That's very true, essentially the standardized PC with DOS was such an advance that it spurred a massive amount of software development. Lotus 1,2,3 and WordPerfect made the platform hugely productive for office workers. One of my former CEOs helped run Intel's PC enhancements group at the time and regularly took support calls to keep in touch with what their customers were doing. He start by asking what brand of computer they were using, and he said often they'd say "Lotus".

That's how huge and important those products were, and when the Mac came out businesses said, wow, very interesting, does it run Lotus & Wordperfect? No?? Okay, nevermind then.

Windows was compatible and kept running those DOS apps for a long time, and leveraged businesses investment in software, hardware, training, etc, and Apple never grew out of it's niche.

Looking at phones today it sure looks like Apple is committing some of the same mistakes. Limited hardware choices, "overpriced" hardware if you measure a phone by how much memory/speed it has. More importantly, it's religious attitude towards Flash, restrictive apps policies, and that long exclusivity period with AT&T, have limited there own products functionality.

One the plus side it has a big lead in apps, but that's probably going to be less of an advantage than in PCs. It also has some big advantages in ease of use, consistency, installation/synchronization, etc. Those are hard for analysts to quantify, but they are clearly there.

I also think that Analysts miss one really important dynamic about the phone market that drives people to pay up for the most useful ones. iPhones are $200, and that's consistent with many Android phones. More importantly the cost difference between a $100, $200 or $300 phone is tiny compared to the massive $2,000 service commitment a 2 year contract comes with. For many people the iPhone isn't even be as useful as a Blackberry or Android due to their specific requirements/preferences. But for the rest, they'll happily pay another $100 or so for one.

None of these dynamics are remotely similar to the driving forces that built the PC market, or DVD player market, or the Walkman market, or any previous markets that spring to mind.

These seems to be mostly a finance tread, is there like a general or LC-question thread for starting/running a business?

What's a proper intermediate investment vehicle, once one has a 6-12mo cash reserve but before building retirement savings through IRAs and the like? CDs? Bonds? This is money that I'll want in 2-5 years. Obviously I'd like to do better than a CD - it seems like ING savings rate is about as good as a 1 year CD - but I have a pretty low risk tolerance since I know I'll need it in a few years down the road.

Also, I've got about $11k of debt at 3.75% (student loan). If I'm thinking about finding somewhere to stash money for a few years, would I be better off just paying down debt if I can't find something that will top 3.75% return over that time period?

Sorry if this question has been asked before. If Im spending some money on websites, do I need a DBA(Doing Business As) to deduct those expenses against my revenue?

What are other benifits of having a DBA? The only thing I can think of is being able to centralize your expenses in a business checking account, making it easier to track.

A DBA is only $10 but I'm really really tight on money, and every dollar counts right now.

Just so you know, my expenses are 2 domains for $20, and $33/month for a program called Keyword academy.

Thanks

Yes, 3.75% risk free return is way better than you'll do anywhere else. But then don't you need the cash reserve money in 2-5 years? If not paying off the debt seems the clear choice. If you do need the money, I think Ally has a liquid savings account that pays as much (1.5% or so) as their 1 year CD. Doing better than the CD rate requires taking on risk.

Question:

What do you guys think about the fact that almost every bank in our country has a really bad (D or worse) rating with Weiss Bank Ratings?

FDIC is a joke IMO. They have less than something like .5% cash reserves on hand to meet all the deposits they claim to insure.

So should I hoard money in a safe at home?

i want to open up account and was just wondering where the best place was to start out. i think im just gonna start with 2k until i get the hang of things.

What software are people using for business bookkeeping? I was going to buy Quickbooks but I read a lot of negative reviews on Amazon. Anyone know a better program?

I've used quickbooks for the last ~8 years. There's a few things that are annoying to me, but it's really solid overall.

Haven't really considered anything else seriously, Quickbooks pretty much owns the small business market from what I've seen.

Doubt it matters, assume Fed would just backstop it all to prevent apocalyptic banking panics & collapses. Much greater risk stocking cash at home.

