Reading Time: 2 minutes It has been a while: I realized my understanding of some of the stocks is very much like a blindman perceives an elephant. I mean, I usually get a partial picture of the real thing, sometimes the partial picture is distorted. (source: throwtheword.com) For examples, the investing in Crocs (the shoe). It was a good

Reading Time: 2 minutes Tech for Silicon valley and agriculture for St. Louis. Silicon Valley Stocks We went to Sillicon valley for the holidays and obviously, stock is one common topic in family reunion and friends gathering. Note stock options makes up a significant portion of employee’s compensations for some of the technology companies there. I happened to read

Reading Time: 2 minutes I know no broker offer this as an option in IRA. But how about buying Berkshire (BRK.A, BRK.B) over mutual funds in a taxable brokerage account? Not only does Berkshire has a track record which beats almost all mutual fund (21.4% annual compound return in last 42 years) and the 10.4% annual return of S&P

Reading Time: < 1 minute I decided to go for the June 2008 CFA level one test, due to several reasons: 1) Learning: I am interested in learning more about finance, since it is not practical for me to enroll a formal academic program, nor do I have the discipline stick to my own study plan. Enrolling in CFA exam

Reading Time: 2 minutes I came across this list of top 25 stocks in last 25 years from AOL money and finance. The original article was appeared on USAToday Sept 15, 2007. Note statistically, a sample of 25 is too small to draw any scientific conclusion. But I found a few things to be interesting nonetheless. 1) Two money

Reading Time: 2 minutes The following was my the new year resolution for year 2007. I am putting my comments in italic. Personal Spend more quality time with family and friends; cut Internet and TV time. Did the first part, I did spend more time with my parents, brother’s family, and my wife (girl-friend). Whether quality or not is

Reading Time: 2 minutes and he had done it for 47 years (maybe not every year, but compound annual return), that’s pretty good. The following is quoted from Buffett 2006 shareholder letter, you can get the full letter at Berkshire web site: …… Let me end this section by telling you about one of the good guys of Wall

Reading Time: 2 minutes My performance The Scottrade account did beat the S&P 500 and Nasdaq (detail to be calculated…). This is pretty easy because the market did not go up much in the past year (3.5% for S&P and 9.8% for Nasdaq). More importantly, learned the risk, portfolio management (weighting), IRA/401K/mutual funds, all from hands on experience and

Reading Time: 2 minutes The miserable performance of CROX erased much of my 2007 gains. But thanks to the rebound of Mindray (MR), I am still be able to be above water 🙂 Some random thoughts of Q4 and year 2007 stock performance: 1) Crocs (CROX): I agree with my friend StrengthTrader, Crocs is a fashion product. It’s almost

Reading Time: < 1 minute Also, I will be visiting families and probablly not updating this blog for a week or so.