stlplace

Category: Fun

  • Least Volatility Day

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    Today is probablly the least volatility day since I invested in the US stocks 3.5 years ago, my portifolio only changed -0.1%. Previously the biggest volatility day was Feb 27 this year, my portifolio dropped almost 10%. For reference, Dow went up 0.53%, S&P went up 0.66%, and Nasdaq went up 0.48% today.

    I don’t know the exact reason. I joined my former boss’ retirement party today. Maybe all the traders were also having parties or going on vacations 🙂

    For us average investors (not day traders), we don’t want big swings (up and downs). So less volatility is a good thing.

  • I like Discover Card

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    Yesterday after I bought air ticket, and refurbished iPod nano, I received an unexpected call from Discover card. It’s from “fraud prevention” department. Very good. This is a kind of customer service phone call that I like to hear. Because credit card threft (and identity threft) is not uncommon these days.

    I like discover card also because of  its various bonus (5%) cash rebate program. It’s a bit complicated, but essentially they gave out 5% cash back for different things every three months. For instance, when I bought my last air ticket in the Jan., I got 5% cash back (about $50 for a $1090 ticket).

  • Air Ticket Is Expensive

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    I bought air ticket for my late July trip back to Shanghai. It cost me $1260, American Airlines, STL to PVG (via ORD). Compared to $1090 I paid for my March trip (UA), it’s a little more expensive. The main reason is of course the soaring oil price lately.

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  • iPod refurbished deal ?

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    This sounds like a deal (dealsea), $129 for a refurbished iPod nano. If you want more discount, you can click through fatwallet. You need to register at fatwallet to get the cashback.

    iPod nano pic

    For those iPhone junkie, here is an opportunity to win an iPhone, by participating in the stock picks contest hosted by WR Hambrecht and Motley Fool.

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  • Lessons Learned from NINE

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    1) Don’t jump into an IPO on its first day. Do some research if you really want to jump.

    2) A controlling shareholder is also the CEO: usually not good for small shareholders.

    3) One customer (Chinese goverment), one product (custome declaring software), be very worried.

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  • Personal Finance experts

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    Here is the Yahoo Finance experts’ blogs. Among them I like Ben Stein the best, because of his wit and humor, Laura Rowley and Jeremy Siegel are also my favorites. Laura talked about “happiness and money”, as you may know there is a balance between those two. Her background in theology makes her talk more interesting too. Jeremy is a professor in Finance at Wharton, I read his recent book “The Future for the Investors” 2 years ago. His analysis is good, but I don’t like his conclusion: basically he is saying individual investors have no way to beat the market, so go buy the index fund and settle for the market return (about 10% annually). While I think what he said has some merits, I do believe there are chances for individual investor, if one has the time, disicipline and average IQ.

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  • CROX Pre-split run

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    The split day is June 14, Thursday. It has a nice run since last week. I will wait it calm down a bit before adding my postions. Obviously, I missed the buying opportunity about two weeks ago when there were some insiders sellings. It pulled back to 76~78 at that time. Oh well, no rear mirror view for stocks.

    A bit reality check, Crocs 2006 Revenue is 354.7 m; 2007 est. Revenue 675 m, a 90% growth, note the company says sustainable growth rate over next few years is 45%. The market cap as of today is 3.64 b (stock closed at $90.97), so the P/S ratio is roughly 5.39. PE (ttm, trailing twelve month, according to Yahoo Finance) is about 44.77, I think it’s fairly valued at this time.

    Also as you may know, President Bush was wearing Crocs. You can see a picture of him wearing Crocs (courtesy of CrocFans).

  • Starbucks, McDonald and Milk

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    Went to a newly opened Starbucks at Olive and Price yesterday. This is a very nice place, compared to the one at Olive and Craig (much older). The traffic there was OK consider this was Sunday morning.

    A lot things are against Starbucks business lately, according to a guest at CNBC this morning.

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  • Week in Review 06-03 to 06-09

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    Bill Gates got Harvard degree finally, 30 years after drop out from Harvard;

    Gates Harvard degree

    Dell announced to sell laptop at Sam’s Club (Major’s comment: too little, too late);

    Andy Xie, former chief economist of Morgan Stanley Asia, says the odds of making money in Chinese stock market is lower than casinos (40% vs. 48%); 

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  • Heelys Secondary on the Deck

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    (Update June 10) Today when I visited Galleria Mall, I saw Walk ‘N Roll, a knockoff of Heelys. Unlike Crocs, I think knockoff will take a toll at Heelys’ sale.

    (Original June 8 ) Here is the S1 prospectus from SEC web site. It appears the selling shareholders (mostly venture capital) filed on June 7 to unload 8 m shares. My suggestion is don’t touch this skating shoes maker because I don’t like its growth prospect. I already sold all shares which I bought during its IPO debut last Dec.

    I expect the secondary will be sold very soon, maybe next week?