phyllostachys five: holiday spirits...

12-25-2004 -- I don't always know what I'm going to type about here. Although I claim sanity, I have many thought streams coursing through my cerebrum at any given time. Some financial, some garden-oriented, some word/excel/powerpoint/edgar-ease/acrobat based (the day job), and some...well, we won't go there...they're not very G-rated. :-)

I cannot yet type about forex...although I have a gut feeling in which don't agree with the general opinion that the Euro (and other foreign currencies) will continue to rise in relation to the US dollar, I haven't done enough reading and comprehending to understand why I feel that way...other than the fact that I like to invest with a contrarian bent to my thinking and actions.

Forbes just published an article about Warren Buffet's forex trading. Granted, he's one of the world's elite bridge players and therefore is not truly tipping his hand to anyone...but supposedly he's still buying and renewing anti-dollar positions with an eye to a lower dollar:Euro ratio. He's recently made some $400+ million in currency-trade profits...but that's a fraction of Berkshire-Hathaway's $120 billion market cap...so it amounts a diversionary hedge for Mr. Buffet.

Nor can I talk much about recent stock market successes. Although QMCI is doing well, I sold a sizable position (sizable for me, that is...) in AEXCA (Ampex Corp) after it'd risen from 21 to 35...it has risen further, to 42.50. I just bought back in at 40, so we'll see if this low-float tape storage company, which is banking on its stable of patents to boost it's bottom line, is able to push into the stratosphere. But although I'm having long-term good feelings about RIMM, I bought that at 90 and it's now down to 82. I bought more at 82 (one of my critics considers my lack of stop-losses to be down-right stupid...quoting IBD articles about catching falling knives...)...but am wondering if quintupled profit, and strong foreign sales can move RIMM beyond certain US patent troubles.


AEXCA reminds me of several other low-float-but-now-sub-orbital stocks: that same favourite critic told me of ASVI, which is low-float but is riding the popularity derived from selling tractor-like vehicles and having Catepillar as a beneficial owner...

2-15-2005 -- I won't say much, as I need to post a blog entry devoted to today, but the text above was to be my Winter Holiday 2004 posting...and I haven't touch my blog since I started typing it. I was intending to segway into discussion about substance abuse, as some of my family has had problems about that. Although the only substance I abuse is Starbuck's coffee (I've recently attempted to switch to black tea, with varying degrees of success), I just had a beer (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, my overall favorite), so I won't touch the substance abuse tangent for now... Suffice it to say, Happy (Chinese) New Year!

See my Valentines posting for more sagacious stock tips!

..phyllostachys.