Year: 2007

Categories
Business

One company, multiple faces

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Last Updated on July 10, 2007 by stlplace

AAPL: is Apple a computer maker, an eletronic (fashion) gadgets maker, or music store? It’s all of the above. I did not realized it’s the No. 3 music retailer in the US until a few weeks ago (behind Wal-mart and Best Buy). The reason is it created the digital music market: iTune.

For graphical designers, Apple is a computer maker; for music lovers, Apple is the new “Sony” because the iPod is the new “Walkman”. For musicians, record and movie companies, iTune is the retail channel. I think that relation is similar to that between Cocacola and McDonald (Coke relies on MCD to sell its coke, Sprite etc.)

GOOG: many people misunderstood it when it went public in Summer 2004, it’s just another technology (search) company, right? Now we all know it’s the world largest advertisement broker (Internet). For many small business owners, it’s the place to put target ads (AdWord); for publishers and bloggers, its adSense let them make money. Of course for web users, it’s arguably the best search engine. For Bill Gates and his troops in Redmond, it’s the biggest threat.

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Categories
China Stocks

Piggy back II

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Last Updated on July 10, 2007 by stlplace

Dai Tou Da Ge, the Chinese famous stock blogger, got arrested by the goverment for “illeagally enaged in financial advising activities”, according to Sina news.

So what do we learn from this?

1) If some one claims he/she can predict the stock market with 90% accuracy. Run, run away as fast as you can.

2) If something is too good to be true, especially some techniques claims “making sure money in stock market”, that’s usually a scam.

There are many financial scams, unfortunately, there are always people fall for that.

Categories
Stocks

Piggy back usually won’t work

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Last Updated on July 12, 2007 by stlplace

I bought some NINE (Ninetowns) shares for the 3rd time last Dec. for two reasons:

1) It’s getting into B2B business. A successful example of B2B in China is Ma Yun’s Alibaba, which has done well (at least generated lots of buzz), and is planning to go IPO in Hongkong this year.

2) Duan Yongping, the founder of BuBuGao, the successful investor who won the bid to have lunch with Warren Buffett last year, bought sigificant shares of NINE last year.

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Categories
Fun Stocks

Sonic Innovations SNCI

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Last Updated on July 9, 2007 by stlplace

Bought a little SNCI today. It’s a company makes hearing aids. I read it from Kiplinger’s Personal Finance August Issue in the weekend. Did a little research including reading its annual report. This is my speculative play, I put my bet on it because I think some of the positives include:

ion hearing aid pic

1) The company sold its unprofitable unit (Tympany) recently. Meanwhile, it’s trying to expand distribution and retail channel.

2) US baby boomers (people born from 1946 to 1964) are near retiring age. As we know, older people are big customers of hearing aids.

3) There are lots of consolidations in this industry lately.

I don’t take this is a China play, although on my flight from PVG to ORD in the May, I met an engineer who works for an OEM supplier for hearing aids (in Suzhou). It seems hearing aids market is at infancy stage in China.

I also sold the NINE (Ninetowns) today: took my second loss this year, the first is XFML.

Categories
China Stocks

Letter from CEO of Xinhua Finance

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Last Updated on July 9, 2007 by stlplace

Today, Fredy Bush, the CEO of Xinhua Finance and Xinhua Finance Media Limited (XFML), released a letter to counter the recent media coverage of “the mystery of Xinhua Finance”. Quote the letter:

— Over the years the media has criticized Xinhua Finance as being too
close to the Xinhua News Agency and the government of China; now they
are criticizing us for not being close enough. The fact is, we have a
20 plus 10 year exclusive agreement signed in 2000 with the China
Economic Information Service of the Xinhua News Agency and that has not
changed. This has been publicly disclosed on numerous occasions.

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Categories
Fun Stocks

Week in Review 07-01 to 07-07

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Last Updated on July 8, 2007 by stlplace

1) PTC woes: last week Goldman Sachs, the No. 1 broker in the US (and world), upgraded PTC (a PLM software vendor) to “buy”, and raised its target from $22 to $24. On July 5, PTC says it’s going to miss the 3rd revenue estimates. I guess the GS analyst would be pretty upset by PTC now.

