What other tech stock to consider?

[clmason]

That helps. I suppose bears bring up the "flip" camera that cisco bought and fumbled. Another small solid state camera product (without the outdoorsy optimization for sure).

Flip was a dog even in its best day IMO.

The channel/content thing kinda makes sense, but that seems like it would get old in a hurry...

It could, but it is certainly not going to get old before it launches and I don't need to stay in forever, just long enough to ride the wave.

 

[Chrisr400cc]

I bought a bunch of GPRO calls and leaps when it dipped to $38 after earnings. I recently sold off all my calls on the run up but still have my leaps. I too will be buying more on any dips. The stock was heavily shorted so I'm not sure if the run up was a short squeeze or if it is still heavily shorted. I kinda hope it can drop a little more tomorrow so I can pick up some more calls. Clmason your right about their CEO having a lot of passion. He reminds me of Elon back in his early days.

Yeah and Flip was never cool. It was new and small with good quality at the time, but GoPro is a game changer the way they enable you to turn the camera around and make accessories to capture yourself in life's greatest moments.

 

[FluxCap]

Alibaba.com is B2B platform and the first business of Alibaba Group. The retail sites of the company are taobao.com dedicated to Chinese customers and aliexpress.com – this is worldwide retail store.

With Alibaba.com you rarely can deal with small number of products and small amounts. I have been using it as B2B platform for years but occasionally to contact suppliers of specific products only from China. To be honest Alibaba was useful to me just to collect initial information about the supplier and to contact them for first time. The rest of communication is outside the platform.

In my opinion Alibaba.com is useful mostly for suppliers because most of them are unable to design and build understandable and attractive websites where they can attract foreign customers. Alibaba provides them with unified templates and framework how to present their companies and products within Alibaba domain.

I have compared Alibaba with Amazon and Ebay in terms of quality of the end product, reliability and customer convenience and also because in the mainstream media they do.

I wouldn’t bet on BABA as a long term investment but considering the initial excitement I could bet small amount on short term.

Thanks for these great thoughts, Cankoo1.

I am closely watching BABA and YHOO and deciding whether to make a play tomorrow. Here is some interesting info re: YHOO vs. BABA tomorrow:

firstadopter on Twitter:

 

[Johan]

If this BABA thing plays out like I think it will I am very much considering waiting on the sidelines and then buying short-term puts when the stock looses momentum and starts reversing. I think it may play out a bit like the FB or GoPro IPO...

 

[clmason]

If this BABA thing plays out like I think it will I am very much considering waiting on the sidelines and then buying short-term puts when the stock looses momentum and starts reversing. I think it may play out a bit like the FB or GoPro IPO...

FB and GPRO ipo were not similar. FB lost 20% of its value in the 4 months post IPO. GPRO has appreciated 120% in the 4 month since IPO.

 

[Johan]

FB and GPRO ipo were not similar. FB lost 20% of its value in the 4 months post IPO. GPRO has appreciated 120% in the 4 month since IPO.

I know. Talking about the first 5-7 days of trading.

 

[AlMc]

I know. Talking about the first 5-7 days of trading.

I agree Johan. I purchased a number of YHOO Oct calls and J16 LEAPS about a month ago. Sold half today for a nice profit. Holding the rest BUT will buy BABA puts after the 5-7 day 'froth' is over if we see a 25% jump from the IPO ($68). This is what I did with GPRO.....Made $, but could have made more if I hung on to them....

 

[Johan]

I agree Johan. I purchased a number of YHOO Oct calls and J16 LEAPS about a month ago. Sold half today for a nice profit. Holding the rest BUT will buy BABA puts after the 5-7 day 'froth' is over if we see a 25% jump from the IPO ($68). This is what I did with GPRO.....Made $, but could have made more if I hung on to them....

In theory it should be pretty easy to play it both on the way up and down. No need to hit neither peak nor bottom so long as you get the directions right. But many things are easy in theory.

 

[DaveT]

Alibaba IPO Roadshow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa9R2SqZsHM

I highly recommend watching it. To save time, watch it on Chrome at 2x speed.

 

[clmason]

I know. Talking about the first 5-7 days of trading.

