Month: February 2007

Categories
Windows

Vista Got a Reality Check

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Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

When Steve (Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft) speaks, Wall Streets listens. Yesterday in the MicroSoft analyst day Steve tried to put a more realistic picture on the Vista sales. Basically he says that the Vista sales won’t be as good as analysts thought. With his words the stock MSFT lost 2.4% today.

When did Steve start soft spoken? I remember years ago, I attended a Microsoft technical presentation by Steve. I can see the energy and passion from his talk. He even put up his email address steve at microsoft dot com for the audience who are not satisfied with Microsoft’s customer serivce. We all know the mail probablly won’t get to his desk. But Steve is the Sales person and provides energy for the Microsoft, just like Bill Gates is the heart and soul of Mr. Softee. I also remember when I visited Microsoft campus in Redmond, only Bill and Steve got designated parking spots (side by side).

Now with Bill announced the retirement in two years, and Steve started soft spoken, the software world has really become soft.   

Categories
Stocks

Be Open Minded

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Last Updated on February 16, 2007 by stlplace

I think one of the most important take away from Ken Fisher’s book is “be open minded”. This is easily said than done. Because our brain is not trained that way. For instance, we usually felt pretty bad when we have to cut a loss after buying a stock, even if the company’s fundamental is deteriorating. Because we think if we don’t sell, it’s not an actual loss. On the other hand, we usually feel equally bad about ourselves when we saw the stock went up after we sold it, even if we already make profit from the sale. It seems to me we just can not tolerate “we lose money”, “we leave some money on the table”, “somebody else make more money than us”.

This is very similar to things in life, suppose you bought a Toyota Camry at a dealer for 20,000, and your buddy Joe bought the exact same car at exact same dealer for 19,500. Are you happy or not? Don’t tell me your are happy. How about I tell you I bought it the same car for 20,500 last month? Do you feel better?  

Sometimes, we should adjust our mindset to “making money together”, or “as long as we make/save money, we are happy”.  

Categories
Web

Conference Call over the Internet

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Last Updated on May 28, 2009 by stlplace

I found a new trend about the companies’ quarterly earning Conference Call lately. Usually a company will do the conference on the Internet and on the phone at the same time. But Crocs (CROX) and Heelys (HLYS), two shoe makers (I have shares for both), lead the fashion again by doing the call exclusively over the Internet. I hope they don’t srewed up the call by technical reasons. I do notice they have two servers so in case one server is busy, the analysts and curious investors like me can still connect.

It’s amazing to think how far Internet has been in the past 10 years. It definitely changed and continue to change the way we communicate, work and entertain, etc.

(Update 16Feb07) On the other hand, Mindray (NYSE:MR), which I have a few shares, is going to announce its earning solely on the phone.

Also, cnanalyst put together an earning report table for Chinese companies listed in US. Good job cnanalyst !!!

Categories
Stocks

Ken Fisher’s New Book

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Last Updated on February 15, 2007 by stlplace

I ordered Ken’s new book The Only Three Questions That Count: Investing by Knowing What Others Don’t from Amazon last week, after reading the review from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. The three questions are:

What do you think you know that you don’t know? What can you know that others can’t know? And, in a bow to the relatively new field of behavioral finance, what is your brain doing to trip you up?

I am at question 2 now. Interesting reading so far, though I would argue some of the thoughts are not new. As I read Phil Fisher, Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett’s. One take away is we should “Think outside of the box”. I think this is not limited to investing.  

Categories
Fun

$10 off Sports Authority and Dick’s Sporting Goods

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Last Updated on February 14, 2007 by stlplace

Google Checkout is doing promotion again. I found this while I Googled “Heelys”. Here are the links for Heelys. I think the $10 off can be applied to other things too. A gift from Google for your V-day.

Sports Authority, Dick’s Sporting Goods

By the way, I visited couple Sports Authority stores and Dick’s recently, and some ran out of Heelys. So online may be a good source.  

