I like to think of myself as a practical investor. My focus is fundamentals of markets. More and more I have noticed myself looking at the economic realm in which we live in and finding myself feeling very sad for the future generations. I look and realize that political will to do the right thing only exists when its pushed them, until then its just words coming out of a politician looking for your vote. Though an optimist at heart I strongly believe that "we" are in for a world on hurt in the next two decades based upon choices being made presently and those made in prior generations. "There comes a time when we have paid off the interest on the debt and its time to pay the principal." Hans Gill http://seekingalpha.com/user/303872/instablog http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/303872-hans-gill/239598-why-i-chose-the-iphone-over-android-based-device?source=feed 239598
Now my needs have changed, where in the past I cared only about email now I care about the ability to make trades, video chat, send group messages,  have navigation, etc.

You're probably saying hey the Blackberry can do all that! and yes it certainly can as can Android and IOS devices. So in a marketplace where 3 competitors essentially offer the same functionality what is the differentiator? Why would you pick blackberry over Android, android over IOS? Why did I choose IOS over Android and Blackberry? 

What i have listed is going to sound basic and i'm trying to keep it basic so I can make my point else I would talk about auto wifi sync, iCloud, and 100 other things.

Integration
Everything in the IOS device is so well integrated because lot of the Out of Box functionality is all developed by one vendor (Apple). Siri can add new appointments on your calendar, send text messages, etc etc. Facetime can let me switch to video chat if I am speaking with someone who is also on an IOS device simply by clicking once.  IMessage to your friends (similar concept as BB Messenger but built right into the messaging platform so you don't have to worry about asking for the BB id first, the system just figures out it out for you)

Yes video chat is availabe on android and so is the voice technology but the seamless integration is missing. I value that and respect apple for thinking about the 90% of the things that matter to me in return for taking away some of my geekness and access to tweak things up (the case most android developers put forward)

Herd Mentality - everybody has it so I need it as well
Look, at the end of the day I got an iPhone because I want to have certain set of features (some of them were listed above in the integration section) and then exploit those features in a social world. I want to video chat without having to install another app, send text messages which don't cost me anything, etc.

over 80% of all my friends and acquaintences have an iPhone which means I can video chat, message and interact with them with no extra leg work of setup or new app. 

I appreciate Apple for thinking about those things and creating a product which satisfies the demand of the masses. 

There will always be things that IOS does not provide, that is why Android and other operating systems continue to flourish. But for the masses I can't imagine a better experience than what the IOS powered devices provide

]]> Fri, 25 Nov 2011 18:07:54 -0500
Now my needs have changed, where in the past I cared only about email now I care about the ability to make trades, video chat, send group messages,  have navigation, etc.

You're probably saying hey the Blackberry can do all that! and yes it certainly can as can Android and IOS devices. So in a marketplace where 3 competitors essentially offer the same functionality what is the differentiator? Why would you pick blackberry over Android, android over IOS? Why did I choose IOS over Android and Blackberry? 

What i have listed is going to sound basic and i'm trying to keep it basic so I can make my point else I would talk about auto wifi sync, iCloud, and 100 other things.

Integration
Everything in the IOS device is so well integrated because lot of the Out of Box functionality is all developed by one vendor (Apple). Siri can add new appointments on your calendar, send text messages, etc etc. Facetime can let me switch to video chat if I am speaking with someone who is also on an IOS device simply by clicking once.  IMessage to your friends (similar concept as BB Messenger but built right into the messaging platform so you don't have to worry about asking for the BB id first, the system just figures out it out for you)

Yes video chat is availabe on android and so is the voice technology but the seamless integration is missing. I value that and respect apple for thinking about the 90% of the things that matter to me in return for taking away some of my geekness and access to tweak things up (the case most android developers put forward)

Herd Mentality - everybody has it so I need it as well
Look, at the end of the day I got an iPhone because I want to have certain set of features (some of them were listed above in the integration section) and then exploit those features in a social world. I want to video chat without having to install another app, send text messages which don't cost me anything, etc.

over 80% of all my friends and acquaintences have an iPhone which means I can video chat, message and interact with them with no extra leg work of setup or new app. 

I appreciate Apple for thinking about those things and creating a product which satisfies the demand of the masses. 

There will always be things that IOS does not provide, that is why Android and other operating systems continue to flourish. But for the masses I can't imagine a better experience than what the IOS powered devices provide

]]> aapl goog bbry Smartphones http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/303872-hans-gill/239385-nervously-optimistic?source=feed 239385
Why am I so nervous? I wrote an apple weekly spread (365-370 put) on monday and the drop in market / apple price on wed didn't do me any good. So what did I do when the price dropped? I wrote another put spread, this time (355-360 put). I figure sooner or later i'm gonna be right and if the market is out to get me and keeps going lower well i am gonna be picking up some LEAP calls on apple around the 350 range anyways..

So Mr Market if you are out to get me then go ahead and give me apple at 350 I will love you for it (secretly hoping you don't listen to that last comment Mr Market)

Here's to being nervously optimistic on this thanksgiving day...


