Target Stores ( TGT )

[George$]

I don't understand tech stocks either so I've never invested in them. Too difficult for me to figure out and too fast moving an industry.

Best regards.

Yes, tech hardware is very fast moving and usually has no "protective moat". New, better hardware can replace the older hardware over the weekend.

Not so with software. Once you train millions of users to use programs like Word and Excel, there is resistence to unlearn and learn something new and better. This inertia constitutes a protective moat for companies like Microsoft, Adobe, etc.

[Taggart]

I don't understand tech stocks either so I've never invested in them. Too difficult for me to figure out and too fast moving an industry.

Best regards.

Yes, tech hardware is very fast moving and usually has no "protective moat". New, better hardware can replace the older hardware over the weekend.

Not so with software. Once you train millions of users to use programs like Word and Excel, there is resistence to unlearn and learn something new and better. This inertia constitutes a protective moat for companies like Microsoft, Adobe, etc.

For spreadsheet, before Excel I think the standard was Lotus 123. At least that's what we got stuck with when I was in the work environment. Gosh how I hated Lotus. Much prefer Works spreadsheet and Excel. Before Word, if my memory serves me correctly, I think it was WordStar, and then later WordPerfect as the standards for their time.

[Bylo Selhi]

For spreadsheet, before Excel I think the standard was Lotus 123. At least that's what we got stuck with when I was in the work environment. Gosh how I hated Lotus. Much prefer Works spreadsheet and Excel. Before Word, if my memory serves me correctly, I think it was WordStar, and then later WordPerfect as the standards for their time.

To mangle metaphors, Bill's Borg crossed the moat of Lotus' and WordPerfect's castles. They sent a flock of bad-ass black swans to poop all over them (by withholding vital interface information about Windows.) That let the Borg bring Windows versions of Excel and Word to market before their competitors and to give them features that the competitors were incapable of providing because they didn't have the necessary interface information.

Even though it resulted in DoJ anti-trust charges against the Borg, by then it was too late for Lotus and WP. (Both companies BTW were bought out, Lotus by IBM, WP by Corel, so all was not lost by their shareholders.)

[deaddog]

What do I want the stock to do? "Not lose money" over the next decade would be the short answer.

Are you saying that you will hold the stock for ten years then make a decision or is there an exit strategy in place?

[newguy]

For spreadsheet, before Excel I think the standard was Lotus 123.

Nah, you can download the original here for free.

newguy

[deaddog]

Going back to your question, I feel no regret in not owning Apple or Lululemon. They can make new highs every week, or they can crash into the ground. I felt the same way about RIM (well, not quite, as I was too early in trying to take negative exposure to it).

What I was trying to get at is the bias we tend to have once we own a stock.
We hesitate to take small losses or even windfall profits because of a fear of missing a future move.

Alas my fear of 'regret' should the stock go to $56.51 in the next year outweights my 'short term greed' (or need?) to take $500 off the table and fold my TGT hand.

Yet there doesn’t seem to be the same fear of regret that we didn’t take the quick profit if the stock falls.

Once we own a stock we seem to become a little brain dead about its future prospects. We will continue to hold a stock we wouldn’t buy because if we sell it, it might go up.

[Bylo Selhi]

<OT>

the original

VisiCalc was originally written for the Apple II and later ported to the IBM PC. Lotus 1-2-3 was specifically designed and written for the IBM PC in 808x Assembler. A credible case can be made that while VC is what made Apple II viable as an "office" system it was 1-2-3 — not Charlie Chaplin — that made the IBM PC a success. I recall introducing a couple of MBA types in our office to a hard-disk based 1-2-3 on an IBM XT in the spring of 1983. Even though they'd been using VC, their eyes lit up like kids on Christmas morning when they saw how much better and faster 1-2-3 was.

(In those days 1-2-3 was copy-protected such that you had to leave the System diskette in the drive for as long as you were using their software. My first success as a "pirate" was to develop a 1-byte patch to 123.exe to eliminate that restriction and free up the sole floppy drive on the XT

Added: It's here for posterity

Code: Select all

The patch below is for Release 1A of 123.EXE that effectively unprotected 
the copy-protected disk and allowed hard-disk to run without the floppy.
 
