Syrian fears are easing. Maybe we won’t do something stupid?
I think this is our 11th or 12th year in Afghanistan. We’re still there. And we haven’t accomplished anything. Not one thing. Sadly, we have wasted precious lives and precious treasure.
I spent much of yesterday talking about investment opportunities in today’s world. The BIG conclusion? “Allocation” the old way no longer works. It’s not just x% in equities and y% in bonds. You can get that “logic” from all the brokers. But it’s far too confining for today’s world.
There are a million other opportunities out there. No one investment bank or broker has them. You need to actively pursue opportunities — among real estate syndicators, among venture capitalists, among fellow investors, among angel investors, among your friends.
The biggest opportunity may actually be next door. My friend bought his own small office building 35 years ago. Over the years he bought the neighbors. Now he’s ripping everything down and building two 19 story apartment buildings. It’s a testimony to his brilliant, long-term thinking, vision and patience.
In short, you have to spend a lot more time seeking and due-diligencing opportunities, not just choosing them from a list your broker presents you.
Patience and perseverance are the keys.
Which Start-Up Could Be the Next Big Thing? From the New York Times:
When it comes to technology start-ups, there are a lot of paths to success.
Some successful start-ups sell for a billion dollars, as Tumblr did this year to Yahoo. When that happens, it’s a windfall for the founders of the start-ups as well as for the investors and some employees.
Other new companies are considered successful if they attract millions of users and venture money before going public, as Facebook did and Twitter is doing. And still others are considered hot because their products attract demographic groups that advertisers want to reach or because they have come up with some new idea or technology that seems to change the way we live.
About a year ago, right after Instagram was snapped up by Facebook, a few other start-ups seemed poised for some degree of success. Some of them, like Pinterest, Square and Uber, are still thriving, with plenty of users and cash from investors. Others, like Path or Airtime, have lost steam, and users’ attention, and may be on their way to the tech boneyard.
This year, there’s a new class of interesting start-ups to watch. Some are attracting record numbers of new users and significant amounts of venture capital, or appealing to a new and interesting demographic. Some are simply working on a new idea that seems to be taking off. In the unpredictable world of tech start-ups, any of them could fizzle and be forgotten by the end of the year. But they could also be the next big thing.
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Oculus VR
Wanelo
Lyft
MYO
Braintree
King
I highlight this piece because our children should read it. For the full article, click here.
If you travel, you need Global Entry. It’s a government program that really does work and offers a double whammy of benefits:
1. Coming back to the U.S. Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. You come in with a machine, not standing in a two-hour line
2. Leaving on a plane to go local or international. You also get a Known Traveler Number, which gets you faster through TSA security lines. You don’t have to remove your belt or your shoes, etc.
You apply online. When you’re approved, you go in for an “interview,” which is really a lesson on how to use the Global Entry machines at the airport. It costs $100 but apparently American Express Platinum will pay for it, if you have the card.
I did my interview, got my approval and my Known Traveler number yesterday. It was trivial. They were so polite. Now I just got to figure out where I want to go? Not Cairo. Not Damascus. Not Tripoli. Not Tehran. Maybe Sydney, Australia? Except it’s now winter there.
Apply for the program at www.GlobalEntry.gov
Clinton’s secret? A friend complemented Bill Clinton on how well he looked and asked “What’s your secret?”
Clinton responded: I became a vegetarian.
You believe this nonsense?
In a statement yesterday, NASDAQ blamed part of its three-hour-long failure earlier this month on “endemic” and “industry-wide” technology issues, pointing to a capacity flaw with the Securities Information Processor. “The SIP’s governing committee plans for capacity based on the needs of its member exchanges…The tests are conducted in a controlled environment – performance in real-life scenarios will typically be lower,” the group said.
They never heard of backups?
Some more favorite New Yorker cartoons:
Harry Newton who has great personal news: The cataract-fixed eye now works perfectly. I can see. The left shoulder rotator cuff which went out last Thursday is now 90% repaired — by dent of iceing it. I’m playing tennis today — for the first time in nearly two weeks. Yippee! The first big lesson is patience, not panic. The second lesson is study, not panic. There’s a lot of good medical information on the Internet. One of my favorite places is actually Wikipedia.
It’s fig, corn and tomato season. The crop is great. Small but wonderful pleasures.
The US Tennis Open continues this long weekend on CBS. ESPN2 and The Tennis Channel.
Hug the kids, kiss the wife. Here are a couple of “nice” presents. I found them in shop windows on 47th Street, New York’s diamond center, while walking back from my Global Entry interview.
This weekend’s Economist:
Pray that no one listens to the Economist. We have absolutely nothing to gain by being there.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Attempting to quell criticism of his proposal for a limited military mission in Syria, President Obama floated a more modest strategy today, saying that any U.S. action in Syria would have “no objective whatsoever.”
“Let me be clear,” he said in an interview on CNN. “Our goal will not be to effect régime change, or alter the balance of power in Syria, or bring the civil war there to an end. We will simply do something random there for one or two days and then leave.”
