TrashStock
A personal finance blog and podcast.Apple Equals Touch
With the same anticipatory ease with which one opens a spigot on a warm summer day to pour a glass of municipally-cleaned, ground-cooled water, or on a cold fall morning open a fresh new bag of Starbucks Thanksgiving Blend 2009 coffee beans, or before a hearty meal open a bottle of Ravenswood Icon, I load my iPod Shuffle each morning with a fresh round of podcasts, and check today’s weather and Bloomberg news on my iPhone.
Jonathan Ives describes in this must-view video the importance of industrial design behind the ease-of-use in Apple’s products. What other products in your daily life are either the result of recent thoughtful industrial design (e.g., Apple’s products or Saturn’s Sky) or centuries of engineering tradition hiding behind simple objects (e.g., your kitchen faucet or your dinner-time wine bottle)?
..TS.
MRV Communications About to Change?
MRV Communications (MRVC.PK) may be about to change. But is it for the better? Will Value Investors for Change (VIFC) move MRVC in the right direction? Will they succeed at all with their attempt to board the MRVC ship?
On blog GREENBACKD I posted the following comment in response to their bullish post, in which they like VIFC’s moves:
“As a long-time investor in MRVC, my only concern is this: according to SEC documents, VIFC collectively holds only 1.9 millions shares, or about 1.2% of outstanding [http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/887969/000110465909058845/a09-31532_18k.htm]. I’d feel more comfortable having a fellow investor like Dr. Shubin Stein insert himself onto a public company’s board if he and/or his war party held at least 5%. They seem to have put a huge amount of work into attempting to change a company in which they have a seemingly very small position. As you pointed out, MRVC’s sales are > $500M ($538M in 2008 according to recent 10K filing); at $147M market cap, Value Investors for Change stands to reap quite a profit (depending on when they invested, of course) if the current share price goes to just $2/sh. I’d feel more comfortable, though, if I knew that their interest in this penny stock was somewhat more sizeable. Also I’d feel more comfortable if they weren’t attempting to appoint a bunch of self-described “value” investors to a board that perhaps needs CEO’s of other publicly traded network-infrastructure companies.”
What do you think, trashstockers? Should a boarding party hold more that 1.2% of shares to change the course of the voyage, or should fractional interests be able to force change on a publicly traded company that is not anywhere close to declaring bankruptcy, just for the altruistic sake of “returning value to shareholders”?
..TS.
There’s An App For That
Last night on Facebook a long-time college bud asked what peoples fav iPhone apps were, as she was working on developing interfaces for iPhone apps. I threw out a few of my favorites: Bloomberg’s news app, The Creeps! tower defense game, and the iPhones own clock app, which I use for all it’s functions daily. A bunch of other apps were recommended: a flatulence app, a zippo lighter app, a weather app, and a few more games.
Then, this morning, I see news in my “Google news alert for: apple” that Mac Rumors reports on Apple’s new iPhone television commercials. I zipped on over to Apple’s site, and after mistakenly looking at the Mac commercials (for which there wasn’t a brand new one) I found the iPhone commercials. I found myself watching each, and wishing that I could get a listing of each of those apps… and then noticed that the MacRumors/iPhone post actually listed them all. Cool! 
..TS.
Bloomberg’s Podcasts
As I’ve been using Bloomberg’s iPhone app for my daily finance news, I decided to see if they had podcasts in the iTunes store… and came across podcasts “Taking Stock: Bloomberg’s Investment Program” and “Analyst Calls: Bloomberg’s Equities Report.” I listened to the most recent few episodes of Taking Stock during the week, and liked it so much I’m loading them on the 2nd gen. Shuffle for weekend listening. I have not yet listened to the Analyst Calls… they’re very short podcasts, averaging about 2-3 min each, so I also poured those 19 podcasts into the Shuffle.
Weekend finance listening is all planned out. Oh! Just added in VentureCast #33 (for some reason episode 34 won’t download).
..TS.
Odysseus’ Oar
News of yesterday’s release of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol led me on a wee web journey to learn of Albrecht Dürer’s Melencolia 1, a tangential and seemingly unrelated reference to a comet and the year 1514, and of course the article itself about Dan Brown’s newest novel since the 2003 Da Vinci Code.
