Monday, December 3, 2012

Stock competition

Zynga, -16.33% (Sep.24-Nov.30)
Baidu, -14.99%(Sep.24-Nov.30)

Stock Competition

My two stocks were Disney and Sirius XM.

I paid $51.5 per share and bought 194 shares of Disney.
I paid $2.64 per share and bought 3, 787 shares of Sirius XM.

Disney is now down to $49.31 per share, while Sirius is up to $2.80 a share.

Gain/Loss
Disney -$424.86
Sirius XM +$605.92

Total: $181.06

So Sirius was my best stock. Huh.

Newsmobile

https://www.dropbox.com/s/77bk9zf4kn6gzbl/Newsmobile.pptx

Oh come on, Apple

Successful launches of two major products and your stock declines. Don't ask me if you want trading advice.

Activision did the "best," with a less than 2% gain.


SYMBOL               PRICE NOW        PRICE PAID         GAIN/LOSS         GAIN %               
AAPL                     586.74                   664                        -$386.30               -11.64%              
ATVI                      11.31                     11.12                     $45.79                 1.71%   
GCI                         18.06                    18.03                     $6.66                   0.17%   
Total                                                                                   -$333.85              -3.34%

Angela's Stock Report: The Edward Effect (Whether We Like Him or Not)




Formula = (Price_1 - Price_2) x Number of shares

Disney
52.07 - 49.72 = -2.35
-2.35 x (5000/52.07) = -225.66


Lions Gate
14.96 - 16.53 = +1.57
+1.57 x (5000/14.96) = + 524.73

524.73 - 225. 66 =  +$299.07 

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Huei Jun's stock report




CHT
TWC
price on 9/29/12
31.75
95.06
price on 11/30/12
32.15
94.89
shares
144
57
investment (USD)
4572
5418.42
present value (USD)
4629.6
5408.73
profit & loss (USD)
57.6
-9.69
result (USD)
47.91

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Mark's stock report: A whole lotta meh

The last two months were generally not too good for my stocks: Overall, I came out with $9,486.43 of my $10,000, so while my proverbial nest egg isn't gone, it's certainly not getting any bigger. What's most interesting is how they landed at that number -- I hit on two stocks, really missed on one, and had one that looks really bad, but I actually almost broke even on. Here's how my stocks fared, from best to worst:

Cinemark (CNK), 112 shares -- bought at $22.76, currently at $27.20, +19.51%

Easily my best stock. The price has risen quite steadily since I bought it, and it also paid out a 21-cent dividend in the middle of November. The two big positive events were Cinemark's purchase of 32 theaters from Rave Cinemas and strong third-quarter results as a result of growth in Latin America. Neither of those things were part of the reason I bought the stock -- all the strong attendance I expected this fall won't show up in an earnings report for a few months -- but hey, I'll take it.

News Corp. (NWS), 100 shares -- bought at $24.86, currently at $25.22, +1.45%

Modest growth here, but that's fine for me during a volatile time for the market. Their road to get back to my purchase price was pretty rocky, though: First the stock rose after an Australian regulator cleared News Corp.'s attempt to buy out a pay-TV service there, then fell when it was rumored to be interested in buying the LA Times and Chicago Tribune (Wall Street rightly thought that was a bad idea). It reached its lowest point when News Corp. was first rumored to be buying a share of the YES sports network, but jumped up when Rupert Murdoch sold all his nonvoting shares. Things are never boring with ol' Rupe, that's for sure.

Microsoft (MSFT), 84 shares -- bought at $30.18, currently at $26.62, -11.81%

Just bad all around. There was initially some good news about Windows 8's success that helped buoy the stock price for a little while, but traders hated most everything else Microsoft did, including buying a couple of small mobile media firms and especially paying out a dividend. It's still getting some buy recommendations, though, so maybe I was just ahead of the curve?

Fisher Communications (FSCI), 67 shares -- bought at $37.18, currently at $25.11, -32.46%

So this drop is actually really misleading. In actuality, Fisher's stock was steady for almost all of the time of this contest -- its gigantic drop was due almost entirely to a huge $10 dividend it paid out in October. If I actually held stock in the company, I would have received the dividend, but since I am only a mock owner, I don't get the dividend, but instead just get the theoretical stock drop. So this one looks really bad, but if I were really a stockholder, I would have come out just below even.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Design for Newspaper Lovers

A new design for newspaper lovers

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/11/18/2371823/a-new-design-for-newspaper-lovers.html

The truth is, building a newspaper for people who love newspapers is somewhat revolutionary.

For decades, the newspaper industry designed papers for people it hoped would read them.

 Interesting comments by Dr. Dane Claussen:

There's still that old dichotomy between at-risk readers, who think newspapers are not serious enough, and marginal readers, who find them too heavy going, and that's mostly about content, not design. So, while you're at it, News-Tribune, maybe try to make the print paper substantively better for at-risk readers, and make your digital versions substantively better for marginal readers. (While satisfied readers, who are neither marginal nor at-risk, can choose or read both???) 

Sounds like a good idea? 

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

virtual pay


A glass of water, 5
15 min of idle time, 3
Fresh air, 3
An online news article,3
A song streaming from an online radio station, 2
A youtube clip, 3
A news tweet, 1
A piece of email, 1

The Long-Tail Economy: An Inspiring Concept

A model for online retailing/entertainment industries: Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, and Netflix.

Unlimited shelf space: From "hits vs. misses" to seemingly unlimited choices


The death of distance: Easier to get a critical mass in a much larger geographic market 

Tools for content access: Search, algorithm-based recommendations, user reviews

Controversy:

Does the availability of options and navigation tools shift consumption from the head to the tail?

Some argue that the greater choice, navigability, and searchabilty will actually strengthen the hits relative to the niche products!


Empirical evidence:
 
http://www.youtube.com/charts/videos_views?gl=US&t=a

http://www.youku.com/v_showlist/t2c0g0d4.html

Therefore, it is NOT any easier to be a niche content producer financially than it was in the old media environment. 

Three business models for online music in practice:
  • iTunes
  • Pandora
  • Spotify
Pandora vs. Spotify
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/24/pandora-and-spotify-rake-in-the-money-and-then-send-it-off-in-royalties/

Who Really Profits from Your iTunes Downloads? http://www.investinganswers.com/personal-finance/rich-famous/who-really-profits-your-itunes-downloads-3818

Implications of audience segmentation for ad-supported media