In Search of the Perfect Investment

To oneself be true.

Bitcoin keeps going up. 646,27% in the last year.

Why? Another tulip bulb craze?

With tulip bulbs you could grow valuable tulips. Tulip bulbs were a tulip “factory.”

But bitcoin?  There’s no “factory” value – no earnings, no cash flow, no brands, no iPhones, no designer clothes. No nothing. Just a way for people to gamble and for crooks to transfer money anonymously.

I personally feel semi-stupid — as I always do when I eye huge appreciations I missed.

But I did my “analysis” and figured bitcoin made no sense.

Yet it keeps going up.

I can’t figure it.

What should I do?

Buy a little bitcoin?

Eat my frustration and concentrate on stuff I actually know something about?

Years of investing suggests To Oneself Be True.

Which means don’t touch anything until you understand its dynamics — and mostly importantly understand its gotchas.

Gotchas are events that come out of the blue and hurt your investment.

They’re events that you can’t find with due diligence. Even asking the question: “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”

They’re events that years in the industry only alert you to.

Credit Suisse raises Google and Amazon

+ Amazon is uppped from $1,000 to $1,350 with an Outperform rating.

+ Google is up to $1,350 with an Outperform rating.

 There. That will give excitement a whole new meaning.

Good ideas

+ Don’t leave batteries in flashlights, or watches, or whatever. Over time the batteries will corrode and wreck your gadget.

+ Recharge your car’s AC unit at least once a year. Freon deteriorates, even in your car’s closed system.

+ Don’t throw your boarding pass away. Its barcode has a lot of personal information on you — information valuable to crooks.

+ Ctrl + makes many things bigger in Windows. Useful for tired eyes.

+ Rightee Tightee, Leftee Loosie just worked when I replaced my car’s busted front light bulb.

+ Don’t put your emergency supplies in the basement where they can be flooded.

+ Going down stairs, always hold the railing. Hold it all the way down. The last stair is the most dangerous.

+ + EyeBuyDirect has the best glasses, the cheapest glasses and the best service. I cannot recommend them more highly. Here.

Don’t even think about visiting Turkey — Part 2

Turkey just sentenced a Wall Street Journal reporter to jail because it didn’t like her story.

+ Read the Journal’s story on her sentencing here. 

+ Read the story that got the reporter into hot water here. 

If you visit Turkey, you are in serious danger of being arrested on made-up charges of assisting last year’s failed coup. You now become a pawn which Turkey needs to seek the extradition of Fethullah Gülen, 76, now living in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

A wise man once said, Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Gülen is Turkey’s effective absolute boss. It’s sad. The country and its people are wonderful.

Facebook stock is doing well.

This year, so far:

I don’t spend time on Facebook. Maybe I should? I love this:

60Minutes did an engrossing piece on how the Trump Campaign so successfully used Facebook and Twitter to target voters with pitches tailored to their beliefs. It was brilliant. Click here.

Harry Newton, who believes that, one day, a smoke detector will save his life. Meantime, there’s one that’s driving him nuts with constant beeping. Time to get out and play tennis.

Some of you are too young to remember where my today’s heading comes from. It’s from the first film I ever saw. I was five.

To listen to the wonderful song, click here.  Yes, you can actually understand the lyrics.