Happy 20th Birthday - SPY ETF

ETFs Mark 20th Anniversary: A Look at the Market’s Hottest New Product
Excerpt:

On a cold January day 20 years ago, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovering at about 3,300, a team of investors from State Street Bank (STT) unveiled their new creation to the denizens of Wall Street: the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY). They now describe the launch of the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) on this day in 1993 as "the one that started it all," calling the debut of the Spider (short for S&P Depositary Receipt) "an investment product that gave people a more precise way to buy and sell an entire index, but could be traded like a stock." It took some time for ETFs to catch on, but when they did the once lonesome Spider paved the way for what is now a $1.4 trillion industry with more than 1,400 different funds.

Comment: More on SPY here, here, and here. My first three ETF's: SPY, DIA, and QQQ.

IPhone 5 madness, Apple and the Dow Jones Industrial Average

First of all I wish I had more than one measly share of Apple. But I have one! (Kathee bought it for me for my birthday). News today that Apple hits it's record high. I suspect it will go higher. There's a link between the news of Apple's record high and the IPhone 5: Apple stops taking iPhone 5 orders after less than 8 hours, suggesting feverish demand.

 Jim Peet and the IPhone: I wish I had one. But I cannot justify it to myself for several reasons: 1.) I don't need it; 2.) I have a dumb flip phone provided by the company and it meets my needs (I'm not a talkative person!); 3.) And I am Mr. Frugal right now.

 My take on the IPhone 5 is that there is no competing device close to touching it. Not RIM (Blackberry)! Not Nokia (Windows 8)! Not an Android device (but close 2nd).

 And my take on Apple is that at $ 700 it is still a reasonably priced stock. Why I don't have more Apple? Elementary: I can't afford it.

 Now the other Apple news is that someone has calculated that the Dow would be above 15,000 if Apple had been added to the Dow in 2009.

 Now the Dow news: UnitedHealth to replace Kraft in Dow 30. Here's the press release:

 Excerpt:

The index change was prompted by Kraft Foods’ plan to spin-off its North American grocery business, to be named Kraft Foods Group, Inc. on Oct. 1, 2012. Following the spin-off, Kraft Foods Inc. will be renamed Mondelez International, Inc. The Dow Jones Averages Index Committee believes that Mondelez’s reduced market capitalization and projected lower percentage of revenue generated from the U.S. makes the company less representative of the U.S. Large Cap market space.

UnitedHealth Group, headquartered in Minnetonka, MN, is a diversified health care services company that provides health care coverage and benefits services to tens of millions of individuals across the U.S., and information and technology-enabled health services.

The Index Committee believes the addition of UnitedHealth Group brings added health care diversification to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and reflects the growing importance of health care spending in the U.S. economy. The changes won’t cause any disruption in the level of the Index. The divisor used to calculate the DJIA from its components’ prices on their respective home exchanges will be changed prior to the opening on September 24. This procedure prevents any distortion in the DJIA’s reflection of the U.S. stock market.

Comment: In my own view the S&P 500 index is a more valuable indicator of the US stock market. It's not often cited but should be. Another valuable index is the Nasdaq Composite. A good way to invest in the NASDAQ is the PowerShares QQQ™. It is formerly known as "QQQ" or the "NASDAQ- 100 Index Tracking Stock®", is an exchange-traded fund based on the Nasdaq-100 Index®. QQQ is a way to buy Apple because Apple makes up 20% of the QQQ. More on the QQQ holdings here:

SPY (also known as SPDR S&P 500 ETF) is the easiest way to invest in the S & P 500.

From Sioux City to the Soviet Union

A Spy’s Path: Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor

National
A Spy’s Path: Iowa to A-Bomb to Kremlin Honor
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: November 12, 2007
George Koval, who infiltrated the Manhattan Project, was one of the most important spies of the 20th century.

Excerpts:

George Koval also had a secret. During World War II, he was a top Soviet spy, code named Delmar and trained by Stalin’s ruthless bureau of military intelligence.

Atomic spies are old stuff. But historians say Dr. Koval, who died in his 90s last year in Moscow and whose name is just coming to light publicly, was probably one of the most important spies of the 20th century.

On Nov. 2, the Kremlin startled Western scholars by announcing that President Vladimir V. Putin had posthumously given the highest Russian award to a Soviet agent who penetrated the Manhattan Project to build the atom bomb.

The announcement hailed Dr. Koval as “the only Soviet intelligence officer” to infiltrate the project’s secret plants, saying his work “helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own.”

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In Russia, Dr. Koval returned to the Mendeleev Institute, earning his doctorate and teaching there for many years, Rossiiskaia Gazeta said. It added that he was a soccer fanatic even in old age and that people at the stadium who knew of his secret past would quietly point him out.

Dr. Koval’s spy role began to emerge publicly in Russia in 2002 with the publication of “The G.R.U. and the Atomic Bomb,” a book that referred to Dr. Koval only by his code name. The book offered few biographical details but said he was one of the very few spies who managed to elude “the net of the counterintelligence agencies.”

Dr. Koval died on Jan. 31, 2006, according to Russian accounts. The cause was not made public. By American reckoning, he would have been 92, though the Kremlin’s statement put his age at 94 and some Russian news reports put it at 93.

Posthumously, Dr. Koval was made a Hero of the Russian Federation, the highest honorary title that can be bestowed on a Russian citizen. The Kremlin statement cited “his courage and heroism while carrying out special missions.”

Dr. Kramish surmised that he was “the biggest” of the atomic spies. “You don’t get a medal from the president of Russia for nothing,” he said.


Wikipedia: George Koval

Official Russian press release

Comment: The Official Russian press release is interesting! NYTimes article has pictures of the official awards event.