MP-Trader News
Mid-Day Minute by Mike PaulenoffMike paulenoff's Mid-Day Minute
VECO on the Move
On Wednesday we noted to subscribers that VECO Instruments (VECO) appeared to have completed a pullback when it hit its January 27 low of 23.75 and to watch for a sustained climb above its prior significant rally peaks at 26.57 and 26.40.
Since then the stock has popped its head above these peaks, which should trigger powerful upside acceleration to 28.00 and then to 30.50. All of the action since mid-November has the right look of an impressive bottom pattern in the aftermath of a completed multi-month bear phase off of last May 31's high at 57.67.
So, VECO is on the move, but be aware that Monday after the close it releases earnings.
Promising Technical Set-Up for ORCL
For nearly two weeks, Oracle (ORCL) has been consolidating its post-earnings gains from 24.91 to 28.95, which has taken the form of a high-level bullish coil pattern that should be preparing to thrust to the upside towards a next optimal target zone of 29.40/60.
At this juncture, only a decline that breaks 28.00-27.95 will wreck the promising near-term technical set-up.
Recovery Period for KGC
My near- and intermediate-term work on Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC) indicates strongly that a significant low was established at 9.96 on Jan 19 and that the upmove to 11.95 on Jan 26 represents the initiation of an intermediate-term recovery and/or bullish period.
The target for the first upmove is 12.50/60. As for the extreme near-term weakness off of last Thursday's (1/26) rally high at 11.95 into today's low at 11.15 (so far), my micro pattern work points to 11.10-11 to contain the weakness prior to a resumption of strength that propels the stock to 12.50/60.
Can that happen at the same time gold prices are correcting amidst USD strength? Yes, KGC can exhibit independent strength, but only if a major low has been established in the aftermath of KGC's 50% "haircut" between 9/8/11 and 1/19/12.
Gold, Euro Rebound Off Lows
Today's weakness in the Euro/USD (so far) has held important support in the 1.3080/50 area, which represents a former 6-week upside breakout plateau.
As long as EUR/USD respects the integrity of the support zone, the recovery rally off of 1.2620 (Jan 15) will remain intact.
As we speak, EUR/USD is rebounding off its intraday low at 1.3075 to 1.3135, which is providing a bit of a tailwind for spot gold prices.
As for gold, the earlier weakness probed, but did not break, the prior pullback low at $1714.32. Spot gold has since pivoted back to the upside to $1733 in what I consider to be a very impressive performance amidst a nasty risk-off adjustment period this morning.
If gold manages to hurdle its high at $1740.40 (Sunday evening), upside acceleration towards $1800 could unfold in the upcoming hours, also benefiting the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).
Only a decline that breaks today's low at $1716.39 will argue that a near-term correction likely is in progress.
Upmove in APKT
While the overall market waffles and appears a bit exhausted "up here," we continue to like Acme Packet (APKT). Both my near- and intermediate-term work argue that APKT ended a major bear phase at its Jan 4 low at 25.20 and that the upmove to Tuesday's high at 31.78 represents the first up-leg of a new bull-recovery period.
This recovery appears destined for 40.00 and then 45.00-47.00 thereafter. Initial near-term support resides at 29.40/0, which if violated will call for a deeper retracement of the January upmove.
Near-Term Topping for Apple
Apple (AAPL) satisfied my preferred pattern action in reaction to earnings by thrusting above its 3-year upper channel boundary lines at 460-65. But thereafter it failed to hold above the top of the channel.
This argues strongly that AAPL has put in a near-term spike peak ahead of a near-term topping process that will be followed by a correction into the low 400 target zone.
Completed Correction in Oil?
Nearby NYMEX oil experienced a deep retracement of yesterday's upmove from 97.40 to 100.24. This morning's low at 98.25 followed by an upside pivot and rally to 99.20-plus preserved yesterday's low as well as its up-leg, which itself exhibited bullish form.
If my work proves accurate, then today's deep retest satisfies a completed correction of yesterday's up-leg, and as well initiates a new up-leg in oil and the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO). The up-leg should hurdle near-term resistance at 101.20/25 on the NYMEX chart on the way towards testing the January high at 103.74.
New Up-Leg in Oil?
Nearby NYMEX oil experienced a deep retracement of yesterday's upmove from 97.40 to 100.24. This morning's low at 98.25 followed by an upside pivot and rally to 99.20-plus preserved yesterday's low as well as its up-leg, which itself exhibited bullish form.
If my work proves accurate, then today's deep retest satisfies a completed correction of yesterday's up-leg, and as well initiates a new up-leg in oil and the U.S. Oil Fund ETF (USO). The up-leg should hurdle near-term resistance at 101.20/25 on the NYMEX chart on the way towards testing the January high at 103.74.
Gold Outperforming Silver
The enclosed weekly chart of the gold/silver ratio shows that from mid-April 2011 to late-December 2011, gold prices outperformed silver within a period of overall precious metals weakness. The pattern carved out during the Apr-Dec period exhibits a very bullish structure, which implies that a new bull leg has started in the gold/silver ratio -- led by gold.
That said, the recent (current) three-week pullback in the ratio from 56 to 52 represents a minor correction (silver is outperforming gold at the moment), which when complete should resolve itself in a very powerful thrust to the upside that hurdles key resistance between 56.00 and 58.00.
Should such a scenario unfold as expected, the surge in the ratio will be led by a very powerful upmove in gold, while silver lags.
That is why I prefer to be long silver equities -- i.e., Silver Wheaton (SLW) -- and long the metal in gold in the form of the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).
Euro, Gold on the Move
Purely from a technical perspective, let's notice that the Euro/US Dollar hit a one-week high this morning at 1.2985 off its low at 1.2620 (+2.85%). It has since corrected and turned up from 1.2890, which happens to be the recent upside breakout plateau of a two-week base-like formation that projects to 1.3080-1.3120.
So far, the fact that the Euro/USD preserved support at its prior upside breakout area is a very constructive sign of higher prices ahead, after the current rest-digestion period runs its course in the upcoming hours.
Spot gold, too, and the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) continue to act extremely strong. Let's notice that the series of higher-lows off its Dec 29 corrective low at $1522.48 remains intact and now has Euro/USD moving in relative tandem, which is a supportive factor.
My near-term work in spot gold suggests strongly that a sustained climb above $1670.50 should trigger a run at $1700 immediately thereafter.
Eye on Dollar vs Commodity Index
One chart set-up that we need to watch closely in the coming hours and days is the comparison of the dollar and commodity indexes, as their directional price implications could have a major impact on a cross-section of markets.
Let's notice that the recent up-leg in the Dollar Index (DXY), which peaked at 81.78 on Jan 13, ended amidst a series of daily RSI momentum divergences that warn us that the U.S. Dollar could be in the early stages of a significant period of weakness. A sustained break of 79.50 will trigger initial signals that such a move is unfolding, which should have a positive impact on the commodity index.
A sustained climb in the Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index above 314.55 will be our first indication that the commodity index is breaking above its May-Jan resistance line. This also will constitute a breakout from a nearer-term Oct-Jan basing formation that projects to 335-340 initially.
Banking Sector Analysis
Below is a newly created daily sector chart for the big investment & trading banks accompanied by a chart of the cash S&P 500 for comparison and relative strength purposes.
The SPX currently is on a bullish signal. Only a decline that breaks 1277.50 will neutralize the signal.
Goldman Sachs (GS) currently is on a near-term neutral signal, but will shift to bullish on an upside hurdle of 106.10.
Morgan Stanley (MS) currently is on a near-term neutral signal, but will shift to bulish on an upside hurdle of 17.50.
Bank of America (BAC) is on a near-term bullish signal and will remain so unless it breaks below 6.00.
In the coming weeks, MPTrader will be offering a nightly service with charts like this covering all the major sectors and their key component names. We welcome your feedback based on this chart as well as well as any suggestions for the new service. See our contact page.
Copper Rallies in Response to China Data
Today's strength in the risk-on markets in general and in the industrial commodity markets in particular likely reflects a collective sigh of relief that China Q4 growth came in a touch better than expected -- at 8.9% versus 8.7%.
This has triggered some short-covering and perhaps optimistic new buying interest ahead of renewed optimism about forthcoming China economic stimulus, as noted in the charts on copper, silver, and oil.
Copper, in particular, as viewed on the daily globex chart, has emerged from its Oct-Jan sideways congestion area, leaving behind a base-like structure that has the potential to propel prices above key resistance at 3.77-3.90.
Such a thrust will trigger near-term buy signals that will point copper towards a test of its Feb 2011 to Jan 2012 resistance line, now at 4.12.
We must focus increasingly on the industrial commodity markets as a gauge of perceptions of Chinese demand for goods and materials, which could have a significant impact on the global economy going forward ... provided the China data are not smoke and mirrors ahead of a hard economic landing.
ETF traders may want to keep an eye on the iPath Dow Jones-UBS Total Return ETN (JJC), iShares Silver Trust (SLV) and US Oil Fund ETF (USO).
Eyeing Resistance in SDS
This morning's JP Morgan (JPM)-inspired weakness in the e-mini S&P 500 has propelled the inverse ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (SDS) towards a retest of yesterday's high at 18.40. If hurdled and sustained ahead of a three-day weekend, this could trigger upside acceleration to probe important near-term resistance between 18.50 and 18.80.
Let's notice that the major resistance line in the SDS now is at 18.90, which represents both critical resistance and a potential major upside breakout level.
Bullish on Crude Oil, Bearish on Energy Stocks
Oil is considerably higher today, as geopolitical tensions continue, and despite despite yesterday's larger-than-expected inventory build in oil and gasoline, and unseasonably warm weather across much of the nation.
Increasingly, it appears that all of the action off of the Jan 4 high at 103.74 into this morning's price at 101.94 in NYMEX crude oil futures has carved out a high-level bullish coil pattern. When complete, this pattern should resolve into a new up-leg that propels nearby NYMEX oil to new highs projected into the 106-108 area.
At this juncture, only a decline that breaks yesterday's low at 100.55 will compromise the pattern.
While this is bullish for crude oil and its associated ETFs like the US Oil Fund (USO) and ProShares Ultra DJ-AIG Crude Oil (UCO), the equity energy names like Exxon (XOM), Chevron (CVX) and Schlumberger (SLB) look weak, making the ProShares UltraShort Oil & Gas (DUG) an attractive ETF.
Newsfeed display by CaRP
Tech-Trader News
Closing Technical Market Analysis by Harry BoxerClosing Technical Market Analysis by Harry Boxer
Big Day on Wall Street
It was a big day on Wall Street to finish the week. The stock market indices blasted ahead from the get-go, with big opening gaps. They ran hard in the morning, and by mid-morning they started to consolidate, but in bullish flag-type fashion. Midday, they rallied to new highs, and then backed off in the afternoon to consolidate. They came on at the end of the day to make nominal new highs, just above 1345 on the S&P 500, but did not do so on the Nasdaq 100.
Nevertheless, it was a big day.
Net on the day, the Dow gained 156.82 at 12,862.23. The S&P 500 was up 19.36 to 1344.90, not far off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 33.34 at 2529.17, 3 points off its high.
Advance-declines were 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 4 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of a little over 900 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 2.1 billion-plus shares and about 6 to 1 positive volume ratio.
So, it was a very nice day with increasing volume.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was incredibly strong, with many multiple-point gainers today. Leading the way percentage-wise was Threshold Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (THLD) up 1.70 to 2.99, or 133.70, on 13 million shares, or a 5000% increase in volume. What a day for Threshold! Zoltek Companies Inc. (ZOLT) jumped 3.64 to 13.11, or 38 1/2%. We traded both of those today.
Low-priced Motricity, Inc. (MOTR) was up 32 cents to 1.28, or 33%; EntreMed, Inc. (ENMD) 40 cents to 2.35, or 20 1/2%; Constant Contact, Inc. (CTCT) 4.22 to 30.22, or 16% after earnings; Silicon Image, Inc. (SIMG) 76 cents to 5.86, or 15% on 5.6 million; Jive Software, Inc. (JIVE) 2.20 to 17.09, or 15%; Infinera Corporation (INFN) 1.07 to 8.38, or 15%; Ixia (XXIA) 1.81 to 14.55, or 14%; Genworth Financial Inc (GNW) 1.13 to 9.17, or 14%; Velti Plc (VELT) 1.23 to 10.25, or 13 1/2%; Sony Corporation (SNE) 2.12 to 19.21, or 12 1/2%; KB Home (KBH) 1.22 to 10.81, or 13%; American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) 62 cents to 5.78, or 12%; and KV Pharmaceutical Co. (KV-A), up 27 cents to 2.66, or 11%.
Other stocks of note included GSV Capital Corp (GSVC) 1.94 to 20.45, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 2.80 to 33.69, USG Corporation Common Stock (USG) 1.14 to 15.16, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) 2.54 to 34.14, and Polypore International Inc. (PPO) 2.95 to 46.83, an outstanding move for this stock.
Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 4.56 to 459.68, tagging 460 even, a new all-time high. Goldman Sachs (GS) jumped 4.14 to 117.53, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 2.43 to 126.43, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.09 to 47.83, SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) 2.03 to 34.66, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.03 to 40.46, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) snapped back 1.53 to 36.61.
In addition, ultra-long financial Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 6.21, and vaulted past 90 to 90.80, and Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) jumped 4.00 to 63.13.
You can see, it was a big day today on Wall Street.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up early, ran early, posted midday highs, and consolidated the rest of the day, but didn’t give back much. In fact, the S&P 500 made a nominal high near the close.
It was a big day, and a great way to close the week on the indices. We’ll see how it goes next week.
Good Trading!
Harry
Mixed Close, Strong Technicals
The stock market indices had a very mixed session at the close, although the technicals were positive at the end of the day. The day started out much better, with a gap up, a 5-wave advance that took them to new highs for the rally, the Nasdaq 100 reaching over 2500 to 2504, and the S&P 500 reaching up to 1329. But the SPX did not get near the 1330.50 level that it reached yesterday, and that resulted in a very sharp slide to retest the lows on the NDX. That was successful, despite the fact that the S&P 500 made lower lows by midday. They then stair-stepped their way higher in an orderly fashion, only to back off in the last 15 minutes to end mixed on the day.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 11.05 at 12,705.41, 36 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 1.45 to 1325.54, 4 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 7.65 at 2495.83, 9 points off its high.
