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Below-Expected Earnings For Google Posted Early, Trading Halted

An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from the BBC: "Trading in Google shares has been suspended after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake. Google blames financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results, which had been expected after the closing bell. Shares in Google were down 9% when trading in the stock was suspended. Shares had fallen as much as 10.5% at one stage. In a statement, Google said: 'Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorisation... We have ceased trading on Nasdaq while we work to finalise the document. Once it's finalised we will release our earnings, resume trading on Nasdaq and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PST.'"

275 comments

  1. Thanks whoever fixed my first submission. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good luck dumping your shares at 1:30, right? ;)

    -5, not funny.

  2. Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What I'd do, is wait for all the panic selling, pick up some Nov or Dec calls, and when the panic ends, folks will probably buy back in and push the price up a little. Or you could just go long.

    Panic selling always overshoots down past where the price will eventually settle.

    1. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly right. I think it's already occurred, it dropped to 10% then settled back to 9%.

      It might have another lurch at 1:30... who knows for sure?

      What's a 20% loss good for at the end of the month?

    2. Re:Dumping?! by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 5, Funny

      What I'd do, is wait for all the panic selling, pick up some Nov or Dec calls, and when the panic ends, folks will probably buy back in and push the price up a little. Or you could just go long.

      Panic selling always overshoots down past where the price will eventually settle.

      The only thing more amazing than the fact that people manage time and time and time again to convince them selves that constantly increasing growth is sustainable, is the shock they get when it turns out not to be.

      http://www.horace.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/book-buy-sell-sell-sm.jpg

      So much for the dispassionate never erring and invisible hand of the free market.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    3. Re:Dumping?! by crutchy · · Score: 1

      that's the curse of capitalism for ya

    4. Re:Dumping?! by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No one cares about sustainability. Loyalty, integrity, perseverance are liabilities in the modern economy.

      --
      Good-bye
    5. Re:Dumping?! by lurker1997 · · Score: 1

      >

      Panic selling always overshoots down past where the price will eventually settle.

      I remember buying some RIM stock a few years ago (for > $100 / share) based on this philosophy. Ask me how that worked out.

    6. Re:Dumping?! by xevioso · · Score: 2

      How did it work out?

    7. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uh...why would you want sustainable constantly increasing growth? That would mean things are rigged. Peaks and valleys are a good thing.

    8. Re:Dumping?! by somersault · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The difference here could be that RIMs products have always been shitty. They were first out the gates for mobile email, but their software has always been poorly designed (IMO), and they've barely improved their products let alone done anything innovative. Everyone else has overtaken them now.

      Google on the other hand tend to create things that work well, and are still improving and innovating. If any tech giants are set to go downhill over the next few years, it's RIM, MS and Apple (the iPhone 5 reception was hardly stellar.. Apple are losing their cool factor without Jobs' guidance). Google should at least keep going steadily. Not that I even invest in the stock market anyway so I don't care that much :p

      --
      which is totally what she said
    9. Re:Dumping?! by lurker1997 · · Score: 1

      Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to compare Google and RIM. After I wrote my comment, I realized some people might draw that conclusion. I was just pointing out, based on my own experience, that trading stocks based on technical indicators is not always the best idea, as was implied by the post I was responding to.

    10. Re:Dumping?! by suso · · Score: 1

      But if they know that we know that they know that we know.

    11. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      uh...why would you want sustainable constantly increasing growth? That would mean things are rigged. Peaks and valleys are a good thing.

      That's kind of the point, people delude them selves.

    12. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      Google on the other hand tend to create things that work well, and are still improving and innovating.

      Yeah things that work so well which is why they've canceled dozens of projects and products in just the last few years because they were crappy and no one wanted to use them.

      (the iPhone 5 reception was hardly stellar..

      Who cares what the "reception" was when it broke sales records? They sold 5 million in just the first weekend.

    13. Re:Dumping?! by jd2112 · · Score: 1
      --
      Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
    14. Re:Dumping?! by greg1104 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Panic selling always overshoots down past where the price will eventually settle.

      This word "always", it doesn't mean what you think it does. It's very common for moderate panic to be just the first stage of a major drop in a stock's price, in which case the price will accelerate downward instead of settling back again. There's a popular phrase for the idea of "oh, it dropped a bunch, that must have gone too far; let me buy some and profit when it corrects": catching a falling knife. If you do it right, you get some small profit as the price returns to the mean from its extreme point. But if you're wrong, you can lose a giant amount of money. The odds of a trade played against panic are reasonable, but the risk/reward ratio is terrible. You can correctly play short-term panics a dozen times successfully but lose all that profit with one serious loss, when the initial panic turns into only more panic.

    15. Re:Dumping?! by adolf · · Score: 1

      The only thing more amazing than the fact that people manage time and time and time again to convince them selves that constantly increasing growth is sustainable, is the shock they get when it turns out not to be.

      The only thing more amazing than that is that people bother with trading Google stock at all, since they've (since before day 1) promised that none of it will be voting and that they will never pay a dividend.

      Growth? Who gives a shit!

      These aren't investments. These are charitable contributions to a corporation which one can withdraw at a variable price, hopefully at a time at which others are burdened with one's own "gain."

      Meh: At least tulips were a product.

    16. Re:Dumping?! by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1
      That's a very good post. It's a bit like a Martingale. It's a strategy that almost always makes a little bit of money, but every once in a while you get crushed.

      As you say, those small profits are not "free money." It's in exchange for the enormous risk.

    17. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    18. Re:Dumping?! by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      What's the point of rhetorical questions?

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    19. Re:Dumping?! by somersault · · Score: 1

      What R&D company do you know that doesn't create lots of projects and cancel the ones that don't work out? Pfft.

      --
      which is totally what she said
    20. Re:Dumping?! by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      What's the point of rhetorical questions?

      I don't know, what's the point of rhetorical questions?

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    21. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True. Basically any common signal you find in the market can both mean price is going up, and price is going down. Buying on a big drop often means you may profit from reversal to mean and even trend continuation. However, it may also mean buying on trend reversal, which often goes much faster down than up.

      If a simple signal "always" meant one thing, it means 95% of traders are idiots. They're not, they're just not profitable, but most are not idiots (or they would be out of the market pretty quickly).

    22. Re:Dumping?! by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The difference here could be that RIMs products have always been shitty.

      No, the Blackberry was the best product in its field (portable business email in particular) for quite a while.

      Google should at least keep going steadily.

      Google's core money making business is advertising. When the economy isn't doing so well, of course advertising companies won't either. The results shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    23. Re:Dumping?! by pastafazou · · Score: 0

      I like how you're getting modded down by the Googleheads just because you happened to speak some truth to one of their cheerleader's statements.

    24. Re:Dumping?! by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

      Being the best in the field doesn't mean it's not shitty...

      --
      If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
    25. Re:Dumping?! by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      Why do you ask?

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    26. Re:Dumping?! by jemenake · · Score: 1

      uh...why would you want sustainable constantly increasing growth? That would mean things are rigged. Peaks and valleys are a good thing.

      Ummm... try applying this thinking to any other naturally-occurring cyclic phenomenon. How about rivers? Why would you want consistent water levels? That would mean that you've rigged the river (by damming it). Occasional massive floods and droughts are a good thing, right?

      Uh... no.

      I'll answer your first question with another question (and I'm applying this argument to economic growth, in general, not in individual stock prices). "Why would you want sustainable constantly increasing growth?"... why wouldn't you? It allows you to be more productive when you can count on what the working environment is going to be like. Farmers know what to plant when they know that the sun is going to come up tomorrow... and they have even more idea of what to plant when they know what weather the seasons will bring.

      I get the impression that you like the peaks and valleys because they serve as proof to you that the system isn't being managed in some way. The only explanation I can imagine for this disdain for managing the system is that, often times, we screw it up. But that's an aspect of our execution, not of the principle. Indeed, it seems that we pervert the Keynesean notion of intervening to raise the valleys... and we figure that we can intervene, then, to raise the peaks as well (especially when there's an election coming up).

      Honestly, I wonder what would happen if we looked at average growth over the last 50 years and decided to shoot for that, consistently. If growth exceeded that, we'd intervene to cool the economy, stowing away cash to use to bolster it when growth got too low.

    27. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, I see - you're confusing Google, an advertising company, with Google, and R&D arm of some other company. That explains it. Google, you see, is an advertising company. That is the goal of everything they do. That is the source of an overwhelmingly huge portion of their income - 95+%.

      They don't "R&D" things. They find ways to inject their advertising into things you already use. Gmail? Not particularly innovative - email, and webmail portals, have been around for years. Google search? Lots of search companies before them - Altavista & Lycos & Yahoo were three who you may remember who were successful at search before Google. G+? Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Friendster, and a dozen other companies existed in that space before G+ ever existed. Android? Again, lots of Mobile phone OS'es have existed before it - WinMobile, Maemo, Meego, Symbian, Blackberry.

      If Google is an "R&D company," then I'm the Pope - and last time I checked, I didn't have a funny hat to wear to state occasions.

    28. Re:Dumping?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      charles schwab does. that guy from the detective show said so!

    29. Re:Dumping?! by somersault · · Score: 1

      I used to use Altaviista and Lycos. Google was way ahead - obviously, otherwise they wouldn't have pulled out so far in front.

      Orkut is a Google social networking site, you fucking numbnuts (sorry, I am in a sweary mood :p ).

      Android is way better than all those OSes. I used to use Windows Mobile. iOS was an improvement, but not my style. Android is great.

      Google glasses. Google's auto-drive system. Yes they both have advertising potential, but they also are really cool products which require a lot of R&D. You are an idiot.

      --
      which is totally what she said
  3. Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A 10% drop in a stock value for a mistake like this is the perfect time to buy. Thanks, idiots!

    1. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The idiots were the ones who caused the slide. The smart ones predicted the slide and sold early. They will pick it back up for 10%-15% less per share once the bounce starts and earn a tidy profit for doing precisely nothing. Ain't capitalism grand?

    2. Re:Meh. by Jeng · · Score: 2

      Ain't capitalism grand?

      Don't you mean "Ain't stock markets grand?"?

      There is no requirement for capitalism to make use of stock markets.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    3. Re:Meh. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      You have some other way of generating capital on a grand scale? Love 'em or hate 'em, if we didn't have stock markets, we would have to invent them.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    4. Re:Meh. by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      Always the response of those who think our current way of existing is the only way.

      --
      Good-bye
    5. Re:Meh. by crutchy · · Score: 1

      if you are honestly going to buy, then you are joining the idiots, not taking advantage of them (you'll merely be in the next iteration of idiots to be taken advantage of)

    6. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What a convincing argument without a single counter-example.

