So, yeah, Warren Buffett’s on Twitter now, getting like a half a million followers in a matter of days. Here are some tweets those followers can look forward to seeing in their Twitter streams. Yes, Buffett will tweet all these things listed below in the coming months.

• Just downed another Diet Coke, my tenth of the day. cc @DietCoke
• Hey, @GoldmanSachs or @BofA_Help, if you need to borrow any more DINERO just holler at me.
• I’m going to take a bath….cc @beckyquickcnbc and or @BettyInTheLoop
• @BillGates Are you sure you want to play another game of Bridge? I don’t want to take ALL your money.
• Anybody want to sell me another railroad?
• I’m currently taking bites out of every See’s Candy box in this store. If you get a box of half eaten chocolates those are my teeth marks. Sell it on eBay, you’ll make bank.
• @GoldmanSachs No really, Lloyd, if you need to borrow some money again just let me know. Actually, tweet me or DM me as they say.
• I live in Nebraska not Iowa. Get it right.
• Yo Jay, I mean @S_C_, is it cool if me & @Beyonce take a trip to Saint-Tropez for a few days.
• It’s called the Giving Pledge you greedy bastards.
• Do I care what the stock market does on a daily basis? Not in the least.
• What do people think of the new Star Trek flick? Any good. My catch it this weekend.
• This is a picture of the steak I’m about to eat.
• Yeah, if I feel like buying another newspaper I will.
• Tough decision today, do I mute Bloomberg or CNBC.
• I’m rich bitch.
• No, @marissamayer I don’t have a Tumblr yet.
• Buying shares of $FB today. I believe in the Zuck.
• I’VE BEEN HACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No way I’m buying $FB.

Image Source: CSMonitor.com

The Najarian brothers are in Las Vegas to do some re-takes for Hangover 3. They play a couple of gamblers whose suitcase full of cash is stolen by Zach Galifianakis – it’s a long story. No really, the Najarian brothers are in Las Vegas for the hedge fund conference SALT, put on by SkyBridge Capital’s Anthony Scaramucci, otherwise known as “Mooch”.

If you follow Jon Najarian on Twitter or Instagram the past few days while he’s in Vegas, you’ll see a series of pics of food, booze, poker chips, and every now and then, a few tweets about stocks or options he’s trading and him in a suit appearing on CNBC to discuss those stocks or options.

If you couldn’t make it to Vegas, you can catch the Najarian brothers in New York in June for TheStreetMonster Conference. I don’t know if they’ll be passing out cigars at the pool at this conference though.

What do you want in your CEO? Leadership. Integrity. Honesty. Intelligence. Toughness.

Well, Martha Stewart possesses some of those qualities but she’s has some other rather unique skills and past experiences that must inform her work as a CEO. Here’s a nice list of some things that make her stand out as CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. I don’t think there are too many CEOs of publicly traded companies who possess these qualities and or have had these experiences. Spent time in prison, check. Dated Anthony Hopkins, check. Has a profile on Match.com, check.

Prison. She’s spent time in prison for insider trading. She served a five-month term in a federal correctional facility and a two-year period of supervised release. Prison time only makes you tougher, right?

Online dating. She’s has a profile on Match.com. Here’s what she’s looking for: “So while I’m open to all kinds of people, and love to be surprised, here’s what I know I appreciate in a man: Someone who’s intelligent, established, and curious; and who relishes adventure and new experiences as much as I do. Someone who can teach me new things. A lover of animals, grandchildren, and the outdoors. Young at heart.”

Former model. She started modeling at 13. “No, I actually didn’t. I knew I was good enough to get $60 an hour, which was the going rate at the time. I wasn’t the cover girl. I wasn’t Suzy Parker. But I should’ve been. Maybe if I had had somebody encouraging me … But then I got married when I was 19.”

Late night TV. Regular appearances on David Letterman. Here’s her first appearance on Letterman back in 1989. She talks about her line of “sheets” at Kmart.

Dated Sir Anthony Hopkins. She ended the relationship after she saw The Silence of the Lambs. She stated she was unable to avoid associating Hopkins with the character of Hannibal Lecter.

What’s true though about Martha Stewart is she knows how to market herself and her products. That’s why two companies, JC Penny and Macy’s, are currently fighting over the right to exclusively sell her products at their stores. I don’t know why one of the stores just doesn’t buy Martha Stewart’s entire company?

Steven Soderbergh gave the keynote speech at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, where he talked about how, sadly, it’s tough to get a movie made unless it’s easy to sell to a wide audience across the world. In other words, the movies must have a lot of action that can translate in any language.

