I can’t complain, the sector that I study and spend most time tracking down is the internet stocks sector which has been growing steadily in the past few years. While Amazon, Ebay and Yahoo used to be the big players, there are now plenty of challengers that create more opportunities. You can already take a look at the stocks that I follow and that I consider when doing trades on IntelligentSpeculator. That being said, I’m always very excited about new stocks becoming public. I have been very public about my feelings towards some of these companies but the truth is that many of them would be great investing opportunities.

Here are some of the stocks that could turn public in 2011!

Facebook: I’ve already mentioned Facebook often describing it as the best opportunity out there.  While I hope the company will turn public in 2011, I was the first one to say that I would wait if I were in Mark Zueckberg’s shoes. There are many reasons to go public though and eventually Facebook will move ahead. As a potential investor, my fingers are crossed!

Zynga: Zynga, the gaming company continues to gain steam and while its status is not as “hot” as Facebook’s, it is one of the more likely candidates to go public as it continues to gain market share. The company is estimated to be worth $5 billion and could easily attract enough investors to make the jump

Twitter: The other major social force has been working hard on proving it had a business model and while IPO rumors are much more silent, it could be tempted to raise funds in order to better compete with Facebook. I remain skeptical about Twitter as a stand alone business and think that being purchased by a company like Google could be a great way to better leverage its huge user base. But I might be wrong and Twitter executives probably have a lot of ambition.

LinkedIn: Personally, I do not see LinkedIn going public right now but out of the 3 major social networks, LinkedIn is probably the one that has had the most success in proving its business model and could become a very serious competitor for players such as Monster Worldwide (MWW). I can already see a trade opportunity of Long LinkedIn & Short Monster!!

Groupon: The coupon company was valued at less than $2 billion earlier this year but just refused a $6 billion offer from Google and seems to be gaining new momentum every single day! By refusing the offer, Groupon is probably giving the answer to what most of us were wondering.. is it for sale? No. So then, Groupon will need to raise funds very quickly and going public would be the easiest way of getting that done.

Hulu: The Netflix (NFLX) competitor wannabe has had some success but it certainly looks like the movie and tv studios that are backing it want to get others involved instead of being the only ones putting up the money. I’m not a big believer in Hulu would there is no doubt that having Hulu as a listed company would bring interesting possibilities.

DemandMedia: The content company that I have often compared to Yahoo and AOL has tried to move ahead but seems to have some “questionable” accounting methods which is certainly not very reassuring to potential investors. Because of that, DemandMedia‘s IPO is currently delayed until further notice.

Which ones will turn public in 2011?

Do you have any opinions?:)

The year is quickly coming to an end which gives us an opportunity to look at the best performers in an effort to learn those important lessons that will help us make the right choices in 2011. I decided to take a look at the top performing ETF’s so far this year. As I usually do, I separated the leveraged ETF’s. Why? Because they are created for short term investments so looking at 1 year returns is not as significant.

First off, let’s take a look at the top “unleveraged” ETF’s. A few thoughts:

#1-I’m a bit surprised to see Cotton at the very top since it has not made many headlines

#2-We’ve discussed Silver but it remains surprising to see how little attention it is getting compared to Gold despite its spectacular return in 2010, just a look at the rankings and you will see that #2, #3 and #4 in the rankings are silver ETF’s, all over 70%!!

#3-Commodities remain king! – Some were predicting that commodities might struggle in 2010 because of the struggling economy . The 8 top ETF’s in the US were related to commodities.

#4-Peru? – The top country so far this year has not been Brazil, China or Russia, it has been Peru!! It was able to edge out Thailand at the very top!

Without further wait, here are the top 10 performing ETF’s this year:

Top 10 performing leveraged ETF’s this year:

***Please note that these numbers are as of December 24th and
Disclosure: We do not hold any of the discussed ETF’s

With the holidays around the corner, we decided to do a mini series about a few of the tech stocks that we follow all year long. We are the first ones to judge and critic how these companies are run but as they say, it’s always much easier to critic it then actually run a company. So we decided to go ahead and write a series about what we would do with these companies. Hoping you will enjoy the series:

Dec 20    If I were Google CEO Eric Schmidt for one year…
Dec 21    If I were Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz for one year…
Dec 22    If I were AOL CEO Tim Armstrong for one year…
Dec 23    If I were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for one year…
Dec 24    If I were Apple CEO Steve Jobs for one year…
Dec 27    If I were Ebay CEO John Donahoe for one year…
Dec 28    If I were Amazon CEO … for one year…

Management in the past few years

It’s difficult to criticize Amazon which has gone from a niche ecommerce website to what I would consider to be the top one on the internet. Not only does it lead in terms of sales but the overall technology, customer service and operational processes are the key behind what has become an almost flawless experience. Just think about the sheer volume that Amazon is able to produce and compare that to the number of horror stories that you’ve heard from past buyers.

One area where I have been very critical of Amazon is the Kindle. Launching an ebook reader that can do so little compared to competitors was certainly a risky strategy and remains so but it has been good to a certain extent. The main point I guess is that Amazon needed an entry point to the ebook market and while the Kindle is not perfect, it has proved a good and cheap alternative which helps Amazon remain a player.

On the growth front, Amazon has not been aggressive as many would have liked but the purchase of Zappos was a great move and I’m glad to see that Zappos has been able to remain fairly independent as it continues its growth strategy.

General Vision

-Remain the market leader in the ecommerce space while expanding the product offering

Initiatives/Priorities I would get started on

-Acquire GoDaddy : For about $1.1 billion, Amazon could acquire GoDaddy which would be a great step forward for its digital strategy. Amazon is one of the leaders in terms of hosting data already and acquiring another strong brand could be a great move. It would also give tremendous access to millions of customers.

