Skip to content

It’s about time Nasdaq!

Nasdaq is letting go of the 15 minute delay on stock quotes listed on its exchange. Google, Yahoo, WSJ, and CNBC will all reportedly be providing Nasdaq’s quotes in real time. So what, big deal, Freerealtime.com has been giving away quotes in real time for a decade. And anyone who really needs instantaneous quotations gets them from better sources anyway for both the Nasdaq and the NYSE. Still, it’s about time.

Don’t fuck with a good thing

kazoo New York’s Original Kazoo Co. stays true to name

The name of the place says it all: The Original Kazoo Co. And, boy, do its owners mean original.

The same belt and pulley machines that stamped and shaped the world’s first metal kazoos circa 1900 still stamp and shape kazoos today. The machines are still in the same building, making the same ker-thwunk sound as they perforate, fold and shape.

Instead of shipping production off to China Kazoo provides employment for the mentally disabled in the small farming community in which it operates. Kazoo gets it. Kellogg screwed with its Oreo knock off Hydrox cookie and created enough of an uproar to get the company to bring the cookie back.

Crocs are you listening? Greed will get you somewhere, but it aint always gonna be where you wanna go.

Kazoo comic

Unfortunate Fortune: Shockingly Pathetic Stock Picks from 2000

It’s Fortune magazine, August 2000, Special Investors Issue, Retire Rich

Article: 10 Stocks to Last the Decade

And here’s the list:

Stock Ticker Price P/E Comment
Broadcom BRCM $237 255 Maker of chips used in the next generation of entertainment devices
Charles Schwab SCH $36 56 Former discount broker that has grown up along with its boomer clients
Enron ENE $73 51 Biggest online broker for coal, oil, and gas; next up — broadband
Genentech DNA $150 128 Offers a huge pipeline of promising drugs, plus a topflight sales force
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter MWD $89 18 Just passed Goldman Sachs as the top M&A firm in the world
Nokia NOK $54 75 Mobile-phone maker now moving into “smart” appliances
Nortel Networks NT $77 114 75% of U.S. Internet Traffic travels through its equipment
Oracle ORCL $74 86 Onetime database firm that has become an e-commerce must-own
Univision UVN $113 122 Biggest Spanish-language TV programmer in the country
Viacom VIA $69 96 Owns a stable of media brands like CBS, MTV, and Paramount Pictures

 1 share of each = $972.

Where are they now?:

Stock Ticker Price P/E Comment
Broadcom BRCM $28 68 Stock split in 2006
Charles Schwab SCHW $22 11 Delisted from the NYSE, moved to NASDAQ.
Enron ECSPQ $0.08 0.35 Bankrupt. Trading Over the Counter
Genentech DNA $70 24 Split twice, once right after the article was written and again in 2004
Morgan Stanley MS $47 27 Caught up on mortgage meltdown, bailed out by a Chinese company
Nokia NOK $29 10 Traded as low as $11 a share
Nortel Networks NT $8 - Fell on hard times immediately following the article. Did 1:10 reverse split in 2006. So you can think of the stock as 80 cents.
Oracle ORCL $22 22 Split soon after the article. Hit a low of $8.
Univision - - - Taken private at $36 / share
Viacom

CBS
VIA

CBS
$39

$23
14

13
Viacom split its shares into the tangled mess of VIA, VIA.B, CBS, CBS.B

Of the ten companies, the only one that would have made money over the past eight years was Genentech. Your shares would now be worth $506, a 48% loss. Without the admirable help of Genentech, the loss would have been 64%. Somehow it feels a lot worse than that though, considering that you would have lost everything on Enron and virtually everything on Nortel. Of course, the majority of people sold at or near the bottoms, fairing even worse. Mathematically speaking, the bottom is generally caused by increased selling. Nice picks.

Will it work on day traders?

Not so great speculations

dalmore 5 Ways to Go Broke Getting Drunk

When does a shot of scotch cost $3,300? When the bottle’s going for $38,000 and hits $75,000 in a bidding war. Amazing Google capability: Enter ‘number of shots in a liter’ into Google Toolbar and before you hit enter AJAX serves up the answer of 22.5426817 shots, which would get an investor $72,600 in shots with a sip left over for themselves. But I suspect that bottle is going to stay on the shelf, or in the safe, the one behind the picture, for a very long time.

Betting on Volatility in Crocs

This just seems like a really bad idea. Like betting on stocks for the sake of the betting. Go to Vegas! You’ll have more fun, and people bring you drinks while your doing it, perhaps even $3,300 shots if that suits your fancy. Nicolas Cage’s character in Leaving Las Vegas would have lived a really long time at that price.

A White-Collar Sentence of 330 Years

Was it worth it? But the Dalmore 62 Single Highland Malt Scotch Whisky was good while it lasted.

A federal judge sentenced 72-year-old Norman Schmidt last week to a mind-bending 330-year prison sentence after he was found guilty last May of a laundry list of conspiracy and fraud charges. Barring a scientific breakthrough in cryogenic technology, Schmidt will spend the rest of his days behind bars.

Stagflation means fewer Vegas Stag Parties

Gas or gamble? Economy forces some to choose

The pressures of a weak economy — concerns about job security and rising prices for gas, food, home heating oil and other goods and services — are causing many gamblers to cancel or reduce the number of casino trips. Those who go are gambling less money than in the past: At the traditional gambling Meccas of Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and in other states, casino revenue is down. Employees are being laid off, and there’s concern about future growth.

BloggingStocks asks about another kind of gaming.

Is the video game industry recession-proof?

Another problem to keep in mind: the Associated Press recently reported that teens are having a tough time procuring summer work in light of the struggling economy. That means less spending money for video games.

Yet we get the conflicting question: Will the Fed raise rates? Rapidly rising prices, slowing economy, spells stagflation, not a pleasant position to be in, the 70s all over again.

George Soros as God

The more George Soros talks, the less people care what he thinks.

soroschart

Some companies just shouldn’t go public

What the hell really happened to Crocs?

crox

This pretty much says it all:

crocheel

Harper’s gets it, why didn’t shareholders? In a word: greed.

crocs