{"id":2637,"date":"2010-06-15T09:04:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T13:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=2637"},"modified":"2010-06-15T09:13:12","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T13:13:12","slug":"huge-opportunities-but-huge-patience-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=2637","title":{"rendered":"Huge opportunities, but huge patience required"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2005-2007 the world was a glowing place. Investors had come off a couple of years of extraordinary gains. Whatever they had touched turned to gold. the world was bursting with opportunities. It was a once in a life time opportunity to get rich beyond their wildest imaginations. Hence many otherwise sane people dumped their caution and went at it, borrowing to the hilt. <\/span><\/p>\n

By 2008, things started to fall apart. By 2009, it had all fallen apart. To repay the loans, to meet their commitments, they sold their best investments. Some sold their houses, cut their lifestyle, putting their kids (God forbid) into public schools. Some actually went bankrupt.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest problem was their illiquid investments — stuff like commitments to private equity funds, or real estate for which there was no market. <\/span><\/p>\n

Slowly, ever so slowly, this stuff is percolating into today’s market. By now, the stuff should be an absolute bargain. But most of it is not — chiefly as a result of what I called The Egypt Syndrome. <\/em><\/strong>Which comes from Denial. Denial. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Vast amounts of\u00a0 free money are still floating around,\u00a0 creating the impression among many sellers that happy days are here again. For those of us actively looking for bargains, this is supremely annoying.<\/span><\/p>\n

What’s the solution? <\/span><\/p>\n

Patience. Patience. Patience.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Bargains are<\/strong> around. I promise you. I’ve seen them. I’ve seen real estate at half the price it was three years ago. I’ve seen businesses selling cheaply because the owners need money to pay off debts. I’ve seen real cash flow that owners want to “monetize.”
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

These are private deals. I don’t see them on the stockmarket — a major reason I like high-yielders and covered calls.<\/span><\/p>\n

To latch onto private deals, you have to be in the right place at the right. Kiss a lot of frogs. <\/span><\/p>\n

Princes are rare. One friend said NO to real estate deals for three long years before he finally said YES to a totally stupendous deal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you have the discipline to pursue opportunities, but to say NO, NO and more NOs? <\/span><\/p>\n

Can you manage the process of saying NO without annoying the people showing you the deals? Can you manage your own psyche? <\/span><\/p>\n

Saying NO does not add to your accomplishments.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s hard to be in cash (not having your money “at work”) and saying NO constantly.<\/span><\/p>\n

But you have to. <\/span><\/p>\n

Play some tennis. Or even some golf. Go for a long walk.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Pray that this law passes.<\/strong><\/span> Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman,<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

has been the most dogged advocate of a provision that would effectively bar federally insured banks from trading for their own accounts — the so called Volcker Rule.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, banks should not gamble with their depositors’ money. They should be doing banking business — lending money to growing businesses.<\/p>\n

WiFi on the go. <\/strong>It’s getting uibiquitous. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

+ McDonald’s added free WiFi to 11,500 locations earlier this year. I like their grilled chicken sandwich.<\/p>\n

+ Starbucks will add free WiFi to many of its stores on July 1. I don’t like their coffee or their food, but I do like looking at the 25-year old out-of-work actresses and models working on their laptops sipping their $6 coffee.<\/p>\n

Progress in politics? <\/strong><\/span> From today’s New York Times, “Nikki Haley, who could be the first governor of south Carolina who is not a white man.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nShe’s cute, too.<\/p>\n

Weekend reading<\/strong><\/span>
\nA husband had just finished reading a new book entitled, “You Can Be THE Man of Your House.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n

He stormed to his wife in the kitchen and announced, “From now on you need to know that I am the man of this house and my word is Law. You will prepare me a gourmet meal tonight, and when I’m done eating my meal. You will serve me a scrumptious dessert. After dinner, you are going to go upstairs with me and we will have the kind of sex that I want.<\/p>\n

“Afterwards, you are going to draw me a bath so I can relax. You will wash my back and towel me dry and bring me my robe. Then, you will massage my feet and hands. Then tomorrow, guess who’s going to dress me and comb my hair?”<\/p>\n

The wife replied, “Our local funeral director would be my best guess.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/div>\n

Harry Newton,who played wonderfully yesterday and spent time eying one interesting deal. But a bargain, it’s not.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2005-2007 the world was a glowing place. Investors had come off a couple of years of extraordinary gains. Whatever they had touched turned to gold. the world was bursting with opportunities. It was a once in a life time opportunity to get rich beyond their wildest imaginations. Hence many otherwise sane people dumped their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}