    7. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Please offer an alternative, then? How does a business generate operating capital in the form of investments, without issuing shares and selling them to interested buyers? Serious question here - you seem to think that there's other ways it could work, I'm unable to think of anything that wouldn't basically boil down to a system for buying & selling shares of ownership in a company.

      You can call it by another name, but that basic fact of equity trading seems to be a pretty fundamental aspect of a free-market capitalist system.

    8. Re:Meh. by sjames · · Score: 1, Insightful

      We would need either stock or some sort of bond, but a stock market in it's current form is not at all necessary.

    9. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Since "generating operating capital" really means trading future production for present cash, make that relationship literal. Companies may issue "bonds" (money, actually) denominated in terms of the product that they produce. The power company sells kilowatt-hours, or Google gets to print bonds denominated in some measure of AdWords (their primary product). Give them a redemption delay period (six months from issue, 12 months, 5 years, etc.) and you're all set.

      The reason I say it's "money, actually" is this system works only if you assign these bonds a sort of legal tender status: the company absolutely must accept any mature bonds at the printed value, regardless the current cash value they trade at. So if the power company goes hog wild and prints one billion kilowatt-hour "bonds" when it's obvious they can only expect to honor 200 million, they're effectively devaluing their own product.

    10. Re:Meh. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      Shares in companies predated stock markets. Stock markets are really just a bunch of companies who already have public shares getting together to pool resources to allow easier and centralized trading and selling of shares. You ban stock markets, they will simply be reinvented under some other name.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    11. Re:Meh. by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      What if your company produces more than one product? What if you have a company that owns a power plant AND sells Adwords?

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    12. Re:Meh. by masao · · Score: 1

      What a convincing argument without a single counter-example.

      Kickstarter?

    13. Re:Meh. by sjames · · Score: 1

      But it need not take it's current form. Ban the bad practices and it'll be re-invented in a more reasonable form.

    14. Re:Meh. by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      If you've got capitalism you need to have a way for the people with the capital to decide what to use it for. Any restrictions on how they do that are anti-capitalist.

      The actual mechanism doesn't have to be a stock market, but the result is the same: if the people with the capital decide for some reason they don't like you, you're going to have less capital available.

    15. Re:Meh. by Desler · · Score: 1

      Yeah, because Kickstarter is totally comparable to IPOs that net billions to 10s of billions of dollars. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

    16. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is, businesses should be allowed to buy and sell equity shares in a company, on a public market, in order to raise operating capital they need.

      Yeah, I can see how that's not like the stock market at all

    17. Re:Meh. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      You have some other way of generating capital on a grand scale? Love 'em or hate 'em, if we didn't have stock markets, we would have to invent them.

      Or we could just get rid of capitalism.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    18. Re:Meh. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mmm. Yes, let's plunge the world back into the dark ages. That's a great idea, and a sure solution for bad behavior in the financial sector. I for one can't WAIT to spend hours a day in the food lines provided for me by our glorious leader, after he adopts the enlightened thinking and behaviors of the dear leader of the DPRK.

      A vote against capitalism is a vote for dictatorship and fascism. There is no alternative system to capitalism that does not end IN PRACTICE with serfs-as-citizens. And by serf, I mean the original meaning - stinking, abject poverty with no hope of ever improving your lot, not the current '99-percenter' meaning of "I can't afford a 64GB iPhone 5 after I got my degree in Basketweaving Techniques of the Pre-Christian-era Roman legion, and only have ONE tv in my 700 sqft Brooklyn loft - these rich companies are turning me into a serf!"

  4. Dammit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wish i had some cash to buy a few more shares. It's going to go back up since i'm guessing the major portion of the drop was all the automated shit kicking in all over and driving it down even more.

    Easy money if you could buy some shares of google today. wait a week and make some bux.

  5. im no trader but.... by metalmaster · · Score: 1

    If their earnings report has already been leaked and the results arent good doesnt that mean shares will still fall in price? If the new report has drastically different results wouldnt you suspect Google is simply flufffing up the results to save face?

    1. Re:im no trader but.... by AuMatar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The big deal is announcing during the day. You're supposed to announce when its closed, so people can react at the same time the next morning. That's a big fuck up that could bring the SEC down with fines.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    2. Re:im no trader but.... by Antipater · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Traders are panicky sheep. Or lemmings. Or whatever. When these numbers get released during the day, everybody runs to SELLSELLSELLOHGODSELLIT. If they wait to release the numbers after the closing bell, the markets have all night for people to calm down and realize that the report isn't all that bad after all, and there's less downward pressure.

      --
      Everything is better with chainsaws.
    3. Re:im no trader but.... by alen · · Score: 2

      how are they going to report drastically different earnings a few hours later? the quarter ended over a month ago, it's not like they can just push some business into the release to meet the numbers.

    4. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "how are they going to report drastically different earnings a few hours later?"

      That would be compounding failure with epic status.

    5. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      how are they going to report drastically different earnings a few hours later? the quarter ended over a month ago, it's not like they can just push some business into the release to meet the numbers.

      It's not that the numbers will change. It's that you don't just surprise people with numbers, period. Release it after the markets are closed so everyone effectively gets full information at the same point in time. As for "finishing" the document, it may just be a matter of editing, etc. I highly doubt there would be material changes made this late.

    6. Re:im no trader but.... by jader3rd · · Score: 1

      Is traders always sell if a report is released during the day, wouldn't someone always make money by buying on that day, because the market will adjust reasonably over the next few days?

    7. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But that doesn't stop the traders doing out of hour trading.

    8. Re:im no trader but.... by dkleinsc · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's why a useful strategy with fundamentally sound stocks is to play the counter-cyclical game: When the market is going "SELLSELLSELLOHGODSELLIT", that's your signal to start looking for a price that you will buy at. When the market is saying "This is the best company to ever exist!", start selling.

      Of course, the risk in this strategy is that the reason the market is going SELLSELLSELL is because the stock is no longer sound. But that's unlikely if it's a company that actually makes something.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    9. Re:im no trader but.... by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 2

      Traders are panicky sheep.

      Was that augmented by panicky algorithms doing an impression of the robot scared by Chewbacca? Rawr! Squeeeeeee..... zip.

    10. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's why a useful strategy with fundamentally sound stocks is to play the counter-cyclical game: When the market is going "SELLSELLSELLOHGODSELLIT", that's your signal to start looking for a price that you will buy at. When the market is saying "This is the best company to ever exist!", start selling.

      Of course, the risk in this strategy is that the reason the market is going SELLSELLSELL is because the stock is no longer sound. But that's unlikely if it's a company that actually makes something.

      Like Nokia? RIM?

    11. Re:im no trader but.... by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Note the risk part.

      Those two are headed for bankruptcy. If Nokia is very lucky MS will buy them out for a pittance. Likely it will not as killing them is just as good.

    12. Re:im no trader but.... by Ghostworks · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Everyone expects reports after the bell. That way, there's time to actually read and reflect, and everyone starts on a similar footing when trading resumes in the morning. Just as importantly, everyone knows and expects that they'll start on a similar footing in the morning.

      If it were released during the trading day, there'd be pressure to analyse the document (and I use the phrase loosely here) as quickly as possible, so you can sell while it's still high or buy when it's still low, before most people have had a chance to process the new information. Most of the time, this means jumping on a single factor and reacting strongly.

      Of course, then other people wouldn't actually need read the document. They would just see the line trending, say, up and then figure that someone who can analyse better and more quickly than they has seen a value increase and is now buying. So they would buy. And why not? As long as they're on the rising edge, and can recognize a peak/plateau, they can sell at the peak and still make money. So this compressed window leads to panicked decisions based on incomplete information which is multiplied across the market. Very disruptive.

      Now, imagine if the report were not only released during trading, but _unexpectedly_ so. Not only would you have information, you would have information that the majority of actors don't have. You would have an advantage over them, one that will evaporate in a matter of minutes or hours. Once the trading halted for the day, the advantage would be lost. So they would move even more quickly and panicked than if they had been expecting the report during trading (which, of course, no one was).

      The phenomenon you describe -- trying to profit off of the correction when the initial trend is proven to be based on incorrect assumptions -- would then drag the trading artificially in the opposite direction. It's like kicking and oscillator. And, of course, there's no reason that a smaller group of investors couldn't capitalize on the over-correction, and another group on the re-correction, and so on. Maybe the price "rings" for a long, long time before it settles to a more representative value. Maybe it gets so low or high that non-linear effects ("buy at ..."/"sell at ..." directives) come into play and either dampen or excite the oscillation further. Maybe the stock just bottoms out -- that is to say, the investors buying or selling lose enough money at once that they can't make call, even though the stock they hold may have value.

      It's hard to say. But considering that it's all an artifact of traders trying to capitalize on the stupidity of other traders, and not at all a matter of the real price of the stock, it sounds like the kind of thing you want to discourage as much as possible.

      On a related note: based on the chaos caused by automated trading routines of late, I think we can expect more limits and delays on trading to be mandated in the future.

    13. Re:im no trader but.... by AuMatar · · Score: 4, Informative

      True. But the big exchanges don't allow that, you do that by trading off exchange. Basically, the government never made selling stock off the exchanges illegal, so people use that as a workaround. So the only after hours rule doesn't stop everything. However, after hours trading is a fraction of what happens during the day. So the rule isn't perfect, but does help. Also, after hours trading doesn't always predict what will happen correctly- after Jobs died, APL was down after hours, but went up on open.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    14. Re:im no trader but.... by Ghostworks · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The main thing you have to remember about aggressive traders is that they're actually both smarter and dumber than you'd expect. That is, they're smart enough to recognize that most of their money is not made by spotting winners or losers early enough to get on the winning team. No, most of their money is stolen in fits by outracing other investors when things suddenly change. If we're lucky, they usually have a counterpart somewhere who is responsible for shepherding a reserve of cash, slowly built up by investing in solid companies as they build, so that the life and death of the aggressive portfolio is not also the life and death of the company.

      The aggressive traders know a lot of their job comes down to timing, that the value they gain and trade is temporary, and that eventually the whole thing will melt down around them. Eventually, they will be the slow guy getting beat by faster guys. The large scale and small scale objectives are similar: get in on the rising edge, get yours, and get out before the whole thing goes to hell. Collapse is not an "if", it's a "when". The first thing they look for is always "when do I pull out?"

    15. Re:im no trader but.... by samkass · · Score: 1

      Note the risk part.

      Those two are headed for bankruptcy. If Nokia is very lucky MS will buy them out for a pittance. Likely it will not as killing them is just as good.

      Nokia owns Navteq. If only there was another company out there which had over $10B in the bank and could benefit from better mapping data.

