Harry Newton's In Search of The Perfect Investment
Newton's In Search Of The Perfect Investment. Technology Investor.
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8:30 AM Wednesday, January 25, 2006: The
tennis from Australia gets better each day. Then I go play. And I get better.
Or so it seems. While not paying attention, I missed a new IPO:
The tennis schedule is below.
Big
Brother is watching what you search for. The government has asked
Google, Yahoo, MSN and America Online to turn over records of millions of its
users' search queries. Yahoo, MSN and America Online have turned over the records.
Google is resisting. The government says its requests are part of its efforts
to uphold an online pornography law. The government and the cooperating companies
say the search queries cannot be traced to their source, and therefore no personal
information about users is being given up, according to today's New York Times.
But I believe that the government can trace searches back to the searching
computer and then to the person who may have made them. In short, it's
a a good idea to be circumspect in what you search for. For more, there's a
piece in today's New York Times. Click
here.
The
IPO season heats up, but your broker doesn't. To
get shares in an IPO, your broker needs to have a piece of paper on file with
your signature. His compliance officer needs to check it. That can take days
-- more than enough time for you to miss out on a hot IPO. If you haven't filled
out the paper, do it today. I missed out on American Railcar because one of
my brokers gave laziness a whole new meaning.
Selling.
We all need to learn it. The failed broker emailed me, "Harry.
I feel as if there never was a bridge. You have been on the opposite side of
a wide canyon from me for quite a while. I don't know if you've ever seen value
in my recommendations or if you only enjoy toying with me."
It's hard to take rejection. His partner had thoroughly annoyed me by aggressively
peddling an investment I neither understood nor wanted. He finally got angry
and hung the phone up on me.
I emailed my failed salesman, "Your partner is a terrible
salesman. He persisted and persisted until he got his prospect (i.e. me) angry.
WRONG! Then he hung up on me. WRONG! He has now burnt me as a bridge
Why? No reason. Better for him to say. I feel youre busy. Ill
call back another time. Meantime, Ill summarize the deal in an email.
Sorry to disturb you first thing on a Monday morning when youre busy.
I guess they don't
teach selling like they should. Sad, for the young brokers under so much pressure.
Cramer's
advice: Don't read the financial sections. They make you feel like
an idiot. They're all about what happened. All about the deals you missed. Interesting
angle. I suspect he's right.
An
argument I don't want to join: I recommended Munich, the movie,
because I thought it was a good movie. One reader, who knew the murdered athletes,
is badgering me to warn my readers that Munich was worse than he had
feared. He writes, "It left me appalled and enraged. I felt violated.
The film debased the memory of my friends. It exploited a horrifying atrocity.
It slandered the brave Israeli volunteers who were ready to sacrifice their
lives to seek justice and to risk orphaning their children in this dangerous
but necessary assignment. Terrorists had to learn they could not murder Israelis
abroad with impunity and that the perpetrators of this atrocity would not live
to plot another one. ... But this film is not about reality or about presenting
a truthful account of the aftermath of Munich. It is about Steven Spielberg
-- his spin on history, his ego, and his arrogance in thinking that he has special
wisdom and insights about how to bring peace." In short, see the movie.
Make up your own mind.
Today's sartorial tip: Save ironing. Wear
mock turtlenecks. They cost less than $20 at Lands'End. My wife and daughter
were impressed by my new sartorial elegance. Click
here.
This is not me. He still has brown hair.
What
Florida is all about ...
Phyllis and Mort, a retired couple from New York City, living in
Boca Raton, are getting ready to go out to dinner. Phyllis says, "Mort,
darling, do you want me to wear this Chanel suit or the Gucci?"
Mort says, "Do
I care?"
A few minutes
later Phyllis says, "Mort, should I wear my Cartier watch or my Rolex ?"
Mort says, "Who
cares ?"
A few more minutes
pass and Phyllis says, "Mort, love, shall I wear my five-carat pear diamond
ring or my six-carat round diamond ring with the baguettes?"
Mort says, "Phyllis,
I really don't care what you wear, but if you don't move your ass, we're going
to miss the Early Bird Special."
The
Australian Tennis Open TV Schedule
|
January
25 |
2:00pm-6:00pm
|
Mens Qtrs/Women's
Semis
|
ESPN2
|
January
25 |
9:30pm-12:30am
|
Mens Qtrs/Women's
Semis
|
ESPN2
|
January
26 |
3:30am-6:00am
|
Men's Semifinals
|
ESPN2
|
January
26 |
3:00pm-5:30pm
|
Men's Semifinals
|
ESPN2
|
January
26 |
11:30pm-12:30pm
|
Men's Semifinals
|
ESPN2
|
January
27 |
12:30pm-1:00am
|
Men's Semis/Women's
Finals
|
ESPN2
|
January
27 |
3:30am-6:00am
|
Men's Semis/Women's
Finals
|
ESPN2
|
January
27 |
3:00pm-5:20pm
|
Men's Semis/Women's
Finals
|
ESPN2
|
January
27 |
9:30pm-11:30pm
|
Men's Semis/Women's
Sinals
|
ESPN2
|
January
29 |
3:30am-6:30am
|
Men's Finals
|
ESPN2
|
January
29 |
12:00pm-3:00pm
|
Men's Finals
|
ESPN2
|
Recent column highlights:
+ Munich, the movie. A must-see. Click
here.
+ Identity Theft precautions. Click
here.
+ Dumb reasons we hold losing stocks. Click
here.
+ How my private equity fund is doing. Click
here.
+ Blackstone private equity funds. Click
here.
+ Manhattan Pharmaceuticals: Click
here.
+ NovaDel Biosciences appeals. Click
here.
+ Hana Biosciences appeals. Click
here.
+ All turned on by biotech. Click
here.
+ Steve Jobs Commencement Address. The text is available:
Click here. The full audio is available. Click
here.
+ The March of the Penguins, an exquisite movie. Click
here.
+ When to sell stocks. Click
here.

Harry Newton
This column is about my personal search for the perfect
investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered
with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor.
I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three
reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column
is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect
Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas,
concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address
is . You can't
click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software
scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing
the Google ads. Thus I cannot endorse any, though some look mighty interesting.
If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting
you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Claire's law school tuition.
Read more about Google AdSense, click
here and here.
Go back.
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