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Catching up

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Rethinking Investing: Common-Sense Rules for Uncommon Times

The first lesson is: you don’t know what you think you know.

See: Let go of what you think you know

 

Starbucks: harbinger of financial doom?

GOOD Sheet: It’s the Economy, Stupid!

One Way To Make Money In Today’s Market

Buy a nice collectible Chevy Camaro or a Dodge Challenger. With a new Camaro and new Challenger coming out this year, the old ones are sure to go up in value.

Hot Wheels: Ultimate Bling Thing?

6 of the world’s greatest missing treasures

A safe investment? Certainly not in old cars/motorcycles, right?

Collector Cars and the Financial Meltdown

6 Notable Goldman Sachs Alums (Who Made Their Mark Elsewhere)

The brokers with hands on their faces blog

the economy, as seen by marc johns

Endearingly egocentric comment of the week

Investment Series Preview: The “Good Bye and F__k You” Letter

Will Rogers talks to the bankers: keynote roast from 1924

Brown Monday: open thread on today’s economic panic.

Homosexuals should carry warning tattoos, says London Stock Exchange chaplain

Stock Market, The Ride T-Shirt

10 American Financial Meltdowns in the Past Century

Flea Market Funk

Filed in Alchemy, Econorama, Market Mayhem, Savestor, Tools of the Trade, Truth Trader | | Comments Off

Unfortunate Fortune: Shockingly Pathetic Stock Picks from 2000

Friday, May 16, 2008

It’s Fortune magazine, August 2000, Special Investors Issue, Retire Rich

Article: 10 Stocks to Last the Decade

And here’s the list:

Stock Ticker Price P/E Comment
Broadcom BRCM $237 255 Maker of chips used in the next generation of entertainment devices
Charles Schwab SCH $36 56 Former discount broker that has grown up along with its boomer clients
Enron ENE $73 51 Biggest online broker for coal, oil, and gas; next up — broadband
Genentech DNA $150 128 Offers a huge pipeline of promising drugs, plus a topflight sales force
Morgan Stanley Dean Witter MWD $89 18 Just passed Goldman Sachs as the top M&A firm in the world
Nokia NOK $54 75 Mobile-phone maker now moving into “smart” appliances
Nortel Networks NT $77 114 75% of U.S. Internet Traffic travels through its equipment
Oracle ORCL $74 86 Onetime database firm that has become an e-commerce must-own
Univision UVN $113 122 Biggest Spanish-language TV programmer in the country
Viacom VIA $69 96 Owns a stable of media brands like CBS, MTV, and Paramount Pictures

 1 share of each = $972.

Where are they now?:

Stock Ticker Price P/E Comment
Broadcom BRCM $28 68 Stock split in 2006
Charles Schwab SCHW $22 11 Delisted from the NYSE, moved to NASDAQ.
Enron ECSPQ $0.08 0.35 Bankrupt. Trading Over the Counter
Genentech DNA $70 24 Split twice, once right after the article was written and again in 2004
Morgan Stanley MS $47 27 Caught up on mortgage meltdown, bailed out by a Chinese company
Nokia NOK $29 10 Traded as low as $11 a share
Nortel Networks NT $8 - Fell on hard times immediately following the article. Did 1:10 reverse split in 2006. So you can think of the stock as 80 cents.
Oracle ORCL $22 22 Split soon after the article. Hit a low of $8.
Univision - - - Taken private at $36 / share
Viacom

CBS		 VIA

CBS		 $39

$23		 14

13		 Viacom split its shares into the tangled mess of VIA, VIA.B, CBS, CBS.B

Of the ten companies, the only one that would have made money over the past eight years was Genentech. Your shares would now be worth $506, a 48% loss. Without the admirable help of Genentech, the loss would have been 64%. Somehow it feels a lot worse than that though, considering that you would have lost everything on Enron and virtually everything on Nortel. Of course, the majority of people sold at or near the bottoms, fairing even worse. Mathematically speaking, the bottom is generally caused by increased selling. Nice picks.

Filed in Savestor, Stockblog, Truth Trader | | Comments Off

Stagflation means fewer Vegas Stag Parties

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Gas or gamble? Economy forces some to choose

The pressures of a weak economy — concerns about job security and rising prices for gas, food, home heating oil and other goods and services — are causing many gamblers to cancel or reduce the number of casino trips. Those who go are gambling less money than in the past: At the traditional gambling Meccas of Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and in other states, casino revenue is down. Employees are being laid off, and there’s concern about future growth.

BloggingStocks asks about another kind of gaming.

Is the video game industry recession-proof?

Another problem to keep in mind: the Associated Press recently reported that teens are having a tough time procuring summer work in light of the struggling economy. That means less spending money for video games.

Yet we get the conflicting question: Will the Fed raise rates? Rapidly rising prices, slowing economy, spells stagflation, not a pleasant position to be in, the 70s all over again.

Filed in Commentary, Econorama, Fed Flap, Perma-Bear, Savestor, Stockblog | | Comments Off