2) Samsonite being sold again: you may have seen its bags (laptop bag, luggage bag for air flight) in many palces. According to bloomberg, Samsonite found its 5th owner in 21 years. If you look at its 10 year chart, the stock lost 96.57% of its value in 10 years. For comparison, Coach (COH) was up 1853% in last 7 years. One thing I am aware: Coach’s bag is usually more expensive than Samsonite’s.

samsonite bags

3) eLong no longer offer “vacation package”: according to PcPop, eLong (Nasdaq: LONG) pulled out of this market amid competition from Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRP). I checked out eLong tours page, it appears they still have it for now.

Categories
Life

Launch Passion Equity

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Last Updated on July 7, 2007 by stlplace

Since today is a good day (7-7-07), I want to do something special. I have planned this thing for a while: create an investment partnership or the sorts. Right now I’m the only partner in this venture. But I’m open to new investors with similar investment philosophy.

Why do I create this Equity partnership?
Well, investing in stocks is where my passion is. This is very important. Passion is the No. 1 thing to be successful in accomplishing something, in addition to discipline, intelligence, good judgement, hard work, and luck.

I don’t need to take outside money, because I’m running my own portfolio happily at this time. It’s a big responsibility for me to manage other people’s money. But I like to take the challenge.

I won’t make all the investment decisions but I would like to be one of the two(?) managing partners. All others are general partners, and they will contribute in two ways: money and advice. All partners will share the profit (or the loss) regardless of being “managing partner” or not, according to the money being pooled in.

Why do I believe I can do better than the market (e.g. S&P 500), or the mutual fund?

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Categories
Saint Louis Stocks

Heelys is NOT going away

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Last Updated on July 6, 2007 by stlplace

Just went back from Chesterfield Mall, saw Heelys at predominant locations at “Finish Line” (the discount sporting shoes store), and TradeHome, a boutique shoes store which also sells Crocs, Keen, Merrel and Teva. The Journeys also kept the Heelys, also I saw they cut the price on one model.

Yes, Heelys (HLYS) is a broken story in terms of stock, because its lower than expected estimated growth and its mis-steps in its secondary offering. Its management expects the growth to be 20% (vs. past year’s couple hundreds). But, it’s not a broken company at least in the near term. I saw kids skating on Heelys from time to time.

Separately, I saw Dillard’s has some Cayman (Beach, the original) Crocs on sales, note the size is not complete. I bought a pair for $13.99.

Categories
Life

777 and SOS

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Last Updated on July 6, 2007 by stlplace

Tomorrow, July 7, 2007, is a “triple seven” day, the winning number of slot machine. More importantly, some people claims this occurs once a century.

There will be a lot of people get married this day. Unfortunately the stock market will be closed. I guess you can always go to the gas station to get a lottery ticket.

Seriously, tomorrow is also “Live Earth” launch day. What is Live Earth? It is an organization to promote the environment protection and awareness of the climate change. There will be live concert on 7 continents: from New York to Shanghai (pearl tower). For those people like me can not go to live concert, we can watch it on TV, online or go to a house party.

Categories
China Stocks

China market cooled a bit

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Last Updated on July 5, 2007 by stlplace

The Shanghai composites went down 5% today (to about 3600), the biggest drop since May 30 when goverment increased the “stamp tax”. I heard one reason for today’s big drop is incoming new issues such as the IPOs from Bank of Nanjing, Bank of Ningbo.

Hello?! How many new shares are B. of Nanjing and B. of Ningbo’s issuing? Can they issue more shares than the Citic Bank, and Bank of Comm in late April, early May? Why the stock continued going up then? Excuse, lame excuse,…

It’s interesting to watch as the China market cools, we are seeing fewer posts about FXI and China market bubble at seekingalpha.

Separately, I swapped some Home Inns (Nasdaq: HMIN) stocks with Mindray (NYSE: MR) today. I sold HMIN at 34.50 and bought MR at 31.67.