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I went US for almost 5 weeks and Japan (stopover place) for a few hours between middle April and middle May. I spent good money for this overseas trip for:
1) attending annual shareholder meetings of 3 companies
2) studying retail industry which one stock position, I have, in
3) understanding the American culture
4) network with (value) investors if possible
I have achieved these four aims but the fourth aim is slightly difficult for me since I am more introvert with willingness to talk my interest to anyone.
I am on solo backpacking for the overseas trip for the first time. I have good reason for this - I don't have to worry to accommodate the partner.
New York
After leaving Tokyo (I was in transit), I arrived JFK airport terminal 7 on late afternoon. Knowing that JFK airport has 8 terminals (without seeing diagram map of the JFK airport) as compared to Changi Airport's 3 terminals, I was under impression that JFK airport must be bigger than Changi Airport. Upon arrival, I discover that it is not that big. Each terminal of JFK airport seems to be makeshift terminal.
After exiting the arrival gate, there was a flood of SMSes (texts) upon switching on my mobile phones.
Despite of my successful domestic travel in Singapore, I gather my breadth and walk out of Terminal 7. Seeing a building next to terminal 7, I quickly figured that it must be where AirTrain stops at. I took AirTrain and then transfer to Metro. I managed to find accommodation, which I booked few weeks ago, at Brooklyn, New York after 30-45 minutes walk from Metro station.
I was just on time to buy prepaid SIM card from AT&T. I find that $60 is awfully expensive given that I pay $18 or less for my prepaid SIM card in Singapore.
I choose New York as my first stop because I want to explore Manhattan, especially Wall Street in Lower Manhattan. I got to see Statute of Liberty afar on free-to-ride ferry. At the same time, I got to eat Greek food - it was very delicious.
In few days later, I got to explore Columbia Business School. It is very beautiful school. Most of the pictures I took at Columbia Business School has a lot of 'likes' on my social media.
Boston, MA
I scheduled myself to have one-day round trip to Boston, MA from New York via Amtrak. The aim of visiting Boston is to see buildings of MIT and Harvard. Walking from Back Bay station, I crossed Harvard Bridge and Anderson Memorial Bridge. Very windy locations. I enjoy crossing these bridges as wind blew my face strongly.
Washington, D.C
I took early morning Amtrak train to Washington, D.C. The aim is to visit at least two Smithsonian museums for an interesting education learning and Abraham Lincoln memorial. It is very interesting place to explore although security is abit too tight around White House. I find that it is the most difficult place to navigate from the accommodation place to your preferred destination because of the road names. Manhattan, NY is much easier to navigate.
I got to eat Chicago-style pizza at Uno Chicago Grill - interesting pizza.
Chicago, IL
I took Amtrak train to Chicago, en route to St. Louis, MO. I visited nearby attractions, which is 30-45 mins walk from Amtrak station. Willis Tower is interesting place to go there. I feel my money is well spent for the entrance to Willis Tower than Rockefeller Tower.
St. Louis, MO
I went there for a day and one night because of the annual shareholder meeting. It is one of these clean US cities. I managed to eat St. Louis-style pizza at Imo's Pizza - very tasty.
San Francisco, CA
I booked Southwest Airline to fly from St. Louis, MO to San Francisco, CA with stopover at Denver. I made a big mistake not to eat before I go off to St. Louis Airport terminal 2. Unlike Changi Airport, there is no restaurants other than Starbucks outside the departure area. So, I wait until it is time for me to get into departure area so as to eat.
I notice that there are significant numbers of Asians in San Francisco. Alcatraz Island is eye opener for me. I understood a little better about Wells Fargo as I visit its museum.
Monterey, CA
I took BART from San Francisco to San Jose so as I can take bus from San Jose to Monterey. The aim of this trip is to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium and Big Sur. Big Sur is very very beautiful place for sight-seeing.
