October 11th, 2006

On Iridum

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Just posted a comment on BeyondSG (George Yeo blogs there btw) regarding Iridium. A Porsche for $750 bucks. Re-post here for archive purposes.

I done a due diligence on Iridum for a banker in 2002.

It was already pretty interesting back then. Iridium went backrupted in Aug 1999 and in Nov 2000 was bought out for 25M USD by a group of investor, including Khalid bin Abdula bin Abdulrahman.

In Dec 2000, DoD awarded a 2year 72M USD deal for 20,000 handsets with an option to extend it for 5 years. Supporting DoD alone covers 40% of the OPEX :-)

They only need 60,000 subscribers worldwide to breakeven.

The 66 “birds” (satellites) however have a lifespan designed for 7 years and would expire in 2005. However, the engineers is able to tune it and it is possible to last until 2008 to 2010 and minimual data service could still function until 2015.

The problem for the investors is that when the birds expire, it is going to be expensive excerise to replace them, probably to a tune of 3.5b, altho Boeing mentioned back then they are willing to share the cost.

Anyway, sadly the deal didnt go through. It would be interesting otherwise :-)

September 29th, 2006

VC Podcast

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Introducing VC-IO, a podcast by Levensohn Venture Partners. VC who do podcast! wow!

VC-InsideOut opens a window into the venture capital industry through constructive dialogue and interviews with leading VCs, entrepreneurs, and other influential leaders involved with the VC world. VC-InsideOut episodes feature original content developed and produced by Pascal Levensohn, Keith Benjamin, Kip Sheeline, Steve Reale, and Jeff Karras on a range of subjects relevant to the venture capital industry.

The first two epsiode is up: (1) completeness of an idea and (2) warning sign in the board room. Remember to subscribe to their Podcast feed :-)

January 1st, 2004

2003 Performance

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2003 is a pretty good year for me. There was quite a few stocks which is quite badly beaten in the poor market sentiment despite their fundamentals. For example, I picked up Crayfish (email outsourcing company) for 60cent on a dollar just on their cash value alone and made over 100% profit when they annouce they going return the cash and delist the stock.

I also made a right “bet” that technology recovery will start from hardware. Business will started to buy hardware since they probably hold back their spending in the last 3 years in the downturn and now they have to play catch up. My play in CHRT gave me some nice gain although I probably hop off the train a bit too early. It\’s a lesson I shouldn\’t forget.

Overall, I achieved an net gain of 71.81% compared to S&P (26.38%) and NASDAQ (50.01%). Hey, I still bet the market, which is what matters to me. Lets hope I\’ll do equally well in 2004. :-)


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October 8th, 2003

Marketocracy

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Woolstar suggested I should put my investment portfolio on Marketocracy.

Marketocracy is a virtual mutual fund. Members are given 1,000,000 virtual cash to invest in stock market. If you perform well, they might actually hire you to be a fund manager! Interesting…

One problem however, my current portfolio is not compliance with the diversification requirements for mutual fund. (Did I mention I do not believe in diversification?)

October 5th, 2003

Past Performances

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I started stock investment seriously in 2001. I resisted buying anything in 1999 and 2000 because I just couldn’t find any stocks to buy using my investment strategy.

The .com bubble burst in 2001 opens some opportunities to invest. I remember I couldn’t sleep for a few days the first time I bought some shares. It was quite a substainable portion of my net worth then and the market is swingly crazyly. Nevertheless, it works out okay and I achieve a net gain of 37.97% compared to S&P (-13.04%) and NASDAQ (-21.05%).

2001-SNP.PNG


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October 5th, 2003

My Stock Investment Strategies

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I started speculating stocks after my junior college in 1993. But that is pure speculating (or gambling) and I buy and sell without knowing why. I remember I made a bit of money but I did not keep track of my performance then.

In 1999, I read about the effect of inflations and taxes on wealth accumlation in my study on financial planning. I made up my mind then that I will study stock investments seriously and started reading books on or by Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffet and Philip Fisher etc. The usual suspects.
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October 4th, 2003

Don’t forget: Buy and forget it

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It is a frustrating two weeks. I was bored and tweaked my portfolio two weeks ago (selling off CHRT at 7.35 and it close 9.16 today) and I pay dearly for my mistake.

It is not that I am angry with the lost gain. I mean I didnt lose any money on the trade and the money, really, it’s no big deal. I am angry at myself because I violated one of my own investment principles: “buy and forget it“.

I decided to blog this to remind myself of this painful mistake.

Current stock portfolio: CSCO (14.8%), FRE (19.4%), ISIL (29.2%). RSAS (5.6%), Cash (31%).

Oct2003.PNG


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