Home-grown invention world could bank on

There is beauty in the simple and seamless.
Truly new and efficient ways of doing business are fantastic inventions.
A tool that effortlessly gives the small enterprise owner control and mastery over their every monetary move is on my radar.
Something exciting has originated right here in these small provinces. It's the home-grown story with high-level global connections.
The CEO gives presentations to locals. He is powerfully convincing in that softly spoken way that internationally successful people who don't have to prove anything often are.
His product is more convincing still. It sells itself. It is slick, fast as a cheetah, yet simpler than ABC. Or ASB if that's who you bank with.
There's a link. Many links actually, to banks. The product is auto-magic, intuitive. And, one suspects, it may become one of the most successful exports New Zealand will have to offer.
It has pure and unadulterated capacity for world domination. Well, domination in its class, in any case.
It gets better. You can buy shares in this thing. Can you guess yet? The answer lies at the end of my email when you send one to me to ask the question.
In other news, markets have literally gone "What Japan?" with the major indices, (excepting Japan), staging recoveries that takes them almost back to pre-tsunami levels in less than two weeks.
Of course, in humanitarian terms what is going on in Japan is heartbreaking. But markets truly only have two feelings: greed and fear. They don't feel sadness or compassion or love or tenderness, we have greed and fear as the diametrically opposed levels of sentiment steering the boat in times of crisis.
Two weeks is a long time in investing when huge global events splatter stock prices over the screens. There was a great deal of money to be made buying when everyone thought the sky was falling in, (again) and waiting for common sense to prevail. Companies that one could demonstrate quite clearly on paper would suffer no earnings losses because of the Japanese disaster got slammed.
It was, at a lot of levels, ridiculous. Then, just as quickly, traders found their heads and remembered that there were these things called earnings and revenue, balance sheets and profits, and everything was back to normal again. That's called fundamentals. Let's stick with them.

Caroline Ritchie is an NZX adviser for Forsyth Barr in Napier and holds an NZX Diploma, BCom and BSc. For sharemarket advice contact her on (06) 835 3111 or caroline.ritchie@forbar.co.nz.
The comments in this note are for general information purposes only. This article is not intended to constitute investment advice under the Securities Markets Act 1988. If you wish to receive specific investment advice, please contact your investment adviser. Disclosure statements for Forsyth Barr and its investment advisers are available on request and free of charge.