As expected, Steve Jobs revamped the entire line of iPods for the upcoming holiday season. It was inevitable seeing that the iPod design had not been refreshed in about 2 years. Here are the highlights of the presentation yesterday:
- Apple unveils a ring-tones feature for the iPhone using the iTunes platform. Included is the ability to create custom ring tones from their invesntory.
- iPod Nano receives a face lift. New colors include red, silver, blue-ish, green and black. New screen 2.5 inches. 320×240, 204 pixels per inch. 3 casual games bundled into the new Nano, including one called Vortex. Two versions: 4 gigs and only Silver at $149. 8 gigs and all the colors for $199.
- Refreshed iPod, now called iPod classic. iPod Classic comes in two flavors: 80 and 160 GB. $249 and $349, respectively.
- iPod Touch is the new iPod using the iPhone interface techonology. Video is 3 and a half inch screen with a thickness of 8 mm. Wi-fi capable. Safari built into Touch so you can use the browser on a music player. 8 and 16 GB priced at $299 and $399, respectively.
- New application called the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store.
There you have it. Apple shares dropped 8 points on the news. Buy the rumor, sell the news it seems. More information can be found on Apple’s website.
If you have access to Level II quotes, use them and use them well. If you do not have access to Level II quotes, find a way to get them. It’s worth the money.
Level II quotes give you a real time look at the market, a heartbeat if you will. You can see the buyers placing pressure on the sellers and vice versa. Not only does this work with stocks, but with options and futures in addition to other investment types. Case in point. A week or so ago I placed a “sucker” bet on XTO 60 Sept contracts from $15-$25. This morning I noticed XTO’s price spiking with the Level II quotes I use from OptionsXpress. The options price spiked for about 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes I went ahead and sold my sucker bet. The result? A quick $70 gain. Granted, that’s not a large sum of money, but when you only have $1500 to invest, that’s a nice 5% gain. It also helps to bring my portfolio back to break even.
Moral of the story: Use Level II quotes in addition with your research. Your portfolio will thank you for it.
Rumor has it that tomorrow Apple (AAPL) will unveil something new and exciting. Most people believe the iPhone’s technology has been ported over to create a new iPod. We’ll know more tomorrow at 1 pm EST. It’s the only logical progression for Apple in terms of revamping the iPod. I guess we’ll see what happens. I do know that AAPL shareholders have had a nice ride the past couple of days with shares surging over 3% on the news. I’ll keep you posted tomorrow on any news.
And yes, the iPhones are still sold out everywhere I go.
A new month although from what history’s said it’s not the best month to be in the market. Last year most investors decided to go bearish which resulted in short squeezes around the board. Hopefully the same effect will be seen this year.
My plans for this week will be to hold steady. Level 3’s finally made a move, rising about 5% for the week. I have some call option plays on XTO (more of a gamble but we’ll see) that expire in 3 weeks. XTO broke through the $55 resistance level this past week, if only briefly.
We’ll keep the recap short this week since it is Labor Day after all and I should be barbecuing with the fiancee!
- Total Deposits: $1,477.59
- Current Portfolio Value: $1,351.45
- Profit (Loss) as of September 3, 2007: -$126.14
- Profit (Loss) as of August 26, 2007: -$130.76
- Profit (Loss) as of August 23, 2007: -$117.15
- Profit (Loss) as of August 15, 2007: -$51.96
Alright! I didn’t lose money this week. A note though. My current balance includes 10 open option calls on XTO for the month of September. I’m hoping those calls will help to break even this month now that summer’s over. This week I’ll go ahead and post detailed information about my portfolio and the homework behind the choices. Let the September bull market begin, shall we?
Normally I wouldn’t report on weather conditions but now that I understand how these massive storms affect investors, it’s worthwhile to at least throw a heads up. With Felix strengthening to a Cat. 5 hurricane by Labor Day, I would expect investors to be jittery with regards to oil and natural gas prices. Expect oil and natural gas futures prices to rise especially with the possibility of the hurricane pathing into the Gulf.