Advance-declines were 17 to 13 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.83 billion shares and had a 2 to 1 positive volume ratio.
So, Nasdaq had a better day overall.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed, but mostly higher. There were a lot of stocks that we traded and picked today that did great. Leading the way, GMX Resources Inc. (GMXR) was up 60 cents to 1.54, or 64%, on 13 million shares. MediciNova, Inc. (MNOV) rose 57 cents to 2.46, or 32%, Vringo, Inc. Common Stock (VRNG) was 35 cents to 1.70, or 26%. Central European Distribution Corp. (CEDC) gained 82 cents to 5.28, or 18%, with Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) up 39 cents to 3.54, or 12%, and Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) ahead by 72 cents to 7.67.
In addition, Zynga Inc. (ZNGA) advanced 1.78 to 12.39, or 17%; RealD Inc. (RLD) 1.57 to 11.31, or 16%; Open Text Corporation (OTEX) 7.73 to 60.35, or 14.7%; and Gap, Inc. (GPS) 2.07 to 21.52, or 10.6%. Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) was up 12.79 to 66.42, or 24%, on 24 million shares, after a stellar earnings report.
Entropic Communications, Inc. (ENTR), a new swing trade of ours, jumped 95 cents to 7.00, and BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) was up 3.35 to 31.60.
Junior biotechs had an excellent day. Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) was up 2.23 to 17.76 on 14 million, Affymax, Inc. (AFFY) up 1.25 to 10.15 on 3 1/2 million shares, Discovery Laboratories, Inc. (DSCO) 32 cents to 2.55, Dynavax Technologies Corporation (DVAX) 40 cents to 4.08, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN) 1.28 to 12.38, and KV Pharmaceutical Co. (KV-A) 22 cents to 2.39.
Seabridge Gold, Inc. (SA) stood out in the gold sector, up 2.64 to 22.80.
Large gainers of note included Liquidity Services, Inc. (LQDT) up 3.26 to 39.36, Cabot Corp (CBT) 3.38 to 41.07, Concur Technologies, Inc. (CNQR) 4.70 to 58.74, Core Laboratories N.V. (CLB) 8.70 to 115.55, Big Lots, Inc. (BIG) 3.27 to 42.82, Youku.com Inc (YOKU) 1.81 to 24.72, and Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS) 84 cents to 11.64.
On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was down 1.07 to 455.12, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) lost 1.09 to 191.53. Some of the large blue chips stalled today.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, down sharply by midday, and rallied back to take back all the losses on the NDX and S&P 500 and move them to the plus column, but not so on the Dow. They closed mixed on the session, with positive technicals
We’ll see if today was more than a consolidation, or perhaps a topping pattern very shortly.
Good Trading!
Harry
Solid Gains, but Substantially Off Highs
The stock market indices had a very strong session, but a late afternoon sell-off really took the excitement out of it by taking back a big chunk of the gains in the last hour or so. The day started out with a large gap up, and then they pulled back sharply, particularly on the Nasdaq 100, but not on the S&P 500. That held very well, holding the 1321 support area. They then started a rally that stair-stepped sharply higher all morning and into the mid-afternoon. The NDX jumped from 2474 to 2497, and the S&P 500 jumped from 1321 to 1330.50. They came down, bounced, formed a mini head-and-shoulders, and then broke late in the session. There was a little bit of a snapback at the close, but not much.
The indices ended the session up, but it was a little disappointing.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 83.55 at 12,716.46, down from the high at 12,784.62, or nearly 70 points off the high. The S&P 500 was up 11.67 to 1324.08, or 6 1/2 points off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 20.23 at 2488.18, or 9 points off its high. It was only 2 1/2 points under 2500 at the high for the day.
It was a very good technical day today. Advance-declines were 5 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 1/2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of 877 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded just under 2.1 billion shares, with nearly 1.8 billion to the upside.
It was a very strong day on Nasdaq, in particular. All of that despite the fact that Apple Inc. (AAPL) barely changed today at all, losing 29 cents to 456.19. The rest of Nasdaq stocks did well today. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), which was over 30 at one point in the day, closed up 36 cents to 29.89. That’s the first time in a couple years that it’s been over 30.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had a positive day today. Leading the way by far, Key Tronic Corporation (KTCC), on a 1000% increase in volume, was up 2.71 to 8.95, or 43.4%, on 1.5 million shares on a massive technical breakout from a major base pattern. Medivation, Inc. (MDVN) gained 12.16 to 67.57, or 22%, on positive drug news and a takeover. Multimedia Games Inc. (MGAM) advanced 2.63 to 10.16, or 35%, on 1.6 million, also over a 1000% increase in volume in a key technical breakout today. Corinthian Colleges Inc. (COCO) rose 1.10 to 4.13, or 36.3%, on 11 million. That also broke out today.
There were very many breakouts across the board today.
In addition, Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (SGMO) was up 74 cents to 4.19, or 21 1/2%; RadiSys Corporation (RSYS) up 1.34 to 7.37, or 22.22%; LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) 87 cents to 5.25, or 20%; Seagate Technology PLC (STX) 4.39 to 25.53, or 21%; low-priced SNAP INTERACTIVE (STVI.OB) 41 cents to 2.05, or 25%; low-priced Chinese company, Feihe International, Inc. (ADY) 49 cents to 3.34, or 17%; junior oil Warren Resources, Inc. (WRES) 44 cents to 4.00, or 12%; Oncothyreon Inc (ONTY) 75 cents to 7.56, or 11%; and Rosetta Stone Rosetta Stone, In (RST) 75 cents to 8.55, or 9.6%.
Also, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) was up another 4.32 to 28.25, or 18%, on nearly 1.5 million shares traded today, Cytec Industries Inc. (CYT) gained 7.35 to 57.21, ManpowerGroup (MAN) 5.75 to 45.86, Aspen Technology Inc. (AZPN) 2.27 to 20.28, and Fuel Systems Solutions, Inc. (FSYS) 2.40 to 23.24.
Whirlpool Corp. (WHR), which we traded today, jumped 7.32 to 61.64, or 13%, on 13 million shares.
OmniVision Technologies Inc. (OVTI) was up 1.36 to 14.67, VanceInfo Technologies Inc. (VIT) up 1.20 to 13.77, AOL Inc. (AOL) 1.55 to 17.76, Focus Media Holding Ltd. (FMCN) 1.97 to 21.97, Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) 3.66 to 41.88, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 3.87 to 45.98, Polypore International Inc. (PPO) 3.22 to 41.30, Fortinet Inc. (FTNT) 2.23 to 25.04, and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) 1.29 to 15.53.
There were many other gainers, too many to mention all of them, as it was one of those days where the vast majority of stocks we watch did well.
Large-cap stocks had a great day as well. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was up 2.77 to 122.97, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) snapped back 1.04 to 41.98, and Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 1.98 to 113.45, snapping back early, leading the financials higher.
Ultra-long Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) was up 3.70 to 83.06, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) up 3.54 to 58.31.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, after a big gap and a brief pullback, the indices roared ahead all day until early- to mid-afternoon when they finally backed and filled, topped, and then rolled over only to bounce slightly into the close. They closed with solid gains today, but disappointingly, substantially off the highs for the day.
We’ll see if there’s any downside follow-through. One of the things about today’s action on the S&P 500 is that they reached 1333.50, just a couple points off the rally high of a couple weeks ago. So, there is a double-top resistance in this zone.
We’ll have to see what consequences that may have on the levels on the S&P 500 at 1320 and 1300, and on the NDX, the levels are 2482 and 2474. Those are the key levels to watch right now.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Bend, though Don't Break, in Mixed Session
The stock market indices had a mixed session at the close, similar to the day before yesterday. The day started out with a real pop to the upside on strong futures, and they reached their highs within 10 minutes. They immediately sold off, taking the Nasdaq 100 from 2481.50 down to 2453, and then they rallied back in a 3-wave fashion into mid-afternoon before backing and filling into the close. The S&P 500 dropped from 1332 down to 1307, and rallied back to 1312.79 by the close.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 21.04 at 12,642.68, the S&P 500 down .61 to 1312.40, and the Nasdaq 100 up 2.63 at 2467.96.
Advance-declines were 17 to 12 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 13 to 11 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was slightly positive on New York, with total volume of 972 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.7 billion shares and had a 9 to 8 positive volume ratio.
It was a slightly positive day technically, and a mixed day at the close on the indices.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had its ups and downs today, but there were some leaders. They included Apple Inc. (AAPL) up 3.47 to 456.48, making new all-time highs at 458.24 earlier in the day that generally helped the indices. Goldman Sachs (GS) was up 1.74 to 111.47, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) up 2.21 to 36.95.
Other gainers of note included Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE), up 1.23 to 7.38, or 20%; Clean Diesel Technologies Inc. (CDTI) up 44 cents to 3.36, or 15%; low-priced Vringo, Inc. Common Stock (VRNG) up 24 cents to 1.40, or 21%; and FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN) 23 cents to 1.29, or 21.7%.
In addition, Mindspeed Technologies, Inc. (MSPD) was up 77 cents to 6.41, Array BioPharma Inc. (ARRY) 35 cents to 2.75, VocalTec Communications Ltd. (CALL) 2.09 to 19.30, BSQUARE Corporation (BSQR) 46 cents to 3.97, and ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) 1.07 to 9.98.
Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) gained 33 cents to 3.35, and Mattel, Inc. (MAT) set a new 13-year high on increased dividends on good earnings today, up 1.47 to 31.00 even. 11%;
Among other gainers of note on our board, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) advanced 2.91 to 23.94, Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) 3.62 to 41.60, VeriFone Systems, Inc (PAY) 3.29 to 42.70, United States Steel Corp. (X) 1.46 to 30.19, Approach Resources Inc. (AREX) 1.18 to 35.13, McKesson Corporation (MCK) 3.03 to 81.72, Warnaco Group Inc. (WRC) 2.00 to 58.25, Michael Kors Holdings (KORS) 1.11 to 30.95, and Cepheid (CPHD) 1.40 to 44.06.
On the downside, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) lost 1.52 to 42.28 as did most solar energy stocks did today after a ruling out of Germany. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) was down 5.23 to 120.20, which hurt the indices, while Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) fell 1.10 to 40.94 and Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) dropped 1.19 to 31.01.
Those were the only multiple-point losers on our board today.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up to session highs early on within the first 10 minutes, sold off very sharply, took out a couple minor layers of support, but held at the third level minor layer, and then snapped back in shallow fashion to close mixed on the session.
It wasn’t the best day, and even though they bent, they did not crack. At this point, they’ll have to take out yesterday’s low down around 2434 NDX, and down around 1301 zone on the S&P 500, to be able to take out key support at this point.
Those are the levels we‘ll be watching.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Recover to Close Well Off Lows
The stock market indices started off narrowly mixed this week. They were very volatile and opened sharply lower, but had a fantastic recovery to “thwart the bears,” as they say. There were large gap downs at the opening, they bounced, and then lower lows were had. The indices rallied sharply to midday, consolidated, and rallied again in the early afternoon before consolidating again in the afternoon, but held out for the gains.
Net on the day, still the Dow was down 6.74 at 12,653.72, 124 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 3.32 to 1313.01, 13 points off the low, and the Nasdaq 100 up 3.55 at 2425.32, 32 points off the low.
Advance-declines were better than 3 to 2 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2 to 1 negative on declines over advances on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 2 negative on New York, with total volume of 731 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.6 billion shares and had a 9 to 7 negative volume ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was active, and there were quite a few gainers today. Leading the way, GTX Inc. (GTXI) jumped 1.94 to 5.88, or 49%; on 6.4 million shares. Low-priced FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN) was up 17 cents to 1.06, or 19%; Renren Inc. American Depositary (RENN) up 1.06 to 6.31, or 20%; Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMLN) 2.12 to 14.26, or 17 1/2%, on 21 million shares; Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBSA) 93 cents to 7.08, or 15%; MELA Sciences, Inc. (MELA) 60 cents to 4.75, or 14 1/2%; low-priced Miller Petroleum, Inc. (MILL) 37 cents to 3.97, or 10%; and Sky-mobi Limited (MOBI) 24 cents to 3.95, or 6 1/2%.
Other gainers of note included Ubiquiti Networks, Inc. (UBNT) up 1.86 to 24.42, KAR Auction Services (KAR) 66 cents to 14.15, Acco Brands Corp (ABD) 64 cents to 10.44, and Progress Software Corp (PRGS) 1.00 to 23.36.
In addition, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 5.73 to 453.01, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) up 2.04 to 192.50, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 1.64 to 125.43.
On the downside, there were quite a few losers on our board as well. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) was down 1.74 to 43.80, Goldman Sachs (GS) down 2.04 to 109.73 in a generally weak financial group, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 1.12 to 42.12, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.88 to 34.60 and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated (VRTX) 1.24 to 34.74.
There were also some point-plus losers in the ultra-longs. The Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (FAS) lost 2.19 to 78.45, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bull 3X Shares (TNA) dropped 1.31 to 54.89.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped down sharply, and then bounced in the morning, consolidated midday, extended the gains in the afternoon, pulled back to test support, was successful, and in the last half hour they bounced once again to close firm on the session.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Pare Losses in Down Session
The stock market indices suffered losses today, although in the last half hour they did snap back from the session lows to pare the losses. The day started out with a move to the upside as the S&P 500 spiked up to 1333.47, the highest level reached this year and in this entire rally for two weeks. The Nasdaq 100 reached the highest levels as well at 2479.31. However, they then turned around and came down hard, bounced a few times, and stair-stepped their way lower, and spiked into the low just about a half hour before the close, at which time they snapped back on an apparent short-covering.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 22.33 at 12,734.63, about 107 points off the high. The S&P 500 was down 7.62 to 1318.43, and the Nasdaq 100 dropped from 2479.31 to 2444.83 before bouncing to 2454.63, down 11.03.
