Mr. K notes

Why any member would opt out of receiving my email newsletter boggles my imagination. Remember, I share some great stuff there, including my three to read that you will find no where else. Some have told me that the only reason they subscribe is because of the “three to read” section I provide in that newsletter.

Three To Read:

The First Step: Know Thyself
http://kirkreport.com/tkr/J4FqkyzT

Value Screens
http://kirkreport.com/tkr/jAXfTPAP

11 Market Correlations
http://kirkreport.com/tkr/PEMHp3

New trends / New skills for new this decade 2010

New skills:
- ability to absorb other people works , integrate multiple works and build your work on top of it to create higher value ( high leverage).
. This won't loose value quickly as you are constantly changing 'underlying pieces' so the your final product ( advice etc..) is relavent and has value to your customers.
examples: - Kirk report, moderngraham.com , oldschoolvalue.com ( finance area)
- CSS patterns book ( technology area)

( collage kids should start a blog like moderngraham etc.. in their respective fields , tech kids can start one with

2. New technologies:
- SalesForce.com : Developers will be able to build or modify cloud applications to use Salesforce Chatter’s profiles, real-time streams, and APIs. And that means there's no reason that every cloud app can't get social.
- can build sandboxes (test environments )in fly ...

Building website / blog design / world press themes

Thesis Theme for WordPress
Learn How YOU Can Design a Website with Thesis 1.6
No matter how many times I do it, every time I build a website, I think the same thing:

Man, this should be easier!

My personal quest to “make this easier” is what led me to develop Thesis, and ultimately, this path led me to a newer, broader goal:

I want to make building websites easier and more fun for everyone.
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Killer Resources -- see this link on the RHS of the site page ..
* 3 Awesome Web Hosting Tips
* How to Format Images for Feed Readers
* How to Use WordPress Categories
* Manage Your Comments Like a Pro
* What Should You Write About?
* XML Sitemap Generator
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Thesis gallary
Solving the fundamental problems of website development and design
asr: I liked this line, in one line they say what problem they are solving

this is one of good style site layout ( see top menus etc..)
http://aardling.com/wordpress-plugins/
- Execute php code in blog writing
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Reviews for this diyThesis
1) I switched to using Wordpress in order to be able to devote more time to creating content. This site uses the excellent Thesis theme and makes extensive use of hooks and custom functions.( asr: learn what they are)
- this guy is Investor with Tech background (SQL etc..) so this diyThemes must be best option.
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Free wordpress site theams
http://cssanalytics.wordpress.com/
- see at the bottom of this site it got this free theam from Theme by NeoEase.

Filtering based on Earnings Estimates

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Filtering based on Earnings Estimates
Ahead of earnings season, there is a basic earnings estimates screen I like to track that tries to find stocks with the following characteristics:

+30% Increase in Next Quarter’s EPS Estimate From Same Quarter Prior Year Actual EPS

+30% Increase in Current Annual EPS Estimate vs. Last Reported Annual EPS

+30% Increase in Next Year’s Annual EPS Estimate vs. Current Annual EPS Estimate

Current Price Greater than Or Equal To $5 per share

Relative Strength Rating Of 80 Or Higher

Current 50-Day Average Volume Is +250,000 Or More

When I ran this screen through IBD’s custom screen wizard this morning, 25 stocks showed up. Here they are ranked from the highest RS to the lowest: REV, SMOD, NOG, ARUN, MELI, KONG, GMCR, BCSI, WSM, NM, GFA, IAG, CRM, AGO, CRUS, VIV, CML, GOLD & EVVV.

While you can certainly use a screen of this nature to find trading and investment opportunities, there’s another reason I like to track it as we enter another earnings season.
- With such high earnings estimates and expectations, this select group of stocks “should” outperform as earnings are reported and as the numbers beat the high expectations.
- However, if they underperform significantly (sell off after their reports) and/or miss their targets it offers a clue that good news that analysts expect have already been “baked into” the stock prices and that’s not good.

Basically, I like to use this screen sort of as like a barometer on what to expect from the earnings season as a whole and monitor it carefully to see the reaction to how these companies perform after earnings are reported AND whether earnings estimates are raised even further after the report which is key to identifying long-term winners.

