptick in seller confidence shows an increase of five percentage points when compared to last quarter, and double the number of homeowners that were planning to sell prior to COVID-19.

However, despite the increase, the research found 51% say they’re actively holding off from listing their property straight with the competition with other buyers listed among the top challenges for sellers.

“Home ownership preferences have evolved since the start of the pandemic, with Australians seeking more space, peace and quiet, as well as properties which offer outdoor living like backyards and balconies,” said Westpac’s Managing Director of Mortgages, Anthony Hughes.

“The low-interest rate environment, upbeat consumer sentiment, and improving economic outlook is also underpinning stronger seller confidence as we head into 2021. This will no doubt be welcome news for buyers eagerly awaiting more homes to come on the market,” said Mr Hughes.

Further, one in five homeowners are selling for reasons directly relating to the pandemic including, accommodating working from home (11%) while (25%) also seeking more space.

Westpac Senior Economist Matt Hassan said demand for housing has surged following the improved economic outlook and is running well ahead of supply.

“It is absolutely a seller’s market at the moment. Sales have seen a big lift over the last four months and are up over 36 per cent on a year ago, resulting in a significant tightening in supply with listings across the major capital cities now at a 12-year low,” said Mr Hassan.

March 8, 2021March 9, 2021

Unprecedented Weekend Auction Results

Following last weekend’s bumper results, Saturday, March 6 produced more impressive returns with each capital city recording a weekend auction clearance rates above 80%.

The unprecedented result saw Adelaide (97.1%) and Brisbane (close to 90%) as standout markets.

Sydney, meanwhile, reported a rate of 86.8% – down on last weekend’s record-breaking 90.0%, but up on the 90.5% reported over the same weekend last year.

The median price for houses sold at auction in Sydney was $1,704,000, higher than the previous weekend’s $1,645,500 and 17.5% above the $1,450,000 recoded over the same weekend last year.

The upper north shore reported the top clearance rate results at 90.8%.

Despite being a holiday weekend, Melbourne posted another strong Saturday with a rate of 80.6% – slightly lower than the previous weekend (82.0%) but well ahead of the 71.9% reported for the same period last year.

Melbourne recorded a median price of $948,000 for auctioned houses, lower than the previous weekend’s $1,002,500 Prices however were 10.9% higher than the $855,000 recorded over the same holiday weekend last year.

Data powered by Dr Andrew Wilson of MyHousingMarket.com.au

March 8, 2021April 20, 2022

How Margin Debt Works

Margin debt is a sometimes-overlooked but key part of the stock market that is particularly pertinent right now.

It is the money that investors borrow from stockbrokers to buy securities when they can’t or don’t want to fund the entire purchase with cash. Say an investor wants to purchase 100 shares at $50 each for a total of $5,000 but has only $2,500 to invest. That individual could buy the rest of the shares on margin. The same process can be used to buy exchange-traded funds.

Investors frequently use margin to get more bang for their investing buck. “The pro of margin is that it increases your purchasing power,” says Jeff Deiss, director of wealth planning at ACM in Ridgewood, N.J.

The downside is that brokers typically charge interest on borrowed money. And if the individual starts losing money on the investment, the stockbroker might ask for additional cash as security or collateral. That decision and how much cash will be required will depend on a variety of factors, including the remaining value of the investment, how much money the investor owes the broker and the requirements of the broker.

“Buying on margin comes with a lot of risk, and if you are going to use margin, it is probably a good idea to have some cash on the side,” says Mr. Deiss. Investors who don’t have the required additional cash may be forced to close out their positions at a loss.

A large amount of buying on margin also can be detrimental to the stock market as a whole.

At the end of January, customer margin debt at U.S. brokers regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, jumped to $799 billion from $562 billion a year earlier, according to data provided by Finra.

Some analysts say that jump in margin debt came from individual investors, who turned to online trading amid pandemic-related lockdowns. A combination of new easy-to-use trading technology, ultralow borrowing costs and stimulus checks from the federal government helped fuel the phenomenon.

“For younger folks, it’s kind of the drug of choice,” Mr. Deiss says.

The problem is, when there is a lot of margin debt concentrated in a few stocks, those stocks tend to see wild price swings, says Fabiana Fedeli, global head of fundamental equities at Rotterdam-based asset-management company Robeco. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the recent increase in margin debt coincided with higher participation levels by individual investors, she says.

Indeed, certain stocks that became popular with individual investors also saw price volatility earlier this year. “The minute that the margin couldn’t be met, some of the positions had to be sold immediately,” Ms. Fedeli says. “It gives volatility to the market,” she says.

March 8, 2021April 20, 2022

Covid-19 Fuelled S&P 500 Selloff Last Year. Here Are Some Lessons Learned.

A year ago, the longest-ever bull market ended.

The comeback in the stock market since then has been nothing short of astounding.