Declines outnumbered advances by about 60 issues on the New York Stock Exchange, and by 230 issues on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 2 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 850 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares and had a 2 to 1 negative plurality.
It was a decisive down day, but not a big one. We’ll just have to see whether support near the trend line and moving averages, which they did bounce off late in the day today, can hold or whether this is the start of something more on the downside. The NDX, despite being down 11.03, could have been a lot lower if not for Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) gaining 20.97 to 116.01, reaching as high as 119.37 earlier in the day, up over 24.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed, although there were a lot of gainers on our board today. In addition to NFLX, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) jumped 2.33 to 40.94, although that was almost a point off the high. Swing trade Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) had another good day, up 1.19 to 31.33, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL) was up 1.34 to 42.24.
Other stocks of note on our board that did very well today included J.C. Penney Company, Inc. Holdi (JCP), up a whopping 6.46 to 40.74, or 19%, on 46.8 million shares. Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. (MLNX), a stock we traded, was up 5.08 to 36.24, while United Rentals, Inc. (URI) rose 3.10 to 37.87, and Time Warner Cable (TWC) had a big day today, up 5.40 to 74.51.
Arctic Cat Inc. (ACAT), on strong earnings, was up 4.77 to 28.58, or 20%, Parametric Technology Corp (PMTC) jumped 4.07 to 25.64, or 19%. We traded both of those.
In addition, Yandex N. V. (YNDX) was up 1.10 to 20.89, Home Inns & Hotels Management I (HMIN) up 1.35 to 29.87, WESCO International, Inc. (WCC) 3.76 to 63.97, and Procera Networks, Inc. (PKT) up 1.24 to 16.31.
In the lower-priced sector RealNetworks, Inc. (RNWK) was up 2.54 to 9.89, or a whopping 34 1/2%, on 1.7 million shares. EntreMed, Inc. (ENMD) gained 62 cents to 2.95, or 27%, and Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER) 29 cents to 1.27, or 30%.
On the downside, Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 2.03 to 444.63, and that didn’t help the NDX as well. Silicon Motion Technology Corp. (SIMO) got hammered, down 2.29 to 20.93, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) lost 1.65 to 36.75.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had new multi-weeks highs and session highs early on today, and then stair-stepped their way lower all session, until the last half hour when they snapped back.
Nevertheless, it was a negative day, and we’ll see what kind of follow-through they get tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
Solid Gains on Fed Easing News
The stock market indices had a very good day today, spurred on by news midday from the FOMC that they would accommodate an easy interest-rate policy at least until 2014. That took the market by surprise.
The day started out with a very interesting scenario. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up by 25-30 points. The Nasdaq 100 obviously gapped up. The S&P 500 did not do so, but there was a slight move up, and then a move down, which tested support and then held. When that happened, they rallied sharply the rest of the day until the FOMC news, at which point they exploded. They formed a wedge in the afternoon, and broke out into the end of the day, before a late pullback brought them off the highs. The S&P 500 reached over 1328, right into my next target of 1328. The NDX reached 2470 and change, not far from my 2474-5 target. We’re up against resistance in this zone.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 82.95 at 12,758.85, the S&P 500 up 11.41 to 1326.06, and the Nasdaq 100 up 31.70 at 2465.66.
Advance-declines were 3 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of over 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about over 1.8 billion shares and had a 2 1/2-3 to 1 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had a lot of big gainers today. Genetic Technologies Ltd. (GENE) was up 1.05 to 4.35, or 32%; Complete Genomics, Inc. (GNOM) up 49 cents to 2.99, or 20%; US Airways Group, Inc. (LCC) 1.11 to 7.52, or 17%; Textron Inc. (TXT) 3.15 to 24.76, or 15%, on 17.9 million shares; CA Inc. (CA) 2.21 to 25.03, or nearly 10%; and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) up 2.23 to 31.14, or 7%.
Rare-earths were moving today with Avalon Rare Metals Inc. (AVL) up 31 cents to 3.20, or 11%, and Rare Element Resources Ltd. (REE) up 46 cents to 6.14, or 8%.
Builders were strong today. Hovnanian Enterprises (HOV) was up 26 cents to 2.64, or 11%, and KB Home (KBH) up 54 cents to 9.79.
Other gainers on our board included Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGSI), in a firm biotech group, up 79 cents to 9.92, or 8.7%, on 15 million shares. Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) was up 1.29 to 16.30, and Terex Corp. (TEX) 1.67 to 20.97.
Silver and gold stocks were very strong, with First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG) advancing 1.49 to 19.10, Endeavour Silver Corp. (EXK) 72 cents to 10.78, and Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS) 52 cents to 22.37.
MAKO Surgical Corp. (MAKO) was up 2.79 to 37.13 on takeover rumors, Fluidigm Corporation (FLDM) up 1.03 to 14.86, and iGATE Corporation (IGTE) up 1.18 to 17.74, among other gainers on our board today.
In addition, Apple Inc. (AAPL), as we already mentioned, jumped 26.25 to 446.66 on blow-out earnings yesterday. Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) gained 2.37 to 95.04, but in the aftermarket it was up another 15 points as they also blew out earnings.
On the downside, the ultra-shorts got hammered. VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX), which got up to 19.97, closed down 1.58 to 17.72, and the iPath S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures ETN (VXX) down 1.17 to 26.65. The ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) dropped 98 cents to 10.52.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices had a mixed opening, but after stabilizing in the morning, they rallied sharply higher, and then consolidated mid-afternoon, and extended their gains before backing off in the last 10 minutes. Nevertheless, there were solid gains and good technicals today.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Rally Back to Pare Early Losses
The stock market indices had a down day, but most of their losses were in the first few minutes, with large gaps down. They then snapped back to resistance twice in the morning at 2440 on the Nasdaq 100, and the S&P 500 snapped back to 1314. They pulled back, retested successfully, and bounced again, but couldn’t get back to resistance on the NDX. The S&P 500 did make some nominal new highs, backed off in the last half hour, but came on in the last 10 minutes.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 33.07 at 12,675.75, 60 points off its low. The S&P 500 was down 1.35 to 1314.65, 8 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 3.26 at 2433.96, 10 points off its low.
Advance-declines were 250 issues positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 500 issues positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was just slightly positive on both exchanges. New York had a total volume of 725 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1 2/3 billion shares and had a 9 to 7 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board was mostly higher today, with junior biotech stocks particularly strong. Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX) rose 1.08 to 14.89, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN) 1.54 to 16.72, and Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) 76 cents to 13.97.
BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) was all over the place this morning, exploding to as high as 44 3/4, closing at 33.99, up 74 cents on the day, but way off the high, and perhaps a reversal day.
Low-priced Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBSA) was up 1.83 to 7.36, or 33%, while Bon-Ton Stores Inc. (BONT) gained 53 cents to 3.76, or 16 1/2%, and low-priced TearLab Corporation (TEAR) advanced 36 cents to 1.61, or 29%.
In addition, Dunkin’ Brands Group (DNKN) jumped 1.05 to 26.75, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.95 to 191.93, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) 2.12 to 40.74, Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.06 to 37.29, Diamond Foods, Inc. (DMND) 3.14 to 35.79, Jarden Corporation Common Stock (JAH) 3.08 to 33.79, and swing trade and Top 25 member Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) 1.16 to 18.16.
Quest Diagnostics Inc. (DGX) had a big gain today, up 4.23 to 60.73. Swing trade Westport Innovations Inc. (WPRT) rose 2.46 to 38.06 on nearly 3 million share. Volterra Semiconductor Corporation (VLTR) was up 1.91 to 30.77, OSI Systems, Inc. (OSIS) 3.35 to 56.46 closing at new all-time highs, and Western Digital Corp. (WDC) 2.17 to 36.88,
LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. (LPNT), which we traded today, advanced 2.12 to 39.55, while NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) was up 1.16 to 21.71, coming way back off its low in the last few months, and Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (RGR) up 1.93 to 38.52. Top 25 member Select Comfort Corporation (SCSS) gained 1.21 to 24.31, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR) 2.15 to 50.60, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 1.31 to 31.35, and Medivation, Inc. (MDVN) 2.10 to 52.55.
On the downside, only Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost more than a point, down 7.00 to 420.41 ahead of earnings tonight, but was more than $33 higher in after market trading after announcing blow out earnings!
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply at the opening on a gap lower, and rallied back sharply for about a two-thirds retracement, nearly all of it on the NDX. They backed off sharply on the NDX, not sharply on the S&P 500. When the S&P 500 refused to follow the NDX, they then both snapped back into the last hour only to back-and-fill into the close and end up with slight losses on the day, but not that bad.
Overall, when you look at the last 3-4 day pattern, it could be forming a topping pattern here. We’ll just have to see whether it’s a consolidation pattern or a topping pattern. If they open lower tomorrow, and come down sharply, that could be it for this rally.
We’ll just have to see what happens tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Close Mixed After Opening Rally
The stock market indices started out with a mixed session, and closed narrowly mixed, but it wasn’t a narrow session. The day started out with a thrust to the upside with new rally highs on both the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500, reaching 2455 NDX, and 1322-plus on the S&P 500. Then the indices rolled over hard, taking the NDX from 2455 to 2424, and the S&P 500 from 1322 down to 1310. They worked their way higher, recovered about 50% of the losses, and pulled back into the close
Net on the day, the Dow was down 11.66 at 12,708.82, holding 12,700. The S&P 500 was up 0.62 to 1316.00, 6 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.20 at 2437.22, 13 points off its low.
Advance-declines were 17 to 12 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 13 to 11 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 700 million shares traded today, which is pretty light volume. Nasdaq traded just under 1.6 billion shares, and had an 8 to 7 negative ratio on declining volume over advancing volume.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was narrowly mixed for the most part, although there were some outstanding stocks today. Day-trade suggestion this morning, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN), jumped 6.26 to 33.25, or 23%. What a monster move from 9.00 just 3 weeks ago. YRC Worldwide Inc. (YRCW) rose 1.93 to 13.35, and Spanish Broadcasting System Inc. (SBSA) 1.15 to 5.53. Those were two big percentage gainers.
In addition, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 7.11 to 427.41, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) up 1.46 to 189.98.
Among the low-priced stocks, LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) gained 59 cents to 3.50, or 20%; Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTIC) 15 cents to 1.46, or 12%; AMN Healthcare Services Inc AMN (AHS) 41 cents to 4.69, or 9 1/2%; Netlist Inc. (NLST) 32 cents to 3.30, right near key resistance, or 11%, on just over 1 million shares traded; PetMed Express, Inc. (PETS) 1.24 to 12.51, or 11%. and Patriot Coal Corporation (PCX) 55 cents to 8.06, or 71/2%.
Other gainers of note included Grupo Radio Centro, S.A.B de C. (RC), up 1.00 to 10.65. The United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) was up 46 cents to 5.55 on 48.6 million shares, Carrizo Oil & Gas, Inc. (CRZO) 1.49 to 24.58, Kraton Performance Polymers Inc. (KRA) 1.53 to 26.55, Approach Resources Inc. (AREX) 1.64 to 33.81, Lululemon Athletica Inc. (LULU) 2.32 to 62.44, and Polypore International Inc. (PPO) 1.94 to 55.98.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (JAZZ) was up 1.02 to 47.00, and low-priced Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (KOG) up 33 cents to 9.62, on 5.5 million shares today.
On the downside, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) got hammered for 6.28 to 93.96, Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) fell 1.00 to 40.71, Universal Display Corp. (PANL) dropped 2.16 to 38.62, and VirnetX Holding Corp (VHC) lost 1.66 to 23.89,
Ultra-short VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX), as incredible as it seems, closed at 19.10, down 1.10. This stock was 109 and change on October 4.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices ran sharply after the get-go to new highs for the rally, and then came down hard, but bounced back about 50% in the last several hours during the afternoon snapback rally to close near even on all the indices, but mixed.
We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
Blue Chips Lead in Mixed Session
The stock market indices had a mixed day, with the Dow up, S&P 500 barely ahead, and the Nasdaq 100 down. The technicals were positive and, in general, a big day. Despite very large drops from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG), the Nasdaq 100 held together, because of Intel Corporation (INTC) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). Let’s go over the details.
The day started out with a gap down at the opening, especially on the Nasdaq 100, because of Google being down 50 points. The indices then bounced, pulled back again, bounced sharply to partially fill the gap, and then backed off to make a lower-low on the S&P 500, but the NDX held. At that point, they had a nice, steady midday rally. They pulled back sharply, and looked like they were going to roll over, but they held support once again, and then rallied into the close with the S&P 500 closing at the high for the day going away at nearly the high for the year.
It was a terrific day for the S&P 500 and Dow, as the blue chips did well today.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 96.50 at 12,720.48, closing over 12,700 for the first time in a long time. The S&P 500 was up .88 to 1315.38, but the Nasdaq 100 was down 4.68 at 2437.02. That was just a point off the high for the day, and 9 points off the low.
Advance-declines were a little less than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 5 to 4 positive on New York, with total volume of 900 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded over 1.9 billion shares and had a 11 to 8 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, had a strangely mixed day, with Google down 53.57 at 595.99. Apple Inc. (AAPL) lost 7.45 to 420.30, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.22 to 100.24, but International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) was up 8.00 to 188.52, Goldman Sachs (GS) up 1.06 to 108.74, and Intel Corporation (INTC) up 75 cents to 26.38, a new 52-week high, on over 1.1 million shares traded. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) traded heavily today, up 1.59 to 29.71, or 5.65%, just 3 cents off the high at multi-year highs today, on 165 million shares.
So, it was a very mixed picture within the large-cap stocks, as the New York Stock Exchange and S&P 500 issues did better than those on the Nasdaq 100.
Other stocks of note included low-priced biotech Insmed Incorporated (INSM), up 1.21 to 5.01, or 32%, on 3.6 million shares. CPI Corporation (CPY) rose 45 cents to 1.81, or 33%, and BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) exploded to over 30 at one point earlier in the day, closing up 2.83 to 27.00, or 12%. AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA) gained 1.86 to 11.78, or 19%, and Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) was up over 51 today, closing up 5.65 to 49.00, or 13%.
