Fundamental Analysis

How To Be a Better Investor During These Difficult Times

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 10:30:00 +0000

A recent article on The Motley Fool pointed out that now is the time that Baron Rothschild was referring to when he said, “Buy when blood is in the streets.” It listed the following 5 ways to help you be a better investor during these difficult times:Be afraid — be very afraid - Instead of looking at how much you can make by buying a stock, examine all the ways that you can lose. Bruce Berkowitz, who manages the F…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dividends4life

Lost Money

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 04:06:00 +0000

Interesting article on the difference between cash and other financial assets by someone with a fine name.?…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/financial-gauges

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) Forced to Sell Nearly All Shares to Meet Margin Call

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Wow. Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy (CHK) is infamous for his constant buying of his own company stock. I wrote late last week that the stock of CHK was a case study of hedge funds blowing up and liquidating [Oct 9: Hedge Fund Liquidation in Pictures]. I guess it w…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

The Coming Flood of Quarterly Earnings Reports

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 20:15:00 +0000

The first earnings reports for the third quarter of 2008 were issued this week, and a flood of reports from other companies is nearly upon us.

Well-known companies scheduled to report earnings during the week of 13 October include Abbot Labs (N…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/financial-gauges

No G7 or G20 Financial Deal… Here’s Why!

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:18:07 +0000

Nobody wants to do a G7 or G20 deal. Here is why I think it will not happen…
Fear!
The same reason why banks are not lending with each other is the same reason why the Euro zone, or world cannot come to a single deal. They don’t trust each other. And if they don’t trust each [...]
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Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/InvestorGeeks

CME Group (CME) Details on Future Credit Default Swaps Market

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 18:10:00 +0000

CME Group (CME) and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) - both stocks we have owned in the past (we just rebought CME Friday morning) are positioning for a piece of the very huge (and very troublesome) credit default swaps market. Basically, in layman’s term this is a form of insurance but like all unregulated things it has turn perverse. What originally was supposed to be used as insurance against a position (debt) you held, has now turned into an AK 47 by hedge funds. The best quote I saw in the past month was just imagine if you could buy life insurance contracts on other people - what would their half life be?…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Email Responses

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Hi everyone.My email volume had spiked about 500% in the past 10 days. I am reading them all but simply cannot respond to them all. Just wanted to let you know (a) I am reading them - sometimes not same day but I do get to them all eventually and (b) I am trying to respond to as many as I can. I’m not ignoring them so just wanted to get that out there. I’ve tried to respond to most everyone over the past year and a quarter, but at this point the system (i.e. me) is getting overwhelmed.
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Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Bookkeeping: ‘Rising Tide’ Performance Year 2, Week 10

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:40:00 +0000

Year 2, Week 10 performance of the mutual fundComments: It was a pretty quiet week….Ok, not so much. What can you say, depending on the indexes it either the worst week of all time or the 2nd worst (the other being in the Great Depression). We have repeatedly used the words “historic”, “unprecedented”, “never before” in the blog over the past year … and so it continues. The previous week the indexes were down a mind numbing 10%, and this week at the worst we were down 22%+, but with a late day “rally” we finished down “only” 18%i…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Inergy L.P. increasese dividend (again) stock falls.

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:12:44 +0000

Inergy, L.P. | Investor Relations | Press Release.
A small piece in the further evidence of the current insanity in the stock market. Inergy L.P. (NRGY: 13.78 -0.11 -0.79%) a nice, growing propane distribution company announced yesterday their 28th consecutive dividend increase. Yet the stock managed to lose 11¢. NRGY now yields a staggering 1…
Original Source: timplaehn.com

Pocket Change Portfolio - September 2008

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:30:00 +0000

On the second Saturday of the month I will update the Pocket Change Portfolio (PCP). The table below reconciles from beginning of period to end of period the PCP for September 2008, Year-To-Date (2008) and Life-To-Date. Obviously, Year-To-Date and Life-To-Date will be the same for the remainder of the year. The P…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dividends4life

A Long-Term P/E Ratio

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:37:00 +0000

An Economix post today by David Leonhardt compares, with a twist, the market’s current p…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/financial-gauges

