COST - Costco is still kicking!

Costco is still moving steady.  They are slowly but surely increasing there fundamentals.  Their leadership team is doing a very nice job doing it too.  

Last month, Costco had a 10% total sales growth, and that was just June.  It wasn't anything special, such as the holidays or any tax holidays.  

It is expected that there's a corresponding earnings growth this quarter.  

Sources: 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/16/costco-wholesale-corporation-is-still-on-the-rise.aspx

AAPL & IBM - Can they be friends?

After having a rough competitive history between the two decades ago, Apple and IBM are teaming up.  

IBM has agreed to bring in iPads and iPhones and develop business and big data apps for their customers.  They also plan on bringing in IBM employees to support their devices on-site for their customers.  

This is another step closer of Apple taking over the commerical market and widening the uses of their devices.  As of October 2013, there were 1,000,000 apps in the App Store with 475,000 of them native to the iPad.  In June 2014, there were 1,200,000 apps.  

iOS developing has exploded since 2008.  Apps are Apple's strength.  People who were interested in developing apps for the iPhone, have now had the opportunity to graduate from a 4-year college by now and are prime for programming and developing.  Apple recently release they new iOS 8, with a health-monitoring kit. The best apps are yet to come!

Sources: 

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2316545?source=iphoneportfolioapp_copy

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonesoftwareterms/qt/apps-in-app-store.htm

TSLA - Tesla's secret market

Tesla recently announce that last month, they reached 1GWh of charging at their supercharging stations.  Based on the math and estimates done by Siddharth Dalal, Tesla made $1.8 million from the supercharging access payments and yet only paid about $120,000 supplying the electricity.  It's a highly profitable, subscription service for charging your car!

With more and more of these stations being built and filling in the grid across the country, more Tesla owners should find the fee more reasonable and surely adopt it.  Tesla is becoming a cross between an auto company and an "oil" company, which makes them very exciting to be an investor of.  

Hold TSLA!

Sources:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/2315075?source=iphoneportfolioapp_copy

Jobs - Status of the Job Market

With some emphasis brought by President Obama the economy and jobs are coming back strong and it's about time!

Housing is coming back!  This news means people are feeling more stable at their place of employment.  

Manufacturing jobs are also coming back to pre-recession levels.  Manufacturing however, has a ways to go to become strong again. China reaching slower growths and workers demanding better conditions and pay, certainly help US workers in the long term.  

Talking about jobs, the cofounder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, has said that the job market needs to evolve once again after the recession.  After reports of workers afraid of leaving they current job for another, even for advancement, and employers giving out yearly contracts, instead of the traditional hire, he came out with an interesting solution.  

Hoffman states that new-employees should be given less of a "trial run" and more of a "tour of duty" for 2-4 years.  This allows the employee to follow through a project or product life-cycle while having meaningful meetings every couple of years about career development, expectations, and most certainly pay.  You are forced to have those conversations while giving you stability of having a job.

I think of this as an inbetween an employee and a contractor and certainly benefits from the stability of one while having the pay of the other.  

Sources: 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-radical-approach-to-hiring-152858417.html

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/obama-finally-has-some-good-economic-news-to-deliver-172745113.html

Trading Volume and Frequency - A sign of something?

In last couple weeks, I have read multiple articles about how trading volume has slowed down.  Just today, a Wall Street Journal article (Empty Floors Fray Traders' Nerves http://online.wsj.com/articles/empty-trading-floors-fray-nerves-on-wall-street-1405302362 ) made me realize, maybe it is more than a fad, but a long-term trend. 

The article was about how bond trading is down and "boring."  The economic downturn caused new regulations and empty desks.  The new regulations kept the empty desks empty and with fewer people, there are fewer people to make sales calls and trade securities.

Another player is computer-aided trading, also known as high frequency trading.  High frequency trading can be used to sneak in before large orders or as the first  orders after a news event.  They make there money based off of making hundreds of trades throughout the day and manufactured using algorithms and complex programs.  Mark Cuban has voiced his opinion about high frequency trading in his blog,  http://blogmaverick.com/2014/04/03/the-idiots-guide-to-high-frequency-trading/ and he isn't afraid to come after them. He thinks it should be banned.  It's manilipulating the stock market and only certain giant players can play the game.  It short changes the average investor and makes the stock market unwelcoming. This is a rare comment coming from a guy who owns a NBA franchise and loves competition.

KEY- KeyCorp is the key!

KeyCorp is doing awesome fundamentally.

