Author: stlplace

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Business

Is Advertisement too Invasive ?

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Ad is everywhere these days, from Newspaper, TV to Internet. In China there is such thing called LCD sreen ad. Focus Media (FMCN) made big money out of this, although recently some residential home owners got a bit tired of this because they want some peace in their apartment’s elevator.

In the US it appears to me TV is coming to Internet more and more, I mean, the video clips, such as this one from Fisher Investments, a wealth management firm managed by Ken Fisher. I used to receive (junk) mails from them, now I can see the ad on Forbes. Fisher was a columnist on Forbes.

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Fun Stocks

I missed J. Crew and MasterCard

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But I don’t regret it. I noticed J. Crew (JCG) IPO last summer, and started pay attention to its stock. I have been their customer since my friend’s recommendation in early 2006, bought some shirts and pants at discount, been happy with them. But, I did not buy their stock at discount last year (it has been at 25 for a while). Why I didn’t pull the trigger? There were two reasons:

1) I found the ladies’ products made up majority of the sales at J. Crew. I don’t know about ladies’ trend.

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Fun video

Old Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Video

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Here is a link at YouTube. I vaguely remember Microsoft developed the “Excel” program first on Mac, but I did not know Bill Gates personally worked on “Basic language” for Mac and made 30,000 from Steve.

Categories
Fun

WallStrip is better than NBA

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It’s a business broadcast done in a new way. Here is the link. I heard about this site and watched a clip of “Crocs” a while ago. Now it appears WallStrip is available from Google Finance everyday (at bottom of the screen), probablly because WallStrip is popular in YouTube and Google now owns YouTube. Anyway, you may want to watch those two (Starbucks and Nike).

After watching the double over time of NBA game (between Detroit and Cleveland), endless commercials, I found this WallStrip is much entertaining. By the way, I do believe the guy does Nike’s commercials will win the NBA championship, because Nike is the biggest sponsor of NBA.   

Categories
Saint Louis Stocks

AG Edwards Acquired by Wachovia

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People often asked me where in the world is St. Louis, I told them the Missisipi River, Budweiser beer, the McDonald Douglas (no longer a standalone company), etc.

I think A G Edwards could be counted as a St. Louis icon too. But I did not realized it’s more than 100 years old until today it’s being acquired by Wachovia. The rationale for the buy is Wachovia is looking for opportunities in the baby boomers’ wealth management. After this acquisition the combined company, Wachovia Securities, will manage $1.15 trillion, operate 3,350 offices and employ 31,000 people. It will be the No. 2 US retail broker firm. Merril Lynch is still the No. 1.

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Stocks

Global Equity Shortage I: US market

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First heard this “equity shortage” term from Jim Cramer, the host of CNBC “Mad Money”. I watched his show mostly for entertainment purpose, but I think this term desribes the “supply and demand” of global stock market well. Yesterday the S&P index in the US hit a new high at 1530. Last record was set in dot com era on March 24, 2000. To put it in perspective, on March 20 same year, I got my job offer from my current employer.

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China Stocks

Why I think MR is better than HMIN?

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HMIN looked cheap these days, should we jump in and buy it? I have both MR and HMIN, and as a matter of fact, I bought some more HMIN after its disappointing earning report. My mistake. You may think because HMIN has been to $49, and now it’s trading $29.50, isn’t a big discount? Yes or No. I hope HMIN won’t go much lower because it is my largest holding now (I’m looking for opportunities to exit).

MR NYSE mindray IPO

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Categories
China Stocks

We Got the Message: Stamp Tax Increase

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The policy makers in China found the silver bullet finanlly, the Shanghai composite index dropped 280 points or 6.5% today May 30, as seen from this news from Bloomberg. This is the biggest drop in a day since Feb 27 (9% drop). The policy makers have warned the investors (or more accurately speculators) for a while, the head of central bank said some words during an international meeting (remember the vice chairman of people’s congress, Mr. Chen’s similar words late last year?); two interest rate hikes; three bank reserve rate hikes. But the new investors seemed ignoring all those warnings, as we have seen from the record account openings since March. We have 100 million accounts in China now. Let me quote some words regarding the “bubble” (I was told this was said by Buffet, but have not verified the source):

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China

China to Raise Stamp Tax

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That’s the stock trading 印花税 in Chinese. It was only a week ago somebody from department of finance denied the “rumor”, now they ate their own words. They raised rate from 0.1% to 0.3% for stock trade.

I don’t know how the market will react to this. Will it blush off like it did on May 21 amid the raise of interest rate? We shall see.

Seriously, I think the goverment could put those money (I mean increased stamp tax revenue) into education, and health care, that will be a wonderful thing. We all want a harmonious society, don’t we?