I've been looking at online brokers to start day-trading Forex(and possibly other stuff later) with. I'd be looking to start with a pretty low amount. I've mostly been looking at Barron's reviews to find brokers. Which brokers would you guys recommend?

What's the lowest you can start with profitably? On brokers such as MBTrading (my top pick so far) having smaller positions doesn't seem to be a disadvantage because their commissions seem to be based on the size of the trade, is this a correct assessment?

I've also been looking at trading platforms(not 100% this is the correct term, charting software?) and since I'm looking to invest as little as possible to start with I'm only looking at really cheap or free platforms. Which platforms do you guys recommend for Forex? The one I'm most comfortable with so far is MetaTrader4. Do trading platforms such as MetaTrader work with a lot of different brokers?

TLDR;
Best online broker for daytrading forex low amounts?
Minimum account size possible to daytrade forex profitably?
Best free/cheap trading platform?

Thanks, I'll just get it then.

This exactly why Im telling everyone to switch out CDs for muni bonds. After working at a bank and a brokerage, I feel that an insured muni bond has similar risk to bank CD's. Plus I am finding munis paying an equivalent yield of 10% right now. You are definitely not taking on 10x the risk of a CD. This is the best "safe" investment right now, especially if you're in a higher tax bracket.

"Similar risk" but market prices 10x effective yield? CDs are insured by FDIC which afaik is implicitly backed by Fed. Munis are allowed to go bankrupt and Fed is saying they won't step in in those instances. Not saying that makes them a bad investment (I dk much about them and own some myself) but recommending them as equal-risk investments to people you talk to seems dangerous.

for those of you guys with large bond/stock portfolios, what is a standard annual advisory fee to be paying for an actively managed portfolio?

whatever the standard is, it's way too high. there might be some reasonable deals out there somewhere but in general services like that are a hudge scame.

Unless we are talking millions of dollars all managed portfolios are nothing but a scam. The basically never beat the market and then charge you 5% for doing the job any moron with a couple days reading can replicate.

I'm doing a write up on a company and trying to figure what their EBIT figure is going to look like, I'm getting stuck because my numbers are not comming close to the numbers they provide, can anyone help. Also can someone also explain to me the difference between GAAP, Non GAAP, EBITDA, and what one should use when looking to value a company.

Revenues- $200M
Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be $97.0 to $100.0 million, and exclude approximately $4.0 million in stock-based compensation
GAAP net income is expected to be $36.0 to $38.0 million
GAAP diluted net income per share is expected to be $0.79 to $0.83
Non-GAAP net income is expected to be $38.0 to $40.0 million
Non-GAAP diluted net income per share is expected to be $0.84 to $0.88
45 million shares outstanding

What I'm trying to do is calculate the companies Earnings Yield using Greenblats formula which takes EBIT/EV

So what I have so far is they are expecting to make about $100m after expenses, if I deduct 40% for taxes that gives me $60m way higher then the companies 36-38 number. What am I missing here?

Bump

Some of your questions are beyond the scope of a forum reply (at least for me.) Here are some things to consider that might help you:

> Non-GAAP estimates exclude certain costs and expenses that may or may not be material (stock based compensation, "non-recurring" items, etc)
> There are things below the EBIT line that add to or remove from owner-earnings (interest expense/income, non operating expenses, goodwill impairment, unusual items)
> Net income must be adjusted for diluted common stock (preferred, convertibles, etc)

This is just basic income statement stuff. Stepping back, you have to ask yourself what is a "real cost," what expenses are truly non-recurring, and what represents the true owner-earnings power.

Thanks for the reply it was helpful

You would also have to be more specific with what you mean by Non-GAAP. Do you mean a strictly cash basis or some form of modified accrual accounting?

There can be a lot of reasons depending upon which accounting method you use.

Is there any where you can get the tick data for any stock, for free?

If you take distributions out of a Roth IRA when you are retired, that raises the tax rate that you pay on other income, right? Like let's say you take 34K out of a roth and 34K out of a 401K in a year. You pay no taxes on the Roth money, but the 401K withdrawal is taxed at 25% and not 15%?

If qualified, no.

http://www.irs.gov/publications/p17/...link1000172864