Soderbergh said it’s hard to get a movie made or sold that has some ambiguity to it. What stood out though was how knowledgeable Soderbergh was about the finances behind movies, and how they are transparent, as opposed to what Wall Street might try to sell you – like mortgage backed securities:

So, according to Mr. Nathanson, the studios are successfully cutting costs, the decline in home videos have plateaued, and the international box office, which used to be 50% of revenue is now 70%. With one exception in that all the stock prices of all the companies that own these studios are up. It would appear that all these companies are flush. So maybe nothing’s wrong, and I’ve got to tell you, this is the only arena in history in which trickle-down economics actually works, because when a studio is flush, they spend more money to make more money, because their stock price is all about market share. And you know, there’s no other business that’s this big, that’s actually this financially transparent. You have a situation here in which there is an objective economic value given to an asset. It’s not like that derivatives mortgage bullshit that just brought the world to its knees, you can’t say a movie made more money than it actually made, and internally, you can’t say that you didn’t spend what you spent on it. It’s contractual that you have to make these numbers available. (Deadline)

Read the full article/rant, it’s quite brilliant. More than anything, it shows you just how much Soderbergh loves the movies/cinema.

Image Source: PermanentPlasticHelmet.com

Kass of course was picked buy Warren Buffett to be the Berkshire bear at the annual shareholder meeting. I wonder if Kass might pick up a Buffett bobble head when he questions Buffett in Omaha….

There’s an excellent story about Warren Buffett’s two new hires, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, but what sticks out is how Combs heard Buffett speak at his Columbia University investing class and acted on one thing Buffett said and then some. It goes right to the idea of how hard work trumps everything else:

Combs didn’t meet Buffett that day but says, “I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

One of the students asked what he could do now to prepare for an investing career. Buffett thought for a few seconds and then reached for the stack of reports, trade publications and other papers he had brought with him.

“Read 500 pages like this every day,” said Buffett, or words to that effect. “That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will do it.”

Remarkably, Combs began doing just that, keeping track of how many pages and what he read each day. Eventually finding and reading productive material became second nature, a habit. As he began his investing career, he would read even more, hitting 600, 750, even 1,000 pages a day.

Combs discovered that Buffett’s formula worked, giving him more knowledge that helped him with what became his primary job — seeking the truth about potential investments. Omaha.com

What I love about this Buffett concept is it reminds me of stories you hear about star athletes, say Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant in basketball, who hear how one of their heros practiced a certain number of hours a day or took a certain number of shots per day and proceed to do just that and more. There are tales of how Kobe won’t leave the gym unless he makes a number of shots, for instance. I’m sure there are young kids copying Kobe just like young investors should copy Buffett and read 500 pages a day.

So yeah, turn off CNBC, Fox Business, and even Bloomberg, and get reading.

Hat tip: The Reformed Broker

Yes, Maria Bartiromo, I do know where my money is. There’s a handful of change somewhere between the couch cushions, there are some pennies and dimes in the cup holder in my car, and there’s a pile of quarters on my desk in a glass bowl!!!! Ok, stop already, please. Everyday it’s the same old thing. Where’s your money. Do you know where your money is. I told you.

You want me to be serious. Really? Ok. Here you go Maria.

There’s about $15K in my savings account, believe it or not I save a little money every month and put it away for a rainy day or an emergency. There’s also about 200 shares of Apple in my TradeMonster account, which I bought just a few days ago on the recent dip – I like Apple long term and the dividend will pay me to wait.

No, I don’t own options. I own the stock. Yes, you can own stock and not options in the TradeMonster account. Do I think the Najarian brothers should cut their ponytails off….? Well, it’s up to them, right? I mean, if they want to keep their ponytails it’s their choice.

Bitcoin, what’s that. No, I’m not touching that stuff.

Where else do I have money? Well, Maria, if you’re really curious, I do have some money in a CD. Don’t laugh. STOP IT. Yeah, so what, I know it’s old fashioned but it’s got a decent payout and I can liquidate it anytime I feel like it with no penalty. What else? Oh, almost forgot, there’s about $10K in an IRA account. What stocks do I own in that account? Maria, damn you’re a little bit nosy.

Well, I call it my Buffett IRA, cause I only own Buffett owned stocks, so yeah there’s some Wells Fargo, Coke, IBM and JNJ. Yes, I know Buffett’s been selling his Johnson & Johnson shares, but JNJ is safe and steady so I’m going to keep it. Do I have more money somewhere else? Maria, you really MUST know where my money is? You’re tenacious. Let me see. Really, I think that’s it. No, there’s nothing hidden off shore or anything. Come on, I don’t have that much money.

Oh, yes, one last thing, I do have a jar of pennies somewhere that I mean to take to Coinstar. Where’s your money Maria Bartiromo?

In case your interested, here are all those friendly folks who said Apple shares would hit $1,000. Sure, some of these folks still have time, as in Apple might indeed reach $1,000 a share in their time frame, but it’s not looking too good for most of these analysts/bloggers/prognosticators/experts/founders.

