V Archives - Market Mad House

daniel September 15, 2015April 20, 2016 AMEX, An Industry with a Lot of Cash, Are Credit Cards a Good Investment?, AXP, Capital One, Charley Munger, COF, Costco, DFS, Discover Financial Services, Disruptive Technology, MA, Mr. Market, Mr. Money Mustache, PayPal, The Danger from Defaults, V, Venmo, Visa, Wal-Mart, Warren Buffett, Why Many Investors are Scared of U.S. Credit Card Companies

American Credit Card Companies Are flush with Cash

Despite the risks, the U.S. credit industry is capable of generating a lot of cash, which can lead to high levels of float. Float is Warren Buffett’s term for a constant stream of revenue or stockpile of cash that a company can tap or borrow against at any time. Classic examples of float include credit card fees and insurance policy premiums.

Good Stocks

daniel April 28, 2015April 28, 2015 AAPL, ABX, American Express, AMZN, Apple Pay, Apple Stock, AXP, Benjamin Graham, Bitcoin, Charley Munger, COST, Costco, Disruptive Technology, GOOG, MA, MasterCard, PayPal, V, Value Investing, Venmo, Visa, Warren Buffett, WMT

US Credit Card Companies Allowed into China

The loss of Costco Canada is already hurting American Express, where revenue fell slightly between December 2014 and March 2015. AmEx reported a TTM revenue of $34.04 billion on March 31, down from $34.29 billion on December 31. The loss of Costco Canada hit American Express hard because the club store giant is huge in Canada, as anybody who visits the country knows.

Long Ideas

daniel November 28, 2014January 24, 2016 AAPL, American Express, Apple Pay, AXP, Current C, EBAY, eBay Inc., MA, MasterCard, PayPal, SnapCash, Square, V, Venmo, Visa

Apple Pay vs. Venmo vs. Square

Square has also tried to launch its own payments apps called Square Cash and SnapCash. Square Cash is a payments app similar to Venmo and Apple Pay; SnapCash is a variation of Square Cash reengineered to work over the popular social network Snapchat. In other words, it’s Square’s answer to Venmo. One difference is that it can work with merchants that use Square.

Good Stocks

daniel October 27, 2014May 20, 2016 AAPL, Apple Pay, Apple Stock, Credit Cards, MA, Master Card, Smartcards, V, Visa, Zwipe

MasterCard’s Latest Product Demonstrates Apple Pay’s Threat to Credit Cards

The Zwipe experiment shows that MasterCard is worried about security, in particular high profile data thefts like those at Target (NYSE: TGT) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD). The card provider is scared that customers will prefer the higher level of security offered by Apple Pay, which can be secured by a fingerprint scanner.