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 Thursday, January 26 2006: "You
have to learn to be patient," Glenn Hutchins, Silver Lake Partners,
told CNBC this morning. "All I have to do to is to find one big deal
a year." This philosophy of infinite patience has been hard for me
to learn. My background is a publishing -- daily, weekly, monthly deadlines.
I revel in deadlines. Patience is to be dead. I'm learning.
Buying
what you admire: This investment philosophy is simple. You keep your
eyes open and always ask yourself questions: "Am I impressed with this
company? Am I getting good service? Is this company doing something unique?
Am I recommending its products and services to my friends? Is the stock still
small enough to grow?" You won't instantly fill a portfolio. But if
you ask these questions every day, you will eventually fill a
portfolio with very neat stocks. It's how I found Whole Foods (WFMI)
and how I recently found VistaPrint (VPRT). Companies I'm a happy customer
of usually do better than those I don't I do business with. Peter Lynch discovered
the same thing.
How to relate to the stocks I write about:
I mentioned GigaMedia (GIGM) here. A reader bought it and called yesterday
to say "Thank you."

That's the key
to reading this column, to listening to Cramer, to listening to your friends.
Grab the ideas. Do a little fast due diligence. Look at financials. The Journal
has a quick hit. Look at the "buzz" on bulletin boards. Raging Bull
(click
here) can be useful. I like setting a Google Alert on a company.
The more emailed Google Alerts I get, the hotter the stock.
Not
sure I understand GM: The
company will lose $5 billion in 2005. Its share of the US market is down to
26%, the lowest in 80 years. GM's debt rating has been cut, again. It's now
junk. The company hasn't done a single logical thing Kerkorian wants -- cutting
dividend, cutting exec salaries, etc. Yet -- on the basis of recently cutting
its car prices (again) its stock has climbed. This makes zero sense. GM is now
an even better short. This thing belongs around $15.

Why
I live in New York:

Katsia Damenkova of Belarus, center, winner of last week's 2005 Ford Supermodel
of the World contest, poses with 3rd place winner Charo Ronquillo of
the Philippines, left, and 2nd place winner Bojana Reijic of Canada. The festivities
were held at Skylight Studios in New York's Tribeca, where guests were greeted
by the sight of oversized black-and-white photos of each of the 39 contestants,
who hail from 39 different countries - from Albania to Kazakhstan to Slovenia
to the Ukraine.
First prize was
a $250,000 one-year modeling contract. Second prize was $150,000. Third was
$100,000. There were three $50,000 runner up awards (for Annika Vohta from Estonia,
Rosanne Doosje from the Netherlands and Chanel Iman from the US).
"I'm really
excited!" one winner said. "My shoes didn't fit so it was really
hard for me to walk."
The big winner,
Katsia Damenkova is 17. She could be your granddaughter. That you should be
so lucky.
All
I ever learned about Windows PCs: Macs works
better and easier than Windows PCs. If you want relative headache-free computing,
get a Mac. End of story.
If you're stuck with a PC then you'd better learn how to take care of it. Keys:
1. Install only what you need. Don't install "cool" software. Windows
machines eventually grind to a halt under the weight of superfluous software.
2. Remove all superfluous software that came with your machine. All makers --
Dell, Toshiba, IBM -- add software you don't need.
3. Stop most software that loads on startup. Do this through msconfig.exe.
You don't want Messenger starting if you never use it.
4. Delete all entries in the Windows/prefetch directory. You don't need them.
Windows will eventually put them all back. Then you'll delete them again.
5. Remove all entries in Windows/temp.
6. Get Windows to error check your hard drive. Open my computer. Right click
on your C: drive. Left click on properties. Go to the tab tools. Left click
on error checking. When that finishes...
7. Go to the same place and defragment your hard drive. Here's what mine looked
like yesterday -- before and after. It runs faster now.
8. Back all the work up on your on hard drive to another
drive that only has files -- no software.
9. Clone your present drive. So, when it fails (which it will) you can
simply swap in the new one and keep on working.
10. Throw out your present c: hard drive every six months -- whether it's still
working or not.
5
Best Customer Service Tips My friend Steve Coscia has been teaching
the obvious for 20 years. Sadly, most people get it wrong. Here's his best five
customer service tips:
1) Convey common
courtesy in every interaction its free. The smile doesnt
cost a penny and if you include the words, please and thank
you you will differentiate yourself from most other service professionals.
If you go a step further and say may I instead of can I
then you will be perceived as world class.
2) Share just
enough information with customers, but do not editorialize. A phrase such as:
We are getting lots of complaints this month is too much information.
This does not help your companys image.
3) When a customer
complains, fix the problem, not the customers behavior. Practicing restraint
helps to contain problems, but succumbing to retaliation only exacerbates things.
Be empathetic, use active listening techniques and write down the details.
4) When leaving
voice mail messages for customers, introduce yourself, slow down your pace of
speech by 25% and say your phone number twice. Customers will appreciate
your extra effort and you will stand out as a service star.
5) Over the phone,
clarify similar sounding consonants such as S & F and N
& M because they sound identical when transmitted over the telephone.
Doing this will help avert silly errors and miscommunication.
Old
people joke -1
Morris, an 82 year-old man, went to the doctor to get a physical.
A few days later the doctor saw Morris walking down the street with a gorgeous
young woman on his arm.
A couple of days later the doctor spoke to Morris and said, "You're really
doing great, aren't you?"
Morris replied, "Just doing what you said, Doc. 'Get a hot mamma and be
cheerful.'"
The doctor said, "I didn't say that. I said, 'You've got a heart murmur.
Be careful.'"
Old
people joke -2
A little old man shuffled slowly into an ice cream parlor and pulled
himself slowly, painfully, up onto a stool. After catching his breath,
he ordered a banana split.
The waitress asked kindly, "Crushed nuts?"
"No," he replied, "arthritis."
The Australian Tennis Open
The
tennis from Australia gets better each day. Last night's matches
were totally incredible. This 16-hour time difference between us and Australia
is killing my sleep.
The
Australian Tennis Open TV Schedule
|
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
|
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Click here. The full audio is available. Click
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+ The March of the Penguins, an exquisite movie. Click
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+ When to sell stocks. Click
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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.
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