BloggingStocks

Serious Money: Is gold an investment?

Sheldon Liber — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: International Markets, Rants and Raves, Market Matters, Scandals, Personal Finance, Serious Money, Commodities, Recession

The amount of nonsense I come across misleading readers, or simply providing bad advice, makes me cringe. Sometimes our own site presents such information like discussing penny stocks and technical analysis.

In general, I distinguish bad advice, misleading or misguided information from that regarding a stock idea that simply did not pan out, of which I have been guilty too -- all of us have hits and misses. However, a post I read on Seeking Alpha promoting gold, with suggestions of doom by tailoring the data to fit the theory. The author supported his point by back-testing only ten years to a known low water mark.

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Serious Money: Is gold an investment? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How much of the business press will disappear?

Douglas McIntyre — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:38:00 EST

Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, Recession

This website is in the business and financial news business. So are a number of other online financial sites like SeekingAlpha, TheBigMoney, ClusterStock, and Minyanville. Just a few years ago, none of these operations existed.

Last year, advertising pages in tradition business magazine like BusinessWeek and Forbes were down by double digits. With the recession deepening and marketers pulling back, 2009 may not be any better.

On TV, there are now two business channels, CNBC and Fox, which is barely a year old and has horrible audience numbers. So far. But CNBC is owned by GE (NYSE:GE) and Fox is owned by News Corp (NYSE:NWS). That means both are likely to be around for a long time. They both compete against Bloomberg TV.

In the news service business, Bloomberg, Reuters, and the AP all have large financial reporting operations. In the newspaper business, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times compete for readers.

Lest you say that this post is just a bunch of names typed onto a page, consider that the economic downturn will not support all of these media. Advertising will disappear. Perhaps more frightening, as people pull money out of the stock market, the interest in investing will drop. As investment professionals are fired, they may drop out of the business news consumption population as well.

Who may not make it? The traditional business magazines publish on weekly or fortnightly cycles. That is too long a time between articles in a world where the web delivers information in real time. They may not get enough readers on the internet to offset sales lost in print.

One thing for certain. A number of the operations with their names in this piece won't be here in 2010.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 237wallst.com.

How much of the business press will disappear? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Obama Picks: Building an "Obama Stock" portfolio

Gary Sattler — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:52:00 EST

Filed under: Forecasts, Other Issues, Politics, Green Stocks, Obama Picks

Here's is my quick form strategy for investing during an Obama presidency:

Health care stocks should perform well under an Obama administration. It has been made clear that within the next four years our healthcare system shall be taking on a radical new form. There is certain to be a massive infusion of new money into the sector. I would hasten to clarify that pharmaceutical stocks might not be the angle that you want to play here. I would lean more towards hospitals and long-term care providers. Check out this analysis from Kiplinger, to get yourself started.

Next, I'd be looking at infrastructure plays. I'd focus on materials, procurement, and construction, as they relate to roads, tunnels and bridges. This play will be more dangerous in the near term, as these types of expenditures will be more dependent on governmental budgetary processes, rather than executive edict. Jim Cramer recently offered some input about infrastructure. You might want to check out his suggestions. Then, you can find information about building an infrastructure position at TheStreet.com. Additionally, here's a great list of infrastructure companies which has been provided by Seeking Alpha.

To me, perhaps the most important investment angle to play through the next administration will be alternative energy stocks. I expect that there will be a great deal of money moving in there. Ethanol is said to be a sure thing. I myself am not so positive about that. Oh, we can be sure that there will be plenty of ethanol to go around. However, I don't see much financial return in it at the investor's level. I lean towards solar plays, and to a lesser degree, I like wind power. You can get a good feel for alternative energy direction by reviewing The Pickens Plan. There is no shortage of companies to invest in if you're looking for alternative energy plays. You can easily start your stock picking hunt by checking out the companies which are included in the Wilderhill Clean Energy Index.

