Road Runner

Cramer's Stop Trading! What the Dell (11/20/09)

Jon T, I agree. I just upgraded my laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7, hoping it would improve my user experience. It didn't. I don't understand what Microsoft is doing with Windows. I liked the look and feel of Windows XP, but I hate Vista and 7.

I'm now thinking of looking into an Apple - a thought that didn't even cross my mind before.

Also, I noticed something in the last 6 months. Many of the "cool people" are getting Apples. You may know these people as the "see and be seen" crowd. Just look around any Starbucks for the people with expensive cloths, expensive purses, expensive sunglasses, perfect haircuts, and nice tans. Apple laptops seem to have become a status symbol like driving a German car or giant SUV. And, where the hip crowd goes, many of us (the wannabes) are soon to follow.

If you don’t live around upper middle class “keeping up with the Jones” types like me, you may not notice this.

Also, young people are begging their parents to buy them Apple laptops. It’s now “all Apple, all the time” with their electronic stuff. Now, that laptop prices have plummeted, paying a couple hundred extra dollars for an Apple is worth it to get something “cool” and “hip”.

All of this is a bad sign for Microsoft, Windows, and the PC industry. Apple is reaching "critical mass" of enthusiasm and market share.


On Nov 22 12:12 PM Jon T wrote:
>
> If Dell and HP cannot find a significantly better operating system
> than Windows sometime soon, it will indeed become a terminal decline...

Motorola's Droid Comes in Peace - For Now

I don't trust Motorola to build a good phone. The Razor was all the rage a few years back, but I dumped mine after a week for an LG phone because the mic and speaker were poor, in my opinion.

Motorola is a poorly managed company, and has been that way for decades.

Readers Pick the Top 20 5-Year Horizon Stocks

TheHague, Don't lose faith in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart hasn't performed this year simply because it is considered a "defensive stock”, a safe place to put money during tough economic times. Well, during 2009, money shifted out of defensive stocks into potential high growth stocks as the threat of economic catastrophe abated. It has little to do with how Wal-Mart, as a company, is performing. It’s just natural stock rotation.


On Oct 18 09:18 PM TheHague wrote:
> WMT? Nice try! I just sold my shares that I bought in March! I can
> now buy into them cheaper than they were when I bought them! I gave
> up! Their last Div. was not that great! I tried to believe, but some
> thing is not right there! I don't know what it is but it ain't cool!

Readers Pick the Top 20 5-Year Horizon Stocks

I'm impressed by the quality of this list, and how it reached down into some stocks that I didn't think were in the minds of the general investor community, like AONE and BYDDY.PK. Plus, it listed stocks that are truly (not stuck-in-the-mud like Microsoft and Yahoo) innovative companies that are “pushing the envelope” on the technology front like GE with green technology, like Google with search, operating system, and “cloud computing” technology, and like Apple with mobile Internet technology.

A123 Systems (AONE) and BYD of China (BYDDY.PK) are head-to-head competitors in the plug-in vehicle battery market. They both make the Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP or LiFePO4) battery which, when the manufacturing is perfected, will be the ideal battery for vehicles, in my opinion. These are the clearly, in my opinion, the leaders in the quickly emerging LFP battery market. A123 seems to be the high quality player, and BYD seems to be the high quantity player. BYD is an established player with non-LFP batteries so it is well established and profitable. A123 is a startup with only one product – its LFP battery. I see investing in A123 as very speculative but potentially very profitable.

As a side note, if Japan wants to pull itself out of its 2 decade economic stagnation, one of the best things it could do is let Wal-Mart “run wild” in its country. Japan’s retail system is very inefficient. There is a lot of job protection going on. Wal-Mart would cause many jobs to be lost, but it would spur economic growth via a much more efficient retail system that would deliver goods to its citizens at a much lower price. This would leave money left over in people’s pockets that would lead to a higher consumption of other products increasing the economy.

Cramer's Mad Money - A New Cycle (4/20/09)

When following Cramer, you have to keep in mind that he is a generalist. He doesn't fully research stocks. And, he uses the information from companies too heavily so he gets caught by executives putting heavy positive spin on their company. Thus, he can get caught off guard by negative changes that he did not foresee.

So, in my opinion, use Cramer as an additional source of information about a stock. He is very useful in this role. But, do not use his advice as your sole source of information and advise.

Also, it seems that Cramer's advice is good in an up market but bad in a down market. He'll get you into stocks that are rising faster when all stocks are rising. But, in a bad market, he gets caught by downside surprises.