REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGIES

[Bretsky]

OK, I might have missed the beginning.......but..............is it the Cloud ?

I'm that guy who wants to invest in high risk high reward snuff. It's worked well and it's failed well in the past.

Anybody have any views on high reward stocks or what the next great technology is ??

[Joemailman]

They're bringing back the Commodore 64. http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2011/04/...ck-old-friend/

[Bretsky]

http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=d0a3d964-9828-4418-8d41-2b7ac028d3ba

[MJZiggy]

In buying company stocks, my folks always bought stock in companies they did business with. They had Sears stock for a long time and a number of years back, when my mom walked into a Sears store and got lousy customer service, she looked around the store, didn't like what she saw and sold the stock as it was starting to lose value. But she was a customer there, so she could see the changes in the way the stores were run and what the client experience was like. You also have to see the possibilities for the next big thing. Unless Garmin comes out with a new product, smartphone navigation apps will put it out of business. If you were watching smartphones you could see their market share falling apart.

[Patler]

OK, I might have missed the beginning.......but..............is it the Cloud ?

I'm that guy who wants to invest in high risk high reward snuff. It's worked well and it's failed well in the past.

Anybody have any views on high reward stocks or what the next great technology is ??

What were your successes and what were your failures?

A long time ago, I bought stock in a company that was trying to present an online shopping mall, which included an auction site to compete with ebay (this was the very early days of ebay) and an easy and efficient way to "shop" major retailers online. They had some deals arranged and for a while their site looked pretty good. The auction part was small, but growing. At the time it had a more professional look and feel than ebay did. They had some major retailers running discounts and closeouts linked through their site. Their "mall" was arranged nicely by categories. I bought shares for just a few bucks ($3-5 as I recall, something like that) and it quickly went up to $12. It all unraveled in just a few days. The site went dead, the stock was virtually unsellable, and I basically lost everything I had put into it. This was before the ".com" crash. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the company. I think my mind wants to block the bad memory!

I tend to look more into companies that have innovative entries into the healthcare field. Its a tough area, and I am very cautious. I almost bought into a company called Northfield Labs that had a synthetic blood product. It was their only product. They had glowing test reports and were on the verge of FDA approval, but as is common, the FDA came back with demands for more testing. They went back and forth with the FDA several times. It seemed oh-so-close to approval; but they never could see eye to eye with the FDA on the product. They promoted it as an emergency substitute, when natural blood wasn't available. They FDA insisted on evaluating it as an optional alternative, and compared it's results to natural blood transfusions. The company finally gave up (maybe ran out of money) and closed. They had worked on it for more than 10 years. I never found out if their technology was sold to anyone or not.

[mraynrand]

I'm developing a "Trojan Horse" antibiotic that you ingest as three parts. The bacterium doesn't know each part is a subunit of a drug that will kill it, so it can't evolve around it. once the three components get in the bacteria, they assemble and nuke the bugger from inside. It takes out most kinds of bacteria, and only gives people the shits. But you'd take it if your dying from the opportunistic bug c. dificile. I'll let you guys know how to invest in it if it gets by trials. I'm currently testing it on my kids.

[mraynrand]

I almost bought into a company called Northfield Labs that had a synthetic blood product. It was their only product. They had glowing test reports and were on the verge of FDA approval, but as is common, the FDA came back with demands for more testing. They went back and forth with the FDA several times. It seemed oh-so-close to approval; but they never could see eye to eye with the FDA on the product. They promoted it as an emergency substitute, when natural blood wasn't available. They FDA insisted on evaluating it as an optional alternative, and compared it's results to natural blood transfusions. The company finally gave up (maybe ran out of money) and closed. They had worked on it for more than 10 years. I never found out if their technology was sold to anyone or not.

If I recall, synthetic blood had a lot of appeal because of the worries about AIDS - particularly 'heterosexual AIDS." That never materialized, and drugs to increase your own blood production were introduced, so the demand went down. I know the military is still interested, but I can't recall where that technology is currently...

[Patler]

If I recall, synthetic blood had a lot of appeal because of the worries about AIDS - particularly 'heterosexual AIDS." That never materialized, and drugs to increase your own blood production were introduced, so the demand went down. I know the military is still interested, but I can't recall where that technology is currently...

Their were two companies that submitted to the FDA, Northfield Labs and Biopure. Northfield's product was derived from human blood, but in a way that allowed a small amount of human blood to be expanded into massive amounts of the synthetic. Biopure's was based on cows blood. Biopure actually had approval overseas, somewhere; but they too went out of business at about the same time that Northfield did.

Both companies wanted their products used in traumatic situations where blood volume loss was high, and regular blood products not available. I can see why the military would be interested. As I recall, one or both of the products had extremely long shelf life.

[Scott Campbell]

What were your successes and what were your failures?

