Emotion rattling. Up and down faster than a whore’s drawers. (Australian expression.) Here’s the S&P 500 over the last five days:
Here’s the Dow over the same five days.
Here’s NASDAQ over the five days:
Now, put them together and you can see that Dow stocks — typically “blue chips” — have been much less volatile. They have held their gains better.
Some of the Dow have done very well this year. Here’s the complete list. It’s worth glancing down the list. Big performers this year include 3M, Apple, Boeing, Home Depot and McDonalds. Their appreciation has been remarkable. Look at the last column:
I’m mulling on this. Should I lighten up my present heavy emphasis on tech stocks? A little more of the Dow? I already have Apple, Home Depot Microsoft and United Health.
One way to gamble on bitcoin. Or is it too late? Certainly looks that way. This a “max” chart:
Obsessing with product information
I spend my entire life reading product reviews on Amazon.
That’s not entirely true.
But my obsession with product information reflects the fact that I buy most things sight unseen. Hence, I have to rely on product writeups, user reviews and questions answered. All the stuff that Amazon is so good at …and its competitors (like Walmart, Best Buy, Jet.com) are so miserably bad at.
Among the most important (but also most neglected) areas of information is YouTube. I’m constantly blown away by how many companies willfully neglect putting their promotion videos onto YouTube.
Eagle Creek, the bag maker, is not one. Before you buy an Eagle Creek bag, check out the video. Here’s a sample of what they do:
For this video, click here.
If you’re in business, you MUST upload your promotion videos to YouTube.
YouTube is the Internet’s biggest promotion bargain. If you’re still not convinced, remember that YouTube is free!
Drone over China. I’m in love with drones and the videos they can produce.
This is somewhere in China. This video is totally gorgeous. Makes me want to drop everything and go there. Click here.
An argument in favor of taking early planes.
This is what happened with a late afternoon plane out of New Orleans last Sunday. A two-hour rolling delay. One email after another, piling up as we sat in the airport awaiting our plane back to New York.
Problems include: weather, crew shortage, cleaning plane, late arrival of inbound, network down, computer problems.
I could make a handsome living walking a sandwich board around any airport with a sign that said,
“Give me $1 and I’ll tell you why your plane is late.”
Pick any reason. No one knows the real reason — if there is one.
Early morning planes work better.
Your iPhone can mess up your air ticket.
My plane was scheduled to leave New Orleans at 5:44 PM.
When I looked at my iPhone, it changed the time to 4:44 PM.
Idiot phone, It adjusted for central time.
Yet the 5:44 PM was local central time.
Watch out. The iPhone sometimes tries to be too smart.
There’s no laptop power on JetBlue
But there is free WiFi, which eats up laptop batteries.
Hence I take several batteries.
I’m buying a new Lenovo X1 Carbon, which has a 15 hour battery life. That should be good enough for planes with no power outlets.
A pean to tennis.
Here are arguments for playing tennis:
+ You can play and enjoy at any level.
+ Tennis is a phenomenal stress reliever. As you focus on tennis, all your worries get left behind.
+ It keeps you limber, subtle and useful.
+ It allows you to socialize with friends you’ve made over a lifetime.
+ It’s not boring. Gyms are boring.
+ It’s “intellectual.” It uses your brains. You figure strategies to beat your opponent, who’s trying to do the same to you. Tennis is chess on steroids.
+ It’s not dangerous. You won’t get hit by a car. It’s not biking or running.
+ It’s fast. You won’t waste an entire day, like golf. Tennis is 90 minutes, tops.
+ Come off the court. You’ll feel energized for at least two days.
+ You’ll never stop learning. Try this. This is Federer’s magical forehand:
Federer keeps his eye on the ball better than any player I’ve ever watched. Look at how he hits the ball in the racket’s center sweet spot. Few people have his concentration. Not me.
Thanks to Steve Simkin, excellent and enthusiastic tennis player, for help on compiling the list. Steve and I are playing Friday morning.
Favorite pun
The old cowboy
An old cowboy goes into a barbershop in Red Deer, Alberta for a shave and a hair trim. He sits down in the chair and tells the barber he can’t get all his whiskers off, because his cheeks are so wrinkled with age.
The barber gets a little wooden ball from a cup on the shelf and tells the cowboy to put it inside his cheek to help spread out the skin.
When finished, the old cowboy tells the barber, “Man! That’s the cleanest shave I’ve had in years.. But tell me, what would have happened if I had accidentally swallowed that little ball??”
The barber replied, “Just bring it back in a couple of days like everyone else does..”
Harry Newton, who loves the iPhone’s photostream. It produces such nice photos. Here’s one of granddaughter Sophie, who will be three in August:
