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  • Nicu

    Nicu 7:38 pm on February 17, 2012 - 5 days ago

    “Call this column “confessions of a reformed Apple hater.” I’ve spent the better part of my career insisting that Apple products were not for me–this after my first job in tech was reviewing them for the now-defunct Mac Home Journal. The company was too controlling, the prices too high, the forced upgrade march too abusive, the closed system too limiting.

    Now, just a week ago, I traded in my fourth Android phone (a Samsung Galaxy Nexus) for an iPhone 4S, which just about completes the cycle of Apple in my life. I bought a MacBook Air to replace a balky HP laptop running Windows Vista. I own an iPad because, well, what other tablet would I own? I have an iPod Touch almost solely to power a Bose sound system (and because I wanted to Facetime with my son back before I had the iPhone). And the other day, when my mom was complaining about startup times, printing, and wireless networking, the words, “you should get a Mac” were out of my mouth before I could stop them.”

    SOURCE:
    http://news.cnet.com/8301-31322_3-57379818-256/why-apple-is-winning/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

     

  • Nicu 7:37 pm on February 17, 2012 - 5 days ago

    Nicu

    AAPL decoupled from indexes about an hour or so ago, preparing for options expiration :)
    Max pain is at $450

     

  • Nicu 6:06 pm on February 17, 2012 - 5 days ago

    3
    Nicu

    Possible arbitrage on TSLA:

    buy Jan ’13 25$ C sell Jan ’13 $25 put – even the worse bid / ask combination this costs at most $7.7
    in the same time sell short 100x shares so you get a $9.66 above $25

    wait with the play until options expiration and you win $196 x (number of contracts) for free with no risk as the options combination will give the difference to $25 times 100 for each pair of options (if below $25 you lose the difference but this is warranted by the shorted shares) – it is a synthetic long for which you pay $7.7 but you sell today for $9.66

    the only catch for this “free money” is that there are no shares available to short for several months already; but for those who already own the shares, they can simply sell and buy the option combination and collect the free bonus

     
    • Nicu

      Nicu 6:57 pm on February 17, 2012 5 days ago

      one more logic step: this means there are no hedge funds that have TSLA (only those slow institutional investors), otherwise their algorithms would detect those arbitrage possibilities in less than a millisecond and execute on it

    • Nicu

      Nicu 3:01 pm on February 21, 2012 1 day ago

      took advantage of some sort of arbitrage like that without having the shares: going simply synthetic long at $31.5

      in Jan ’14 $40 C short Jan ’14 $40 P @ $8.5 credit

    • Nicu

      Nicu 3:12 pm on February 21, 2012 1 day ago

      more synth long at $30.5 by
      in Jan ’14 $45 C short $45 P @ $14.5 credit

  • TRADE

    Nicu 9:06 pm on February 14, 2012 - 8 days ago

    4
    Nicu

    out of a small percentage of my Jan ’13 $460 C @ $85.1

    I don’t find the posts with the average price of those, I will check it in my trade history.

     
    • Nicu

      Nicu 4:27 pm on February 15, 2012 7 days ago

      out of Jan ’13 $460 C @ $100.1 (limit order executed while teaching :) )

    • Nicu

      Nicu 4:29 pm on February 15, 2012 7 days ago

      sold short Jan ’13 $660 C @ $18.1 covered by $500 C

    • Nicu

      Nicu 5:00 pm on February 15, 2012 7 days ago

      sold short Jan ’13 $680 C @ $20.1 covered by $520 C

      • Nicu

        Nicu 5:03 pm on February 15, 2012 7 days ago

        sorry, those are $670 C, not $680 C

  • 4
    Nicu

    Nicu 8:37 am on February 10, 2012 - 12 days ago

    “Don’t be evil” my a**.

