Fundamental Analysis

I added a half position in Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) today to the Fat Pitch Financials Portfolio. In my M…
Original Source: www.fatpitchfinancials.com

If you need a few things to read between now and Monday, you might check out the following.
Prem Watsa of Fairfax Financial (FFH/NYSE) gave an interview in Canada, which qualifies as must-read in my book. Asked about the US Government bailout and what the average person should do, Watsa said, “$700-billion US, or whatever, is not going to stop this. This is
going to be long and deep and people want to save money. Be careful
about risk. There are unintended consequences in fixing this and all
are ahead of us. This will take years to sort out. There will be
problems here in Canada, too. If the U. S. has a recession, we will.
For individuals, safety is No. 1. Buy real estate for your family, but
not as an investment. Don’t borrow for new cars. Keep borrowing at a
minimum. Now’s the time to protect your money. Keep your life simple. Be mortgage-free if you can. People must hunker down.” …
Original Source: www.controlledgreed.com

Year 2, Week 9 performance of the mutual fundComments: Not much bright to say. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide - continues. It was the worst week since we started for the indexes and for the fund. I looked back at the carnage of the past 14 months and the worst week on the S&P was a -5.4%, and this week approached double that. Double digit loss on the Russell 1000 in 1 week. Combining the past two weeks we have a nearly 13% loss in the S&P 500, and nearing 14% on the Russell 1000. So it’s a slow motion crash. The way the market closed ….Monday, frankly, is foreboding. I think every sentiment figure is at multi decade extremes but there is no accounting for d…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Blackrock (BLK) has one of my favorite CEO’s and I like the company, but if I were only looking at the chart I’d have some concerns - the stock has begun trading below all key moving averages. Since I’ve added a lot of financial exposure elsewhere I am going to close this position and we’ll assess later. It has been acting curiously weak considering the sector has had some of the “stars” of the market of late. Since it is up 8% this PM, I am going to sell into this strength….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Hmm, Constellation Energy (CEG) is moving quite substantially over the Buffet bailout bid of $26.50… now approaching $29. Maybe this $35 bid from EDF still have some merit - the market seems to be signaling this.French power group EDF could still win Constellation Energy by drumming up support from the U.S. utility’s shareholders to reject an agreed $4.7 billion bid from Warren Buffett….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

I promised the CEO, even if retiring at end of the year, to buy on a dip thanks to telling the truth on this bailout. [Sep 30: BB&T CEO Slams Bailout Bill]The stock is down on this pullback in the market, so we’re starting a stake below $37. We will begin with a 2.2% stake. I also added to PNC Financial (PNC)…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

And there goes *that* rally…It is ironic that for months on end we’ve had a strange situation in which whatever way the market opens it tends to continue that way the entire day. Today was one of the few reversal days.S&P 1111Remember, S&P 1100 is the line in the sand. If that goes in the last hour - happy times are not here again.On the flip side, you have potential actions coming from central banks and governments before Monday morning. Hard to be a bear or a bull right here. However the complete and utter reversal of today’s upward move is indeed dispiriting. It is amazing how you cannot even be on the long side for a trade for more than 5 hours anymore. I’m trying to remember the last time we had a 4 day type rally and it’s escaping me. Maybe August. (edit: looks like mid July from the chart)…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

The current administration has been using scare tactics for far to long, and we continue to fall for these ridicules tricks. It is unethical, immoral, and down right unamerican to use peoples fears to push a flawed agenda. Bush used these tactics to get us into one of the most expensive wars ever with lies about weapons of mass destruction and by trying to link terrorism to Iraq. We should be able to trust our government not to lie to us, not to try and scare us, and to act fiscally responsible. The statements made by the republican party over the past few weeks have caused hysteria on Wall Street. The Dow drop today of over 700 points shows the lack of confidence in this current administration to work through these economic issues. We desperately need a change. I just hope we have some money left come November. …
Original Source: marketanomalies.blogspot.com

