Friday, May 29, 2015

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Before Captain Obvious became a thing, it was customary for the impatient to criticize those who point out the self-evident with a good old fashioned "No shit, Sherlock!" But who is this Sherlock who has transcended the centuries while 99% of what gets written (including the contents of this blog) has an expiry date that would make the dairy industry blush?

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Strayer Returns

It was with a heavy heart that I sold Strayer a few months ago when its price leaped into the $70 area. But the market gods have seen fit to return this company to my portfolio, as the stock is down almost 40% over the last six months! I've written about Strayer before as a stock idea, and not much has changed so I'll just add a few quick points to supplement the old article and bring it up to date.

Friday, May 22, 2015

Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field

After Newton, everyone was pretty sure that the properties of the physical world had been figured out. Things travel in a straight line unless acted upon and all that. But then some experimenters, led by the brilliant Faraday, demonstrated that some activities appeared to operate as fields. A generation later, the brilliant Maxwell was able to formalize/quantify how these fields worked. As a result, today we have a world totally reliant on their discoveries as we are utterly dependent on electricity. Nancy Forbes tells this tale in her book, Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field.

Friday, May 15, 2015

Structures

Why don't ships/buildings/bridges fall down? Structures by J.E. Gordon is aimed at answering such questions for the layman.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Cellcom

Cellcom Israel (CEL) has traded on the NYSE for more than 8 years, but it's price has never been so low. It is the cell network market share leader in Israel, but a price war is bringing down the industry's profits.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Out of STT Enviro

I purchased my position in STT Enviro 3 months ago, but today I no longer own any shares. I have no quibble with the company, it's just that the price ran up such that I no longer believe it to be a good risk-reward at the current price.

Monday, May 4, 2015

Marissa Mayer and the Fight To Save Yahoo

Yahoo! (YHOO) has one of the lowest P/E ratios on the S&P 500, so it is with great anticipation that I read Nicholas Carlson's timely book Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo. I was not disappointed.