Everything takes five times as long as it should – the first time.
Researching investment ideas takes even more time.
Then the conclusion often is NO.
When in doubt, stay out.
God makes a better opportunity tomorrow.
I was really excited by shorting Beyond Meat… Then I found out….
Keep reading.
How the world of technology has changed
What’s fascinating about this chart JPMorgan sent me is how many erstwhile gigantic and very successful companies shot themselves in the foot.
I’ve always believed that competition never hurt anyone: It’s your own stupidity (and lack of vision) that does you in.
Favorite quote from Wendys CEO:
+ On bacon: You put bacon on just about anything and folks love it. We sell a ton of bacon.
+ On mobile ordering. The check size is about 20% bigger. (Now yo know why all the restaurant companies are giving you apps to order your lattes online — No waiting!
I bought a handful of WEN just cause I’liked the quote so much. Two days later I’m up $295.10.
Whoopee. I’m bring home the bacon.
Beyond Meat is the most popular short today
That means that lots of people think it’s going to fall. This is its recent chart:
People think it’s going to fall because:
+ Beyond Meat’s share float will increase fourfold October 29th when lockup expires. Sort of a variation on Lock Her up.
+ Some people (like me) believe Beyond Meat may be overly optimistic in believing plant-based meat will capture the same 13% market percentage as plant-based milk. Frankly, I’m not impressed with the taste of Beyond Meat’s vegetable patties. They only taste good if you slather them with toppings. Then the toppings taste good and you don’t notice that that Beyond Meat’s patties taste like cardboard. Dry cardboard no less.
+ Nobody knows what the stock is worth since it’s losing money.
OK. Harry, join the throngs and short the stock. I tried with Fidelity. They don’t have any stock to lend me. Drat.
Nobody does. However, if they found some I would have to pay an annual interest rate of 121.75% — the highest my Fidelity rep has ever seen. BYND’s price is $124. To make money on this, you either do a very short term trade or…it would have to drop to $0 after one year to pay for all the interest. This gives idiocy a whole new meaning.
Now of course, you could buy a put option. Let’s say I wanted to buy one for November 29 — that’s 44 days from now — and let’s says I wanted a strike price of $120. That option would cost me $16. To break even on this brilliant trade, the stock of BYND would have to fall from its present $124 to $108 — and then I would only have broken even. I may as well throw my money down the toilet.
I didn’t do it. The analysis was fascinating. Somebody’s doing it.
Favorite recent things
+ Gig Internet service over fiber. Blazing speed opens up totally new vistas. It changes your life. Trust me on this. The first Internet service I had was 300 bits per second. This new one is more than three thousand times faster — 3,333.33 times faster. And it’s actually cheaper. Ain’t technology wonderful. My son Michael got his gig service from CenturyLink. I just upped my 100 meg to one gig from Consolidated for $20 extra month. That’s cheaper than two movies. With that much speed the entire family and all their friends can each watch their our own HD movies on their own devices anywhere in the house. This stuff blows me away.
+ The Bose Noise Cancelling Wireless Bluetooth Headphones 700, with Alexa Voice Control, Silver.
$399 and worth every penny. They’re Bluetooth and corded. Yo can use them also to listen to movies on a plane. They come with a cable for the plane which also works with your laptop. The noise cancellation is so good you can’t hear anything — even the sound of the car that’s about to kill you. Be careful walking with them. These things are so good they’re dangerous. Click here.
+ If you have a ThinkPad laptop, you need this portable power supply:
This thing will charge and power your ThinkPad laptop on a long trip. It’s most useful with the new ThinkPad laptops which don’t have a removable battery. Yo can probably get ten hours of extra laptop use out of this power supply. It will also charge up your iPhones and iPads. The thing is magic. Click here. or here.
Windows 7 versus Windows 10
You do NOT need to upgrade to Windows 10. For many of us, Windows 7 works fine and supports software which Win 10 doesn’t, e.g. Office 2003.
Paris is my favorite place to visit
10 Best Things to Do in Paris (And What Not to Do). Click here.
It was just one of those things.
Think hot (non-profitable) IPOs from yesteryear. Here’s Ol Blue Eyes singing the song.
The debates
I’ve been watching the debates, looking for someone who might have universal appeal to people’s pockets and can give Trump a run for his money.
We must remember the present economy is hot; everyone can find a job; most people are enjoying a few dollars extra in their paycheck from Trump’s tax cut. His supporters forgive him his shenanigans. I’m not pleased with Syria. I’m not pleased bullying Ukraine for dirt on the Bidens. And I’m not pleased with his hurtfulness at our southern border. But for most voters, it’s the economy, stupid. That was Bill Clinton’s slogan in 1992. It worked.
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying simple things — like tennis, reading and eyeing prize-winning animal pictures, e.g.
And this picture of a golden eagle landing on a tree branch in Norway:
For more, click here.
Last night I woke with a terrible cramp in my leg. I drank five glasses of water. As the air turns colder and they turn on the heating, it’s easy to become dehydrated. A friend once collapsed of being dehydrated. Please drink lots of water.
And be wary of the water:
— Harry Newton