As always, stock portfolio success begins with good research. Hopefully, I've given you some quality leads to get started with. When all is said and done, history clearly shows that the markets flourish under administrations controlled by the democrats. Let's hope to God that this time around won't be the exception.

Obama Picks: Building an "Obama Stock" portfolio originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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SeekingAlpha gives Bidz.com conspiracy theorists a soapbox

Zac Bissonnette — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:11:00 EST

Filed under: Scandals

In another piece that has me questioning the quality control over at SeekingAlpha, a post titled BIDZ Shareholders Fight Against Alleged Illegal Shorting has appeared on the site.

The post quotes a letter posted on Yahoo! message board by someone claiming to be a former executive at the company, Matthew Mills: "As most you know, I am the former Chief Operation Officer of Bidz. I have maintained a very close relationship with a great number of the original shareholders of Bidz and still hold a sizeable stock position in the company."

In the post, this Mr. Mills fellow discussed plans he was making with "investors are very well known in the investment community, connected to big name law firms coast to coast and have political ties in Washington DC" to sue "naked short sellers" who were driving down the company's share price.

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SeekingAlpha gives Bidz.com conspiracy theorists a soapbox originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why is SeekingAlpha giving penny stock promoters a soapbox?

Zac Bissonnette — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:19:00 EST

Filed under: Internet, Scandals

I'm a big fan of SeekingAlpha. I think it provides readers with a great source of investment thought from some of the top minds in the business in a great format -- at no cost.

That's why I was greatly disappointed to see that the site is providing a venue for Beacon Equity Research, a stock promoter that issues "analyst reports" in exchange for cash and/or stock from the company or third parties.

A piece called Solar stocks stay strong despite new energy bill mentions little-known microcaps SES Solar (OTC BB: SESI), Solar Power (OTC BB: SOPW), and BioSolar (OTC BB: BSRC) (which our own Kevin Kelly has warned about here). These stocks were introduced with this wonderfully eloquent lead: "A number of small cap companies are poised to benefit from latest industry developments".

Following the "article", we get a disclosure that is very familiar to those of us who follow penny stock promotions:

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Why is SeekingAlpha giving penny stock promoters a soapbox? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 18:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo's handling of financial blogs says it all

Eric Buscemi — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:45:00 EST

Filed under: Management, Competitive Strategy, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO)

What best symbolizes what went wrong at Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO)? How it handled the rise of financial blogging.

When looking up stock quotes on Yahoo Finance, there is a financial blog section -- but it only publishes blogs from Seeking Alpha and no one else. Why? Because Terry Semel, Yahoo's ousted CEO, applied the old-boys media network model to Internet programming -- partner with large and well-established media companies and split up the profits. Did this work? No.

"In Web 1.0, the publisher told you what to read, in web 2.0, the consumer is the boss," said Andy Monfried, president and founder of LOTAME, in a recent interview on Wallstrip.com. Monfried was a top executive at Advertising.com which he helped build into the leading third party advertising network which is now part of AOL.

"Click through rates and brand methods do not apply any more. The cost to buy the media from social media networks is so much less than portals and other resources that have content. Going forward, advertising is all about user-generated content," Monfried noted.

LOTAME stands for Local Target Media and wants to be the connector between local social content and advertisers such as a Myspace or Facebook with the local pizza guy or the national advertiser. Yahoo has preached for years of its desire to be the leader in bringing the Internet advertising model to the local guy, but it never succeeded. It is the user-generated content that is the missing link for success in this area and Semel never got it.

Yahoo is in big trouble. Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) figured out what was going to work and has won Web 2.0. For Yahoo to succeed it will have to find something it can do differently than Google, possibly aligning with Myspace.com, which was speculated yesterday on CNBC.

From an investment perspective, Yahoo's real estate position on the web is too big to pass up on. The Fly has blogged endlessly for the past year of Yahoo being a value stock and investors should jump into it and put it away. Our stance remains the same. A successfully run Yahoo has the potential to generate some big returns for shareholders.

