Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Nice Surprise
Sunday
September 16, 2007
It's been an eventful weekend, but I'll have the wrap on that soon, hopefully tomorrow, in its own stand-alone article. I'm sunburned and exhausted, but it was well worth it.
The fact that I haven't posted in the past two weeks should serve as some indication as to how busy I've been. Between the start of football season, work, a bout with bronchitis, etc., it has been one thing after another.
To the disappointment of me, and many others, the SEC Poon website that I praised on here earlier this month appears to be a case of Grand Opening, Grand Closing. The reason? According to multiple sources, the site posted a picture of Alabama head coach Nick Saban's 15 year old niece on there. Bad idea. Now the site has a picture of Nick Saban and a non-descript apology to him on there. Oh well.
However, the idea of showing beautiful women supporting their favorite SEC football team is too good to not end up being replicated elsewhere, either right away or on down the line. It's the sort of thing that conferences would do outright in those stupid promotional TV spots they run during games if there wasn't such potential for backlash.
I made a major stock purchase (at least by my standards) earlier this month in Ericsson. That's a Swedish company that makes technology in many different wireless products. With a perfect 10 ranking on MSN's Stock Scouter, and a business model that I both understand and like, it was an easy choice for me. And, so far, I've been happy with it: I bought at 36.39, and it's already moved three points higher (though it did dip down to the low 39 mark by the end of Friday's trading.) We'll see how it plays out long-term.
When I opened my online stock trading account last year, I stupidly bought stock in roughly $100 portions, putting $1,000 into 10 companies. At the time I figured: why not diversify my investment? The trades were free to start with, so it was easy. But with a vig of $12.99 (or whatever it is) to sell with the freebie period having long ago ended, I've realized that investing small amounts like that is a sucker move, like betting on a tie in baccarat. I'll put more cash in my Pioneer mutual fund in the future if I want to go for general investing.
The axiom that holds true, in investments as with everything else: live and learn.
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