San Jose, CA
I went there so that I want to see Apple, Cisco, Yahoo, and Google headquarters there. Unfortunately, it was too late to visit Facebook headquarter. I was really surprised to see that their headquarters are so big and I feel that their workplace area over there is like university campus.
Omaha, NE
I wanted to visit Omaha for a long time and I got the chance to do so. I took Southwest Airline from San Francisco to Denver to Omaha. It is very quiet, sleepy and clean city. I wanted to see how Warren Buffett lives there by seeing the city itself as well as his home and his office's building. Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting is break-taking for me as a first-time visitor. Omaha is very easy to explore. However, I choose to stay in Inn at Iowa since I am not willing to pay cut-throat price for the hotel/motel/inn stay (with clean bedroom) in Omaha.
Niagara Falls (both Canada and USA side)
I took Greyhound bus to Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada so that I can see two waterfalls (Horseshoe Fall and American Fall). 4D movie is nothing impressive other than effects. Skylon Tower is worthwhile place to visit as you can see Niagara Falls from aerial view. After 1 day and 1 night stay, I cross Rainbow Bridge from Canada side to USA side.
Buffalo, NY
I took a public bus from Niagara Falls, NY to Buffalo, NY. I have one aim for this trip. I wanted to eat original Buffalo wings. I find that the taste of Buffalo wings is decent - maybe, my expectation is too high.
Philadelphia, PA
I took Megabus to Philadelphia because it is just on the way trip for me. I was asked by my friend to visit Philadelphia Museum of Art because he is fan of Rocky movie. It was one day stay only and yet it has huge impact. I walked from South Philadelphia to Midtown Village. Along the trip, I saw a lot of African Americans there. It seems that Philadelphia is not a rich city compared to other cities I visited - I can be wrong.
Richmond, VA
I took Megabus from Philadelphia, PA to Richmond, VA. When I am at the final stop at Richmond, heavy rain happened. It is quite bad timing for me. In Richmond, I visit shooting academy to understand about gun shooting and shareholder meeting. I had no encounter of shooting incident, which is my worry. I must say that it is quite nice city.
Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles is my final stop. However, with the aim to saving money, I took Greyhound from Richmond, VA to Los Angeles, CA for 2 days. I was almost dying from non-entertainment as none of the Greyhound coaches have working power outlet.
I saw noticeable numbers of homeless people at Art District at night (that is when I arrived downtown Los Angeles) - it has huge impact on me. I was on the way to automotive museum on the next day by public express bus. I accidentally saw Koreatown (express bus has to pass by there). After museum, I walked to Koreatown to study whether Korean culture is imported there - it is true. Everything is Korea.
Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
It is my round open jaw trip. I arrived at Narita Airport in early afternoon. I have 6-7 hours to cross from Narita Airport to Haneda Airport. I am glad to experience bullet train from Narita Airport to Ueno - it is my first time experience. I took subway from Ueno to Ginza. So I took the opportunity to try Wangyu beef at Ginza as per my online friend's suggestion. It is very delicious. I walk around Ginza for 30 minutes before I took express subway from Ginza to Haneda Airport.
I must say that Japanese employees in Tokyo are very friendly to provide services to me. Good experience. I aim to explore whole Japan except Fukushima.
By the way, I choose these cities other than Omaha because I wanted to see if there is any difference in terms of retail shopping experience.
Cisco System Investment
I bought Cisco (CSCO) in two batches on 10 January 2011 at $20.80 and on 22 June 2011 at $15.50. Subsequently, I sold CSCO at $25 on 1 July 2014. As a result, my profit of this investment is 41.3%.
CSCO is technology giant in the network industry - its products is always ranked at no. 1 or no.2 in its own product category. Like Apple and Microsoft, CSCO has large cash and cash equivalents in its balance sheet as a result of its strong stickiness of its products and course certifications. CSCO has sufficient earning power despite of the shrinking annual budgets set by companies for technology-based capital expenditure in recent years.