First, it just beat garmin in market cap.  That is good news since this will increase the volume through a greater interest of mutual funds and ETFs looking for this sized market cap position.

Second, it is growing it's commerical, financial, and agricultural loans.  This growth is great news for the economy, but it is also great news for profitability.

Third, it's book value is up 5% from the 1st quarter of last year, which translates to a 27% premium for investors.

Fourth, KeyCorp is constantly trying to improve their stock.  Constant buy backs and an increase to their dividend is definitely pleasing.

My recommendation: buy and hold until $25.

References: 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dividendchannel/2014/07/09/keycorp-now-327-largest-company-surpassing-garmin/

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/07/07/does-keycorp-hold-the-key-to-a-fortune.aspx

F - Ford Motor Company, dividend

Ford just released there quarterly statement about their dividend.  They have decided to keep it at $0.125 per share.  

Ford is at the higher end of there 52-week range being priced at $17.32.

Currently, their competitor, GM is getting hammered by all of their recalls and the scandals behind them.  This is also reflecting on Ford a little, making them a little undervalued.  

My recommendation is to hold if you have it, but it's not quite a buy or a sell at this point.  

AAL - American stays alive!

Shortly after my article about American Airlines, the stock took a tumble.  The stock dropped to $37.95 by Tuesday morning.

This was caused by a reaction of statements made by their European competitors about how competitive international travel is.  

Luckily for us, the CEO released a statement stating passenger growth and a more stable flight paths.  Also released was a report about how American made $580 million on hedging fuel.  

These new stories have return AAL back to normality with the stock hovering $42-$43 Wednesday afternoon.

I change my recommendation to sell at $50.  

WMT - Walmart, Going, going, gone.

Walmart is in trouble in this dynamic global market.  It is struggling on its uphill battle of online shopping and believe it or not, the revival of US manufacturing.  

Walmart's aggressive pricing strategy is based on selling tons of cheap products. These cheap products are getting more expensive to sell in the stores, and the average consumer has the easy knowledge of scoping out the market online while shopping.  Things are not getting easier for Walmart.  Having such large stores with footprints to fill could be a huge self-inflicted wound that can't be fixed.  

I recommend you stay away from Walmart in the long run.  Profitability will be a huge issue in the next couple years.  

HD - Home Depot, Inc.

Home Depot is ready for take off!   It has been relatively flat for the past year while producing $0.47/share dividends.  

This morning, it is priced at $81.42, with the 52-week high and low being $83.20 and $72.21.  

There's plenty of room for growth as the economy picks up and people start to enjoy their free time the second half of the year.  

Goal: Sell at $90

AAL - American Airlines Group Inc.

Including today, AAL is on a two-day slump since it was reaching all-time highs of $44.  The sell off might be more of a market adjustment.  

AAL is now half a year old and the effects  of the merger should now be fully in play. I would expect a higher than expected quarterly report due to the market effeciencies it is now taking advantage of.  

Sell point: $50 in 2 months

Ways to use a Raspberry Pi Model B

I am currently still searching for ways to use my Raspberry Pi Model B.

From looking through multiple websites and Reddit's extensive topic on it, I am thinking of developing it into my own personal stock follower.

First, I am planning on figuring out how to send emails from my Raspberry Pi.  I have little experience programming with Python, which is what I plan on using.  Once I have that working, I would have the Pi retrieve internet data, such as stock prices and news and format that down into an email.

Once that is working, I would like to focus on developing different portfolios and track those performances.  I want to have the emails be personalized and unique and develop a simple yet nice looking email message.

I have been told that this is already possible to do through my own computer and through other various online sites.  But the reason why I want to do this, is to get to know my raspberry pi better and to understand the full capabilities of python.  I currently have limited funds and live in my parents' place, so modification of the house needs more convincing.

I should get my Raspberry Pi and case today or tomorrow.  I have gathered an extra mouse, keyboard, mini USB power cord, iPhone outlet plug (5V, 1A), HDMI Monitor and cord, and ethernet cord in anticipation for it's arrival.   

Sites I came across to help me on my Quest

Still awaiting the arrival of the Raspberry Pi, I am still researching and brainstorming on what I can do with it.

I came across a good site, Magna Techa and very interesting list of things to do with a Pi.

"Things I Do With my Raspberry Pi" by Magna Techa

As of August 25th, 2013, there were 9 solid ideas of how to use a Raspberry Pi.  One was to make the Pi a network attached storage device (NAS).  Another good project was to make the Pi a warning device for your important websites if they were to go down.  The Pi would access a list of sites at regular intervals and would email a summary to you detailing their status.