    SOURCE:
    http://brianshall.com/content/are-all-google-employees-stupid

     
    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 9:56 am on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

      I warned about google’s strategy for developers when they encourage use of latest libraries/code linked directly to Goggle’s servers instead of downloading and localizing them on your own server. It is act of creating a huge dependency on google for a little ‘convenience’. I remember how Google’s popularity was spreading by word of mouth only a mere decade ago. They’ve been IT! So much better than Yahoo, great open source supporter etc. A great people’s company. A do no evil company.
      It is already a few years already I know this is not true, the entrepreneur google is gone, privacy is gone, do no evil is gone. Funny thing is that as predicted they used the ‘open source’ crowd to gain the hegemony. They just used it to become what they are, and all of the nice fairy tales they used are becoming privacy horror flick. Corporate control freak. They know too much about everyone and they will leverage it in a worse way imaginable. Selling your detailed profiles to the highest bidder.

      Good thing is I believe they will be eventually disrupted. Apple is strategically superior company to Google and Google chose to pick up a fight with Apple. Apple managed to put it’s foot in the door of the biggest telecommunications behemoth AT&T and get them over few years in a situation where Apple’s hardware dictates what goes on the phone. Not AT&T. Not a small feat if you consider that just few years back telecommunication companies ruled every aspect of their business. From hardware to connection to content. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in Jobs’ will to take Google out for that Schmidt’s back stab.

    • Birra

      Birra 1:57 pm on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

      Great synopsis showing how both Page and Gates see everyone else as the enemy whom must be destroyed in order for them to survive. It always surprises me that there are so many folks who continue to be avid supporters of these companies. But it comes down to the basic human nature. We all like to think of ourselves as being ‘good’ meanwhile half the time or more we will opt to respond to those who challenge our perceived survival with an approach that could only be summarized as ‘evil’. Once you take that approach nothing can make you turn back. The end is self destruction but how much devastation Google will wrought before that happens is unknown.

      • Zee

        Zee 2:17 pm on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

        Importantly though, the article indicates Pages sentiments re Siri: A phone is a tool for contact, not a personal assistant. I’m glad that’s how he feels… because I don’t want to text or phone etc if I don’t have to.

        • Zee

          Zee 2:26 pm on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

          I just noticed an article rumoring on G.Fin. that by next month Apple will announce Siri will support Chinese, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

  • Nicu 4:21 pm on February 9, 2012 - 13 days ago

    4
    Nicu

    Model X unveil live streaming this evening 8 PM PST

    http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx

     
    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 4:36 pm on February 9, 2012 13 days ago

      Jalopnik crowd is going to have a field day. They weren’t able to digest Model S yet, and now Model X. Although I thought it supposed to be originally on Feb 6th, or at least that was the date stuck in my head.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 9:24 am on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

      I saw it and I am not impressed. First, I think it is a big mistake revealing new model when previous one is still not on the roads yet. It fuels the waporware impressions. It looks a lot like existing Infinity or Lexus SUVs, so design wise it is nothing spectacular. Rear ‘falcon doors’ are very poor design decision for so many reasons (unusable in low ceiling garages, can’t put racks on the roof, sideways rain, snow on to etc.) Sliding door would be superior decision decision. I also agree it is not thought through strategy to advertise Porche like acceleration when rest of the marketing is trying to sell this to ‘soccer moms’
      I guess, Tesla in the end is not Apple although in general Tesla is my most favored EV maker this far.

      As for Apple’s design decisions I do have one. Give me a freakin’ right/left/top/bottom arrow in slide out keyboards on mobile devices, so when I type and need to go back I do not have to use super annoying and impractical magnifying glass. Howgh!

    • Nicu

      Nicu 2:50 pm on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

      • Nicu

        Nicu 2:57 pm on February 10, 2012 12 days ago

        They have edited out a sequence when the frunk did not open :)

  • Nicu 4:47 pm on February 7, 2012 - 15 days ago

    3
    Nicu

    The guy is crazy, but he may actually be right, watch it until the end.

    http://www.myvidster.com/video/4285196/Video_Altucher_Apple_Worth_1_Trillion

     
    • GotWake

      GotWake 10:09 pm on February 7, 2012 15 days ago

      Just like many laughed at aapl above $450.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 1:52 am on February 8, 2012 15 days ago

      I read few of his articles while he was on MarketWatch. That guy is nut job always making exaggerated claims to get extra clicks.

    • henrystar

      Richard 11:09 am on February 8, 2012 14 days ago

      I did watch to the end. I despise facebook and don’t manage my page. He’s right on AAPL and the other fellow who spoke at the very end is wrong. The other fellow thinks it is a gadget contest, and of course it is not, AAPL is building a clean and simple world in which we can function happily and efficiently.

