Notes From All Over -- Midday Edition -- February 17, 2021

Future of banking: your iPhone.

Agree completely. In addition, "banking" will be re-defined. For various reasons I still maintain two checking accounts at two regional banks. I keep the accounts for legacy automatic deposits and occasional e-payments. But 99% of all my daily financial activities are done through my discount broker on line. And interestingly enough, even if I have the laptop, the iPad and the iPhone in front of me, it is the iPhone, I use because it is so incredibly simple.

Warren Buffett: there are only a few things that fascinate me, e.g. Apple, semiconductors, Amazon. The list changes from time to time, but a pretty comprehensive list is over at the "Investors" page, tabbed at the top of the blog.

I'll have to add Warren Buffett to that list. That was a huge oversight. I don't have time or the interest to read his SEC filings so I am at the mercy of the media reports. Some thoughts:

• timing?
•  his "13-F filings" were purposely delayed, so by the time we saw them, things had changed
• we don't know exactly when he bought something; and we certainly don't know when he started looking;
• he could have been following CVX and/or VZ for years before finally "pulling the trigger"
• what was he thinking?
• why did he choose VZ and not T-Mobile or ATT?
• why did he choose CVX from among the seven major international integrated oils? That will be an interesting question to explore.
• value vs growth?
• wow, this is a story in itself; I think if one were to ask, most would consider Buffett a value investor; not a growth investor and not a trader
  
• did anyone note that both VZ and CVX pay hefty dividends? almost 5% for VZ; and, almost 6% for CVX (and perhaps more, depending when he actually bought CVX)
• back in October, CVX was trading at $66; today, it is trading above $90; the dividend has remained the same; you can do the math ($5.16 / $66 = 7.8%)
• VZ has been in a very narrow trading range for the past six months
• why would he "sell" AAPL? 
• I think he would have trimmed his holdings regardless, but had AAPL paid a few special dividends along the way or raised its quarterly dividend, Buffett might have stuck around; but indications are Tim Cook as other ideas;
• s4ees Apple’s expensive foray into EVs; Buffett likes wide moats; it is obvious there are no moats at all when it comes to EVs;
  
• connecting the dots:
• did you all know that Verizon owns Yahoo!Finance? Actually, Verizon owns all of Yahoo!
• is Google under scrutiny around the world? Does Apple have an interesting relationship with Google? Is there a special relationship between Warren Buffett and Tim Cook? This is not rocket science; one can connect the dots; I'm not suggesting anything will happen, just suggesting things that could happen.

So, enough of this, I will add "Warren Buffett" to the “Investors" page,

A short list of things that no longer interest me:

• the Biden presidency, except to see how long it lasts.
• the Texas deep freeze. I get it. 
• the Covid-19 pandemic. I get it. I'll still track it on Tuesdays and Fridays.
• European politics

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Remote Learning

Here in north Texas, in the DFW area, public schools are closed for the entire week. Whoo-hoo! 

Because not all students are remote learners, the teachers cannot assign new homework. Whoo-hoo!

I feel strongly that in-school education is the better route to take, but for a minority of students, remote learning is clearly the better way to go. 

As one example: Sophia, a first grader, has access to a virtual library of books. She can search books based on her age and on her DRA level. Even if our public library were open and/or her school library were open, it would in no way be able to compete with her virtual library. When searching for books, fiction or non-fiction, we sort by "age" and by "DRA."  The DRA goes from A-1 to Z-80, kindergarten to eighth grade. I do not know what level her mom has her reading nor how she has been assessed by her teachers. Out of curiosity I had her read a book for students age 10 years old (Sophia is six years old) and a DRA of 40 (fourth grade). With the exception of some very big words, she was able to read the book. 

Most remarkable, her "virtual library" automatically tracks everything she has read. There is often a quiz at the end of each book which is also tracked. It tracks how long it took her to read a book, etc., etc.

"At school" (either physically or remotely) with her class, the books that are read are at a level well below where Sophia is. Sophia loves having books read to her, and never seems to get bored when read to, but she loves it when she gets the chance to read. That does not happen often in a class of 30 students. But at home with her adult "teacher," she can read as much as she wants, and at the level that stretches her mind.

In addition to reading she has an unlimited library for arithmetic, music, and art. In addition, not part of her public school curriculum, she and I are learning Spanish together on Duolingo. We have not missed one day of Duolingo instruction since we started. I downloaded the app once, and miraculously, the app ended up on all my Apple devices including my iPhone which really surprised me. We have about 147 consecutive days of studying Duolingo. 

And in addition to music "at school," she is learning to play the piano using an app.