Wednesday, June 24, 2015

What is long term investing? What does it really mean, when someone says that he is a long term investor?

Here, I have to start with a little reveleation. I am a full time retail investor/trader/speculator, who receives my salary from the market. I trade and invest, to be able to cover my familys expenses on a monthly basis. This is a unique situation, in that many people are not full time traders, because most of the market participants are either passive investors through various means, while others have full time jobs as a primary means of income. In my case, it is much more different, and I solely depend on my actions in the markets.

So when I publish a material in here, I don't do it half-heartedly, I write things that genuinely interests me. That is another reason, why I don't publish often here. I have to work, by work I mean I have to analyze and trade stocks on a daily basis. It takes a lot of time and energy,  plus I have family responsibilities.

Recently, I have been re-considering (polishing) my investing strategy and thinking about the ways to maximize my earnings. And to do that I follow many different news outlets. In one of them I had been confronted with a person, who insisted that I can't call myself a long term investor. So it got me thinking about this topic. What is the exact definition of long term investor, and why I might not fit the description of a long term investor.

Well, as I have a trading account, I also have an investing account, that I use for longer term opportunities. In the trading account, I don't even consider myself as an investor more like a speculator. On the other hand, in my second account I do analyze companies, and put heavy emphasis on the uniqueness of the situation. So, I guess, it doesn't matter how long one keeps his positions, but what is the mindset of an investor, when he makes a decision on buying or selling. I firmly believe, that wonderful companies, that are bought at right pricess and held for longer time periods make the most sense, but I am not chained to one certain idea, if I have found a better idea somewhere else.

Twitter - What's wrong with the business, and is it fixable?

Twitter has been in the news a lot lately. The reason is simple. Company has permeated so much to the lives of people, that any issue gets to be focus of mass media.

What's wrong with the business model?

The business model of Twitter is pretty straightforward, and it is based on advertising revenue. One of the main drivers of a successful advertising business is having a growing base of unique users or visitors. Hence the fallout of Twitter with investing community. Twitter has been losing traffic for the last couple of quarters. There are major issues in active use base as well. Many people just don't participate in the active twitter life style.

But why?

Well, it seems to me that Twitter has not yet identified its mission, and that is the major problem, Why would a person use a Twitter service? For communication, for news, for entertainment or anything else. I use Twitter for news, but its cumbersomeness actually repels the service. I am no longer involved in the service, as I can't follow up with the twits that fill my newsline. One solution  for me would be classification of the twits according to the themese that are the most interesting to me.

The other problem that Twitter has is the lack of interest from the younger generations. It is really a service that has a lot of information load, and in this time of our life, many people are not just interested in the news. People need customized news.

Well, third element concerns the execution of ideas. Management of Twitter has been under constant scrutiny for the issues at the company. Maybe, new management will have better ideas and better execution capabilities. For now, I would strongly advise to stay away from the stock.

The Future of European Union

As of late, we have all been observers of the drama around the Greek situation. Main gist of the drama is around Greece and its ability to pay off its debts to its creditors. The drama has been a constant theme of speculation from at least 2011.

Major participants from the Greek side are politicians. The future of the Greece in hands of these elected offials. But why does the politicions have so much power in determining the fate of one country. Why can't the business community of Greece take part in the discussions. As far as I know, the conditions set by the creditors committee include many elements that concern both the business community and main street.

Well, I am just a regular guy who has an intense interest in having a strong Europe and united Europe. After the recession of 2008-09, the world economy is just getting its pace. And we desperately need to work together to have a better future for all of us. Therefore, I really wish that the current impasse will get resolved and we start focusing on real issues, like corporate earnings and growth of the overal economy.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

3 New Additions to My Long Term Investing Portfolio: United Pacific Corp., Wal-Mart Stores. Inc and Chevron Corp.

Here are two new additions to my portfolio:

1) UNP - BUY @ 101.20
2) WMT - BUY @ 72.73
3) CVX - BUY @ 99.74

As I have noted in my previous posts, my strategy in picking stocks is simple. I try to find quality companies that have been shoot and left for dead, for reasons that should not matter much in the long term. Companies has to have certain moats, that will help them overcome current business related issues and ride out the unfavorable macro environment.

It is a new thing for me to publish publicly my picks, but I am willing to put my record on public, so that I can invite feedback from interested parties. I think, healthy dose of discussion will never diminish the value of independent thinking that I cherish a lot.

I am not going to state my thesis on purchasing these securities in a current post, but I promise to publish the main points in the near future.


Why Companues Go Public: Rationality Comes First

This is a post that was written as a response to the post on FB. Here is the link:  https://www.facebook.com/sgzh90/posts/10213873611779...