Author: stlplace

Categories
gadgets

Why I think China Mobile is a buy: I

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First a bit background.

Re-org of China telecom industry
All the big players: China Mobile 中国移动 (CHL), China Netcom (CN), China Telecom 中国电信(CHA) and China Unicom 中国联通 (CHU), are majority owned by the state. In the widely anticipated re-org plan, the goverment will try to create more competition in wireless arena (right now CHL is much bigger than CHU); and save the fixed line operators, as CHA and Netcom are losing landline subscription to mobile phones. China Unicom, currently the smaller rival of China Mobile, will sell its CDMA network to China Telecom, and meanwhile CHU (with its GSM network) will merge with China Netcom.

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Business

Why Sprint Nextel merger failed

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Last week one of the news in wireless arena is Sprint Nextel wrote down all the book values for the Nextel acquisition (about $29.5 billion, see Bloomberg). Put it in perspective, this is one of the largest fiascos of corporate merger&acquisition in recent history. The magnitude is in the league of AOL and Time Warner merger in dot com days.

sprint nextel merger pic
(Mr. Forsee, left, shakes hands with Nextel founder in 2004. Source: USAtoday)

The following is from a financial advisor’s view about Sprint Nextel stock. The original source can be found here.

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Fun

Heavy snow, RIM

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(Update Mar 05) My wife Shanzi had a nice write up (and pics) about yesterday’s snow. In Chinese.

(Original) We had a 10 inch snow (huge by St. Louis standard) today. It took me more than 1 hour to drive from my work place to home, which usually takes 15 minutes. Of course I took a different route since I don’t want to take the highway, thought that would be a huge parking lot. There are less traffic on those side roads, but I almost got stuck in snow twice when I tried to go up-hill.

After one hour struggle, I did not make it to my packing lot, because I could not drive up on my drive way, so I left my car there (see below).

IMG_6168

Lessons learned: do not take unfamilar side roads (especially roads with slopes) in snow. My car got stuck in Schultz Rd. and couple side roads along Schultz when I tried to cut across to my home. I saw other cars on the roadside, stuck in snow on the way. I should be more patient (wait on Page).

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Stocks

Crocs released 10K year 2007

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Here is some interesting stuff I read (auditor’s opinion):

“We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the consolidated financial statements as of and for the year ended December 31, 2007 of the Company and our report dated February 29, 2008 expressed an unqualified opinion on those financial statements and included an explanatory paragraph regarding the Company’s adoption on January 1, 2007 of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Interpretation No. 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, and the adoption on January 1, 2006 of Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 123(R), Share-Based Payments.”

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Master Series

Why Buffett is not another money manager

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Buffett released his annual letter to shareholder last Friday, which I will discuss in next few days. First let me lay out my 5 year observations about Buffett and many other money managers.

1) Buffett will tell you his stock Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B) is expensive all the time (don’t buy it); while money managers will say anything you want to hear to manage your money (and earn the fees). They will do seminars, show their cool technologies, send you advertisement (Mail, TV, Internet), etc. All this reminds me of the promoters of stock trading software on Shanghai street 🙂

2) Buffett does not think too much of stock daily price, quote him “if you care about the daily fluctuations of a stock, you should not buy the stock at first place”; some money managers watched the market every day, every hour, every minute. This reminds me one thing: if somebody/something needs constant attention, and it’s not your baby, then something is wrong (notice Britney Spears getting media attention lately).

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Stocks

IPO and secondary offering: I

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I have written an article talking about why Chinese companies come to list in NYSE or Nasdaq a while ago. This is a topic warrants more than one article, amid the VISA filing for IPO and recent controversy of Chinese companies (Ping’an and Pu Fa) tried to do secondary in Shanghai. So let me talk about the reasons why companies go to capital market for money.

I remember Ken Fisher talked about the use of debt or stock for companies in terms of raising money, in his book “Only 3 questions that count“. To sum it up, a company will always look for a better way to finance its operation/growth, if the debt (borrow from banks) is available and cheap, they will do it. On the other hand, they will go with issusing stocks. He further explains why maturing companies (with low PE) finds borrowing is cheaper, and growth companies finds issuing stocks is cheaper.

China Ping an insurance IPO pic
(Picture above: CEO of China Ping’an insurance at IPO media event)

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Categories
CFA

Coffee, espresso, coke and investing: II

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The Coca Cola stock vs. Starbucks stock
In last 10 years (Mar 6 1998 to today Feb 28 2008), according Google Finance, SBUX went up from 4.93 to 18.78 (+280%, split adjusted, SBUX has not paid any dividend). That’s about 14% price appreciation annually.

On the other hand, KO went from 68.66 to 59.56 (-14.44%). But there is a caveat, Coca Cola pays out a cash dividend each quarter, so we should adjust the dividend when calculate Coke’s return.

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Life Tips

Coffee, espresso, coke and investing: I

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The caffeine effect
Which one has the most caffeine? A tall (12 fl oz, or 355 ml) brewed coffee, a tall latte with one shot of espresso (both at Starbucks), and a can (12 fl oz) classic Coca Cola?

Your instant answer maybe the latte (espresso), but the correct answer is the brewed coffee. According to Starbucks Nutrition By the Cup (PDF), 12 fl oz coffee has 240 mg caffeine, one shot espresso (1 fl oz) has 75 mg caffeine. As to Coke, I saw it says “caffeine content: 34mg per 12 fl oz”.

I don’t know what is the appropriate amount of caffeine a person could consume daily. My guess is one small cup a day should be ok for most people. I think it also depends on person’s health condition (weight, height, habbit of drinking). But just like many other things in life, moderation is the key. A cup of regular coffee will get one refreshed in the morning (it has caffeine equivalent to 7 cups of Coke). But when the initial effect of coffee goes away in a few hours, he/she will resort to another coffee. And so on. I think we can be more easily get caffeinated that way.

starbucks coffee cup size pic
(picture souce: will work for food)

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Categories
Life Tips

Cell phone and web cam deal

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I found this Samsung A437 cell phone deal through dealsea. I was thinking about replacing my good old Nokia 6010, not that I am not satisfied with the voice quality etc. I would like to get a flip phone (6010 is a candy bar phone, and I have to lock the keypad to avoid placing accidental call, and the time display is not clear). By the way, I got two (one for my wife), as shown like the picture below:

Samsung A437 cell phone pic logitech quickcam deluxe notebook pic

Another nice thing about A437: it is a quad band phone, and (if unlocked) can be used in China.

Logitech QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks
Found it through my friend googlist. Here is the link.

I always liked Logitech’s product, and the price (after rebate) is $8.99. So I bought one.

(Update Feb 29) The web cam arrived last night. Amazon Super Savers free shipping is fast. The next step is fill in the mail in rebate form 🙂

Categories
CFA

Less blogging and more CFA studying

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Study for CFA
Not just for the passing of the test, or the certificate, but also to learn the knowledge, which is more important for me. Actually as I read the quantatitive fundmental, I can connect the dots with my portfolio performance. Very practical stuff.

Blogging
It’s likely I will reduce the number of posts I write everyday, which is probablly a good thing, because I may actually come up with better blogs. More substance, less crap (aren’t the financial/stock blogsphere full of too many craps, no offense to any sincere blogger).

Advice from Vanguard Chairman
I received the Vanguard news letter in mail last week. Very good stuff. One thing I want to share is: don’t follow the headlines. Have a long term plan, and try to stick to it.