Stock Portfolio Summer Update

Hi everyone.  I know it's been several months of no updates.  The stock market had a crazy pull off around March and many stocks' price were severly beaten down.  However, looking to the long term, technology sector will still boom due to the fact that it did in fact changed our lifestyle.  We pretty much "google" everything for advice.  Whether it be checking if an item's price is competitive before purchasing, researching how to fix your house, finding guitar tabs, or just watching youtube videos for fun, you can access them everywhere.  Mobile computing and communication technolgies advancements will enable us to do many of the "googling" more effortlessly and more afordably.  The trend I see in technology that will be hot for a while is in four main sectors:  Clean Tech, Mobile Computing, Internet hardware and software(security, high performance hardware), and Mobile and web applications for nich markets.  Going with any of those 4 sectors, if researched and filtered carefully, you will most likely gain from your investments.

Enough said, let's check our porfolio performance for HDA's Portfolio since I still want to show how we did so far with our long term holds:

Symbol	Company Name	Buy Price($)	Current Price($)	% gain
INVN	Invensense	11.87	21.69	104.7
ADNC	Audience, Inc.	16.28	10.67	-48.1
AMBA	Ambarella, Inc.	16.79	29.46	69.3
SYNA	Synaptics, Inc.	38.77	57.03	114.8
HIMX	Himax Tech., Inc.	6.48	14.41	7.4
			Average % gain	49.6

As you can see, dispite of plenty of geopolitical bad news, our progress for longer term (1 year+) gain was not so shabby - average at 49.6%.   INVN is still my top holds since it has potential to grow for wearables and other mobile devices. Also, because I hold alot more INVN and trade ADNC in small amount (~1% of portfolio) on and off, the gain was much more than the merely 49.6% mentioned above. Therefore, I recommend buying INVN for long term.  As for AMBA, SYNA, HIMX, you could choose to sell for short term or hold for long term, depending on how well the google glass and smart phone sector is doing and if they remain as market leader in their specialty.  As for ADNC, if you have not bought it, buy it around 6-7 dollars range if you can get it, you will not regret it.


Have fun trading.

Our Portfoilo Progress Report

It's been awhile since I last updated.  I've been busy with school and did not get a chance to update my portfolio recommendations.  Although I haven't been updating my list via posts, I had been changing the portfolio widget on the right side of this website page (HDA's Portfolio).  Last year was a great year for all investors so my gains was nothing to be proud of.  However, I still want to show how we did so far with our long term holds.

Here's the break down:

Symbol	Company Name	Buy Price($)	Current Price($)	% gain
INVN	Invensense	11.87	21.69	82.7
ADNC	Audience, Inc.	16.28	10.67	-34.5
AMBA	Ambarella, Inc.	16.79	29.46	75.5
SYNA	Synaptics, Inc.	38.77	57.03	47.1
HIMX	Himax Tech., Inc.	6.48	14.41	122.4
			Average % gain	58.6

As you can see, our progress for midterm (half to one year) gain was not so shabby - average at 58.6%.  I still believe these companies will hold up well in the current market.  This only miss was ADNC, which didn't do as well as expected and did not go through M&A.  However, I believe ADNC will pick up in the future.  INVN is still my top holds since it has a big growth potential going forward to 2015 and on.  Therefore, I recommend buying INVN for long term.  As for AMBA, SYNA, HIMX, you could choose to sell for short term or hold for long term, depending on how well the google glass and smart phone sector is doing and if they remain as market leader in their specialty.

Have fun trading this year.

Is Google Chromecast a good deal?

Google's new HDMI streaming dongle just got released today on Google Play and Amazon.  While Amazon shows out of stock, Google play still have those neat little devices ready for order.

What is Google Chromcast? What does it do?  

The Google Chromcast is a dongle that can be plugged into any display with HDMI port and stream media from your mobile devices.  In terms of functionality it works like Apple's Airplay and Google's miracast.  However, that's the only similarity.  It doesn't stream directly using your device;  it first find the source of the media content and grabs those content directly from the net, which theoretically should give a better video streaming experience compared to Miracast and Airplay.  Currently, this device only works with a few mobile applications such as Netflix, Youtube, and Google play.  However, knowing Google, they will update the firmware and make this device work with more applications in no time.

