Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Absolutely not. Tech is really not an interest of mine, although I have some in various funds. I dislike social networking immensely, but if I were to invest in tech, I'd rather invest in something smaller and more useful. I don't care for all the mobile devices, but what I've seen lately, I'd be more interested in something like the scanner programs, such as Ebay's purchase of Redlaser (probably the most popular barcode scanning app.). Not a great example because Redlaser is such a minimal thing for Ebay, but the general idea is that I'd be far more interested in investing in tech that is more day-to-day useful and I do find the scanning apps pretty interesting. I think Ebay in general is sorta compelling, but it would have to come down a pretty decent amount before I'd be more interested.
The funny thing is that apparently CNBC asked Jim Rogers if he was going to invest in Facebook. The answer should have been obvious.
I don't care about facebook, but I do think the Firsthand Tech Value fund is interesting from the perspective being a largely late-stage private equity tech fund (apparently they are also in Yelp.) Also, the fund does hedge. It would appear to continually trade at a large discount to NAV, likely due to the illiquid, largely private equity nature of the portfolio.
I don't really care about facebook but who knows if they can turn the intereset to cash flows a la Google, they might have staying power. I can imagine some of my growth oriented funds might add it to the portfolio.
Would it be added to the S&P 500. Depends on the float. If the float is not good enough (like many recent tech IPOs only float a fraction of shares to the market) than it might not be in the S&P 500. Berkshire of Warren Buffett itself was a low float stock and did not make to the S&P 500 until recently if I remember right.
Comments
The funny thing is that apparently CNBC asked Jim Rogers if he was going to invest in Facebook. The answer should have been obvious.
I don't care about facebook, but I do think the Firsthand Tech Value fund is interesting from the perspective being a largely late-stage private equity tech fund (apparently they are also in Yelp.) Also, the fund does hedge. It would appear to continually trade at a large discount to NAV, likely due to the illiquid, largely private equity nature of the portfolio.
Would it be added to the S&P 500. Depends on the float. If the float is not good enough (like many recent tech IPOs only float a fraction of shares to the market) than it might not be in the S&P 500. Berkshire of Warren Buffett itself was a low float stock and did not make to the S&P 500 until recently if I remember right.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/02/less-than-meets-the-eye-at-facebook/