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The Stock Room page 88 Back to page 1
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(Continued from page 87) 1 Citigroup Inc. C 9.04 2 Bank of America Corp. BAC 8.33 3 American International Group Inc. AIG 6.39 4 JP Morgan Chase & Co. JPM 5.96 5 Wells Fargo & Co. WFC 4.38 6 Wachovia Corp. WB 3.44 7 Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS 2.93 8 American Express Co. AXP 2.73 9 Morgan Stanley MS 2.55 10 Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. MER 2.44
The XLF also pays a small dividend of 2.54%, which is unusual for an ETF. I’m getting to like these ETF’s more & more. ETF’s represent a nice cross section of a certain segment or industry. They trade like stocks and give you a nice way to invest with a little more security since they represent a greater representation of companies. That way if 1 stock crashes, your ETF will have less risk. However, when an entire industry is going south, your ETF will go right along with it. Shorts have loved these lately too for the exact same reasons. Oh well! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/29/2007 @05:00 pm EST: Boy was that a truly horrible week! I got slaughtered – back to April levels. Up for the year, but well it still sucks big time. Why? Ah, the one word that separates us from all other living things on this world: our ability to ask the question – WHY? Well I have no real !?&#en answer for you. Oh sure we can blame it on the subprime mess and the total collapse of the housing market. There have been no banks or builders have come out and say that they are actually having a large scale issue, so until they do it’s just speculation without any basis. Sure, the markets hate uncertainty, but that’s not it. Oh sure, we can blame it on inflation and the fear the FED will raise rates. But there hasn’t been any significant increase in the ‘Core Rate’ and that’s 1 major thing that the FED looks at. We can even blame it on the old adage, “Fear and Greed”. Actually this may be the closest, because this market has come way too far—way too fast.
But of all the theories being floated out there, to me it all comes back to the shorties and their need to make $ as much as the rest. I said it was going to have to be their turn, just got the timing wrong. What has really turned the tables in their favor was the elimination of the “Uptick Rule” that took affect on July 9th. If you watched the market lately, you can really tell how some stocks have been gangbanged by short sellers. Some of the ETF’s have been gangshorted! Combine this with ‘naked shorting’ and the SEC’s lack of any true action against it; and the violent swings have been enormous. There’s nothing we can do either. Hedge shmedge! You and I can only sit back and watch. We can try to buy on these dips like I did with XHB, but that strategy can be very dangerous.
Be afraid, be very afraid!
Hey, I did luck out by getting out of FOXH! Thanks for small favors! Never happy am I? _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/25/2007 @06:00 pm EST: Took the plunge today (hope that’s a slip of the tongue and not a look into the future) and bought some XHB—the housing ETF. Just felt like they’ve suffered enough. The housing numbers this AM sucked, so I have no really good reason except my gut. Credit talk and defaults are also highly negative. Gee, the way they talk everything is coming to an end. Buy when there is blood in the streets. Great line from the 50’s flick ‘Operation Petticoat’, “In chaos there is profit.” Maybe I bought it because my head is still spinning from yesterday. Ugly! Very ugly! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/22/2007 @06:00 pm EST: Just goes to prove how little control we do have and how we need to depend more on our gut then all the BS we get from researchers and analyst. NEVER expected nor did anyone else think that FOXH was getting bought out. 1-Ev3 to buy FoxHollow for $780 million Believe me when I say that I’m somewhat convinced on the conspiracy theory and this just reinforces my suspicions. However, as I said earlier today I only sold 1/2, so I’ll take the buyout anyway! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/22/2007 @10:00 am EST: Really nice pop on Foxhollow (FOXH) on Friday. Not exactly sure why it did, but I sold ½ of my position near the high. The pop may have technically occurred because FOXH closed just above its 50 day SMA on Thursday and it just technically popped on Friday morning. On Friday it closed well above it’s 50,100, & 200 SMA. Upside may continue until $26-$28 range. However, I really think the recent upswing is because both Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Boston Scientific (BSX) reported this week, and both indicated declining stent sales. Why would anyone want to shove those things into their body when cleaning out the blockage with Silverhawk is a 1 time, permanent solution. I feel people are finally getting the message.
