52-week highs this morning:
The chart comes from http://www.barchart.com/stocks/high.php
Annaly is holding in. It’s yielding 11%. And it’s selling about 15% below book value. Its latest earnings report was fine. Put a buy order in a t $10.50. You might snag some.
This is total nonsense:
But I understand why the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch published it — because their reporters are short of resources to do serious research. So they fill space with upcoming busts and the 15 stocks to rise 189% in the next year. Remember who owns Dow Jones — Rupert Murdoch. He’s originally Australian (like me). Australian journalism favors output, not in-depth research. Trust me on this one. I spent six years as a financial reporter for the Australian Financial Review. It was fun writing what I wanted — with no one to check.
The FCC rules on net neutrality. Net neutrality sort of means we all should have equal access to the Internet. In reality, it appears that the FCC has actually done nothing, yet (except a minor municipal ruling ina couple of towns). They’re trying to appease both sides of the net neutrality issue…. Yes, we’ll regulate it. But, no, we won’t enforce it.
The sad part is they didn’t address speed and cost. In the U.S. we get too little speed for too much cost. The New York Times has a piece “Why the U.S. Has Fallen Behind in Internet Speed and Affordability,” which contains this fascinating chart:
What I’ve learned from working with Time Warner in California’s Coachella Valley:
1. They don’t deliver what they promise — the first time. You have to keep calling back. It gives waste of time a whole new meaning.
2. You have to check the speed they promised. They overpromise and under-deliver. Check your speed here.
3. You have to check the equipment they sent. It’s usually wrong.
4. They will give you an introductory deal if you call back — several times. I finally got my speed up to 32 megs/second.
5. They add spurious charges to your monthly bills — but they will erase them — if you beg.
In short, CHECK. CHECK. CHECK.
You have to waste your time dealing with this nonsense because there’s no other decent supplier. Verizon seems to have opted out.
You can read the entire NYTimes piece here.
A real reason to subscribe to T-Mobile. Start with two facts: First, it has the worst through-the-air cell phone service. Second, it’s the cheapest cell-phone provider.
Walk into our new Indian Wells, California house with a T-Mobile phone, you won’t get any service. None. Niente. No bars.
But turn on T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi service, suddenly you get crystal clear calling — in and out. It’s magic.
No other cell phone provider has Wi-Fi calling. I don’t know why. But T-Mobile has it and it’s the real McCoy. A real reason to get T-Mobile in places where cellphone service is awful — like Verizon service at our Indian Wells home (which drops every call.)
My three favorite technologies:
+ Waze. Best GPS system out. Finds places and addresses. Alerts you to police. Sends you on alternate routes when yours is blocked.
+ Slingbox. Lets me watch TV captured on my Verizon FiOS PVR in New York, which Time Warner in California denies me.
+ Mophie battery. Doubles the battery life on my iPhone. Best iPhone case.
Own your own business:
+ You are boss. You are in control.
+ Your own business pays you double –a salary and when you sell the business. (You rarely get the double hit if you work for someone else.)
+ There’s no business you can’t improve, with intelligence, hard work and attention to your customers. I dropped by a Radio Shack store last night. Amazing: They actually had stuff I wanted to buy. And did! First time in years.
The shock value sure gets attention. The theory is that anything that existed before Mohammed didn’t exist. So destroy it.ISIS just destroyed a museum in Mosul containing irreplaceable art from the ancient Assyrian empire. From today’s New York Times.
ISIS Onslaught Engulfs Assyrian Christians as Militants Destroy Ancient Art.
ISTANBUL – The reports are like something out of a distant era of ancient conquests: entire villages emptied, with hundreds taken prisoner, others kept as slaves; the destruction of irreplaceable works of art; a tax on religious minorities, payable in gold.
Read the piece and watch the museum destruction video here.
Serious investment banking problem solved
One day the chairman of a New York investment bank called in the newest, most junior executive.
He entered the office to find the chairman and eight directors seated solemnly around a table.
Suddenly the chairman turned to the young man and asked: Have you ever slept with Miss Foyt, my secretary?
“No.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” persisted the chairman.
“Absolutely. I’ve never laid a finger on her.”
“You’d swear to that on a stack of bibles?”
“Yes, I swear I’ve never had a sexual relationship with your secretary.”
“Excellent. Then you fire her.”
Harry Newton has a friend called Pete Rawlings, who is making a handsome living selling puts — a strategy that works well in a rising or flat market, like what we have. Pete has a wonderful philosophy on financial advisors:
+ If my investment advisor told me to buy something and it went down, I’d be annoyed.
+ If I bought the the same stock and it went down, I can live with my own stupidity.
On Charter cable I get 66 down and 4.2 up. I have yet to check it and that is not the case. I check it three or four times a week. Locations is San Luis Obispo, Ca.
If you like the Mophie battery check out Hightpower International (HPJ) a Chinese battery maker that got the contract to supply batteries to Mophie.
We just got a phone from Republic Wireless that uses Wifi for calls.
Harry, Net Neutrality means the government will actively and I promise aggressively management the Internet, one step at a time. It’s a stupid decision that will quickly cut down Internet innovation and risk taking. The big companies love these steps: they have the means, experienced staff and money to manage the FCC, as they used to, and to some degree still do, in the telephone world. It means less competition, no more. And as one of my telephone idiots argues, to this day(!), all of this would have occurred without competition, just the telephone monopolies. And cows jump over the moon while pigs fly. Oh yea, the pigs of Washing ton do fly, first class, no less. Dump and stupid decision.