Value Comparison

Here's a list of Chromecast's direct competitors and their market price:

Apple TV - $99
Roku Devices - $50-$99
Android sticks and other android based streaming hardware - $30 - $90

Chromcast is $35 with 3 free month of Netflix subscription (worth $24) which drops the device's cost to $11 with the Netflix subscription taken into account.  This is definitely a steal.  Although other devices might have more features, most people probably want to easily and quickly stream some Youtube video from internet.  And to do so, using a phone or table is much simpler and easier than using the smartTV's slow and cluncky built-in interface.  In addition the competitor's streaming solution is arguabaly more expensive.  Compared to the HDTV's cost to the cost of the Chromcast, it's pretty much nothing compared to the cost of HDTV itself but neverthless could drastically improve the HDTV's internet streaming's usability.

I currently have a Panasonic smartTV and although it can also stream internet content on its own, the user interface is really clunky and responds slowly to the remote controller.  It's also hard to browse through and search for Youtube videos as compared to using phones or tablets to select contents to watch.  Another good thing about this device is that you are only sending the information of the media content you are streaming from so you can still use your phone and table while watching Youtube on TV, while with other similar streaming devices, you are essentially mirroring the display so you cannot do something else with your phone during the streaming.

Final Verdict

For $35 ($11 if taking into account the free Netflix subscription), Chromecast is a very good deal.  With a click of button, whatever you were watching on the phone (limited to Netflix and Youtube at this time) will be displayed on your HDTV up to 1080p resolution and it cost almost nothing compared to your HDTV cost .

The only major competition for Chromecast are android based streaming devices or sticks.  Those devices have functionality similar or better than Chromcast and could be as low priced as Chromecast. However, those android hardware are mostly sold and serviced in China and are not made by a big name company like Google.  If you purchased Chromecast and happened to have issues, you can safely bet that you can get it taken cared of much quickly than if you were to purchase an android stick with questionable quality and service.

At this time, I would say just buy this device if you often watch video on your phone or tablet, have a HDTV, have a decent internet connection (WIFI), and likes the convenience of streaming media from the internet with a simple click of a button on your mobile device (iphone, ipad, android phones, and android tablets).

I will post my own review of this device if I have time but in the mean time, feel free to watch the following reviews and hands-on's from other sources:

Phandroid's Review and Walkthrough:


CNET's review on Chromecast-
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/google-chromecast/4505-6739_7-35823617.html

TheVerge's hands-on with Chromecast -
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/24/4553368/hands-on-googles-35-chromecast-a-streaming-tv-stick

AndroidCentral's hands-on with Chromecast -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z38pXtd6tI


Other useful information:
-http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/99426/amazon-google-chromecast-wireless-hdmi-streaming-dongle-3month-netflix-subscription
-http://www.androidauthority.com/html5-and-webrtc-the-technology-behind-chromecast-248968/
-http://chromecastcast.com/   (I like this one alot, they talked about many interesting things about this device)



Update:  The Netflix promotion is over so that makes this device a bit less appealing.  However, it's still decent at it's price point.

Updates to my portfolio and watchlists

Today I exited all of my YHOO positions and added a few new stocks.  I will keep YHOO in my stock watch list.  I did not keep YHOO in my portfolio because currently it's only fairly valued, and I found more interesting stocks to hold than YHOO at the moment.  I added the following stocks and will share my 2 cents on this move:  MX, MXIM, and ANV.

• MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp (MX) is a small CAP company with low P/E, low short rate, and a potential upside of  ~20% within 1 year.  It has a relatively steady earning and has a good potential to grow bigger in the long run.  
• Maxim Integrated Products(MXIM) is a well known semiconductor company with good balance sheet and lots of good engineering talents.  Most importantly, the company is doing well recently and it shows on its stock price.  The earning is good, the P/E is fair in my opinion, and the potential upside is in the ball park of  ~ 18% within 1 year.
• Allied Nevada Gold Corp(ANV) is a small CAP gold mining company with huge upside (~100%).  However, due to my lack of knowledge of the gold industry, I only entered a small position in this stock.  This is more of a speculative play by me with short/mid term trading in mind (up to 1 year term).  I compared this company with two other gold mining companies (AEM and NGD) with similar valuations and ended up chosing ANV for its relatively fair P/E, fair fundamentals, and huge upside potential.  Note that this stock could go down due to the volatile nature of this stock so bear this in mind.  I will write an update when I decide to exit my position in this stock.  I think I would do something similar to a trailing stop or a stop loss of 5-10%.

