"AMZN" E-Books E-Clipse

This week, a company that did not exist 20 years ago used a medium most people became aware of just 15 years ago to announce that a 4-year-old product has eclipsed the sales of a product that's been popular for more than 400.

The company is Amazon.com (AMZN), the medium it used was the internet, and product is the e-book.  E-book sales on Amazon, the company says, have e-clipsed sales of the regular books -- you know, pages, printing, jacket blurbs on the back -- by about 5 percent, and the gap, presumably, is rising.

These are U.S. figures.  In Great Britain, sales of e-books already outpace printed volumes two to one.  Go figyuh.  Shakespeare would probably approve...  remember, his immortality is based in large part on a medium shift.  His plays were written primarily for the stage; it's only thanks to the far-sightedness of one or more of his E-lizabethan patrons that the scripts were preserved and printed.

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to glory --

Omitted, all the voyage of their lives

Is bound in shallows, and in misery.

What's true of military matters in Shakespeare's retelling -- the quotation above is from Julius Ceasar -- is true of investing too.  

Such is the power of social and economic change, which sweeps everything along...  in a disastrous flood or into a stagnant shallow for some -- and, for others, "on to glory." Just take a look at Amazon stock, which has risen to more than $199 this week from $1.50 in 1997.  

I suppose it is possible to build a strong portfolio without tapping into this force....  but why would you want to try?  It's like surfing against the wave.  

As for me, I'd rather surf with the tide.  You stay up a lot longer, and get whacked by the board way, way less.

Ownership disclosure:  At the time this product was published or posted, Damon Vickers & Co. and Nine Points Capital Partners owned Amazon.com (AMZN) and was “long” its common stock.