      --
      E pluribus unum
    16. Re:im no trader but.... by Moridineas · · Score: 2

      Traders are panicky sheep.

      I would put it differently. People are panicky sheep. Traders are gamblers. Nothing more. Traders are gambling on how other people are going to respond.

      In the absence of dividends, what's a stock?

      Of course this is somewhat less than true now with all of the algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading that goes on. Nonetheless, at its core, the market is about emotion. Traders make--and lose--money based on emotions, not facts and fundamentals.

    17. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google doesn't "actually make something" that it can sell to customers.

      So it would seem that it's likely that dropping shares is a result of a financially unsound company - yes?

    18. Re:im no trader but.... by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but if they considered than an option why did they not go that route already?

    19. Re:im no trader but.... by sjames · · Score: 1

      So, what they're saying is the stock market should use a large quantum of time rather than the HF bull? Sounds good, but they need to generalize the policy.

    20. Re:im no trader but.... by schnell · · Score: 1

      When the market is saying "This is the best company to ever exist!", start selling.

      There's a risk to that, too. I did exactly what you describe and sold most of my Apple shares back when I started thinking that investors were overhyping the stock. That was at around $185/share. It seems I missed out on just a little bit of money that way.

      The bottom line of the stock market is that professional investors will throw money at anything that is growing its revenues/profit, and run away from anything that's shrinking - regardless of the health of their balance sheet. If you can pick who's going to grow a lot, and who's done growing, then you will do just fine in the stock market. Avoid everything in the middle, since that's wholly unpredictable and more or less just an exercise in chaos theory with some game theory thrown in for fun.

      --
      "95% of all Slashdot .sig quotes are incorrect or completely fabricated." -Benjamin Franklin
    21. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Absolutely right.

      But algorithmic trading is pretty predictable also.

      An alert human on the end of the news, that can be the difference between parsing today's 20% earnings loss correctly,
      or following the massive selloff like the rest of the bots. Google recovered 2% already.

      Depending on how well you read this today, and how soon, and how big your brass balls were?
      YOU could be a millionaire in an hour. Or broke in 2.

    22. Re:im no trader but.... by sjames · · Score: 1

      They got confused, they meant to emulate a robot, but ended up with Dr. Smith.

    23. Re:im no trader but.... by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      A useful strategy to prevent that is to sell enough to make back the original investment, and let the rest just go for the ride. Because you're in pure profit territory, you're less likely to sell into a panic like a lot of people just did.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    24. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It depends. In our lovely system of "more, more, more and RIGHT NOW" that exists on Wall Street, a lot of times a company will release bad earnings or on occasion good earnings that just don't meet whatever analysts think they should have been, and their stock plunges the next day. In a lot of cases, even good news or great news over the next few weeks won't move a stock back up even if there is no particular technical reason for it.

      This might be different because of compensating for the over reaction to the situation, but normally one expects a stock to keep going down for a few days or trade flat after bad earnings, but they won't normally go up to any significant degree. That doesn't mean buying a beaten down stock is a bad idea if you have reason to believe it's going to go up again, but you are USUALLY not looking at extreme short term profit potential. Rather, you have to wait for the "experts" to get over their hissy fits about expectations.

    25. Re:im no trader but.... by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Heck yes it does: It makes targeted advertising using the information provided by their users.

      The "actually make something" part was to exclude companies like Goldman Sachs and AIG, which make nothing and make their money by shuffling around the ownership of what was made.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    26. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know what's funny? It's not so much that you're absolutely wrong - it's because I actually believe that you really believe what you just wrote.

    27. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dumbest post of the day as you clearly don't understand HFT, early access or organic markets. You fit right in here.

    28. Re:im no trader but.... by ais523 · · Score: 1

      No, the problem is that if other people are selling, your optimal way to make money is to sell first but slightly before they do.

      The real problem with the markets is that the way you make money on them is to do the same as everyone else, just faster

      --
      (1)DOCOMEFROM!2~.2'~#1WHILE:1<-"'?.1$.2'~'"':1/.1$.2'~#0"$#65535'"$"'"'&.1$.2'~'#0$#65535'"$#0'~#32767$#1"
    29. Re:im no trader but.... by tukang · · Score: 1

      Have you ever heard of after-hours trading? Stock prices react immediately after earnings release even when earnings are released at the closing bell. The next morning the market opens lower, so releasing after the close doesn't make any difference w/r allowing people to react at the same time.

      The big deal isn't that it was announced during the day, the big deal is that it was announced before it was scheduled, so anyone who was planning to get out before the earnings release wasn't able to do so.

    30. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's nonsense. Companies can report their earnings whenever they feel like it.

      Generally, they are reported either after hours or before opening bell. But earnings can be reported during trading hours too. When this happens, the stock is halted, news is released, then few minutes later, stock is resumed.

    31. Re:im no trader but.... by AuMatar · · Score: 1

      THe market opening lower the next morning has nothing to do with after hour trading. The market opens lower the next morning if the bid and ask prices are lower. What it sold for overnight has no effect on that, unless people looked at those prices and adjusted theirs accordingly. But the "open" is no more than the first purchase made at whatever people had previously ordered.

      --
      I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
    32. Re:im no trader but.... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      "But that's unlikely if it's a company that actually makes something."

      Yes, but we're talking about Google.

    33. Re:im no trader but.... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      The market didn't go "SELLSELLSELLOHGODSELLIT" with Nokia and RIM. Both of those companies have been in downward spirals for quite a while. If anything, the markets have reacted very slowly to those two. I imagine plenty of people with a clue have made lots of money shorting them.

    34. Re:im no trader but.... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Why buy Nokia for $10 billion when you can pick up the bits you want for next to nothing if you just wait a little?

    35. Re:im no trader but.... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      A share of a stock is precisely that - a share of a company. A little bit of it that you own. If the share price rises, the bit of the company you own is becoming more valuable. If it falls, less valuable.

      If you buy a house, the amount of money you can sell that house for may increase or decrease. You usually don't actually GET any money until you sell the house, but you can get a reverse mortgage or something and get some cash out, at the cost of devaluing your house.

    36. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The bottom line of the stock market is that professional investors will throw money at anything that is growing its revenues/profit, and run away from anything that's shrinking - regardless of the health of their balance sheet.

      Those aren't "investors", they are traders and represent much of what is wrong with big banks having "proprietary trading desks".

      Actual investors such as Graham or Buffet have explained why non-investing approaches always lose in the long run.

    37. Re:im no trader but.... by greg1104 · · Score: 1

      Letting just the profit on a position ride can be troublesome on three fronts. First, unless you get a rare monster win, the profit left after selling what you originally invested will only be a small fraction of the investment. Selling a position because it went up 20% after purchase is an excellent trade...but closing the original amount will only leave you with 1/5 of the original position size. That doesn't really dull the feeling that you missed an opportunity if the stock keeps climbing.

      Second, even if you're risking only earlier profits, it's still money that's tied up in a position. Let's say you entered a trade, made a profit, and closed most of the position at your target. There's a lost opportunity cost if you keep that profit in the original stock, rather than moving it to a better one.

      The third messy part around selling at a target and letting the profit ride is the tax implications. For more serious traders everything is going to show up as a short-term capital gain. Investors who might otherwise be in the long-term bracket are essentially penalized if they close profitable positions early.

    38. Re:im no trader but.... by blue_teeth · · Score: 1

      If fundamentals & financials are strong, why panic?

      "An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative". ---- Benjamin Graham in his book Security Analysis

    39. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this is silly - your shares were worth the difference between the price you paid when you bought them and this that you got when you sold - the rest is speculative or virtual profit/loss as in reality it did not exist. IN the situation you describe you could have won more but you also could have lost and you did not know at the time. The current practice with shares is that you actually do not invest in a company but speculate. Whether this is good or bad depends on you perspective. Hardly anybody actually invest in company - the majority invest in stock market because it miraculously 'always goes up' (or so they said). The way you should look at your adventure with apple shares is this: you made some money ,you could have earned more or less but you took profit and invested elsewhere. Waiting till they reach the peak is silly because when you notice it peaked it is too late and if market collapses you will not have time. So at the end it is a suckers game - big automatic traders determine the price and even look in the future orders so you do not stand the chance - the only thing you can really do is what you did: look at funamentals and hope your strategy works.

    40. Re:im no trader but.... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Heck yes it does: It makes targeted advertising using the information provided by their users.

      The "actually make something" part was to exclude companies like Goldman Sachs and AIG, which make nothing and make their money by shuffling around the ownership of what was made.

      Advertising is one of the most pointless wastes of time on the planet. It creates nothing except jobs for people in advertising. Apart from companies who manufacture torture devices, I can't think of many more sociopathic enterprises.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    41. Re:im no trader but.... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If you can pick who's going to grow a lot, and who's done growing, then you will do just fine in the stock market.

      Well, yes. That's like saying that if you can always predict the winners in a horse race you'll do just fine as a professional horse race gambler.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    42. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      True. But the big exchanges don't allow that, you do that by trading off exchange. Basically, the government never made selling stock off the exchanges illegal, so people use that as a workaround. So the only after hours rule doesn't stop everything. However, after hours trading is a fraction of what happens during the day. So the rule isn't perfect, but does help. Also, after hours trading doesn't always predict what will happen correctly- after Jobs died, APL was down after hours, but went up on open.

      Actually, all the big exchanges DO have after hours electronic trading (and 99% of the trading during the day is electronic too). Fewer people participate but it's still going on. You can go to bed and wake up to a different world.

    43. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no. it just lets the pros trade after hours, repositioning themselves, while the joe blow gets the shaft.

    44. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      guess you never watched 5 million shares traded "off exchange".

      you're so full of shit.

      when all the big brokers coordinate after hours, they don't need the exchange.

      fuck you and your score 5 informative.

      always some fuck head and slashdot has an answer for everything, but in reality, the only people who can take advantage of after hours trading, are the ones who make the after hours market.

    45. Re:im no trader but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, obviously, but the point is, what is the value of a share? A stock gives dividends has an obvious value--you get paid according to some set schedule. But is Google really worth 20% more or less based on one earning's report? It's all about emotion and psychology, not fundamentals. You can talk P/E ratios and all kinds of other "fundamentals," but it all comes down to perceived values, and perceptions of perceived values!

  6. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by MightyYar · · Score: 1

    Captialisation? Punctuation?

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  7. Someone got paid today. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yep somebody got real rich. Yessiree

  8. Bigger not better by Dupple · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh dear

    Income this quarter is lower than the same quarter last year but overall revenues are up 45% from the same time last year. So that means that its income is less in proportion to how big it is, 19% of revenues last quarter against 37% last year. Google as a business is getting bigger but its profits are dwindling. Bigger but not better

    Moto is loosing money (the rate does seem to have slowed) on top of the 12 Bn purchase price

    Why in earth Google is releasing the new Nexus phone made by any one else other than Moto doesn't make any sense to me at all, apart from google not wishing to piss off other OEMs who aren't raking it either.

