In the usual on October 23, 2007 by karan Tagged: , apple, finance
Apple announced their financial results for the last quarter yesterday, and the numbers were good. And the market is pleased, send AAPL up and up and up, approaching $185 today.
Leave aside all the market cap nonsense that everyone is talking about, here’s a far more fundamental figure. If you’d bought Apple stock on Oct 31, 1997, and sat on it for ten years, you would have made a pretty penny or two. On 31/10/1997, Apple was $4.25 a share. Leaving the two stock splits since out of it, now, each share is worth $185. That’s a sweet little $180 per share you can book as profit.
But wait, there’s a time value to money too – what’s the cost of having it sit in Apple stock for so long when it could have been doing something else, like earning interest? Well, it’s take an average 4%, compounding yearly. That ought to flatten out the period in the middle when US interest rates were 1% ish. 4% over 10 years means you’ll pull out … $6.29. $6.34 if it’s continuous compounding! So you could book, uh, $178 as performance above average.
Put it another way – if it was yearly compounding, you’ve got 45% interest p.a., 38% if it’s continuous. Or a straight-up 3100% if it’s simple. Try getting that from your bank.
What about the competition? Microsoft? Hah. They’re up 81% total (opposed to Apple’s 3100% figure). Intel? 18%. (n.b. figures from Google Finance)
One might take the view that Apple’s current price is unsustainable, trading as they are at 50x Price-to-Earnings ratio, but if I’d had Apple shares in trust 10 years ago, and it expired right about now, I’d be more than happy to cash out =)
In the usual on June 22, 2006 by karan
Dear all new people catching the train,
Yes, I realise that the price of petrol has gone significantly higher, and it's now much more cost effective to catch the train than sit for an hour in traffic. Welcome to the public transport system, we're (kinda) glad to have you here – more money in the form of more tickets can only mean good things for all our heavily subsidised public transport. However, as a regular train user, I would be neglectful if I did not bring to your attention a few things… just to keep us all happy. It's for the good of all, you understand of course.
Ways to make everyone's journey easier:
- Don't wait until the last minute to get up and run for the doors.
- Wait for people to get off the train before getting on. The train will wait.
- If someone who knows the timetable is running to make their train, don't stand in their way.
- Your bag/purse/laptop/newspaper does not deserve a seat. Neither does your umbrella, espcially so if it's wet. The floor or your lap is perfectly acceptable.
- Reading a broadsheet newspaper in morning peak is a no-no, unless you're a master of newspaper origami. A master.
- Don't stand in the stairwell. Don't stand in the door when people are trying to get out – hop out, hop back in.
Ways to avoid potentially looking stupid:
- Work out which way the ticket goes into the gate first. No-one in the morning peak will appreciate you trying to work it out at the gate.
- Ladies, the train is not a powder room. Applying lipstick is acceptable, basic facial make-up is borderline. Do not pluck eyebrows, apply mascara, or use a battery-powered curling iron to maintain that hairstyle. It's really not a good look. Guys… no, don't do it. If you're doing to apply any makeup at all, do so in the privacy in your own house.
- Don't try to change from comfortable clothing into businesswear halfway in. I don't know what you did in your car, but this isn't an overnight flight or something.
- Do not eat your breakfast on the train unless it is small and manageable. This means no cereal. Under any circumstances.
- Follow the cue of regular passengers when it comes to picking the door to stand in front of, if you're in that much of a rush.
- Don't loudly complain on the phone that you're "surrounded by people" on the train. Public transport, buddy.
- In fact, just don't use the phone for anything longer than a 2 minute call. We don't necessarily want to hear what Louise got up to last night, as saucy and unbelievable as it might be.
- Occasionally though we might. Not in the morning though. That's just distracting.
- Remember: left side of the stairs, please.
In the usual on April 10, 2006 by karan
Reading this article by Malcom Gladwell on homelessness in America prompted a line of thought which I'm not to sure has been considered much – how much effect has the internet had on homelessness?
One of the known effects of homelessness would be the issue of "No Fixed Address". When no-one can contact you through the conventional methods, you're isolated from your support structure and effectively cut off from opportunities to move out of your situation. But when we consider that so many things on the net these days are free, could this have a slight but measurable positive effect on homelessness? I don't refer to the cases of alcoholics or drug addicts who are homeless because they have spent all their money on their addictions, but rather people who have become homeless through losing a job or other circumstances, and are genuinely working to get back into a stable situation.
These people may have existing email addresses, or indeed even websites, and this could serve as a constant point-of-contact which enables them to return much quicker from desperate situations. Sure, net access isn't free, but it's certianly not prohibitively expensive, and internet cafes are prevalent enough in urban areas where homelessness is a major issue. Could it be that through the connections provided by the internet we can improve the situation of those less well off?
If there's a social studies student looking for a thesis or dissertion topic, that's one for you to investigate.
In the usual on March 30, 2006 by karan
In the usual on February 16, 2006 by karan
Fury over the cartoons continues, especially in Pakistan. They’ve burnt down a KFC in Peshawar, presumably because the colouring is red & white. I’m just loving the headlines like “Pakistan cartoon violence continues.” Sounds so harmless, doesn’t it?
More from the BBC – what exactly is the issue? If you can’t portray it, at least talk about it, and they do it pretty sensibly there.
Finally, what I think is a very intelligent response, however controversial – an Iranian newspaper calls for cartoons on the Holocaust. I’m not anti-Semetic by any means, but that really is a test on who the newspapers of Europe are willing to inflame. Curious to see the outcome.
In the usual on October 1, 2005 by karan
I don’t know whether to turn this into a whiny emo blog where I do all my overthinking and detail my life or to use it as a techie kind of blog. I’m leaning to the latter at the moment, but either way, there’s very little to write about at the moment.
And I know at this point I still haven’t linked to this blog from my main one, mainly because I want to do it after I get some actual content here to link to, unlike my other efforts. Oh well.
In the usual on September 28, 2005 by karan
So here I am, on wordpress.com, and much like Owen posted yesterday, I’m still yet to work out why I’m here. Biggest reason would probably have to be the testing of WordPress 1.6, because while I know the single-user version is alpha, this will have it’s own little bit of support in the form of the managed service. And it’s best to get in on these things early, so you can get used to them and what they can do.
I’ll use this better than my webloogs site, since i’ve discovered that is running pretty much just on advertising and spam, even if WordPress is probably the worst for comment spamming since it’s so good at blocking them. If that makes sense. The intent here is to use this for the stuff that I would probably bore all my usual readers with over at the dke project. I have to admit also I’m very fond of this wysiwyg editor.
In other words, well done to the WordPress guys, and thanks for the invite. I hope to use it well.