-Grocery Service: Amazon needs to slowly integrate more products into its services and adding grocery stores would sound like a great idea. Amazon has an amazing service and that could easily be used to sell more products. Food wholesale selling through the internet could bring significant economies. I think it would be important to start in a few different cities at first obviously as this service is not as easy to scale up. The company has already been playing with this concept in Britain but I remain convinced that it can work

-Help Zappos expand: Zappos has been a true success story and it has been expanding in a sector that Amazon might not have as much success in; clothes and shoes. I think Zappos needs to be helped. How can the company expand both in terms of the range it offers and the markets it is serving without compromising its valued customer service? Amazon surely can make that happen.

-Integrate Social into Amazon: When a customer buys a product, why not give them more motivation to share their experience both by doing a review but even more importantly with their friends through Twitter & Facebook. It could be done by giving them incentives (commissions) on sales generated by their friends. Another way to do it would be for visitors to see which of their friends purchased a specific item when they are browsing Amazon (for those who accept to be included of course).

-Expand the work on Android & Iphone/Ipad apps: I have been truly impressed by Amazon’s progress in getting its Apps at the top of the Ituens and Android app stores. I think Amazon needs to be proactive to make the user experience as easy and enjoyable as possible.

Any thoughts or ideas?

I would love to hear your thoughts or ideas regarding all of these initiatives!

Disclosure: I do not hold a position on Amazon (AMZN)

With the holidays around the corner, we decided to do a mini series about a few of the tech stocks that we follow all year long. We are the first ones to judge and critic how these companies are run but as they say, it’s always much easier to critic it then actually run a company. So we decided to go ahead and write a series about what we would do with these companies. Hoping you will enjoy the series:

Dec 20    If I were Google CEO Eric Schmidt for one year…
Dec 21    If I were Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz for one year…
Dec 22    If I were AOL CEO Tim Armstrong for one year…
Dec 23    If I were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for one year…
Dec 24    If I were Apple CEO Steve Jobs for one year…
Dec 27    If I were Ebay CEO John Donahoe for one year…
Dec 28    If I were Amazon CEO … for one year…

Management in the past few years

Since the arrival of John Donahoe, I think Ebay’s general direction has much better than in past years. One of the key challenges for Ebay is that it aims to be at the center of ecommerce but it’s not quite clear where that center is. The sales are booming but it is also changing very fast. A few years ago, auctions were the driving way to buy goods online but that evolved towards listings. Through Ebay and investments in Kijjiji and Craigslist, Ebay has generally been well position for all of these trends. It is now working very hard to be well positioned in the booming mobile segment.

The one thing that has impressed me most about John Donahoe however is that Paypal seems to finally be getting the attention that it deserves inside Ebay. You might say he has no choice to do so after its continued growth. In fact, I’ve been very public about the fact that I’ve been valuing Ebay as a bank rather than as the ecommerce company that it once was exclusively.

General Vision

-Be at center of online transactions for both e-commerce and services alike through innovative and customer friendly services

Initiatives/Priorities I would get started on

-B2B : Business to Business is a growing part of what is happening on the internet and it’s fair to say that it will be a big part of the future. Ebay needs to take a central role in those transactions and one great way to do that would be buying Alibaba from Yahoo. Alibaba is a leading B2B player and is quickly expanding beyond its Chinese origins.

-Craigslist: Ebay is part owner and in my opinion it’s time to complete the acquisition. Craigslist has proved it was a player for the long term and Ebay’s power could certainly help it keep that place. For profitability purposes, I would slowly start integrating more “premium listings”. Like Google’s adwords however, these listings would be clicks based and only appear when they prove relevant to users.

-Coupons: Internet ecommerce used to be mainly done through auctions and then moved to classified websites such as Craigslist. That is now moving to a new center as coupon websites such as Groupon are gaining a lot of traction and websites. Ebay needs to get involved here as quickly as possible. It would be a good fit to buy Groupon although the leading coupon player is quickly becoming a very expensive buy. Otherwise, smaller players like Coupons.com might still be possible to get. Ebay must act quickly before it gets too light.

-Change its mentality: Ebay, Craigslist, Stubhub, etc. These are all niche players that answer to a specific consumer need. I think it’s important for Ebay to be more proactive in these markets. For example, when coupons started being a trend over a year ago, Ebay should have acted then. It would have been much cheaper one year ago to make a major acquisition or start a product of its own. But as Ebay takes time to answer, it becomes much more expensive to get into the game.

-Develop a ticketmaster alternative: Ticketmaster is a dominant player in the ticket industry and has been charging very high fees because of its dominance. Recently, it has even started competing with Ebay in the resell of tickets. I think Ebay is one of the companies that could develop a solid Ticketmaster competition. It is about creating a robust, flexible and innovative solution that helps merchants maximize their revenues while diminishing the fees to event holders. Because of the low competition, the margins available right now are very high.

-Use Paypal as a hub to offer expanded loans, credit cards: Paypal has made it easy for consumers to exchange money between their Paypal account and their Ebay account. It could slowly start offering more financial products to these users starting with credit.

-Diminish fees charges to Paypal users: Being profitable is important but remaining the leading player for ecommerce transactions is even more so and one of the only complaints about Paypal are the high fees. I think that Paypal should aim to slowly diminish these fees in order to make it much more difficult for competitors to enter the market. Instead, focus on offering expanded services to make up and even increase revenues per user.

Any thoughts or ideas?

I would love to hear your thoughts or ideas regarding all of these initiatives!

Disclosure: I am long Ebay (EBAY)