Mr Market undervalued CSCO as if CSCO has no ability to resolve the impact on its revenue caused by governments' shrinking capital expenditure budgets. In addition, John Chamber, current CEO of CSCO prefers to paint 'doom' picture on CSCO's future in certain points of time, making Mr Market to value it lower.
John Chambers recognised the problems in CSCO. His solution is to reduce the labour force, creating $1 billion annual saving together with delaying the chain of commands for quicker decision making.
With these mentioned points above, it is an interesting turnaround story, which I would like to invest in as long as the company has sturdy balance sheet.
I did not expect that CSCO began to pay dividend and gradually increased dividend twice in few months later. CSCO is getting more shareholder friendly company.
As I hold CSCO shares, I gradually learnt new things such as SDN (software defined network). Last year, a investment banker analyst published an analyst report citing that SDN will reduce CSCO's profit margin significantly and affecting CSCO's ability to generate sales at ease. However, in few months later, John Chambers recognised the threat of SDN long time ago and found the solution. His solution is to invest in start-up firm that is ran by former CSCO employee for SDN development and bought the remainder stake of that firm it doesn't own. As a result, CSCO produces a new product that is based on hardware and software interface.
At the same time, CSCO makes significant investment in cloud computing and internet of everything. For these two areas, I think CSCO will be able to maintain profit margin.
However, I do not know who will be winner for SDN competition in few years time. With uncertain future which I cannot make logical guess, I sold CSCO shares. It is good time for me to reduce technology exposure to my portfolio.
Books
Title: The Art of Concentration
Author: Harriet Griffey
Rating: 8/10
Remark: There are many interesting points on how to improve your concentration by telling something to your brain.
Title: The Conscious Investor: Profiting from the Timeless Value Approach
Author: John Price
Rating:6/10
Remark: The book almost cover important areas of investing. Most of the stuffs are something familiar to the investors, who read plenty of investing literature. I think investors with finance background but little experience in investing will enjoy it. Inexperienced and interested investors will find it useful although the reading on author's writing style can be taunting.
Title: Pilgrimage to Warren Buffett's Omaha : a hedge fund manager's dispatches from inside the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting
Author: Jeff Matthews
Rating: 7/10
Remark: It is author's description of what has happened in Omaha in front of his eyes. It is very meaningful for those who already went Omaha before and interesting for those who have not.
Title: World right side up : investing across six continents
Author Christopher W. Mayer
Rating: 9/10
Remark: It provides interesting insights about the resources of the selected countries which may probably generate investment profits to patient investors. I am now fan of this author.
Title: Strategic Value Investing: Techniques From the World’s Leading Value Investors of All Time Authors: Stephen Horan, Robert Johnson, Thomas Robinson
Rating: 7/10
Remark: It is no different from reading similar books about value investing. Great buy for someone who do not know about value investing.
Title: The Money Game
Author: Adam Smith
Rating: 8/10
Remark: The author is not associated with the father of economics but rather a name of writing moniker. He has excellent writing flair which entertains me into reading non-stop over a day. He carefully describe the financial stuffs which anyone with financial background can understand at ease.
Title: Money Master of Our Time
Author: John Train
Rating: 9/10
Remark: This book covers selected investors based on their success. There are a lot of tiny details about Warren Buffett that I did not know for given my extensive reading about him. Best of all, the author points out it is impossible to be consistently successful by doing technical analysis on the appendix - that is what I strongly agree.
Movies
Deranged (Korean Movie 2012)
Synopsis:
There is a mysterious illness pandemic where a lot of people die on the river. Professor-turn-into-salesman has his wife and two children being infected. So he is finding ways how to save them.
Rating:9/10
Remark: Very good movie. The acts look so realistic.
Alice No Tonge (Japanese Drama 2014)
Synopsis:
A young girl discovered that her dad was murdered by a unknown doctor after receiving the real surgery record data. She grew up to be doctor to find out the truth. How should she do that?