Didn't FB go down immediately? Google finance shows that... and I recall all the news about investors getting hosed.

 

[anticitizen13.7]

OK - i'll try.

GoPro has firstly a coolness factor that its competitors will never have. (we know all about coolness factor here at TMC). For example GoPro is already a verb, "I GoPro'd my ride today and filmed amazing footage of....". No one says or will ever say, "I Sony'd my ride today". You can't buy that kind of street cred.

More to your question AustinEV and in one paragraph, GoPro has two things; Hardware and an army of users who create amazing content. Their hardware is capitalized yet they are innovating. A new model is due out this holiday season. It will be one of the most coveted high tech stocking stuffers this season. Just like other tech companies, there will always be a faster, lighter, more feature rich version around the corner. GoPro is also innovating their accessories. For example, their new pet mount allows you to capture footage from your dog’s POV. Who woulda thunk!, and yet customers are buying these accessories and creating never been seen before vantage points. The second key to their growth is their content which has not yet been capitalized. In their IPO Prospectus they explained their vision to create a media company and to capitalize it. It will happen. There will be GoPro channels in many outlets that open advertising opportunities. For example, say you are a Mountain Biking (insert any activity) enthusiast . You will watch the latest film online. You will see sponsors fighting (bidding a-la Google ad-words) for ad space related to that activity, be it for gear, apparel, related tourism, etc. This is the monster they will unlock that will catapult the stock. When the network starts generating revenue is will be big. They will go into every niche that there are user created videos for and sponsors will show up. It will be very targeted and that is exactly what sponsors will pay for.

PS – Their CEO is at first an enthusiast and then entrepreneur. I like this, it speaks to his passion. (we too know about this at TMC) He has also recruited a solid management team.

I'm not sure how big the market will ultimately grow for this kind of product. The content may very well be great for outdoors enthusiasts, but how many people really want to make dog/cat POV videos?

Commoditization is not in GoPro's favor either, as components will only get cheaper over time. While I think that a company like GoPro can succeed, the stuff they are doing ultimately doesn't have the difficulty of what Tesla, or even Apple does.

Generally speaking I favor companies that work on the "hard problems" because people are willing to pay for the value add, and competitors cannot replicate the product easily.

 

[Johan]

What other cool tech stock to consider?

Didn't FB go down immediately? Google finance shows that... and I recall all the news about investors getting hosed.

On day 2. First day the underwriters kept the price up (flat). If you saw BABA trade like that on the first day you kind of know what will happen on the second day.

 

[Perfectlogic]

There is a huge difference between the FB IPO and BABA today. Much of the FB was sold to retail investors because funds backed out at the end due to very greedy IPO pricing, and this ofcourse is not a good mix. Alibaba on the other hand has a very conservative IPO pricing which also allowed the underwriters to sell to the biggest institutions who tend to hold on for the long term, the supply will be tight, and the demand is immense at the IPO level and even significantly higher.

 

[DaveT]

My guess is that BABA closes at over $90 today.

 

[FluxCap]

My guess is that BABA closes at over $90 today.

Or opens at over $90

 

[DaveT]

Or opens at over $90

It looks that way now.

 

[Fast Laner]

BABA might end below 90, just a unispired guess

 

[FluxCap]

BABA might end below 90, just a unispired guess

I bought BABA at 93, flipped at 99 and I'm out. The lower leg of my YHOO strangle ($39 put) is almost in the money. Doing OK today. So far my hypothesis playing out.

 

[FluxCap]

I bought BABA at 93, flipped at 99 and I'm out. The lower leg of my YHOO strangle ($39 put) is almost in the money. Doing OK today. So far my hypothesis playing out.

Botched the last part of my trade, but was an interesting day. At least I made money flipping BABA. Not sure about that stock longer term.

 

[AlMc]

Botched the last part of my trade, but was an interesting day. At least I made money flipping BABA. Not sure about that stock longer term.

Very interesting day. I did buy BABA on the dip to $90 where I placed my buy order. That looks good. On the other side I quickly exited the remainder of my YHOO LEAPS at a nice profit BUT my Oct YHOO calls look a bit sickly.