NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

William Parrott of Morgan Stanley

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Today was another meeting with the University Investors Association, and the guest speaker was William Parrott of Morgan Stanley. He is head of the entire Austin branch of Morgan Stanley which has recently moved to a brand new state-of-the-art facility in downtown Austin.

He is leaving town for a week, but when he comes back I am scheduled to go meet him at the beautiful Frost Bank Tower where Morgan Stanley is located and take a tour. I’m excited to see this place!

I wake up every morning before 8:30 am to catch the opening of the market, it would be great to be around active money managers when this happens! If I am lucky, I might even get a shot at a job there!

Dave Liniger Quote

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I’d like to share a quote I recently heard:

“I’ve been miserable when poor, and I’ve been miserable when rich. Let me tell ya, it’s a hell of a lot better being miserable when rich.”

—Dave Liniger, Founder of RE/MAX

Dynegy Turning Profit

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Today Dynegy (DYN) turned a profit for me. I bought this stock a few months ago and was soon riding a 25% gain, until they paid off debt which pulled from their bottom line. Since paying off debt is GOOD in the longrun, I held on.

Shorter term investors hated the news and dumped the stock. Ulitmately leaving me with a 16% loss.

You can see that Dynegy has been recovering from the announcement. I plan to hold Dynegy for a couple of years as natural gas will be a hot commodity soon.

I am back in the black with Dynegy, and hope to be for years to come!

Meeting Dave Liniger

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Today I had the opportunity to hear Dave Liniger speak and meet him afterwards. He is the founder of the largest real estate company in the world, RE/MAX. He was an extremely motivating and interesting man who shows no signs of slowing down.

After dropping out of college and joining the military, he started buying small houses and selling them. By the time he was 21, he had sold 21 houses. From there on he had a successful career as a real estate agent for several large companies, then he founded RE/MAX.

He spoke of the many years of difficulty trying to start up the company and compete in the real estate market. Financial problems and death threats were the norm during the starting years, but once the company finally got on track, it soared. He also was very proud that RE/MAX was the only large real estate company who allowed women and minorities to become agents and upper management.

This is a bad picture for both of us, but here it is anyway!

UIA Stock Competition

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I am currently #1 in the University Investors Association Stock Competition.

This simulated $100,000 portfolio consists of $10,000 holdings in these ten companies:

RIO – COMPAN VALE DO RIO DOCE

SM – ST. MARY LAND & EXPLOR

DHI – D.R. HORTON INC

CCJ – CAMECO CORP

HDWR – HEADWATERS INC

PSYS – PSYCHIATRIC SOLUTIONS

VMSI – VENTANA MEDICAL SYSTEMS

GMR – GENERAL MARITIME CORP

ASFI – ASTA FUNDING INC

BXG – BLUEGREEN CORP

These picks come directly from The Kirk Report, and his top 15 investments for 2005 (I only used the top ten).

Anyone can get this fake $100,000 and invest for themselves at simulator.investopedia.com

Not a Bad Day

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Even though I am holding only longterm stocks right now, I still keep up with my portfolio for learning purposes.

Today my $8,100 portfolio increased by $231 just today. After owning the stock for only a few days, Fortune Brands (FO) has given me a 10% return. I am holding it longterm so there will be no selling for now.

Dynegy (DYN) and Syntel (SYNT) were both in the red, but have recently both gained back big time, especially Dynegy. General Electric (GE) has been rising steadily.

How To Get "Stuff" Done

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Sometimes I will find myself with a great business idea and never carry it through. These ideas are put on the back burner when things get busy and then lose their steam. This is common among people who are busy or have other ideas to pursue….and unsuccessful people. I will not let myself land up unsuccessful in the longrun.

I’ve noticed what happens:

The stages go:

-Great idea pops into my head.

-Getting excited about it.

-Working out the details.

-Only partially following through.

-Putting the project on a temporary hiatus.

-Never completing the project.

-Regretting never completing the project.

What I do now is FORCE myself to get the project done. I should have fully designed Resumite’s over 2 weeks ago, but haven’t. So on Monday morning I will put up all my flyers around the UT campus, and be “forced” to design the rest of the site so people will not see a shody website.

I also did this to learn about stock. I simply bought some stocks, and since my own money was on the line, I learned VERY quickly how to valuate a company, read financial statements etc.

Writing NevBlog greatly helps. When I post my goals, everyone can see them and question if I have completed them in time. When people mention my name, I want to be known as some who can GET THE JOB DONE.

Desperate for Ca$h?

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College students always need more money. They will do anything for a few bucks. After I’ve blown all the money I set aside for spending and I need more (without wanting to touch my spending account), I go to the psychology building on campus.

Why you ask? Because they regularly hold experiments there on a daily basis which you can walk into, and an hour later come out $7 – $10 richer! I generally have an hour break each day, so if there is a 45 minute experiment, I can participate and collect my reward (in cash) just in time for class!

The experiments are generally very easy and sometimes include free food. It’s just one easy way of making a few bucks during a break!

Risky Business

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I went to my first day of motorcycle safety class today! In two more sessions I will have an ‘M’ license!

The people you meet at random things like this are amazing. Sitting next to me happened to be a full time lobbyist at the capitol (which is two blocks from my campus) who knows all sorts of senators and congressmen. Powerful contacts can surprise you at any time!

The picture is of me on a Suzuki Hayabusa, the fastest production motorcycle in the world.

As for business progress: I am formatting flyers for Resumite to comply with campus standards, updating my own resume and updating my website: Neville Medhora