DCG

http://finviz.com/

I have to admit that tYhe new Galaxy XIII commercial mocking people waiting in line for the iPhone is really well done.

Filling my garage up with Pork Bellies.

iPhone5 is getting one great review after another.

I read Good to Great recently and was mostly let down.

Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. True; and on that note, past performancesof other large technology companies and companies with large market caps aren't necessarily indicative of Apple's future results either.

I won't argue that their business in 5 years is easier to predict than a company like coke, and I assume you're right about back testing the largest cap companies for 5 years. I try to look 1-3 years out with tech companies, and I think Apple will still be strong in that period. It would be one thing if we were talking about a company with the largest market cap trading at something like 100x earnings, but Apple is trading at 13x estimated 2013 earnings, and is sitting on a mountain of cash. I think it is somewhat fair to be priced at the current multiple, as earnings can of course drop pretty quickly, but I also think the company still has a decent amount of room to grow (especially in countries like China). The fact that most people upgrade their phones every 2 years bodes very well for them. The iPad is also still just getting started.

Pre-orders are already sold out, for anyone questioning the demand.

Well, next time well tell Cook to make it more "entertaining" for you. ;) Time to buy more RIMM, txlaw? I've got plenty of RIM right now, thanks. ;) It's okay if Tim Cook is boring -- which he is. That's not what made this release so disappointing. I wish that Apple had been more forward thinking so that the iPhone update would have had more new useful features in it. The bigger screen was a necessary update -- they had no choice given how people are loving it in their non-Apple phones. Thinner? Big deal. LTE? Also necessary. The new dock connector bit is crappy, but it doesn't affect me personally as much as it will other people. Not having NFC is much worse to me, and could potentially make me go with Android. Also would have loved to see new cloud services rolled out to make the iPhone more useful, but they're probably still working on all that. I find there's no compelling reason to upgrade, and this is the first time I'm contemplating switching from an iPhone to another device. It looks like we may not see any real magic from Apple again until they release their iTV. Apple is in this for the long haul, and has a history of not throwing in features just for the hell of it. We are still some time away from retailers adapting NFC payments on a large scale, and on a global scale (remember, this phone is sold everywhere..this isn't Samsung or HTC who release 25 phones a year spread out all over the world). In a year or two, when NFC has more real uses (rather than being a extra line manufacturers throw in their list of specs), I'm sure it'll be added to the iPhone. I understand that nf has other uses than payments, but they're mostly gimmicks at is point. They build a great product, and are constantly refining it. Would you rather them follow all of the android manufacturers and release 22 different iPhones a year? And people seem to sometimes forget that the iPhone is the combination of software and hardware. The refinements of iOS are arguably more important than tech-spec improvements that people often fixate over. Regarding the phone design, why make huge changes to something that works very well already? Android phones with large screens usually pixallate the OS and look awful. Who wants to carry a 6" phone in their pocket? Would a trackball that changes colors (RIMM shot) be a useful and magical feature? :P

I'm not bored with it. It does what I need, and does it very well (and better than Android and any other phones out there). I'm looking forward to the some of the new features in iOS 6. I had an Android phone for 2 & a half years (and we have a few Android devices at work that I play around on a lot). While Android offers things like keyboard replacements, and homescreen replacements, all of those replacements are incredibly buggy in my experience. The widgets on Android are a pretty good feature, but also eat battery power, and are also pretty buggy in my experience.

I am also unsure of what you mean by Notional. Let's say BAC is trading at $10 a share and you purchase 100 contracts at $1.50 each underlying share. This costs you $15,000 to purchase the upside on $100,000 worth of shares. $100,000 is the "notional" value of your contracts, even though your downside is $15,000. $15,000 is 15% of $100,000, thus it is 15% of the "notional" value. Clear as mud? Thanks for clarifying!

I am also unsure of what you mean by Notional.

One of the best techcrunch posts I've seen in a while. Thanks for posting it.

Eric - random question - do you have any recommendation of books that simply explain options? I've read a few, but most of my option trades have been unprofitable. I don't like the idea of the being against me.

This is kinda interesting to me: "Making a thinner, lighter iPhone meant even the display had to be thinner. Apple engineers accomplished that by creating the first Retina display with integrated touch technology. Which means instead of a separate layer of touch electrodes between display pixels, the pixels do double duty — acting as touch-sensing electrodes while displaying the image at the same time. With one less layer between you and what you see on iPhone 5, you experience more clarity than ever before."

Just opened positions in FIAT (via the FIATY A.D.R.) and GM.

Up 30.1% so far this year. AAPL and BAC are the biggest contributors.

Great article. Lynch is probably my favorite investment writer, and I wish he'd write a new book.

Without going into too much detail, Hooters was a large client of the company I used to work for (managed by the department I was in), and was probably the single worst business we had to work with. Hooters' management has a history of refusing to pay their bills, trying to nickle & dime all their vendors, and treating their employees like shit.

;D

I take it you don't have any kids.

I know this doesn't fit right in with this thread, and I generally try to avoid talking about politics on here, but one thing I've never really understood is the notion that republicans are better for business and the stock markets. I've read nonsense written by hedge fund managers (and other investors) supporting republican candidates implying this. S&P 500 stats since 1960 (though 2011): -Annualized return in years with a Republican president: 2.7% -Annualized return in years with a Democrat president: 11% Think that 51 year window is not a long enough time frame? If you go back to 1927 through today, the stats are even more heavily in favor of democrats, with the market averaging an annual loss of close to 2% in years with a republican president. ..just sayin' /ducks out of the thread.

Auto Manufacturers are looking cheap to me. Most notably, Ford, GM & Fiat. Honda and Toyota look like decent values as well. Anyone own or looking at these companies? I work in the auto industry (on the software & website side), so I keep somewhat up-to-date on the industry, and it seems to be slowly rebounding.

I'd rather see them spend cash on acquisitions at this point.

Thought that was a great speech last night.