Inphi Corporation (IPHI) gained 1.19 to 13.48, American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) 39 cents to 5.64, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.32 to 20.56, Nanometrics Incorporated (NANO) 1.07 to 18.86, and ZOLL Medical Corp. (ZOLL) 3.24 to 67.64.
On the downside, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN) was down 1.15 to 9.47 as profit-taking set in there, and SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) lost 1.25 to 38.21. Those were among the point-plus losers today.
The ultra-shorts continue to get hurt, as the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) fell 1.30 to 20.20, and the ProShares UltraShort Silver (ZSL) dropped 1.30 to 11.46.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down at the opening, bounced sharply in the morning, retested, and then retested again in the afternoon, but started to break out, and rolled back to test the lows. They did come on at the close, especially on the S&P 500 to new session highs, although the NDX did not make it back up to the session high. It was generally a strong, positive close to finish out the week.
This was certainly an interesting week. Let‘s see how next week goes.
Good Trading!
Harry
Rally Rolls On
The stock market had another excellent session, with the indices showing more gains, especially in the morning part of the session. The day started out with a gap up, after which they backed off and retested support, and held. When that occurred, they rallied sharply, with the Nasdaq 100 going from 2436 to 2445. The S&P 500 jumped from 1308 up to 1315, and then they paused to consolidate, with the NDX having a downward descent. The S&P 500 had a kind of sideways trading range of 3 points for the last several hours, and held in that range by the close.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 43.05, just a couple points from the high at 12,623.98, with the S&P 500 up 6.46 to 1314.50, only 1 point off the high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 15.74 at 2441.70, 4 points off its high.
Advance-declines were nearly 2 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume also nearly 2 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of about 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded just under 2 billion shares and had a 12 to 7 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly mixed but there were some very impressive gainers today. Low-priced 8x8 Inc. (EGHT) jumped 85 cents to 4.26, or 25%. Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (ASTI) gained 21 cents to 1.06, or 25%, and Hansen Medical, Inc. (HNSN) 37 cents to 2.79, or 15%, while Gulf Resources, Inc. (GURE) rose 28 cents to 2.49, or 13%, and Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (UEPS) 1.01 to 9.93, or 11%.
NetScout Systems Inc. (NTCT), which we traded today, was up 2.87 to 19.92, and F5 Networks, Inc. (FFIV) advanced 11.54 to 120.00 even, about 2 points off its high. Plexus Corp. (PLXS) jumped 3.25 to 36.50, Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (CTRP) 2.21 to 26.90, Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) 3.86 to 43.35, Acme Packet, Inc. (APKT) 2.40 to 30.50, and Aruba Networks, Inc. (ARUN) 1.61 to 21.79.
Among other gainers of note, BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN) was up 2.66 to 24.17, SolarWinds, Inc. (SWI) 2.32 to 31.11, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 2.37 to 42.02, and Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 4.92 to 103.46. Goldman Sachs (GS) gained 3.37 to 107.68.
In addition, AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA), which we traded today, was up 1.32 to 9.92, or 15%.
Other major players included Apple Inc. (AAPL), which reached an all-time new high today at 431.37, but closed at a loss for the day, down 1.36 to 427.75. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) got hammered on negative news out of Germany, down 4.28 to 38.70, and traded as high as 44.16 today, It was a big reversal day for some stocks.
Also on the downside, VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) lost 1.26 to 21.50.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, and backed off to test, ran hard to the session highs by midday, and then consolidated the rest of the day.
It was not a bad day at all for the indices as the rally rolls on.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Rally to New Multi-Week Highs
The stock market indices had another nice day today, and the technicals were great. The trend was up solidly all day, especially on the S&P 500, which after an early little dip to test support, took off and rocketed right to the 1302-3 zone at resistance. It backed off in an orderly fashion, and then came on again to secondary resistance up around 1306, but eventually broke that and reached as high as 1308 today.
Net on the day, the Dow closed near the high, up 96.88 at 12,578.95. The S&P 500 was up 14.37 to 1308.04, and the Nasdaq 100 up 32.72 at 2425.96 at the high for the day.
Advance-declines were nearly 4 to 1 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 3 1/2 to 1 positive on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 6 to 1 positive on New York, with total volume of just under 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.9 billion shares and had a 4 1/2 to 1 positive volume ratio.
It was a big day today on Wall Street.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mostly positive. Leading the way were many of the large-cap stocks. Goldman Sachs (GS) led the financials, and led the market in general today, up 6.63 to 104.31. Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 4.41 to 429.11, reaching 429.47, an all-time high today. First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) gained 3.00 to 43.00, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) 3.82 to 98.54, Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) 2.13 to 30.83, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 1.03 to 40.10, Cheniere Energy, Inc. (LNG) 1.03 to 10.64, and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.07 to 181.07.
Other stocks of note included Net 1 UEPS Technologies, Inc. (UEPS), up 2.20 to 8.92, or 32.7%; and Columbia Laboratories, Inc. (CBRX) up 38 cents to 1.47, or 34%. American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) up 1.20 to 5.55, or 28%; PHH Corp Common Stock (PHH) up 1.42. 12.08, Smith Micro Software, Inc. (SMSI) 27 cents to 2.00, or 16%; and Hercules Offshore, Inc. (HERO) 49 cents to 4.40, or 12 1/2%.
Semi-conductors were stellar today. Linear Technology Corporation (LLTC) was up 3.45 to 33.32, NXP Semiconductors NV (NXPI) 1.79 to 18.98, Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH) 1.13 to 11.43, PMC (PMCS) 59 cents to 6.41, International Rectifier Corpora (IRF) 2.07 to 22.93, and Applied Micro Circuits Corporate (AMCC) 67 cents to 7.96. They were among some of the strong gainers percentage-wise in that group today.
In addition, OraSure Technologies Inc. (OSUR) jumped 96 cents to 10.84, or nearly 10% on over 1.1 million shares today. United Rentals, Inc. (URI), one of our swing trades, which is looking and acting great, was up 2.93 to 34.77, or 9%, on 6.5 million shares. Junior biotech Amarin Corporation plc (AMRN) was up 71 cents to 8.39, or 9%, on 5 million shares, and OSI Systems, Inc. (OSIS) 3.67 to 54.17, a new all-time high today.
On the downside, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) dropped 2.08 to 39.70. That was the only point-plus loser on our board today with the exception of the ultrashort ETFs. In that group, the VelocityShares Daily 2x VIX ST ETN (TVIX) was down 1.68 to 22.76, the Direxion Daily Financial Bear 3X Shares (FAZ) down 1.38 to 30.89, and the Direxion Daily Small Cap Bear 3X Shares (TZA) lost 1.29 to 22.56.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were up sharply in the morning, consolidated late morning, came on again in the afternoon, and stair-stepped their way higher for a very nice follow-through session.
We’re now at new multi-week highs here on the indices.
Good Trading!
Harry
Negative Divergence Slows Rally
The stock market indices opened with a big boom today. A gap to the upside ran nicely in the morning on Nasdaq 100, but the S&P 500 backed off of it in a falling wedge. They did try to rally, on the Nasdaq 100 back up to its high, but was unable to get through, while the S&P 500 negative diverged. They then rolled over in the afternoon, rather sharply, bounced into the close and salvaged nice gains for the day.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 60.16 at 12,482.22, about 90 points off its high. The S&P 500 was up 4.58 to 1293.67, about 10 points off its high, and the Nasdaq 100 up 21.26 at 2393.24, about 11 points off its high.
Advance-declines managed to edge higher, with a 3 to 2 positive ratio on the New York Stock Exchange, but Nasdaq was only positive by 190 issues. Up/down volume was 4 to 3 positive on New York, with total volume of 770 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.75 billion shares and had a 4 to 3 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed, and there were some outstanding gainers. Leading the way by far, Ku6 Media Co., Ltd. (KUTV) jumped 1.92 to 3.30, or 139%, when it announced its partnership with YouTube. Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ENER) followed through from last Friday’s gains, up another 42 cents to 1.35, or 45%, on 13.6 million shares. Low-priced STEVIA CORP (STEV) rose 61 cents to 2.35, or 35%, and BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN), was up 4.30 to 21.76, or 25%.
In addition, Tesla Motors, Inc. (TSLA) gained 3.81 to 26.60, or 16 1/2%; ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ISTA) up 95 cents to 8.22, or 13%; ArQule, Inc. (ARQL) 71 cents to 6.67, or 12%; Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD) 54 cents to 5.55, or 11%; and swing trade RAM Energy Resources, Inc. (RAM) 38 cents to 3.73, or 10 3/4%.
Sears Holdings Corporation (SHLD) on rumors of a take-over today, was up 3.19 to 36.75, AsiaInfo-Linkage, Inc. (ASIA) up 81 cents to 8.77, Hollysys Automation Technologies, Ltd (HOLI) 85 cents to 9.81, Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (CHKP) 3.98 to 54.88, Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) 1.30 to 17.47, low-priced Nokia Corporation Sponsored Ame (NOK) 43 cents to 5.64, TAAR Surgical Company (STAA), one of our Top 25, 72 cents to 11.36, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.94 to 38.42.
Coffee Holding Co.Inc. (JVA) was up 85 cents to 10.18, and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (GMCR), which we traded today, jumped 3.90 to 50.87.
Among other stocks of note, Apple Inc. (AAPL) was up 4.89 to 424.70, reaching 425.99, less than a dollar from its all-time high.
On the downside, Dendreon Corp. (DNDN) gave back 33 cents to 13.70, Goldman Sachs (GS) was off 1.28 to 97.68, and Universal Display Corp. (PANL) dropped 1.07 to 40.67.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices gapped up, ran hard in the morning, stabilized, but the S&P 500 failed to follow through on the midday highs on the NDX and confirm. As a result, they rolled over in the afternoon, came down to test support, but did bounce late into the close and held support.
We’ll see what kind of follow-through we get tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
Pullback, Digestion Session
The stock market indices had an interesting session, except for some losses, but came way off the lows. The day started out with big gaps to the downside. The indices moved lower immediately, but then reversed try to test resistance. When that failed, they rolled over even more sharply, and reached their session lows at 2353 on the Nasdaq 100, and near 1277 1/2 on the S&P 500. They rallied sharply back, took about a 50% retracement, and then pulled back in an orderly fashion to form a right-handed extended V-pattern. When mid-afternoon support held, they rallied back to previous rally highs, backed off, and came on into the close, closing at the afternoon and session snapback highs.
Net on the day, the Dow was down 48.96 at 12,422.06, or 110 points off the low. The S&P 500 was down 6.41 to 1289.09, or 12 points off its low, and the Nasdaq 100 down 10.01 at 2371.98, almost 20 points off its low.
Advance-declines were a little less than 2 to 1 negative on the New York Stock Exchange, and about 2 to 1 negative on Nasdaq. Up/down volume was 3 to 1 negative on New York, with total volume of 800 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded about 1.6 billion shares and had a 5 to 3 negative volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board, as a result, was mixed on the session, but there were quite a few outstanding gainers on our board today. Leading the way today, Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IDIX) was up another 1.71 to 14.42, or 13 1/2%; ZAGG Incorporated (ZAGG) up 97 cents to 8.10, or 13 1/2%; China Ming Yang Wind Power Group Limited (MY) 45 cents to 2.63, or 20%; STEVIA CORP (STEV) 79 cents to 1.74, or 82%; BroadVision, Inc. (BVSN), continuing its monster move of late, more than doubling the last week and a half, up 2.02 to 17.57, or 13%; and Rovi Corporation (ROVI) 2.88 to 30.39, or 10 1/2%.
Other stocks of note included Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc. (RGR) up 2.81 to 38.68, Endologix Inc. (ELGX) 85 cents to 12.63, Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN) 61 cents to 12.37, SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA) 2.66 to 39.96, Westlake Chemical Corporation (WLK) 2.63 to 53.87 in an acquisition, Fusion-io Inc. (FIO) 1.39 to 27.83, OpenTable, Inc. (OPEN) 1.84 to 47.30, Hi Tech Pharmacal Co. Inc. (HITK) 1.69 to 36.76, IPG Photonics Corporation (IPGP) 2.18 to 49.57, and Questcor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (QCOR) 1.21 to 36.48.
In addition, Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) jumped 2.23 to 94.38, and Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ONXX) snapped back 1.13 to 44.09. Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK) was up another 31 cents to 9.14.
On the downside, multiple-point losers on our board today included Apple Inc. (AAPL) down 1.58 to 419.81, First Solar, Inc. (FSLR) down 1.67 to 39.92, Golar LNG Ltd. (GLNG) 2.05 to 42.30, Goldman Sachs (GS) 2.25 to 98.96, International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) 1.39 to 179.16, and Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) 1.06 to 28.69.
As you can see, many of the market leaders we follow did not do well today. It certainly was a digestion session, and a pullback session. They tested support initially, and bounced, but the key is to watch today’s lows on Monday. That’s 2353 on the NDX and around 1278 on the S&P 500.
Good Trading!
Harry
Indices Rally to Close Higher After Support Holds
The stock market indices had a very interesting session today, with a 5-wave, sharp sell-off to test support at yesterday’s lows, which held. Then they started a very strong rally for the rest of the session, and rallied right up until the last 10 minutes, reaching new highs for the entire rally on the Nasdaq 100, and nominally so on the S&P 500, but then backed off the last 10 minutes.
Net on the day, the Dow was up 21.57 at 12,471.02, the S&P 500 up 3.02 to 1295.50, and the Nasdaq 100 up 9.74 at 2381.99.
Advance-declines were better than 3 to 2 positive on the New York Stock Exchange, and 3 to 2 positive on Nasdaq as well. Up/down volume was 3 to 2 positive on New York, with total volume of 720 million shares traded today. Nasdaq traded just under 1.6 billion shares and had a 3 to 1 positive volume ratio.
