I haven’t had much mindshare to blogging lately but I feel that some updates are owed so here we go.
Investing
I think we are finally at the ‘bottom’, bottom not in the sense of a pit or valley but in the sense of stability and sensibility (not volatility, of course). Until overal economy shows sign of recovering, I’ll be looking to buy into gorges and sell out of hills as market over-reacts on news in either direction with an eye toward accumulating quality.
Economy
America needs to overhaul the auto industry, creating an environment that favors smaller and nimbler car makers over mammoth ones, rewarding entrepreneurs over union workers. I want to see hundreds if not thousands of little car makers and value added resellers backed by world-wide mesh of auto part makers. I want to see a huge cloud of chaos out of which new engine of American economy will emerge from.
Startup
We are already in closed beta and working toward private beta. There are still challenges to overcome but the service is looking pretty good already. To address those challenges, I’ve withdrawn myself from daily activities at the startup to focus on our core technologies.
Don Park's Weekly Habit 
I disagree. I think we are at the start of the start.
boy, it sure *feels* like a bottom.
spank that bottom, baby!
I got some SPY this morning, expecting a rally eod. not bad for first day back in the market. 🙂
As a college student, I’m not feeling the economic hurt too badly, but I also believe Paul Graham when he says that a bad economy is a good time to start a startup:
http://www.paulgraham.com/badeconomy.html
Comment to test timezone change to PST. It’s now, 11:30AM PST. Looks like WordPress doesn’t reflect timezone change in post date of old posts and comments.
Just in case anyone is tracking my trading, I cashed out late this morning because I felt market didn’t have enough momentum to push thru past current resistance level and eod sharp decline likely.
Well, I was two trading days too early. I was looking to short Monday but got up too late. Anyhoo, market is back to base trading bottom level so I am going to wait for another extended dip before buying back. Cheerio!
I don’t agree 100% that we’ve hit true bottom nor totally stabilized – but I do think we’re really close. Now it is up to the currency to retain some value through all the bailouts getting dumped on our backs.
On a slightly more positive note, I agree 100% with your idea about the auto industry. I’ve read very few notes about what you’ve mentioned, but everytime somebody brings up the point that the mamoth car makers just need to falter in the face of competitive small companies – I can’t agree more!
I’m hoping in the next couple of days to do a write up on some ideas I have for this… hopefully it will catch some eyes! 🙂
Sam, that’s what I did. The only problem is that we started a year ago, at the start of the recession and, boy, it’s really rough out there now. What Paul probably meant to say was “middle of a recession is a good time to start a startup.” 😉
I dunno. Some people who predicted this storm are saying Dow at 4,000! Why do you say bottom?
I am staying out even if it goes into the 9,000’s, nut until most joblessness reports are out.