Rating:7/10
Remark: Good pace.
Days of Wrath (South Korea Movie 2013)
Synopsis:
A poor boy who looks after his grandmother is bullied by rich classmate who give him money to do the tasks. However something bad happen in the school. Thus, 20 years later, the former met the latter and have revenge on the latter.
Rating:7/10
Remark: Too philosophical story.
Overheard (Hong Kong Movie 2009)
Synopsis
Cops are doing undercover works to find evidence of inside trading. Two of them, due to external pressure, were tempted to use the information to do trading. What happens next?
Rating:7/10
Remark: Touching story but the story flow is not smooth.
Overheard 2 (Hong Kong Movie 2011)
Synopsis:
Unrelated to Overhead movie, the 'Landlord' team, rich men, is held ransom by someone. It is because someone had the evidence of them who trade at artificial price at the expense of the public.
Rating:7/10
Remark: Cool story.
Golden Cross (Korean Drama 2014)
Synopsis:
A Golden Cross member choose to change the truth of the murders of a lady to her father with the help of teammate of Golden Cross. Her brother is trying to understand weird logic of the murder. Will he find out the truth?
Rating: 9/10
Remark: Great story development.
Raid 2 (Indonesian Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
Rama is encouraged to be spy to obtain evidence about the link between Indonesian gang and foreign gang. How would he do it?
Rating: 8/10
Remark: Excellent actions but lousy ending which there is no closure of the story.
Running Man (Korean Movie 2013)
Synopsis:
A guy with criminal record is making his honest living. One day, he was driving car fetching his customer. In the middle of the trip, he went toilet while his customer is doing something in a post office. As his customer is back in the car, he drove him to his destination not knowing that he was murdered already. What will he do next - call cops or run away out of fear?
Rating:7/10
Remark: Very standard Korean action-based movie
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Hollywood Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
He was recruited to be undercover for CIA. His role is to find any link between banks and terrorists.
Rating:8/10
Remark: The story has good flow together with consistent fast-paced actions.
Art of Steal (Canadian Movie 2013)
Synopsis:
A guy and his brother assemble a team to switch real painting to fake painting. But his brother betrays him by giving his name to cops upon questioning. After 5 and half year prison, he gets revenge on his brother. How?
Rating: 7/10
Remark: Nice story.
3 Days to Kill (Hollywood Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
A CIA agent has to retire as he has terminal illness. But the young CIA lady agent wants him to finish the final job which he didn't complete. In exchange, she gives him experimental drug to heal him.
Rating:7/10
Remark: Story is well done.
Walk of Shame (Hollywood Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
A female newscaster heard that she would not be promoted to bigger TV station. Her two good friends got her to unwind herself away from sadness. Unfortunately, she was in the situation of having herself without her car, wallet and mobile phone. How can she get back to her workplace to produce the news in the early morning?
Rating:7/10
Remark: It is interesting story but I watched it so as to recall how I tour around downtown Los Angeles.
Rio 2 (Hollywood Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
Jewel, Blu's wife, wants to bring her family including her husband, Blu to Amazon jungle. Once they are there, Blu is outcast there. How will he succeed not to be outcast?
Rating: 7/10
Remark: It is remarkable cartoon for children.
From Vegas to Macau (Hong Kong Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
Cool's brother was caught by money laundering king, Ko because he has evidence that will nail him down. But the evidence is not with him and is somewhere else. Who has it - Cool?Benz (Cool's brother)?
Rating: 6/10
Remark: It is testimony that Hong Kong movie quality is declining. Jokes are not funny any more.
300: Rise of an Empire (Hollywood Movie 2014)
Synopsis:
Themistocles led the victory against the first invasion by Persian and is rallying people in Athens to defend against the pending second invasion by Persian. How shall he deal with massive force?
Rating: 7/10
Remark: Great tactical story.
Tony Del Piero wrote and posted at at 1:32 am