My thoughts the last few days have been on a related quest into the stories of Homer that he spun of the famed explorer Odysseus, and how he taught future generations about the benefits of knowing the difference between an oar and a winnowing fan. How many times do we each run into situations in which people totally mistake one thing for another? A PC’s CD tray for a cup-holder? A classic painting for pornography? A miniature French Provincial room diorama for a child’s dollhouse? A pair of bright red plastic shoes for a fad? A jumbled Albrecht Dürer engraving for a still-life study of period pieces?
The challenge is not to laugh when people mistake one thing for another, but to size up the situation, see how you could easily have made the same mistake if you had that person’s perspective or background, and to see if there are ways to enhance people’s understanding of the world around them. Artists and graphic, industrial & information designers spend their careers focused on just this task: how to explain in pictures or in form & function that which others may only know through deep study of a subject. Similarly, investors continually seek to find their way to the Golden Age by traveling through deep forests and thickets of information as dense and forboding as the Mines of Moria.
..TS.
Cult of Crocs
I finally see the light.
Motley Fool is encouraging your contrarian spirit.
And if you’re reading a blog about trashy stocks, then you’re either a fool or a contrarian (and hopefully both!).
Remember: Motley Fool wants you to be a fool! Think foolishly, they say. Don’t follow the professionals. Do your own research. Find your own diamonds in the rough. And stick with those diamonds, like the Fools did with Iomega back in the early days.
Now, back to this contrarian thing. If you’ve been reading this blog with any consistency (all two of you), you know I have a thing for Crocs, Inc. I wear their shoes, I follow their stock (CROX). I am somewhat of a Crocs evangelist. And, I bad-type Motley Fool for all the things they (or Alyce Lomax, at any rate) say against Crocs and the Crocs brand. Why would they be saying these things? Because they want to steer you away from a Fad stock?? Because they want you to recognize the danger signs??? Because they have your best interest in heart????
Actually, Motley Fool does have your best interest in heart. Be a Fool. By Crocs now! Because the Fool is actually flashing a huge, apparently contrarian (going against an apparent grain, against the flow) BUY sign.
I can understand your not seeing the Buy signal:
“I still think investors should step away from the Crocs, and the Crocband does nothing to change my mind.” [These Crocs are Still Coyote Ugly]
“So does Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX), whose auditors warned earlier this year that the shoemaker may not be able to continue as a going concern.” [Institutionalized Speculation]
“Valued at more than two times book value even though the company is expected to lose money for at least the next two years.” [Our Supercomputer Loves These Stocks]
The reason you haven’t seen a blatant BUY CROX signal is that a Fool is supposed to do his/her own research, learn about his/her investing environment, form his/her own opinions, and make his/her own investment decisions. If you did your own research into Crocs, Inc., you’d know that all this talk about a one trick pony and a company that on it’s last legs is just that: talk. And talk based on old information. The new information is that Crocs is a company with a clear notion about where it’s going, how to get there, and how well funded it needs to be to get there.
Don’t believe me? Go out and form your own opinion from your own research and tell TrashStock what you think.
..TS.
While Your Right Brain is Investing…
…what is your left brain doing?
Many humans have or need an artistic outlet to allow their left brain to have fun while their right brain is focusing on the day-to-day work. For many writing or painting or podcasting or trimming hedges or weaving baskets allows their left brain to get some exercise while the right brain vacations from having been pushed to the fore all week. For Trashstock’s author, Tai Chi (taijiquan) is the primary left brain outlet.
The author has been studying Taijii for some 28 years, and has been with his current teach, Larry Tolbert, for about the past 22 years. For the first 15+ years, sifu Tolbert taught Yang Style taiji and Crane Style qigong, with a smattering of shaolin wushu, bagua, yoga and capoeira thrown into the mix. For the past 7 years, he’s been studying Southern and Northern Wu styles, with the latter being most recent. The author, who is generally unable to join Mr. Tolbert in weekly journeys up to Wexford to see his teacher, shifu Zhang Yun, has been learning these southern and northern Chinese arts from Mr. Tolbert as time permits.
