Month: November 2008

Categories
CFA Life Tips

CFA, extend airline membership miles etc.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last Updated on December 4, 2015 by stlplace

schweser CFA pic

Final push for Dec 6 CFA I
Working on Schweser practice exam now. One lesson from last June test is too little practice exam (only one). Lets see if I could complete all 3 practice exams by Dec 5: with careful reviews and reading on weak spots.

Unite miles for WSJ
I got this idea from Kiplinger’s a while ago. And I have used this tip twice now. Last year I used it for my NWA miles (I had 33,000 miles from my China trip a while back); yesterday I used it on United for WSJ subscription. Redeem newspaper magazine can not only make the life of miles longer, but also supported the newspaper/magazine business. Plus, reading from the real paper (vs. computer, blackberry) can get me into better thinking. Also, keep in mind I tried to redeem the miles for air ticket as first choice, the magazine is just a way to burn some miles while extending the life of unused miles.

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Categories
Life

Thanksgivings and Black Friday thoughts

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Last Updated on November 29, 2008 by stlplace

The Indian Mumbai incident caught a lot attention these two days (started on Wednsday Nov. 27 10 PM Indian time). Obviously this is extra-ordinary and tragic event (there are no winners). But I would like to share two story I heard yesterday and today, both of which are much closer to our daily lives.

I heard this one from a caller at NPR Talk of Nation, the caller told an old story: about 30 years ago, she was a single mom with two kids, someone leaves a basket of things (from food to toys) every month to her doorstep. Obviously that gift helped her and her kids tremendously during that time. After she finished college and got a better job, she found out the anonymous giver from local grocery store and then she asked the giver to find another needy family: she started to do the same thing for the other family. It’s like a relay of giving.

Another story I heard today. We all know today is Black Friday, and there are many bargain hunters in stores. Yours truely had first hand experience at local Best Buy store (just stop by check out things), and the crowd is big as usual, which make me think are we really in recession? Anyway, this is the story caught my attention: A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said. (Source: NY Daily News). This is just insane. What (if anything) is more precious than someone’s life? Another sad thing is: who can the victim family/friends blame for? All the people who step over the victim?

If I had some interest looking for deals today, suddenly I lost all of it…

Categories
Fun Stocks

Saving Citi Bank

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Last Updated on December 4, 2008 by stlplace

CNBC Maria Bartiromo interviewing Saudi prince Awaleed, the largest shareholder of Citi Group (NYSE: C), after the US gov (aka we the tax payers) bailed out the Citi and the prince. Here are the terms (PDF). Maybe president Bush gave him assurance that his holding won’t get much diluted before the rescue? The video lasts 18 minutes.

Where is the money for Detroit auto makers, by the way? Sorry no Saudi prince owns the big 3 stocks, and nobody can call the President directly.

Categories
Stocks

Market gyration and why I think Buffett is still the guy

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Last Updated on November 23, 2008 by stlplace

Week in review 11/17/08 to 11/22/08
Crazy market
If you have not paid attention to the market lately (for whatever reason), yesterday and today’s market should have got your attention, because of its huge volatility: big down yesterday and big up today. Note yesterday Paulson spoke at California and today’s news is NY Fed chief Tim Geithner is reported picked by Obama to run the treasury department. But these are just the reasons on the surface. The real reason, I think, is the real economy in the world is shadowed by the credit crisis. There are enormous fear in the market, as we can saw from the panic sell in the last trading hour yesterday and panic short covering last hour today.

Also in the news, the bailout of Detroit big 3 car makers have been put on hold; and Citi Group (NYSE: C) has under pressure as its stock dropped below $4.

Buffett also makes mistake
It is not pretty week for the Oracle of Omaha either. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) stock dropped more than 10% last week on the reports of its surging CDS levels (Reuters). I read this artticle from seekingalpha, by Whitney Tilson (who holds Berkshire A shares).

I also doubt those long term stock market Index (expires in 2019 to 2030) puts will lose money eventually, but the CDS positions (expire in 2009 to 2013) will lose some money. This is not really surprising because Buffett is also human, he makes mistakes too. I remember he lost money on currency trades a while back.

