Carl Icahn's Tweets Boost Aple Stock

I am very pleased with Mr. Icahn's tweets.

Both of us could make a very good team. I would be the one who Single-Handedly Stopped Apple! and he would increase the stock at the right moment after he has loaded with the shares that I have driven down.

Initially I wanted to send Mr. Icahn the postcard I sent to Apple as they would listen to him if he would care to pass on my message but how many postcards shall I send?

An email would suffice not that anyone would read it either (even fewer chance to be read than a postcard).

Starbucks +7.61%

They had 'silly numbers' as an analyst commented their latest results.

Starbucks Corporation (SBUX)' third-quarter operating income increased 25% to $615.2 million, or $0.55 per share. Total sales jumped 13% to $3.7 billion. Global comparable-store sales increased 8%, with 7% of that made up of all-important traffic growth. Lower costs, for example for coffee, also fed into the cafe giant's improved profitability.

More and more people buy the overpriced, bitter and burnt Starbucks coffee.
And sometime last year I could see the potential of Starbucks; the recession was over, most people were safe about their jobs so let's enjoy life as they could.

My strategy was to double my position in Starbucks in small steps until the price hit around $70. And once the stock got to $100 I would have sold half of it. So I started buying at around $55-60, increased my position by 20% and all the sudden the stock started sliding and got dangerously close to my average price of $47. I could not stomach any longer and started selling back what I had acquired recently until I had the same number of shares I started with before I had decided on the 'strategy' of doubling SBUX,

And now the stock is $73!

Postcard to Apple Investor Relations

"We were in an Apple store shortly after the iPhone 5 was released and heard a Genius Bar employee tell a customer that the iPhone 5 should have been bigger. This is clearly something some people want. " from 'Sweeping changes' coming to Apple stores


The following is what I wrote in the postcard and a few other things that did not fit:

***

I am an Apple shareholder so I am allowed to send suggestion :).

1. iPhone with a bigger screen and a very powerful processor. It will have MacOS installed as well that will be used for a ‘device’ (display + keyboard) plugged to the phone. No need to carry a smartphone and a notebook.

'The notebook is dead, long live the notebook!'

2. Apple to buy www.britannica.com and provide free access to anyone with an Apple device (Wikipedia is the 6th most visited website, so you can see what I am getting at).

3. Buy the rights to everything that BBC produces, and any old American and foreign movies that are not expensive and set up a website where they can be accessed from anywhere in the world again free of charge for anyone who uses an Apple device.

4. I can borrow DVDs from my library to watch movies. I wonder whether they would be allowed to digitize them so I can watch the DVD online that would be a better experience (sometimes the DVD does not work due to its overuse I suppose). Watching the DVD online would involve checking it out and in - only one 'library card' watching the movie - so it would be a similar process to borrowing the physical item.
Apple would provide the 'equipment' to quickly digitize the DVDs with the condition that for a certain period of time only users with an Apple device to be able to watch them.

***

Initially I wanted to use this photo, an apple cocktail tree (multiple apple varieties on the same tree) but the photo was not to clear and anyway too much of a cliche.

So I went for this photo taken when I was in Whistler, BC, Canada. It is July and Investor Relations receive a winter postcard. It would keep them cool looking at it.

I was thinking to send the same postcard to one of the top institutional holders of Apple but no point in doing it.

UPDATE: sent an e-mail with my ideas (I know, everyone has ideas) to Northern Trust Corporation and Invesco just not to say I have not done it. Apple would not listen to me but perhaps they might listen to some of their major shareholders.

Top Institutional Holders

Holder	Shares	% Out	Value*	Reported
Vanguard Group, Inc. (The)	43,247,824	4.61	19,144,081,771	Mar 31, 2013
State Street Corporation	37,194,631	3.96	16,464,575,358	Mar 31, 2013
FMR, LLC	34,747,682	3.70	15,381,408,914	Mar 31, 2013
BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A.	25,668,431	2.73	11,362,387,666	Mar 31, 2013
Northern Trust Corporation	13,848,715	1.48	6,130,272,181	Mar 31, 2013
JP Morgan Chase & Company	13,551,257	1.44	5,998,599,423	Mar 31, 2013
Bank of New York Mellon Corporation	12,562,591	1.34	5,560,956,532	Mar 31, 2013
Invesco Ltd.	12,307,498	1.31	5,448,037,064	Mar 31, 2013
Susquehanna International Group, LLP	12,059,221	1.28	5,338,134,767	Mar 31, 2013
Price (T.Rowe) Associates Inc	11,659,713	1.24	5,161,288,556	Mar 31, 2013

Postcard to Warren Buffett

Yes, I have sent a postcard to Warren Buffett.

Front of postcard

Back of postcard

It didn't fit the card - I wasn't going to send 2 postcards - but I had these examples as well:

Protein for the World

An article in Globe & Mail made me buy the stock some 2 years ago. I do not seem to find the link now so I had to upload the images (see them at the end of the post) - I wanted to keep them as 'proof' so took a few photos of the article (click on the images to see them full size).

Very compelling all the information presented, producing protein from canola, it sounded like making gold out of ... dust (for the lack of a better comparison).

And the world needs protein. China and India are of course mentioned in the article; they always mention China for the newly launched companies and lately they have started to add India as well.

I bought the stock almost right away after the article (the constant fear of missing the boat) so of course as usual close to the maximum then the stock kept hovering close to my buying price, even lower, but I did not worry. The 1st factory was supposed to come online and then the 2nd to feed the whole world with apparently the so abundant and cheap canola.

Loss so far - 98% even if they still have a compelling case according to their website.

However the proof is in the pudding, in this case in the price of the stock.
As they say it is execution that matters.

Against Everyone and Everything to Express my Displeasure

I keep receiving letters from the companies whose shares I own to vote for various items.
Usually I would not pay any attention and the letters would end up in the recycling bin.

But this time I have decided to exercise my shareholder voting rights especially as you can vote online using www.proxyvote.com.

Formation Metals Inc. (TSE:FCO)

Bought at an average of $2.7 and the stock was $0.085 on Jun 24 so I compltely disagree with the following:

AGAINST directors, auditors, and some other items they must be of no good as the board of directors recommended 'For'. 

Bioexx Specialty Proteins Ltd (TSE:BXI)

Average buying price $1.9, the stock $0.035 on Jun 23

You guessed right, AGAINST all proposals 

Morgan Stanley India Investment Fund Inc (NYSE:IIF)

Average buying price $22, the stock $15.90

Not so bad here with the exception that for the past 5 years IIF is down -55.1% and the Indian Index SENSEX +26.26% (I have owned to stock since 2006-2007).

Thank you very much!

AGAINST the directors (there were no other items otherwise I would have voted against them also).

I was curious and I checked the performance for the past 10 years: IIF +45.21%, SENSEX +471.76%.

Enough said.

Twitter: @curbexcitement

Against Facebook list of nominees for directors

Big names here, but I had voted against. I had paid around $40 for a share and now it is $24 so I didn't have any other choice.

Actually I should have voted for Mark Zuckerberg as I still trust him but cannot be bothered to change my vote now, especially that it would not matter either way.