Checklist from an Intelligent Entrepreneur

A nice book

http://www.amazon.com/Intelligent-Entrepreneur-Graduates-Successful-Entrepreneurship/dp/0805091661

Here are the key points

Understand the problem domain and the users 

Don't come up with a product or service and then set out to convince the market to buy it.  That's backwards. It works better if you understand potential customers' problems first, and then figure out the solutions.

Get a Team

Teams of two or three co-founders are optimal, normally with one "Business/Product Mind" and one "Technical Mind". Most important, however, is trust. 

Dedication like Devotion
Successful founders are married to entrepreneurship, rather than marrying a single business model or product. That helps them react quickly to the market, and adjust products or business models that aren't  working.

Be nimble

Analyze the problem at hand and re-analyze it again from various points of view. Once you know you have an innovative solution then act quickly. That is the advantage of a startup that it is nimble.

Don't bet it all 

Your goal is to limit your risk while simultaneously increasing the likelihood of great rewards. If an idea is not working get to know about it before devoting more capital and resources.

Sell it Well

If you have a great product that is not enough. Learn to sell it and keep your promises.

Failure is Imminent

Not every time things are going to be smooth. You are bound to have failures at various steps. The important thing is to get up after a fall re-arm yourself and start again. However it is customary of successful people not to make the same mistake again.

What is a typical data usage of an average PC or Mobile phone user?

Typical usage on an ATT or Verizon network is around 300-400 MB per month on tiered plans.

According to TeliaSonera LTE usage may well be equal to fixed broadband usage of around 14-17 GB per month

What not to do?

1.       Don’t time the market. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

2.       Don’t invest based on tips from someone.

3.       Don’t be oblivious of what you own. Knowing what you are buying is crucial

4.       Don’t invest before you save. Speculating with the money you need to pay down a loan or use for college

5.       Don’t following your investments – Do your due diligence when buying an investment that includes following earnings.

6.       Don’t marry your investment. Emotional attachment with your investment is bad. The market does not care at what price you bought/sold.

7.       Don’t throw good money after bad. Adding to losing positions is not going to work

8.       Don’t bet it all. Putting all your money on that one idea that you think will work

9.       Don’t do it alone if you can’t – If you can’t do due diligence then get help by hiring an expert

10.   Don’t load your basket with the same stuff. Diversify your options so that your portfolio is balanced

When does an acquisition work?

The strategic rationale for an acquisition that creates value typically conforms to at least one of the following five archetypes: improving the performance of the target company, removing excess capacity from an industry, creating market access for products, acquiring skills or technologies more quickly or at lower cost than they could be built in-house, and picking winners early and helping them develop their businesses. If an acquisition does not fit one or more of these archetypes, it's unlikely to create value. (Source McKQ)

Questions Every Investor Should Ask

Do you know whether?

Was the start of the year bullish or bearish, and how did the year progress quarterly?

How is domestic doing vs international?

How is value doing vs growth?

How is developed doing vs EM?

What are the numbers like Employment, CPI, WPI, Trade Balance, ISM, Retail sales and Housing?

How much is the corporate bond yield?

How much is the municipal bond yield?

If not then we can help you sort these things.

A 5% move

We are watching the area 3640 and sold 3500 under the analysis that we will not reach it

Headwinds ahead

SPY has to move above 1171 and NASDAQ above 2405 and consolidate at that area for a while before things start getting rosy again...

When will the misery end part -2

Back in March 2009 we had posted http://indusglobal.blogspot.com/2009/03/when-will-misery-end.html

What is the situation after a year now...Nonfarm payrolls increased by 290,000 in April. The economy has lost 1.4 million jobs over the last year, and 7.8 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007. That puts the percent job loses at roughly 5.5%. The unemployment rate increased to 9.9 percent.

We will have to see at the end of this year what will be the total job gains? Broad Market is now at 1100 levels while it was around 700 at that time.

Where do we go from here?

The much expected correction has finally arrived. Whether you have been diligent enough to prepare for this is a different discussion altogether. We at IGIR had expected to move up in a mellowed way but the things that happened in later march till late April were sort of crazy. Since things were up unexpectedly we were also caught on the wrong side with some positions but we did not liquidate the positions in an anticipation of a move.

Now this move has been more jerky that we had thought it to be. These situations are very tricky and dangerous. The question is where do we go from here....

Most of May will be down and consolidation begins in June. By Mid June we should have found a new ground and then we can move back up from there. The fundamentals of the economy are all OK and we do not think this is the end of the road here. This was technically the last leg in the first wave that started in March of 2009. The ground level of this turmoil will decide the pivot for the next wave.

We expect to hold 106 as was pointed in the old post but 1014 is really the key level longer term. If that is broken then that is really bearish. After that 948 is the next stop which is a 50% pullback from 1222. 883 would be the nullification of the previous wave and 675 would take us back to the original step. We do not expect to break 1014 however at IGIR we firmly believe that markets can usually prove you wrong when you think you can predict them. 

Like all customers, Mr. Market is always right and he usually wants to tell you something....Preparing to listen is for your own benefit rather than his.

5,1

Back in March we had established a level of 110 and we wanted to hold that for a while instead we saw a rush towards 115 and then 122 which was crazy. The move down was expected and here we have it now with two down 600 M days. We have been covering our positions slowly since we had a lot of baggage that was caught up in the run-up towards 122.

The breach below 110 will not be good at all. 108 is the next level followed by 106 which is the mos sacred if this market has to end higher at the end of FY2010.

Playing Catch-up

Are all the new User Interface frameworks playing catch-up with iPhone and Android?

Seems like everyone is into the business of making an Mobile UI SDK these days. We have heard Nokia's new Qt, Samsung's Bada and a few others who have been around for a long time but failed to excite developers.

We believe that all these are trying to play a losers game now. Nokia being the behemoth in terms of phones out there may see some action in their framework but all others are doomed.

The circle of markets

Starts in pessimism
Thrives in skepticism
Peaks in Optimism
Bursts in Euphoria

Core Principles of Trader Psyche

http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/2007/02/five-guiding-principles-of-trading.html

Fasten your SeatBelts

The ride is going to be bumpy around 115

3,2

We wanted to hold on to 110 with 200 M days. But what we saw is a leap towards 115 which now will provide headwind.

115 becomes important in 3,3. The three steps to watch are 112, 111 and our favorite 110.

If we move below 110 run as fast as you can without looking back.

Why is Intel's processor missing in this list below?

A4

Snapdragon, 

Tegra 

OMAP4

Armada 610

Intel's ???

Cisco has a new router

In conjunction with the news, AT&T said it has completed a trial of the 100-gigabit CRS-3 running over a live fiber segment spanning New Orleans to Miami.

Market Two-Four

S&P should be holding up 110 level now till we move into three one with a couple of good 200 M days

Bring em On!!

Seems like the brakes have been put in at the last year's hefty run up. Let us see how much steam do the bears have?