    Othe contributing factors I'd imagine are people using apps instead of browsers, so there's less opportunity for google to place ads directly and ad rates aren't as lucrative a they once were.

    As for the timing. Today or tomorrow? Wouldn't the stock have taken a dive anyway? Just off the top of my head thoughts

    --
    Watch those corners
    1. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why in earth Google is releasing the new Nexus phone made by any one else other than Moto doesn't make any sense to me at all, apart from google not wishing to piss off other OEMs

      Uh, duh? Larry Page and Andy Rubin aren't doing this shit for a quick quarterly numbers boost. Showing a profit on Motorola now rather than a year from now doesn't mean shit if they alienate all their other hardware partners and those guys leave for Windows 8. HTC is already hedging pretty hard. Short term vs. long term.

    2. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      apart from google not wishing to piss off other OEMs

      Isn't that waht he said?

    3. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your comment would be more meaningful if Larry/Andy would say ANYTHING illustrating that they do, in fact, have a longer term strategy in mind for Motorola. Right now they seem they seem totally flummoxed by this whole "manufacturing" thing.

    4. Re:Bigger not better by jkflying · · Score: 4, Funny

      Basically, they have spent lots of money on growth rather than putting it into a bank account. Sounds like a terrible idea, really.

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    5. Re:Bigger not better by spire3661 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yeah, it really is interesting to watch google flail about in making physical goods. Love my Nexus 7, but lets not kid ourselves, its a Google branded Asus product which was 95% ready to ship when google put its finger in the pie.

      --
      Good-bye
    6. Re:Bigger not better by moderatorrater · · Score: 1

      From the article I read elsewhere, the Motorola purchase is what caused the drop in profit. If it weren't for that purchase they would have been more profitable, although still not as profitable as wall street had forecasted. So, while the purchase itself might cause some concern, the numbers alone shouldn't.

      Now, as to whether the purchase of Motorola is a sign that Google's on the decline is an interesting question.

    7. Re:Bigger not better by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Informative

      I wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of manufacturers all submitted products to be chosen as the next Google branded Nexus device. ASUS happened to win this time.

    8. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Moto next then. Google has to eat it's own dog food soon

    9. Re:Bigger not better by Sir_Sri · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Google as a business is getting bigger but its profits are dwindling. Bigger but not better

      Businesses are just giant investing services. The question for google is what is it spending all this money on, and will it have any future return that justifies the reduced income right now. Also, I'd rather own a company that acquired 10 billion dollars in assets and made one billion dollars in profit than one that made 2 billion dollars in profit - so we'll have to see just what they justify this expense on.

      Moto is loosing money (the rate does seem to have slowed) on top of the 12 Bn purchase price

      This would be the question of an asset. I never really saw google buying moto as a good plan unless there's a patent licencing scheme in the works.

      Why in earth Google is releasing the new Nexus phone made by any one else other than Moto doesn't make any sense to me at all, apart from google not wishing to piss off other OEMs who aren't raking it either.

      You answered your own question. Samsung HTC, Sony etc. all have a choice: Google, Microsoft or go their own way. Google is trying got to the top of the smartphone business by being an open platform and they don't want to fuck that up. Especially not while Microsoft is working hard to close their platform, and have surface etc. If I was samsung or HTC or Sony or the like I would find google much more tempting a partner than MS.

      As for the timing. Today or tomorrow? Wouldn't the stock have taken a dive anyway? Just off the top of my head thoughts

      Depends on what they spent the money on. That's the problem. The reason these things are secret is because an unfinished document without context could be factually wrong to start (as in the numbers may simply not be correct) or they may have significant information that needs to be included.

      From the sounds of the *final* document google views the whole thing as overall positive, they're re-investing in growth, and have seen hugely rocketing revenue overall, which is all in all good, and they suffered a bit from the USD being high relatively. So from *their* perspective this report seemed quite positive, which might be it.

      As I said, I'd rather own a company that acquired 10 billion dollars in assets and made 1 billion dollars in profit than one that made 2 billion dollars in profit and acquired no assets, and that seems to have consistently been the approach a lot of growing companies are taking.

    10. Re:Bigger not better by Dupple · · Score: 4, Informative

      Great reply, thanks. I've been awake for a long time so it wasn't the best post I could have made.

      Your point about not pissing off other OEMs is well made considering the history of MS and it's 'strategic partners'. It was what i was alluding to. Asymco had a great post about this but I can't find it right now.

      Yoir reply is Thoughtful, directed and appreciated

      --
      Watch those corners
    11. Re:Bigger not better by BitZtream · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Serious questions from someone who just returned a Nexus 7 due to it not meeting my expectations. I have not owned but used several iPads and do own an iPhone.

      Do you not notice the lag in the display and the awkwardness of the on screen keyboard? I bought the Nexus7 because I read about Project Butter (making the UI buttery smooth) and thought that since it was a high priority for 4.x they would have worked it out but it is still horribly laggy and often made me wonder if I had clicked a link in chrome or if I had missed the link because nothing would happen for a moment. I also found the blue glow at the end of the scroll area to be practically unnoticable and not enough of an indication for me to realize that I was at the end. Many times I thought it was just lagging again. This bit is probably due to being used to the iOS way of doing things, but it seemed far too little to be an effective indicator for the end of a scrollable area.

      I know I sound like an Apple fanboy :( but do you really think it is THAT GREAT or are you just a Android fan? It seems to me that even with the 4.1.2 update it was considerably less smooth than what I'm used to in iOS to the point of being obnoxious. You don't notice?

      I'm honestly asking as I'm trying to determine if my expectations are just unacceptably high, I have a hard time thinking they are since at least iOS devices meet my expectations. I'm of the opinion that 4.x Android devices with suffcient processing power would blow the pants off Windows CE/WindowsMobile before iOS, but since the release of iOS they just seem like another ME TOO that isn't as good as the real thing.

      I accept due to Androids nature that there will be plenty of 'ME TOO' devices, but I really expected something with the Nexus brand to be top of the line and it just isn't too me.

      --
      Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
    12. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I use the Swype keyboard rather than the stock one, so I can't comment there (other than the obligatory dig that at least Android lets you decide what keyboard app you want to use). The "blue glow" vs "bounceback" thing is just a matter of expectations; I'm used to it one way and you're used to it the other way, and switching is irritating. I haven't noticed any real lag, though.

    13. Re:Bigger not better by Dave+Cole · · Score: 1

      While what you are saying is probably true, by google banding it a nexus device they are saying that android development will target that device. That is a pretty big deal.

    14. Re:Bigger not better by rolfwind · · Score: 2

      Is it spending money in growth (investments) or are they in several low-margin businesses? Two different things.

    15. Re:Bigger not better by jmerlin · · Score: 1

      Moto is loosing money (the rate does seem to have slowed) on top of the 12 Bn purchase price

      So... have you ever heard of YouTube?

    16. Re:Bigger not better by spire3661 · · Score: 0

      I agree that the nexus 7 is laggy compared to ipad 2 or above. Take that with the huge grain of salt that is their respective price points. If i was poor, the Nexus 7 would be my choice as it is a beast at $199.

      --
      Good-bye
    17. Re:Bigger not better by rtfa-troll · · Score: 1

      Now, as to whether the purchase of Motorola is a sign that Google's on the decline is an interesting question.

      Up until the Motorola purchase, I honestly believed that Android was at risk of total destruction by Microsoft and their ilk. This is no longer possible. If Android was pushed out of the market then Microsoft would no longer have any leverage over Motorola. Motorola have a large number of fundamental patents on mobile technology only some of which have to be licensed under RAND obligations. If they were pushed out of mobile they could completely stop any other mobile manufacturer of their choice. Possibly even, if there wasn't a fundamental intervention in patent law, which would also eviscerate Microsoft's patent strategy, block all other mobile manufacturers.

      When you saw how much money was spent trying to stop Google getting Nortel, an important but still second rank player in the mobile patents game (first rank is basically Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia and Motorola; second rank would be Nortel, Alcatel Lucent, Samsung etc. I'm not including people like DoCoMo), think how much of a disaster it was for Microsoft when Google managed to get Motorola on the rebound. The entire patent game was changed by the Motorola purchase. What were once fights to the death are now merely price negotiations.

      --
      =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
    18. Re:Bigger not better by jkflying · · Score: 2

      Their revenue went up and their profit simultaneously went down. Sounds like expansion to me...

      --
      Help I am stuck in a signature factory!
    19. Re:Bigger not better by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I'd rather own a company that acquired 10 billion dollars in assets and made 1 billion dollars in profit than one that made 2 billion dollars in profit and acquired no assets

      That's why you're not the CEO or CFO of a large corporation.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    20. Re:Bigger not better by Sir_Sri · · Score: 1

      Other than for you know... all of those corporations including google that do just that on a regular basis?

      Hell that was Apple's ENTIRE history is taking every penny in profit and holding onto it and never paying it out to shareholders, and just reinvesting in the company, whatever accounting you want to call that, it's acquiring various assets. They got to the point of holding 100 billion dollars in assets that had nothing to do with apple so it was time to send some of that off to investors, but every company is constantly trying to decide between investing in growth in themselves or giving money back to shareholders to invest on their own.

    21. Re:Bigger not better by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't is possible that Google were lining up buying Motorola at the time of the Nortel patent auction, it did seem like their bids weren't serious ones, perhaps with the sole purpose of getting Microsoft and others to burn through extra money to acquire them.

  9. finalise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the BBC anglifying the spelling of a U.S. company's report, or are the people at Google huge anglophiles?

    1. Re:finalise? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 4, Funny

      Is the BBC anglifying the spelling of a U.S. company's report, or are the people at Google huge anglophiles?

      No, it's just that Americans don't speak proper English so some kind hearted soul took pity on Google and corrected their spelling.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    2. Re:finalise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You do realize that the English spoken in the Appalachian Mtns. more closely resembles the English spoken in Great Brittan in the 1600's then the English that is spoken in Great Brittan today.

      Thats right, you all sounded like a bunch of flipping hill billies.

      Extensive research has been conducted since the 1930s to determine the origin of the Appalachian dialect. One theory is that the dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan (or Shakespearean) English that had been preserved by the region's isolation.[2][3]
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English

    3. Re:finalise? by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 2

      You do realize that the English spoken in the Appalachian Mtns. more closely resembles the English spoken in Great Brittan in the 1600's then the English that is spoken in Great Brittan today.