The S&P 500 took just 126 trading days to swing from a record to a bear market and back to a new high—marking the fastest such recovery in history. That was even as market prognosticators warned stocks were due for another bout of selling, based on the growing death toll and unprecedented job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. is still in the midst of the same pandemic that led to the spring selloff. And the market’s future remains mired in uncertainty. Just last week, surging bond yields sent many of the most popular technology stocks of the past decade sliding.

The stock market is now barely above the point where it began the year. This coming week, traders say they will be keenly focused on inflation data, which may add to the recent debate over whether inflationary pressures are picking up.

Whatever the data show, many investors say the ups and downs of the past year have reminded them that some investing truths are eternal. Among them:

The markets look way ahead of us

Stocks bottomed out March 23. The next day, a furious rally sent the Dow up more than 11% for its best session since 1933.

The pandemic was far from over. In the same week, politicians and health experts declared New York City the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.K. went into lockdown and Japan postponed the Tokyo Olympics.

How was a market rally possible?

Investors like to cite the adage that markets are forward-looking. There is no clearer example of that in recent memory than what happened last year.

Those buying stocks last spring weren’t necessarily doing so out of a belief that the pandemic was close to an end. They were betting on the future turning out to be better. And they were right. Companies are expected to report a 3.9% increase in earnings for the fourth quarter of last year. That is a modest increase, but nevertheless would mark the first quarter of year-over-year growth since the end of 2019, according to FactSet.

An investor waiting for a clear turning point on the pandemic—say, the first vaccine approval—would have missed much of the market’s ride higher.

“It’s hard, it feels counterintuitive for a lot of investors, but if you only focus on buying things that were loved in the past, you’ll always be buying high and selling low,” said Don Calcagni, chief investment officer of Mercer Advisors.

The moment was also fleeting for stay-at-home stocks. Many of them soared in the first half of last year. But as scientists pushed closer to developing safe and effective vaccines, momentum for those trades faded. Domino’s Pizza Inc., Zoom Video Communications Inc. and McCormick & Co. have one thing in common: their shares peaked last fall.

What was bad news for stay-at-home stocks was good news for companies in the travel business, which began rallying in the final months of 2020. While the S&P 500 is essentially flat this year, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., American Airlines Group Ltd. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have notched double-digit increases on a percentage basis.

Cycles move quickly

If last year’s selloff felt like it happened with vicious speed, that is because it did. It took just 16 trading days for the S&P 500 to fall from its Feb. 19 record into a bear market, or a 20% drop from that high. That marked the index’s fastest-ever such descent, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The comeback that followed was also historically swift. (Though it probably didn’t feel like it for weary traders.)

“You’re really going to either have to play the speed game all the way around, or you gotta grin and bear it, be patient and just hang on and really stick to your buy and hold strategy,” said Richard Grasfeder, senior portfolio manager at Boston Private.

The pace of the action in more speculative corners of the market—think bitcoin, dogecoin or any of the “meme stocks”—has been even wilder.

On Jan. 28, for instance, GameStop Corp. started the trading day at $265, down 24% from the prior afternoon. It swung as high as $483 and as low as $112.25 before ending the day somewhere in between at $193.60.

“The fact that with technology, information moves so fast…I think you can make the case that it has really sped up market cycles,” said Ben Carlson, director of institutional asset management at Ritholtz Wealth Management.

Stock pickers love volatility, but it doesn’t always love them back

The feeling that markets are moving faster than ever should be a boon to active managers. Analysts have long argued that the professionals have the best opportunity to prove themselves when there is plenty of dispersion: meaning the gap between the market’s losers and winners is wide.

But that didn’t pan out in the first half of 2020, a period rife with volatility. Just 37% of U.S. large-cap equity funds managed to beat the S&P 500 over the first six months of last year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. (The firm hasn’t yet released its full-year report on active managers.)

Will stock pickers buck the trend in 2021?

So far, they are off to a good start. Bank of America found 70% of U.S. large-cap mutual funds beat their benchmarks in February, the highest share since 2007.

Much of that outperformance appears to have been driven by the fact that technology stocks have underperformed lately. Technology has a big pull on market cap-weighted indexes like the S&P 500, so active managers who haven’t heavily weighted the sector in their own funds have historically struggled to beat the market. This year, it seems a number of fund managers got the timing right. Many are holding on to more shares of companies like banks, utilities and energy producers, which have held up better in the market pullback.

On the other hand, investors who have made a name for themselves betting big on technology have been stung by widening losses. Among the highest-profile casualties of the past few weeks: Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management LLC, whose funds have sizable holdings in companies like Tesla Inc., Roku Inc. and Square Inc.

The growth versus value debate has played out countless times over the past decade, with little reward for value investors. But with rising interest rates putting pressure on long-loved corners of the market, money managers like John Allen, chief investment officer of Aspiriant, are feeling hopeful.

“We believe this is going to be a decade where active investing prevails,” Mr Allen said.