Hope everything goes well Zippy.

I was too busy wondering if I'd spelt Santander right

There are rumours that my local bank branch is going to be transferred as part of the Lloyds sell off. Though I am debating switching anyway.

Does it appear on this list?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog ... lling-sold

Thanks for that. My local branch is not on that list. I will probably look at switching at some point, I was thinking of switching to Metro bank.

I do think that the reasons for why Apple was overvalued have not changed. I know of a few who are talking of Apple being almost the next Dell, and that Android will dominate the smart phone market. Well Apple never wanted the volumes without the profit margins.

Indeed so. And that's kind of the point. A few months ago, this analyst was telling people Apple was a bad buy, because of a given set of reasons. Now he's saying Apple are a good buy, even though most of that given set of reasons are still true. He's patently operating on subjective judgement (or, as the article hints, basic self-interest) rather than objective 'analysis'. So his opinion is actually of no more value than anyone else's.


Indeed, Apple have never been about volumes, at least not since the very early days. Because they never had market share when they just made Macs, they've essentially structured the company and it's strategies to survive/succeed without them. Having large market share was a bonus but not a requirement. So there being more Android phones sold than iPhones probably doesn't bother Apple all that much beyond corporate macho [LIFTED]. Selling loads of phones you make next to no profit each on is a strategy that can work but Apple believes in it's strategies because they've kept it going (just about) in much much harder times than they are likely to see any time soon.

While I am very analytical I would have no idea how to value Apple, because of external factors like a rigged US market and low interest rates that will impact when they start to rise again. I think that the whole US stock market is overvalued along with Apple. Though I would probably prefer to have my money in Apple than many other stocks. The fact that it now pays dividends means that it will hold its value better than some. Longer term Apple might have problems, but they have a decent outlook for the next few years as they have an excellent team developing the next generation of products. Though stocks really should be held for some time and it is tough to ride out such manipulations.

Web-browser games have really come a long way:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/dem ... ananabread

Last night I did science!

Mark

I'm not sure microwave popcorn counts

You, Sir, are a troll in bats clothing, and as such, I command thee begone!

Mark