You search. You find dead ends. You search. It leads to more search. Samsung reported a 79% increase in fourth quarter operating profit. That seems impressive. But I don’t know what it exactly means. Samsung is listed on the London Stock Exchange. And I can probably buy its stock there. But do I want to do? Ditto for Kia and Hyundai. Too much work? But I do like their products. all my TVs and monitors are Samsung. And my next TV will be their LED 8000 series.
How to find opportunities. Saying NO is a key part of anyone’s investment strategy. But saying No is hard when your range of investment options is limited. Hence it’s important to expand those options. I have four techniques:
1. The Tarzan Theory. You swing from one vine to the next one. This works for finding a new job or a new investment. You know the food industry. You figure what’s hot in your area and you check that out. The Peter Lynch theory.
2. What’s happening in your neighborhood. Friends have made fortunes buying cheap real estate in their town and turning it around. Real estate is good because you’re not competing against the 5 million people who read about the company’s prospects on the Wall Street Journal’s web site.
3. People. Talk to them. Ask questions. Lots of questions. Amazing how much information you can get if you simply ask.
4. Reading, shopping and keeping your eyes open. What’s happening around you that seems to be taking off?
Nike’s new marketing MOJO. Nice article on Nike in the latest Fortune.Click here.
Favorite Nike tennis sneaker:
Goes by the stupid name of the Nike Zoom Breathe 2K11. My tennis friends call it the Del Potro shoe. He’s allegedly wearing it. I’ve been wearing the shoes for several days. I love it.
We got nothing new at Apple’s annual meeting yesterday. No dividend. No new products. No nothing. For the full (lack of) story, click here.
Matt Taibbi on the Arizona Republican debate. He was not impressed. Click here.
Why women are different to men. Funny Australian lady standup. Click here.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned about women? From an interview with Dustin Hoffman in the latest issue of Maxim magazine:
I stand by what a friend of mine once said: “There’s only one way for a successful relationship to exist — at a fundamental level, the man has to be scared shitless of her or it ain’t gonna work.”
Who had more groupies during the making of Rain Man, you or Tom Cruise?
It was always Tom. Nowadays I still have the same number of fans that’ll scream my name on a movie set. It’s just that now they’re all over 75.
Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons:
Harry Newton who bought a little more AGNC and little more Apple, But nothing else. My RadioShack short is doing fine. My Dell and RIMM shorts are losing a few pennies. I’m tempted to short Hewlett-Packard. Under pressure from Wall Street, the two CEOs previous to Meg Whitman severely cut into HP’s R&D. It’s hard to see her being able to convince corporate customers not to jump ship (as they’ve been doing)– especially when the alternative is IBM, a much better managed, more credible operation.
whatever you think about HP, their B&W Laserjets rock! speedy, reliable, easy setup. I sing their praises over any other brand, and so do a few other small business people I know.