I am in Toronto, so of course all my friends are telling me how great Toronto is.
Last night my friend Steve sat Ellen and I down and said we had to watch this Jim Jefferies smart and funny riff on GUNS. Of course…
Today my friends will probably take me for a free MRI list to show off their ‘free’ health care.
Everyone should have a group of friends like I do in Toronto.
Last night, Rob, Steve, Adam, John and their wives Jen, Andrea, Deena and Deena went for dinner. We were all at each others weddings and had over 100 years of marriage at the table. Lot’s of laughs, smiles and catching up.
Earlier, Lowell Kamin, one of my oldest friends in the world, invited me to a lunch to talk about investing strategies. Lowell had found my blog and reached out a few years back.
I am writing this blog from my very first niece’s home, where Ellen and I are staying. Jordy is having twins in two months (making me not just a great uncle, but a great uncle).
Of course I saw my mom and we did the tour of Bagel World a few times.
Toronto really continues to boom. Real estate prices have always made me shake my head and nothing has changed. I have met with some great founders and tonight I will be catching up over dinner with Matt Golden, one of my favorite people in my industry. Matt is the founder of Golden Ventures.
Tomorrow, my best pal Rob organized a boys trip to his place in Muskoka for 12 close buddies, which should be a lot of laughs.
Everyone should be so lucky.
PS – I have to quickly chime in on Facebook/Instagram
Yesterday I talked about the ‘calm before the calm’ and today Ryan Detrick explained what I was feeling with actual numbers:
Think about all the headlines we’ve seen the past few months.
Then consider today could be the 80th consecutive day the S&P 500 doesn’t close up or down at least 1%. Only last yr and ’95 were longer (since ’90).
This is one of the most tranquil periods in stock market history.
While the markets remain calm, Facebook is having it’s most volatile year ever.
Then last night, Facebook lost the Instagram founders.
I have read about as much as one should read about this and I am with Ben who says this is all about monetizing ‘Instagram Stories‘ right now and product is on the backburner:
Ben’s piece is a great read on the whole subject and what it likely means.
I also liked Om Malik’s take who has loved Instagram from day one and summarizes all his past posts on it. Like he says ‘there is but one king’.
Jon Oliver tore into Facebook on his Sunday night HBO show as well.
Facebook is starting to remind me of Philip Morris. I doubt the class action lawyers and doctors have as easy a time proving their eventual class action cases, but even if they do, Facebook is an addictive product for most.
Like Tobacco, the institutions will buy the dips as Facebook is 80 percent International and like Philip Morris will continue to thrive selling their product outside America.
Disclosure – Long Facebook (my 8 to 80 portfolio)