During any sort of boom, the businesses that provide supplies or any ancillary services to those chasing the boom usually make the most money. The California Gold Rush of 1849 is a prime example. A young immigrant named Levi Strauss realized he could make more money selling picks and shovels to the 49ers than the 49ers would ever make looking for gold. Eventually, he would also sell them rugged, canvas pants that became known as “blue jeans.” As the Internet emerged at the close of the 20th century as the new backbone of communication, tens of thousands… Read More

During any sort of boom, the businesses that provide supplies or any ancillary services to those chasing the boom usually make the most money. The California Gold Rush of 1849 is a prime example. A young immigrant named Levi Strauss realized he could make more money selling picks and shovels to the 49ers than the 49ers would ever make looking for gold. Eventually, he would also sell them rugged, canvas pants that became known as “blue jeans.” As the Internet emerged at the close of the 20th century as the new backbone of communication, tens of thousands of businesses sprang up to provide the picks and shovels: Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) for networking, Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) for database management software, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) for enterprise server hardware. Even more amazing is that the computer technology business has grown in what seems like the blink of an eye compared with the century or so it often takes other industries to develop. With the exponential growth comes the need for space. But providing real estate and related services for high-tech industry is very different than what it takes for other industries. Read More

There’s something more to insurance giant Aflac (NYSE: AFL) than just the funny (and wildly successful) duck mascot. Weighing in at a hefty $26.8 billion market cap, Aflac (originally the American Family Life Assurance Co.) writes supplemental health and life insurance in the United States and Japan. Read More

I remember how nutty investors were for shares of the big pharmaceutical companies 15 years ago. Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) had just put the spark back into middle-aged marriages, thanks to its failed blood pressure med that had a surprisingly pleasant side affect. Other companies followed suit with similar… Read More

My oldest son was born in 1999. America was still experiencing what many believed was an endless nirvana of economic prosperity, so it’s no surprise that I sometimes jokingly referred to him as my “bull market baby.” With a generous gift from friends of the family… Read More

I recently watched the classic man-eating fish movie “Jaws” and the latest action in the precious metals space reminded me of the tagline for the film, “Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the water…” Is it safe to swim in the water?… Read More

In the investment business, we’re very good at talking about when to buy. We can wax poetic about the single-digit piece-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and the deep-discount to book value or the return on equity. It’s the selling part we all need to work on… The reasons investors hang on to a stock are so vast and complex, it would take a team of psychiatrists at least a decade to begin analyzing them. Typically, the two major reasons are greed and emotional attachment. Greed is… Read More

In the investment business, we’re very good at talking about when to buy. We can wax poetic about the single-digit piece-to-earnings (P/E) ratio and the deep-discount to book value or the return on equity. It’s the selling part we all need to work on… The reasons investors hang on to a stock are so vast and complex, it would take a team of psychiatrists at least a decade to begin analyzing them. Typically, the two major reasons are greed and emotional attachment. Greed is simple: we like making money and we want to make more. The emotional attachment is the weird part. I’ve always been a big fan of the Warren Buffett philosophy on how to deal with the emotions involved in holding stocks: that stock doesn’t know that you own it. The hundred shares of Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) doesn’t tell you it loves you when you come home from work. If it does, we’ve got bigger problems. It’s OK to sell stuff. Look at it like you would a party. Eventually you have to… Read More

During their baby phase, investors are totally in love with them. The newborn is absolutely perfect and the stockholders will coo and brag, and throw money at their pride and joy regardless of price. During the toddler phase, although the company may display poor behavior in not doing what it’s told and destroying everything in its path, including shareholder wealth, investors are still convinced they’ve got a real long-term winner. They forgive and shrug this phase off as just a part of growing up. As the company hits the elementary and middle school years, investors are still… Read More

During their baby phase, investors are totally in love with them. The newborn is absolutely perfect and the stockholders will coo and brag, and throw money at their pride and joy regardless of price. During the toddler phase, although the company may display poor behavior in not doing what it’s told and destroying everything in its path, including shareholder wealth, investors are still convinced they’ve got a real long-term winner. They forgive and shrug this phase off as just a part of growing up. As the company hits the elementary and middle school years, investors are still supportive — although not as forgiving as in the toddler years. Poor performance doesn’t go unpunished and the severity increases as the years progress. By the tumultuous high school and slacker college years, investors, like parents, often throw up their hands in frustration. The stock apparently can’t figure out what it wants to be or which direction its going. Sometimes, after this turbulent period, something wonderful often happens, but unfortunately many investors have lost patience and miss the metamorphosis. By this time, the company has grown into a mature, consistent, responsible adult. Giant chip maker Intel (Nasdaq:… Read More

Think back to the last time you were on the road for business. You decided to drive because you were covering some of the outlying areas in the territory and it was much more cost effective. You skipped lunch so you could get to Slapback, Miss. to see your customer… Read More

The capital markets are enjoying a bit of a renaissance in maniacal, pre-IPO valuation for Internet companies, more specifically, social networking businesses. The 900-pound gorilla of social networking, Facebook, has an estimated value of $50 billion or so thanks in part to the fact it decided to be Goldman… Read More

I got to know one company on my current watch list very well one summer, while working in the mail room of my father’s law firm. This was the mid 1980s. E-mail wasn’t even a Jetson’s fantasy. The computers that were around at the time were as big as a… Read More