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Strategies & Market Trends : Value Investing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Madharry who wrote (24624)	8/18/2006 2:46:45 PM
From: Wallace Rivers	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 78748

Traded out of BRK.B in my IRA today. Got about a double in it, holding it over 5+ years. Wish they all could work out that way. Speaking of which, I'm embarrassed my my reco of RCL a few months back (and my pocket book is none too happy, either). Sill like the long term growth characteristics of the cruise industry. May swap out of RCL into CCL for the ST tax loss. I don't trade actively in my IRA, it's populated with mutual funds (I would characterise BRK as that). Does anyone have any mutual fund ideas?

To: Madharry who wrote (24624)	8/30/2006 8:03:17 AM
From: gcrispin	Respond to of 78748

Interesting analysis of Dell vs. rivals. WSJ But in the past few years, buying behavior in the PC world has changed. Much of the growth has come from consumer demand rather than the business market on which Dell focused. What's more, people looking for a new home computer are increasingly turning to laptops. There Dell is particularly weak: Its models lack the pizzazz and features of rivals. For laptops especially, consumers prefer to hold and test models in a store, but Dells aren't sold there. According to NPD Group, 56% of laptops sold to consumers in the first quarter of this year were bought in a store, up from 50% two years ago. Dell has largely ignored the consumer boom although it says it still considers consumers an important market. For a while it had part-time workers with an annual turnover rate of 300% taking calls from customers who wanted to buy a PC. The company has poured money into corporate products such as printers, storage systems and computer servers. It nixed some overtures from retailers to sell its wares in stores. At a conference in 2004, Dell Chief Executive Kevin Rollins declared, "We have never focused on the consumer as a company." At the same time, rivals such as H-P, Gateway and Apple Computer Inc., have charged ahead in the consumer PC market. In particular, H-P cut costs to become competitive with Dell, began working more closely with retailers and redoubled its marketing efforts. As Dell cut prices, H-P invested in consumer-friendly features in its notebooks. H-P computers, using a laser, can write a label on a specially coated music CD with artist and title so users don't have to use a marker. And people can watch movies on H-P laptops without booting up the computer, a feature that Dell now offers too