ETFs that Mimic Buffet

Watch this video to facilitate discussion about ETFs that use criteria similar to those applied by Warren Buffet

How Many Stocks Are in the S&P500?

Traditionally, the answer is 500, as the index was constructed using the 500 largest companies. However, Google\u27s upcoming stock dividend will change all this. As of April 3, 2014, Google is undergoing a 2:1 split via a stock dividend, as owners of record will receive an additional share -- but of a different nonvoting class stock. This means that there will be two Google share classes being traded. To keep the value in place, the S&P will retain both share classes, meaning there will now be 501 stocks in the S&P500. See article and related video here, CNBC

Valuing Twitter\u27s IPO

Twitter recently announced (via a tweet) that they would be going public. While valuation is difficult in general, it is particularly problematic for an IPO. Read a good summary article here, Yahoo!

Even the Best Investors Can\u27t Time the Market

Warren Buffett is considered to be one of the greatest investors ever; however, even he is not perfect. In fact, his company (Berkshire Hathaway) is named after one of his failed investments. More recently, his timing on the purchase of GM stock has not worked so well. Fortunately, his holding period is generally very long, thus it could turn out to be a favorable investment over the long-term. See article here, Bloomberg

Focusing on Demand Side Management in the Future of the Electric Grid

The widespread blackout that occurred on August 14, 2003 (“the blackout”) exposed the weaknesses of the current electric transmission grid structure, and underscored the need for improvements to the transmission grid in the United States. The outage knocked out power to approximately fifty million people in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and the Canadian province of Ontario.\ud The total cost in the United States was estimated to be between $4 and$10 billion