     To unprotect 123.EXE Version 1A,
 
          1. Rename 123.EXE 123.XYZ
          2. DEBUG 123.XYZ
          3. type  U ABA9
          4. you should see    INT 13   at that address
          5. type  E ABA9 90 90
          6. type  W
          7. type  Q
          8. Rename 123.XYZ 123.EXE

The two bytes (OK so my memory failed) are NOPs that effectively bypass the disk I/O operation that tested for a valid System diskette. The hard part was to find the particular INT 13 in 123.exe that did this.)
</OT>

[kcowan]

<OT>

the original

VisiCalc was originally written for the Apple II and later ported to the IBM PC.

And before that was BudPlan that ran on System/360. We used it under contract to create annual reports for a company in Sarnia (Polymer Corp) in 1969.

Program product — IBM system/360 and system/370 budgets and plans generator (BUDPLAN) operations guide; program number: 5734-F51. 1st ed.

</OT>

[Bylo Selhi]

And before that was BudPlan that ran on System/360. We used it under contract to create annual reports for a company in Sarnia (Polymer Corp) in 1969.

Lotus also ported 1-2-3 to run under VM and MVS so that mainframers could co-exist with their PC brethren. Later after they bought Lotus, IBM (with some help from moi) ported Notes/Domino to run under OS/390. Neither were particularly successful (not because of moi, of course )

[kcowan]

Lotus also ported 1-2-3 to run under VM and MVS so that mainframers could co-exist with their PC brethren. )

Yes we used that host spreadsheet in the 80s to consolidate all those AT-based 123s into a corporate view. It was amazing for its time.

[George$]

I keep checking this thread thinking someone is commenting on TGT --

[deaddog]

:roll: I keep checking this thread thinking someone is commenting on TGT --

Someone took it off topic.

Not so with software. Once you train millions of users to use programs like Word and Excel, there is resistence to unlearn and learn something new and better. This inertia constitutes a protective moat for companies like Microsoft, Adobe, etc.

[George$]

...... Someone took it off topic.

Not so with software. Once you train millions of users to use programs like Word and Excel, there is resistence to unlearn and learn something new and better. This inertia constitutes a protective moat for companies like Microsoft, Adobe, etc.

Right on. I did say that.

[Bylo Selhi]

Give me an opening small enough and I can digress into another universe (With apologies to Archimedes as well as thread participants.)

[George$]

Back on topic.
TGT rose today to about $52 following some positive news

[George$]

From -- Target pop-up store attracts 1,500 shoppers

It was controlled chaos inside the temporary store, on the corner of King Street West and Peter Street, as staff staggered the number of shoppers let in at one time.

There was the buzz of polite frenzy as women, who accounted for 99 per cent of shoppers, grabbed dresses, tops and skirts, but then amenably traded sizes and gave each other advice on what looked good.

As sizes ran out, people took clothes off the mannequins, prompting the store to post security guards to protect the statues. “It’s not even the size I want but I don’t care,” said one woman who denuded a mannequin of the coveted black cocktail dress. Others, not wanting to wait in line for the dressing rooms, stripped down in a corner of the store, in full view of the glass windows where shoppers waited outside in line.

and so far about an 18% increase since I bought some TGT

[skepticus]

It appears that Target is very good at finding out what's going on in your life so that it can, um, target you.

It can even find out if you're pregnant or headed for divorce. You'll find out about it in this article: How Companies Learn Your Secrets, in the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magaz ... .html?_r=1

...data about your ethnicity, job history, the magazines you read, if you’ve ever declared bankruptcy or got divorced, the year you bought (or lost) your house, where you went to college, what kinds of topics you talk about online, whether you prefer certain brands of coffee, paper towels, cereal or applesauce, your political leanings, reading habits, charitable giving and the number of cars you own.

[As the reporter says, all big companies do it.
"If you are a large company and you are not involved in analytics, you are not a large company for very much longer. Target is an interesting example because they are among the smartest companies at doing this stuff."]
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/ ... rget-know/