      Thats right, you all sounded like a bunch of flipping hill billies.

      Extensive research has been conducted since the 1930s to determine the origin of the Appalachian dialect. One theory is that the dialect is a remnant of Elizabethan (or Shakespearean) English that had been preserved by the region's isolation.[2][3]
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English

      Don't even try... I'm a German, I just thought it would be fun to 'take the piss' out of you guys as my friends across the channel call it. It is nice to see that (most) Americans can still take a joke.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
    4. Re:finalise? by gmhowell · · Score: 1

      Don't even try... I'm a German, I just thought it would be fun to 'take the piss' out of you guys

      You Germanians and your scat porn...

      --
      Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
    5. Re:finalise? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      another troll gmhowell 1 line post whoring for karma points so he can mod up his other sockpuppet accounts and his opponents down with.

  10. Google is a botnet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    October 2012 will be remembered as the worst month for operating systems in a long time

    Windows 8, Adbuntu 12.10, iOS with worse maps and of course new Crapbooks from Google. Dump your shares, invest in bitcoins or Iranian Rials.

    1. Re:Google is a botnet by lightknight · · Score: 1

      Agreed.

      Microsoft's Surface? It will probably sell well; when MS does hardware, they typically do it better than even the established players. Windows 8? Ouch.

      Ubuntu with Ads? That's the sound of a death knell for that company. Other linux distros have tried this before, it did not end well. The larger problem is that Ubuntu is lying to itself, essentially a servant with two masters: on one hand, without the OSS community, they're dead in the water, on the other hand, they feel they are owed something for the work they've put in. Until they realize that they want to be paid first, contribute to OSS second, they're in for a world of hurt.

      Apple is in its own hell. Their co-founder and primary design engineer / artist is dead, as is his ability to sell people stuff that they may not want nor need. They have someone else in there right now, but it sounds like he isn't flexible enough to wear the black turtleneck and the blue jeans. Simply increasing the resolution of your current devices, or playing with form factors will buy you time, but it can't give the company the vision it needs to sustain itself. Given the way Apple is run, you need someone at top who understands what he / she is looking for, and whether the engineers will be able to deliver before he / she even picks up the phone. They have a capable person for the latter, but not necessarily for the former.

      Google has its own issues, namely that it appears to be living in a fantasy world / disconnect with the real world. Google search is just absolutely terrible these days, just horrid, as a search engine. Advertisers want more (they always do) intrusive ads, and Google has yet to convince them why progressing to the next format may be a bad idea (it is). Jelly Bean, however, has been well received, and aside from patent issues with Apple, it is shaping up to be a real operating system. On another note, they haven't put anything else out lately worth mentioning, which coming from a company that gave us GMail & friends, seems a little odd. Additionally, there are some rumors of the NSA getting its fingernails into Google's databases, which is a minor concern for alarm; the image of Google opening up various accounts with confidential information at the snap of a bureaucrat's fingers is not one well received.

      As for the shares, we all know that the US economy is desperate for some good news, having jumped the gun a few times over the past several weeks. However, despite the horrible deficits and mounting debt problems, we are reminded that it is an election year, so the market will probably remain, as it has sometimes, near the low end until a candidate emerges victorious; whether it will go up or down, after that victory, is open to some guessing.

      Bitcoins are an experimental currency at the moment, with developers still writing the software to accept BitCoin payments. It also lacks circuit-breakers and what are considered traditional theft protections, but if you know what you are doing, it might be worth a look.

      Iranian Rials are in an odd position at the moment. You can buy in, but it's hard to buy out. However, if sanctions are eventually lifted, the currency may be worth more than originally purchased.

      --
      I am John Hurt.
    2. Re:Google is a botnet by Swampash · · Score: 1

      when MS does hardware, they typically do it better than even the established players

      Yeah, just look at Xbox.

      On second thoughts, don't.

  11. Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This seems really silly to halt trading. If people are dumping their stock due to speculation or accidental reports, let them do it! This just means that others can buy the stock while it's down and should the actual report come in that and everything be ok, well those early speculators just lost out.

    It just seems like by having trades be halted if things get too crazy or even backing out trades if they were due to HFT bugs, you're removing all the risk and just enabling dumber and bolder investment strategies.

    1. Re:Why halt trading? by EmagGeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They have to halt trading to prevent automated trading programs from selling it down to zero.

      Once there's a fast enough and large enough movement, you start getting more selling from automatic stop-loss orders, automatic short selling, and all kinds of nasty things.

      The idea of a trading halt is to prevent computer programs from destroying the economy in milliseconds. Garbage in, garbage out, you know.

    2. Re:Why halt trading? by Darth+Snowshoe · · Score: 2

      This seems like an instance of human traders being smarter than the bots.

      I think it's unfair to long-term investors, and humans in general, to halt trading just because the automated traders are overreacting. It looks just like another instance of the market being managed to give Wall Street institutions and HF traders an advantage over retail traders. Can somebody explain to me why this is legal?

      Wall Street, read this: if you continue to stack the deck against retail traders, mom-and-pop investors are going to look harder and harder for alternative places to put their money.

    3. Re:Why halt trading? by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 1

      I don't think it would actually destroy the economy. The automated investors... well that's a different story. In the end, all this means that someone gets lucky and buy Google at bargain basement prices (if the circuit breaker doesn't kick in) and the unlucky investors sold their shares for much less than they were potentially worth.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    4. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Automatic short selling cannot drive the price to zero because you can only sell short on an uptick.

    5. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can somebody explain to me why this is legal?

      If you're going to have a casino, somebody has to be the house.

    6. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Provided the price of the stock has dropped a significant (>10%) amount that day.

    7. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The more mom-and-pop investors try to get out of the stock market, the more the institutional guys will force us to get into it. In the past, people relied on pensions or their own hard-earned savings for retirement. Now, many of us are putting a healthy percentage of our income (7% for myself, matched with another 7% from the company) into the stock market via 401k offerings.

      I really question what the economical effect would be if the stock market didn't exist. Sure, many companies would lose millions and companies would be forced to be valued based on their actual revenue and not some hyped up stock price which in many cases does not match actual numbers. But after the smoke clears, would our economy be in a better position if all of us didn't buy into it.

    8. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They have to halt trading to prevent automated trading programs from selling it down to zero.

      If some idiot robot is dumb enough to "sell down to zero" I think this is a wonderful opportunity for us humans to regain ownership of the country's capital. Why would any organic-American want the SEC to stop that from happening? By protecting the robots' interests, the SEC are traitors against humanity! ;-)

      The idea of a trading halt is to prevent computer programs from destroying the economy in milliseconds.

      "Destroying the economy." I learned something today. Since we all know that the stock market is nothing more than a (possibly subjective) measurement of a small part of the economy (the actual ecomomy itself, is something existing outside of some building in Manhattan), this tells us something about the trading robots. It means they get very upset when they lose equity, and it means that they have lasers. If we let them "trade down to zero" then the impoverished robots, with nothing to lose, will go on an economic rampage -- vaporizing factories, erasing the brains of skilled workers, sinking cargo ships, sealing mines and setting up bittorrent trackers.

      (BTW, not really taking issue with SEC's decision. But the way you described their justification is just hilarious. What's really creepy is that I think you're telling it truthfully and accurately, but damn, what a strange way of describing it. I would have just said, "They stopped trading because mobs do stupid things. And after mobs do stupid things, the people making up the mobs always blame someone other than themselves for the consequences.")

    9. Re:Why halt trading? by slew · · Score: 4, Informative

      In this case Google requested that the Nasdaq halt trading for a "news-pending" reason. The general theory behind allowing a company to halt it's own stock is so to give time for investors to evalute potentially material financial information (or in this case accidential financial information).

      There is also a regulatory pause (called a circuit-breaker) if a stock moves more than 10% in five minute window. The primary reason for this type of halt trading is that there is a large imbalance between buyers and sellers (much larger than the market makers can absorb). In these types of situations, it is essentially impossible to fairly price (and thus report) a stock trade which can cause the instability in automated trading programs that you are referring to.

      I believe that the erroneous report was released @12:30EDT and by the time GOOG was halted @12:50, it was only down about 9%, and it resumed trading @3:20 and finished only about 8% down. I don't think that was enough to trigger an automatic circuit-breaker. The stock was halted because GOOG requested it (when it realized what had happened).

    10. Re:Why halt trading? by Americano · · Score: 2

      The irony is that it's NOT the algo traders that are typically dumping the stock "at any price". It's entirely possible for bad algorithms to exist that will continue selling any stock without any lower bound, but there's also a lot of algorithms that will note the movement of the stock price and start buying up the stock at those panic-depressed prices. You'd be hard-pressed to find a lot of humans willing to do the same - this means that the panicking humans are going to be taken advantage of by the big corporate wall street algobots who will buy the valuable stock up at fire sale prices, allowing the people operating those algos to profit obscenely off the panic.

      Panic is an entirely human trait - it's the HUMANS, who are susceptible to panic at seeing their 401(k)'s take a significant dive, jumping in to sell off the share that's losing value while it still has *some* value. The algorithms are just looking at the numbers and continue operating based on the rules that were programmed into them.

      As far as why this is legal, it is legal precisely because humans are susceptible to stupid stampeding herd blind panic. This was a mistake that triggered a rash of selling as people read the headline and said "OH MY GOD GOOGLE IS FAILING SELL SELL SELL GOOG." When you have a huge number of people doing that at once, the stock price drops quickly as the market is flooded with sell orders and buyers quickly dry up - telling everybody "stop, digest this information, and think about it" is a good thing - it blunts the impact of the panic, and makes people assess whether or not the news is REALLY cause for panic, after reading the entire statement, digesting it, and consulting with other references - not just seeing a headline and freaking out.

      Frankly, anybody whose entire retirement plan is evaporating because of bad news at one company is investing stupidly anyway, and should use this as a MASSIVE wakeup call. A diversified portfolio is a cornerstone of a sound investment strategy, so any minor downturn like this, even if Google is actually struggling and its share price corrects to reflect that, should only impact a small segment of your investments.

    11. Re:Why halt trading? by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Also it depends on if it's a program limit order or a physical customer limit order. Different trading halts have different effects.

      The market makers play by slightly different rules, as they're required to maintain liquidity.

      (caveat - I have been a market maker for a number of stocks and bonds in my time)

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    12. Re:Why halt trading? by DeadCatX2 · · Score: 1

      I wholeheartedly agree. If a machine does something stupid and causes a flash crash, well too bad for whoever owned those machines, let some long-term investors rake in the cash at the stupid machines' expense.

