Author: stlplace

New Year and Hotel frequent guest programs

Post author By stlplace
Post date January 25, 2009
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Happy New Year!!! The Chinese New Year of ox, or bull (or cow). If you missed making new years resolution on Jan 1, this is another time to make up.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Hotel Frequent Guest Program
Like Airline frequent flyer programs, there are hotel frequent guest programs. And I joined two lately: Hilton HHonors and Mirriott Rewards. There are some tangible benefits to those programs, such as getting the points for the hotel stay and redeem them sometime later. One thing I noticed interesting, at least something I was not aware of, is that hotels sometimes assign better rooms to its frequent guests.

Tags chinese-new-year, Hilton-HHonors, Marriott-Rewards

Master Series

Buffett on NBR (PBS)

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Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A; BRK.B) has not done well lately. Nonetheless, Nightly Business Report (PBS) interviewed Buffett. The topic ranges from new administration, recession and investing. The interview is about 30 minutes long.

Interestingly Susie Gharib tried to ask particular investment advice, Buffett declined politely.

Tags berkshire-hathaway, Buffett, NBR

Stocks

Banking crisis?

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It seems the financial crisis has been more like a banking crisis these days, with the RBS virtually nationalized by the British goverment, and Citi and Bank of America increasingly can not stand on its own. The No. 1 and No. 2 US banks according to market cap, J.P.Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), are also under pressure today, both hovering around $20 and $15, respectively.

RBS telegraph uk
(Source: telegraph.co.uk)

Of course this all happens today as the new US president sworn into office. It appears to me the market does not like the stimulus package proposed by Obama team, or the uncertainty around it? Plus the controversy around his treasury secratery pick. All this bring uncertainty to the market, and we know the market does not like uncertainty.

What will we go from here? Will all the big US banks taken over by the federal goverment? It seems unlikely because this country lives or dies on the private business or entreprenuership. With goverment controlling large banks, it will be like (dare I say) China.

Tags BAC, BoA, Citi, JPM, WFC

Stocks

My thoughts on Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)

Post author By stlplace
Post date January 16, 2009
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Bank of America is back in the news because they asked and got $20 billon from US govement, to back the loss from Merrill Lynch acquisition.

(Source: Yahoo Tech-ticker)

Personally I like Bank of America, ever since I became their customer serveral years ago. Two benefits of being BoA checking acct cosumer: 1) Their branch and ATMs are all over the country; 2) In addition to that, since I travel to China once a while, I like the fact I can withdrawl Chinese Yuan (RMB) from China Construciton Bank (CCB is BoA Chinese partner), without transaction fees. CCB is also a large bank in China and their ATMs can be found in many places.

Now to the investing of BoA (NYSE: BAC). Did I say investing? With the stock price of BoA approach to $7, it seems to me it’s more and more like speculating. I remember someone (Jim Cramer?) once said any bank stock traded under $5 is speculative.

Tags BAC, bank-of-america, BoA, CCB

Investing

Back to coding

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Good reading
I found John Bogle’s 6 Lessons for investors (WSJ op-ed, Jan 8 ) to be good. A few years ago I read John’s Little Book of Common Sense Investing, and was not impressed by it because at that time the market was very hot. Now it all makes sense to me. John is the founder of Vanguard group which is famous for its low cost and index fund.

Back to coding
New year also means doing something new, so I went to my first computer related user group meeting for many years (Lambda Lounge). Interestingly, the meeting location Appistry is just 5 minutes walk from my home.

BTW, I decided to take up the Objective C these days (in my own time).

In the news (week in review Jan 06 to Jan 11)

gadgets

Tough times ahead for China Mobile: I

Post author By stlplace
Post date January 5, 2009
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Sunmmary: the issue of 3G license (news here), the immature domestic standard being assigned to CHL, and no cool handset. All the above combined with the slowdown of Chinese economy is creating a headwind for China Mobile near term growth.

China Telecom (NYSE:CHA, the landline operator recently acquired CDMA business from China Unicom) is ramping up the new CDMA + WiFi strategy, the sky wing (tian yi) plan (English:labbrand; Chinese: Hu Langlang Sina blog); I also saw the sking wing 189 promotion when I was in China. Service wise, CHA is giving the customers both broadband internet and mobile service in one package. The price is quite competitive.

China Telecom CHA sky wing esurf

To be fair, China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) is not standing still, it’s launching the 188 number with TDMA very soon. But I am seeing at least two problems: 1) Lack of WOW handset (e.g., iPhone) to attract Chinese consumers (Chinese: asun0104 blog); 2) The lag of TDMA compared to mature 3G standard WCDMA. More importantly, the existing GSM business will slowdown quite a bit as the Chinese economy in the coastal areas cools, due to slowdown in exports. As many migrant workers go back home (factories shut), there are less need for them to talk/text to family back home. Similar thing can be said to business communications.

Tags 188, 189, CHA, China-mobile, China-Telecom, CHL, Sky-wing, TDMA

Life Tips

New shoes and new mattress

Post author By stlplace
Post date January 3, 2009
No Comments on New shoes and new mattress

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I ordered this Asics GT-2130 from 6PM early this Monday ($46 including shipping). The regular costs $95. It arrived yesterday and got plenty of cushion. 6PM is doing a sale on many Asics shoes. (click men or women on the left to refine results).

Asics GT-2130

Investing

New Year Resolution?

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Summary of 2008
Aren’t we glad 2008 is finanlly over? I am sure most people (who are not hiding under rocks) are. On a positive note, most of us survived from the crash (so far). But we do learn a lesson or two on economy and market: live within means, don’t over extend yourself, and don’t borrow heavily and bet…I think those simple rules will apply in year 2009 and going forward too.

On a personal note, I changed my job in 2008, right in the middle of financial crisis. While it’s definitely a comforting thing to do, I thought it was time to move forward, and I will try to make it successful. Also, I took CFA level I (twice) in last year. Like the financial market turmoil, the CFA test did take some toll on me. While the outcome is still unkown, I think in a way I already achieved something: a systematic approach to look at equity and bond.

401k/IRA performance

Saint Louis

First Night in St. Louis

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I am thinking going to this event again this year. I went there 2 years ago, and was impressed by what Grand Center has to offer.

I can not think of other big New Year celebration activies here.

The direction to Grand Center is here. Happy New Year !!!