Categories
China Stocks

Motel 168 IPO

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Last Updated on February 14, 2007 by stlplace

From Reuters:

“China’s Motel168, one of the country’s three biggest budget hotel chains, plans to raise about $100 million through an initial public offering on Nasdaq, sources familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

Motel168, controlled by privately run Shanghai hotel and restaurant manager Merrylin Holdings Ltd., has hired Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile , Research) to advise it on the IPO, planned for the third quarter of this year, the sources said.

Morgan Stanley is also a major shareholder in Motel168 after an investment arm of the bank paid $20 million for a 20 percent stake in late 2005, the sources said.

“Motel168 is hungry for capital now as it has to compete with Home Inns, Jinjiang Inn and other rivals for aggressive land purchases to build more hotels,” said one Shanghai-based source close to Motel168.

“If you don’t speed up, then you lose market share and soon you will be completely out of the race,” said the source, who declined to be identified before an official announcement.”

Wang Jianshuo has a good review about motel 168 in his blog.

Categories
Business Stocks

Stocks for the V-Day

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Last Updated on February 13, 2007 by stlplace

Blue Nile, a leading diamond ring online retailer. I vaguely remember one of my friends bought the wedding ring from them a while ago (before the company went public in 2004). The company has an interesting story: the founder went to a tradtional jewery store to buy the ring for his financee, he felt he was not treated well by the associates. So he did some research and started his own venture.

The Knot, I heard this name from Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC’s “Mad Money”. One of the founders by a Chinese American (husband). He started the business with his wife. The reason they started is when they were gettting married, they found the whole thing is just too overwelming. So they started this web site to help people “to be married”.

Categories
China Stocks

Olympics Effect on Chinese Companies

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Last Updated on February 13, 2007 by stlplace

I listened to the conference call of Sohu and Ctrip lately. Not surprisingly, both companies mentioned the positive effect of 2008 Beijing Olympics. Sohu is the Internet content service sponsor, and Ctrip should enjoy the booming of China travel industry before Olympics. But I think this Olympics effect is already priced in the stocks, and to make things worrysome, the effect may not turn out as big as people thought. The SOHU and CTRP stocks got punished partly because of this “irrational exuberance”.

On the other hand, Chinese economy is still in fast growth mode and I am bullish on some of the companies whose growth does not solely depend on Olympics. Or at least their PR person does not mention Olympics all the time 🙂 

2008 olympics pic

Categories
Stocks

Gateway Computer

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Last Updated on February 14, 2007 by stlplace

(Update 14Feb07) SeekingAlpha has a consumer survey on Dell, HP and Gateway.  

Gateway computer? What’s that? We all know Dell, HP, IBM or Lenovo thinkpad, but not Gateway. Well, I remember Gateway computer because around 1997 and 1998, the PCs in my school are all Gateway branded. Gateway is a PC maker started in Iowa farms in 1985 and got big in 90s. Its consumer PC and laptop are sold in Best Buy and Circuity City nowadays. The company did not do well in recent years because of its own mistakes and the intense competition of PC industry. Now with the release of Windows Vista, it get a chance to turn around. I am summerizing some of the plus for Gateway:

1) It has more products for consumers (than business). The expectation is consumer will adopt Vista faster than the Business.

2) In last Friday’s Q4 result it announced additional cost cutting measures (bad for employees), saving additional $25 m. Good for investors.

3) Last but not least, it did pretty bad lately. I am not sure if it hit bottom yet but its 06 Revenue only slightly exceeded 05. And its Q4 06 revenue is light compared to same Q 05. At this moment, any positive will be good news.

Categories
Fun

The Grammy Goes to Dixie Chicks

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Last Updated on February 11, 2007 by stlplace

I was a bit surprised to see Dixie Chicks won the “album of the year” award. I was happy because it’s a band I like. I got the “Taking the long way” CD last May when it was just out with lots of controversy. I guess the CD sales will soar and the price will go up 🙂

For the Dixie Chicks trio, this is especially rewarding after been virtually shut out from main stream media after the UK concert  incident. I don’t want to talk about politics here. But I think in career, in investing, or in business, we will get written off by other people from time to time. The sweetest feeling is later on we prove ourselves through the hard work. This is not revenge; this is redemption.