Summaries
Dry Ships has been on our radar for a while now due to the interesting dynamics of the stock and now we finally presents a strong buy that will not fail. If you have cash (may be tough to come buy during these tough times) then Fiscal Frenzy believes that one of the best investments you could make is Dry Shipping. For the rest of the recommendation, see http://fiscalfrenzy.com/
An insightful article titled The End and written by Michael Lewis, the author of Liar's Poker, recently appeared at portfolio.com. The article discusses the end of Wall Street in 2008 as a result of the blow up in the mortgage market. More telling is the lack of understanding by Wall Street firms surrounding the risk they were taking. In short, the article implies Wall Street investment bankers didn't care as they were laying the risk off to other investors and the firm's shareholders. There are important implications for 2009.
In January 2008 I wrote about 5 Magic Formula stocks for 2008. Spreading an equal amount in Accenture ( ACN) , American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) , Jackson-Hewitt Tax Service (JTX) ,McGraw Hill Co. (MHP),Pacer International (PACR) would have resulted in a return of roughly 30% or 7 percentage points better than the S&P 500. Four out of the five stocks were down significantly except for Accenture (ACN) which was even since the mention on January 23, 2008.
The Puget Energy merger has finally been approved on December 30, 2008. After more than 1 year since I first got wind of this deal, the entire deal is expected to close in 2 weeks for $30 cash. Surprisingly, PSD is still trading at a discount to its final closing price. It is currently at $27.50. This still leaves room for a 9% gain with all uncertainty eliminated..
In my last post on PSD, let's take a step back and review what happened, how I went about doing things, what went right and what went wrong.
Ushering in the new year, investors will not only be hung over from 2008’s financial rout, but also still be grappling with the vital question: What is the most likely direction of the stock market? Breadth indicators are useful tools to assess how the bulls and the bears are exerting themselves, and are analyzed in this post.
DirexionShares has already expanded its nascent stable of 3X ETF stallions. The initial crop of triple-levered trading vehicles tied to indices of financials, energy, and large and small cap stocks, have proven to be widely popular, as evidenced by daily trading volumes in the millions. For junkies who need a fix that plain old 200% leverage just can't cure anymore, the doctor now has a larger cabinet of 300% smack. Traders can now get 3X returns bull or bear in technology (TYH, TYP), emerging markets (EDC, EDZ), and developed markets (DZK, DPK). We have seen the future of leveraged ETFs, and it was foreshadowed by the Mach3 razor.
Alternate Energy Corp. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary has merged with Treaty Petroleum, Inc. The company anticipates that its name will change to Treaty Energy Corporation on or around Dec. 29th. Alternate Energy also told investors that its ticker symbol with change from ARGY to a new symbol and that there will be a reverse split of its common stock.
There was an excellent article by Ron DeLegge of ETFguide.com a few weeks ago about the pros and cons of ETFs vs. ETNs. The comparison is topical because if you want to make a leveraged play on gold or crude oil, you now have a choice between Powershares ETNs and ProShares ETFs. Until a few weeks ago, the ETNs were the only way to go. For most, ETFs are the better option because they don't have the credit default risks of ETNs. Manic traders might prefer the increased liquidity and comparable tax advantage (for now) of ETNs. Some of the new ETFs still have very low trading volumes.
