You're so facetious.

It's hard to be otherwise when talking about Farcebook. Everyone who thinks it's going to turn into something wonderful, mo' bettah and irreplaceable because piece of paper were printed reading SHARE... raise your hands.

(Counts.) Ah, you bought those pieces of paper, didn't you?

Sell you a lovely frame? Oh, never mind, you already bought one.


I note the consensus reason for the tepid share performance is because the stockholders now want FB to actually, you know, DO something. Good luck with that...

Yeah. Most networking security geeks loathe Facebook because of its poor security and privacy practices. As somebody said a year ago, "Facebook. It's like the Wikileaks for your personal life." I wouldn't have bought Facebook stock if I did play around on the market simply because I don't use it and don't like the product. But that statement probably proves that I'm *NOT* a much of an investor more than that I'm right about Facebook.

I do know that my mother, who is an excellent investor, would have recommended against buying Facebook stock because investing in IPOs for tech stocks is highly risky because of the hype. At least nine times out of ten, you'll get a better deal a few months later, after the hype dies down. My own experience in twenty years of working in the Tech industry in Silicon Valley tells me that the way to invest in startups is to go to work for a good one when they're tiny, get a bunch of stock options, and then be one of the sellers when the IPO hits instead of a buyer.

But I wouldn't have gone for Facebook either way.

Facebook looked like a bad bet because I'm a contrarian investor and I turned out to be right.

Unfortunately for the same reasoning I decided not to buy Google at IPO...

Nine times out of ten isn't ten times out of ten, more's the pity. If I'd *worked* for Google in 1998 or 1999, then I'd be a Google investor. By the time stock was available on the market, it was too rich for my blood. But it's a good company, and I *do* use their flagship search engine and several of their products.

But... but... but... but... FB has twenty billion users! It's a sure thing! They all say so!

I know, Jim. I'm having flashbacks to the 2000 .COM bust myself. <wry grin>

Oh, I'm thinking more of the housing price bubble, where even as the crumble started and you could see in between the component molecules of the balloon's skin, the profets were shouting that the rise had only just begun. How could so many loud voices be, you know, wrong?

I throw a little at speculative stocks for various reasons. Done well so far. I have one just about to ripen; I didn't invest because I believe in the company or product, but I believe hysteria will spike the share value, at which point I will dump it and move on.

FB never had a chance. Not a chance. I think it's going to go down as a Dolly Parton.

You know, a bust of legendary scale.