I do have to apologize for the above technical gibberish, albeit quite short. A friend said a little more research would be nice. Personally, I think it’s all a bunch of garbage and all the research and analysis can’t help when the big boys are in charge. It might give you a sense of power over your stocks & life, but it’s fleeting. For me, whining and bitching is far more satisfying. Just remember, “Relax….. You can checkout any time for want, but you can never leave.” _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/19/2007 @8:00 am EST: Looks like TD Ameritrade beat the earning’s estimates and did really well this quarter. Fantastic! Now if Fred Thompson becomes President he can order his head D.A. to force everyone to use Ameritrade and results will be even better. Jack McCoy could even sue the Ameritrade board and force a merger / buyout. We can only hope! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/12/2007 @1:00 pm EST: Well, just took a look and I can honestly say I’m thrilled that PGIC is actually down on that news. Good! Serves them right! However, AA and INTC really want to make me puke. Especially Alcoa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 07/12/2007 @9:00 am EST: I know it’s not me. I keep picking the winners, it’s just they don’t go up exactly when I buy them. I suffer and suffer, and finally just take a minor profit. It’s either that or I hold on and the !?&#er just goes right back to a loosing position. Look at AA. OK I didn’t have a loss ever, but I held on to it forever and it basically went nowhere. Fine—on the 1st speculation of a buyout I sold at $33. Now a month later it’s almost $43. !?&#! Look at INTC. Bought it and never had a winning position on it. Finally after a year I went positive and sold the !?&#er at $21.50 – now it’s $25 one month later. !?&#! On the other hand, I’m holding AMTD and finally after a loosing position for over a year, there was buyout talk and it went to $22.00. Did I sell??????? NO!!!!!!!! Now I’m back to a slight loss at $19.40. !?&#! Same with WRES. Held the sucker for a year at a loss. Finally worked it’s way to a nice 15% profit, but did I sell any. Oink! Oink! Oink! Well, this morning was the icing on the cake. I bought some PGIC a while back and it immediately tanked. Great! Well I sat and I sat and this week I finally sold it on Tuesday at a $.10 profit. BFD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, guess what: “7:02AM Progressive Gaming enters into letter of intent for sale of Worldwide Table Game Division assets to Shuffle Master (PGIC) 5.95 : Shuffle Master (SHFL) and Progressive Gaming International Corp (PGIC) jointly announce that they have entered into a non-binding letter of intent, which contains an exclusivity period, for the sale of PGIC's worldwide Table Game division assets to SHFL. Upon completion of the transaction, SHFL would own the worldwide rights and contracts for all of PGIC's proprietary table game titles including Caribbean Stud and Texas Hold 'Em Bonus Poker. In addition, the cos are expected to negotiate a technology license whereby SHFL will integrate PGIC's Casinolink Jackpot System's progressive jackpot system module for use with certain versions of SHFL's progressive proprietary table games.”
If I sell the POS it immediately shoots right up! If I hold on it immediately goes right back down! I’m not paranoid or anything, but someone out there is really out to get me! They Shoot Horses don’t they? _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 06/24/2007 @8:00 am EST: I bought some Starbucks on Friday. Not exactly sure why, it’s just a year ago the Amazing 1 said to buy SBUX at $25.50, so I did. Otherwise I have no idea on why I bought that POS. They warned a few days ago blaming the high price of milk. Yeah sure! With the entire ethanol, corn, feed grain, and plantable acreage situation, the price of dairy products is only going higher. I really don’t even like coffee. In the morning I drink 1 cup of Instant Maxwell House made mostly with non-fat milk mixed with Carnation Instant Breakfast. I don’t get the so-called “Starbucks lifestyle”. Just to prove my point, I don’t even own an iPod and have no intention of ever buying one. (Not exactly sure what that has to do with anything, but I threw it in anyway.) Probably the only reason I bought SBUX may be because I need to urinate a lot due to an enlarged prostate, and Starbucks is really nice about letting anyone piss in their usually clean toilets.
Anyone check out the Blackstone (BX) IPO on Friday? Is it totally outrageous that these guys were allowed to cash out their investment for billions at the expense of newbie investors / suckers? No, that’s not it. Is it totally outrageous that these private equity (PE) companies just end up utilizing ‘creative destruction’ in order to liquidate companies putting thousands out of work? No, that’s not it. Is it totally outrageous that these PE companies are producing nothing and just destroying the U.S. economy with their ultra complicated ponzi schemes? No, that’s not it either. Is it totally outrageous that these assholes are making billions of dollars from these things and I’M NOT! Yeah, that’s it! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 06/18/2007 @2:00 pm EST: Boy oh boy do I hate AA!!!!!!! “Alcoa stock hits 6-year high…” And the Amazing 1 better friggen’ not give me his, “Move on!” crapolla or I’ll cut his tiny little peepee off. _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 06/16/2007 @5:00 pm EST: Since the market has been a real gamble lately anyway I figured why not just go for the real thing, so I bought some more casino & gaming stocks. I’m already been getting demolished with SGMG.OB, and I am flat with PGIC. Now I’m getting creamed with MPEL. The amazing 1 said he bought some mainly because that Adami idiot liked it. He also got a recommendation from a park rat and that just goes to show you. MPEL did get a good pop on Friday, but that was mainly because private equity took out Penn.
