Christian

iPhone: Miracle or Disaster?

Posted on by Christian

Steve Jobs held a keynote and announced the iPhone. One site even did a quick look and feel of the phone. Apple surged by 8% and others like Nokia and RIMM dropped. Though RIMM dropped more than Nokia.

What I think: Sell Apple at its peak (it should climb a bit more) and buy on the weakness of the other players.

The remaining part of this blog will explain why I am skeptical of the iPhone. Some may view this as being overly critical, but others will wonder. You will wonder who is right me or Steve Jobs. Since Steve is much richer and has built a big company (unlike myself) you will be biased towards Steve.

Christian

End of Year Calculations

Posted on by Christian

Based on seven months of investment our ROI is 26% as that is when I jumped in this year. I have to say that I am very happy about this. This ROI is based on funds, stocks, and bonds throughout Europe, and the America’s.

As of today my positions are as follows:

Christian

Wary Of Google

Posted on by Christian

A while back somebody asked me what I thought of Google stock. My thoughts, then as now is; good company, but I would not trade their stock. Today I read something in Business Week that confirms why I am not a fan of Google stock.

The article talked about how employees will be able to sell their options instead of stock. Interesting idea, but I am not completely happy about it. The following comment from the article bothered me quite a bit.

Under Google’s Transferable Stock Option program, employees could sell their stock options on the semi-private marketplace much the way public options are sold today. That would let employees potentially reap more than if they merely exercised and then sold the securities. Say an employee holds an option with a strike price of $400, meaning it can be purchased for $400 and then resold at a higher price. If Google’s stock is trading at $500, an investor might pay $150 for that option, betting that the stock will rise well past $500 during the life of the option. The employee selling the option could net an immediate $150. An employee exercising and then selling the same option would net only $100, the difference between the strike price and the current price.

Jason

E*TRADE Rollercoaster: Anatomy of a Merger

Posted on by Jason

Bellow are some screwy screenshots from my E*TRADE account (you’ll also get to see what my E*TRADE portfolio looks like). Early this week, I setup a trade in Lucent Technologies (LU). It was a complete chart play. I haven’t been monitoring the stock fundamentally lately, but I recall my last analysis of it was something like “undervalued because people are still scared of the name.” Feel free to ask me more about my rationale behind the trade (or any of the others), but this post will focus on the odd things that were happening with my account as the merger between Lucent and Alcatel (ALA) played out today.

Christian

USD Drop: A Butterfly Effect

Posted on by Christian

So here we sit and see that the USD has dropped and breached the 1.30 mark against the Euro. The question is why? I would have responded on this question earlier, but could not. Last Friday my oldest English Bulldog Patches (11.2 years) went into the doggy hospital, and she died on Monday. Until Wednesday I have been a bit of a vegetable as Patches was my first real dog that I bonded with. So I have been oblivious to what is going on in the markets.

So why did the dollar drop? Is the answer here? Or how about here? What about here? Or what about here? Notice how nowhere you will find the reason why the dollar dropped? I find that really odd! Of course some will say, “Oh its the huge deficits of the US”, or “This drop was long in coming and finally somebody did.” Great love the comments (NOT) as they still do not make it any clearer. Many now say that this is the longer trend, and the drop will be bigger.

Christian

Automated Trading Algorithms

Posted on by Christian

For the past two months I have been writing my own automated trading system. Two weeks ago I slowly started trading using manual techniques based on data generated by my software. The initial results are very good, but I am tempering down my glee because I was conservative and focused. It’s like those drugs you test to cure cancer that work in smaller trials, but fail in mass scale. My return has been about 33%, with 95% of the trades being in the money. Being the skeptic I am quite nervous about these results because they are too good to be true. Yet I see the monies in my brokerage account and think, interesting. Time will tell if my software is worth its money.

Jason

The Buy List: Keep Track of the Big Guys

Posted on by Jason

TheBuyList.com is a nice, simple website with just one purpose: to show you if mutual funds are trading the stocks you’re tracking.

Just enter a ticker and click a button. You’ll be shown a table of “recent” transactions of that stock made by “the top rated mutual funds”. The table shows you how many shares were bought or sold, the name and ticker of the fund, and the general “family” of fund.

Jason

Book Review: The Little Book of Value Investing

Posted on by Jason

The Little Book that Beats the MarketWiley is trying to turn their hit Little Book that Beats the Market (discussion, Amazon.com) into a series: Little Book Big Profits. The second book in the series, The Little Book of Value Investing, is written by Christopher H. Browne and focused on value investing.

While Browne obviously has the pedigree and experience to write a book on value investing, the lack of practical examples ruins the potential of the book. The basics of the value investing philosophy are presented well and in a way that is easy to read. However, the author seems more interested in convincing the reader into buying into value-based mutual funds than teaching us how to become value investors on our own. The book would be good for current value investors looking for more arguments against market timing and day trading strategies. Aspiring value investors will have to go elsewhere for instruction, though The Little Book of Value Investing may be a good, light start for readers new to the concept of value investing.

kimber

Companies In Hock

Posted on by kimber

I was watching a financial call in show last week. The financial “expert” examined stock after stock. Many he dismissed because of the company’s debt load. It didn’t matter why they were carrying the debt, how recent the debt, or what kind of debt it was, his opinion was that all debt was bad.

What a load of hooey.