Free Investing

Market Folly submits:While we typically cover investments hedge funds make in public companies, we like to keep an eye on investments made in private companies as well. The reason? A potential lead to secular themes that investment firms are targeting. Case in point: hedge fund Tiger Global and its portfolio of web properties. According to Russian newspaper Vedomosti, Chase Coleman's hedge fund has paid $10 million for a 40% stake in Anywayanyday.com, an online ticket booking site in Russia. The site is owned by an affiliate of Valars, a grain trading company also based in Russia. The website currently garners around 3% of the Russian online airline ticket sales market and sees yearly revenue of around $5 million. The company is also planning to 'revitalize' its presence in the hotel booking segment as well.Complete Story »

YCHARTS.com submits: With Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) dominating the headlines and investors' minds, RIM (RIMM) has fallen out of favor and the once “must have” BlackBerry now has to contend with the iPhone and Android. Investors have been selling shares of RIM on the notion that Apple and Google will prevail as they enter the enterprise market currently ruled by RIM. Complete Story »

Adib Motiwala submits: Cloud computing in simple terms is internet based computing. Software as a Service (SaaS) is software that is deployed and accessed over the internet. Saas is also called “software on demand”. Both these technologies are a rage nowadays. Companies that directly or indirectly operate in this space are considered the next Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG). Both Microsoft and Google are also creating products and services that will be delivered as a service and over the ‘cloud’ if you will. You may heard about Google Docs which is similar to Microsoft Office instead you access it via your browser from anywhere in the world. As a regular user of Google Docs and being in the IT profession, I can certainly appreciate the value of such services. Let us take a look at four companies whose business model is related in some way to Cloud computing. Two big and popular names that sport large cap market caps. Complete Story »

Andy Wang submits: Let me first start off by saying I love Apple products. Apple 'the company' is second to none. They are true innovators and have certainly created an amazing brand of well-made products that live up to the hype. But I want to talk about Apple 'the stock'. You know, there is an old adage; a great company is not necessarily a great stock, and vice-versa. I challenge you to find a better company than Apple (AAPL), or a better stock for that matter. The performance this year, heck for the last five years has truly been unreal. However, the future may not be so pleasant for the hardware maker. The law of large numbers may have a way of stopping the stampede of this stock price. Oh, I expect more great products on the horizon, but the love affair between the stock and investors will be shorter term than those who really love the products. Complete Story »

Andy Wang submits: Let me first start off by saying I love Apple products. Apple 'the company' is second to none. They are true innovators and have certainly created an amazing brand of well-made products that live up to the hype. But I want to talk about Apple 'the stock'. You know, there is an old adage; a great company is not necessarily a great stock, and vice-versa. I challenge you to find a better company than Apple (AAPL), or a better stock for that matter. The performance this year, heck for the last five years has truly been unreal. However, the future may not be so pleasant for the hardware maker. The law of large numbers may have a way of stopping the stampede of this stock price. Oh, I expect more great products on the horizon, but the love affair between the stock and investors will be shorter term than those who really love the products. Complete Story »

The Pragmatic Capitalist submits: In these times of high debt and deleveraging it’s unusual to come across companies that aren’t in over their head. CNBC recently ran a piece listing some of the largest firms in the world who have immaculate balance sheets – NO DEBT. The list follows:Complete Story »

The Pragmatic Capitalist submits: In these times of high debt and deleveraging it’s unusual to come across companies that aren’t in over their head. CNBC recently ran a piece listing some of the largest firms in the world who have immaculate balance sheets – NO DEBT. The list follows:Complete Story »

Steve Alexander submits:Think back a decade ago to mid-2000. The average person probably owned a single desktop computer and accessed the Internet through AOL (AOL) dial-up. Few people bought products on-line. Nearly everyone still purchased CDs to own music and VHS tapes to own movies (DVD did not outsell VHS until 2001). Film cameras were found in 90% of homes while digital cameras had only penetrated 10%. Digital cameras still took relatively small, low-quality photos - 3 megapixels was state-of-the-art at the time. Digital video was barely even being used in Hollywood, let alone in the hands of consumers.Most computer files were small, text-based word processing or spreadsheet documents that could easily be backed up onto floppy drives, Zip drives, or CD-ROM disks. Back in 2000, the largest hard drives you could find were about 80 gigabytes (GB) in size, and most computers had disk drives in the 20-40 GB range.Complete Story »

David Fry (ETF Digest) submits: Lately some investors have looked under the hood and were surprised to discover the NASDAQ 100 Index (NDX), to which the QQQQs (PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF) are linked, was nearly 20% weighted with Apple (AAPL) before the recent share price drop.Complete Story »

Dividend Inc. submits:
Below are the Nasdaq 100 companies that are within 10% of the 52-week low. Although the stock price is low on a relative basis, we're still on the lookout for a retest of the March 2009 lows. This could mean that many of these stocks could have much further to go on the downside.Sym.NamePriceP/EEPSYieldP/B% to LowGILDGilead Sciences$31.9410.24$3.120.00%4.290.35%NVDANVIDIA$10.0520.85$0.480.00%2.141.52%XRAYDENTSPLY$29.2515.99$1.830.70%2.461.77%FISVFiserv, Inc.$45.6014.29$3.190.00%2.311.79%SPLSStaples, Inc.$19.3117.86$1.081.80%2.182.60%PAYXPaychex, Inc.$25.6719.46$1.324.70%6.833.13%AMGNAmgen Inc.$52.1711.07$4.710.00%2.293.68%VRTXVertex Pharma.$32.470-$3.500.00%6.893.90%ERTSElectronic Arts Inc.$14.790-$2.080.00%1.875.19%ADBEAdobe Systems$27.3938.47$0.710.00%2.865.31%FWLTFoster Wheeler$21.527.85$2.740.00%3.285.85%AMATApplied Materials$12.1938.09$0.322.20%2.296.18%HOLXHologic, Inc.$14.1225.67$0.550.00%1.356.49%CACA Inc.$19.0012.9$1.470.80%1.996.74%SHLDSears Holding$63.2332.69$1.930.00%0.876.79%SYMCSymantec$14.5916.73$0.870.00%2.627.44%YHOOYahoo! Inc.$14.9026.75$0.560.00%1.678.36%GOOGGoogle Inc.$459.6120.92$21.970.00%4.118.53%LOGILogitech Intl$14.330$0.000.00%08.81%MSFTMicrosoft$24.8912.9$1.932.00%4.899.50%KLACKLA-Tencor$29.2368.45$0.432.00%2.349.52%EBAYeBay Inc.$20.0910.87$1.850.00%1.959.72%APOLApollo Group$45.5711.68$3.900.00%4.779.94% Watch List NotesComplete Story »