Yes, about six months ago everyone on TV and across the web was pretty much saying Apple’s stock would never go down. They said $1,000 for Apple shares was a foregone conclusion. And Apple shares certainly wouldn’t go down under $400 a share, that would be absurd to even consider. Well, yes, Apple shares most certainly have gone lower than $400 a share, and Apple shares are still hanging around $400 even after increasing their share buyback plan to $60 billion and raising their dividend.

• Andy Zaky: “Apple will reach $1,000 in late December or early January 2014″; His Apple hedge fund – yes he only bought Apple shares for his fund -  lost millions.
• James Altucher: “Apple is definitely undervalued. It could easily find its way to $1,000.”
• Gene Munster: “Now Munster is upping the ante, calling for Apple to reach $1,000 a share by 2014 and become the first U.S. company worth $1 trillion.”
• Steve Wozniak: “People talk about $1000 stock price. At first you want to doubt it, but I actually believe that, and I don’t follow stock markets. Apple has that much growth left.”
• Jim Cramer: “Thinking of Apple as a $1,000 stock is not “irrationally exuberant” as some have claimed, but likely a foregone conclusion.”
• Shebly Seyrafi of FBN Securities: “AAPL continues to be a strong new product story,” the analyst writes. “It has the iPhone 5 shipping soon, it is expected to have a new iPad mini shipping in FY Q1, China Mobile is a large opportunity for AAPL starting next year and the iTV is generally expected to be launched over the next year or so.”
• Brian White of Topeka Capital: “Driven by an ever expanding portfolio of innovative products, a growing integrated digital grid, unmatched aesthetics and a brand that is able to touch the soul of consumers of all backgrounds, Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world and we see no end in sight to this trend.”

So yeah, they were very much wrong about Apple shares hitting that $1,000 share price. Instead, Apple’s been cut nearly in half, going from a high of around $700, when many of these Apple to $1,000 calls were made, to hovering around $400 a share.

Yes, of course Apple is still an incredible company – it’s not like people aren’t going to buy the next iPhone, iPad or a new iTV – as a matter of fact, they’ll wait in lines just to get these new Apple products. It’s just that the stock isn’t going to run up to $1,000 any time soon. The Apple to $1,000 club was wrong.

Image Source: MarketManila

Yes, Blodget is now back in the stock picking and analysis game, buying shares of Apple at around $391 a share. This is his cost basis, so does that mean he’s been averaging in or just purchased shares? Hard to say but he’s betting the dividend will pay him nicely while Apple shares either tank further or they soar. Here’s some of his reasoning:

I see two possible scenarios for this investment.

Either Apple really is becoming Nokia, in which case the stock will go to $250 and stay there until they break up the company and distribute the cash. (And I’ll lose half my bet).

Or…

Wall Street has become way too pessimistic about a company that still makes great products and still has a strong strategic position in fast-growing markets that will do okay over the next couple of years… and the stock will go up.

In the meantime, I’ll collect a dividend that is a lot bigger than my index fund is paying me.

Yesterday, Jay Yarow and I wrote a long article spelling out the “bull case for Apple.” If you’re curious about the logic, you can read more there.

And, if you’re an Apple hater, you can cheer wildly as the stock keeps dropping and I lose my shirt. (My cost basis is $391, in case you’re curious.) (Business Insider)

It’s really a win win for Blodget though, not only does he get paid a nice dividend for buying Apple shares, but he also gets all the attention on his Business Insider website for buying those shares. Visitors will come to Business Insider to hate on him for his purchase or praise him.

Gene Munster, the much loved analyst for Apple when its stock seemed to only go higher, says he now feels bullied.

Apple’s stock of course has gone from over $700 a share to $400 in a little over six months. Munster, the so called axe for Apple’s stock for ten years, recently cut his price target to $688, down from $788, and down from $910. And I swear I heard him say Apple would be a $1,000 stock on TV at least a hundred times. Well, actually he said Apple would go to $1,000 by 2014. There’s hope yet.

“It’s like getting a beating every day coming into work,” Mr. Munster said. “Investors are so negative, they want to take it out on somebody. I feel like I end up being that guy.” (NY Times)

Well, when you tout Apple for years and months on end and then the stock loses 300 points there’s bound to be a few investors who listened to your $1,000 call who are a little upset. On the flip side, I wonder what it felt like to come to work every day when Apple only went up….

But even though Munster feels picked on he hasn’t given up on Apple just yet. He says in three to six months the stock will run again when new iPhones, iPads, maybe Apple TV, and other products are introduced. Munster also mentioned Apple making money via mobile payments.

Munster’s still overweight the stock just not with so much weight this time, as again his price target is $688 and not $1,000. There must be such a science to coming up with those price targets. Give Munster some credit though, he was right about Apple for hundreds of points on the way up, it’s just too bad he didn’t say maybe investors should be a little bit careful when Apple’s stock soared past $500, $600 and $700.

Image Source: Business Week