It is always difficult to discuss one's failings, but nothing has been worse than my suggestion that IndyMac might be a screaming buy last year. The stock is down 97%. The sad truth is it was a screaming sell and my worst call since I have been writing for BloggingStocks.com. That will be a separate story.

Today, IndyMac is trading down 47% to $0.37. It will have to restructure once again and will be submitting a survival plan to the FDIC. The current market cap is about $37 million, while its losses over the last twelve months exceed $600 million.

Continue reading IndyMac (IMB) turns to stone

IndyMac (IMB) turns to stone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) led by commissioner David Stern, Esq. has been a spectacular financial success over the past two decades. Even after Michael Jordan hung up his jersey and people wondered aloud how he could be replaced, the league hardly missed a beat.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Garnet, Amare Stoudamire, and this year Chris Paul and Dwight Howard have entered the pantheon of NBA superstars adding plenty of excitement. By the time Jordan retired it was over due.

While the NBA has been making money it has been losing its luster in other regards. The brawls, bad calls, and official Donaghy's integrity fall have only served to force Stern to earn his pay working over time to repair the damage.

The current uproar about the officiating is not the result of criminal activity, or lack of effort or skill, or poor eye sight, or planned manipulation. What it is about is a lack of clarity and consistency in the game. No other legitimate professional sport ignores its own rules as blatantly as the NBA.

The most serious are the definitions of traveling or carrying. The words in the book have not changed they are just ignored. I watched Tim Duncan walk from the top of the key taking three long and obvious strides to the hoop and dunk it without a call. Guys spin to the hoop changing their pivot foot all the time. Sure it makes the play fun but it makes the game a sham at times also. It also feeds the misrepresentation of the players as "unruly".

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Lakers/Celtics -- NBA business success

Sunday Funnies: Lakers/Celtics -- NBA business success originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Now Citigroup changed its call? Today the analyst woke up to the truth? What the heck has Citigroup been doing for the past year? Rip Van Winkle syndrome? What's going on? Talk about closing the barn doors after the horses have run off!

When I read Kevin Shult's report earlier today that Citigroup cut Vonage Holdings Corp (NYSE: VG) to Sell from Hold on patent litigation concerns as the firm believes the risk to profitability has increased, I did not know whether to laugh or cry for Citigroup's clients. The harshest critics might accuse Citigroup of not changing the call until it had most of its clients out of the stock. Or perhaps, as Cramer reminded us, Citigroup has been shorting the stock and wants to push it down and out?

The analysts calls, upgrades and downgrades, are one of my pet peeves in the investment world. I know of few other things that are so often wrong, so misguided, so untimely and so worthless. I can't believe people are being paid six- and seven-figure incomes for this crap. Last year I went on a rant when Piper Jaffrey issued a twelve month price target for Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) in January of 2006 of $600. It did not come close and it will be lucky if the stock hits that number any time in the next two years. More importantly, as far as I know, Piper Jaffrey hasn't change its view publicly. Seems analysts just sling arrows into the sky and let them land where they may, and think nothing of it.

So now, after the stock has already collapsed, the courts have ruled, the stories of its limited prospects have been chiseled in stone, Citigroup is feeling queasy about Vonage and changed its call. There should be an analysts hall of shame or maybe, just put their pictures up in the post office.

Related story: Cramer, Cramer, Cramer -- You screwed up buddy!

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the vice president for design and research at an architecture & planning firm. Check out his other posts for BloggingStocks here.

Citigroup cuts Vonage from hold to sell -- a little late originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Mar 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.