      --
      :(){ :|:& };:
    13. Re:Why halt trading? by sjames · · Score: 1

      In other words, gotta protect the big HF traders from themselves, we can't have them losing money to the peons, now can we?

    14. Re:Why halt trading? by biodata · · Score: 1

      Why is this bad though? If a company has actual assets, then trading its shares seems unlikely to affect its real value long-term. If a company is basically worthless then let the gamblers gamble with the brakes off. Perhaps it would encourage people to be in shares for the long-term like they are meant to be.

      --
      Korma: Good
    15. Re:Why halt trading? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 1

      Sounds like the system is broke then.

    16. Re:Why halt trading? by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Wall Street, read this: if you continue to stack the deck against retail traders, mom-and-pop investors are going to look harder and harder for alternative places to put their money.

      Wall Street doesn't care. Mom and Pop investors don't have enough money to matter and as wealth concentrates even more with the .1% (not even the 1%), Mom and Pop investors become ever more irrelevant.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    17. Re:Why halt trading? by greg1104 · · Score: 1

      Even if Wall Street cared about mom-and pop investors (they don't), the idea that retail investors can leave the market is an idle threat. There's nowhere else for them to go. It's not like Joe Sixpack can switch from trading stocks to investing in commodities or currency markets instead. There's no easy retail outlet for them to do that, the lack of taxation breaks makes real profits harder to earn, and the volatility is higher; it's a mess. And rates on things like savings have been driven to below inflation, by the same influential big players who make sure the stock market is organized to benefit them most.

      And guess what? The same rich people who are messing with the stock equities market will move to wherever mom-and-pop go, and keep beating on them the same way. Retail traders are sheep to be shorn as far as the bigger firms are concerns, and that's what they will always be.

      There's a fun game I like to play when this topic comes up with people. Break out some cards and chips play a card game like poker. Give one player 10X as many chips as everyone else. Unless they're a complete idiot, they will always end up with all the money in the end. Once you more money to risk than any other player by a good margin, you can just keep escalating bets until you wipe your small opponents out. Just keep risking as much as the little players can afford, over and over, until the one bad break that wipes them out.

    18. Re:Why halt trading? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Break out some cards and chips play a card game like poker. Give one player 10X as many chips as everyone else. Unless they're a complete idiot, they will always end up with all the money in the end.

      And that is why there should be 100% death duties/inheritance tax.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    19. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I would have LOVED if GOOG went to zero, I would have bought the whole damn company!

      I fail to see the problem with letting people automate giving away their stock at ridiculously low prices, if they want to.

    20. Re:Why halt trading? by jemenake · · Score: 1
      To answer the parent's parent: "Why halt trading", it seems silly to me that they'd halt trading because of the early report (which is the insinuation of the article). So... what... Google wants their stock to tank tomorrow instead of today? What would be the point of that, unless the board of directors needs a day to unload their positions?

      They have to halt trading to prevent automated trading programs from selling it down to zero.

      Once there's a fast enough and large enough movement, you start getting more selling from automatic stop-loss orders, automatic short selling, and all kinds of nasty things.

      So, let it happen. This doesn't hurt Google one whit (unless Google is buying or selling its own stock that day). Besides, if the stock dips unreasonably low, lots of people will swoop in to buy the bargain shares. You don't think there aren't just as many automatic trades that would start buying long before the price got down to half it's previous value?

    21. Re:Why halt trading? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other words, gotta protect the big HF traders from themselves, we can't have them losing money to the peons, now can we?

      When an HFT strategy behaves badly, they don't all behave badly simultaneously. Whoever has one not doing the stupid strategy will snap up all the opportunity. So the peons aren't getting anything anyway.

  12. I just backed up the truck. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    in for 100 shares at $694.38. It'll be over $700 by COB tomorrow.

    1. Re:I just backed up the truck. by MarkGriz · · Score: 1

      Good luck. Hope you don't get run over.

      --
      Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
    2. Re:I just backed up the truck. by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      You're probably right. But I'd get out as soon as it gets there.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  13. Seriously Google you're in the information busi... by Microsift · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure you mean 1:30 PDT, not 1:30 PST.

    --
    My other sig is extremely clever...
  14. News sources by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A pet peeve of mine (and one of my biggest gripes with Google News) is promoting news sources that are nationally or geographically far removed from the event in question. In this case, I noticed the British spelling of "finalise", which directed my attention to the fact that the linked article is from the BBC. So then I assumed this was in some way related to the London Stock Exchange, or it was the UK division of Google that prematurely released the figures. However that is not the case as this was indeed suspended on NASDAQ and involved the parent Google company.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:News sources by tuppe666 · · Score: 2

      A pet peeve of mine (and one of my biggest gripes with Google News) is promoting news sources that are nationally or geographically far removed from the event in question. In this case, I noticed the British spelling of "finalise", which directed my attention to the fact that the linked article is from the BBC. So then I assumed this was in some way related to the London Stock Exchange, or it was the UK division of Google that prematurely released the figures. However that is not the case as this was indeed suspended on NASDAQ and involved the parent Google company.

      I'm not sure why we are subjected to a journalists biased view, rather than post the financial statements. http://investor.google.com/financial/tables.html.

    2. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Just because you make assumptions based on geographical location of the event based on the news sites location.

      The Internet is global.
      The BBC, although British owned is also global - I've watched BBC World News on ABC News (Australian Channel) - and it shows global news.
      The BBC is a well respected news organisation, I'd prefer to read the BBC than a local newspaper close to Google HQ.

    3. Re:News sources by Bill_the_Engineer · · Score: 3, Informative

      Look on the bright side, it has a better chance of being more accurate than Fox news.

      --
      These comments are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of my employer or colleagues...
    4. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'm the American who submitted it. Born and raised, lightly educated by comparison.
      I realize how flawed the BBC is as a British Commonwealth Corporation, in your eyes.
      I found the summary contained the most timely and pertinent information in a concise blob...
      of any major media reporting body that was running the story at the time.

      I could give two shits about 'finalise' v 'finalize', potato/potahto or other musket v. rifle instances.

      It took roughly 15 or 20 for Timothy to massage the href and post it up.

      The trading resumed 8 minutes ago.

      Time was of the fucking essence, in a sense.

    5. Re:News sources by KingMotley · · Score: 2

      Ah, I see the problem.. right there:

      I assumed

      Now why would you do that?

    6. Re:News sources by Maow · · Score: 2

      I could give two shits about 'finalise' v 'finalize', potato/potahto or other musket v. rifle instances.

      I agree 100%, except for "I could give two shits". It makes no sense! It ought to be "I couldn't give..."

      Okay, done with my daily pissing-into-the-wind ritual.

      Cheers

    7. Re:News sources by adolf · · Score: 1

      How is that, exactly?

      Myself, I'm happy to give at least two shits toward the most meaningless concepts -- it is not as if I, myself, have any remaining use for the shit.

    8. Re:News sources by Maow · · Score: 1

      I could give two shits about 'finalise' v 'finalize', potato/potahto or other musket v. rifle instances.

      I agree 100%, except for "I could give two shits". It makes no sense! It ought to be "I couldn't give..."

      How is that, exactly?

      Myself, I'm happy to give at least two shits toward the most meaningless concepts -- it is not as if I, myself, have any remaining use for the shit.

      I think it come from refusing the effort involved in the simplest task, taking a shit (or 2). Hence usually, "I don't give a shit" or "I wouldn't piss on him if he were on fire and I had a six pack in me ready to burst out."

    9. Re:News sources by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      I agree 100%, except for "I could give two shits". It makes no sense! It ought to be "I couldn't give..."

      I think one is sarcastic and the other is the straightforward way of saying the same thing.

    10. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      On the subject of "could give"...
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

    11. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      obligatory:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

    12. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      muskets and rifles are two different kinds of fireamrs.

    13. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So, for all intensive purposes, your done?

    14. Re:News sources by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's true, I should have said I *wouldn't give two shits for those things.
      But if I'm in some sort of fecal-semantic exchange, I think I've lost already.

    15. Re:News sources by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I could give two shits about 'finalise' v 'finalize', potato/potahto or other musket v. rifle instances.

      I agree 100%, except for "I could give two shits". It makes no sense! It ought to be "I couldn't give..."

      Okay, done with my daily pissing-into-the-wind ritual.

      Cheers

      It's a version of saying "I could care less" instead of "I couldn't care less" i.e. laziness.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    16. Re:News sources by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Could you summarize those statements for me? I'm kinda busy.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    17. Re:News sources by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Why is it so difficult for you to do what I do and actually check the source of things you read?

      I'm from the UK, so if I click a link to Unknownnewssource.com I will have a quick shufty around to see where it's based (most likely the US, but of course that's no guarantee), before I start fuming about the ignorant bastards missing out the "u" in "colour" or something. If you click on Unknownnewssource.co.uk or Unknownnewssource.co.au it should be immediately obvious where it's from.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  15. Google already regretting Motorola purchase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't just spend $8 billion or whatever it is for "patents". Google either needs to wake up and realize they are now a manufacturing company, or investors are in for a lot more pain.

    1. Re:Google already regretting Motorola purchase by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they realize what they bought.

      Motorola has a lot.

  16. Strange Anniversary by lobiusmoop · · Score: 3, Informative

    Just in time for the 25th anniversary of Black Monday crash, where the Dow lost 22% in one day.

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
    1. Re:Strange Anniversary by alphatel · · Score: 1

      What if advertising costs and revenue drops are the result of Panda/Penguin and other updates intended to weed out spammers and drive better CPC results?

      --
      When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
    2. Re:Strange Anniversary by lenzm · · Score: 1

      Panda/Penguin were to weed out spammers in the organic results, not the CPC results.

  17. Re:Seriously Google you're in the information busi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like there's a fucking difference!

  18. if the algorithms are that fragile by Chirs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to trade.

    1. Re:if the algorithms are that fragile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But... if we actually fixed the operating system we'd destroy the market for anti-virus products. Same thing.

    2. Re:if the algorithms are that fragile by tool462 · · Score: 1

      Can't do that. Corporations are people too. Preventing them from trading would be violating their rights to freedom of speech, assembly, etc. /me removes tongue from cheek.

    3. Re:if the algorithms are that fragile by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

      Can't do that. Corporations are people too. Preventing them from trading would be violating their rights to freedom of speech, assembly, etc. /me removes tongue from cheek.

      What if we remove the voice boxes of the automated trading machines?

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    4. Re:if the algorithms are that fragile by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to trade.

      Why? If software makes bad deals, human traders win.

      If you stock goes to zero value today, you aren't forced to sell. You still own part of the company and can wait for the stock price to come up. Even if the stock price didn't come up, you can still get a steady stream of dividends.

      If you still lose, that's not the fault of the algorithms. You just made a bad bet.