The most interesting idea that was brought up on this blog post, was making the Pi a host for a website or two.  On Magna Techa, they bring up even putting wordpress on the Raspberry Pi.  Using not even $50 of electronics to make a website host is really interesting proposition.

What should I do with my new Raspberry Pi?

What should I do with my new Raspberry Pi?

I am expecting the arrival of a new Raspberry Pi Model B from SparkFun Electronics that I ordered the other day.  In the anticipation, I am starting to brainstorm of what I should make it do.

According to Wikipedia, "the Raspberry Pi is a credit-card-sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools."   Sounds Cool, right?!  

This computer is the size of your hand and runs linux through a SD card.  This chip allows you to just plug in a HDMI cord for your monitor, two USB ports for your keyboard and mouse, and even an ethernet port for an internet connection.

The path that I will most likely take would make the raspberry pi tweet for me.  As a challenge, I could connect one or several of my multiple sensors from my Arduino starter kit to either trigger the tweet, create content for the tweet, or do both.

If I was to go that way, I would use a temperature sensor and a light sensor to tweet the current conditions of my home office.  After some internet research, I am going to follow this post to make my Raspberry Pi tweet.

If you guys have any tips, comments, words of encouragement, or ideas of what I should do, comment below.


This is going to be fun!

NFL's Crime Problem and Solution

32 players have been arrested since the Superbowl this year.  That seems like a lot, but lets do the math.

Every team has 53 roster spots and there's 32 teams throughout the NFL.  (Weird coincident that theres 32 teams and 32 players arrested!)

Also assume that each offender had a spot on the team and the team has not yet replaced them.

So, 32 out of 1,696 players.  That's just 1.89% of the league.  If that bad or is that good?  I looked into the CIA World Factbook for some comparisons

• Apparently that is the same percentage as American children being under 5 and overweight (1.3% in 2004).
• In 2011, the real GDP grew about that percentage (1.8%)

Anyways, according to the FBI's crime statistics, the NFL is actually doing better than the average.  Following Wikipedia's chart, there were 2.9 property crimes per 100 people and 0.4 violent crimes per 100 people.  

That's sort of good.  If they were above average, action better have been taking place.  Thinking about it, a large source of crime is poverty.  Some of these guys did find there way out of poverty through football.  A lot of their friends and family are probably still living near poverty, making them risk it all by association and eventually making some terrible decisions.  Being the rich one of their communities, they might feel like they are above the law as well.  

It however could be bigger than this.  It could be a from the constant head pounding they have done, the aggressive nature of the game, or the extended down time.  

Concussions have been known to cause violence.  There's plenty of scholarly articles enforcing that (one example).  Football players get concussions almost every time they strap up their helmets and have getting them since they were 5 playing Pop Warner and the liking.  Having 20 years of concussions building up for a 25 year old, of course there is some effect from them all.  

Football is a violent sport and can totally be depicted as a dog-eat-dog game.  The more vicious you are play after play, the bigger your ego is, the bigger the paycheck, and the more likely you will take this aggression off the field.  I am not saying all the crimes were violent ones, but it would explain the some of the violent ones.  

Preseason starts in August and the regular season ends in December.  There are 8 months that these players have to deal with.  Yes, they work out, study plays, do commercials, do some charity work (maybe), and work some camps.  There's obviously a lot of down time still!  More games isn't quite the right solution, but it might help.

An interesting solution is space out the games a bit more.  Having a game every other week might be too long, but a week and a half should be plenty.  Imagine if every night there is a football game on.  I think we are going to see a solution like this sooner than you might think.  

Having less free time, more time in between games, and maybe even more games could help this issue. It would make football a full time job for more than just the coaching staff.  

The Boston Bruins Win the Stanley Cup!

You would have heard that if Patrice Bergeron didn't play, in my mind.

Bergeron, a player for the Boston Bruins in the NHL, was playing in game 6 with numeerous injuries.

He apparently had a broken rib, torn cartilage and muscle tissue, a seperatad shoulder, and had a small puncture in his lung.  That is a lot of pain to endure.  I do think he definitely won some hearts with his playing through the pain.

One thing though, if he is in so much pain, wouldn't that make his slower, less aggressive for the puck, and not as nimble?

(http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/schilling-sell-bloody-sock-cover-debts-article-1.1174845)

I don't recall how swift he was the other day when the Bruins lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, but wouldn't a fresh player be a better solution?

