Alan Young

Three Myths About Business in China

Thank you! After months of frustration with seemingly contradictory statistics, your explanation is a huge relief. While Chinese companies will still run into headwinds, as all businesses do at times, at least I have a clearer idea of what the context is now.

Apple: Not All Smooth Sailing Ahead

The author's thesis is very simple and clearly expressed: the stock is volatile, so you can't assume it will always go up just because the company is good. No one can really argue with this. Apple lovers, don't get distracted by the headline.

I also agree that *most of the time* a diligent stock-picker can find more value in smaller companies. But this might be an exceptional time. Today, the large-cap NASDAQ-100 index was flat, while other large-cap indices fell, and the small cap Russell 2000 fell twice as much. This is an indication that big money is moving out of small caps, into large tech stocks. The next quarter (or longer) could be particularly rough sailing for the small-cap value investor.

Apple's Hoard

Don't get too excited—dollars are not worth as much these days as they used to be.

The Mac vs. PC Debate Was Never Clearer

My take on the article is that it has missed the real meaning of the Mac/PC divide, because all it talks about is hardware.
Hardware is not the point. The operating system is the point.

If someone offered a cheap computer that could run the Mac OS, I would buy it tomorrow. I don't need expensive hardware; but I insist on a seamless OS. And I bet that of those 91% of "high end" Mac customers, at least 80% are there for the OS, not the superior hardware.

So the Porsche/Camry analogy is misleading. More like spending $100 on a ticket to the Metropolitan Opera instead of $10 on your local community theatre. It's not for the upholstery, it's for the performance.

Do Mac and Windows Users Read Blogs Differently?

what amazes me is that 1/3 of your readers are Mac-based. Yet I still am told that Apple has an insignificant market share, which is (ostensibly) why so much financial software is designed only for windows. I'm in Dragon's camp, except I haven't sprung for the windows software.

When Anonymous Sources Disappear Entirely

Do you mean, "... give more deference..."?

On Jun 22 05:21 AM Moon Kil Woong wrote:

> I certainly think
> that we should give more difference to real journalism trying to
> uncover and expose what's going on rather than less.

Smartphones: The Mobile Industry Is About to Get 'Blown Apart'

The best part of the article is the caption on the first chart--because that's the only place "ease of use" is mentioned.

When I'm at home, I have a computer (iMac) and a landline. When I'm mobile, I need a mobile phone, but no handheld device is going to meet my minimal requirements for a useful computer. I look for the phone with the FEWEST features so I get reliability and don't have to dig through multiple nested menus to do some basic phone thing when I'm in a hurry.

I wonder if the author is out of college, or even knows anyone over 40? Not everyone is manic about having a constant stream of bells, whistles and tweets to deal with.

Apple Could Benefit from Selling Macs at Wal-Mart

Apple and WalMart makes no sense as a combination for anything. Apple stores are customer-service-intense; WalMart is minimalist.
Corporate culture? Target demographics? No fit anywhere.

Disclosure: glued to my iMac during market hours and beyond--waiting for a good portable net-book type Mac so I can travel and still trade.

Where's the Tech?

I hate chasing, too. And I have just enough of a Buffett mentality to shy away from stuff I don't understand. But mostly, how can you research the relative competitive advantage over 1000 companies in the sector, when the products change practically every day? Or so it seems.
I'm happy to take a swing trade with AAPL, GOOG, or IBM when the chart is looking healthy, but I have no conviction for holding a position.

Two Appealing Buys

Two great companies, and I love their products. That does not necessarily translate into successful investment. both have P/Es about 50-80% too high for the kind of market we are in. There's plenty of downside left. I have limit orders for GOOG waiting at about 20% below the current price.