TheTechTrader.com board had an excellent trading session today. Some of the winners on our board included low-priced Amicus Therapeutics, Inc. (FOLD), up 1.04 to 4.54, or 30%; Furniture Brands International, (FBN) up 43 cents to 1.56, or 38%; Quest Rare Minerals Ltd Common (QRM) 65 cents to 3.20, or 25%; LiveDeal, Inc. (LIVE) 52 cents to 3.38, or 18%; Multi-Fineline Electronix, Inc. (MFLX) 3.87 to 25.40, or 18%; low-priced BioDelivery Sciences Internatio (BDSI) 36 cents to 2.23, or 19%; and Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc (DKS), which we traded today, up 4.54 to 40.94, or 12.3%.
Other stocks of note included Tractor Supply Company (TSCO), up 7.27 to 80.20, and Mitek Systems Inc. (MITK), up 80 cents to 8.88 on 1.6 million, the heaviest volume ever traded on an up-day on that stock, up nearly 10% today. Stamps.com Inc. (STMP) advanced 2.56 to 29.22, Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL) 89 cents to 10.32, and Polypore International Inc. (PPO), a day trade of ours, 3.74 to 51.10.
In addition, Molycorp, Inc. (MCP) gained 2.11 to 29.75 on 9.4 million, Caribou Coffee Company, Inc. (CBOU) 97 cents to 15.57, Westlake Chemical Corporation (WLK) 3.07 to 51.24, Qlik Technologies, Inc. (QLIK) 1.49 to 25.21, and Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (FRAN) 1.29 to 22.51.
Swing trade pick Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) was up 1.00 to 17.56, and Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) 1.60 to 32.66.
Stepping back and reviewing the hourly chart patterns, the indices were down sharply in the morning, held about midmorning at key support from the last couple sessions, and then rallied sharply the rest of the day, closing with gains on the session, and a nice day for the bulls today, for sure.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow.
Good Trading!
Harry
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Fast Company News
Fast CompanyChevy, Pepsi, and Doritos Turn Fan-Made Super Bowl Ads Into Brand Buzz
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Chevy is the latest to ditch Madison Avenue and ask fans to create its Super Bowl ad. Past examples show the move isn't just cost effective--it builds brands' buzz (we have stats!) and helps young careers.
Nick Simotas, cofounder of GoodLookingLiars.com Winning spot: "First Date" for Pepsi Max, 2011. (Internal monologues of a couple: She thinks family; he thinks sex. They both think Pepsi Max.) Self-taught: "At first we tried hit-in-the-crotch humor, but it was off-putting. We needed something broader. Everyone can relate to the awkwardness of a first date." Production value: Prior to his win, Simotas worked as an editor on a Nickelodeon show. Following that, he got a gig directing a project at Lucasfilm. "[The ad] gave me the edge to push things over the top," he says.
Pete Holmes, cofounder of Front Page Films Winning spot: "Doritos Beer" for Doritos, 2009. (Guy pitches beer-flavored chips to execs.)Self-taught: "Ad firms spend millions on research, but we just had ourselves. We first thought of Doritos Scotch but had to consider that consumers might not want a hard-liquor chip."Production value: Holmes, a comedian (and voice of the E*Trade baby), is a familiar face at Comedy Central and is currently a writer for the Fox sitcom I Hate My Teenage Daughter. "In the backs of producers' minds, winning the contest gave us some legitimacy."
Brand stats tracking postgame buzz by BrandIndex, Networked Insights Photo by Imeh Skpanudosen/Getty Images (Holmes)
A version of this article appears in the February 2012 issue of Fast Company.
Planned Parenthood's Unplanned Branding Bonanza
The fact that the beloved charity that owns the pink ribbon decided to pull its financial support of Planned Parenthood (a decision that was reversed three days later) in the end will help the Planned Parenthood brand even more than it damages the brand of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit to which some 200 organizations like Ford, Major League Baseball, and BofA connect.
Here are the four key ways Planned Parenthood benefits:
Positive PR. The decision provided enormous publicity about Planned Parenthood and provided visibility of key statistics, like that it provides 165,000 breast cancer screens and 6,500 mammograms to low-income women who lack access to care, and the fact that only 3% of the budget is allocated to abortion services. This information got widespread exposure and, more important, an attentive, receptive, and enormous audience.
Improved image. The decision puts Planned Parenthood in a feisty underdog position fighting back against powerful self-centered political interests. For a brand, it doesn't get any better than being perceived as an underdog taking on a bully--look at Virgin vs. British Airlines and many others. Whatever the decision process or motivation of Komen, the widespread interpretation of the decision was that it was caused by political pressure. There was, of course, the political tension around Planned Parenthood. But there was also the addition to the Komen staff of a former Georgia candidate for the Republican nomination for governor who ran with a strong anti-Planned Parenthood platform. And the ostensible reason the funding was pulled was because of an inquiry by a strong anti-Planned Parenthood Republican congressman. The lingering impression is that Planned Parenthood was a pawn that was being crushed by an ideological confrontation.
More funding. One role of the brand is to attract funding. Komen's decision drew many new donors to Planned Parenthood, who will provide major sources of ongoing funding. Within 24 hours of Komen's decision, donors had contributed nearly enough to cover the funding Komen pulled, and the number of online donors surged from the typical 100 or 200 a day to 6,000. This surge of financial goodwill was buttressed and legitimatized by credible sources like Mayor Mike Bloomberg of New York and the Lance Armstrong?s Livestrong Fund, who put substantial matching funds on the table. Also, the decision probably solidified the long-term support of Komen for the Cure to Planned Parenthood. The Komen brand will face problems in retrieving its image as an organization that puts care for those women that lack access to health care over political ideological pressure. Any effort that appears to withhold support for Planned Parenthood would affect the difficult journey to regain its credibility and position.
Higher energy. The decision created involvement in the base. The social media activity, in particular, was enormous and the fundraising was also energizing. Increasing the size of the involved base, those who participate in the dialogue and donate money, will pay off for years. It is just so hard to generate this energy with normal day-to-day activity.
There has been a lot of analysis about the brand impact of the Komen decision and how it was handled--but sometimes lost in the conversation has been how the Planned Parenthood brand was unintentionally boosted by the incident.
Related: How Susan G. Komen For The Cure Torpedoed Its Brand
[Image: Flickr user Timothy Krause]
How Susan G. Komen For The Cure Torpedoed Its Brand
What a difference a week makes.
On Tuesday, January 31, Susan G. Komen For The Cure announced that it would not renew its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer exams, claiming that it doesn't permit funding to organizations under investigation by Congress. This is equal to more than half a million dollars for low-income women who otherwise would have no options for breast cancer screening and other services.
This announcement was not made publicly, but instead communicated to Komen?s 100-plus U.S. affiliates. Quietly. A done deal. Not up for discussion. Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, got the news by phone in December, and was unsuccessful in setting up a meeting to clarify the issue with the Komen board.
Critics pointed out that the Planned Parenthood was the only organization affected by the new rule, and that the real reason was that Karen Handel, the new senior vice-president for public policy, is a self-described evangelical Christian who has stated that ?I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.? It?s hard not to see women?s health getting politicized.
And at this point you might be saying: What? Did they think people wouldn?t find out about this? Does the board of Komen not know about social media? Did they learn nothing from SOPA?
What happened next was that social media exploded. On Twitter, on Facebook, in online petitions and letters and blogs and message boards. Public figures like Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) withdrew their support for Komen. Three top officials at Komen resigned their positions. Individual Komen affiliates said they would not abide by the new rule. And 26 U.S. senators signed a letter asking Komen to reconsider its position on Planned Parenthood.
The term ?backlash? is an understatement. Yet Komen?s CEO Nancy Brinker (pictured, top) insisted that the public response had been ?very, very favorable.?
Then the spin started. On Wednesday, Komen claimed the decision was made ?in the best interests of women? (by denying poor women breast cancer screening?). And on Thursday, Brinker said that "You have to be sure you are granting to the right people."
The ?right? people?? Hey, dig yourself a little deeper!
Finally, on Friday, Komen did the obvious and reversed their decision. Brinker apologized in a statement and said that the new rule would only apply to investigations that were ?criminal and conclusive in nature." They didn?t promise to renew the grants, only to ensure that Planned Parenthood is eligible for them in the future. They said "sorry," but it was a not-pology.
It?s incredible that the folks who run Komen were so clueless about the effect their actions would have on a brand that?s been built over three decades. They completely ignored both the mainstream press coverage, as well as social media outcry; they chose not to communicate with their supporters, either through Facebook or Twitter, and made transparently disingenuous statements to the press, in light of information coming from former Komen employees and documentation.
Will the Komen brand ever recover? Unfortunately for them, they were already getting some negative publicity for their tendency to sue anyone using the phrase ?For The Cure? and the color pink for other charities. While they certainly have the right to protect their intellectual property, Komen comes off as a big bully when they start sending cease-and-desist letters to tiny charities run by individuals.
They are going to have to work long and hard to win back the masses of people who now view them as an organization driven more by politics and the personal beliefs of its executives than its concern for women?s health, in whatever form that may take. One wonders if Handel or Brinker will have to step down to effect the change. Or perhaps they?ll decide that they want to hitch their wagon to a particular ideology, and stop pretending that they aren?t pushing an agenda.
The good news out of this debacle is that Planned Parenthood has raised an enormous amount of money--nearly a million dollars, donated directly to them. You can, too, if you're so inclined.
And while you?re at it, write a letter to Nancy Brinker to let her know what you think. Perhaps someone can explain that ?very, very favorable? does not mean what she thinks it means.
Related: Planned Parenthood's Unplanned Branding Bonanza
Laurel Sutton is a partner and cofounder at Catchword, a full-service naming firm.
[Image: Flickr user Elaine]
Marketing Lessons From An Accidental Con Man
In a previous Fast Company article, I wrote about hitchhiking. Specifically, what I?ve learned about hitching a ride in semi-rural South Africa and how these strategies apply to marketing. I learned something by accident last month that took my thumbing skills to a whole new level.
I Buy a Bicycle
I live in an area with steep hills, dangerous switchbacks, potholes the size of dorm refrigerators, and occasionally incompetent and frequently insane motorists. So naturally I thought: ?A mountain bike would be fun here.?
My friend Anthony was selling his old Merida Matts Sport 500. I took it for a spin around his yard, liked it, and told him I?d be back with the money after my next encounter with an ATM.
Given the risks and the fact that most of my income-producing power begins between my ears and ends up at my keyboard, I also picked up a helmet and a pair of bike gloves. And at 8:30 a.m. on a momentous Wednesday, I began walking up the road to Anthony?s house wearing, rather than carrying, the helmet and gloves.
I hadn?t walked 20 meters when a big, new, shiny Toyota SUV roared past, slammed on the brakes, and backed up toward me. A genial tourist leaned out his window and beckoned, ?Need a lift??
Gratefully, I accepted. I had been feeling a bit dorky about wearing the helmet and gloves on the walk, so I was glad to speed up the trip and reduce my exposure. I wondered about my good fortune; in my experience a man traveling alone is more likely to have a pair of bluebirds alight on his head than get a ride if he actively solicits one. To get offered a ride, unasked, is unheard of.
When I plopped myself down, SUV Man inquired pleasantly, ?Your bike broken??
So that?s what was going on. My helmet and gloves had provided a Reason Why.
Not a Fluke
Later that day, after Anthony couldn?t find a pump with a Presta valve, I walked my flat-tired Merida several kilometers to the cycle shop at Mountain Splendour. Again, wearing helmet and gloves. This time, for added effect, I was pushing a big blue bike down a hill. And again, I received an unsolicited offer of a lift.
How to Hitch a Ride in South Africa
So now I know how to reliably get a ride around here. I just wear my Bell Slant helmet and start walking. Before, drivers had to wonder why a healthy-looking white guy didn?t have his own car. (In South Africa, that?s pretty much an anomaly.) Now they know why I need a ride: My bike must have broken down somewhere.
Once my situation makes sense to them, the ride offers come easily, often unrequested. The Reason Why alleviates their fears that I might be a Psycho Killer or Unpleasant Travel Companion. It also gives them a reason to pick me up: I?m in need, and they?re the kind of person who helps strangers in need.
The only thing that had changed about me was the Reason Why. The power of that insight applies to our businesses as well.
The Power of Reason Why
Human beings are programmed to make sense of the world, to look for patterns and predict outcomes. It?s how our species survived, adapted, and thrived in so many different environments. And one of the strongest patterns is cause and effect--reasons why certain things happen.
Social psychologist Ellen Langer found that human beings exhibit an automatic response pattern of saying yes when given a reason. In a fascinating study reported in Robert Cialdini?s Influence, Langer and her colleagues asked to cut in line at a library photocopy machine with one of three statements:
"Excuse me. I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I'm in a rush?""Excuse me. I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine?""Excuse me. I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?"The first request (?because I?m in a rush?) worked 94% of the time. The second request (no reason) received only 60% positive responses. The third request (?because I have to make some copies?) succeeded in 93% of cases. ?Because I have to make some copies? is not, of course, an actual reason. It?s simply phrased in the form of a reason, and that was sufficient to trigger the automatic ?that sounds reasonable? response.
Reason Why Marketing
I?m not suggesting that you pepper your marketing with meaningless reasons (?Buy our product because we say so?). Rather, acknowledge the natural skepticism of your market to any claim of superiority or dramatic difference and tell 'em why it?s so.
All business advantage is founded on some anomaly. You have a unique set of experiences that makes you better than anyone else at a particular skill. You engineered a new business model. You found a pool of talent that others had overlooked. You have a patent on a process or material that sets you apart.
It?s not enough to describe the difference or the advantage you hold in the marketplace. Reason Why Marketing explains the difference and makes it believable, credible, even obvious.
People are naturally skeptical of competitive claims, but we want to believe. We cling to Reasons Why as life vests in a sea of mediocrity and sameness. We?re passionate about the companies that create, and demonstrate, and justify their Uniqueness.
Some Examples of Reason Why Marketing
Why are Apple products so good? Because Steve Jobs was a hyper-driven visionary perfectionist who imbued the company with an ethos of innovation and elegance.
Why is Zappo?s customer service so good? Because Zappo?s spends huge amounts of money on training, creates a fantastic workplace environment, and empowers employees to do almost anything to make customers happy.
