Weird day. Some of our holdings — like CHWY, AAXN, PTON, NET and PLUG had over 5% gains today.
Not dissimilar to other recent days. As usual, I have no idea why. Which is one reason I hold a broad portfolio (too broad according to most experts) and get rid of ones that I’m down over 12% to 15% on.
On balance, today was up strongly, buoyed also by AMZN and AAPL.
I wanted to buy LLY because it has a promising breakthrough drug for dementia/Alzheimer’s. I read all the materials. More than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s. There’s nothing for it — until now. But Eli Lilly drug is very early, And my experience with pharma and biotech has largely been miserable. (My fault, not theirs.)
Goldman Sachs put out some fantastical projections on Moderna (MRNA);
This is probably the fastest-growth projections I have ever seen for any company anywhere. I need to mull this one. I don’t own MRNA today. It’s fallen quite a bit from its high of a month ago.
Everyone’s getting into electric vehicles (trucks, cars, batteries and propulsion). Here’s an interesting chart, comparing PLUG, NIO and TSLA over the past year. PLUG has done the best, with TSLA second.
Bitcoin suffered its hit of slings and arrows today. The New York Times lead its business section today:
Lost Passwords Lock Millionaires Out of Their Bitcoin Fortunes
Bitcoin owners are getting rich because the cryptocurrency has soared. But what happens when you can’t tap that wealth because you forgot the password to your digital wallet?
Stefan Thomas, a German-born programmer living in San Francisco, has two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth, as of this week, about $220 million.
The password will let him unlock a small hard drive, known as an IronKey, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds 7,002 Bitcoin. While the price of Bitcoin dropped sharply on Monday, it is still up more than 50 percent from just a month ago, when it passed its previous all-time high of around $20,000.
The problem is that Mr. Thomas years ago lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his IronKey, which gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. He has since tried eight of his most commonly used password formulations — to no avail.
“I would just lay in bed and think about it,” Mr. Thomas said. “Then I would go to the computer with some new strategy, and it wouldn’t work, and I would be desperate again.”
You can read the full piece here.
Some Q and A
+ If Apple is so good, why is Harry still using a Windows machine?
Apple’s new M1 microprocessor chip is fast, but so is the chip Intel i7-10710U in my new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon.
Apple’s laptops and iPad have much better cameras than ThinkPad laptops. They’re much better for Zoom.
But — and this is the BIG but — Apple’s keyboards on their laptops and their iPad magic keyboard are just plain awful to type on. They don’t travel down far enough. They don’t provide enough “feel.” I do far more typing than I do video/graphics. If I was into making movies or producing games, I’d go with Apple.
+ If BAJit advertises so much, why do you not like them?
Because they’re impossible to deal with. You have to sign up for an expensive membership, etc. etc.
+ Do wireless mice really work?
Yes. But not all. The best one is the $31 Logitech M510. Click here.
Technology from the Consumer Electronics Show
I used to schlepp to Vegas for the gigantic CES show. Now it’s virtual and I get press releases of the most “exciting” products.
Here’s a $3,000 Smart Dog Door from myQ Pet Portal.It sports a custom collar sensor. When your dog wants to go out or come in, it opens like an elevator door.
One CES press release said over 70 Laptops With Nvidia RTX 3000 GPUs Expected This Year. Nvidia makes screaming fast graphics chips, called GPUs. The stock has done well. And I’m guessing will continue to do well, since everyone and their uncle is sitting at home playing games on their laptops and PCs, or getting a new laptop or PC to play games on. This is one year of NVDA.
Favorite photos
Australia has been tiffing with China
This one is too precious:
That’s it for today. — Harry Newton