]]> Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:02:57 -0500
Why am I so nervous? I wrote an apple weekly spread (365-370 put) on monday and the drop in market / apple price on wed didn't do me any good. So what did I do when the price dropped? I wrote another put spread, this time (355-360 put). I figure sooner or later i'm gonna be right and if the market is out to get me and keeps going lower well i am gonna be picking up some LEAP calls on apple around the 350 range anyways..

So Mr Market if you are out to get me then go ahead and give me apple at 350 I will love you for it (secretly hoping you don't listen to that last comment Mr Market)

Here's to being nervously optimistic on this thanksgiving day...


]]> aapl http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/303872-hans-gill/133559-a-great-article-from-one-of-my-favorite-reads?source=feed 133559
www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc110124.htm

Hi views certainly help me stay grounded and as close to the middle of the investor population as possible.
]]> Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:58:51 -0500
www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc110124.htm

Hi views certainly help me stay grounded and as close to the middle of the investor population as possible.
]]> economy http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/303872-hans-gill/133251-netflix-great-company-superb-ceo-astronomical-price?source=feed 133251
If you didnt get a chance to listen to the conference call, I think its one of the quarterlies you should put on your calendar.

What i'm impressed by:

Earnings Release document  - The ease with which you can read netflix earnings release. There is no hoopla to make numbers look nice or shine more than they need to. Yes its nice to have a business model which is humming like theirs but still they are abnormally grounded for a high growth company.

Straight forward CEO - Reed Hasting is slowly gaining in my list as one of my most admired CEO's. His comments are straight to the point leave little suspicion for the listener. I don't mean to say he tells us everything, I am just saying that he is very practical and offers well thought out remarks. In the conference call he was asked by an analyst about creating own content to stream on netflix. Reed's responese was " I believe in a circle of competence.....". He basically said that he is a CEO of a technology company and getting creative is not what he is good at. So he would rather let the other companies take the risk and profit from it and do what he does best, which is run a technology company streaming the creative content. As an investor (if I owned their stock) I would be overjoyed by seeing such a laser focused CEO.

New CTO - David Wells did his best to chime in as much as possible and remind investors that it was he who was speaking. Good job on the first confrerence call David.

Hurdles for Netflix

No direct competitor - wait that should be a good thing right? yes and no. It's great right now but stock market is a discounting model and a formidable competitor has not been priced into the stock yet. Wait till another model for streaming content catches hold. I'm not saying Netflix will just slip away but I can imagine it hitting the psyche of the investors a bit more and not sure if they will be willing to push the valuation to the moon (as I believe is the case right now).

Cable Companies - sooner or later these guys are gonna get their hand on part of the piece which netflix enjoys (shares a little bit of this pie with CDN's but that's about it). I can understand that cable companies, seeing their regular cable tv business declining, would want to contest that they own the lines to the residents and should be compensated for providng the bits. We'll see how it plays out but I think Reed is on top of it and did a great job explaining this.

Buy / Sell / Hold / No position - NO Position and don't plan to add unless this stock tanks (No chance of that happening anytime soon). 

I believe this is a SUPERB company but that usually translates in an astronomical price. Like the saying going "its not just good companies, its good companies are cheap prices that make great investments"


]]> Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:49:16 -0500
If you didnt get a chance to listen to the conference call, I think its one of the quarterlies you should put on your calendar.

What i'm impressed by:

Earnings Release document  - The ease with which you can read netflix earnings release. There is no hoopla to make numbers look nice or shine more than they need to. Yes its nice to have a business model which is humming like theirs but still they are abnormally grounded for a high growth company.

Straight forward CEO - Reed Hasting is slowly gaining in my list as one of my most admired CEO's. His comments are straight to the point leave little suspicion for the listener. I don't mean to say he tells us everything, I am just saying that he is very practical and offers well thought out remarks. In the conference call he was asked by an analyst about creating own content to stream on netflix. Reed's responese was " I believe in a circle of competence.....". He basically said that he is a CEO of a technology company and getting creative is not what he is good at. So he would rather let the other companies take the risk and profit from it and do what he does best, which is run a technology company streaming the creative content. As an investor (if I owned their stock) I would be overjoyed by seeing such a laser focused CEO.

New CTO - David Wells did his best to chime in as much as possible and remind investors that it was he who was speaking. Good job on the first confrerence call David.

Hurdles for Netflix

No direct competitor - wait that should be a good thing right? yes and no. It's great right now but stock market is a discounting model and a formidable competitor has not been priced into the stock yet. Wait till another model for streaming content catches hold. I'm not saying Netflix will just slip away but I can imagine it hitting the psyche of the investors a bit more and not sure if they will be willing to push the valuation to the moon (as I believe is the case right now).

Cable Companies - sooner or later these guys are gonna get their hand on part of the piece which netflix enjoys (shares a little bit of this pie with CDN's but that's about it). I can understand that cable companies, seeing their regular cable tv business declining, would want to contest that they own the lines to the residents and should be compensated for providng the bits. We'll see how it plays out but I think Reed is on top of it and did a great job explaining this.

Buy / Sell / Hold / No position - NO Position and don't plan to add unless this stock tanks (No chance of that happening anytime soon). 

I believe this is a SUPERB company but that usually translates in an astronomical price. Like the saying going "its not just good companies, its good companies are cheap prices that make great investments"


]]> nflx