A long time ago, I bought stock in a company that was trying to present an online shopping mall, which included an auction site to compete with ebay (this was the very early days of ebay) and an easy and efficient way to "shop" major retailers online. They had some deals arranged and for a while their site looked pretty good. The auction part was small, but growing. At the time it had a more professional look and feel than ebay did. They had some major retailers running discounts and closeouts linked through their site. Their "mall" was arranged nicely by categories. I bought shares for just a few bucks ($3-5 as I recall, something like that) and it quickly went up to $12. It all unraveled in just a few days. The site went dead, the stock was virtually unsellable, and I basically lost everything I had put into it. This was before the ".com" crash. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the company. I think my mind wants to block the bad memory!

Excellent lesson. First in is usually not the ideal position.

I hear they're trying to grow artificial cartilage right now, for those looking to avoid joint replacements.

[Patler]

I hear they're trying to grow artificial cartilage right now, for those looking to avoid joint replacements.

Ya, lots of interesting things here, including the use of shark cartilage. There are also partial implants adhered to the bone that provide synthetic replacements for cartilage. I have heard about companies playing with growing cartilage from the future recipient's own donor sells.

[3irty1]

Aqua bounty has been working on genetically engineered salmon for farming for the last 10 years and are currently jumping through hoops with the FDA. In the next couple of years these guys could be the Monsanto of the sea.

[Patler]

Aqua bounty has been working on genetically engineered salmon for farming for the last 10 years and are currently jumping through hoops with the FDA. In the next couple of years these guys could be the Monsanto of the sea.

Are they the ones out of Canada? A fish farm down south was supposed to get the first delivery this year I thought, but various organizations were trying to stop it.

[Bretsky]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/274315-cloud-computing-one-of-the-biggest-investment-stories-in-the-history-of-business

interesting stuff

[Bretsky]

What were your successes and what were your failures?

A long time ago, I bought stock in a company that was trying to present an online shopping mall, which included an auction site to compete with ebay (this was the very early days of ebay) and an easy and efficient way to "shop" major retailers online. They had some deals arranged and for a while their site looked pretty good. The auction part was small, but growing. At the time it had a more professional look and feel than ebay did. They had some major retailers running discounts and closeouts linked through their site. Their "mall" was arranged nicely by categories. I bought shares for just a few bucks ($3-5 as I recall, something like that) and it quickly went up to $12. It all unraveled in just a few days. The site went dead, the stock was virtually unsellable, and I basically lost everything I had put into it. This was before the ".com" crash. For the life of me, I can't recall the name of the company. I think my mind wants to block the bad memory!

I tend to look more into companies that have innovative entries into the healthcare field. Its a tough area, and I am very cautious. I almost bought into a company called Northfield Labs that had a synthetic blood product. It was their only product. They had glowing test reports and were on the verge of FDA approval, but as is common, the FDA came back with demands for more testing. They went back and forth with the FDA several times. It seemed oh-so-close to approval; but they never could see eye to eye with the FDA on the product. They promoted it as an emergency substitute, when natural blood wasn't available. They FDA insisted on evaluating it as an optional alternative, and compared it's results to natural blood transfusions. The company finally gave up (maybe ran out of money) and closed. They had worked on it for more than 10 years. I never found out if their technology was sold to anyone or not.

SNDK; got in early on that one so that was a goodie

To be honest many of my failures have turned out to be successes. It kind of makes me sick. I had stock in CREE and NTAP and sold out of fear. I don't want to check my history of trades at Scotttrade because there are many more just like that. For the most part I was on with the technologies and that they would grow market share. But I was a chickenshit. Rather than being a dumbass and holding onto CSCO, I should've rolled the dice and kept some of the high flyers that have bounced back very nicely.

Two very consistent picks seem to be prevailent out of all of this research I'm doing.........EMC......and AAPL for what it's worth.

Stocks like RVBD ....very exciting to me.......but who knows.

Besides our decent size retirement accounts, my wife and I each have one Roth IRA account worth around 30G or so....both in mutuals. I am thinking of moving mine into all stocks and booming or busting

[Patler]

SNDK; got in early on that one so that was a goodie

To be honest many of my failures have turned out to be successes. It kind of makes me sick. I had stock in CREE and NTAP and sold out of fear. I don't want to check my history of trades at Scotttrade because there are many more just like that. For the most part I was on with the technologies and that they would grow market share. But I was a chickenshit. Rather than being a dumbass and holding onto CSCO, I should've rolled the dice and kept some of the high flyers that have bounced back very nicely.

Two very consistent picks seem to be prevailent out of all of this research I'm doing.........EMC......and AAPL for what it's worth.

Stocks like RVBD ....very exciting to me.......but who knows.

Besides our decent size retirement accounts, my wife and I each have one Roth IRA account worth around 30G or so....both in mutuals. I am thinking of moving mine into all stocks and booming or busting

My two biggest holdings right now that I consider "long term" holdings are AAPL and CAT. I am considering buying more of one or both with what has happened recently. More likely CAT than AAPL.