As you can see, I am fairly confident in MX and MXIM, not so much in ANV.  MX and MXIM are the two stocks to buy now if you want to trade in the tech/semiconductor sector.

Updates on INVN and AMBA
-Good news for Invensense (INVN) regarding to their recent deals with Google (http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/INVN;GOOGid1841885/INVN;GOOG-InvenSense-advances-after-analyst-reports-Google-deal)

- Ambarella (AMBA) will have Q1 FY2014 Earnings Conference Call today (June 4th, 2013).  If interested, webcase is available at http://investor.ambarella.com/index.cfm.  

- More AMBA news (earning jump, EPS beat, and revenue increases):

1. http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2013/06/04/ambarella-jumps-9-fyq1-revenue-eps-beat/?mod=yahoobarrons
2. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ambarella-inc-announces-first-quarter-200500136.html

Updates on ADNC
-Good news.  Audience partners up with China Mobile (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/audience-partners-china-mobile-redefine-201855520.html)

Updates on ANV
-Long term gold prices is still more toward the downside so I've decided to exit this posititon for a loss.


Note1:  One should never buy a stock without doing research yourself and never invest more money than you are willing to lose.  Everyone's strategy is different and there are no right or wrong answers to stock investing, it's about risk tolerance and your current finacial situation - how conservative you are, how much cash you have, and how much you wanted to earn each year.

Note2: Ones strategy could evolve or change through time.  So far I've transitioned from conservative to more aggresive stocks and so far I've been doing well.  This is due to the fact that the overall stock market trend is up the past year and for aggresive stocks, although more risky, the reward is much larger.

Note3:  Another thing is to never invest too much money in a field you are not very familiar of.  For example, if you just started learning about the semiconductor market, you should not invest too much of your money in that field.  I invested in many technology stocks because I am familiar with this market and know many people who works in the tech industry.  For example, Audience(ADNC) is not a very well known company since it's relatively new, but ever since my ex-collegue started working there, she had nothing but good things to say about the company.  At the time, its share price price is only 6 dollars and in one year it's more than doubled.  So I did the research, had some luck finding this small company, and profitted a little from the stock, but most importantly, I am confident about how the company will do because I am very up to date about the chip industry.

Note4: Stock trading is not for everyone but I hope I can help some people out with what I know from investing in stocks for several years, eventhough my knowledge is still fairly limited compared to the GURUs out there.  I think stock trading is fun and exciting.  If you feel the same, feel free to to join the ride :)

Note5: Never believe in any good news or bad news right away, but you should always be prepared for bad news.

Note6:  It is wise to take some short term gains from time to time and buy back the stocks in your portfolio when the market is taking a breather or have a correction.

Future of digital paper tablets?

The response of the tablet to the stylus is a bit laggy judging from the videos but the concept is still great.  I think the future is bright for note taking specific notepads that has long battery life, large storage, and fast stylus response.  I am hoping that they will sell the standard grade of this device for less than 100 dollars, which is quite doable.  They could sell a higher grade device with more and better features (i.e. faster CPU, better screen resolution, better stylus...) for a higher price.  If they are able do all of these mentioned, Sony will be back in the game since every student and working professionals probably will buy at least one of them (it saves time and money, long term, including paper and pencil costs).  Another thing they should do is to make the GUI more intuitive for sharing data wirelessly.  In addition, it would be cool if it can be charged wirelessly as well.




Other blogs talking about this device:

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57585367-1/13.3-inch-sony-tablet-is-like-etch-a-sketch-on-steroids/
• http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/13/sonys-got-a-13-3-inch-e-reader-with-pen-input-which-is-sort-of-like-a-dodo-with-antlers/
• http://www.geek.com/tablets/sonys-13-3-inch-digital-paper-prototype-lets-you-scribble-on-e-books-1554888/

I will follow up with more updates about this device in the future.  Stay tuned