Why are Surefire flashlights so good? Because the company was founded by an engineer with a PhD in laser design who saw the potential of outfitting weapons with laser sights almost 30 years ago.
Why is your company so good? If the answer doesn?t immediately pour out of you, go into reminiscence mode. Why was the company founded? What?s the background of the founders? What was missing in the industry that they wanted to deliver? What was their particular passion? What unique set of perspectives influenced their decisions?
If you truly offer something dramatically better in your marketplace, Reason Why Marketing may be the missing core of your message. In a world where most businesses rely on meaningless platitudes (?Value, service, integrity?) or unfounded claims (?The leading purveyor?), a simple ?This Is Why? explanation can cut through the clutter and position you as the obvious choice.
Now if you?ll excuse me, I have to go to town. Wallet, keys, phone, helmet?
[Image: Flickr user Nemodus]
India's $35 Aakash Tablet Comes Apart
Months after India's healthily anticipated $35 tablet was first unveiled, its owners are embroiled in a spat that is raising questions about its future.
A $35 Indian Aakash tablet may turn out to be a pipe dream after all.
In the most recent twist in the development of the unbelievably cheap piece of tech, the Indian government is trying to break a manufacturing stalemate by taking the decision away from the Indian university that created tablet prototypes.
As we wrote in early November, professors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, along with students at the institute, created the first models of the device, before handing over manufacturing responsibility to U.K. company DataWind. IIT is designing more advanced affordable prototypes, while concurrently testing the first batch of tablets that DataWind has made.
But over the past weeks, DataWind and IIT have disagreed on the final specs of Aakash 1. The difference of opinion, director of IIT Jodhpur Prem Kalra tells Fast Company, involves DataWind skimping on what IIT believed were minimum features. Suneet Singh Tuli, head of DataWind, has rejected the proposed "military grade" specifications but Kalra says they're only insisting on basic necessities for a tablet meant to be used by customers in rural India. DataWind's Tuli says there's no need to build a tablet that can be run over by a truck, while Kalra insists, in his own incindiary way, that his team's priorities are usability and safety. "If you drop it, it should not catch fire," he says. Meanwhile, several reviews of the device, including this recent one from IEEE Spectrum, have dismissed it as clunky and slow.
The recent move by the government could prove to be a butterfingered attempt to break the stalemate. The Economic Times reports that the government's Department of IT could be responsible for picking multiple manufacturers who'll take on production of Aakash 2. In a puzzling second twist, government sources have told the Times of India that two other universities--IITs in Chennai and Mumbai--will join the project as well. However, it is unclear what role they will play.
But there's a chance that the government's decision to hire a third-party tender writer, well-versed in the ways and wiles of commercial contracts, could avoid a future spat of the kind IIT and DataWind are mired in. In that case, this decision could actually streamline manufacturing of the Aakash 2, with the parties involved avoiding roadblocks like this one.
Kalra has been deeply involved with the Aakash project from its early days, and amid this recent fuss, he's keeping a brave face. He says that the decision will allow IIT to be involved, while letting it do what it does best--innovate at the early stage and continue designing. "Our main agenda is to come up with the new devices."
"As far as the first testing phase was concerned, we took that on because it was part of our research agenda," Kalra says. Now someone else has to handle the testing, supply chain, and whole manufacturing loop while IIT continues to research and develop low-cost devices. "That's a good step because we alone cannot do it. But, our research for improving the devices will continue."
In advance of its sales, demand for a souped-up commercial version of the tablet (costing about $50) appears strong. In early January, Suneet Singh Tuli announced that DataWind had seen 1.4 million preorders on its website. The question now seems to be, with all the added performers in this escalating Greek tragedy, what will it take for them to all agree so that Aakash can hit the market?
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and the world. Follow on Twitter, Google+.
The Facebook IPO Players Club: Li Ka-shing
They were doing just fine before, but Facebook's biggest minority owners are about to be catapulted into a far more elite bracket. As we ponder what Li Ka-shing will do with his extra millions, here's a look at what got him where he is today.
Who he is: Sir Li Ka-shing is a Chinese businessman based in Hong Kong, currently chairman of Hutchison Wampoa Limited and Cheung Kong Holdings. In 2010 the companies he manages were worth about 15% of the entire Hong Kong stock market, which qualifies Ka-shing as a magnate of epic proportions, rather than a mere businessman. He's commonly considered Asia's most powerful man, has the nickname Superman, and like many powerful figures associated with Facebook, he's a a dropout, having left school at 15 (though that led to 16-hour work days at a plastics company). A serial tech investor, he's philanthropic to the extent he thinks of his charity, the Li Ka-shing Foundation as his "third son." Through it he's already given away over $1.4 billion.
What's his connection with Facebook?: In 2007 Ka-shing poured some $120 million into Facebook for a 0.8% share at the company's then valuation of $15 billion.
What he's currently worth: Ka-shing may be the best example ever of nominative determinism--the notion that your name decides your career. He's considered the 11th richest man in the world with an estimated worth of $22 billion in 2011. Ka-ching, indeed.
What Facebook's IPO will bring: A 0.8% stake in a Facebook worth $85 billion at IPO would equate to $680 million for Ka-shing.
What he may do with the money: Invest, acquire, give it away, dive into piles of it à la Scrooge McDuck: The new value is equivalent to just 3% of his current riches.
Read about others in the Facebook IPO Players Club:
Chris HughesSean ParkerPeter Thiel Dustin MoskovitzReid HoffmanDavid ChoeDonald GrahamJim BreyerEduardo SaverinJeff RothschildSheryl Sandberg[Image via Li Ka Shing Foundation]
Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.
This Week In Bots: Nothing's Gonna Stop Them Now--The Robot Revolution Is Eve...
Quadrocopter Swarms Go Tiny
If you're a fan of This Week In Bots you'll be exquisitely familiar with quadropters--the technology is blooming right now because the battery, motor, and control technology is ubiquitous and the stable flight platform offered by the design promises so much for the future of aerial robotics. That's why we've seen them dance, perform ridiculous aerobatics, and even build things. Now UPenn's GRASP lab, behind so many of these innovations, has taken the design and added a sci-fi spin: Miniaturization. They're calling them nano-quadrotors, and as the video below shows, by making them small you can pack more together in a limited flying space and create truly astonishing swarm behavior.
[youtube YQIMGV5vtd4]
It's not just for show, though. If you equipped each of these devices with some AI and a degree of autonomy plus a sensor suite, they could be far more efficient than many other methods in searching a collapsed building (or the upper decks of a sunken cruise liner?) after a disaster--snaking in and out of confined spaces and where terrain would be tricky for humans. Alongside that there are policing and military uses that should be obvious, and one can maybe imagine news agencies adopting the technology to gain incredible footage of developing news scenes.
Lobby Greeters Go Robotic
You've seen telepresence work in medical environments and for remote-attendance of office meetings, but now the makers of one type of telepresence robot have a new and quite remarkable spin on the tech that mixes in telepresence and a dab of call-center thinking. Anybots will now, for $2,400 a month, send you one of their QB telepresence droids and hook your business up with its 40-hour-a-week AnyLobby service so that your offices can get a human-ish face to meet, greet, and help visitors to your office lobby.
As pointed out over at Automaton blog, not only can these robots offer a cheaper alternative to a real person and a better service to visitors than a depressingly inhuman lobby phone with a note saying to "Call Jim on extension x" or whatever, but if your needs are pretty sporadic, then one professional human robot operator could manage a number of robots--and be located anywhere.
Virtual contracted employees--a whole new layer of robot tech to think about. Will your office cleaner be replaced by one operated over telepresence soon, or will your IT support staff spin up to your desk in robot form before visiting in person?
[youtube PtXtIivRRKQ]
Real Estate Demos Go Telepresence
Lest you think telepresence lobby staff is just a single example of virtual staffing, the Personal Robotics Group at MIT recently hit the press because of its ideas for telepresence meeting-and-greeting of a different nature, where the job of showing prospective buyers around a property could be delegated to a telepresence droid. The team has been working on the tech for some years, tyring to hone the real-feel qualities of the robots so that a task as highly personal and important as helping someone buy a home doesn't feel odd or less satisfying than talking in person.
There are years to go before artificial agents like MITs can do the job, but we see no blockages to a getup like Anybots trying a telepresence version sooner rather than later. Stairs would be an issue, with most telepresence robots opting for a wheeled chassis to keep costs low, but there are creative solutions that could solve that problem. Plus it saves real estate agents time purring up and down the streets of town in their cars--thus lowering their costs (let's not go crazy and imagine these savings would be passed on to their clients, though).
Cancer Surgery Goes Robo-crab
This slightly stretches the definition of a robot (especially if you go with Douglas Adams' famous "your plastic pal who's fun to be with!" version), but technically the device is designed to replace the work of a human--and potentially do it better and more reliably: It's a novel robot for tackling stomach cancer.
Inspired by a meal of Singapore's famous chilli crab dish, a surgeon and roboticist in Singapore have come up with MASTER, the Master And Slave Transluminal Endoscopic Robot. Designed to be deployed through an endoscope, the robot is a claw-like tool that both grips cancerous tissue and precisely excises it while simultaneously cauterizing the wound. It avoids bigger open-surgery trauma to the patient, and because the robot's limbs don't tremble or slip the way human hands do, it can offer more precise treatment. A company was formed to commercialize it late in 2011, and the team hopes to sell it within three years.
Mannequins Go Sci-Fi
If you're of a certain age, this story will prompt a famous late-1980's film theme tune to worm into your thoughts...and if you're a Doctor Who fan you may get a chill: Dr Hiroshi Ishiguro, the Japanese roboticist behind the freakishly real-looking Geminoid robots, has turned his skills to improving boring, static store-window fashion mannequins. By making them move like a human model may.
[youtube 9TayMJ1pqzo]
As part of a Valentine's day promotion an Ishiguro Geminoid robot is sitting in a display at Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, doing familiar human things like smiling, yawning, adjusting her position in her chair and nodding at visitors--with a degree of interactivity when she senses passersby. The droid's face is capable of over 60 human-like expressions.
We're not sure what expressions you might suddenly display if the droid activated near you when you weren't expecting it, but we're guessing that even Ishiguro can't quite make his robots display sheer pant-wetting terror yet. He does think it's the "future of shop displays."
Car Robots Go Best-Selling
Skeptics among you may doubt that the robots we write about here will touch your daily life anytime soon, and true many of them are research devices designed to inform far-off consumer tech. But don't believe that the robot revolution is already underway, because as IndustryWeek notes, sales of industrial robots in North America in 2011 hit an all-time high. Well over a billion dollars of robot tech was brought into the U.S., beating the previous record set in 2005, and it's not just car-making robots: Non-automotive customers went up 27%, with the metalworking and semiconductor industry pushing the market. Better yet, while overall orders jumped up 47% compared to 2010, the dollar amount only went up 38%. Robots are getting cheaper, more reliable, and more capable.
Flapping Bots Go Butterfly-Like
We write a lot about biomimicry in all sorts of technology because it's an important idea--life has already come up with many creative solutions to some of the scientific and engineering tasks we set for ourselves and our devices. Now butterflies are in the mix, as researchers at Johns Hopkins have realized that the efficient way that butterflies can propel themselves through the air can help build better nano-drones. Technically called ornithopters, flapping-wing robots may be the best aids for some search-and-rescue and military purposes due to their efficiency and ability to deal with unexpected air gusts--which is why engineering student Tiras Lin has been photographing them in lab conditions. You may be wowed by nano-quadrotors, but imagine the sensation you'll get in a while seeing a fleet of robo-butterflies perform similar tasks.
Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter (he's not a Geminoid) and Fast Company too.
Votizen Brings The Empowerment Of The Internet To Elections
Before political campaigns were all over blogs, Meetup.com, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, there was USA.gov, cofounded by David Binetti in 2000. The site, which was the platform for the first ever webcast from the Oval Office, is now the U.S. Government's official portal.
Binetti's new venture is a Silicon Valley tech startup called Votizen, a social network where voters can campaign for a candidate or a cause. Users reach out primarily to friends or acquaintances, leveraging their own social networks to organize. Votizen was used heavily in last November's San Francisco mayoral race, which resulted in the election of Ed Lee, the first Chinese-American mayor in that city's history. With the 2012 campaign heating up, we spoke with David Binetti, Votizen's CEO and cofounder, about the disruptive impact of technology on the political landscape and the challenges of innovating in the federal government.
FAST COMPANY: Technology is obviously playing a critical role in every part of our politics now. Tell us about how you first got started bringing the power of the web to the political world and what you have seen since.
DAVID BINETTI: In 1995, I created a website that did online campaign finance disclosure. In 2000, I created USA.gov, which is now the official portal of the federal government. Over the first decade of this century, web politics developed quite a bit. In 2008, the Obama campaign took advantage of technology in very innovative ways. Something was qualitatively different in the grassroots nature of the Obama campaign and its use of social media in particular. People were willing to share to a degree that they had not been willing to do before. Those channels allowed people to come together--voter to voter--which is a major departure from the fundamentally one-way, tight-message-control nature of the last 50 years of political campaigning. Social is completely the opposite. It's about connecting with other people and it's about having messages transfer organically, shift a little bit along the way, and having the people come to their own conclusions about what they want to say and what they want to share.
Although we're living in a sharing revolution, certain aspects of politics, specifically who people are voting for, have always been treated as private. What has changed that now allows a platform like Votizen to be built on the premise of actively sharing your political views and allegiances?
I think people realize that to share is to gain. So the benefits of sharing outweigh the potential costs. Mostly it's people saying "I'm willing to share information about myself in order to have an impact." Most people are willing to give up assets that are considered private as long as they are fairly compensated. A club card at the grocery store is an example of that. People are saying to the store, you can watch my purchases, but I want to get a discount. The same thing is happening here. People tell their network who they're voting for and, as a result, they get connected to people who share their viewpoint and grow that impact for a candidate, a cause, or an issue.
Give us a picture of how Votizen works.