Categories
Saint Louis

Winter came to St. Louis

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Last Updated on November 20, 2008 by stlplace

Anhuser Busch became AB Inbev, a well known industrial icon. The new AB Inbev logo looks goofy though. The eagle is fly off the AB Inbev, what does that mean?

AB Inbev new logo

The endowment fund of Washing U. lost more than $1 billion this year (from $5.4 billion to $4.1 billion, on the paper), because of the weakness of recent stock market. The university is announcing cut back plans. This reminds me when the stock market was good, people tends to spend more. I guess university is not different from ordinary people.

The automobile industry bailout got stalled in congress. St. Louis already lost Ford plant a few years back. This year she lost the Chrysler (dodge caravan) plant, and significantly cut down capacity of the Chrysler Dodge Ram plant. I can understand why republican senator of Show Me state Kid Bond is working hard on the issue, besides St. Louis region, Kansas City also got big 3 plants (Ford, GM).

Categories
Economy

Both American and Chinese cut back on travel

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Last Updated on December 3, 2008 by stlplace

It’s travel time. Thanksgiving is traditionally the busiest travel seaon in the US. But due to weak economy, the holiday travel will slow down a bit (compared to same period last year). AAA Chicago estimated the trend in this thanksgiving. (source: marketWatch)

China
Slowdown in China: Ctrip (Nasdaq: CTRIP), the leading online travel consolidator in China, already reported Q over Q slowdown on its 3Q08 report. Note travel slowed quite dramatically after the Olympics.

Last but not least, I got this from my friend in Shanghai. IHT (International Herald Tribune) reported on car inventory at Long Beach, CA.

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Categories
Master Series

Peter is the guy

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Last Updated on November 18, 2008 by stlplace

Peter Schiff (wiki) is the manager of Euro Pacific Capital. He seems correctly called the recession. But don’t just follow his advice and buy gold (ETF: GLD).

Yahoo Tech-ticker: Is this a stock picker’s market?

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Categories
China

Baidu: got a bit evil?

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Last Updated on December 1, 2008 by stlplace

On Nov 17, Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), China largest web search company got a huge blow in the market as the news of “Baidu placed “faked doctors and drug ad” broke (see BW for more details). This reminds me of the Focus Media (Naqdaq: FMCN) Spam text messaging story about 7 months ago. In both cases the news was broke in CCTV, Chinese national TV channel and a part of offical Chinese media. Some people may not know CCTV has large market share in the TV Ad market. Some people may sympathize with Baidu and call for “buy” the BIDU stock amid this temporary weakness.

Before this news about Baidu, actually there were reports that Baidu was guilty of “intensionally hiding the China San’lu milk powder scandal” during August this year (Olympics time). Luckily to them, local goverment officials did the exact same thing to keep the big party on. But this time they got caught. Some financial analysts naively think those Ad. made up a small portion of the Ad. revenue. This maybe true. But I don’t the problem is that simple.

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Categories
Career

Carol Bartz: pyramids, not ladders

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Last Updated on November 16, 2008 by stlplace

Carol Bartz is Chairman of Autodesk, she was the CEO of Autodesk from from 1992 to 2006 (the fast growth period).

Michael Graves and Autodesk in the Future of Design

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Categories
Investing

Who is doing panic selling?

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Last Updated on November 18, 2008 by stlplace

It seems to me the panic selling in the stock market never ends. I can think of the following sources of sellers:

1) Hedge fund. Yesterday Congress has an testimony on Hedge Fund, and five famous Hedge Fund managers were there. Hedge fund industry has grown rapidly in last 10 years. Besides wealthy clients, they manage money for pension funds and university endowment funds, which in hindsight are not suitable investors for hedge funds. A recent example is T. Boone Pickens lost his $165 million endowment to his alma mater University of Oklahoma. How big is hedge fund? One source I heard is the hedge fund industry manages $1.3 trillion in the US.

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