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DW

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Posts posted by DW

    How to make money from this crash - Lessons from 2008

    in General Discussion

    Posted

     

     

    On another board, we run an annual stock picking contest.  The spouse of one of our members, picks a "control" portfolio pretty much at random.  She wins a few years and always smokes most of the field other years, FWIW.

     

     

    wabuffo

     

     

    May I ask what that other board is? I would certainly understand if you were not interested in sharing that for one reason or another.

     

     

    Sam Walton: Made In America, My Story - Sam Walton with John Huey

    in Books

    Posted

    Reading this reinforced an active switch I made to Autobiographies last year. For me at least, the right biographies are far more interesting to read as a genre than other genres. I've read Walton, Jobs, Knight, Gates, Feynman, Darwin (wip); Munger and Buffett although they are not strict bios. Couldn't put them down.

     

    I agree. I couldn’t put the Walton book down either.

     

    Which Buffett and munger books are you referring to? (I’ve reread Damn Right a couple of times...)

    I Created a New 13-F Screener

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    One thing I like looking at on Dataroma is the portfolio history of a "guru" at a glance. They have a nice screen with all quarters of portfolio history with a total size of portfolio, and positions sized from biggest to smallest (without % sizes though). I wonder could that screen be improved to add the weighting of the actual position size?

     

     

    I was thinking the same thing

    Off Topic - What was your used car buying experience like?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have always bought new cars, but I decided to buy a used car this time. I was hoping to buy a Certified Preowned Car (CPO) this time. I was looking for a 2016 or 2017 with reasonably low mileage.  MUch to my surprise, the dealers were asking more for these cars than I thought was reasonable. I ended up buying a new car because the price difference between a 2017 CPO with 18,000 miles and a new 2018 was just $500.

    Where do you read stock/investing news? I plan to build a news reader

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Awesome! Looking forward to it!

     

     

    I'm also really tired of the poor quality articles that show up on Google and Yahoo Finance sites. I've tried several (OK, maybe all) of the apps and haven't been happy with any of them.

     

    I'd like to see a SeekingAlpha like app without any of the SA articles; I just want the press releases and articles from professional sources (i.e WSJ)

     

    Also, I'd like to see all the news stories from all of my holdings included in date order. I don't want to have to click on each of my holdings to see their particular news stories.

     

    Now, if you can have this available on a website and as an app (Android please!) I'll be very happy.

     

    Thanks for your suggestions! I think it can be done. I'll make the website mobile friendly also. I'll consider mobile app for the next step if users like the content of the website.

    Where do you read stock/investing news? I plan to build a news reader

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'm also really tired of the poor quality articles that show up on Google and Yahoo Finance sites. I've tried several (OK, maybe all) of the apps and haven't been happy with any of them.

     

    I'd like to see a SeekingAlpha like app without any of the SA articles; I just want the press releases and articles from professional sources (i.e WSJ)

     

    Also, I'd like to see all the news stories from all of my holdings included in date order. I don't want to have to click on each of my holdings to see their particular news stories.

     

    Now, if you can have this available on a website and as an app (Android please!) I'll be very happy.

    Google spreadsheet tips and tricks

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    i have used the importXML function to import option data from Yahoo for a few years but for the last few months it isn't working and from looking around it seems that yahoo did away with this functionality.

     

    I am trying to find another solution for options data, the only thing I have found is the ability to import the data for the next 3 months of options from NASDAX.

     

    Any other solutions out there?

     

     

    I have given up and moved to Google Sheets for my downloads. It does everything well except for dividends which can be done although it's not as simple as the other functions (i.e. stock price)

    Self Published Book on Amazon? Anyone?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    That does help...  Could you give me ballparks for how much an editor and cover designer cost? All in all, would these 3 books allow you to leave your day job? Or the residuals allow you to get a nice dinner each month.

     

    If you don't want to disclose it in a large forum, would you private message me? I'm just fascinated about the concept.

     

     

    An editor probably would run about $1,000 USD

    Book cover about $250 to $500

     

    Assuming a $1,500 initial outlay...  if you're making $3 per book, it will take just 500 book sales to cover your costs.

     

    Book sales...  while I won't get into specifics, you hear about people quitting their day job all the time. If you are writing fiction, and are writing a series of book, and you are writing on a topic that has a following, and people start buying your book, you could quit your day job.  There are Facebook groups dedicated to such successful authors.

     

    Conversely, if (like me) you write about topics which only a few people are interested in reading about (ALTHOUGH THEY ALL SHOULD! ;-) ); topics like investing for people who know nothing about investing, then you might not end up making enough to quit your day job. But yes, a nice dinner every month, for sure.

     

    There are many people making money writing about niche topics and some make a nice living.

     

    Feel free to ask anything else

     

    David

    Self Published Book on Amazon? Anyone?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I have self-published three books on Kindle/Createspace -- these are both Amazon wholly owned subsidiaries.

     

    Process:

    Over the years, the publishing process has gotten much easier. It's so easy to publish your book on Kindle, you can simply upload your MS Word file. Createspace (for paperbacks) is a little more involved, however, Kindle now lets you publish paperbacks too, so I suspect it might be almost as easy as publishing your digital book, but I don't know as I the Kindle paperback option didn't exist when I wrote my three books.

     

    Marketing:

    Kindle has recently added advertising options. This really helps keep your book selling. My books are two, three, and four years old. For most authors, older books tend to get stale and don't sell as many copies as newer books. (Of course, the big named authors will continue to sell older books.) These new Amazon Ads have really rejuvenated sales for my books.

     

    Pricing:

    Since you get to set the price of your book, you control the amount you will make for each book sold. Amazon takes a healthy chunk of the revenue. You get 70% of digital revenue and about 55% of paperback revenue. You'll likely get more money per book sold than you would if you went the traditional route.

     

    All in all, it's pretty easy to self-publish. For me, the toughest part was editing. My wife was my editor. She's a wonderful editor, but it can put a strain on your relationship.  ;)  My suggestion would be to get a professional editor and a professional book cover designer. This makes for a bit of a cash outlay. So that's the real difference between traditional and self-publishing. With the latter, you are responsible for everything, including marketing. Going the traditional route, you submit the manuscript, they do the rest.

     

    Hope that helps.

     

    David

    Car Buying Negotiation Strategy and Observation about Residual Value

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Here is how I would do it if you know exactly what car you want:

     

    Do not go to the dealer.  Email or call a bunch of them for the total out the door price (total price including all taxes and fees).  There can be hidden fees etc that you don't realize until later if you don't get this price (doc fees, etc.)  You will likely deal with the internet manager who can give you better prices.

     

    Then you can try negotiating off the lowest of those prices.

     

     

    I tend to keep my cars for a decade or more. My wife's car is 19. Mine just turned 10.

     

    Ten years ago, the last time I bought a car, I went to KBB, found out a reasonable price. Contacted several nearby dealers via email and told each one what I wanted and what I was willing to pay. I told them all exactly what I was doing and indicated that the first one to match the price and provide me with a VIN would get my business. I walked in the next day and was out an hour later with my new car.

     

    While this worked, I'm considering using Costco's auto buying service next time. They have arrangements with dealers for Certified Pre-Owned cars. I might look to buy a one or two year old car next time instead... provided that the price is reasonable.

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