Following on from the last post – I mentioned that my portfolio has been going pretty well recently: It is up 35% YT while the S&P500 is down 5.6% for the year. You can tell from the sudden drop in the green bar when I went heavily into shorting EQR – over half the value …
Category Archives: Investing
Making (more) money from the falling housing market
US housing prices fell 14% March 2008 on March 2007. 14% is larger than the downpayment component of many US mortgages. Would your mortgage be greater than your house value if the house fell by 14%? How about in your first year of ownership? Mortgages like this are in negative equity, and owners should, ceteris …
Continue reading “Making (more) money from the falling housing market”
US recession and Australian resurgence
A recession has a defined meaning, from the USA’s NBER, via Wikipedia A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. A recession begins just after the economy reaches a peak of …
NZX.com relaunches
Up goes NZX.com – a collaboration between Fairfax Digital and NZX. This has been a while in the making, so it is great to see the result. Well done everybody. (still some work to do though – it’s super slow from here in Perth)
Microsoft and Yahoo: bugger
Bugger – Microsoft has withdrawn from the Yahoo takeover offer. Microsoft upped the price to $33 per share (from $29 odd), which was a $5 billion increase. Yahoo said “no thanks – we want $37 per share” and so Mirosfot walked away. On Monday, US time, expect: Yahoo’s shares to fall – and pretty far …
A sweet deal – is Buffet going to Mars?
As Jim mentions, Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway is involved in a $23bn deal where Mars is buying Wrigley. Mars is $22bn and Wrigley $5bn in annual sales, so while big this isn’t a huge swallow for Mars, and both companies are well run and run on a brand basis, so merging should be ok. There are …
3 weeks
It’s pretty obvious that a better offer for Yahoo is not out there, as Microsoft has the wonderful combination of being cash-rich and desperate – and can outbid anyone else out there. But Yahoo directors do not want to lay with the lumbering giant. So this week Microsoft first whispered that the offer may be …
US Share Portfolio update – 12% up YTD
My US Share portfolio (green) in 2007 was up 63.5% versus the S&P500 index return of 3.53%. A great year, and I did sell down a bit around the peak, which hit 77%. Can I do it again? This year to Friday the 28th of March – I’m up just 12.6%, but the index is …
Tracking your portfolio – Sharesight enters the market
Rod just pointed us to Sharesight – a downunder focused portfolio manager website. The website looks to be yummy goodness – simple to use and so forth. I was initially pretty skeptical though – what use is another portfolio manager when you can do things pretty simply yourself, or with the likes of Yahoo? Yahoo …
Continue reading “Tracking your portfolio – Sharesight enters the market”
Vista – they knew
Stunning NYTimes article about Vista – it seems that Microsoft employees and board members knew that Vista was, well, not so good. There’s even a class action suit…. “Last month, Judge Marsha A. Pechman granted class-action status to the suit, which is scheduled to go to trial in October. (Microsoft last week appealed the certification …
Real Estate is falling – what happens next?
The housing crash is cascading around the world, and the dire predictions are coming true. Here’s the latest chart from The Economist – check out Ireland on the bottom. That’s a crash, not a “balanced slump”. Meanwhile Trade Me just surpassed 70,000 property listings, on the back of signing up one of the last few …
Continue reading “Real Estate is falling – what happens next?”
Why intervention is needed for Telecom and not for Auckland
Falafulu Fisi asks an excellent question to the previous post on Auckland Airport: “Aren’t both Auckland Airport & Telecom private companies? Why would you want to say that the government is an interventionist regarding the CPPIB attempt to buying shares in the Auckland Airport but not saying the same thing about Telecom? I am a …
Continue reading “Why intervention is needed for Telecom and not for Auckland”
Ham-fisted intervention in markets is dull thinking
Score one for protectionism, and minus several ranks of the economic freedom index for New Zealand, after the Government intervenes to prevent a Canadian fund from buying into Auckland airport. When the market drops by 2% after a new protectionist law is created it should be obvious to everyone the impact of ham-fisted interventionist Government …
Continue reading “Ham-fisted intervention in markets is dull thinking”
The sage of Omaha speaks
Warren Buffet’s yearly missive is out. Essential reading for anyone interested in investing. Here are some tasty snippets: “You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out – and what we are witnessing at some of our largest financial institutions is an ugly sight. It’s better to have a part interest …
The personal perils of Poison pills
The USA tends to allow more things in business than we do in New Zealand or Australia. For example, our laws on food are strict, and strictly enforced. Similarly the legislation and Commerce Commission hold companies to account for their behaviour. In the USA they are a bit more laissez-faire. Food is under regulated and …
Lance Wiggs 