  19. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Actually, authorisation with an s IS English. Authorization is American.

  20. Ha ha - larry needs to implement WF by axonis · · Score: 1

    LOL- Looks like Google should consider (WF) Windows Workflow Foundation, or SharePoint with an Approval workflow ...

    --
    bæ8Ã0sÃOE?5r©oÂÃ?âz:ÃÃAÃ?ÃOEÂ6fXÃ?]Â
    1. Re:Ha ha - larry needs to implement WF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't be silly. Google was using OWF (Open Workflow Foundation) version 0.5. The bug was logged 6 months ago, and it is waiting for the one guy that was working on the project to look at it -- but the project hasn't been touched in 2.5 years.

  21. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Bumbles · · Score: 2

    The Z/S is an American/British English thing.

  22. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait, how can you tell which language I am speaking based on what I am typing?

    OMG!!! YOU"RE A WITCH!!!

    BURN THE WITCH!!!

  23. Doh! by kiriath · · Score: 2

    Some analyst somewhere just got canned. Hard core canned to like "You don't even get to keep the stuff on your desk GTFO"... like thrown from a window canned.

    1. Re:Doh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      How droll. He was shot.

      Out of a cannon.

      Into the sun.

    2. Re:Doh! by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Some analyst somewhere just got canned. Hard core canned to like "You don't even get to keep the stuff on your desk GTFO"... like thrown from a window canned.

      No, it waasn't one guy leaking the information by mistake, it was their financial publishers somehow misunderstanding when the results were to be published, which is just a giant cock-up for both companies.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  24. Dad says we're going to be rich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't know what a 'short' is by my dad works for RR Donnelley and he says we're going to be RICH!

  25. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by crutchy · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's a Cold War that's been going on since US independence.

    I'm Australian, so technically i can only "authorise", but due to invasion by US forces through the idiot box, many of my fellow (particularly younger) countrymen (or "country people" for the political correctness trolls) are surrendering to ignorance and defecting.

    At the end of the day it probably doesn't really matter anyway due to the impending "New World Order" and all...

  26. And the ad push already started... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Now I know why EVERY video I watch with the Youtube app has an ad first since about 6-8 weeks ago.

  27. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by crutchy · · Score: 1

    you must be american

  28. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by lxs · · Score: 4, Funny

    As long as they spell it with a zed and not with a zee all is not lost.

  29. I'll worry when it's Apple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Then 85% of my retirement accounts will be screwed.

    1. Re:I'll worry when it's Apple. by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I'd get some professional investment advice if I were you.

      Hint: "put all your eggs in one basket" is unlikely to be the executive summary of their report.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  30. RIM? heading for bankruptcy? by ub3r+n3u7r4l1st · · Score: 1

    How can you declare bankruptcy when you have ZERO debt?

    1. Re:RIM? heading for bankruptcy? by h4rr4r · · Score: 1

      How long do you think that will last?

      They have enough cash in the bank to keep making devices that don't sell?

  31. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by viperidaenz · · Score: 3, Informative

    English? You mean the language they speak in England? The language that spells authorisation with an S, not a Z?

  32. Google not a hardware company by peter303 · · Score: 2

    Mobile phones and tablets are sucking the profit out of them. They dont have a vertical supply chain of factories and stores like Apple.

    1. Re:Google not a hardware company by tftp · · Score: 1

      Mobile phones and tablets are sucking the profit out of them. They dont have a vertical supply chain of factories and stores like Apple.

      Look at it from another angle. Google is servicing the constantly growing mass of mobile devices, and at the same time it does not need to take risk with design, assembly, sales and service of those devices! Profit comes not from selling a phone once in two years but from charging an advertiser $0.001 each time one of those mindless phone users looks at an ad that Google sent to them. I personally don't have Apple devices, but I have one Android tablet (had two, gave one - Nexus 7 - to my parents.) Android will keep growing, and it is already tied into Google so much that the Nexus 7 had to be cleaned up quite substantially before it became usable. A casual user would just enter all his personal data and whip the c/c out on first request.

      Google may need to cut some fat here and there, as they are spending like a drunken sailor on projects that will never see the light of day. But in principle they buy and sell information; they have highly automated factories that make them money, and in theory Google could be operated by very few workers, thus making it very profitable. Its just not very smart to do in the long term; that's why every company finances some R&D.

    2. Re:Google not a hardware company by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google may need to cut some fat here and there, as they are spending like a drunken sailor on projects that will never see the light of day.

      The issue is that picking winners/losers is hard. Be honest and decide if you would have thought Android development made sense when it started. How about YouTube? WebM?

      I figure with search, Google knew YouTube would be a winner - and it was. WebM seemed to make sense to me, especially since they own YouTube, but it has not gone anywhere. Android? WTF? And the countless other things that make them just a little tiny bit cooler? Those are more intangible but can add up.

    3. Re:Google not a hardware company by tuppe666 · · Score: 1

      Android? WTF?

      If you don't understand why it was essential for Google that Mobile was not dominated like Microsoft does on the Desktop, to protect their main revenue stream...advertising, I am surprised given the fact that they pay Apple to have Google as the default search engine, and the problems they have had with Microsoft controlling the defaults to your desktop, and recently crippling other browsers. Its the same reason they do Chrome.

      That said I just notice that they are launching the Play Store purchases in India. I'm be astonished if Android is not self funding.

  33. Know we know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Know we know why Larry has a 'throat' problem. Premature ejac... i mean earnings releases...

  34. This is all deliberate by burisch_research · · Score: 1

    Buy low, sell high, eh? Isn't that capitalism 101? Convenient we can blame a scapegoat!!

    --
    char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
  35. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

    Sentence fragment.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  36. Wait until you see the MSFT quarterlies by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    How's that Zune RT doing fer ya?

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  37. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Strange story, that. I've been investing since I was a teen, and did paper trading in grade school from stock tables.

    On Black Monday, after having just written an Economics paper for Capilano University on ethical investing, for which I'd researched true and tax book value for corporations, I realized that Apple was selling at such a low rate you couldn't lose if you bought it.

    I phoned my grandmother and told her not to panic, and to put $10,000 in Apple stock. She did. Later she gifted part of it to me. I later sold parts of that and bought and sold Microsoft stock from the proceeds, which became the 20 percent downpayment on my first house.

    Best stock day ever.

    This led me to a later decision to buy 600 shares of Ford on what turned out to be the absolute bottom of the market. Made a killing on that.

    From risk, comes opportunity.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  38. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We'll spell any way we choose to.

    Those sad little drinkers of warm beer have lost their empire; now even their spelling is being marginalized. Perhaps they'll make themselves feel better by beating each other up at the next roundball meet. Again.

  39. Oh, please by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    1 - Earn your own money working for others, without going into debt.

    2 - Invest said monies in your business in a sensible fashion

    3 - profit

    4- goto 2

    See how that doesn't involve stocks, investors, angels, debt, fake money, speculative markets? Nothing there but personal responsibility and effort. That's business with honor; that's also a business that can plan further than the next quarter.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Oh, please by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

      So where do I go when I want to build a factory? Open a branch in another state? I alone might take a thousand years to generate enough capital on my own. Or I can split my business up to into several pieces that I can than sell to investors. I take their money, they own a share of the company. I use their money to build sufficient capital to build my factory, and that increased capacity should generate profits and increased value of the shares held by others.

      Again, how is it exactly do you propose to do this without shares. And if you have shares, how is that you prevent groups of companies coming together to build a common market to trade and sell shares in?

      AKA, a stock market.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Oh, please by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      If I can't build a factory using my own money, I tend to think that perhaps I shouldn't build a factory. Just because I "want to" isn't much of a reason. Incurring huge debt and taking others along for a ride on my risks isn't fabulous either. I view debt as an extreme position, to be taken only when absolutely cornered.

      Yes, under such a strategy I don't get to do things I cannot afford to do; I'm really ok with that. It's worked very well; I'm basically retired and pretty happy, though I maintain ownership of my various businesses. In the process, I faced some significant challenges — beat them, too.

      My point is that this is a viable method; stock markets, etc. are not the only way one can build enterprises. It seems to me that many operations aim too high to start: they don't even have a product and they're building "headquarters", hiring "teams", etc. I see that kind of behavior and I just shake my head.

      This is just me. You, of course, can do whatever you like. :o)

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    3. Re:Oh, please by Desler · · Score: 1

      If I can't build a factory using my own money, I tend to think that perhaps I shouldn't build a factory.

      Yeah and you'd be a terrible business owner. Short-term debt to make magnitudes more in long-term revenue is a great plan.

    4. Re:Oh, please by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

      Yeah and you'd be a terrible business owner.

      Guess that depends on how you define it. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    5. Re:Oh, please by smellotron · · Score: 1

      Again, how is it exactly do you propose to do this without shares.

      Corporate bonds. Take in loans from investors and pay them back interest while retaining ownership.

    6. Re:Oh, please by Alioth · · Score: 1

      However, if everyone everywhere had done it this way - building up a business solely as individuals, without a group effort (aka shares) - the industrial revolution could never have happened. You're only able to make a successful business that way because you live in a business ecosystem that does do bigger things than what the individual can achieve on their own with solely their own capital, providing demand for your services.

    7. Re:Oh, please by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes YOU shouldn't build a factory with borrowed money.

      But other people who build factories, create jobs, products and wealth should borrow money to build them.

      The capital would grow faster in their hands. Yes it might vanish too, but that's what managing risk is about.

    8. Re:Oh, please by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      If I can't build a factory using my own money, I tend to think that perhaps I shouldn't build a factory.

      So who would ever have enough of their own money to build something like a semiconductor manufacturing facility? Or a nuclear power station?

      Personally, I'd be quite happy to have all such large scale businesses owned by the people/government and small entrepreneurs allowed to operate up to the limit of what they can self-finance, but I doubt most of the capitalist cheerleaders on slashdot would agree.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  40. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least their beer has alcohol in it. Bring that up at your next handegg meeting.

  41. Did the spin doctors not get enough time? by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 0

    Sounds like they didn't get time to prepare the astroturfers to be able to tell us how great this is.

  42. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

    He was. You're speaking it's bastard son, American.

  43. This is all HFT fault by alexmin · · Score: 1

    What else ?-//

  44. Privacy, security and such by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apparently, Google can't keep it's own financial report private. Could our data be protected... Not that others are any better...

    1. Re:Privacy, security and such by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Apparently, Google can't keep it's own financial report private. Could our data be protected... Not that others are any better...