The new portfolio tracking information is now up on the Opportunities Portfolio page. The effective date of the new tracking is October 1, 2008 and the initial stock positions were entered at the Sept. 30 closing price. I was a little worried that re-starting the portfolio at that time would look opportunistic because the market had fallen so far. During the next two days the value of the stocks in the portfolio fell by 10%, so now I worry for other reasons. Starting value of the portfolio was $40,000. Commissions of $4.95 were figured into each initial position, so the portfolio started Oct 1 at slightly less than the $40k.
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Original Source: timplaehn.com

I still have 3 solar names (I guess 1 will do since they all trade together) but for now I’ve added to all 3 for trading purposes only as a proxy on a near term rally in the indexes. I remain a very short term bull with multiple “let’s save the system” catalysts potentially coming in the next 1-7 days and sentiment very poor. But all these are trades, not investments - all are well below resistance and I’ll sell all 3 on any run up to those levels, many of which are nearly 20% higher….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

It appears hedge funds had a disastrous September, the worst since records have been kept (1990). Some of the names on the list are quite shocking as they are considered “the best of the best”. The whole idea of a hedge fund is to offset market volatility and be able to make money in both and up and down market (or at least limit losses) - or at least that was the old school idea of what a hedge fund offers. The new school idea is to take as much risk, lever as much as possible, and create generational wealth in a span of 2-3 years and then if the fund blows up, oh well. You start a new one in 18 months and say “well who could expect what happened to happened - it blew up my model”….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) made headlines this morning when they announced the purchase of Wachovia Corporation (WB). Wachovia had already entered an agreement to sell its banking operations to Citigroup Inc. (C) which was leaning on assistance from the FDIC. The new deal encompasses not only the banking portion of Wachovia, but [...]
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Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Zachstocks

I keep saying historical times. I keep seeing new things I’ve never seen before. One company coming in and taking away a company that has already agreed to a contract with another (government assisted no less). Boggling. This says “Warren Buffet is confident the mother of all bailout passes and he can unload Wachovia option ARM loans onto the US people”In an abrupt change of course, Wachovia said Friday it agreed to be acquired by San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. in a $15.1 billion all-stock deal, trumping rival suitor Citigroup’s plan to acquire Wachovia’s banking operations. A …
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Technically, we have a very easy set up - Monday on the lows we neared S&P 1100 - yesterday we essentially tested that level. So if 1100 (slightly higher) holds we have the makings of a potential double bottom set up and an intermediate bottom. If it breaks we have another leg down - but we do have a clear line in the sand….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/FundMyMutualFund

Actually not sure if this should have been posted under humor, investing or ….

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Original Source: ei-forum.com

A long-standing observation of ours is this: the further you get away from Wall Street, the more optimistic you get.On Wall Street, stocks go up and down—sometimes violently—every hour, minute and second of the trading day. Wall Street’s Finest slash ratings on stocks, worry about quarterly earnings and panic at the slightest headline.Yet head out to La Guardia, and the airplanes are full of business travelers; travel to Silicon Valley and Route 101 is packed with traffic; visit Chicago and Michigan Avenue stores are full of shoppers. Life—and commerce—carries on….
Original Source: jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com

A long-standing observation of ours is this: the further you get away from Wall Street, the more optimistic you get.On Wall Street, stocks go up and down—sometimes violently—every hour, minute and second of the trading day. Wall Street’s Finest slash ratings on stocks, worry about quarterly earnings and panic at the slightest headline.Yet head out to La Guardia, and the airplanes are full of business travelers; travel to Silicon Valley and Route 101 is packed with traffic; visit Chicago and Michigan Avenue stores are full of shoppers. Life—and commerce—carries on….
Original Source: jeffmatthewsisnotmakingthisup.blogspot.com

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Original Source: ei-forum.com

Back on 18 September 2008, we looked ahead to ConocoPhillips’s third-quarter results.   A press release reporting these results is due on 22 October.

C…
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/financial-gauges

Each Friday I highlight the Carnivals I participated in over the past week, along with any notable articles that I came across. For those readers not familiar with carnivals, it’s where personal finance bloggers submit their best articles of the week with one blog serving as the host. The entries are separated into various categories such as Investing, Credit, Debt, Budgeting, Frugality, Wealth Building, Money Management, Financial Planning, Insurance, Taxes, The Economy, Real Estate, et. al….
Original Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Dividends4life