stlplace

We often from financial experts that volatility in our portfolio is bad. Or in other words, not only do we want good return, but we also want the path to that is smooth. I think most people would agree with that. My CFA preparation book also talked about this idea in “Portfolio Management” section. So [...]

(Update 04May09) CNBC interview. (Update 01May09) Today PBS Nightly Business Report (NBR) Susie Ghalib interviewed Charlie Munger at Omaha. (Original) One lesson I should learn from him: trade less.

Yesterday was series one. The series is about the new stimulus package, economy and comparison of (1930s) new deal with current stimulus package. The first one showed many St. Louis landmark, such as St. Louis zoo, Forest Park (Jewel Box). I did not know many of those were built in 1930s (the New Deal). StreamVideo [...]

Week in review 042009 – 042509 According to Obama administration‘s stress test, the magic number is 19. Basically they are saying the US gov will do whatever necessary to keep the big ones afloat because they are systematically important. Or in laymen’s words, they are too big to fail. Sorry, those smaller ones, I mean [...]

(Update 24Apr09 afternoon) Sold my position. Moody just downgraded its debt rating: reminds me of the WaMu debt rating downgrade shortly before its fall. (Original) Warning: this is a very speculative play. Also don’t confuse this with CitiGroup (NYSE: C). The ticker of CIT group at NYSE is CIT. (Source: NYSE) 4 Analysts downgraded this [...]

First Quarter earning reports for the stocks I own (as of this writing, it could change without notice). This is mostly for my own benefit, I want to collect them in one place rather than go to different IR web sites. Listening to conference call is a mixed experience, sometimes it’s fun, sometimes it’s boring. [...]

My old laptop was hosed. Couple weeks ago I noticed something strange going on, particularly sometimes it will pop up IE windows when I have not clicked on anything. The situation got worse, when I tried to do a system restore on XP, reboot, and a “Spyware Protect 2009″ program automaticlaly started up. This user [...]

(Update) Many people (such as DBANotes) think IBM is the ultimate loser in the Sun/Oracle deal. I think the deal is not necessarily bad news for IBM. Here is my rationale. IBM did not win because: 1) Anti-trust concern. Sun and IBM together will have a very high share of both UNIX server and storage [...]

As millions of American workers saw their 401k became 201k since last year, this 401k thing suddenly becomes a hot topic. CBS 60 minutes did an excellent report on this topic. Watch CBS Videos Online My thoughts

Dan Ariely (bio) is an expert in behavioral economics, and his recent book Predictably Irrational is well received. It is also quite relevant amid this financial market (and institutions) meltdown. 10 min audio (with slide show)