Some thoughts on Page & Brin's baby after going public.
I RECEIVED an email from a yahoo group I have joined years ago, asking me some questions on the stock market. She inquired if Ameritrade is a good stock to invest with a limited fund. Personally, I haven’t keep up with American stocks for the last few months. This week, the NASDAQ and Dow have been bullish on the average and investing in American stocks could very be well advised.
She also inquired the possibility of not having a broker and financial adviser. My answer was a big yeah, considering that these people can sometimes lure you into overtrading and their commission starts to pile up. I agree with some of the fund managers that one does not need a financial adviser to venture into trading. An average individual can have all the necessary information he wants and make a sound decision.
I am not sure but Ameritrade sounds like a tech stock to me. If it is, a potential growth in that industry is surely to continue in the next few years. However, sometimes cyclical fluctuations and bubbles could cause declines even in a fast growing company. This is because these companies have no sound fundamentals and rely mainly on speculation for share increases. Thus, a savvy investor investigates.
***
Now that the current trend in world oil market is going up, I sense that the Bangko Sentral would likely increase its rate. The central bank governor assured that the rates would be increased gradually, in anticipation of a deviation from the inflation rate range. For the next few months, inflation would be within the 6-6.7% range. And everything goes up.
This would be unfortunate. An expansionary economy is heading on its way now and it seemed that an abrupt cease to lending activities in mining and industrial sectors could cause much trouble to the policymakers. I was checking with some of the regional Asian countries and apparently, our economy is at par with the Tigers.
A week earlier, there were positive recommendations that the Japanese Yen will be stronger than the dollar and just this week, a slower GDP surprised speculators, which brought the currency down. Then the rest of Asian market followed the trend coupled with concerns on global growth. Apparently, there’s only one thing that is certain these days – nothing is certain.
***
After a neuron-breaking exam in audit of liabilities, I am back at gathering information about the Larry Page’s baby - Goggle. Everybody in the market watched in the sidelines for the coveted biggest IPO for an internet company since Genuity. At just last night, Goggle is now officially part of NASDAQ, elbow to elbow with Microsoft.
There was an optimistic prediction from the analysts that Goggle could increase its current share price a day after going public. And, it did by 6%. Of course, traders were keeping their fingers crossed with sound fundamentals and potential growth rate of the world’s most used search engine.
I still remember five years ago when my friend, Mr. Dexter Rama endorsed Google as an alternative search engine to Yahoo. Since then, whenever I need the necessary information, there is always a simplistic homepage like Google to help.
Google could be the next Microsoft when it publicly offered its share in the 80’s and it grew just like the wealth of its founder, the slick Bill Gates (although Forbes admitted that his wealth decreased for he was putting so much money on philanthropic adventures.) However, anything is still possible. An IPO stage usually gets the crowd wild and its market trend is going up. When the honeymoon period is over, that’s the time when the share price will be on its normal trading. And for now, let us bring out the champagne.
***