Please check out the new Casino & Gaming stock listings on page 2. I also added them to my Quote Page. _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 05/18/2007 @8:00 am EST: The ‘cookieman’ emailed me a request to post a link to this article on ‘The Consumerist’. After some truly difficult and irksome reading I finally figured out what they were trying to get across: Invest in companies which have products and/or services that people like. Well, duh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 05/17/2007 @9:00 am EST: Fine, my view on many things may just be a tiny bit negative! I wasn’t always this way; its just 7 years of divorce lawyers and self-righteous judges can do that to you. But now to the subject at hand. All these private equity buyouts just seem a little bit too convenient for a very small group of individuals. I guess I could go on forever about how these buyout/private equity deals create nothing. All they do is transfer cash from one overly rich asshole to another. Nothing is made – no new ideas are created – no new products are conceived. What I do see happening is that a small group of individuals buy a large amount of an under priced company’s stock. They spread the ownership out over several people / offshore companies, so there’s no need to declare beneficial ownership. They then get their ‘Private Equity’ firm buddies to buy out the stock at a 22% or more premium with “Other Peoples’ Money”. Nice! Am I cynical or what! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 04/25/2007 @8:00 am EST: Man was I smart selling Amazon in early 2001 at $7.00 to buy Enron. What a !?&#en’ genius! Anyway, I did pick up some CVS back in January at $31 right after Cramer started to bash it over the Caremark acquisition. That was better. I bought some Jet Blue yesterday. The earnings weren’t that bad, and it seemed beaten up enough at $10.55. Now back to my reality, this market is still looking for the ‘Big One’. _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 04/01/2007 @6:00 pm EST: No April’s Fool here. I’ve been here, however I haven’t posted because—well I was just too bored. Talking to myself is not my idea of fun. If you want to post something, the blog back link above is still active. _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 11/12/2006 @9:00 am EST: I’m not sure about you, but what really pisses me off is when stuff like this happens. As you may remember I blew it by not buying some homebuilders even after I had already called a bottom in August. Just the other day I even went as far as to say that they may retest those lows. I’ve been waiting patiently for them to do just that, especially the XHB. This week they were all getting back to my buy points and then for no reason they all went nutso on Friday:
Yeah, yeah, yeah—I know that you really can’t and shouldn’t be trying to pick the bottom (or the top for that matter), but damn it—I have this all consuming need to be damn close to it. Oh well, back to the drawing board! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 11/08/2006 @8:00 am EST: Just a quick post election blog. While the futures are way down, I think this election hype is meaningless for the long term. While there are election trades, I am not selling my STEM now. I bought it for long term – the damn stuff just better work – I’m not selling! There is just 1 thing, however. Even though I’m from the 60’s generation, I’ve got to say that Nancy Pelosi scares the crap out of moi! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 10/31/2006 @8:00 am EST: “Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” AWR looks interesting. They just raised their dividend by 4.4% and it’s now close to 3% APR—nice. The chart also looks great with a definite uptrend established 2 years ago. The only thing that I don’t like is that fabulous chart—close to the 52 week, if not an all-time high. I prefer beaten up stocks–personal thing-so I’m still looking at CTWS. What I do like about all of these are that you can buy something in your own backyard. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling to know exactly what and where I am investing in. Touchy, feely syndrome. You think? And go Michael J. Fox!!!!!!!!!! Every time you shake it up on TV (so to speak), my stemcell stock (STEM) goes up another 5%. I know, not very politically correct am I! _______________________________________ apppro’s take for 10/28/2006 @1:00 pm EST: Hi everyone, Happy Halloween! I know – it’s been a while. I’ve been busy and honestly, sometimes I feel like I’m just talking to myself. I see by my page hit & visit statistics that there are a lot of you out there watching; but being tied up, left in the corner and ignored, is just not my idea of fun. Boo-hoo!!!!!!!!! So, what happened to my so-called shortie inspired sell off? Good question, wish I had a good answer. I just have to assume that there are a lot of short sellers out there taking a real bath. However, if the one whose name I will not mention is correct and this last 1500 points is due to a return of “momentum investors”; well that bodes just as poorly. Those guys can pull out just as quickly as they jump in. Just look at what they did to the chip sector on Friday. I still think that we’re way overdue for the big one, so you better be putting in some good stop orders just to cover your pretty little ass. (For the cookieman who has (Continued on page 89) |