As you probably know, the price of a stock tends to trend in the direction of the analyst earnings estimates and you want to see those estimates raised even further after the companies report their earnings. Which is why targeting companies with the highest expectations and relative strength is usually helpful as tool
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- other good additional resource is : Use BeSpoke hisotrical gapup/downs on earning release days ..

the decade 2000-2009

2009 in review


http://www.thekirkreport.com/2010/01/the-decade-in-review.html


Top 10 Notable New Diet Books

Value Investor / Value based Investing

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Modern Graham ( Mr. K ref. of its value calculator )
Benjamin Clark
Co-Founder
Benjamin graduated from DePaul University’s Finance Honors Program in 2007, and is currently attending the DePaul University College of Law.

Undervalued Companies
wow: great to see this List , kee is to find this 'under valued' company list and track it when some thing falls sharply and see still it is valid under this MG site rules 2 out 3 'test category' pass.
- other thing is you should have patience for 1 year at least ..

a) VectorVest may have similar programmable parameters of valuation and charting
b) oldSchoolvalue.com has some thing similar to this MG valuation but in spread sheet.
c) crossing the wall street ,see this site also and his holdings.
d) finding one of the above 'value' investors picks when they drop 20 to 40 and pick them ..

asr: wow, you have 3 quantifiable Criteria to define the relative value of the Stock.

1/ Enterprising Investor – must pass at least 4 of the following 5 tests: Score = 5/5
2/ Defensive Investor – must pass at least 6 of the following 7 tests: Score = 5/7
3/ Valuation Summary:

MG Value $76
MG Opinion Undervalued
Value Based on 3% Growth $28
Value Based on 0% Growth $17
Market Implied Growth Rate 7.46% ( asr:so MG value is based on this rate? )


InfoSys
Valuation History:
11/2/09 – Value $76, Actual Price $46.36, Undervalued & Enterprising
7/26/09 – Value $74, Actual Price $42.40, Undervalued & Enterprising

CVS Phamacy
Valuation History:
10/17/09 – Value $72, Actual Price $37.70, Undervalued & Defensive

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asr: how a non-finance guy turned as 'Value investor' in 2 years ..

A Brief History
I was never interested in finance. Never took a commerce, accounting, economics class or any subject related to finance in High school or University. I literally abhorred the whole financial industry and couldn’t care less about the economy.

3 months and $3000 later, I wised up and realised that the financial advisor was selling me rubbish

By chance one day, I picked up The Intelligent Investor that was lying around my fiance’s home. I started to read and read and read.
I was hooked with the concepts and it suited my personal attitude and character.

The Beginning
With a clearer idea on investing, I stumbled upon Joe Ponzio’s www.fwallstreet.com which is by far the best blog I have seen. I read and studied his methods and started to fully understand what investing was really about.

Philosophy
I consider myself to be an enterprising investor. I prefer to perform my own valuation and analyses of companies I follow and become interested in. Here I outline the philosophy I take in my valuations and what you will expect to find and not find.

I literally read my first “how to invest” article on fool.com in Sep 2007. Since then, I have spent at a minimum 2-3 hours everyday reading books, magazines, textbooks, blogs, newspapers trying to understand concepts and how businesses operate.
asr: wow just in 2 years this guy mastered value based investing, this is great site for somebody ( Sweta india) or some MBA guy to master value based investment

The value investors mindset is that a company is worth what its business is worth. Jae presents that theory in very good form here. What the price of tea in China ultimately has no bearing on whether Company A is trading for $X.XX per share. This is the concept of the value investor and why we are not over indulged in the micro and macroeconomic environment.

The price of gold or whether the fed is cutting interest rates does not affect our choice to go to McDonalds to get a burger or buy a Coca Cola.
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APple spread sheet sample given in below url
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20485522/AAPL-5yr-OSV-Stock-Valuation-Spreadsheet

WOW what a year it was. The Old School Value portfolio ended 2009 with a gain of 289


Fundamental Business Valuation Process

Personal Goal Setting / Goals / Your Lifetime Goals

All these Mr. K ref liks

Your Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or by a time at least, say, 10 years in the future) as setting Lifetime Goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of these categories (or in categories of your own, where these are important to you):

Artistic:
Do you want to achieve any artistic goals? If so, what?

Attitude:
Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.

Career:
What level do you want to reach in your career?

Education:
Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals?

Family:
Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent?

Financial:
How much do you want to earn by what stage?

Physical:
Are there any athletic goals you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?

Pleasure:
How do you want to enjoy yourself? - You should ensure that some of your life is for you!

Public Service:
Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?
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How To Focus On What Truly Matters

Focusing on what truly matters, truly matters.