Votizen empowers people to take action directly with the people in their networks. The first thing people do is connect with the voters that they already are connected to in their social networks, reach out to them, and ask them to take an action on behalf of this candidate because they believe it's important. Votizen is an open platform as opposed to a candidate distributing a call list or dictating what actions you take. In the San Francisco mayor's race, we piloted a new technology called a "Virtual Precinct Walk." For a lot of candidates, particularly local candidates, a precinct walk is one of the main things they and their supporters do. You walk through a neighborhood and you knock on doors for your candidate. We moved that online. Instead of walking through streets and knocking on strangers' doors, you are going online and connecting with your friends. Ed Lee's mayoral campaign used this tool and found many advantages. You don't have to worry about whether or not the person is home, you don't have worry about the weather, you can cover much more ground more rapidly. You can do it on your own time; it doesn't have to be done on Sunday afternoon. The person who answers your social door is always the person you're seeking. And of course you're connecting with friends. That one-to-one connection is really important.
Political campaigns today are waged primarily offline--person-to-person and through traditional media. While online is growing, most analysts doubt it can ever have as much impact as traditional political media.
The difference between online and offline might not matter as much as those analysts think. Is it reasonable that on the presidential level, candidates can have one-to-one connections with 200 million voters? No. But think about where connectedness to voters is going to matter most: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, the swing states...mobilizing supporters' connections to their own networks can have disproportionately valuable effects. In the Iowa Caucuses, Rick Perry got 12,557 votes. It turns out he spent $480 per vote, almost all of it on traditional media. Well, if you know two people in Iowa who you can win to voting for your candidate, you are effectively a $1,000 donor to that campaign. Given that money can be a proxy for getting votes, if people are actually able to deliver votes through their connections online that could have a huge impact on the race. In presidential politics today the money is being spent primarily on television, direct mail, and robocalls. Yet those media are losing effectiveness quite rapidly. In the future these social network channels are going to matter more and more. Ultimately it's going to be much more about "friend-raising," than fundraising. Candidates will still ask how do I get enough votes to win, but which channels they use to gain those votes will change, it already is changing.
Amplification was obviously key on an issue like SOPA. What is your power to amplify something perceived as a small issue and make it bigger?
Where I think Votizen is going to have the most impact is on the long tail of politics. A year and a half ago people on our site organized around cabin fees. New rules had been proposed that would raise fees on people who owned personal property on federal forest land. There are only 5,000 people who are directly affected by this issue, but they are all super connected. So one of them started a campaign and within 48 hours, 1,000 of those people had signed on and written letters to the legislators. One legislator in particular took on that issue--because it made a difference to someone in their district, and served as their advocate and so far, they have succeeded in holding off those fee hikes.
Obama talked a lot about innovation in his recent State of the Union speech and offered some promising ideas. But what are the challenges and roadblocks to innovating in government?
People working in the government are amazing, hard working, thoughtful people who want to do good. But the government, as a whole, is not in the innovation business. Individual people are not rewarded for innovation. In fact, they are frequently punished. The system is designed to be stable, so when you actually try to make change, it's really hard. Private-public partnerships can be very valuable for innovation. These formats allow you to innovate on the private side with a path to become more public. That's something we pioneered with FirstGov, which became USA.gov. A lot of the innovation happened on the private side when we were a private company. Eventually, it transitioned to a public platform. It took us 90 days to build USA.gov and more than three years to give it away to the government. That was largely a result of the government procurement rules. There was just no system for dealing with what was essentially a donation of services and intellectual property.
One of the concerns about the political process is the need to engage new voters and new communities. How are you seeing new groups use your platform?
In a campaign, members on our site ran in support of Startup Visa [an effort to change immigration laws, making it easier for foreign entrepreneurs living in the United States with successful businesses to stay in the country] and 80% of the people who used the system had never engaged in the political process before. What brought them in was the fact that they felt that they could actually make a difference. If you look at the SOPA debate in January, online activism made a huge difference--in fact, it made all the difference! Now people see that the actions they take can have an impact. Voters are realizing: I can make something happen. This is where the 2008 Obama campaign nailed it because they realized that by letting people take direct action in the campaign, supporters were encouraged to take more action. Freeing people up to believe that they were participating directly gave them the huge benefit of seeing themselves as involved with something greater and more important than themselves.
Note: This interview has been edited for content, clarity, and length.
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David D. Burstein is a young entrepreneur, having completed his first documentary 18 in '08. He is also the founder & executive director of the youth voter engagement not for profit, Generation18. His book about the millennial generation will be published by Beacon Press in early 2013.
[Image: Flickr user Thomas Hawk]
The Facebook IPO Players Club: Jim Breyer
They were doing just fine before, but the biggest of minority owners of Facebook are about to be catapulted into a far more elite bracket. As we ponder what they'll do with with new millions (money being no stranger to early investor Jim Breyer), here's a look at what got them where they are today.
Who he is: When we profiled him back in 1997, Jim Breyer was simply a Managing General Partner at Accel Partners, who spent the "bulk of his working hours in meetings" but who "comes to the table only if the stakes are high and the action is guranteed." Now he's also president of Accel Management Company, and founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, and sits on various boards (including Booyah). He's got a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science and economics, which must certainly have played a part in his interest in Facebook. In October 2011 he was elected to News Corporation's board, just in time to be in the middle of the phone hacking scandal, but that probably doesn't detract from his nomination as Forbes' "smartest investor in technology" in 2010.
What's his connection to Facebook?: In 2005 under Breyer's pressure, Accel invested $12.7 million in the nascent Facebook enterprise, and Breyer was so seemingly smitten with the technological and financial promise that he invested one million dollars of his own money too, establishing an ownership share of about 1%.
What's he worth now: Estimated at $1.1 billion in late 2011
How much could the IPO make him: An assumed 1% stake at an $85 billion IPO would equate to $850 million.
What he may do with the money: Invest, invest, invest! But not necessarily where you may think: His economic smarts also bring caution, and recently Breyer said too much startup funding could be a bad thing, and the current frenzy "may end badly."
Read about others in the Facebook IPO Players Club:
Chris HughesSean ParkerPeter Thiel Dustin MoskovitzReid HoffmanDavid ChoeDonald GrahamEduardo SaverinLi Ka-shingJeff RothschildSheryl Sandberg
Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.
Be Like Mark: 8 Ways To Emulate Facebook's Zuckerberg, The Unlikely Leader
Whether you love him, hate him, or are just a little jealous of his newly minted multi-billionaire status, you have to admit that Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has made some visionary leadership moves.
In less than 10 years, Zuckerberg?s taken an idea for an online social network from his Harvard dorm room and delivered it into the homes, offices, pockets, and purses (via mobile phones) of 845 million users around the world. Last year, more than half of Facebook?s users logged in every single day, spending a whopping 4 hours and 35 minutes posting, reading updates, and ?liking? more than 2 billion posts a day.
And how many CEOs anywhere in the world can say the company they founded before they were old enough to drink generated a net income of $1 billion in 2011 on revenue of $3.7 billion, up from $606 million on revenues of $1.97 billion in 2010?
Zuckerberg?s had his share of growing pains, too, but he?s held fast to Facebook?s helm as well as its stock. He currently owns 28.4% of the company, which at a valuation of $100 billion, translates to a stake worth just under $30 billion.
Despite that dough, less than 10% of Americans relished the thought of walking the halls of Facebook in his sneakers, and even fewer (9% to be precise) wanted to work for him.
As Facebook takes its first steps under the glaring klieg lights of its planned public offering, you can be sure Zuckerberg?s management moves will be subject to even more scrutiny, dissection, and criticism. For now though, we want to take a look at the leadership qualities that brought on this dizzying success.
Have A Strong Personal Philosophy
Amid the astounding numbers of revenue and users, and the cast of characters that reads like an A-list index to the high-roller investors of the tech world, the S-1 document that Facebook filed yesterday also held the personal manifesto Zuckerberg plans to use as a guide for the company after the IPO.
"We don't build services in order to make money, we make money in order to build better services. Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission--to make the world open and more connected."
Zuck?s trotted out this ?open and connected? tenet at various times, most recently in an impassioned post on Facebook opposing SOPA and PIPA. ?We will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the Internet,? and with equal furor in a rebuttal to the FTC touting how much social media has contributed to the government, the advancement of democracy, and the growing cottage industry of social software.
Make It Not Always About The Money
Naysayers were quick to wag tongues and fingers when Zuckerberg turned down Yahoo?s nearly $1 billion offer to buy Facebook in 2006. But the decision to keep Facebook independent was far from a lapse in judgment. In less than two years, Myspace accepted $580 million to join News Corp., and YouTube took $1.5 billion from Google.
As valuations fluctuated between $10 billion and $1 trillion, Zuckerberg stuck to his simple resolution. He?d consider an IPO when it ?made sense? rather than make himself and investors rich. "I'm here to build something for the long term. Anything else is a distraction." Even Cameron Winklevoss agreed.
Know How To Scale In Multiple Ways
Zuckerberg recognized early on that scaling a business was a balancing act. Now topping 845 million members, there?s only so many more users Facebook can add to its base. Instead, he?s focused on increasing the amount of time people spend clicking around the network, so it can serve up even more ads at higher rates.
This scheme has already been in play with a number of Facebook?s features such as games and shopping. Though not all of have been successful (hello, FB email service) it?s clear that the bottom line gets a boost the longer users are on the site.
Support A Culture Of Innovation
Zuckerberg worked with only a handful of developers in the early days of Facebook but when the ?snakepit? of angst-ridden, overworked staff got to be counterproductive, he made some important additions. Chris Cox became the evangelical HR executive while newly installed COO Sheryl Sandberg ushered in an era of stability in 2008.
Things still retain the playful air of a tech development hive, but with an edge. At its HQ, male Facebook employees vanquish distractions even when they go to the bathroom (which is frequently, thanks to all those free beverages).
Recognize You Don?t Have To Be First To Market
Myspace and Friendster both predate Facebook, yet are now virtually extinct. Facebook trumped those earlier social networks because it provides more of a compelling pull, rather than a push. Likewise, when it entered the deals game last year alongside veterans Groupon and LivingSocial, it took their existing model and did it one better by adding polls and encouraging users to share. All of that fits with Facebook?s core mission, ?Giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.?
Take Pride In Hacking
For Zuckerberg, hacking goes way beyond the allegations that he coded his way into the Harvard Crimson and ConnectU. Zuckerberg?s hacker culture is about using shared effort and knowledge to make something bigger, better, and faster than an individual can do alone. His "hackathons" at Facebook are legendary and help foster innovation in all manner of projects from building better data centers to crowdsourcing urban planning for its surrounding neighborhood.
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Play To Win, Without Competing
Zuckerberg's social-networking juggernaut is the smallest and youngest of Silicon Valley?s Fab Four, but it?s killing it with stellar results in the ad business and attracting all kinds of talent. The Great Tech War of 2012 may be on, but Zuck?s not going to play. "People like to talk about war...There are real competitions in there, but I don't think this is going to be this type of situation where there's one company that wins all this stuff."
Let Them See You Sweat
Between his awkward, perspiration-soaked appearance at D8 last year and presentations peppered with hesitant "ums," it?s no wonder Zuckerberg?s drawn fire for his lack of polish for such a loftily placed CEO. No matter, he?s still smarter and more successful than the rest of us, which sets him in a league of his own.
Now it's your turn. What leadership lessons have you taken from Mark Zuckerberg? Tweet us @FastCoLeaders with the hashtag #FCweighin to join the conversation, or leave a comment below.
Read the rest of Fast Company's coverage of Facebook's IPO.
[Image: Flickr user dfarber]
The Facebook IPO: A Mega, Meta Mashup Of Media
We sifted through media coverage of Facebook's imminent IPO to bring you the mother of all news roundups. Get ready to ride the linked-up lightning.
Now it's Facebook's turn to share.
Facebook Inc. filed for an initial public offering... that could value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion, putting the company on track for one of the biggest U.S. stock-market debuts of all time. The company that has redefined the way millions of people worldwide interact and share information on the Internet may command a valuation more than five times higher than Google Inc. as it seeks to raise $5 billion.
Depending on who you ask, Facebook is either the best company to go public since Google or the hallmark of another tech bubble. Facebook's IPO could be a bellwether for the entire social networking world; it could help generate interest and money for other big Internet players, like Twitter while a huge influx of cash could enable the social networking company to topple Google from its dominant position in the online world.
Just about everyone in Silicon Valley has dreamed of striking it rich with a well-timed investment? Facebook's biggest shareholder and chief executive owns 533.8 million shares, or a roughly 28 percent stake, worth around $28 billion. That would make the 27-year-old the fourth-richest American, according to Forbes' 2011 rankings, surpassed only by Microsoft Corp's Bill Gates, legendary investor Warren Buffett and Oracle Corp's Larry Ellison. Zuckerberg has 56.9 percent of the voting shares, followed by Accel Partners with 11.4 percent, James Breyer with 11.4 percent, co-founder Dustin Moskovitz with 7.6 percent, DST Global with 5.5 percent and entrepreneur Peter Thiel with 2.4 percent. The company's board of directors--including Washington Post Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Don Graham--were also listed as stakeholders. Former Google executive Sheryl Sandberg, now Facebook's chief operating officer, has a smaller Class B share allocation, as does Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen, a member of the Facebook board since 2008.
With approximately a third of Facebook's roughly 3,000 employees becoming millionaires overnight, thousands of new ?millionerds? will have vast amounts of disposable income, and the local economy hopes to reap the benefits. Some vendors are already experiencing the ?Facebook Effect.? Two brand-new Porsches, price tags still stuck to windows, were seen leaving the Facebook campus yesterday. The graffiti artist who took Facebook stock instead of cash for painting the walls of the social network's first headquarters made a smart bet. The shares owned by the artist, David Choe, are expected to be worth upward of $200 million when Facebook stock trades publicly later this year.
One of the biggest challenges Facebook will face is the gulf between the have's and have-not's within Facebook. It can create tremendous internal stress and can result in people leaving to follow their own entrepreneurial dreams. The Facebook IPO will make some people very rich, but social-media experts suggest that it could force Facebook to put profits over user experience--and that could cause problems.
Just as Google, upon its IPO, enunciated its goal as "Don't be evil," Facebook also claims a higher mission. Wall Street doesn't. This can lead to problems.