The current form is as follows – and describes what the author studies with Mr. Tolbert along Pittsburgh’s North Shore trail during many workday lunchtimes:
Wu Style 37
Teachings based on Wang Peisheng & Zeng Weiqi’ s “WU STYLE TAIJIQUAN” (1983)
1. Beginning Form
2. Grasp Bird’s Tail
3. Brush Knee and Twist Step
4. Play the Lute
5. Part the Wild Horse’s Mane
6. Fair Lady Works at Shuttles
7. Watch with First Under Elbow
8. Golden Cock Stands on One Leg
9. Step Back and Repulse Monkey
10. Diagonal Fly
11. Lift Hand
12. Stork Spreads Wings
13. Insert Needle to Sea Bottom
14. Flash the Arms (Unfurl the Fan)
15. Left and Right Separate Instep Kicks
16. Turn and Strike with Heel
17. Step Forward and Punch Down
18. Turn Around and Cast Down with Fist and Palm
19. Double Kick
20. Left and Right Striking Tiger
21. Two Fist Blow Ears
22. Dodge and Kick
23. Turn Around and Kick
24. Press Face with Palm
25. Cross-form Kick (Sweep Lotus with Single Hand)
26. Brush Knee and Punch at Underbelly
27. Front Single Whip
28. Wave Hands Like Clouds
29. Down-pushing Stance
30. Step Forward to Form Seven Stars
31. Step Back to Ride the Tiger
32. Turn Around and Press Face with Palm
33. Turn and Kick Horizontally (Sweep Lotus with Both Hands)
34. Bend Bow to Shoot Tiger
35. Step Back, Deflect, Parry and Punch
36. Seeming Close Up
37. Embrace Tiger and Return to Mountain (Cross Hands Closing Form)
What art form are you allowing your left brain to pursue, so as to maintain whole-brain health and longevity?
..TS.
P.S. sifu Tolbert had studied Southern Wu with Pittsburgh artist James Simon for 6+ years; Mr. Simon is an accomplished visual and taiji artist who teaches classes in Millvale, PA.
P.P.S. The author had maintained Taiji pages on Geocities for many years – these pages will slowly be transferred over to WordPress before Geocities is taken down later this year by it’s owner Yahoo!.
Are the Headlights Bearing Down On You?
Are you standing on the railway, awaiting the locomotive?
Are you studying as hard as you can to prepare your brain for the future?
Are you buying and selling like a prodigal child, immersing yourself in the market?
Are you flashing other’s tweets in Morse Code to enhance other’s right to speech?
Or are you standing on the platform, wondering why the trains aren’t running?
Or are you whiling away the time, shooting the breeze, complaining about the weather?
Or are you sitting on your mattress hoping inflation doesn’t steal your green?
Or are you avoiding the G20 because change just isn’t your cup of tea?
Stand in the way, read all you can, immerse yourself and expose the world.
..TS.
Down September is a Random Event
“Even the Bulls are Getting Nervous”
That was the headline on Aaron Task’s August 31 Yahoo! Tech|Ticker video. Shorting SPY and Google, James Altucher of Formula Capital talked to Task about the downward energy on Monday morning, feeding off of downward pressure from China and Japan, as well as the past week or two in which AIG, Fannie, Freddie and Citigroup (the bad boy financials) were the bulk of the market volume. Altucher says that even though he can give 25 reasons why next year will be awesome, right now he’s net short. Hmmm.
Altucher also recommends taking a vacation – enjoying Labor Day. TrashStock agrees with Altucher and says: hold onto your hats, ladies and gentlemen. It gonna be a bumpy ride – but don’t abandon the carriage immediately, there may be some nice chances to pick amongst hastily created bargains.
..TS.
Mac is China
In TrashStock’s previous post, iPhone is China, TS suggested that we rename the iPhone “China” due to it’s software-driven touch interface which allows for recognition of the 6,000-plus characters of the written Chinese language, versus the old QWERTY-style hardware keyboard. Now does TrashStock have the audacity to recommend that we rename the Mac “China” also? What gives? How can we have two products with the same name?
Actually, no. TrashStock likes Mac. But, with the new iteration of the OS X operating system, Snow Leopard, the flexibility of the new Mac notebooks with their touchpad interface now allow for input of handwritten chinese characters. Have we seen this heretofore in computing device? TrashStock thinks not!
Analyst Brian Marshall of Broadpoint AmTech suggests that iPhone sales in China could be high in 2010: “With 70 million post-paid customers, and assuming flat sales, which are conservative, I think Apple will sell between five and seven million iPhones in China during 2010.” If the iphone is simply a halo device, considers TrashStock, what could this mean for Mac sales in China? If the iPhone is not just a halo device, but an entry level tablet, hello future Apple. Either way, Chinese character entry and recognition is a huge step forward, and a huge potential revenue generator. Which is why TrashStock feels that AAPL is now just a penny-stock awaiting it’s leg up into the big times.
..TS.