  • Nicu

    Nicu 9:15 pm on February 5, 2012 - 17 days ago

    “Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are flying through an area of turbulence. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts.”

    That’s what Captain Cook (Tim Cook, not James) could tell Apple’s stakeholders (employees, shareholders, customers, partners) in light of what happened in Germany on Friday and might reoccur soon: the temporary removal of products (or, in the future, product and service features) as a result of patent assertions by Android device makers in retaliation for Apple’s IP enforcement. He probably won’t make a statement like that, at least not until the going gets rougher and demands for explanations get louder.

    …

    Temporary sales bans appear more spectacular than they are impactful. Apple can always amend its proposals, and the latest one it made may already be sufficient under Orange-Book-Standard. If it’s not, we’ll see how far Apple will go — and the more concessions Apple makes, the more MMI has to watch out for antitrust blowback.

    SOURCE:
    http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2012/02/apples-iterative-approach-to-frand.html

     
  • 2
    Nicu

    Nicu 9:32 am on February 5, 2012 - 17 days ago

    “Larry Page and Sergey Brin haven’t turned into Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis or anything, but Google just endured the worst month in the company’s history and nothing will get easier as rivals and the government take aim at what used to be such a delightful fuzzy little tech success story.”

    SOURCE:
    http://paidcontent.org/article/419-was-googles-disastrous-january-a-passing-storm-or-sign-of-things-to-com/

     
    • henrystar

      Richard 10:24 am on February 6, 2012 16 days ago

      About 12 years ago now my family was skiing in Vail and we had dinner with a couple Rita knew from College Park MD and their kids — immigrants from Russia. I paid no attention to the kid, a second-year student at Stanford – Sergey Brin.

      • conshmillo

        conshmillo 11:47 am on February 6, 2012 16 days ago

        I am assuming you forgot to ask him about stock options.

  • 5
    Nicu

    Nicu 9:53 am on February 2, 2012 - 20 days ago

    “Amazon’s problem is that the “printers” they’re selling have crappy margins and the “ink” they’re selling has crappy margins. It’s starting to sound a little nuts.”

    Btw, it seems AMZN’s $1 in earnings worths 10 times more than AAPL’s $1 in earnings (P/E 130.72 vs. 12.99). Guess what? Only one of them is growing.

    SOURCE:
    http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/01/is-this-nuts/

     
    • henrystar

      Richard 11:21 am on February 2, 2012 20 days ago

      Makes you wonder what ANY stock is “really” “worth.”

      • conshmillo

        conshmillo 12:11 pm on February 2, 2012 20 days ago

        Makes you think what are the fundamental analysis worth.

        • Nicu

          Nicu 1:46 pm on February 2, 2012 20 days ago

          The minute Cook says dividend, no matter in what context or timeframe, the fundamentals will start correcting themselves. At the present rhythm of growth, in July 2014 Apple will have its present value in cash and earning more than $200B per year.

          There is absolutely no way (dividends or not, even with slower growth than the present 95%) that by the end of 2014 the stock to be less than $800 – except maybe an economical or other cataclysm. Knowing that you can double your money in less than 3 years is considered a wondrous gift by 99% of the investing population. Those who only invest in the stock can easily handle a double dip, their gains will simply be delayed.

          Fundamentals tell you the long term story. One who wants to invest today should be ecstatic that there such a predictable growth story out there (due to crazily compressed P/E). Lamenting that the market is not rational does not bring any profit.

          • henrystar

            Richard 11:11 pm on February 2, 2012 20 days ago

            Oh, I am long AAPL!

          • conshmillo

            conshmillo 6:59 am on February 3, 2012 20 days ago

            I’ve never been Apple skeptic and I still am not, but there is no such thing as a sure thing in markets. As for fundamentals time frame for their usefulness is so big that I don’t care. By the time fundamentals reflect themselves in price, I move my money literarily hundred times over. I think fundamentals have real value only for a really big hedge or mutual funds with serious mountains of money. For small investor, I believe, (no news there) technicals server better purpose.

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