“I want to reassure our allies and the people of Syria that what we are about to undertake, if we undertake it at all, will have no purpose or goal,” he said. “This is consistent with U.S. foreign policy of the past.”
While Mr. Obama clearly hoped that his proposal of a brief and pointless intervention in Syria would reassure the international community, it immediately drew howls of protest from U.S. allies, who argued that two days was too open-ended a timeframe for such a mission.
That criticism led White House spokesman Jay Carney to brief reporters later in the day, arguing that the President was willing to scale down the U.S. mission to “twenty-four hours, thirty-six tops.”
“It may take twenty-four hours, but it could also take twelve,” Mr. Carney said.
“Maybe we get in there, take a look around, and get out right away. But however long it takes, one thing will not change: this mission will have no point. The President is resolute about that.”
Nice one. Thanks!
The newly expressed OBAMA DOCTRINE can be succinctly stated as: “Duh?”
Snapchat and Wanelo are very popular with teenagers. Snapchat is used by that group more than Facecook and is edging up on text messages in volume.
The concept is neat: you “snap” a picture and add caption, if you wish, then send it to one or a group of people. Once the recipients view it, the message “deletes” itself after a short time (not sure but I think it is something like 90 seconds.) Some argue that the messages are not really deleted because they are stored on the company’s servers as well as the possibility that someone can take a screenshot of the image you send thus your image is still “out there” but that does not seem to slow down the users. They reportedly have more than 200 million “snaps” exchanged per day. Compare that to Facebook’s 350 million photo uploads per day. Not bad for a start-up that is just two years old.
I gather it would have been handy for a certain mayoral candidate before he resigned from congress.
The sender controls how long Snapchat photos are available. There is no pre-set time limit. It could be 90 seconds, it could be three seconds. And no, this is not the start up I was referring to in my earlier post. I think Snapchat is a passing fad, a gimmick, and will fade away as fast as Denver’s status as a major U.S. city did.
Oh Cliffy, Cliffy….always looking to antagonize. First of all, I was simply commenting on Harry’s list of start-ups and certainly NOT responding to your comment.
Second, it is impressive that Snapchat has reached the volume of transmitted images within two years: 200Milion within two years of start-up. I am willing to bet that you have NEVER created anything of value that has facilitated the transmission of that volume of ANYTHING…..well, unless one counts the volume of the booger that flows out of your numb skull and through your nose, perhaps in micrograms?
Third, whatever gave you the idea that Denver was ever a major city? Obviously, you are not only an old and decrepit bitter man but also delusional.
Last but certainly not least, I completely understand why you think Snapchat is a passing fad and a gimmick. You obviously have no use for it. After all, Anthony Weiner had a wiener to take a picture of and send….even the best macro lenses available on the market today can’t capture yours.
Have a wonderful weekend!
You don’t seem very smart, Mile High. But I shall take the high road as always. Except to say that I’m 47 (not so old) and that I read Harry’s site because I found him via a Google search for those who invest in start ups. Do you know who invests in start ups? Extremely wealthy individuals and pension plans. I am not a pension plan. Get the picture?
With a number of professional sports franchises and having hosted several major party political conventions, Denver is most certainly a major city.
Finally, only an old idiot or small child uses the word “booger.” I’m trying to figure out which you are.
You see, Cliff? There you go again with your head buried deep in your rear end and talking out of both ends. A friendly reminder: that brown stuff all over your face is NOT chocolate, so make sure you don’t taste it!
First you say, “…Snapchat is a passing fad, a gimmick, and will fade away as fast as Denver’s status as a major U.S. city did.” Then you come back with an explanation followed by a convincing, “…Denver is most certainly a major city.” So which one of these statements YOU made do you really believe to be true? You see why I believe you are a troll? Most of your comments on here are meant to screw with people and not necessarily to argue a point or contribute to the exchange of ideas on investing.
As for how you found Harry and this site….we all have our stories I found him when I first attended one of his CTI conferences many years ago when he owned his company and was THE voice and pioneer of that sector when I was expanding my VAR business into that field. This was back in the days when Dialogic was the rising star and the early days of integrating computers and communication/telephony.
I was lucky enough to cash out of my business to a national “roll-up” thanks to my ability to listen to and act on Harry’s industry trend predictions. Harry and his partner subsequently cashed out of theirs for a nine-figure sum. With that said, have you EVER heard Harry claiming to be wealthy? When you announce that you are “very wealthy” on here like you just did, it confirms that you are either NOT wealthy or you are insecure about your wealth status. Robert Redford doesn’t have to go around and announce that he is good looking to women does he? Get a clue, Cliffy!
I believe I have found the next big tech star up. Yes, it is on your list. After vetting it, and having a broker vet it I/we believe it has the capacity to surpass Facebook and Twitter combined in net operating revenue. I now need to have a second expert, a social media guy, vet it, then I’ll be even more confident.