Categories
Fun Stocks

Heelys Report Week Ending 29Dec06

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Last Updated on December 29, 2006 by stlplace

It seems Heelys had a very good Christmas season. From my store visit to Journeys and Sports Authority, each account for 11.6% and 11% domestic sales in the fist 9 months in year 2006, the sales are doing well. I did notice one week before Xmas, SA offered some discount, and Journeys started discount after Xmas, both of which are normal business practice to clear out some inventories. The eBay sales number is here:

          Heelys Faked
20Dec06 877 68
21Dec06 796 52
  
26Dec06 529 21
27Dec06 602 22
28Dec06 815 27
29Dec06 719 27

Categories
Stocks

Year End Reflections

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Last Updated on December 30, 2006 by stlplace

I don’t have to work these days. Besides reading the Peter Lynch’s book, checking out Crocs and Heelys in the stores, I also had a little time to review how I did with my 401K and taxable stock account. The good news is my 401K is getting a 18% gain, and for the first time in 3 years, I did not lose money in stocks. Of course for 401K one year’s gain does not mean too much, because we are looking at 20 or 30 years down the line. But I think I did one thing right: allocate my 55% contributions to value fund, and 30% to international (value) fund. In year 2006 international fund was a big winner partially due to the weakness of dollar. And from my observation value fund outperformed index fund and growth fund in most cases.  For the year 2007 I will boost the international value fund to 35% for the reasons I mentioned above. This way I am putting 60% in the value funds. The following are the mutual funds in my 401K account.

Fund Name            Fund Symbol  Price as of      Average Annual Return
                                                12/29/2006     1-Year 5-Year

Royce Total Return Serv*   RYTFX 6394  $13.61    13.53%   na 
Vanguard 500 Index Fund  VFINX 0040 $130.59    15.64%   6.07%  
Vanguard Explorer Fund     VEXPX 0024 $74.71      9.70%   8.21%  
Vanguard Windsor II Fun*  VWNFX 0073 $34.75    18.25%   10.12%  
Vanguard Intl Value Fun*   VTRIX 0046 $ 40.34     27.37%   17.21%  

*value fund

Categories
Business Fun

Chicken Prices Went Up

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Last Updated on December 29, 2006 by stlplace

I noticed the Chicken price went up a little yesterday. I have not bought the whole roasted chicken from Schnuck for a while because usually when I got there at 6:30 or 7 PM, they are sold out. But I got it yesterday evening and I realized they are charging $5.99; it was $4.99 last time I bought (a while ago). So I did a little google search on “chicken price”, and found out the main reason: the corn is becoming more expensive as more corn is needed to make ethonal (alternative fuel), and rising energy cost. Note chicken ate corn so that they can grow. So don’t rush to buy “chicken producer” stocks such as Tyson yet. Although they charge higher price for chicken, they are paying higher raw material cost (corn) too.

Categories
China Technology

More Patience Needed for Internet Disruption

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Last Updated on December 29, 2006 by stlplace

Here is what I saw from eBay:

***Asia Internet Connectivity Hit by Taiwan Earthquake – Trading Advice*** 
  
December 28, 2006 | 12:28PM PST/PT
“On December 26, an earthquake off the coast of Taiwan damaged several undersea cables shared by international telecommunications companies. This has disrupted Internet connectivity in many countries in Asia, including Australia.
While repairs are being made, it may take several days for their Internet services to work as normal. If you are involved in an eBay transaction with a member in this area, we encourage you to be patient with them and to keep trying to communicate as their services are restored.”

And from Wang Jianshuo’s blog