Hoodlum

Fremont? Please tell me you're visiting the Tesla plant. That would be cool. ;D No, but I can see it from my room in the Marriott.

I picked a good time to do business travel to Fremont this week and LA next week. Haven't really needed my jacket.

When I walked out of my local Tim Hortons last night, there were 2 men discussing taking out $100k on their home line of credit to invest in the stock market. I think we are getting close to the end now.

It will be interesting to see if the government sues the banks to get back losses if the market does tank. I don't think the banks will get off scott free, especially with the bundling of mortgages they sold at high profits.

No tapering for a while according to Bernanke. http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2013/05/22/taper-this-bernanke-makes-it-clear-tapering-qe-isnt-happening-any-time-soon/?partner=yahootix

The biggest problem with cutting cable is live sports in HD. I'd gladly pay $15/month for sports and switch for the other channels.

I think this is the wrong way to enforce higher rates. You just end up pushing it underground. http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/19/manulife-pulls-low-rate-mortgage-offer-after-pressure-from-ottawa/

Over 50% in my registered account. Tough to calculate on my margin and TFSA account but would be much greater due to MSFT Calls earlier this year. I would estimate over 70%. Average of 30% over past 5 years.

A good news story for New Years Eve. http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1308782--tim-hortons-customers-pay-it-forward-228-times-in-winnipeg

Our company has been using LTO tapes for years now and have no plan on getting rid of it. But LTO tape capacity and speed seem to be maxing out now so there will need to be a new technology advance soon. For consumers an external hard drive is a good method for backups.

Six months ago our company started using SSDs for all new laptop and desktop computers. Most company computers don't need large hard drives and the 128GB SSD is all that is needed in most cases. Our SAN is still using hard drives as we await for better industry standards on supporting SSDs in SANs. If the SSDs keep dropping in price like the past 2 years then the future is not bright for Seageate and WD. I'd say that within 24 months most laptops will come standard with an SSD instead of a hard drive as the benefits are even greater with a probable device. Our company is in the process of replacing the slow 5400rpm hard drives in most existing company laptops to SSDs, giving better battery life and an incredible performance boost. Two months ago I bought a new PC for home and went with just SSD. I am still using an external hard drive for backup and storage, but still fewer hard drives than I was using on my old system. Hard Drives are not going away but I believe demand will start shrinking over the next 2 years.

Interesting that they have 33% in cash as they feel equity is overpriced right now. This position is much different than their hedges which was to protect from volatility.

Up 26% YTD in my registered account. Margin account should be even greater due to Microsoft puts earlier this year.

I lightened my BAC exposure today as it was becoming a large portion of my portfolio and I am still concerned about short term macro issues (especially Europe). I have lots of cash waiting for the next opportunity.

This is the first in a 4 part series by Wynn Quon on Bubbles. The 2nd part is in the current issue of the Canadian MoneySaver magazine. http://www.legadoassociates.com/lessons1.htm "In those days you could buy stock with only 5% down. (After the Great Depression, they changed the rules. The only thing you can buy nowadays with 5% down is real estate and who’d be crazy enough to do that?)."

This reminds me of when people said businesses would switch to Linux to save money. Microsoft is even more entrenched now with businesses.

Very disappointed in the Macbook Pro retina, considering the market they are going after. Just don't expect to replace or upgrade components on your own as the memory is soldered to the board, battery is glued down (on top of trackpad wiring actually), retina display is fused, etc.. This may seen "normal" for Macbook Pros but not from the PC notebook side. Basically you are tied to Apple service for any repair or upgrade, hoping they don't mess with your hard drive. Great for Apple but not so great for the consumer. http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/13/teardown_of_retina_display_macbook_pro_finds_soldered_ram_propreitary_ssd.html

I bought more BAC today and it is my main holding. Cash is down to 75% now.

I went to 90% cash a couple of days ago. I also bought some CRM puts. The market will get nasty by the end of the year due to more Europe debt issues and I decided to lock in my gains and wait. Only have BAC for now.

Book dropped $10 to $354/share. It'll be interesting to see how the shares respond tomorrow.

Businesses will just continue using the Classic interface so Metro is a non-issue. The biggest enhancement for Windows 8 and the Server 8 is related to the integration of Hyper-V's virtual environment. On the server side our company has already reached some of the limits of Windows 2008 Hyper-V and we will have to move to Server 8 sometime next year. Hyper-V on the client side also has benefits for business.

Has anyone looked into the 'wet' gas argument for the price drop and supply increase. It doesn't look like this will improve any time soon. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/a-natural-gas-disconnect-bargain-bin-prices-surge-in-supplies/article2368417/ The most important factor is the chase for so-called “wet” gas, which has dominated industry activity for the last few years. It’s natural gas that surges to surface accompanied by liquid hydrocarbons like propane, butane and ethane. Those liquids radically shift the dynamics. In oil terms, natural gas currently trades for under $14 a barrel. Propane, meanwhile, sells for around $50 a barrel; butane is roughly $90. At prices like that, natural gas becomes nearly an afterthought. In some wells, companies could make money even giving away the gas, which in those wet wells is called “associated gas.” In others, it takes a very low gas price to make it work. David Hobbs, chief energy strategist at IHS Cera, has calculated that over the next decade, “we can see up to 14-odd BCF [billion cubic feet] a day of associated gas that would still be economic to produce at $1.” With the U.S. currently producing 72 BCF a day, that’s a large percentage.

I started raising cash by selling DELL and MERC that I thought were are fair value with FY reports coming soon. I don't know enough about AIG to make the jump yet, but I may consider increasing by CRM Put position if it keeps rising.

If Japan has to issue more debt to foreigners then there will be much more pressure to cut expediture/increase taxes. It would become very similar to what Europe needs to do except they don't have multiple countries that need to agree on a plan.

How much longer can they finance their debt internally? At some point external debt financing will be required and then it could turn nasty very quickly.