gokou3

Latest article by Andy Xie, a famed economist in China: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/08/the-only-way-out/

Couldn't it be that corporations are waiting for the impending win8 release before they upgrade their machines? Along the same line, I wouldn't buy a iphone 4S now knowing that iphone 5 is coming out next month.

I watch my local Vancouver RE market very closely. I see sales activity freezing up quickly. One example: a townhome in burnaby has had 3 $20k price drops in a month, going from $620k to $560k. From the agent, the seller has bought a place elsewhere and so he's motivated to sell. I guess my question for your TO developer friend is, given the frenzy of condo developments in the MTA (I read somewhere that there are more condos in development than 15 other top North American cities combined), what's their exit strategy if their inventories don't sell: 1) Hold for better time (turn into rental apt), 2) Slash prices, 3) Demolish them! Seems like in Vancouver, I am seeing some #2s, although #3 (by fire "accidents") is not unheard of.

I have been looking for a zillow-like website too, to no avail. Zoocasa doesn't come close. For BC, there's the government website at http://evaluebc.bcassessment.ca/Default.aspx It provides the public with annual assessed property values and sales record for the past year. No info about the home layout though.

The older Galaxy Nexus, not S3, was banned in the US.

So, with no fanfare, US natural gas is up $1 / MCF from its bottom.... that's 50%.. although many producers are still losing money at this price.

Here's a site with a pretty dim view of China: http://www.alsosprachanalyst.com/ I have been following it for over a year, and I find the author's view quite convincing.

Don't think there's any card in Canada that offers zero forex fees. The standard is 2.5%. However, there's the capital one aspire cash world card that offers 1.5% cash rebate. In addition, it gives you $100 cash bonus upon approval. Even disregarding the $100 bonus, i think it's not too bad to pay a 1% charge (2.5-1.5) for the convenience of not carrying cash around. Mind you though some north american cards may have trouble getting accepted in foreign countries, so I would still bring a bit of cash just in case.

Is it Reuters, or is it the famous activist investor I---- who has a mole inside....

It's interesting (but not surprising) that none on this board has talked about paying up for a TV? I guess the crowd here reads more than watching TV. I don't have a TV yet (not in a hurry to buy one either).

This is due to $10/share dividend payout.

This article is just a very long way of saying the Apple iphone/ecosystem is the best for software upgrades. I'm not saying it's not, and I use an iphone 4S myself, but cut MSFT/NOK some slack (AT&T... maybe not). There are many other things that WP and android do better than iphone. The more I read about Nokia product release news around the world, the more I am confident that it will successfully sell to "the next billion". Unlike in the US, there are many places (China, India, Latin America, Europe) that Nokia still has very positive mind-share and loyal customer base.

The warrant prospectus: http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/874766/000095012310087985/y86606b5e424b5.htm#125 Specifically, the anti-dilution clause is in page S-41. Seems similar to BAC's.

Vancouver, BC as well :D

A simple question regarding preferred shares. They seem to have characteristics of bonds. Are their prices sensitive to the general interest rate level? Especially for the perpetual ones.

this explains it in a nutshell about as good as any: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2011/10/27/713826/how-gross-and-net-cds-notionals-really-work/ Thanks, this makes sense.

This is probably something very basic, but could someone explain what exactly "Net $3.2B of CDS" means? My understanding is all derivatives are zero-sum games, so if one side wrote $60-70B notional exposure of CDS, another side must have bought $60-70B of it. Why is there a non-zero net amount?

This is part of the bigger picture, which is "Prices went up because of availability of bigger mortgage". Once again, government policies were made counterproductive to their goal, namely affordable housing. All that 0% downpayment / 40-year amortization / stated-income loans, in addition to a generally declining interest rate environment over the last decade, enable people to borrow a lot more than they otherwise can. Alas, this didn't allow them to buy bigger houses (or go from no ownership to having ownership) because prices quickly adjust upwards. This also explained why house prices shoot up way higher than rent. Typically, mortgage payments and rents are x% of a family's income. The latter didn't get the "help" mentioned above.

BAC is trading at P/B of 1/3. If BAC goes back to P/B of 1 at 2021 and doubles its BV in the meanwhile, that's a 20% CAGR for 10 years.

Would being long XIV the safer bet? I always worry about the termination clause though (termination when VIX futures spike >80% in a single day)

Will this finally re-rate MSFT? Apple Crunched in Nasdaq Rebalance http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704587004576243231566493842.html Nasdaq-100 weighting of MSFT to be increased by 4.9% points by May 2nd.. roughly $16B of indiscriminate buying (0.049*330)... or 7% of market cap in a short period.

"Yes all along I am on high alert for fraud. I will be the first seller if one day Deloitte resigns as auditor or Starr exits their position. " Not to rub salt in your wounds (we don't even know why it's halted) but did it occur to you that the day deloitte resigns or Starr exits CCME is a sub $2 stock? Starr is the only reason people aren't 100% sure it's a fraud. I learned a few years ago when I invested in a company that's called optionable that just cause a smart, large, outside investor buys a stake in something doesn't mean it's not a fraud. A multi billion dollar exchange, CME I think, bought a big stake in it and it ended up being a 0. Well, I guess I have been proven wrong. Lessons learned... top notch auditor or reputable investor don't mean a thing, especially when it comes to investing in emerging markets.

Aggressive for me, so I can maximize the tax-free benefit. Of course the underlying assumption is that I can produce positive returns. On the other hand, if I can't produce positive returns, it doesn't matter whether the account is tax-free or taxable. By "aggressive", I mean using leverage in the TFSA account. For example, I would use ITM LEAPs to leverage up, say by 3x. Then I use keep the equivalent "borrowed amount" (i.e. notional value - option premium) in a (taxable) cash savings account as to maintain zero overall leverage.

Isn't it at least a major portion of their securities portfolio is supported by the insurance float and thus are reserve requirement?

I also have an iphone 4. Do you use any specific app to read this board or just Safari?