I am sure that there are plenty of fresh, energetic, and able bodies that the Bruins could have brought up and played in this crucial game.  I understand you want one of your star players in the lineup if you can, but I think it was stupid for both the Boston Bruins organization and Bergeron himself to play.

He was trying to play into Kurt Shilling's bloody sox.  Too bad, they didn't win.

Will Aaron Hernandez play again?

Will the former New England Patriot play football in the NFL again?

My vote is sadly yes.  As you might know, Hernandez was arrested today at his home for the connection of. Murder of his friend.  From the evidence that have been made public, there is no way he is getting out of this.  

Another question is, if Ray Lewis can come back and win a Superbowl, what's stopping Hernandez?   

Apparently Kraft and the Patriots have a sense of morals by releasing him.  However it's still okay for them to cheat the league and such (asterisks please!).  I honestly think, given two years, he is coming back to play professional football for a team that is in need of a tough TE.  

What's amazing is that this guy is not even a year older than me and has that huge house an had a multimillion dollar contract and still decided to do something so stupid, he is going to loose it all.  Typical.

 Someone just rocked their own world!  

(Picture below is from NASA)

The Job Hunt: Strategy

Just this week, I have formally started my job hunt.

Scary, I know.

I am trying to be organized, but yet efficient about it.  I have done several things already to stay focused, stay determined, and stay ahead of the game.

First, I opened my iCalendar and scheduled time where I am focusing on my job search.  I selected from 9 to 11am each weekday for the morning session.  For the afternoon, I put down 12:30pm to 5:30pm.  This way, I get gilt reminders when I am off doing something else that I should be looking for a job.  I have done this before with my senior project back in college, where I needed to work on it independently, but regularly.

My Schedule; Its a full time job looking for one!

Second, I have been keeping a journal of the steps that I have taken during my job searching times.  I start each day with the date, and make a note of each job I applied for.  I make sure I put done, the title of the position, the company and geological place it would be, where I found the job (linkedin, monster, careerbuilder, etc.) and several tidbits of the job posting like the qualifications and keypoints of why I fit the position.  I am doing this all because its relatively quick to do and I can also use it for when I hear back from a company, but can't find the actual posting anymore.

I can also use this journal as a way to see that I am making progress.  I can see what I have done today and motivate myself that I need to do more.  It can also be used as a way to justify that you have been working on searching for jobs and not just playing games, in case someone asks (like your parents).

The last thing that I haven't quite done, but working towards is a way to develop my resume and become more competitive in the job market.  Every day after graduation, your degree's value is decreasing slightly.  So far, I am registering to take the Fundamentals of Engineering Exam (FE exam) in late October.  I am also currently in the research phase of looking for other ways to add value.  I am thinking of taking on a hobby of some kind.  I'm thinking of designing something practicing my mechanical knowledge or working through some problems using MatLab.

Let me know if any of you have any suggestions or advice.

Two Regrets of My Career!

For those who are still in high school or in college, you need to do two major things: Network and intern.

Linkedin.com is a great place to start your networking and search!

First, network around town all the time.  Become friends with your friends' parents.  You can learn a lot through this.  Ask about their career, how they started and what made it possible to be where they are now.

Second, find a meaningful internship.  It gives you credibility, adds depth to your resume, and can potentially get you a full time position after your education.  It might take some time to develop this, but again, network around and you can find opportunities.

All in all, stay in the game, be creative, and always push further.

Good luck.
 

Dangerous Jobs: Professional Hockey Player or Soldier

The Florida Panther's player Krys Barch was asked on his opinion about the NHL's efforts to reduce collisions and head injuries.  His response was pretty rough.

To paraphrase, he thinks it is okay for professional hockey players to deal with the dangers of the game, such as concusions.  He claims its a dangerous was to make a living, but it is a way to make a living.  Barch refers to the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and how they are not getting compensated as much as them and are risking it all.

Barch makes some good points.  These soldiers are risking a lot for our country and for the world's peace.  However, I do stand by the NHL's moves to make the game safer to play.  It is enjoyable to watch big hits, but watching guys getting paralyzed isn't really all that cool too.

In the NFL, there is a lot of pressure to do something about the head injuries coming from retired and not-so-retired players where the neglegence and profit made from the sacrifice of these players' bodies is getting rediculous.  Another arguement in this case, is that even children in elementary school are getting concusions through football.  Just recently, there was a study conducted that linked impacts of pop-warner aged kids to those in College games.  For a mind and body that is still growing and learning, these type of injuries are quite alarming.

Science and the billions of dollars that go to these games should help make it safer to enjoy and play at all levels.