Archive for June, 2006
The best way to learn is to teach - or so they say. I believe it, which is why I’m delighted to join InvesterGeeks as a contributer. While it could hardly make me geekier (as a long time software developer, my geek credentials are as solid as they come), I do hope to become a better investor as I share what I’ve learned (and am learning) here as well as my home site www.ThinkingAboutMoney.com.
And now, for my first tale….
Once upon a time, people would work for 40 years or so then retire. But nowadays for many there will be no happily ever afters. For those of you who have not or are not saving enough, there are other options which I’ll get to later.
Some people are saying that you can track the real estate market by how many new realtors there are signing up. “When everyone thinks they will get rich selling real estate,” they say, “that is when the market will fall.”
Charles Turbiville has some advice for people wanting to get into the real estate game now, but you might want to reconsider. Charles has some scathing words for what he sees as a typical realtor:
Companies like [Redfin and Igglo] will expose the Real Estate Agency Industry as the “we know that you are stupid, and that buying a house is scary so we will drive you around town and hold your hand at closing and give you a dozen business card with my ugly face on them to hand out to you friends because all I care about is marketing myself, not selling your home. Actually if you never sell your home, that is fine, because I will take every potential buyer that I talk out of buying your house to a dozen other houses in the neighborhood and maybe I can list their house too, and do the same thing to them, and pass out a thousand more butt-ugly business cards to all of their potential buyers in the process and maybe we can sell your house before the listing expires, because ‘you’ve got to list to last’” business that it is.
Normally, I wouldn’t pay too much mind to a statement like this. It sounds like the typical rant of a dissatisfied customer. But then, Charles isn’t a disgruntled home seller; he used to be a realtor himself.
Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2006
by Jason
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So what do you do with all of your billions?
If you’re Warren Buffet, you give it all away. Warren Buffet has announced that 85% of his holdings in Berkshire Hathaway will be donated to charity in the coming years. With the lion’s share going to The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
More can be found at CNN
Sunday, Jun. 25, 2006
by Frank
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I was recently disappointed because I couldn’t purchase the Mairs & Power Growth Fund (MPGFX) or Artisan International Fund (ARTIX) through my T. Rowe Price Roth IRA. After doing some sleuthing on Morningstar I discovered I could purchase both of these funds through TD Ameritrade, from whom I have a standard brokerage account.
I was ready to transfer all my assets over from TRP to TD Ameritrade and it turned out that transferring a Roth IRA was extremely bothersome. So instead of jumping into anything I thought I had better check to see if there was another discount broker that offered more funds, because I didn’t want to have to do this again. I spent some time at it, and put together a screen using the Morningstar Premium Fund Screener (more info) that would show the number of funds each major discount broker had available, and which funds were covered by all of them. The results were fascinating.
Can you tell I’m happy and proud to be an InvestorGeek? Though I’m one of the new writers here, I have been blogging about investment and finance issues for a while now. Nevertheless, I am excited and looking forward to sharing with you some of my thoughts on investing. Why did I decided to join with the geeks? For that, let’s go back to Wikipedia’s defintion of a geek:
A geek (pronunciation /gi:k/ ) is a person who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination.
It’s hip to be geek nowadays! Just look at the varieties we have — music geeks, movie geeks, gaming geeks, singing geeks. Even when I was young, the foundation was being laid out for me to become the InvestorGeek that I am today.
Phil Town took an email recently about naked put options. A Rule #1 reader was trying use naked puts to make a little extra money while he waited for a stock to fall to a reasonable MOS (margin of safety) price. It’s an interesting tactic, and Phil has a great response.
Trading strategies are great, but a more pressing issue for me was how this article got me thinking about these so-called naked options. Why are they “naked”?
According to the latest stats, American home prices are still on the rise - in most major markets across the nation.
The National Association of Realtors published a median increase of 4.2% from 1/06 to 4/06. Compare this figure to the published 16.6% last year.
Although prices appear to be leveling off, many economists don’t predict a sour turn for the worst.
I just wanted to thank everyone who submitted applications to become an InvestorGeek last week. We’ve had some great candidates apply and we’re looking forward to great new members! We’ve been reviewing the applications and will be contacting contributers as we decide on them.
In the meantime look for new content from us all this week, and we thank you for your patience!
Monday, Jun. 19, 2006
by Chris
First, we’d like to apologize to all our readers for the relatively light week, it’s been a crazy 7 days for us. We’d also like to thank those who have already submitted complete applications. Don’t worry for those still thinking about it, there is no preference or penalty based on when you submit an application (we promise!). We’ll be accepting applications all day, until midnight tonight. If you missed application requirements here they are again:
How to Apply
Until 11:59pm tonight, we will be accepting applications to become the newest InvestorGeek. To apply:
- Send your name, e-mail address, phone number, and blog URL if you have one, to contact {at} investorgeeks * com.
- Include a brief summary (no more than 200 words) on why you want to be an InvestorGeek.
- Also include hyperlinks to 2 articles you’ve written. (Please do not send us attachments!) One article should be about investing and one can be on a subject of your choice.
We’re looking for interesting, original content. It doesn’t need to be on a fancy site, it just needs to be good writing. Heck you could even save a Word doc as HTML for all we care. We’re not looking for graphic designers. The article on investing can cover any related subject including mutual funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, retirement accounts, etc. We’re hoping that your interest in the subject will shine through and that your writing will share with us something valuable, because that’s what this site is all about.
Note: We’re particularly interested in building our real estate and mutual fund sections!
When you’ll hear from us
Based on how many applications we get (we’ve already received almost 10!) we’ll review the applications and email the selected authors who will have to approve our member agreement. For more information, see our previous article on becoming an InvestorGeek.
Friday, Jun. 16, 2006
by Chris
You guys may know that I have a position in Crystallex (AMEX: KRY). If you follow the stock, you know that yesterday was a bad day. There was a press release today, which speaks of… well let me just quote some of it:
If you follow the stock, you know that yesterday was a bad day. There was this press release, which speaks of… well let me just quote some of it:
Crystallex International Corporation … announced today that, subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory and shareholder approvals, it has agreed to amend the terms of certain unlisted common share purchase warrants … held by two holders in the United States. The proposed amendment is in relation to 2,272,727 Warrants originally issued by the Corporation as part of an issuance of 4,545,455 special warrants (each special warrant consisting of one common share and one-half of one Warrant) completed on August 29, 2003. Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share in the capital of the Corporation at an exercise price of US$2.75 per share until September 15, 2006.
Read on for much much more…
