Version two of the Skilling/Weldon document Swan Dive or Belly Flop is now released. The document reflects a more considered response, based on more research and analysis, along with reader and blogger comments and, it seems, just more effort. Good job. I read through the rest of document, and made notes about what I liked, …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
Paul Reynolds on Ferrit
The nationwide embarrassment. The site we love to, err, dislike. Ferrit. Paul Reynolds answered two questions on Ferrit (they were not mine but from BarnacleBarnes). How did he do? Ferrit Q. One word: Ferrit. With an investment north of $30 million dollars and traffic that is less than a deal-a day site and only slightly …
Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds answers questions
Over at Geekzone Mauricio collected a bunch of questions for Telecom CEO Paul Reynolds. Today the answers came through and Mauricio has posted them – check them out. Kudos to Dr. Reynolds for answering a substantial percentage of the questions posed. I for one posed 5 questions, and they were all answered: Network/Investment Q. What …
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Those house prices
The IMF’s Prakash Loungani reports on housing price changes. the chart below shows 2008 until June, and so before the recent financial events. NZ was not looking too good, while other economies, such as USA have already shown considerable drops prior to 2008. More to come I am sure.
Tastes nothing like the old one
How bad are things when your slogan is “tastes nothing like the old one”? Seen in a Perth supermarket. I have no idea what the brand of drink is.
I almost purchased an apartment
Along with stocks we are also seeing a plunge in housing prices. The mortgage payment/rent equation is still wacko (it should be about 1-1) but 3 weeks ago I decided to place a tender offer on an apartment that I liked in Wellington. With tenders you place a binding bid into a box, and when …
Invest now – but only in quality businesses
Linked in just raised US$76m from some strategic investors, while over in Western Australia Tanami Gold grabbed AU$12m from almost all exisiting shareholders. In Canada vBrick systems got $11.9m – they make enterprise video systems, and managed to get Menlo Ventures and Morgan Stanley on board, amongst others. China is also showing life, with Intel …
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Three Rules of Life – and why not to break them
I have a few rules of life that have generally served me well: 1: Never drink anything that is on fire 2: Never annoy people that cook or serve you food and never send food back Coogee Bay Hotel ‘served human faecal matter in ice cream 3: Tailor your message to the audience The man …
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Help us with Lingopal
We are still putting on the final touches, but Lingopal is looking pretty good these days. To check it out point your browser, mobile or other wise, at m.lingopal.com – and let us know what you think. Lingopal offers phrase translation over 43 languages – with the version you see at the mobile site for …
Saving New Zealand from the crisis
Mark Welden and David Skilling went to Davos, got back to NZ, clearly talked a lot over beers and came up with what I can only term a business first over-reaction to the current global gyrations. Good on them for the doing this though, and for the intention which they are following through of starting …
Grandads
One Grandad, Grev Wiggs, was an ad man at Inglis Wright – he even did the first NZ political ad. This is the other one – Lance Johnson – a new bio from the NZ rugby museum. He was quite the shot it seems.
Portfolio judgement month hits hard
It’s been a rough ride for everyone on the equity markets. I really have not followed my own advice and got out of my short positions far too early and went hard into Apple long options. I’m too scared to look at the money I left on the table by existing the Fannae Mae short …
Lotto online – lots of colour but some serious work to do
The good news for those that have only a tentative grasp of statistics and economics is that you can play Lotto online in New Zealand. It’s not bad, but a few fatal flaws need to be addressed before sales can really take off: 1: Don’t go to Lotto.co.nz – someone else owns it. Actually I …
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eBay’s descent into oblivion continues
I tried logging into my ebay account last night from Nigel’s computer, and this is what I got after successfully entering my password: I have no idea what my phone number from 1999 (or was it earlier?) is, and I certainly have no way of answering a call to that number. So I started entering …
Telstra iPhone: $13 per GB or $15,000 per GB? Your choice
A welcome text from Telstra the other day – my iPhone data plan has been upgraded fro free to 9 GB from 3GB. That’s great – full prices are here. But sadly I have data switched off at the moment, as that iPhone is not in Australia, but New Zealand. I have not cracked the …
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Lance Wiggs 