      Financial reports that are to be released to the public aren't supposed to be private. If capitalism worked properly it would make no difference whether they were released 3 hours early or not.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  45. BBC's news article is misleading by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

    If you read this

    Trading in Google shares was suspended for two-and-a-half hours after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake.

    you would have thought that it was Google who had released its third-quarter result, mistake or not.
     
    But if you read this

    Google blamed financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results ...

    or this, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/18/google-shares-suspend-email-22bn

    Company results circulate internally for several days as they are being prepared for public release to strict timetables, normally under strict secrecy. Leaks of the figures are extremely rare, but on this occasion Google tersely blamed financial printers RR Donnelly for filing its draft third quarter results "without authorisation".

    you would be getting a much clearer picture of what had transpired.
     
    I don't know why BBC chooses to word its news article in such a misleading manner.
     
    The difference in interpretation might be "minor" but the consequences would be huge, if people only get parts of the main picture.
     

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:BBC's news article is misleading by tehcyder · · Score: 2

      They are Google's figures. If they get released early, they are still Google's figures.

      The fact that releasing what (I assume) is the correct information a few hours early can result in a company's share price dropping 10% simply proves what a futile irrelevance the financial markets are.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  46. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Bengie · · Score: 1

    When determining if someone is a witch, I always carry a duck and a scale with me.

  47. Augmented reality glasses by ehiris · · Score: 1

    The increase in PE ratio due to their reduced earnings are ripe to be augmented by a cool product like the glasses they've been working on.

    https://plus.google.com/+projectglass/

    I'm so much more excited about those than anything Apple makes and that could really give Google the growth they need.

  48. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    I bought Nortel and Corel.

  49. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by greg1104 · · Score: 2

    There is nothing to prevent trading on a stock from becoming so irrational that it goes outside of the fundamentals floor, crashing below the book value of the company, particularly in a panic. Stocks whose price drops enough to start tripping stop loss orders can easily accelerate right below that for some amount of time, with fun stuff like margin calls joining the party too. Value investing based on fundamentals can work very well. But the idea that it must bound the movement of a stock's price, which are driven by all sorts of other things, is not a riskless one. It assumes you can always wait out irrational market behavior, and that's hard to guarantee.

    This is sort of off-topic for Google though, given the company's P/E ratio history. It's still pretty far from being a book value driven investment.

  50. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This led me to a later decision to buy 600 shares of Ford on what turned out to be the absolute bottom of the market. Made a killing on that.

    Ford hit a low of around $2 back in 2009. If that's what you're talking about, I would call that a good bet but not "a killing" since you would have made 8*600 = 4200 on that so far. I too thought about buying F at $2 - the bet was "are they going to survive?" If they survived there would be a huge percentage gain. If not the money would be lost. Unfortunately I didn't realize that all the debt they took on was not spent, but kept as working capital - this allowed them to easily navigate the financial crisis without needing to borrow money at a time when none was available. I thought they were broke, so didn't buy.

  51. The real news: big drop in profits by Animats · · Score: 1, Insightful

    "GOOG" posted a third-quarter profit of $2.18 billion, or $6.53 a share, down from $2.73 billion, or $8.33 a share, a year earlier. Excluding stock-based compensation and other items, profit fell to $9.03 from $9.72 a share. Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, improved to $11.33 billion.

    Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $10.65 a share and net revenue of $11.86 billion.

    Total costs jumped 71%.

    Not good. Profits are down, and costs are way up. Need to look at the 10-Q filing to find out what the "traffic acquisition costs" are. Earnings excluding stuff are a form of spin control. The real number is the GAAP earnings, which will appear on the 10-Q.

    The numbers indicate that Google is buying traffic, and it's not helping profits. That's a sign of trouble. It's not yet clear how bad the trouble is.

    Looking ahead, at some point, we're going to hit "peak online advertising", where total spend on online advertising stops growing. At that point, everybody whose business model is "ad-supported free" is in competition with everybody else in that model, fighting over a pie of fixed or declining size.

    1. Re:The real news: big drop in profits by Magada · · Score: 1

      It's bad. It's Microsoft-bad. GOOG is fighting to outbid Bing for traffic, and it shows.

      --
      Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
    2. Re:The real news: big drop in profits by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      Looking ahead, at some point, we're going to hit "peak online advertising", where total spend on online advertising stops growing.

      Yes, and at some point Apple will run out of customers prepared to pay five hundred quid for an upgraded phone, but people have been saying that for a while now too.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  52. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 0

    I realized that Apple was selling at such a low rate you couldn't lose if you bought it.

    Oddly enough that's still true today.

  53. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by crutchy · · Score: 1

    zee

    omg you just killed a fairy! omg so did i!

  54. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by rtfa-troll · · Score: 1

    How the hell are you going to use a duck to tell if someone is a witch? I can't see it inflicting anything more than a flesh wound.

    --
    =~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
  55. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Every time a fairy get killed, I masturbate

  56. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    Yup, it really sucks to have beer that you can drink without having to chill it to a temperature that removes the sensation in your tastebuds...

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  57. If you have smthg you don't want anyone to know by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place

  58. Toot-toot by ThatsNotPudding · · Score: 1

    From risk, comes opportunity.

    Your greed is boring.

  59. Why they really halted trading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They halted trading to prevent the rest of us from having the same data as the inside traders already have due to leaks of exactly the same report to "special" traders and their favored clients. Part of the whole point of the insider trading regulations is to protect the value of that inside information for the privileged few. And if you don't think vice presidents and board members don't take advantage of that long "no-trade" period where mere peons with stock options or non-voting shares aren't allowed to trade without playing all sorts of legal games just before an earnings announcement, you haven't been paying attention to your board members' finances in big companies. The VP's and board have access further ahead, further enough ahead to plan *exactly* how to hide their insider knowledge from casual review: but if everyone else at the company could use that knowledge to trade, their insider knowledge would be much less profitable.

    Think I'm kidding? Watch the stock trading in associated businesses by the trust funds for family members of wealthy board mumbers, for the 2 weeks before trade freezes for employees go into effect. It's difficult to get that information, but well worth it to predict layoffs or hiring in your own company.

  60. Eric, don't tell me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    that you haven't read the EULA before storing the document in the cloud...

  61. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    The Z/S is an American/British English thing.

    You say potatoe, I say potato.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  62. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they'll make themselves feel better by beating each other up at the next roundball meet.

    You're the ones who took the children's game of rounders and turned it into baseball, possibly the most tedious sport on the planet, with the obvious exceptions of American "football"(rugby with body armour, you wusses) and basketball (netball).

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  63. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Stuarticus · · Score: 1

    We let them get away with because we like the Scrabble scores that come from it. More tea?

    --
    If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
  64. Why do we have high frequency trading, again? by Yvanhoe · · Score: 1

    Everytime a stock is suspended because of a sudden event (that, the death of Steve Jobs) is actually a reminder that trading decisions need more than a few nanoseconds to be taken. The timestep on trade order is so fast that when a new important information arrives, the stock is suspended for a few hours. Now tell me : why isn't the timestep of a few hours? Stock trading stops on night and week ends. Why does it need a 1 ns timestamp during weekdays?

    --
    The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
  65. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by tehcyder · · Score: 1

    I phoned my grandmother and told her not to panic, and to put $10,000 in Apple stock.

    That's a really heartwarming anecdote about how those who start out rich (whose granny has $10,000 in their account just waiting to be spent?) find it easy to get even richer despite economic circumstances.

    --
    To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  66. Gmail Recall by nibbles2004 · · Score: 1

    yeah about that email i sent out my bad, i could never get that gmail recall thing working, did i miss anything!

  67. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He was. You're speaking it's bastard son, American.

    Leave it to the Brits to get upset about the entirely predictable result of their massive colonization of the world.

  68. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    Rich? My grandfather was employed in public works in NYC and my grandmother was female at a time when women didn't get paid much.

    They saved.

    Want to know how to get rich?

    1. Steal it. (e.g. Gates, that FB guy, etc)

    2. Inherit it (only works if you are of Scottish, Welsh, Russian, or Jewish ancestry, though)

    3. Save and invest more than 10 percent of your income your whole life.

    Which are you?

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  69. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    is that like Nortel the wireless stuff and Corel as in CorelDraw?

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    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  70. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    You should never be involved in stocks if your time horizon is less than 5 years.

    If 3-5 years, buy distressed utility bonds.

    If less than 3 years ... well, you're FUBAR nowadays. Pay off your credit cards and car loans.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  71. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    You forgot that half of what you make in stocks is almost always dividends.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  72. Re:It is authorization, not with an S by crutchy · · Score: 1

    i think it sucks because i'm stuck with stinking 1 point 's'
    i'm seriously considering defecting just to improve my scrabble score (or nowadays i guess its "words with friends")

  73. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    Yep. Corel was overhyped and drained post-dot-com, they had good products and their stock was worth almost nothing, so I grabbed some.

    The same was true for Nortel. They lost 60% of their value and seemed to be plateauing. They had a strong installbase, and a huge patent portfolio.

    I figured, "from risk, comes opportunity"

    Corel continued to make good products as their stock fell to pennies, they were purchased by the Canopy group, all the shares were delisted.

    Nortel turned out to be lying about their financials, and their debt stretched them too thin into non-competitiveness.

    Corel is still in business, there was another IPO, when normal investors could buy, the stock wasn't pennies anymore. No point in throwing good money after bad.

    Point is, it's called risk, because you can lose too. The trick seems to be to keep taking chances and learn from your mistakes, but it's no guarantee. There's a good strong random element to success.

  74. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    I used to do tech IPOs. Used to only drop a couple thousand in each one, and set mental buy/sell limits.

    If you spread out risk, taking a flyer on a good bet works out more often than not.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
  75. They must have forgotten by cavebison · · Score: 1

    to set their privacy controls correctly.

  76. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 1

    If it *really* works out more often than not, it's not "risk"

    I'm no ameteur, just pointing out that taking a flyer can go either way. Microsoft, RIM and Nokia might make awesome comebacks, people may kick themselves for not buying them, or maybe they'll shrink into irrelevance. I set stop limits to take profit and use options to cover positions. Manually triggering your set-points is time consuming and error-prone.

    A well diversified portfolio will track the market in your areas of interest. A well diversified high-risk portfolio shoudl be more volatile, but show greater gains when stretched out longer over time. People like measuring peak to trough and trough to peak though, which is thoroughly unrealistic.

    The past few years in the market have been a crapshoot though. I've mostly been standing back until I see some kind of pattern.

  77. Re:Strange Anniversary or Black Monday by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 1

    The past few years in the market have been a crapshoot though. I've mostly been standing back until I see some kind of pattern.

    Agreed. Your best bet right now is a dividends plus stock strategy. Moved 90 pct into S&P 500 mutual fund at 0.03 pct cost ratio.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --