Long Amazon and Short My Book

So my book is still months away from shipping yet Amazon already has it slashed to $16 bucks.

That hurts!

Amazon..The Stock, The Kindle and Customer Service

I am happy that I got back in and blogged it back in the mid 60’s despite the stock being in no man’s land.

Today with the stock up $6 at $83 , I am getting more bullish, not less. I have not been hot or right that often lately on my stocks other than Apple, Google, CRM and Amazon (sold Google and Apple in fund a few weeks back). RIMM I added last week on the $140 all-time high breakout (Twittered).

You can’t NOT own the tentacle retailer. I think of the railroads being parabolic and just think that Amazon is one of the continued drivers. We all use it for something.

My Kindle experience has been blah at best. Rachel’s broke and we shipped it back. Some time went by and nothing….

Last week I called all ready to give them a Verizon rant. As I started, the customer service rep said to me, let me just send you a new one today for tomorrow’s delivery. It showed up and situation diffused. In ten years, I have still therefore not had a real complaint against this most complicated to pull off retailer.

I don’t think the Kindle will meet the numbers that Alley Insider was reporting , but I think Amazon will rock for the decades to come.

Disclosure – Long Amazon

Adios Amazon and Other Deep Market Thoughts

I so deserved this in the comments today from Crawford on my Amazon switcheroo:

Howard be nimble,
Howard be quick,
Howard stopped after
his Kindle schtick.

You stock your neck out and sometimes you get it cut off. Amazon is a roundtrip for me and I likely should have gotten out in the hype and when the getting was good. Coulda Shoulda Woulda. I am truly sorry that people have lost money following me on this one. I can’t hope us back to breakeven though. I can move on and find other winners and when (if) Amazon’s stock gets back in gear, climb back with a clear head.

I won’t let my conviction stand in the way of discipline here . If you have conviction and NO discipline, you will get shaken to your core one time and never get back up to the plate. You only need to have conviction and be right…ONCE!!!!!

I would be quite shocked if the market recovers sometime soon. I hope it does but my portfolio is about making money for my partners so I know not to hope for a living.

You know how I feel about stocks right now and nothing has changed. Less is more.

Amazon Stock Buyback…OY!

I love Bezos and I love Amazon, but I am not to sure about the buyback tactic.

Amazon is a great stock, but I doubt it is cheap by any true market standard.

The buybacks by retailers the last few years were some of the dumbest of all times. It speeds up your demise as you leverage yourself…to yourself!

I am surprised that the market loves it. The stock is up nicely. We are not in a growth phase right now so give ME that money in the form of a dividend or hoard it. Show me you care about your shareholders who believe in your growth. Don’t bet it at $73. Why were you not betting that money at $5?

Disclosure- Long Amazon

Kindle First Impressions…Chaching!

From Rachel – ‘It’s awesome…Amazing.’

As I suspected, a kid that reads deserves this. Obviously the price is insane for most.

As most have already complained, the buttons are bad – too many actually as well, and the design is just bland.

It’s about the WORDS though. Rachel could give a rat’s ass about design walking around the house or reading while I work out at the gym.

I can’t believe how easy it was to load a book and start. Whispernet is genius. Genius.

I am early on this one, but that’s ok. I know my pain point.

Amazon Back on Wallstrip…All-Time High ‘Re-Kindled’?

Amazon will be hurt in a recession and slowdown or whatever you call these things when the media scares everybody into believing we should hide in our homes. They sell stuff that gets delivered to your home so my hope is their sales actually go up .

My daughter gets her birthday gifts from out of town family that way.

Today Amazon is back on Wallstrip .

Amazon is THE internets retailer. They own CUSTOMER SERVICE. As the New York Times carefully angled this weekend…Wall Street does not value customer service and loyalty :

But Mr. Bezos refused to give in. “He was spending his time on long-term value creation,” Mr. Miller said. There aren’t many chief executives who can so easily ignore the entreaties of the investment community, but Mr. Bezos turned out to be one of them. Of course it helps that he owns over 100 million shares of the stock — and is the company’s single largest shareholder.

Seven (7) months ago we profiled Amazon for their internet web services for start-ups and small businesses. The growth in that arena continues.

If they can get a little Kindle love, they may surprise everbody on Wall Street as well. Judging from the ‘Man on the Street’, it’s not hated like the nerds, but nobody is aware of it yet.

I had been adding to my position a few weeks ago in the mid $80’s. It looked pretty good until Friday. I would wait until Amazon gets to new highs before jumping in today, but since I own it will keep you updated along the way.

Disclosure – Long Amazon

Nibbling on Amazon

Adding to my position as Amazon it dips below $85. I can’t resist.

More On Amazon…

Fred just added the stock to his Covestor Portfolio . Lot’s of good comments as well in his post.

Vanessa has a good post on The ‘Long Tail’ of Web Services.

I need to finally set up my Covestor account which I plan to do before year end. Promis. So should anybody who comments here. Than we can have a real portfolio challenge. Even a bears vs. bulls thing.

Disclosure- Long Amazon and Investor in Covestor.