Investors will be clamoring to get ahold of Facebook stock, with many hoping to get in before the company figures things out and the stock takes off. Actually, those wanting to get in on the Facebook IPO might soon find out what it feels like to get "unfriended." When it comes to the initial public offering of Facebook, the world's largest social network, there's ironically very little for the masses. Facebook's IPO, as with most IPOs, will only be sold at the offering price to privileged investors.
The investing world certainly seems to be working itself into a frenzy over the looming Facebook IPO. But before you jump in thinking you finally have a way to make real money from FarmVille and Words With Friends, you had better know your history? 1999 was a spectacular one for IPOs with 555 companies raising a record $73.6 billion, [yet] half of all issues lost money. Even more amazing, nearly 75 percent of all U.S. Internet-related IPOs since mid-1995 were trading below their offering price at the time of publication.
Let's do the math. Microsoft is trading at only 11 times its net income for fiscal 2011. Google is valued at about 20 times its 2011 profits. If Facebook were to fetch a $100 billion market value, that would give it a price-to-earnings ratio of 100.
The numbers in Facebook's IPO filing on Wednesday give us the picture of a juggernaut, but not an unstoppable one. What could go wrong on Facebook's march to one of the biggest IPOs in history? Let Facebook tell you--a fall-off in growth of users, a clash between Facebook's culture and the expectations of public investors, and advertiser resistance to the company's advances. [Its] revenue total disappointed some people who pored through the documents. One reason: The company generates about $4.39 in revenue per user.
Every service Facebook offers, from photo sharing to music streaming to virtual animal husbandry, is designed to gather information about users in the hope that online advertisers will pay a premium for specific targeting. So far, enthusiasm for the idea has reportedly generated modest annual profits for Facebook of around $1 billion, or just over $1 per user per year. But the biggest opportunity may yet lay in getting users to participate in and distribute to their friends ad campaigns that are part of their social experience may yet hold greater promise. It is a long way from there, however. The precise ad targeting enabled by that information is why Facebook now claims nearly 30 percent of online display advertising, having long since blasted past the runner-up in the category, Yahoo, according to ComScore? But when you get down to it, as a colleague of mine said, "It's a thin coat of paint over a massive data-mining operation."
Despite money generated from advertising accounting for 85 per cent of Facebook's revenues last year, and its net income in 2011 reaching $1billion, the company will have to radically change the way it cashes in on its users' data to make good on its valuation. In its IPO filing Facebook mentions the word "mobile" 123 times, which, given the term's buzz-worthy status, is hardly surprising. But in most cases Facebook doesn't use the word "mobile" in positive ways. They make no money from mobile. What's worse, the more people use Facebook's mobile services, the more money it loses. As Facebook states in its list of risk factors, "if users continue to increasingly access Facebook mobile products as a substitute for access through personal computers, and if we are unable to successfully implement monetization strategies for our mobile users, our revenue and financial results may be negatively affected."
Why? No ads. 85% of Facebook's $3.7 billion revenues in 2011 came from advertising, and those ads were all on its website. Facebook's advertising strategy has, as yet, not made the leap from web to mobile.
Among the more colorful details of Facebook's 150-page S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is a letter from founder Mark Zuckerberg setting out the social network's "mission." In the letter, the 27-year-old Harvard University graduate grandly draws comparisons between Facebook and the invention of the printing press for changing the way the world communicates. "Facebook was not originally created to be a company," Zuckerberg wrote. "It was built to accomplish a social mission--to make the world more open and connected." He added: "Facebook aspires to build the services that give people the power to share and help them once again transform many of our core institutions and industries."
Critics say users don't need friends like Facebook. "Facebook is incredibly greedy with our personal information. It wants to own us and our online identity," said Andrew Keen, author of the upcoming book "Digital Vertigo," who calls himself the founding member of what he calls the "Facebook resistance." "There is nothing altruistic about it. This is a pure financial play. Tech workers and investors are going to become obscenely rich."
Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor at NYU and a contributing writer to Fast Company. Follow him on Twitter: @penenberg
Sources:
1. Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times
2. Shayndi Raice, Wall Street Journal
3. Jon Swartz, Scott Martin, Matt Krantz, USA Today
4. David Randall, Reuters
5. Sarah Gaudin, Computerworld
6. Sarah Gaudin, Computerworld
7. Sarah McBride, The Baltimore Sun
8. Hayley Tsukayama, The Washington Post
9. James Rogers, The Street
10. Stephanie Soderborg and Lu (Laura) He, Peninsula Press
11. Nick Bilton and Evelyn M. Rusli, New York Times
12. Om Malik, GigaOm
13. Gloria Goodale, Christian Science Monitor
14. Eric Markowitz and Kimberly Weisul, Inc.
15. Roger Cheng, CNET
16. Matt Krantz, USA Today
17. Larry Swedroe, CBS Money Watch
18. Paul R. La Monica, CNN Money
19. Chris O'Brien, Mercury News
20. Shira Ovide, The Wall Street Journal
21. Michael Liedtke, Christian Science Monitor
22. Reuters
23. James Temple, San Francisco Gate
24. Emma Barnett, The Telegraph
25. Keith Fitchard, GigaOm
26. Eric Jackson, Forbes
27. Stuart Dredge, The Guardian
28. Katherine Rushton, The Telegraph
29. Huffington Post
30. Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times
[Image: Flickr user ssoosay]
The Facebook IPO Players Club: Dustin Moskovitz
They were doing just fine before, but Facebook's biggest minority owners are about to be catapulted into a far more elite bracket. As we ponder what they'll do with with new millions (maybe over $4 billion for Dustin Moskovitz!), here's a look at what got them where they are today.
Who he is: Dustin Moskovitz was born May 22, 1984--the year the Apple Macintosh landed, if that makes you feel old--and he's just eight days younger than Mark Zuckerberg. Wikipedia calls him an "internet entrepreneur," the Los Angeles Times labels him a "self-taught programmer" while Forbes considers him a "drop out, Harvard university." Roommate to Zuckerberg at Harvard where for two years, he was an economics major, he's a native Floridian, and in 2008 he founded and is CEO of Asana--a company who's eponymous app helps people organize group collaboration and project work. He's also the biggest angel investor in new social network darling Path. He dislikes Google+, still flies Virgin America (not in first class) and Zuckerberg once noted he'd "always be someone I turn to for advice."
His connection to Facebook: He left Harvard with Zuckerberg and other friends and moved to Palo Alto to cofound Facebook proper, after first building it as thefacebook.com in their dorm to help resident Harvard students relate. He was its first CTO, followed by being VP of Engineering, building many infrastructural elements still in place today.
What he's worth already: Forbes guesses his net worth as of September 2011 at around $3.5 billion, and once called him the world's youngest billionaire--based on his stake in Facebook.
How much Facebook's IPO will earn him: Moskovitz has a 5% stake in Facebook, which for an $85 billion company would equate to $4.25 billion. That's around $157 million for every year of his life.
What he might do with his money: Moskovitz is, so the rumors go, pretty unassuming about his billionaire status. He's invested in Path and other startups like Venmo and Flipbook, so we may guess he'll do a bit more of this--and probably Asana will get some attention too. Philanthropy could follow, as he signed up to Giving Pledge late last year, and has established Good Ventures with his partner--a mechanism for donating to worthy charities.
Read about others in the Facebook IPO Players Club:
Chris HughesSean ParkerPeter Thiel Reid HoffmanDavid ChoeDonald GrahamJim BreyerEduardo SaverinLi Ka-shingJeff RothschildSheryl Sandberg
[Image: Flickr user Kevin Krejci]
Chat about this news with Kit Eaton on Twitter and Fast Company too.
Super Bowl Command Center Monitors Parking Gripes, Terrorist Threats
The private company behind the Super Bowl's official Social Media Command Center isn't just tweeting fans transit tips, they're monitoring social media for game-day threats by would-be terrorists. And Madonna.
What do Justin Bieber and potholes have in common? This isn't, actually, a joke. The Super Bowl Host Committee in Indianapolis, along with Indiana-based private social media company Raidious, have set up a giant Social Media Command Center in downtown Indianapolis (right, and yes, those are Macs) for the Super Bowl, and they're already monitoring Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube, and Flickr. They'll watch for tweeted gripes about roads and statuses about parking--plus, you know, any chatter from would-be terrorists looking to create panic with a dirty bomb.
Oh, and they'll keep extra special sharp tabs on Madonna, Justin Bieber, and any other A-list attendees to make sure they find Indianapolis' amenities suitable.
Running the Super Bowl's social media operation will be Raidious's largest project to date (other corporate clients include the Indianapolis Colts, Comcast, and Adidas). Big-game ops will be staffed by 50 employees and volunteers--college students, mostly.
According to Raidious CEO Taulbee Jackson, the Command Center's main goal is to actively work with visitors and respond in crisis and safety situations if needed. Staff, working on an Awareness, Inc. platform, have a list of approximately 300 keywords to be monitored (along with the Twitter hashtag #social46). Visitors to Indianapolis will receive assistance with their visit--and monitoring for other purposes will continually take place.
Tweets and other social media are filtered by geolocation; Raidious is focusing on tweets and Facebook posts made in Indianapolis and the immediate vicinity. A major part of Raidious' strategy focuses on sentiment response--Twitter messages ragging on Indianapolis or the Super Bowl visit experience are much more likely to get a rapid response. As of Thursday night, the official Super Bowl Host Committee Twitter account @superbowl2012 was busy steering Indianapolis visitors and guests to weekend concerts and festival events; Raidious was also running an extremely busy guest services operation on the Super Bowl 2012 Facebook page.
Then there's the whole first-line-of-defense-against-terrorism thing. A major part of the Social Media Command Center's duties will consist of emergency management and as-needed crisis assistance. Just outside of Indianapolis, a federal command center has been set up with officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who will be in contact with the Social Media Command Center--its staffers and supporting undergrads. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced at a Wednesday press conference that over 35 federal or component law enforcement agencies were collaborating on Super Bowl security. At the Command Center, redundant Internet connections and network infrastructure have been added; all employees are also equipped with smartphones in case of a power outage.
One of the Social Media Command Center's stated goals is to ?respond first to any safety oriented issue/crisis.? So while the FBI monitors social media for a variety of keywords that could refer to a terrorist attack or criminal incident at the Super Bowl, the Command Center does its part (while also making sure you don't get a pricey ticket for parking in the wrong zone).
In fact, all social media data related to the Super Bowl is being subjected to intensive post-publishing analytics: Purdue University's Homeland Security Institute has been producing daily reports on Super Bowl social media chatter on behalf of the Super Bowl Host Committee and the Indiana Office of Technology. As a sort of tit-for-tat, the Homeland Security Institute's reports also include information on parking, traffic, and public safety trends.
The Command Center is also actively monitoring the Twitter feeds of celebrities attending the game or participating in concerts or events Super Bowl Weekend. If a famous musician, athlete, or actor makes a negative statement--say criticizing an aspect of their trip--Raidious' team will be able to quickly help sort things out.
After the Indianapolis Super Bowl Committee bought Raidious onto the project in 2010, the project and Command Center were set up over a period of nine months. Volunteers for the Command Center were trained in corporate PR best practices and set up to work on a stripped-down version of the Awareness interface.
As for learning to spot bona fide terrorist threats--how hard could that really be?
For more stories like this, follow @fastcompany on Twitter. Email Neal Ungerleider, the author of this article, here or find him on Twitter and Google+.
"Bouncer" Protects Android Market, Apple Drums Up 278 Claims Against Samsung,...
Breaking news from your editors at Fast Company, with updates all day.
Introducing The Android Market "Bouncer." Google's newly announced Bouncer is a service that detects security threats coming from apps in the Android app store. The service checks out any app uploaded to the app store for known security threats, and watches it for suspicious behavior. The service also analyzes new developer accounts. --NS
Apple Drums Up 278 Claims Against Samsung In Australia. Apple has extended its legal proceedings against Samsung in Australia. Its new line of attack has grown from three claims on patents involving the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to 278 claims, over 22 patents and 10 devices, some of which have yet to be launched. As legal battles involving Apple patents swell in number, a Chicago judge is beginning to object, asking for a "winnowing" of claims in a Apple vs. Motorola suit. --NS
Panasonic Forecasts $10 Billion Loss . Electronics maker Panasonic is forecasting a grim year and a loss of $10.2 billion. The reason--a wayward TV business with steadily dipping sales and, according to some, a lack of strategy for a solid turnaround. The company will cut 17,000 jobs by the end of March. --NS
--Updated 5:45 a.m. EST
[Image: Flickr user protohiro]
Yesterday's Fast Feed: Amazon (Sorta) Launches In India, Apple Denied German Galaxy Device Ban, Tumblr Hiring Writers And Editors, and more!
White House Takes To Google+ Hangout Again To Speak To Entrepreneurs (And Us)...
Steve Case, U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, and NEC Director Gene Sperling use Google's new-ish social tool to talk about Startup America on behalf of the White House. We're in line to ask a question right now.
First President Barack Obama gets into this Google+ Hangout thing, and before you know it, his whole cabinet is doing it. Not that they're on there swapping reviews of the latest Kardashian exploits, mind you. Rather, Steve Case, U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra, and NEC Director Gene Sperling are answering questions via Hangout on behalf of Startup America, the White House initiative established to "celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation."
Trying new stuff. On a new platform. It's not exactly Pinterest or Path, and, sure, there's a cozy relationship here between Google and the Administration. But stuff like this--along with the White House's fun recent foray into Instagram and Obama's use of Square--is the kind of stuff we are into. What we want to know is how the outside-the-box approach to these sorts of conferences extends to the White House's legislative agenda involving crowdfunding, which was unveiled on Tuesday. Specifically, we'd like to know which crowdfunding models they are using and how can they can be extended to support businesses beyond their first projects. Hopefully we'll get a turn in the Hangout to get an answer. You can watch it below, starting at 5:30 p.m. EST.
Update: The folks at SnappyTV were kind enough to grab my segment--Case, Chopra, and Sperling did answer the question. Watch below.
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