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Useless Bits of Information


I figured it was time to bust out another edition of useless bits of information to impress your friends.  Don’t worry, I will be getting back to the serious stuff next week.  In the meantime, let’s bone up on some useless knowledge!

  • Computer software is now 0.7% of its price from 1980.  If you think that is dramatic, read on.
  • PCs are now 0.1% of their price from 1980.  I had a motorcycle in undergrad and sold it to buy a PC and printer for grad school.  I’m sure the basic cell phone is more powerful than that old laptop…and I still miss my motorcycle☹
  • Since March 17, 1986, all of Dow’s market gains have come on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The index is down on Thursdays and Fridays.  How is that for a weird analysis.  Per Eddy Elfebein.
  • Walmart is the largest private employer in 22 states.
  • As of July 10th, Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft make up 71% of the S&P 500 return YTD.
  • Stock Returns since 2010 (notice how boring the last four are):
  • Amazon – 1,468%
  • Netflix – 2,421%
  • Envirostar (drycleaning equipment) – 3,300%
  • Patrick Industries (RV/manufacture homes) – 5,330%
  • Xpel (paint protection film) – 11,000%
  • BioSyent (iron supplement) – 15,000%
  • 2000-2009 was worst decade for stocks in 110 years.  Real annual return average of -3.39%
  • In 2018, Amazon’s value has increased $260 billion.  This is the equivalent of Walmart’s entire marketcap.
  • 10 years ago there were nearly 5,000 Blockbuster stores in the US.  Now, there is but 1.
  • Stealing from Michael Batnick and his commentary on Netflix.  Yes, if you had invested $10,000 into Netflix a decade ago it would now be worth nearly $1 million.  However, how many people would not have sold it a few months later when it dropped to $7,500 or even a few months after that when it recovered to $10,400? 
  • Finally, when Tom Cruise filmed his most recent Mission Impossible film he was five years older than Wilford Brimley was when he filmed Cocoon.  I think I need to get some Just for Men so I look a bit less than the latter actor and more like the former.

Hopefully you found this information useful and are able to impress your friends.  Or, if you are ever on Jeopardy and are able to answer a question because of what you learned here, well, I expect a shout-out!