TQQQ at Lunchtime

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Positive tone, looking at your long funds (or short the shorts). TQQQ gives a nice bar at lunchtime, but 35 cents of minimum expected return means a very tight stop. Study.

Beijing Restaurants -- Palms L.A. Kitchen and Bar

Added on by C. Maoxian.

Coco (the intern) and I popped over to Palms for lunch. This is a new place just north of Gulou which I discovered from reading this post at LumDimSum. LDS is one of the kool kids who kindly reveals these hip joints to the old bald crowd.

We got some guacamole and chips to start. Guac was a little lemony to me but it's such a personal thing.  Coco liked it.

I got the Korean fried chicken which I wasn't thrilled with and Coco got some pork tacos which I liked better.  So we switched.  

They have Slow Boat beer (yay!), though bottled (boo!), and the space is nicely done, though very small.  Fortunately there weren't that many people there for lunch on a Wednesday, so we weren't crowded in there, which I could see happening easily. Service was swift.

Best of luck to the friendly guys who are running this new place!

Weibo Fair Value Estimate of US$15

Added on by C. Maoxian.

From Morningstar's Yue Yao, in his May 11th note on Weibo:

"... we have a  downbeat view for Weibo's long-term outlook for three reasons: First, the content censorship imposed by the Chinese government restricts the flows of information on  Weibo platform. Secondly, Weibo's user base is  geographically limited to China, so user growth could reach saturation earlier than Twitter; Finally, we believe the display  ads on Weibo are less accurate and of higher volume, which lead to an inferior user experience."

Here's an analyst who doesn't pussyfoot around the censorship issue. I don't think censorship is a big deal for most users, frankly, but it's a balancing act for the government -- they don't want to kill Weibo completely. As far as user experience goes, most Chinese love clutter.

Weibo will report earnings tomorrow (May 21); it'll be interesting to see how much ad revenue they've grown and how much of it comes from Alibaba alone.