Rambling Notes -- Not Ready For Prime Time -- September 19, 2022

Enjoying Life

Content, content, content: I've never enjoyed "television" so much. With all the streaming and all the options, it's hard to call it "television" any more.

NFL: two games n Monday Night Football now. Tonight, the Buffalo Bills game is incredible. With a few minutes still left in the third quarter the Bills are destroying the Tennessee Titans, 41 - 7.

Streaming: link here. Streaming wars. Tea leaves suggest Hulu is setting the gold standard.

• it's no longer "content, content, content"
• it's now all about execution, customer service, pricing
• having said that, the "average" viewer won't switch once decision made 
• the best combo right now: Hulu + Amazon Fire Stick +Amazon Prime Video
• add on Netflex, HBO prn 

Perry Mason: after NFL tonight, I will watch another episode of Perry Mason.

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Energy

WTI: Never has this adage been more true: it's a fool's errand to predict the price of oil.

Poll: I'm too tired tonight to take down the poll, but obviously the poll is over. 

• The Biden administration has announced they will extend the SPR release by ten more days, to get past the mid-terms. Pretty funny.
• this decision by the Biden administration is simply an "insurance policy"
• releasing oil from the SPR is not driving the price of oil down
  

SPR: some one-liners

• the SPR never mattered
• the new SPR is the Permian, the Eagle Ford, and the Bakken
• spud to production: 30 days if push comes to shove
• how the SPR became "a thing" is beyond me
• all that talk about "the need" to refill is simply that: talk. There is absolutely "no need" to refill the SPR
• whether any administration refills the SPR or not no longer interests me (actually, it never did)

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The Market

I have no idea what the market is doing but I'm hearing through the grapevine, it's not good.

• don't take that out of context; in general I know what's going on but I'm not following it on a daily basis
• I haven't watched CNBC in a long time
• twitter feed suggests Jim Cramer has really lost a lot of credibility; apparently he hasn't been compared to Cathie Wood yet but probably should be

Silver:

• I still need to buy 2022 silver coins

I'm fortunate enough to have a robust revenue stream even in retirement. I invest in two tranches every month: the first and third week each month.

• I don't check the market to see what to buy
• I have a list of companies and when it's time to invest, I simply go down the list, work out the allocation, and buy

My allocation for the past six months: blue chip, 50%; tech, 30%; and, energy, 20%.

• it's incredibly difficult to not increase the energy allocation but I'm so top-heavy in energy ... but ...

My favorite long-term company is still Apple. I have no idea how to classify AAPL now for investment purposes: blue chip or tech.

Indications are that Apple has a winner with its iPhone 14 Pro

• apparently the high-end phones are the ones folks want
• the low-end iPhone 14s are not selling
• high-end = high-margin; low-end=low-margin

Dividends: more and more folks coming around on this issue.

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All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.