November 13, 2006 at 2:44 PM General Electric (GE) is huge. And while a massive portion of their earnings comes from being a financial company dressed in the bond rating of an industrial conglomerate, they still represent one of the largest companies in the US on almost every benchmark. If you want exposure to the US market it's hard to ignore GE.Friday, I sold short
November 12, 2006 at 12:00 PM I'm a fan of income. I'm a fan of corporate entities that pay a minimal amount to management.I'm also a fan of global trade. Thus it might come as no suprise that I'm a big fan of Seaspan (SSW) and shipping in general. SSW is structured as a REIT and thus must pay out most of it's income in order to avoid corporate taxes. A structure I agree with since its forces citizens to pay their taxes right away. Anyway, here's another blog by Larry MacDonald about Seaspan. I don't know where he gets ...
November 10, 2006 at 12:00 PM Sold half my MasterCard Inc (MA) position at $89.43. The stock has nearly doubled since I bought it back on June 2nd ($46.98). It's even gone up further since I sold short puts on July 24th. When I bough the stock I thought I was buying a company with a forward p/e of 17. And while analysts have increased earning forcasts, this company is not growing like Starbucks (SBUX) or Google (GOOG). Why should I pay such a high multiple for a financial services company that has held a duopoly* for so long. And ...
November 9, 2006 at 12:00 PM These corporate gathers were the worst part of my corporate career. And there was always someone really talented at singing, video production,comedy or poetry who did something like this with their talent. It always made me sick. Just like this video does. I have never been more proud to be out of the corporate world. ...
November 8, 2006 at 12:10 PM Our Panelists came up with the following ranking of the Mid Term Election TV coverage:1st Place: CNN - these guys
November 7, 2006 at 12:11 PM I did one of my favorite options plays on this mortgage bond company structured as a REIT. Annaly buys pools of mortgages and borrows short term to fund them. The flattening of the US yield curve has been a disaster for their earning and portfolio value the stock is down xx% in the last two years. However, I feel this is the best managed and most transparent of all mortgage REITs. I also feel that this REIT is fairly valued but would buy more at lower prices and am happy to sell and higher prices. Thus ...
November 6, 2006 at 12:13 PM On Monday's I usually like to look over my portfolio for sale candidates. I'm look ahead of tax-loss selling season for individuals (which gets going around the second week of November and usually lasts until the end of the year). Since many of the widely held stocks are up on the year and active traders likely have big gains, I wanted to look for widely held and actively traded stocks that are down on the year - and down significantly from their highs.Two stocks that qualify in this regard that I hold are Dell Inc (DELL) and Yahoo ...
November 5, 2006 at 12:15 PM Recent Trades (since last trade log) that I might have forgotten to mention. I also was selling some old stock received as part of executive compensation at my previous employers. As I've previously mentioned I don't like to detail trades from these companies.Sold PBF at $13.49Sold LQD at $105.91Sold EOP at $41.35Bought TIP at $99.30Bought July 2116 Maturity US TReasury Inflation Indexed Bonds at Government AuctionBought RYN at $39.21Sold Short Andarko (APC) May 35 Puts at $0.85Bought Coke (KO) at $46.81Bought Yum Brands (YUM) at $58.00Bought Diageo (DEO) at $72.87 (mentioned here)Bought Conoco Phillips (COP) at 60.42 (mentioned ...
November 3, 2006 at 12:15 PM I sold out the SP500 Strangles Mentioned on September 29th. Here is the blog entry:"On the S&P500 I used options on futures (futures quote 1347.50):Paid $27.50 for December 1350 CallsPaid $27.50 for December 1345 PutsTotal: $55.00.My plan is to liquidate these potions at some point in October. I will do it in the middle of some kind of panic. If there isn't a panic then I plan to liquidate them by the end of the month."Today's Trade:Sold the S and P 500 index strangles "On the S&P500 I used options on futures (futures quote 1347.50):Sold December 1350 ...
October 29, 2006 at 12:39 PM Craig Blitz, one my fellow regulars at Grounded Coffee and Tea, recent posted this fantastic photo on his flickr page. He is looking for captions. Please feel free to add one. /images/16689-15956/Scandinavian_Couple.jpg">Photo by Craig Blitz. Stock Market Angle?Yahoo gets too much grief for not buying YouTube. They own Flickr, which is a widely used and excellent site. As a matter of fact it's the only site I've ever paid an annual subcription to get an upgrade for. I think the $25 bucks a year for nearly limitless uploads and archiving is a great ...