Five for the Weekend #10

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:15:06 +0000

Looks like a panic, folks. So I guess the Panic of 2008 will be listed with those of 1907, 1893 and so on. This is NOT a time to sell. That is, if you’ve been sensible. I saw that Jim Cramer said to sell all stocks if you’ll need the money in the next five years. I think you shouldn’t have ANY money in stocks that you’ve been planning on using within that time frame. And I’ve posted that here several times since starting this blog in 2005. With that, lets bring on five items you might check out this weekend….
Original Source: www.controlledgreed.com

Bookkeeping: Starting Ultra Russell 2000 (UWM) as New Position

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:45:00 +0000

This is the opposite of our friend from inception Ultrashort Russell 2000 (TWM)It is double long the Russell 2000 - instead of jumping back into 25 stocks in scale it will be easier to just use this instrument for trading purposes as I sip on my Kool Aid and tell you, that was the intermediate bottom.We have a 6.0% stake. Now we need to see fear turn to greed - at least for a week. ;)LIBOR overnight rates plunged today but no one cared - I think it might matter more Monday…. we shall see - if wrong it will be easy to get out of. Just like the Ultrashorts I won’t post every trade on this one but since this is a brand new position and we’ll use it as a hedge (except on the long side) I am posting the initial buy (in $24.80s)…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Just Do It - You Know You want To - Buy Stocks!

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:29:00 +0000

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Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Bill Ackman on Wachovia, Shorting, and More

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:18:41 +0000

One of the highlights of this year’s Value Investing Congress was Bill Ackman’s presentation on Monday, October 6, 2008. The focus of his presentation was on his recent long position in Wachovia (WB).
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Original Source: www.fatpitchfinancials.com

In a Market Like This You want to Own Something Safe and Boring like a Generic Drug Stock

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:03:00 +0000

We once owned Mylan (MYL) - it was safe…boring… someplace to hide out in case the market his further turbuluence. What could be safer than generic drugs? We c…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Now People Are Worried about Retail Stocks?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:00:00 +0000

Gotta tell you (and long time readers can attest) we were very frustrated throughout the 1st half of the year as we were screamed at by pundits about the “2nd half 2008 recovery” - I think at least 5x a week for months on end I used that line along with the term “Kool Aid thinking”during late winter and spring. After that thesis proved to fail, the Kool Aid pundits turned to “as gas drops 50 cents the consumer will be back” - hedge funds ran into retail stocks to run them up on “that thesis” - I said that one will be proven to be wrong but we looked foolish those weeks/months as we held none of the stocks that people were running into on false pretenses. Remember, in the stock market - perception is reality. It does not matter if reality is wrong as long as enough people believe it….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Today’s Line in the Sand: S&P 840

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:38:00 +0000

Every day in this brutal market there is some technical line in the sand that gets completely blown up. Technicals in crashes are showing to be quite useless. I remember thinking way back in the day (err, yesterday) that 960 was the line in the sand - once that broke I went from the 25% short exposure to 40%. Today’s line in the sand is S&P (gulp) 840. This is the opening low and we just retested it an hour or so ago. So if technicals mean anything it’s either a potential intraday double bottom or meaningless noise as we approach “Redemption Hour” aka 3 PM. …
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

What are Walmart (WMT) and McDonalds (MCD) Telling Us?

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:05:00 +0000

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Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Bookkeeping: Restarting 3 Positions

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:05:00 +0000

I’m restarting 3 previous positionsApple (AAPL) - bought a 3.9% stake in the $93-$94sMastercard (MA) - bought a 1.8% stake in the $152sCME Group (CME) - bought a 3.3% stake in the $360sThe former 2 of the 3 above were major hedge fund holdings and have been liquidated relentlessly. I don’t know if the hedge funds are done but frankly this drop has been so severe it is going to mean the redemptions are going to happen in a short duration of time - I earlier thought it might drag out all the way until December 31st when hedge funds CHOSE to close up shop since they won’t be able to make their performance fees in 2009; but instead many will be FORCED to close up shop much earlier. Or be much much smaller. …
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund