Category: Stocks

Categories
Business Stocks

Ford Taurus is Back

Reading Time: < 1 minute

It’s interesting to hear they decided to bring back the old name, the family sedan saved Ford during its difficult times in 1990s. Ford is in trouble again lately, due to its unattractive products and sky high labor cost. Will this name change save the company? Maybe not. But I think it will help them in some ways.

A little backgound: Ford introduced Ford 500, its new family sedan a while ago, to replace the decade old Taurus. Taurus was a big hit in its early years (1990s), but was increasingly under pressure from CamCord (Toyota Camry and Honda Accord) as it ages. Its brand was more diluted when the rental fleet (Hertz) have all those Taurus.  

Now the key question is: are there any Taurus fans (hint: moms) left?

ford taurus pic

Categories
Stocks

Turbo Tax Online E-filing

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I have used Turbo Tax  online version for years and here are some of the tips.

1) Started early. It’s obvious if you are expecting refund. The eariler you file, the earlier you will get the refund. But even if you are expecting paying more, you can start early and mail the check on April 15 (or whatever the deadline is). Starting earlier means fewer surprises; and it allows rooms for adjustment (such as additional contribution to 401K, IRA to avoid the higher tax bracket).

2) Use the Federal version if you are thrifty. I did use the State filing service couple times. But at one time I was screwed by a mistake and a year later, the state sent a letter saying I need to pay more. This is a mistake I could avoid if I file by paper. In my case the State tax form is fairly straightward. One reason we want to use the Turbo Tax Federal is to let the computer do the add/subtraction, analyze the potential deduction and help planning the future. All these are not as important for the State tax because the tax rate is lower, the tax code is simpler, etc. 

3) Use the E-filing. After filling the forms in the computer, you will have the options to file by mail or by E-filing. E-filing is better because it saves work for us and the goverment, saves the tree, saves the time to get refund…

Last but not least, here is a discount I found for Turbo Tax Online.   

turbo tax picture 

(Update 06Feb07) Here is an interesting article about “whether do tax by yourself or hire an accountant” (from My Money Blog).

Categories
China Stocks

Old Ladies in Kansas and Shanghai Housewives

Reading Time: < 1 minute

It seems the “irrational exuberrance” in Chinese domestic stock market finally got a reality check. Here is an excellent article from MarketWatch. Again quoted from the article:

“There was a story on the front page of The Wall Street Journal about a group of little old ladies in the Midwest who soured on their boring portfolio as they watched dot-com investors get rich. The good ladies had traded their utilities for the shares of technology firms.

Continue reading “Old Ladies in Kansas and Shanghai Housewives”
Categories
Business Stocks

When to Sell Heelys HLYS

Reading Time: < 1 minute

We all know it’s a fad. But here is the one million dollar question: when shall we take profit (or loss) for the Heelys stocks (HLYS)? From the IBD article today, it seems Heelys still got room to grow. The following is quoted from IBD:

“For one thing, there’s still plenty of room to grow sales in parts of the country between the coasts, he says. And overseas sales offer lots of potential, especially in Europe.

Continue reading “When to Sell Heelys HLYS”
Categories
Business Stocks

Amazon Endless New Promotion

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I saw this when I was doing some research on Amazon (AMZN). They are giving away $5 for overnight shipping. This is very ineresting because normally the online merchants will do free shipping. But Amazon is always innovative.

On serious note, I think Amazon is interesting because people usually think Google is the king of the Internet, while regard Amazon as nothing more than an online retailer. This could change because Amazon has invested heavily on technology (software) in those years. They are providing technology services to other customers (including retailers). Also from my observation, the Amazon Marketplace, where individuals can list items to sell (similar to eBay), is getting momentum. So don’t think Amazon is nothing more than the online “Wal-Mart”…

Categories
Business Stocks

Home Inns is Getting Expensive

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I mean the stocks, not the motel price. It’s being mentioned by IBD (Investors Business Daily) as No. 1 stock this Monday. IBD publishes 100 stocks every Monday based on its own rating system. Because a lot institutional investors trade stocks based on the IBD (whether there is merits or not is another story), the stock went up again today to $47.

A little background about IBD: IBD was founded by a savvy a stockbroker and writer named William J. O’neil. Here is an introduction about William on wikipedia. He also wrote some books such as “How to make money in stocks”. At one time I took very seriously on IBD’s rating system, but not now. I remember once a friend told me he found the “holy grail” of the stocks: IBD and William O’neal’s books. By the way, I told him at the time I liked to buy Google at about 160 (November 2004), he said “No”.

My point is: I like to read books, newspapers and magazines, listen to radio, or watch TV, but I won’t take all these blindly.      

Categories
Stocks

Turbo Tax Online Discount

Reading Time: < 1 minute

It’s harder to get Turbo Tax discount these days. I used to get discount code in the email since I have been using it to prepare income tax in year 2001. But not lately. Here is a 15% off deal I found at ADP.

(Update 29Jan07) Sun has an incredibly detailed list of tax software. Here is the link.

Categories
China Stocks

Market Cap of Home Inns HMIN

Reading Time: < 1 minute

I made a mistake on the market cap of Home Inns (Rujia, just like home), in my previous post (corrected now). The correct number is stock price * number of shares, or

$44.93 * (32,283,906 / 2 + 5,874,237 )  = $839,479,146
The number of shares 32,283,906 is from its Q3 2006 report. 5,874,237 is the IPO shares on Oct 26, 2006. Note it’s 2006 revenue is about $73 m. So the market cap/sales revenue is about 11.5

Is it high? Yes it’s high among hotel industry. But not high if compared to SINA (also about 10 right now). Note HMIN is growing much faster than SINA these days (70% vs. 30%). I also looked at Baidu’s number, it’s market cap is $4.15 B, and est. 2006 revenue is $106.4 m. The ratio is about 39. BIDU is expected to grow at 68% by WRHambrecht’s James Lee (click on the PDF report). Note growth is only one factor here, we also need to look at the profit margin, etc. if we want to compare apple to apple.

rujia pic

Categories
China Stocks

Blog about China Motels

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Zhao Huan Yan, a Chinese blogger, has an excellent blog about the developments of hotels and motels in China. He put together lots of statistics (numbers) there. The Alexa ranking of hotels is interesting. Again don’t take this too seriously.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for me), it’s all in Chinese.  

Categories
China Stocks

Home Inns Doubled from Debut

Reading Time: < 1 minute

It’s about $44 now. Today IBD published an article about Home Inns. The author’s view is a little too optimistic: as I understand serious domestic competitor includes motel168, besides the Jinjiang Inn. I noticed Jinjiang Inn also offers free broad band Internet now, as this was a key differentiator for Home Inn/Ru Jia in the past. Super 8, the US motel Chain, is also expanding very aggressively in China.

home inns bed check

Continue reading “Home Inns Doubled from Debut”