Welcome to the end of the week and another edition of Happy Hour! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy your end of the week roundup of all things interesting in the land of money.
Twitter IPO
Twitter announced its IPO plans recently. I have no idea if it’s a good investment and probably won’t waste much time trying to find out. Probably, because we’re about a month away from the IPO day. A mistake in an early draft of the S-1 would put the IPO on Nov. 15.
Between now and then, the news media will bombard us with IPO headlines. The New York Times kicked it off with this rather good article about how Twitter came about.
Sadly, most of the news won’t be worth reading. In fact, I guarantee most of it will be rehashed headlines from the Facebook IPO with a hint of Twitter/Facebook comparisons thrown in – why you should buy it, why you should not buy it, will it repeat the Facebook fiasco, is it priced too high, too low, and on and on and on.
None of it matters. Ignore it. It’s noise.
Twitter won’t make the same IPO pricing mistake that Facebook did. Whichever exchange comes out on top (Nasdaq or NYSE) will provide a smooth open. Goldman Sachs, the lead underwriter, won’t dump most of the shares on the average Joe Investor. And Twitter isn’t Facebook. It’s better, in my opinion. That doesn’t mean it’s a better investment, just a better product. I have no idea how it makes money now or will make money in the future. That’s why I won’t be buying.
Yellen
This week, Janet Yellen was officially nominated to run the Fed. She still has to go through the confirmation process before making it official. She’s practically guaranteed with a Democrat controlled Senate. Though the way Congress has acted lately, who knows. You can read more about the soon to be Chairwoman.
Last Call
- The Secrets of Shopping – a must read for stock investors. Several good points on customer brand preferences, loyalty, and quality over price.
- Financial Planning Is All About Setting Priorities – it’s written for financial planners but very useful for the DIY crowd too.
- Why You’re So Bad With Your Money – understanding yourself may go farther than financial literacy ever will.
- Low-Hanging Fruit – why you should consider taxes when you invest.