In my life I’ve gone through periods of intense, driven productivity – months where everything fell into place, and my goals almost seemed to accomplish themselves. At the other extreme, there have been times in my life where I was completely overwhelmed, burdened by my different projects and responsibilities – and frustrated because so many of them not only challenged me, but didn’t matter to me. There were days when I asked myself how did I end up here? How did I end up working on all these things that aren’t who I am, and that don’t represent where I am going?

Some of our projects are extremely important to us, some matter a little – and some simply don’t matter to us at all. In this guide I’d like to discuss how to define and focus on what truly matters – and then discuss some strategies for making time for them.

Breaking It Down
Here are a few question to help you focus on what truly matters – and cut from your life items that don’t.

What does my life look like ten years from now? I love projecting into the future and imagining my life: mentally time traveling to picture where I want to be. The power of this exercise is even more apparent when you consider that you are the product of where you came from. Think of your favorite memories, people and events from your past and you’ll see things that have shaped you into the person you are today. Similarly, looking ten years down the road and imagining what I want helps me focus my energies today to make it happen tomorrow. If my future daydream is filled with thoughts of spending time with my family and celebrating with friends – then that tells me I need to focus on maintaining those relationships today.

What is my purpose? Leo has previously discussed his life’s purpose and tips for finding your own life’s mission. If you have determined your life’s mission, that provides a foundation for where you should be spending your time – along with the activities, and ends, you should be focusing on. This is sometimes difficult because we may believe our life’s purpose is not in line with a “practical career” – but I disagree. There is no contradiction in using a “practical career” to pull yourself out of debt so you can be free for adventure, or perhaps to send your children to college. The disconnect occurs however, when your “practical career” is padding your bank account with money which means little to you – and you wish you were out living your true purpose instead.
What excites me? Sometimes we are scared to admit to ourselves what we really want to do, and who we really want to be because it’s not popular, or because it’s not as secure as the job we have. Deep down however, we know what excites us. We know what gets our heart pumping, and what gets us excited to jump out of bed in the morning.
What can I let slide? There are never enough hours in the day to do everything, absolutely everything, that I have some interest in doing. There is, however, enough time in the day to do everything that I am truly interested in, and that truly matters. Find what you can let slide -and then let it.

Do the consequences have meaning Every task and project has outcomes and consequences – but consequences don’t matter in and of themselves. What matters is how much those consequences mean to us. Sometimes we fight, claw and struggle towards down a path because other people want us to have the rewards at the end, or because the ends sound impressive – but if they don’t have meaning to us, then we will not be satisfied with the accomplishment. In other cases we may have initially pursued a goal, but our interests and purpose changed. If something doesn’t mean anything to you, then regardless of how important it is to others, how impressive it may be or how important it may have been in the past, it may be time to let it go.
Making Time

You may already know what truly matters in your life – but are finding it difficult to make time for it, and to focus on it. Here are some tips to help you make time for what truly matters:

Do it first. In Zen To Done Leo suggests picking your 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) and doing them first thing in the morning. Similarly, once you find what truly matters, try to take care of it first before spending time on tasks that matter less to you. Some people have experienced significant increases in productivity when writing, working out, or meditating early in the morning. I personally believe in paying myself first with my time, and live it every day. I work on my personal goals first thing in the morning, before I do anything else. This way every day begins positively and in line with my future.

Schedule it in. I’m very busy, and so is m family. My parents and I want to make time for each other however, so I literally schedule dinner in on my Google Calendar. I treat that appointment with the same seriousness as anything else in my life. It’s a commitment to my future and what truly matters.

Treat it as an emergency. My life is booked back to back with work, appointments and various commitments – but when I had to go into surgery for appendicitis, none of the little boxes in my task list got checked off that day. Instead, my routine came to a halt as I dealt with my medical emergency. If you’re having trouble letting things slide, or aren’t sure where you can make time, then consider treating your life mission as an emergency. Clear important, but unnecessary items off your schedule for a day – and let them go. Every day that you spend on tasks that don’t matter is a day you can never recover – and that, to me, is an emergency.

What Truly Matters, Matters
We all know deep down there are different things that drive us – hobbies that excite us, passions that we wish we had more time to explore, people we wish could spend more time with. I believe that identifying, focusing on, and spending time on what matters to us, is not simply a thought exercise.
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-The 10/10 Visualization Process-

Make a list of 10 things you love about your life, your job, your product, the opportunities you have, and your customers. Add anything that works well in your life, anything you like, and all the people you are happy about having in your life. Then add anything you are thankful for.

Make a list of 10 things you want to accomplish: your goals, dreams, visions, and aspirations in life.