Yahoo's handling of financial blogs says it all originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Serious Money: The page on Buffett -- Part I: your understanding

Sheldon Liber — Thu, 10 May 2007 14:40:00 EST

Filed under: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Columns, Entrepreneurs, Serious Money

Volumes have been written about Warren Buffett's investment approach and I was thinking that although he tends to share his methodology, he sometimes is not as straightforward as he could be. This is the first in a series discussing my view of Buffett's approach, an interpretation in the simplest terms so that the information is immediately usable.

Although you can make money investing in the stock market many different ways, the person who has made the most money by far is Warren Buffett. Therefore, it seems to follow that every time you deviate from this path, you are reducing your chances of ultimate success.

Consider the following: If Tiger Woods wanted to help you with your golf swing or putting stance, would you say, "no thanks, I know what I'm doing?" If Carlos Santana wanted to show you a few moves on the guitar or Steven Spielberg offered to help you edit a movie, would you tell them to get lost? Not if you were truly interested in improving. For some reason, though, through the years Mr. Buffett has periodically been relegated to the sidelines of the investing world while a multitude of prognosticators claim to have a better way, even here on BloggingStocks. Over the last ten years I have found that the more I learn and the more I align my stock investment strategy with Buffett's approach, the better I do.

Continue reading Serious Money: The page on Buffett -- Part I: your understanding

Serious Money: The page on Buffett -- Part I: your understanding originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 May 2007 14:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Newspaper wrap-up 5-4-07: Microsoft looking at buying Yahoo again

Eric Buscemi — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:15:00 EST

Filed under: Newspapers, Magazines, Internet, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo! (YHOO), Apple Inc (AAPL), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Clear Channel Commun (CCU)

MAJOR PAPERS:

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported that Clear Channel Communications Inc (NYSE: CCU) has said "no" to a new offer from Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners to buy the company, saying shareholders had no interest.
The Financial Times (subscription required) reported that One Equity, a private equity firm affiliated with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM), has approached EMI Group (OTC: EMIPY) about a takeover which could value the British music company at more than $6B, according to sources.

OTHER PAPERS:

The New York Post has learned that Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) has asked Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) to re-enter formal negotiations.
The New York Post has learned that Westwood One Inc (NYSE: WON) has hired UBS to help identify potential buyers as the company anticipates putting itself up for sale next month.

WEBSITES:

A ChangeWave survey of 3,489 people revealed that 9% of the respondents are likely to buy the Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone when it comes out in June, reported Seeking Alpha.
According to CNBC Champ Thomas Ko on MSN Money, IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX) should benefit from what he anticipates will be a record opening for Spider-Man 3.

Newspaper wrap-up 5-4-07: Microsoft looking at buying Yahoo again originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 09:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Harley-Davidson's inventory problems

Tom Barlow — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:49:00 EST

Filed under: Harley-Davidson (HOG)

Grant Case, a student at Indiana U.'s Kelly School of Business, posted a wonderfully detailed study yesterday of Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) that suggests the manufacturer is hip-deep in unsold bikes. According to the numbers posted on the SeekingAlpha web site, by the end of 4th quarter 2006 over 40,000 more bikes sat on showroom floors than the same quarter in 2004. He estimates this dealer build contributed around $1.00 to HOG's EPS over the past two years.

Harley's first quarter figures are bound to be a bit screwy due to the strike that they recently resolved, and Case speculates that the company might take this opportunity to bury thieir inventory problem in an overall poor quarterly report. Coupled with the exposure of HDFS's bike financing in the credit crunch that Michael Rainey blogged about here recently, the earnings announcement on April 19th should be more interesting than most.

Certainly having a jammed showroom when the spring weather first hits is a dealer's dream, but entering next winter with cobwebs on the apehangers is a dismal prospect. Stockholders should be crossing their fingers for some good riding weather, and soon.

Harley-Davidson's inventory problems originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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